In this bulletin:

• News: Anger at legal Afghan opium plan
• Afghan forces prepare to retake fallen district: president
• School principal killed in blast blamed on Taliban
• ISAF, MOI condemn killing of civilians by Taliban
• Four cops perish in explosion; fuel tankers set ablaze
• US troops not here to terrorise Afghans: Wood
• CENTCOM chief meets Khost governor, district chiefs
• Four rebels eliminated, three wounded: Afghan general
• Armed Northern Militias Complicate Afghan Security
• Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south
• Pakistani jirga receives bodies of fighters
• Foreign militants bolstering Taliban's ranks as never before
• MacKay warns of refugee fallout from Pakistanx
• Pakistan's domino effect
• S Korea announces to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan
• Former interior minister Jalali returns to Kabul
• Audit finds fault in ADB’s Afghan projects
• Afghan parliament outraged by Koran 'mistranslation'
• Taliban the big winners
• Taliban militants free 211 Pakistani troops
• US in tizzy, Pervez best bet lies in marauding Taliban
• Taliban can't be bracketed with Pashtuns: Analysts
• Morphing India’s Afghanistan Policy

News: Anger at legal Afghan opium plan

By Alix Kroeger, BBC News, Kabul

Afghan and international narcotics experts have strongly criticised a proposed pilot project to grow opium poppy legally in Afghanistan for use in medicines.

The scheme is the brainchild of the Senlis Council, a think-tank working on security, development and counter-narcotics issues.

It has the backing of the European Parliament and will go to European Union foreign ministers for consideration at a meeting later this month.

But while the idea is unlikely to win the support of ministers, the parliament's move has left officials in Afghanistan fuming.

The Senlis Council argues that efforts to eradicate poppy cultivation haven't worked. Worse still, it says, eradication programmes have driven poppy farmers into the arms of the Taleban.

So why not cut the ground out from under the feet of the warlords and the Taleban, without depriving poor farmers of their livelihoods? Why not set up pilot projects where whole villages would be licensed to grow poppy legally? It's been done successfully in India, Thailand and Turkey, so why not Afghanistan?

This is the core of the Senlis proposal. The poppy would be processed into morphine for medical use, using laboratories based in Afghan villages.

The licences would be given to villages, not individual farmers. If one farmer sold poppy for heroin, the whole village would lose its licence. This is the model followed successfully by microfinance projects elsewhere.

Norine McDonald of the Senlis Council says it's the only viable alternative. Poppy cultivation is increasing; efforts to switch farmers to alternative livelihoods have been unsuccessful.

Southern Afghanistan, where most of the opium poppy is grown, has suffered from a drought for several years.

Poppy is a notably drought-resistant crop. Farmers would need expensive irrigation systems to switch to other crops, she says.

"The idea that southern Afghanistan has an agricultural future is false," she argues.

"By allowing pharmaceutical processing at village level, young men can be trained for light industrial work. This is important for the future of Afghanistan."

But officials working to stem the opium trade from Afghanistan are appalled. "Poppy is supporting terrorism and drug dealers," says Afghanistan's acting narcotics minister, Khodaidad (who, like many Afghans, has only one name).

"The Senlis Council and the European Parliament are supporting insecurity in Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's mullahs issued a fatwa (decree), saying people must not grow poppy because it is haram (forbidden in Islam), he says.

Opium is banned under the Afghan constitution, and the government opposes any form of legalisation.

Licensing the sale of poppy for medical purposes won't get rid of the demand for illegal opium, warns a British narcotics official in Afghanistan who preferred not to be named.

In fact, he believes it would just create a new cash crop for farmers, meaning that even more opium would be grown.

Many farmers grow poppy under duress, he points out. The Afghan police would be hard-pressed to stop drug traffickers from forcing farmers to divert part or all of their crop for heroin.

"Afghanistan needs a rule-of-law structure to stop people growing opium," he says. "But if it had a rule-of-law structure, it wouldn't have an opium problem in the first place."

A European Commission (EC) document obtained by the BBC argues that buying poppy from farmers could have a perverse effect.

"Farmers could see this as an incentive to further expand production. This would not be an appropriate use of resources for the international donor community or the Afghan government."

And the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has serious reservations.

"At the moment, in the Afghan context, any proposal should be taken with utmost caution," says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the head of UNODC's Europe and West and Central Asia desk.

The idea of laboratories in the villages is problematic, he says.

"Where will the precursor chemicals [needed to convert poppy into opiates] come from, and who will control them?" he asks. "Who would ensure they're not diverted to other frameworks?"

The Senlis Council says there's a shortage of medical opiates on the world market, especially in developing countries, which Afghanistan can fill. But the British narcotics official disputes this.

The International Narcotics Control Board, which licenses countries to produce opiates legally, has a two-year surplus, he says. "Developing countries don't have opiates, but they don't have penicillin or aspirin, either," he adds.

And he questions the economic benefits the Senlis scheme would bring. The price of legal opiates on the world market is $35 to $40 a kilogram. Illegal opiates fetch nearly three times as much, around $100 a kilo.

The EC says "exorbitant subsidies" could be needed to bridge the gap between legal and illegal prices.

In the end, the British official says, poppy-for-medicine would undermine the authority of the Afghan government. It would be impossible to justify allowing one village to grow poppy under licence while eradicating the same crop just a few kilometres away.

Counter-narcotics experts acknowledge that similar schemes have worked in other countries which used to have a serious drug problem, such as Pakistan and Thailand. But Afghanistan, they say, just isn't ready.

With violence and instability still wracking the country, they fear that any move to legitimise poppy production could make a bad situation even worse.

Afghan forces prepare to retake fallen district: president

AFP, 11/04/2007 KABUL - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said preparations were being made to retake a district captured by Taliban rebels two days ago, attributing the militants' success to his weak police force.

The governor of Bakwa district in the western province of Farah, Yahya Riadth, said separately troop reinforcements had moved into the area and he anticipated an operation shortly.

Taliban militants swept into Bakwa, a strategic district that includes the main road linking southern and western Afghanistan, late Thursday after heavy fighting. Late Monday they took neighbouring Gulistan.

"It is a serious concern," Karzai told reporters Saturday during a media briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"There is a preparation going on to free that district from the Taliban," he said, referring to Bakwa, which has in recent months seen a spike in Taliban activity.

Taliban insurgents have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan, including Bakwa, but have been easily ejected with the help of the international militaries here to aid the country's weak security forces.

They have, however, held the district of Musa Qala, close to Gulistan, since February and the area is considered a Taliban base.

Karzai said the reason the militants were able to move into districts was "clear."

The reason for their success is the weakness of the Afghan forces, including a lack of training and a shortage of proper equipment, especially in far-flung areas of the country, Karzai said.

International forces are helping to train the Afghan army and police, which were non-existent when the Taliban were forced out of government in late 2001 by a US-led coalition.

