In this bulletin:

• Afghan civilian deaths alarm UN
• Afghan, US Troops Kill 50 Taliban in Uruzgan Region
• Oxfam calls for aid to be more effective, transparent
• Taliban captures 10 alleged security guards in S Afghanistan
• New tape threatens attacks on Austria, Germany
• Afghan boys suffer mental scars after suicide bomb
• Militancy Spreads to Northern Provinces
• NATO should double its Afghan troop levels, says think-tank
• UN drug agency seeks NATO help in eradicating Afghan Opium trade
• 20 Afghan prisoners transferred to Afghan custody from US military jail
• Harper downplays incidence of detainee abuse
• Afghanistan/Tajikistan: Fostering environmental cooperation in the Amu Darya River basin
• Pentagon Wants To Boost Funding For Pakistan's Frontier Corps
• Pakistan put in its real place
• Tribal Trouble
• War films dominate Oscars documentary race

Afghan civilian deaths alarm UN

By Alix Kroeger - BBC News, Kabul

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed alarm at the number of civilian casualties caused by international forces in Afghanistan. Speaking at the end of a six-day visit to the country, Louise Arbour said the casualties were eroding public trust.

She also called for greater safeguards in the way Nato-led forces transferred their detainees into Afghan custody. Earlier, Oxfam said half of the 1,200 civilian deaths this year were caused by international and Afghan troops.

The UK-based international aid agency also criticised the way aid was distributed in Afghanistan, saying that too much was provided in ways that were ineffective or inefficient.

The report, prepared for a UK parliamentary committee, concluded that too much aid was absorbed by profits for companies or subcontractors, or spent on high salaries and living expenses for expatriate staff.

Speaking to the BBC in Kabul at the end of a six-day visit, the UN high commissioner said their was no justification for the level of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

But while she criticised insurgents for using suicide bombings and human shields, Ms Arbour said public opinion was clear - there was a higher expectation of international forces to do everything possible to avoid killing or injuring civilians.

Mrs Arbour said commanders of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) recognised the significance of the issue and the need to change tactics.

But she said that even if numbers diminished, it was likely civilian casualties would still occur. She also stressed that Isaf the need to give adequate compensation to the victims and their families. "In law, all sides are held to the same international standards," she said.

"In public opinion... there's an expectation, in a sense higher expectations on behalf of international forces. That being said, the legal standard is exactly the same."

Ms Arbour also said she would support starting peace talks with insurgent groups such as the Taleban.

"Having gained on their security, [people] would crave the freedom that I think, since 2001, has started in little bits to flourish in the democratic system here," she said.

"Now, if all anti-government forces could be brought into the fold of the democratic process, that's the ultimate good-case scenario."

The UN high commissioner later raised concerns about whether Isaf was turning detainees over to torture in Afghan custody.

"I think it's really critical that this issue be looked at, and Isaf collectively, the Nato command, should also take ownership of that issue," she said.

"So far it's been left to the various troop-contributing governments to deal with the issue as they saw fit," she added.

"Their international obligations of non-refoulement mean that anybody they take into detention, they have a responsibility not to turn over if there is a risk of torture, and I think the documentation now shows there is a considerable risk."

Afghan, US Troops Kill 50 Taliban in Uruzgan Region

By VOA News - 21 November 2007 - Afghan officials say more than 50 Taliban insurgents have been killed in clashes with Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in southern Uruzgan province.

Officials say the fighting, which involved ground and air attacks, took place in the mountainous Charchino district Tuesday.

They say five Taliban militants were killed in a separate clash with Afghan forces in another district, Dihrawud, of the restive province, which also took place Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the top United Nations Human Rights official, Louise Arbour, has criticized both Taliban insurgents and international troops in Afghanistan for civilian casualties.

At a news conference in Kabul Tuesday, Arbour said civilian deaths caused by NATO forces have reached alarming levels. She also accused Taliban militants of deliberately targeting Afghan civilians and using locals as human shields by seeking shelter in their homes during battles with international forces. She made the comments at the end of a six day visit to Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly urged NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces to try to prevent the death of Afghans who get caught in the crossfire of military operations against insurgents.

This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban government in 2001. Taliban militants have established strongholds in the south and east, attacking U.S. and NATO troops and Afghan soldiers in ambushes and suicide bombings.

Oxfam calls for aid to be more effective, transparent

KABUL, 20 November 2007 (IRIN) - Over US$15 billion of international aid money spent in Afghanistan in the past six years has not met the urgent humanitarian and development needs of the Afghan people because aid has either been insufficient or delivered ineffectively, a British charity organisation, Oxfam GB, said in a report.

"Too much aid to Afghanistan is provided in ways that are ineffective or inefficient," said the report which was submitted to a committee of the House of Commons, in London, last week and made publicly available on 20 November.

According to Oxfam, a big portion of the overall aid to Afghanistan "is absorbed by profits of companies and subcontractors, by non-Afghan resources and by high expatriate salaries and living costs".

"Each full-time expatriate consultant costs up to half a million dollars a year," the report has found.

The Oxfam report points to poor coordination among donors and a lack of transparency in aid spending which badly affects aid effectiveness. It also mentions weak implementing capacity, corruption and lack of resources in Afghan government institutions, exacerbating aid inefficiencies.

Although agriculture is a major means of income for about 80 percent of Afghans, donors and the government of Afghanistan have only spent $270 million on agricultural projects in the last six years, Oxfam's findings show.