Karzai said the solution to his fragile nation's insecurity was the further training and equipping of the Afghan forces.

School principal killed in blast blamed on Taliban

KHOST CITY, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - A school principal was killed in a roadside bomb blast near a mosque in this southeastern city Sunday morning, police and witnesses said.

The headmaster was returning home from the mosque after offering Fajr (morning) prayers, an eyewitness told Pajhwok Afghan News. Wali Muhammad said the explosive device was placed in a roadside green area.

Initially injured in the explosion close to the worship place, the eyewitness added, the education department official was rushed to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injured soon afterwards.

A provincial police spokesman confirmed the incident, saying the victim was the headmaster of a school in Alisher district. Wazir Badshah blamed Taliban insurgents for killing Rahim Shah and said a probe into the explosion was underway.

ISAF, MOI condemn killing of civilians by Taliban

KABUL, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and ISAF have strongly condemned the execution of six Afghan civilians and one police officer earlier this week after Taliban insurgents overran a police centre in Gulistan district of the Farah province.  

We have been able to confirm that Taliban insurgents brutally killed these innocent people because they suspected them of working with the government. This is an intolerable outrage designed to terrorise the local population, said Interior Ministry spokesman Dr. Hakim Asher.  

A number of Taliban extremists have attacked the Gulistan district center, but they will not prevail. The Afghan National Security Forces have reacted well to the challenge and have been able to regain the upper hand, said ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco.  

Taliban staged similar attacks on remote district centers at this time last year, they recalled in a press release emailed to Pajhwok. The same district center in Gulistan was taken by Taliban last September and held for 10 days before they retreated.  

The Taliban stage these attacks for the propaganda value. They attack small locations with little ANSF or ISAF presence and then exaggerate their claims, observed Branco.

Four cops perish in explosion; fuel tankers set ablaze

GHAZNI CITY, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - Four policemen were killed and two others wounded as their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the southern Ghazni province on Sunday.  

Provincial security chief Col. Muhammad Zaman told Pajhwok Afghan News the blast took place near Gudaly village at 2 pm. The policemen were heading to Zana Khan district from provincial capital, he said.

The wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital, Zaman said without giving further details.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the blast killed the district police chief and a large number of cops.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants set afire two fuel-supplying tankers on the Kandahar-Kabul Highway in the restive Syedabad district of the central Maidan Wardak province.

Wardak police Chief Gen. Muzaffaruddin told Pajhwok militants on motorbikes opened fire on the oil tankers in Haftaasyab area at 11:30am. Police were investigating the incident, he added.

Abu Tayyeb, who introduced himself as Taliban commander in the area, took responsibility for the attack, saying they also snatched drivers and conductors of the vehicles.

US troops not here to terrorise Afghans: Wood

ASADABAD, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - US forces were not in Afghanistan to frighten its citizens but wanted to help them rebuild their war-devastated country, a top American diplomat said on Sunday.

Those terrorising civilians, a reference to Taliban insurgents, were common enemies of the Afghans and Americans, US Ambassador William Wood told a news conference here.

He held out the assurance to scotch speculation the American troops would not spare anyone attacking them. A week back, a Coalition commander had allegedly warned residents of Manogai district of the eastern Kunar province of bringing grief to every home in the area if US soldiers were harmed.

Provincial Governor Deedar Shalizai told Pajhwok Afghan News the US ambassador, at the head of a delegation, visited the provincial capital Asadabad this morning. The envoy met the governor, members of the provincial council and US forcers based in Kunar.

Wood insisted commanders statement had either been misinterpreted or reported out of context by media-people. Even if the statement had really come from the commander, he explained, it was inconsistent with the position of the US military and government.

In 2007, the ambassador claimed, Coalition troops had scored a string of successes in defeating the Taliban, who were no longer in a position to confront the soldiers directly.

Instead the guerrillas had resorted to explosions, suicide bombings, arson attacks on educational institutions and killing of teachers and students, the diplomat maintained.

Civilian deaths during counter-insurgency operations were disturbing, Wood acknowledged, blaming the Taliban for collateral damage. The militants even used civilians as human shields, he charged.

CENTCOM chief meets Khost governor, district chiefs

KHOST CITY, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Admiral William Fallon Saturday met the governor and other senior officials of the southeastern Khost province.

Governor Arsala Jamal told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday Fallon paid a daylong visit to the province at the head of a high-powered delegation. He went into talks with Jamal, district chiefs and security officials at a NATO base in Khost City.

The governor added Admiral Fallon, who flew into Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan, also visited troops based in Tani district before having a chat with media representatives.

Of his trip to the province bordering Miranshah area of Pakistan, the CENTCOM chief said: "Khost has immense strategic importance. And the security situation here is good." The provincial leadership had been efficient and there was good coordination between Afghan and foreign troops, he acknowledged.

Arsala Jamal, who discussed the issue of house searches and uplift projects with Fallon, told reporters three provinces - Khost, Kabul and Kandahar - had strategic importance for Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Keeping in mind the dilapidated condition of roads in the province, the governor said, the US-led Coalition would allocate more funds to Khost. Issues related to water, power and agriculture sectors were taken up with Fallon, he added.

The NATO spokesperson for southeastern provinces claimed the security situation in Khost had improved, enabling them to launch two programmes aimed at further improving law and order.

She explained under the first programme, Afghan police would be trained and the second called ear-and-eye programme would reward those who tipped them off about IED attacks, insurgent operations and drug smugglers.

Four rebels eliminated, three wounded: Afghan general

QALA-I-NAW, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - An army officer Sunday claimed four Taliban fighters were killed and another three wounded in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in the northeast Badghis province.

Police, Afghan National Army (ANA) and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) conducted the sweep in Ghormach district of the province, the 209 th Shaheen Military Corps commander said.

Maj. Gen. Murad Ali Murad told Pajhwok Afghan News a local Taliban commander named Mullah Abdul Sattar was among the militants killed.

He added the operation was designed to clear the area of insurgents. It was a third joint operation by Afghan and foreign troops in Ghormach in a weeks time, the general explained.

Two Taliban militants were killed and 18 others captured during an earlier crackdown in the same district on October 31, Murad recalled. The guerrillas have not yet reacted to the claim of casualties inflicted on them.

Armed Northern Militias Complicate Afghan Security

EurasiaNet - 11/04/2007 By Ron Synovitz

Much of the world’s attention on Afghanistan is now focused on the country’s Pashtun-dominated south and east, where Taliban fighters are battling NATO troops and U.S.-led coalition forces. But there is a different kind of tension in northern Afghanistan.

Illegal ethnic-Tajik, Uzbek, and Hazara militias in the north appear to be using the threat of a resurgent Taliban as an excuse to hoard weapons and more forcefully protect their interests, such as ruling over land they have controlled since the Taliban’s collapse or defending drug export routes that are a major source of income.