Owing to wasteful and ineffective aid totalling over $15 billion, millions of Afghans, particularly in rural areas, still face severe hardship "comparable with sub-Saharan Africa", the report said.

"Millions of highly vulnerable people in Afghanistan still need urgent support and assistance," Matt Waldman, the author of the Oxfam report, told IRIN in Kabul.

The 24-page report calls on donors to increase the amount of aid to the war-ravaged nation, ensure transparency, increase coordination and improve aid effectiveness through increased use of Afghan resources.

"The Afghanistan Compact [a strategic framework for the sustainable and balanced development of Afghanistan, agreed between Afghans and donors] sets 77 benchmarks for the Afghan government, but none for donors," said Waldman, adding that donors should take bold measures to change the current direction of aid delivery to Afghanistan.

Among Oxfam's recommendations is the establishment of an independent commission which should monitor aid delivery to, and aid effectiveness in, Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Adrian Edwards, agreed that there was a need for the government of Afghanistan to strengthen its institutional capacity to better manage and absorb international funds.

Donors should also improve aid delivery to, and effectiveness in, Afghanistan, Edwards said.

Taliban captures 10 alleged security guards in S Afghanistan

Xinhua / November 20, 2007 - Taliban insurgents have captured around 10 people allegedly belonging to a private security company in Garmser district of southern Afghan Helmand province, police said Tuesday.

The incident occurred on Monday night and the people had been providing protection service for a foreign building company working on a road linking southern province Kandahar to western Herat, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told Xinhua. Andiwal did not identify the nationality of the security service company.

Talking to Xinhua via phone from an unknown location, a Taliban commander Mullah Mohmmad Hashim however said the Taliban had abducted six policemen and beheaded another one who was trying to defend himself during the action.

The Taliban, removed from power by the U.S. invasion in late 2001, has waged insurgency against Afghan administration and the international troops deployed in the country.

Rising militancy-related violent incidents have killed over 5,700 people so far this year in the war-torn country.

New tape threatens attacks on Austria, Germany

VIENNA (AFP) — A new videotape on which Islamist militants threaten to attack Germany and Austria if they do not pull their troops out of Afghanistan was broadcast on Austrian television Tuesday evening.

The German and Austrian interior ministries confirmed the existence of the tape, which also demanded Austria release two people arrested over a similar threatening video issued in March.

In the video, aired by Austrian television ORF2, the militants identified themselves as the Globale Islamistische Medienfront or GIMF (Global Islamist Media Front).

Austrian interior ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said the ministry had received the video, which lasts about four minutes, several days ago and described it as "an abstract threat".

"We're taking it seriously. But it does not alter the security situation" in Austria, he said.

"We can't say where the video originated. We're in the process of analysing that with our colleagues" at the German domestic intelligence service, he added.

A German interior ministry spokesman said in Berlin that the video was "currently being evaluated by our experts. Until then, we're not saying anything about its content".

In the video, a disguised voice can be heard saying that "Germany and Austria should take the threat seriously because we are not going to let it remain a simple threat."

Like the previous video, the new one contains photos of Austrian ministers apparently downloaded from the government's website.

Several photos of soldiers in Afghanistan used in the video appear to have been copied from the Austrian defence ministry web page and from German newspaper Bild Zeitung.

ORF journalists obtained the video after having made contact online with authors of Islamist websites.

Three presumed GIMF militants were arrested in Vienna in September in connection with a similar video, also threatening to attack Austria and Germany, that had been distributed in March.

One suspect was released in mid-September, while the two main suspects, a 20-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman, remain in custody in Vienna.

The two suspects are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organisation," Austrian interior minister Guether Platter said at the time, adding that they were suspected of links to the Al-Qaeda network.

If found guilty, the pair could receive jail sentences of up to 10 years. Nevertheless, Plattner stressed that at no time did they represent a real threat to Austria.

The two suspects live in Vienna and are second-generation Austrian Muslims of Arab origin, the security authorities said.

They were arrested in connection with a video that was broadcast on March 11 on "The Voice of the Caliphate", an online television site launched in September 2005 by the Iraqi branch of the Al-Qaeda network of the Western world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.

Austria currently has only three staff officers in Kabul and their mission ends on December 31. Germany has some 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF).

Afghan boys suffer mental scars after suicide bomb

By Tahir Qadiry, November 20, 2007 - MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan schoolboy Naqibullah fears closing his eyes. Each time he tries to go to sleep, he relives a suicide bombing that killed dozens of his classmates.

"I dream about the attack. I see the wounded and dead bodies around me," said Naqibullah, 14, who was wounded in the blast two weeks ago in the northern Afghan town of Baghlan.

The bomber blew himself up as boys from a high school lined up to greet a group of parliamentarians visiting a sugar factory. Survivors are suffering dangerous psychological scars, doctors say.

Khalilullah Narmgoy, the head of the local hospital, said most of the children, while slowly recovering from their physical wounds, needed long-term psychological care.

"Most of these children are suffering from depression," he said. "I, as a doctor, who was standing 15 meters (yards) from the attack, have been affected by it. I was shocked by it and now dream about dangerous things."

The blast killed 72 people, including 52 schoolboys and five of their teachers. Six parliamentarians also died.

"I panic badly. I dream about very dangerous things and wake up shouting," said Lotfullah, 14, who is also being treated for wounds in the Baghlan hospital. Parents worried how their children would cope.