Experts say the entrenchment of the militias, who once fought together against the Taliban, reflects divisions and mistrust among regional commanders of different ethnicities which -- if left unchecked -- could exacerbate tensions in the country at a time when its security situation is already on a razor’s edge.

"Obviously, what is happening in the north is really the growing Balkanization of the country," said Sam Zia-Zarifi, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch and field researcher in Afghanistan who has monitored programs by the United Nations and Afghan government to disarm the militias.

"It’s been an ongoing trend in Afghanistan for warlords who are ostensibly allied with the government to entrench themselves even more fully," Zia-Zarifi told RFE/RL. "A lot of them are now swollen with the narcotics trade -- profits from the sale of poppy and heroin. They have a lot of political clout because many of them have allies in the parliament, if they are not directly members of the parliament. And the next step is to openly flex their military muscle."

Attempts to demobilize the patchwork of rival militias across Afghanistan were once trumpeted as a necessary step toward peace and the creation of a functioning democracy. But UN officials have acknowledged that their initial voluntary disarmament program failed to reach its targets.

Militia leaders in the north still command the loyalty of thousands of fighters who can be mobilized quickly in the event of a local dispute or crisis.

Brigadier General Abdulmanan Abed, an Afghan Defense Ministry official involved the country’s ongoing disarmament program, says there is an "environment of mistrust" in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif about the Kabul government’s ability to prevent Taliban infiltrations.

The commander who holds sway in Mazar-e Sharif is Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful general whom Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed as chief of staff for the Afghan National Army.

Dostum is enormously popular among his fellow ethnic Uzbeks in the north. According to the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Dostum also is one of several regional commanders who appear to be exploiting Kabul’s preoccupation with the violence-ridden south and east in order to stake claims on their old fiefdoms.

In May, when Dostum’s supporters staged protests against a controversial governor of the northern province of Jowzjan, the demonstrations turned violent -- leaving at least 10 people dead and more than 40 injured.

Armed supporters of Dostum also clashed with authorities in Faryab Province in May, forcing Kabul to send in troops to quell the violence.

Provincial authorities in Jowzjan accuse Dostum’s political faction, Junbish-e Melli, of rearming its supporters in the north. But Junbish representatives have repeatedly denied those accusations, telling RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan that they are only a political group and have no weapons.

Another powerful commander accused not fully disarming and demobilizing his factional militia fighters is Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Fahim commanded ethnic Tajik fighters from the Panjshir Valley in the former United Front -- also known as the former Northern Alliance. The U.S.-backed alliance also had included Dostum’s fighters. But the former United Front disintegrated as the rival militias raced to stake out territory after the collapse of the Taliban regime.

It was Fahim’s fighters who, against the pleas of the international community, seized control of Kabul when the Taliban fled Kabul in late 2001. And Fahim’s Islamist political faction -- Jam’iat-e Islami-yi -- used its de facto control of Kabul as a negotiating position at the Bonn Conference in December of 2001.

That initially gave Jam’iat-e Islami-yi commanders control of some of the most powerful posts in Karzai’s post-Taliban transitional administration – heading the ministries of Defense, the Interior, and Foreign Affairs as well as the Afghan intelligence services.

Fahim himself was Defense Minister from late 2001 thru most of 2004. But he was removed from the post in December 2004 after being accused of illegally occupying land in Kabul.

Commanders of other factional militia also have accused Fahim of hoarding weapons for his own militia fighters at a time when, as Defense Minister, he was in charge of the government demobilization efforts.

Christopher Langton, an expert on conflict and defense diplomacy at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, says that amid a perceived spread of the Taliban-led insurgency during the last two years, as well as disturbances further north and heavy fighting in the south, some former United Front commanders have decided unilaterally that they may need weapons in the future.

"Some are quite senior, some close to the government and in politics," Langton said. "And they don’t see why they should have to disarm whereas groups in the south remain armed -- and some of the groups in the south have actually been armed by international forces in order to fight on the side of the [Afghan] government."

Other independent experts say the lack of detailed information about local militia command structures has compromised the effectiveness of disarmament efforts.

The International Crisis Group says it is not formal militia structures, but rather, the informal structures that must be understood in order to identify commanders at the village level responsible for calling into action the militia fighters who have stashed away their weapons.

After decades of war, Langton describes the nature of Afghanistan as "a country based around armed groups." He says it is naive for anybody to think such a situation could be changed by a voluntary program to disarm and disband militia.

"If, at the beginning, there wasn’t the threat of Taliban coming back [to the north], there were other reasons for retaining weapons," Langton told RFE/RL. "Self-protection in a place like Afghanistan is one reason.

"The possibility of having to guard opium convoys or heroin consignments going abroad is another reason," he said. "And the other reason is commercial -- selling armed guards to local authorities to guard their properties. What I think the so-called resurgent Taliban does is to give some perceived legitimacy to [the hoarding of weapons]."

Langton says fears among non-Pashtun commanders in the north have been heightened by recent overtures in Kabul about bringing moderate Taliban into the government -- an issue he says is closer to reality now than ever before.

"It does strengthen the belief amongst the former Northern [Alliance] groups that they may have to be prepared to stand up to some kind of Pashtun-dominated government," Langton said. "The United Afghan National Front opposition group, which was given birth last year, came together as a political opposition to the government largely because the people in the party feared that there might be a need to be united once again. And, of course, these are the former Northern Alliance commanders.

"The formation of this political group is an indication that there is a retention of weapons because there is a fear of increasing Taliban involvement both, possibly, in legitimate government and as a force which is encroaching further north illegally," Langton said.

Still, Langton and other experts conclude that the Afghan government is not about to face an armed insurrection by commanders from the former United Front.

They say such a development would require a degree of unity among northern militia that doesn’t appear to exist. And they say the political coalition formed last year by northern commanders does not translate into an armed alliance -- except at local levels where militia commanders are trying to protect their personal and vested interests.

Struggle to rein in Taliban in Afghanistan's south

After a week of battle, Afghan and international forces pushed the resurgent Taliban out of a key district north of Kandahar.

Christian Science Monitor - By Jon Boone - Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor from the November 5, 2007 edition

Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghans affected by an outbreak of Taliban fighting in a strategic district bordering the southern city of Kandahar have returned to their villages after a week of crisis sparked by the death of a tribal strongman.

Local authorities said Sunday that life was returning to normal following successful operations by Afghan security forces and Canadian troops to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lush agricultural lands of Afghandab district.

The insurgents were apparently intent on capitalizing on the death of Mullah Naqib, the former mujahideen warrior who led the Alokozai tribe of the district, north of Kandahar city.

For years, Mullah Naqib had kept the Taliban out of a district that offers a perfect route for attacking Kandahar city, the spiritual home of the hardline Sunni movement from its emergence in 1996 through its removal from power by US-led forces in 2001.

But up to 300 Taliban fighters entered the district last week, less than three weeks after Mullah Naqib's death created a political vacuum in one of southern Afghanistan's most important tribes.