"My son wakes up crying every night. We are very worried about him ... He speaks about the dead and dogs following him," said Nafisa. The blast killed one son and wounded another.

Mohammad Shokor's son was about to undergo an operation. "I don't know how he will live. He is badly frightened. He talks nonsense to himself." Other parents had stopped sending their children to school.

"Our survey shows parents were also badly scared by this attack," said Narmgoy. "They either do not send their children to school, or if they go they cannot concentrate on their lessons."

Dr. Kaneshka Urmiz, a psychologist, warned the sudden and violent shock the boys had suffered, unless treated, might affect them badly in later life.

"These children could grow up to be thugs or criminals in the future ... They can be depressed and dangerous people, unless they are looked after."

Taliban insurgents have killed more than 200 civilians in at least 130 suicide bombs this year, but denied responsibility for the Baghlan attack. Police and officials are tight-lipped over results from their ongoing investigation into the bombing.

(Writing by Jon Hemming, editing by David Fogarty)

Militancy Spreads to Northern Provinces

By Tahir Qadiry - MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Nov 20 (IPS) - Militancy, which has turned southern Afghanistan into a conflict zone, has spread to the northern provinces that have been relatively peaceful since the Taliban regime was ousted from Kabul in end-2001.

Some 79 people were killed, including six parliamentarians, schoolchildren and teachers, in Baghlan province on Nov. 6 in a suicide attack, the bloodiest incident in six years. An Interior Ministry committee has been despatched to investigate the human bombing by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The attack occurred when the parliamentarians were visiting a sugar cane factory in the industrial city of the province. Two people, including a spiritual prayer leader, have been detained on charges of the attack.

Mohammad Jamshid, who lost a daughter in the attack, said he has lost confidence in the government’s ability to provide security. "My daughter was studying when she was brought to welcome the delegation. She was 12 years old. How dared they kill her?" he lamented. "The government has to give me an answer," he said in tears.

"I lost my 11-year-old daughter," cried Mastora, who is a widow. "Fighting during the Taliban claimed my husband. Now, I lost my daughter. What shall I do? I will never forgive the government," she bitterly added.

The Afghan government immediately announced a compensation of 100,000 Afghanis (2,000 US dollars) to the relatives of each victim. The injured would be given 5,000 Afghanis (100 dollars) each.

The families want the government to find the people behind the attack. "I have lost my cousin," said Mohammad Jawad, who runs a shop, "What shall we do with money? What kind of government is it? Why do they not ensure people’s security?" he added.

Immediately after the suicide bomb, there were rumours that some of the wounded and the dead had suffered bullet injuries. But that was ruled out by Dr Khalilullah Narmgoi, head of the Baghlan hospital, who told IPS that he could not confirm such a thing. "It was an accusation by people, but I have not seen it. Even, there were rumours that one of the victims, the parliamentarian Syed Mustafa Kazemi, had been shot at. But, the investigations showed it was not true," said Narmgoi.

However, Kazemi’s Hezb-e Eqtidar-e Melli Afghanistan said the attack was deliberate. . In a press release, they called for an international investigation into the ‘murder’ of their leader and other parliamentarians and people.

Taliban insurgents who have carried out more than 130 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, denied they had a hand in the Baghlan attack which was denounced by various groups in Afghanistan, and the international peacekeeping force.

Gen. Dieter Warnecke, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Regional Command North, called it a "cowardly" attack. He said: "The cowardly suicide attack arouses deep consternation among the ISAF soldiers. It seems to be one of the biggest attacks over the last years."

Mohammad Alam Ishaqzai, governor of Baghlan province, called it a suicide attack and said the government’s enemies were behind it.

Speaking to IPS he said: "It was a terrorist act. We cannot accuse any particular party for the attack, but it was done by the government’s and people’s enemies."

The governor, who was accused of wavering over ensuring adequate security for the visiting parliamentarian, said the authorities had not expected an attack on such a scale.

"Northern Baghlan has always been safe. Who knew what was to happen?" he added. The dead parliamentarians were Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, spokesman for the United Front Line and head of the economic commission of the Afghan parliament, Shibur Rehman Himmat, Sibghatullah Zaki, Muhammad Arif Zarif, Abdul Matin and Nazak Mir Sarfaraz.

The governor admitted that the suicide bomber blew himself up just when schoolboys had lined up to greet the parliamentary delegation. But he said it was too early to announce who was behind the attack.

Gen. Abdul Jamil, chief of the Baghlan security command, has accused the Taliban insurgents of the attack.

"Taliban have always been behind the suicide attacks in Afghanistan. This could have been done by them," he added saying the investigations will soon reveal the truth.

Rohullah Mojadidi, a political analyst in Mazar-e Sharif, commented that the Taliban are flexing muscles in the north of Afghanistan as well.

"Taliban are regrouping in the northern provinces," said Mojadidi "They are coming from the south to disrupt the security situation here. It is now up to the government to take decisive measures to defuse their attacks and eliminate them in the region, before they infiltrate."

NATO should double its Afghan troop levels, says think-tank
CanWest News Service Wednesday, November 21, 2007

OTTAWA - The security situation in Afghanistan has reached "crisis proportions," with the Taliban permanently occupying more than half the country, according to a new report by a think-tank with operations in Kandahar province.

The report by the Senlis Council, a persistent thorn in the side of Ottawa over its policy on Afghanistan, contradicts recent statements by Canadian military commanders that Taliban insurgents are on their heels.

Rather, the Taliban now control "vast swaths" of territory and are the "defacto" governing authority in "significant" parts of Afghanistan's south and east, states the Senlis report.

As a result, the Taliban's goal of reaching Kabul by 2008 "appears more viable than ever."

"The depressing conclusion is that, despite the vast injections of international capital flowing into the country, and a universal desire to 'succeed' in Afghanistan, the state is once again in serious danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban," the report said.

The report also states the Taliban exercise a "significant amount of psychological control" over the Afghan population and have been gaining "political legitimacy."

However, a recent survey commissioned by Canadian media organizations throughout Afghanistan found nearly three in four Afghans have a negative view of the Taliban.

Senlis warns the Taliban are increasingly adopting the "asymmetric warfare" tactics used by militants in Iraq, such as roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

The think-tank says the insurgency is being driven by a large poverty-driven 'grassroots' component and a concentrated group of hardcore militant Islamists."

To quell the insurgency, Senlis recommends NATO double its troop levels to 80,000 soldiers. NATO should require its member states to put up 2.3 soldiers per $1 billion US of gross domestic product, says Senlis.

Under that formula, Canada would have to increase its troop contingent from 2,500 to about 3,700 soldiers. Only Britain, Turkey, Poland and the Netherlands currently meet Senlis's proposed formula.

Senlis also recommends NATO "move into Pakistan" - a suggestion sure to be controversial among Pakistan's strategic allies, such as the United States.

However, Senlis notes the Taliban's "command-and-control structures" have regrouped in Quetta, Pakistan and the insurgency has established "firm roots" in the Pashtun belt along the border of the two countries.

Senlis was founded in 2002 by Vancouver lawyer Norine MacDonald and is bankrolled by Swedish philanthropist Stephan Schmidheiny, an early investor in the Swatch Group.

It has offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Ottawa, Rio de Janeiro and Kabul, as well as field offices in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

UN drug agency seeks NATO help in eradicating Afghan Opium trade

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The head of the United Nations Offices on Drug and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, Friday urged the US-led NATO forces to help destroy drug trade in Afghanistan, which would cut off the Talibans main funding source.

Observing drugs are funding the insurgency and the Taliban in particular, Costa said at a conference in Brussels on the future of Afghanistan: NATO has self-interest in supporting the Afghan forces in destroying drug labs, market and conveys.

Costas remarks at the event organized by the Princeton University, gains significance in view of the latest report Afghan Opium Survey 2007 -- released by United Nations Offices on Drug and Crime on Friday.

The report, which documents the alarming increase in opium production in Afghanistan this year, links the rise / resurgence in Talibans rise to this, as the drug trade fuels them and provides them the necessary funding for their terrorism. Afghanistan now has the distinction of becoming almost the sole supplier (93 percent) of opium in the world.

Stressing on the urgency to rescue Afghanistan from drug and terror, the Costa says: It would be an historic error to let Afghanistan collapse under the blows of drugs and insurgency.

This double threat is real and growing, despite a foreign military presence in the tens of thousands, billions of dollars spent on reconstruction, and the huge political capital invested in stabilizing the country, which has been in turmoil for a third of a century.

Buttressing for an active NATO involvement in taking action against opium drug trade in Afghanistan, Costa observed in her remarks in the report that the opium problem cannot be contained solely by counter-narcotic measures, nor can counter-insurgency disregard the threat posed by drug-related funding to terrorists.

Urging NATO to help taking on opium labs, markets and traffickers, the report reasserts that opium economy of Afghanistan can be bankrupted by blocking the two-way flow of imported chemicals and exported drugs. In both instances several thousand tons of materials are being moved across the southern border and nobody seems to take notice.

In 2007, the number of heroin laboratories in Afghanistan increased. Most of the opium produces in Afghanistan is converted to heroin within the country, she said.

Since drug trafficking and insurgency live off of each other, the foreign military forces operating in Afghanistan have a vested interest in supporting counter narcotics operations: destroying heroin labs, closing opium markets, seizing opium convoys and bringing traffickers to justice, she argued.

This will generate a double benefit. First, the destruction of the drug trade will win popular support as only one out of 10 Afghan farming families cultivate opium, earning a disproportionately large share of the national income. Secondly, lower opium demand by traders will reduce its price and make alternative economic activity more attractive.

In a very comprehensive documentation of the various facets of opium production and its trade, the report observes that this is probably the only reason for the ills Afghanistan is facing today. Besides fueling the insurgents, it is also responsible for the large scale corruption and poor governance of the country.

The report says that in provinces bordering Pakistan, the foreign military forces permit opium trade in an effort to extract intelligence information and occasional military operations against the Taliban and Al-Qaida. This undermines stabilization efforts, Costa said.

20 Afghan prisoners transferred to Afghan custody from US military jail

The Associated Press - Wednesday, November 21, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan: The United States military transferred 20 Afghan prisoners from its detention facility at Bagram Air Base to the custody of the Afghan Defense Ministry, a ministry statement said Wednesday.

The handover comes a week after human rights group Amnesty International called on NATO to stop the transfer of prisoners to Afghan authorities, claiming they risk being tortured.

International troops had arrested the prisoners during operations throughout the country, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the defense ministry spokesman.