The fighters, who local sources say were all in their mid-20s, remained for two days and came within 15 miles of the provincial capital. They occupied and trashed Naqib's ancestral home before being expelled by more than 600 Afghan and international forces.

The swift collapse of political authority in the province highlights the reliance of overstretched international forces on friendly power brokers remaining loyal to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Rising insecurity, official corruption, and the widespread belief that the government has failed to deliver basic public services have all undermined popular support, according to a European diplomat who spoke anonymously.

"It is very worrying that an area that had previously been secure should become vulnerable to the Taliban," he says. "But the big problem is, who is sitting on the fence? Are they going to remain against the insurgents or join them?"

In the case of Arghandab, the local tribe remained loyal. Lt. Commander Pierre Babinsky, spokesman for international troops in Kandahar Province, says the Afghan Army and police force had played a vital role in expelling the Taliban.

"This was one of the first truly joint operations between Canadian and Afghan forces operating together as equal partners," he says.

The police and Army have been the focus of intense training efforts to leave them capable of operating without direct foreign support and holding Taliban-free territory.

Much of the local police success against the Taliban fighters appeared to be because it is not yet a fully reconstituted force purged of tribal identity. With most of the fighters drawn from the Alokozai, analysts said, they were fighting out of tribal loyalty rather than as professional police officers.

Last week's political and military drama may have demonstrated the Taliban's weakness as a conventional military force. According to Haji Padshah, a tribal elder, "The Taliban are so weak that even our women could have beaten them."

The NATO-led forces refused to give estimates of Taliban deaths, but Sayed Agha Saqib, the regional police chief, says 50 were killed, 40 injured, and eight captured.

The apparent attempt to seize Afghandab also represented a surprising tactical step backward for the Taliban, which has been forced to abandon conventional military tactics in favor of kidnappings and suicide bombs.

Rates of insurgent attacks and terrorist violence are at least 20 percent higher this year, with an average of 548 incidents per month compared with 425 in 2006, according to a UN report published in September, with most of the victims being ordinary Afghans.

Adoption of these so-called "asymmetric" tactics have caused acute concern because they are much harder to prevent and have proved effective in undermining public confidence.

A Kabul-based Western analyst said that the Taliban were prone to forgetting their limitations as a military force. But according to Sarah Chayes, a former journalist who has lived for years in Kandahar city, the Taliban never had any ambition to seize control of Afghandab. "Far from being annihilated by the security forces, they actually executed a fighting retreat," she says. "It's clear that they wanted to send a very strong message ... saying that 'our advance is inevitable and we can dance on the roof of Mullah Naqib's house within three weeks of his death.' In Kandahar, it just knocked people sideways."

Protecting the exposed flanks of the city will be tough for overstretched Canadian forces. The Taliban's assault forced commanders to move men and equipment out of the other districts that border the northern edge.

"We would like to have more resources," Commander Babinsky says, "but the work we have done training the Afghan Army units mean we did not have to leave any districts unsecured."

Pakistani jirga receives bodies of fighters

JALALABAD, Nov 3 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - The bodies of two Pakistani fighters, killed in a clash with Afghan police, were handed over to a council of elders (jirga) from that country in the eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday.

After stealing into the province, the Pakistanis were killed in a an exchange of fire after they attacked two police checkpoints in Lalpura district last week, said spokesman for provincial governor Noor Agha Zwak.

Two tribal elders Shamroz from North Waziristan and Anwarul Haq from Mohmand Agency came to Jalalabad after a meeting with Governor Gul Agha Sherzai. They received the bodies of the fighters and shifted them to Pakistan.

Anwarul Haq told Pajhwok Afghan News: "The miscreants were persuaded to cross the border illegally and fight against the Afghan government." He thanked the governor for ordering the handover of the fighters' corpses.

Foreign militants bolstering Taliban's ranks as never before

The largest influx of foreign fighters since 2001 hails from such countries as Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya.

By David Rohde, New York Times Last update: November 03, 2007

GARDEZ, AFGHANISTAN - Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near Gardez noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer.

When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives.

Afghan and U.S. officials say the Siberian intended to be a suicide bomber, one of several hundred foreign militants who have gravitated to the region to fight alongside the Taliban this year -- the largest influx since 2001.

The foreign fighters are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than even their locally bred allies, officials on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border warn.

They are also helping change the face of the Taliban from a movement of hard-line Afghan religious students into a loose network that now includes a growing number of foreign militants as well as disgruntled Afghans and drug traffickers.

Foreign fighters are coming from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, various Arab countries and perhaps also Turkey and western China, Afghan and U.S. officials say.

Their growing numbers point to the worsening problem of lawlessness in Pakistan's tribal areas, which they use as a base to train alongside Al-Qaida militants who have carried out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Europe, according to Western diplomats.

"We've seen an unprecedented level of reports of foreign-fighter involvement," said Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux, deputy commander for security of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. "They'll threaten people if they don't provide meals and support."

In interviews in southern and eastern Afghanistan, local officials and village elders also reported seeing more foreigners fighting alongside the Taliban than in any year since the American-led invasion in 2001.

In Afghanistan, the foreigners serve as mid-level commanders, and train and finance local fighters, according to Western analysts. In Pakistan's tribal areas, they train suicide bombers, create roadside-bomb factories and have doubled the number of high-quality Taliban fund-raising and recruiting videos posted online.

Gauging the exact number of Taliban and foreign fighters in Afghanistan is difficult, Western officials and analysts say. At any given time, the Taliban can field up to 10,000 fighters, they said, but only 2,000 to 3,000 are highly motivated, full-time insurgents.

The rest are part-time fighters, young Afghan men who have been alienated by government corruption, who are angry at civilian deaths caused by American bombing raids, or who are simply in search of cash, they said. Five percent to 10 percent of full-time insurgents -- roughly 100 to 300 combatants -- are believed to be foreigners.

Western diplomats say recent offers from the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to negotiate with the Taliban are an effort to split local Taliban moderates and Afghans who might be brought back into the fold from the foreign extremists.

But that effort may face an increasing challenge as foreigners replace dozens of mid-level and senior Taliban who, according to Western officials, have been killed by NATO and American forces.

At the same time, Western officials said that the reliance on foreigners showed that the Taliban is running out of mid-level Afghan commanders. "That's a sure-fire sign of desperation," Champoux said.

Seth Jones, an analyst with the Rand Corp., was less sanguine, however, calling the arrival of more foreigners a dangerous development. The tactics the foreigners have introduced, he said, are increasing Afghan and Western casualty rates.

MacKay warns of refugee fallout from Pakistan

Updated Mon. Nov. 5 2007 - CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan could face a greater risk to their safety as a direct result of the political uncertainty in Pakistan, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said on Monday. MacKay made the statements during his first visit to Afghanistan as defence minister.

He said a flood of refugees could spill into Afghanistan, flowing from refugee camps just inside Pakistan that hold up to four million Afghan refugees.

Turmoil resulting from President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule could trigger a flood of angry and unemployed Afghans -- who could make attractive recruits for the Taliban -- MacKay predicted.

"If there was to be significant turmoil within the country (because of Musharraf's crackdown), there may be an incentive for a large wave of refugees to return to Afghanistan,'' he said.

"This is something both countries have been trying to manage for some time,'' MacKay said after addressing Canadian troops at Kandahar Air Field.

"Specifically the concerns are around the number of recruits that the Taliban are able to draw out of some of these refugee camps so this could lead potentially to more insurgents. That would be the concern.''

Security and surveillance along the border has been boosted, but the wild, mountainous frontier is difficult to patrol and an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people cross the border daily.

A sudden increase in the number of refugees into Afghanistan could cause a major headache for Canadian troops, MacKay said.

"The issue is still around the flow of refugees, predominantly Pashtun, who are tribal and nomadic by nature,'' MacKay said. "This is an area that is very close to Kandahar province so it directly effects, and in some instances, may directly imperil Canadian soldiers.''

MacKay had hoped to spend the visit trumpeting Canada's successes in Afghanistan. He did address progress that is being made, saying the economy has tripled in size, 80 per cent of Afghans now have access to health care and six million kids -- one-third of them girls -- are now in school.

But on top of that, MacKay said, Afghans are increasingly shouldering more and more of the burden for security in their own country.

An optimistic MacKay said a recent successful joint-operation against the Taliban -- involving Canadian, U.S. and Afghan troops -- is a sign of what it will take to end the mission on a successful note.

"This, quite frankly, is the exit strategy. This is the ticket home," he said.

"When we have the Afghan and national security forces capable of providing their own security, stabilizing their own borders, getting on with the police and national army training, this is very much in line with the overall strategy of this mission.''

Pakistan's domino effect

November 05, 2007 - Allan Woods,OTTAWA BUREAU - OTTAWA–The imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan this weekend could turn the difficult task of fighting Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency into an impossible mission, military and diplomatic analysts warned yesterday.

"The Taliban and the rest of that gangster crew is going to have an easier time in Pakistan, which in turn means that the situation in Afghanistan may continue to be unstable," said Alex Morrison, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies. "The equation is that the more Pakistan is unsettled, the more Afghanistan is unsettled."

Yesterday, the government of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf began a nationwide crackdown on the political opposition, the news media and the courts. Police throughout the country raided the homes of opposition party leaders and activists, arresting at least 500.

A main Islamist opposition party said authorities had also detained 600-700 of its supporters overnight in southern and central provinces.

Police with batons charged dozens of lawyers protesting outside the High Court in the economic capital Karachi early today, arresting at least 50, lawyers said. Another half a dozen lawyers were "mercilessly beaten" when they chanted anti-government slogans at a court in Rawalpindi.

About 70 activists were detained at the offices of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in the eastern city of Lahore. Police confiscated the equipment of journalists covering the raid and ordered them to leave the premises. All independent television news stations remained off the air for a second straight day.

Pakistan's deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared Musharraf's post-emergency setup "illegal and unconstitutional" in comments published today.

"Every thing that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court," Chaudhry told local daily The News in his first reported comments since the crisis began.

In an address to the nation that ended early yesterday, Musharraf justified his declaration on the grounds that he needed a free hand to battle rising militancy in Pakistan. The move drew strong rebukes from Musharraf's allies in the West, including Canada and the United States.

Non-government critics at home and abroad say the measures amount to martial law and say it was concern over his political longevity that prompted the controversial decision. Pakistan's Supreme Court was set to rule on whether the Oct. 6 re-election of Musharraf, who stayed on as head of the army after a military coup in 1999, was legitimate.

A top adviser to the president conceded later yesterday that the final decision came after a Supreme Court judge quietly informed the government last week the court would rule against Musharraf's effort to stay on as president.

"After that, there was no option," said Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. "He is not happy with this decision, frankly speaking. We are all not happy with the decision. But there was no other choice.''

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Canadian diplomats at the High Commission in Islamabad, and at consulates in Karachi and Lahore, are closely monitoring the situation. There have been no requests for consular assistance from Canadian citizens in Pakistan, but the government has warned against all travel to the country.

However, Ottawa has made no decisions yet about the future of any aid that it delivers. In 2004-05 the Canadian International Development Agency sent $50 million to Pakistan.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would review its $150 million-a-month assistance program to Pakistan.

During a surprise stop in Afghanistan yesterday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canada is "very concerned" the emergency measures, which have no expiry date, will destabilize the work that NATO and the United Nations are doing in Afghanistan.

The two countries have a long, porous border and insurgents freely cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan's lawless tribal zones, which serve as a home base where they are largely safe from coalition forces.

"We're calling for free and fair elections, the reinstatement of the judiciary and we're hoping they will continue their efforts toward regional security in Afghanistan," MacKay said in Kandahar.

MacKay's last trip to the region, in January as foreign affairs minister, was to have included a "blunt talk" with Musharraf over border concerns. But the face-to-face meeting never transpired and he had to content himself with talking to his Pakistani counterpart.

MacKay said Canada's "specific concerns" relate to Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the impact the emergency rule will have on their movement in and out of the country.

"We're concerned about the impact it will have politically throughout the region," he told reporters.

The U.S. and other allies of the war on terror have largely overlooked Musharraf's eight-year dictatorship in exchange for the efforts of Pakistan's military to root out Taliban and other insurgents in the tribal region along the border.

The support for the coalition has made Musharraf unpopular at home, even though there has been little done to impede the movements of Islamic fighters, said Kamran Bokhari, the Toronto-based director of Middle East analysis for Strategic Forecasting Inc.

"Pakistan was becoming destabilized already, even before Musharraf did this," Bokhari said in a telephone interview from Ankara, Turkey. "Now that Musharraf has done this, it's going to get, more than likely, worse because he's fully paying attention to surviving. The question is: how does martial law, or emergency ... help him fight against Al Qaeda more effectively than he could before this?"

Gordon Smith, a former Canadian ambassador to NATO, said if Musharraf is truly serious about cracking down on Islamic radicals, he may now allow NATO troops to enter his country and fight with the more than 60,000 Pakistani soldiers that are already policing the tribal regions. That may be the only way he can keep Western allies on side while still flouting democracy.

Then-defence minister Gordon O'Connor raised this issue on a September 2006 visit to Pakistan, saying that placing Canadian troops in Pakistan would ease intelligence sharing. The idea was quickly dismissed as politically unsaleable.

"Musharraf was always trying to balance the pressures on him to do something about Al Qaeda, coming from the Americans and others, including us," said Smith, who now teaches politics at the University of Victoria. "Maybe what this indicates now is that ... he will really allow what needs to happen in northern Pakistan."