The latest transfer from the prison at the main U.S. military base at Bagram brings to 183 the number of prisoners held at the military wing of Afghanistan's largest prison, Pul-i-Charkhi, in the eastern outskirts of Kabul, Azimi said. They include 19 Afghan prisoners sent from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he said.

London-based Amnesty International said it "is increasingly concerned about the fate of many detainees who face the risk of torture and other ill-treatment when they are transferred to Afghan authorities."

NATO said it has no evidence of systematic torture of detainees transferred to Afghan authorities and insisted that its policy for handing over prisoners met all international standards.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday in Kabul that she has no reason to dispute Amnesty International's findings, and that transfers of prisoners to Afghanistan's secretive intelligence service "are particularly problematic."

Under the rules governing NATO's International Security Assistance Force, its 41,000 troops in Afghanistan must hand over prisoners to Afghan authorities within 96 hours of their capture. The rules state that the International Red Cross or Red Crescent must be informed every time NATO takes a prisoner.

Many NATO nations — including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands — have agreements with the Afghan government guaranteeing detainees will not be mistreated and granting access to transferred prisoners, but Amnesty International said those agreements do not provide enough safeguards.

Harper downplays incidence of detainee abuse

Globe and Mail Update, November 20, 2007

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons Tuesday there has been just one credible allegation of prisoners facing torture in Afghanistan.

His remark came in response to questioning from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion on federal court documents released last week that opposition politicians say confirm the government knew of appalling conditions in Afghan prisons at the same time that ministers were reassuring the public that they knew nothing.

“We've said repeatedly that there has been no evidence of any abuse involving the transfer of Canadian prisoners until one case recently in the past two weeks,” Mr. Harper said Tuesday. “We do have a process in place with the Afghan government to monitor this and to ensure there is an investigation. Those are the facts.”

Canadian officials said last week they had evidence that a Taliban detainee in an Afghan prison showed signs of physical abuse. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier told the House last week an investigation is under way into the latest case, the seventh since Canada began systematically visiting Afghan detention facilities in May.

The government was forced last week to release more than 1,000 pages of documents on detainee conditions as a result of a Federal Court ruling in a suit brought by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. The documents were heavily redacted, but showed that at the same time as senior ministers were denying evidence of abuse, officials on the ground in Afghanistan were collecting first-hand accounts from prisoners of mistreatment.

Mr. Dion stepped up his attack, repeating an allegation from Monday's Question Period that Canadian troops are under orders to turn over juvenile soldiers captured in Afghanistan to local authorities despite reports of torture.

The Prime Minister accused the Liberals of doing a disservice to Canadian soldiers.

“Canadian forces in Afghanistan transfer juvenile prisoners separately according to international agreements,” Mr. Harper said. “There has not been any evidence of abuse against such juveniles who have been transferred. The leader of the opposition makes these allegations when Canadian heroes are being brought back to this country for burial. He has not a shred of proof and he should apologize to the military.”

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff continued the line of questioning, saying international conventions state Canadians soldiers shouldn't be transferring juvenile detainees.

“Can the Prime Minister confirm today that no juvenile detainees transferred by Canadian soldiers have been harmed or tortured?” Mr. Ignatieff asked. “Can he account for every single last one of them?”

Mr. Harper reiterated that Canadian soldiers follow international law before calling on Mr. Dion and Mr. Ignatieff to apologize for their accusations.

“There is no evidence to support such allegations,” Mr. Harper said. “The government has been clear on that. Canadian soldiers and Canadian officials are very conscious of their responsibilities under international law. The leader of the opposition went and made a contrary accusation, fabricated an allegation. If he's not prepared to apologize, his deputy leader should apologize for him.”

“”I will make no such apology,” Mr. Igantieff fired back, while glaring across the House. “I'm doing my job. It's time they did their job.”

Afghanistan/Tajikistan: Fostering environmental cooperation in the Amu Darya River basin

November 19, 2007 - Source: Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

On 20-21 November 2007, representatives of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and international organizations will gather in Kabul, Afghanistan to discuss regional cooperation to address environment and security risks in the upper part of the Amu Darya River basin. The meeting has been organized by the National Environmental Protection Agency of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with support from the Environment and Security initiative. It will be an opportunity to both discuss preliminary results of an environment and security assessment carried out by a team of Afghan, Tajik and international experts, and to chart the way towards reducing the risks.

Since the ancient times the Amu Darya has been the main source of life for vast arid lands. Known as Oxus in Greek and Jayhun in Arabic, the Amu Darya is the longest river of Central Asia and its drainage basin includes territories of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Agricultural and industrial development, as well as the livelihoods of 45 million inhabitants are closely linked to the availability and sustainable use of its clean water. A strong cooperation on this issue is therefore vital for the wellbeing and development of the countries in the basin.

At the Afghan-Tajik meeting in Dushanbe in July 2006 H. E. Prince Mustapha Zaher, Director-General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, outlined several challenges for Afghanistan:

"The Amu Darya basin contains our nation's richest farmland. The long years of war took much of the irrigated land out of service, the irrigation systems and farmlands were not maintained, Afghanistan is now undergoing a massive effort to rebuild the country, this includes restoring irrigation systems to the past productive state. It will take us many years and much effort, and will require help from our neighbours and other nations. Other problems we face on a regular basis are soil erosion, drought, flooding and environmental quality issues. We nonetheless hope that we can responsibly develop Afghanistan to control these problems and to contribute to the quality of the river."