A senior NATO official speaking last week in Ottawa warned of the need for a "more effective contribution" from Pakistan in the effort to stabilize Afghanistan. Jonathan Parish, a senior policy adviser, said the task for military forces in the south and east of the country would otherwise be "difficult if not impossible."

S Korea announces to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan

SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean Defense Ministry said on Monday that it will complete the withdrawal of all the 210South Korean troops in Afghanistan by mid-December.

    "The soldiers will be withdrawn before the Dec. 19 presidential election," officials of the Defense Ministry told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

    The South Korean government pledged to pull out all its troops from the country earlier in return for the release of 23 South Koreans kidnapped by Taliban militants in July.

    South Korea deploys about 60 medics and 150 engineers in Afghanistan. Local media said South Korea is to complete the withdrawal of the troops on Dec. 14. Instead of the troops, Seoul will send 20 civilians and government officials to Afghanistan as part of a regional reconstruction team, local reports said.

Former interior minister Jalali returns to Kabul

KABUL, Nov 4 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - Former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali gas returned, reportedly on an invitation from President Hamid Karzai, from the United States on Sunday.

It is Jalalis first visit to Afghanistan following his resignation as interior minister two and a half years back. He is widely respected for sweeping police and army reforms in an unfavourable environment.

Wolesi Jirga member Hilaluddin Hilal, who had arrived at the Kabul airport to receive the former minister, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "I think Jalali has returned in response to an invitation from President Karzai."

Noorul Haq Ulumi, head of the Lower Houses defence commission, hinted at Jalalis appointment as head of one of the three panels on defence, economy and international affairs.

During his ministerial term, Jalali repeatedly pointed to the involvement of top-ranking officials in the burgeoning drug trade and sought action against them. He received higher education in the US and UK before his appointment as interior minister in 2002. But he resigned the job two years later.

Audit finds fault in ADB’s Afghan projects

Financial Times, By Stephen Fidler in London - Published: October 30 2007

Serious shortcomings in the way the Asian Development Bank handled four technical assistance contracts aimed at improving the environment in Afghanistan have been uncovered by auditors charged with investigating the projects.

The independent audit found many bank policies, procedures and requirements were not followed, a lack of documentation that meant auditors were unable to find evidence relating to the projects, and a lack of proper control over some financial commitments and disbursements.

The report from A. F. Ferguson, a Pakistani firm of chartered accountants, was released to the bank’s board on Monday and a copy sent to the Financial Times. The audit found one expert had been hired three times for the same work, and cases where there was no evidence that tasks, such as training workshops, had ever been carried out.

The financial and performance audit was commissioned into the projects, financed by the UK and Danish governments, after complaints by a consultant to the bank, David Elliot. The projects – which included a solar-powered fountain in Kabul and a drip irrigation project that never worked – were reported in the FT on July 12. The allegations were “generally true”, the auditors found.

Juan Miranda, director-general of the bank’s central and west Asian department, said the audit showed serious shortcomings in the way four technical assistance mandates were assigned, and an inadequate oversight of the projects. But he said: “The audit has found no evidence of any corruption or malfeasance of funds.”

He said the bank had made project loans to Afghanistan of $1bn (700m, £500m) since it started operations there in 2002. Technical assistance projects since then have amounted to $67m, of which those complained about totalled just $3.3m. “We believe this to be a completely isolated case,” he said.

Afghan parliament outraged by Koran 'mistranslation'

UPI, November 3, 2007 KABUL - Afghanistan's conservative parliament was in an uproar Saturday over a translation of the Koran by a government official they accused of trying to create division among Muslims.

Parliamentarians accused the official of misinterpreting the Muslim holy book on many issues including homosexuality and adultery in his translation into Dari, the second most used language in Afghanistan.

After an angry debate in both houses of parliament, MPs and senators agreed Mohammad Ghaws Zalmai, spokesman to the attorney general, should not be allowed to travel outside the country until the matter had been investigated.

"For years, there have been plots to create divisions among Muslims," the speaker of the senate, Sebghatullah Mujadadi, told his colleagues.

"This translation and distorting of the Koran in the translation by Ghaws Zalmai is another such attempt," he said at a special session called to debate the issue.

Ghaws Zalmai was reluctant to talk about the translation, an interpretation of the holy book. Most other versions are word-for-word translations.

The religious committee of the Upper House was ordered to do a thorough study of the translation.

The parliament, the first to be democratically elected in Afghanistan, last year called for the execution of an Afghan, who converted to Christianity on the basis that Sharia (Islamic) law provided for this penalty.

MPs also ordered that the man, Abdul Rahman, remain in the country. He was secretly whisked out for asylum in Italy.

Taliban the big winners

Telegraph.co.uk - By Ahmed Rashid Last Updated: 05/11/2007

By imposing these draconian martial law-type measures, President Pervez Musharraf hopes to ensure his own political survival. But the move is more likely to lead to much greater political confrontation, protests and larger territorial gains by the extremist Pakistani Taliban.

General Musharraf's primary aim was to cleanse the Supreme Court bench. That he has achieved — all its judges have been forced to resign and several, including the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, are under arrest. The Supreme Court had become a major irritant for military rule, and was due to rule on a petition whether Gen Musharraf could remain president for another five years.

Thus the emergency's first target is not the extremists terrorising northern Pakistan, but the democratic, secular elite. Dozens of judges, lawyers and human rights workers have been arrested while more have gone underground to avoid arrest. Journalists and the media are being targeted and harassed in an unprecedented manner.

Asma Jehangir, Pakistan's leading human rights activist, who is now under house arrest, appealed yesterday to the American and British governments "to stop all support of the unstable dictator".

In his actions and his speech to the nation on Saturday night, Gen Musharraf treated the Supreme Court with absolute contempt — a move that has devastating long-term implications for the ever widening gulf between an unaccountable army and a public that wants an independent judiciary, the rule of law and respect for the constitution.

Gen Musharraf and the army have once again decided they are above the law or international obligations, even though his political support collapsed months ago after four months of non-stop demonstrations by lawyers, professionals and opposition parties.

Diplomats from Britain and the United States fell into the trap of believing that Gen Musharraf wanted a deal with the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, to restore his crumbling popularity. It now seems that both governments were taken for a ride by the wily general. An embarrassed Ms Bhutto has now been forced into a U-turn to condemn Gen Musharraf. She will now attempt to gather all the opposition around her.

The key winner in this will be the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who is popular in Punjab and has refused to strike any deal with the army. His hard line towards Gen Musharraf has now been vindicated, while Ms Bhutto's soft line is being criticised.

A major loser will be the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), with its politicians now reviled and virtually unelectable. PML leaders, including Shaukat Aziz and Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, had urged Gen Musharraf to impose an emergency, believing that it would allow them to rule for another year or so.

The real battleground for Gen Musharraf should be the north of his country, where a resurgent Pakistani Taliban, helped by al-Qa'eda, are conquering more territory and imposing their version of a so-called Sharia [Islamic law] state. The army has lost hundreds of men and at least 400 soldiers are being held hostage by the extremists. But Gen Musharraf's first concern is his own survival rather than combating the extremists, while the army is deeply demoralised and unwilling to fight a never-ending war against its countrymen.

So we can now expect a flurry of truces and shaky peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban, which will leave them in place for the time being. As a sop to the US military, we can expect the "timely" arrest of a few high-level leaders of the Afghan Taliban who are living in Pakistan, and possibly even an al-Qa'eda leader or two. For the long term the extremists know that the Pakistani state has been irretrievably weakened and this is the moment to push home their offensive.

The future of stability of Afghanistan also hangs in the balance as does the safety of 40,000 British, US and Nato troops based there. The Afghan Taliban will now continue their offensive through the harsh winter months. They can only be encouraged by the mayhem in Pakistan from where they receive recruits, logistics and support.

The spread of anti-Westernism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has been fostered by a US policy that has sought only to keep Gen Musharraf in power. However, the dramatic lack of public support for Gen Musharraf will mean that his rule, and the emergency, is unsustainable for long, and could trigger even worse political chaos. The West has a vital stake in seeing stability in Pakistan, but so far its response has been too tepid to make a difference to the generals. 

Taliban militants free 211 Pakistani troops

By Hafiz Wazir - November 4, 2007 WANA, Pakistan (Reuters)

Taliban militants freed 211 Pakistani troops on Sunday after holding them captive since late August in a tribal region near the Afghan border, officials and the military said. The Pakistani militants handed over the soldiers to tribal elders in South Waziristan, a mountainous Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold where they were captured on August 30 after their supply convoy was trapped by a landslide.

"The soldiers have returned to their camp in South Waziristan," Major-General Waheed Arshad said.

A cleric, Maulana Siraj-ud-din, head of the group of tribal elders that negotiated with the militants, told Reuters the troops were handed over to authorities in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. Fighters led by Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud had demanded the release of some captured comrades and the withdrawal of troops from their tribal lands in exchange for the soldiers' freedom.

Arshad said South Waziristan authorities had released some people detained under tribal laws, but that paramilitary troops were still deployed in the area. The soldiers' release came a day after President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in Pakistan, citing rising terrorism and extremism among his reasons.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan's security has deteriorated sharply since July, when Pakistani commandos stormed the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, to crush a Taliban-style movement. Nearly 800 people have been killed in militant-linked violence since then, including more than 23 suicide attacks.

A November 1 suicide attack on an Air Force bus killed eight people, while seven died two days earlier when a bomber blew himself up less than a kilometer from Musharraf's army residence in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.

A suicide bomb attack in Karachi killed 139 people at a procession on October 19 to mark the return from self-imposed exile of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

US in tizzy, Pervez best bet lies in marauding Taliban

The Telegraph - 11/03/2007 - By K.P. Nayar

Washington - The "bushfire" lit by Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan this evening means another grave new crisis for the beleaguered general’s chief patron, President George W. Bush.

If Musharraf succeeds in his latest effort to trample over what little democracy was left in Pakistan, it will be yet another blot on America’s long, chequered record in Islamabad. Admiral William J. Fallon, head of the US military’s Central Command, was personally present in Rawalpindi as final touches were given to the declaration of emergency.

Musharraf, typically, has taken a calculated risk that he can ignore warnings from Washington against declaring an emergency and simultaneously smother opposition to his rule in a way he was unable to do during much of 2007. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had said as signals were coming from Islamabad of an imminent declaration of emergency that “the US wouldn’t be supportive of extra-constitutional means” by Musharraf to remain in power.

She told reporters on her way to Turkey to put out another “bushfire” of air attacks on Kurdish mountains started by the Nato ally: “We have been very clear that the important steps that have to be taken in Pakistan is (sic) that, first of all, Pakistan needs to prepare for and hold free and fair elections at the end of the year (or the) beginning of next year... that the political space needs to be prepared by moderate forces beginning to work together... and that the moderate forces have a common enemy in the extremists who are so much in evidence.”

This evening, she stuck to the theme, calling the emergency a step backwards for democracy. Rice described Musharraf’s move as “highly regrettable” and told CNN in Turkey that she hoped Pakistan’s intention was to have free and fair elections. State department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement that Musharraf had promised to hold elections in January and the US urged him to do so.

“The United States is deeply disturbed by reports that Pakistani President Musharraf has taken extra-constitutional actions and has imposed a state of emergency,” McCormack said. “A state of emergency would be a sharp setback for Pakistani democracy and takes Pakistan off the path toward civilian rule.”

He added that the US “stands with the people of Pakistan in supporting a democratic process and in countering violent extremism”.

Admiral Fallon, according to accounts reaching here, warned Musharraf that it would be difficult, given the compulsions of pre-election US politics, to continue to get Congressional approval for the huge American assistance for the Pakistani military if it resorted to extra-constitutional actions.

However, Fallon was not in Rawalpindi primarily to plead the case for Pakistani democracy. Instead, he offered US troops to fight the ongoing critical battles against religious militants, who now control nearly half of Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province. Musharraf, according to these accounts, rejected Fallon’s offer even though Pakistani soldiers are surrendering to militants in large numbers. Even as these parleys were going in the Pakistan army’s general headquarters, two districts in western Afghanistan fell into Taliban hands this week, the latest yesterday.

For Musharraf, these developments will be of immense help as he persuades the Americans that his regime — with or without the trappings of democracy — is what stands between moderation and militancy. Yesterday, Tom Casey, the state department’s deputy spokesman, said in an apparent contradiction of Rice’s warning to Musharraf: “We are going to continue to work with the government of Pakistan to help them respond to this (militant) challenge and to help us deal with the common threat that these groups pose.”

For Bush and Rice, whose diplomats are in a stunning revolt against compulsory postings to Iraq, the latest “bushfire” lit by Musharraf is something they wish he had not done.

Taliban can't be bracketed with Pashtuns: Analysts

Pajhwok NewsAgency - 11/03/2007 KABUL

Tribespeople living in the long-neglected region that straddles the Durand Line are the worst-hit by war, political analysts agree. They reason a wrenchingly persistent lack of elemental necessities of life is contributing in no small measure to the rise of militancy in benighted border areas. In interviews with Pajhwok Afghan News, observers pour scorn on the impression that Taliban have grown out of the tribal politics of the Pashtun community. While vehemently rejecting the insinuation that the escalating insurgency has roots in the backward region, they argue the rebels are not associated with one particular community.

Some Internet-based news organisations recently carried a flurry of reports alleging Pashtun tribal feuds have been the bane of Afghanistan and Taliban a product of the politics of tribalism. Such anti-Pashtun commentaries, according to analysts, are not based on credible research on the factors that fuel the ongoing wave of insecurity in the landlocked country. Political commentator Wahid Muzhda opines Taliban are not the representatives of a single Afghan faction. "Being an ethnic Tajik myself, I have been with the movement for half a decade. They listened to a Chechen national more raptly than the hearing they gave me or a Pashtun for that matter."