He further stressed that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan intends to work together with other Central Asian countries, and referred to Tajikistan as a brotherly partner in the use of Amu Darya's waters for both the development of Afghanistan and the preservation of the benefits for all the nations sharing the basin.

The meeting in Kabul will further discuss the environmental and security risks in the basin, as well as opportunities for cooperation, based on findings by experts from Afghanistan, Tajikistan and international organizations. The assessment undertaken todate identified a clear need to improve the management of shared water resources in view of an increasing demographic and economic pressure; to closely monitor and mitigate industrial and agricultural pollution; and to promote an active dialogue, exchange of information and cooperation among the basin's states. Experts also point to a potential impact that climate change will have on the availability of water resources and the frequency of natural disasters in the region. Other identified problems, which also present opportunities for cross-border cooperation, include mass deforestation, other threats to the region's biodiversity, and environmental risks associated with military legacy and infrastructure.

The concluding part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing and agreeing on concrete future steps to be taken in order to enhance the effectiveness of the cooperation in the sustainable use and management of the Amu Darya basin.

The Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) was launched in May 2003 simultaneously at the 5th Environment for Europe ministerial conference in Kyiv and the OSCE Economic Forum in Prague, by three international organizations with different while complementary agendas and missions: the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In 2006, the initiative expanded to include the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), and the Public Division of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as an associated partner.

By facilitating the discussion about possible solutions for local and regional environmental problems the environment and security approach also aims at reducing potential for political disputes through the improvement of the dialogue and the promotion of cooperation in both environmental and security dimensions.

The mandate of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) is to protect the environmental integrity of Afghanistan and support sustainable development of Afghanistan's natural resources through the provision of effective environmental guidance and management services.

Pentagon Wants To Boost Funding For Pakistan's Frontier Corps

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

November 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. military wants to nearly double its funding to train and equip Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force with members who are the same ethnicity as pro-Taliban tribal fighters near the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Frontier Corps is responsible for protecting the country's western regions along its more than 1,500 kilometer porous border with Afghanistan.

With a reported 60,000 paramilitary troops, the force is comprised of 14 units based in the Northwest Frontier Province and 13 units in Baluchistan. The troops operate under the orders of Pakistan's Army Headquarters as well as the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions.

The Pentagon's proposal for more funds to support Pakistan's Frontier Corps calls for a training center to be built in northwestern Pakistan.

It also calls for surveillance centers to be constructed on Pakistan's side of the border with Afghanistan in order to monitor movement by militants. There is a similar post on the Afghan side of the border.

The Pentagon says it also needs the additional money to help purchase equipment for Pakistan's Frontier Corps -- including helmets, bulletproof vests, and night-vision goggles. The plan would not provide weapons or ammunition to Pakistan. That task would be left up to Islamabad.

Altogether, the U.S. Department of Defense has asked to spend $97 million in support of the Pakistani paramilitary force in 2008, nearly double the amount for this year.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says the U.S. military believes it is more effective to work with a paramilitary force like the Frontier Corps within Pakistan's tribal region than with Pakistan's army.

Morrell says the Frontier Corps commands more respect from tribal leaders in the border region than the Pakistani army because the Frontier Corps is recruited from locals who know the region, who have similar language abilities, and who have the most credibility with residents of the tribal areas.

The Pentagon's budget request comes amid political instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf and amid increasing U.S. concerns about the spread of Islamic militancy in the tribal areas.

Despite the imposition of emergency rule across Pakistan by President Musharraf, violence in the Afghan-Pakistan border region continues to escalate.

That upsurge has some former military officials in Pakistan concerned about the long-term impact of the U.S. proposal.

Mahmood Shah is a former Brigadier General from Pakistan's Army who also once was in charge of security in Pakistan's tribal regions. Shah tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan (today) that U.S. support for Pakistan's Frontier Corps seems uncomfortably similar to the situation in Afghanistan during the 1980s, when the United States used Pakistan as a conduit to funnel support to Afghan mujaheddin commanders who were fighting Soviet forces.

"This will have far-reaching negative consequences. In Afghanistan [during the Soviet occupation in 1980s], there was a weak [central] government and the country was occupied by foreign forces. People objected to the formation of armed Afghan resistance groups at that time and voiced concerns that these groups would eventually undermine Pakistan’s security. The current situation proves that those concerns were justified," Shah told Radio Free Afghanistan.

Shah says the Pentagon proposal could backfire and eventually strengthen renegade militia forces in Pakistan's tribal regions.

“I think this is not smart thinking. In Pakistani society and state structure, it is very difficult to prop up such structures without the government’s help. Even if such armed groups are formed, they will turn into a militia which will greatly contribute to undermine security. Even if it helps in the short-term, in the long term such measures will have grave consequences.”

There also are concerns among U.S. lawmakers about how long Pakistani troops can continue to battle the pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who are known to be hiding in the mountainous border region.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington last week (November 15) that there are no indications that Pakistan's political crisis is jeopardizing the security of the country's nuclear weapons.

And he says Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule has not negatively impacted relations between Pakistani forces and the U.S. military.

"As far as operations are concerned, our military-to-military contacts and dialogue between military leaders continue. And I've seen no disruption of that as a result of the emergency measures in place. I've also not seen and do not anticipate any interruption of the logistics through Pakistan at this point. And certainly, we are spending time watching each one of these areas. So, no major changes to our military relationship with Pakistan. We're watching it very carefully. We'd certainly like to see the emergency measures end as soon as possible. But I believe, militarily, the situation is stable,” Mullen said.