Many people from the southern Kandahar province held high positions in the Taliban government, he recalls, but hastens to explain it does not mean they exclusively represent the Pashtuns. "For one, I will never subscribe to the point of view that Taliban can be bracketed with any one Afghan community." Reminded of the media blitz against the largest ethnic group, Muzhda responds Pashtuns have historically been faced with a phalanx of foes and that situation continues to date. "This propaganda is essentially the handwork of their opponents," the intellectual thinks.

Parliamentarian Kabir Ranjbar, echoing Muzhda's opinion, makes it abundantly clear the insurgents are not born out of the Pashtun politics of tribalism. "Espousing an ideology called fundamentalism, Taliban have links to the al-Qaeda network," he elucidates. Mullah Omar was stoutly supported by Tajiks, Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs and extremists from other nations, maintains the legislator. It is loyalists of Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum and other ethnic rivals brand the militants as devious Pashtuns, the Wolesi Jirga member comments.

"Pashtuns themselves are simultaneously being mowed down by Taliban and bombed by foreign troops. Making matters worse is the hard fact the government is paying little - if any - heed to the reconstruction of the war-devastated belt inhabited by them," continues Ranjbar. As another Wolesi Jirga member from the eastern Nangarhar province Mir Wais Yaseeni puts it: Pashtuns enormously have played a crucial role in the jihad against Soviet invaders in yesteryear and now they are battling the insurgents, who in no way can be characterised as a purely Pashtun outfit. "Whosoever casts such racist slurs on the Pashtuns are doing a disservice to the country," he remarks.

Security experts charge some elements have a vested interest in fomenting trouble on both sides of the frontier to further their agenda. Advisor at Afghanistan's Regional Studies Centre Abdul Rashid Wazir claims Pakistan's powerful military intelligence agency ISI acted as a midwife to the birth of the student militia. When routed in Afghanistan, Wazir adds, the rebels streamed into the neighbouring country, where ISI tasked mighty religious groups with reorganising them. "In a contemptible attempt to scuttle the process of empowering the Afghans, the secret agency is lending a boost to the guerrillas."

Morphing India’s Afghanistan Policy

Mainstream, India, Mainstream Saturday 3 November 2007 - by Swapna Kona

Why does India need a renewed policy towards Afghanistan? October 2007 marks six years since Afghanistan has been occupied by outside forces. Hitherto, there’s been a rising cynicism with the Indian policy, or the lack of it, towards Afghanistan. India’s interests in Afghanistan are clear—containment of conflict in its extended neighbourhood and a stake in the energy resources and trade opportunities in the region. But, the relationship with Afghanistan has the undertone of a chronic restlessness, blamed largely on Indian disorientation in the region. If India doesn’t potentialise her leverage, the failure to deliver will not remain a defensible position and could mar future bilateral relations. Henceforth, there are three factors that should shape India’s policy in Afghanistan.

The first is India’s broader interest in Afghanistan, as the threshold to Central Asia. With a burgeoning demand for energy, India must tap into these resources. Energy-rich Central Asia’s regional dynamics should be dictating the Indian policy towards the region, as against a conceptually myopic American strategy in the now-defunct War on Terror. The two pipeline projects—the TAPI, taking the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route, and the IPI, that is, the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline—are both initiatives at locking India into the energy grid lock which is surfacing in Central Asia. Afghanistan has a lot to gain from both in terms of energy supply and transit fees. By becoming a part of this regional distribution network, India will tie itself into broader Central Asian interests and acquire a foothold in the region. Thus, viewing Afghanistan as part of a larger framework will spell out a vision for India’s policy in the region, making it a part of the solution.

The second is India’s understanding of the Taliban. The Taliban is resurgent, President Karzai’s government enjoys waning popular support and there is the realisation that no sustainable political progress can be accomplished sans dialogue with the Taliban. The Taliban’s quarrel is with foreign presence on Afghan territory. By aligning ourselves with the US War on Terror and championing Karzai as the face of modern Afghanistan, India is systematically dismissing the Taliban from the Afghan political scene. The Indian narrative is not different from the US’ in presuming that the Taliban must be defeated and that shall be the triumph of democracy in Kabul. This assumption is myopic at best. The US’ reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan are part of its larger strategy to acquire legitimacy for Karzai’s government and hence further its objectives of democratising Afghanistan and wiping out the Taliban. Instead, Indian aid and reconstruction should be aimed at stabilising and supporting the fledgling administration and providing assistance to the people as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared in 2005. Afghan democracy is a work in progress and India must acknowledge the Taliban’s widespread presence in Afghanistan and encourage its more moderate factions to participate in a truly representative democracy.

The third is the Indian understanding of the Pakistani position on Afghanistan. It has to be understood that Pakistani influence in Afghanistan will always exceed that of India’s. As an immediate neighbour, Pakistan and Afghanistan will remain tied together strategically forever. They will also continue to have schisms—the Durand Line, Afghan refugees, border porosity and a rising Pashtunistan movement are all problems that will sap energies on both sides of the border. To those problems, they will find solutions only if they work together. That comprises their bilateral relations. Kabul despises Pakistan’s interference in its internal matters. If India barges into its bilateral relations with Pakistan, it will face the same fate. On the contrary, Kabul will always turn to India for aid and support. This is where India’s leverage lies. By keeping the Indo-Pak issues separate from the Pak-Afghan issues can India formulate an Afghan policy that is not Pakistan-centric, relieving fears in Islamabad of Delhi’s growing influence in Kabul and quelling Afghan suspicions of being used by India as a foothold against Pakistan. On matters that affect all three, such as militancy, engagement is necessary on an equal footing without any sort of diplomatic witch-hunting.

Instead of an interest-driven policy, Indian presence in Afghanistan is presented as a counterweight to Pakistani influence in the region. Indian support for democratisation in Afghanistan has a strong Atlanticist flavour. The scramble to replace Pakistan as the US’ strategic ally in the region has led to the rhetoric that links India to the US in its War on Terror and leads to its behaviour as a “natural ally”. This is unfortunate as India is intimately acquainted with the hurdles of representative democracy in an ethnically disparate society. Our true contribution could have been in establishing sustained public diplomacy and a system of government much like ours that could accommodate estranged political factions. During his visit to Kabul in August 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “Representation is the very essence of democracy.” Indian efforts have been absent in facilitating any reconciliation in that regard.

If India had chosen not to busy itself with the politics of Afghanistan and had stuck to reconstruction, then our policy would have been shaped by our leverage as a donor nation. But that was not entirely possible, and rightly so, as Indian interests in Afghanistan border on the strategic. To that end, the time is nigh for Delhi to formulate a substantiated Afghan policy. n

[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.]