Morrell says the Pentagon would not try to proceed with a plan to support Pakistan's Frontier Corps unless there was some degree of confidence in Washington that the results would be fruitful.

Morrell described the support program as a joint venture with Pakistan's government. Musharraf has said that his government will provide Frontier Corps fighters with tanks and guns so they can take a lead role next year in any fighting within the tribal regions -- allowing Pakistan's army to take a more supporting role.

(By RFE/RL's Ron Synovitz; Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Najib Aamir contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan)

Pakistan put in its real place

By Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times Online / November 20, 2007

KARACHI - Despite President General Pervez Musharraf's international support falling fast after his imposition of virtual martial law by suspending the constitution and imposing a state of emergency, and despite visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte's pleas for a return to political normalcy, the stark reality is that the only issue that matters for Washington is Pakistan's ability to fight the "war on terror" - and that under Musharraf.

The political baggage of pro-American politicians like former premier Benazir Bhutto could compromise the "war on terror", while and White House still does not see the very pro-Western Vice Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, as being able to independently deliver on this front. Therefore, Negroponte's two meetings with Kiani and a 30-minute telephone conversation with Bhutto at the weekend only emphasize the concerted efforts to bring all liberal and democratic forces into line for the fight against terror.

The George W Bush administration is banking on Musharraf being the only person who has what it takes to fight the "war on terror", no matter the cost.

Since returning from exile last month, Bhutto, after being hailed as an ally of Musharraf, has turned against the general, even talking to "hardliners" like Qazi Hussain Ahmed of the Jamaat-i-Islami, as well as to opposition figure Imran Khan about a political alliance against Musharraf. Bhutto has temporarily shelved her pro-American rhetoric.

On the military front, Kiani is considered more pro-American than Musharraf, but while Washington analyzes him as an excellent soldier who performs under a good commander, he is not considered a very astute planner capable of taking independent military decisions that could have political repercussions.

Kiani, a former head of the powerful Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), is expected to take over leadership of the army when Musharraf finally quits that post. He is not considered to have performed particularly well at the politically-charged ISI, and during the crisis at the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad this year, the operation to storm the mosque was commanded by the 10th corps of the Pakistani army and its intelligence units, and not by paramilitary forces and the ISI.

All this leaves only Musharraf. Although he has drawn flak from the US from time to time for not being hard and energetic enough in cracking down on militancy and foreign al-Qaeda elements, he has allowed several US air strikes in Pakistan. Thousands of people have been held without trail, some of them handed over to the US, and when the courts challenged him, he silenced them them, as in the current state of emergency.

Simply put, even his strongest critics, like US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, accept that the "war on terror" could be a serious casualty as a result of any regime change in Pakistan in the current circumstances. In the longer term, though, the fight against terror could prove to be costly for Pakistan.

The flashpoint has moved from the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan to the Swat Valley in North-West Frontier Province, where the army has mobilized tanks, artillery and an additional division (up to 20,000 soldiers). The director general of military operations of the armed forces announced at the weekend that a massive operation could be begin any time.

The Pakistani Taliban in adjacent tribal areas have made it clear they will not stay silent. Talking to the BBC Pashtu service, Maulana Faqir Muhammad of Bajaur Agency claimed he could raise a militia (lashkar) of 10,000 men from the Bajaur, Mohmand and Dir areas to fight against the army.

The army has failed in a month-long operation to wrest the Swat Valley from militants loyal to Mullah Fazlullah, who now controls the majority of districts after driving out the Pakistani administration and police. The Swat Valley is only a two-hour drive from Peshawar and four hours from the capital, Islamabad.

In anticipation of strong reaction in the capital to stepped-up military efforts, a number of senior politicians have applied for bullet-proof cars and special security protection.

Acutely aware of the dangers involved in further stoking the fires in Swat Valley, the ISI has moved the founder of the powerful Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammedi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws), Maualana Sufi Muhammed, from jail to a hospital. Sufi Muhammed, the father-in-law of Mullah Fazlullah, opposes the latter's attempts to impose sharia law across Pakistan. Sufi Muhammed is seen as the best hope of cooling things down in the valley.

Washington, however, wants Mullah Fazlullah's network, a precious Taliban asset in Pakistan, eliminated altogether as it feeds the Taliban struggle in Afghanistan with money, men and resources.

The US is not bothered about political niceties - and this is what it expects from Musharraf.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.

Tribal Trouble

Egypt Today 11/19/2007 By Gwynne Dyer

Fighting with the Taliban will not cease until Afghanistan’s largest minority, the Pashtun, are welcomed into the leadership fold

LAST MONTH WAS the sixth anniversary of the start of US airstrikes against Al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan. It was a very clever politico-military operation, and by December of 2001 all of Afghanistan was under the control of the United States and its local allies for a total cost of twelve American dead. Then, for no good reason, it fell apart, and now the war is lost.

In the days just after 9/11, George Tenet, the Central Intelligence Agency’s chief, came up with a bold proposal. Why invade Afghanistan with a large American army, deploying massive firepower that kills large numbers of locals and alienates the population? Why give Osama bin Laden the long anti-American guerrilla war that he was undoubtedly counting on?

Instead, Tenet proposed sending teams of CIA agents and Special Forces into the country to win the support of the various militias, loosely linked as the Northern Alliance, who still dominated the northern regions of the country at the time. Although the Taliban had controlled most of the country since 1996, they never decisively won the civil war. So why not intervene in that war, shower their opponents with money and weapons and tip the balance against the Taliban?

It worked like a charm. Pakistan, whose intelligence services had originally created the Taliban, withdrew its support, the regime fled Kabul and most of the Taliban troops melted back into their villages. The government of a nation counting 27 million people was taken down for a death toll that probably did not exceed 4,000 on all sides.

By mid-December 2001, the United States effectively controlled Afghanistan through its local allies, all drawn from the northern minority groups: Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazara. There had not been the mass killing of innocent bystanders that would inevitably have accompanied a conventional US invasion, so there was no guerrilla war. The traditional ruling group and biggest minority, the Pashtun, who had put their money on the Taliban and lost, would have to be brought back into the game somehow, but the usual Afghan deal-making would suffice.

Washington had the wit to make Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from a clan that never had much to do with the Taliban, its puppet president in Kabul, but this didn’t carry through. Instead they froze out the prominent Pashtun political and religious leaders who had had dealings with the Taliban — which was, of course, almost all of them.

The Taliban had been the government of Afghanistan for almost five years, and at the time they were the political vehicle of the Pashtun ascendancy in the country. If you were a traditional Pashtun leader, how could you not have had dealings with them? An amnesty that turned a blind eye to the past, plus pressure by the United States on its recent allies to grant the Pashtuns a fair share of the national pie, would have created a regime in Kabul to which Pashtuns could give their loyalty, even if they were less dominant at the center than usual. But that never happened.

The United States had so closely identified the Taliban with Al-Qaeda (even though bin Laden probably never told the Taliban leadership what he was planning) that it would not talk to Pashtun leaders who had been linked to the Taliban. Six years after the ‘invasion that wasn’t,’ the Pashtuns are still largely frozen out. That is why the Taliban are coming back.

Afghanistan has usually been run by regional and tribal warlords with little central control; nothing new there. But now it is also a country where the biggest minority has been largely excluded from power by foreign invaders who sided with the smaller minorities and then blocked the process of accommodation by which the various Afghan ethnic groups normally make power-sharing deals.

The Taliban are still the main political vehicle of the Pashtuns because there has been no time to build another. It doesn’t mean that all Pashtuns are fanatics or terrorists. Indeed, not all the Taliban are fanatics (though many of them are), and hardly any of them nurse the desire to carry out terrorist acts in other countries. That was the specialty of their (rather ungrateful) Arab guests, who fled across the border into the tribal areas of Pakistan almost six years ago.

The current fighting in the south, the Pashtun heartland — which is causing a steady dribble of American, British and Canadian casualties — will continue until the Western countries pull out. Most other NATO members sent their troops to various parts of northern Afghanistan, where non-Pashtun warlords rule non-Pashtun populations and nobody dares attack the foreigners. Then, after the foreigners are gone, the Afghans will make the traditional inter-ethnic deals and something like peace will return.

Will Karzai still be the president after that? Yes, if he can convince the Pashtuns that he is open to such a deal once the foreigners leave.

Will the Taliban come back to power? No, only to a share of power, and only to the extent that they can still command the loyalty of the Pashtuns once it is no longer a question of resistance to foreigners.

Will Osama bin Laden return and recreate a “nest of terrorists” in Afghanistan? Very unlikely. The Afghans paid too high a price for their hospitality the first time around.

Gwynne Dyer, an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker based in London, is a regular Egypt Today columnist.

War films dominate Oscars documentary race

Mon Nov 19, LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Films spotlighting the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as World War II are among 15 entries jostling for next year's coveted best Oscar documentary, it was announced Monday.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences revealed an initial shortlist of films which will be whittled down to five nominees in January before the Oscars are handed out at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24.

While the 15 films took in a broad range of subjects -- from political hot-button issues such as abortion and gays in the church -- war and its effects emerged as the dominant theme of the shortlist.

No fewer than eight of the films deal with issues related to conflicts past and present, with documentaries about the US-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan particularly prevalent.

Among them are Charles Ferguson's "No End in Sight", which critiques the planning before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Other films include "Body of War", which looks at the struggle of a wounded US soldier who is left paralyzed after being shot in Iraq, and "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience", which gives a voice to veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The death of an Afghan taxi driver in US custody at a military base is the subject of "Taxi to the Dark Side", which deals with America's policy on torture and interrogation.

Meanwhile, "Nanking", a film chronicling the horrors of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, in which some 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered by Japanese troops, also made the shortlist. The film was inspired by author Iris Chang's 1997 bestseller "The Rape of Nanking."

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are the subject of "White Light/Black Rain", director Steven Okazaki's look at the legacy of mankind's first use of nuclear weapons in war.

"The Rape of Europa", meanwhile, deals with the painstaking efforts of art historians to recover the cultural treasure trove that was either looted or destroyed by the Nazis during World War Two.

The harrowing plight of children who are kidnapped and conscripted by the Ugandan rebel force The Lord's Resistance Army is dealt with in "War/Dance."

Other films on the shortlist include maverick film-maker Michael Moore's searing indictment of the US healthcare system "Sicko" and "Please Vote for Me", which looks at eight-year-old children at a school in China as they attempt to hold elections for a class monitor.

[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.]