In this bulletin:

• Seven police beheaded in southern Afghanistan
• Australian soldier, seven Afghan police killed
• There is reason for optimism,' NATO chief says
• Opposition says military too optimistic
• NATO chief insists Afghan lives improving
• 2 people killed in accidental blast in Afghanistan
• Taliban claim killing 4 policemen in Kunduz
• Helmand elders voice concern over civilian casualties
• The Taleban’s Northern front
• Pak-Afghan border to be guarded with new system
• New Player in Afghanistan's Great Game
• Afghanistan to benefit from zero import duty
• Afghanistan's fruitful presence at IITF
• Too few development dollars actually spent in Afghanistan
• Prized Afghan pomegranates offer export hope to farmers
• From pomegranates to poppies
• Govt okays 31 water supply schemes
• Afghanistan: Slow Again
• Politicians Argue Over Language of Schooling in Kabul
• Pakistan imposes food blockade on militants: officials
• Poor Afghans fulfill hajj dream

Seven police beheaded in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban militants beheaded seven policemen after overrunning their checkpoints in southern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.

Six other officers were missing after the Taliban attacked police checkpoints in Arghandab district in Kandahar province, said Abdul Hakim Jan, a police officer. The attack in the strategic area Arghandab, 25 kilometres north of Kandahar, came weeks after Afghan and foreign troops forced Taliban militants to relinquish control of the town, which they had briefly captured.

During the Friday attack, the militants ambushed police checkpoints set up to keep the Taliban fighters away from the town and beheaded seven policemen, said a purported Taliban commander in the area Mullah Mohammad Nabi.

Separately, U.S.-led coalition troops clashed with militants in central Afghanistan on Thursday, leaving several suspected insurgents dead and one coalition member wounded, the coalition said in a statement.

The troops were searching compounds in Nawur district, in Ghazni province when militants opened fire with small arms Thursday, the statement said.

"Coalition forces returned fire, killing a number of militants," the statement said. "There were no indications of injuries or deaths to civilians not taking part in hostilities."

Two other people were detained for questioning, the statement said. It is estimated more than 6,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in 2007.

Australian soldier, seven Afghan police killed

Kandahar (AFP) - Taliban militants killed an Australian soldier in close-quarters fighting and overran a police station Friday where seven policemen died, security forces said.

Officials said they had also killed several rebels, one of them an "armed female combatant."

The 26-year-old Australian was shot dead during several hours of intense fighting to disrupt bomb-makers in the restive southern province of Uruzgan, the Australian defence force said.

"During this engagement the Taliban sustained heavy casualties, including a number killed and a substantial number detained," Defence Force head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters in Sydney.

It was the third loss for the Australia deployment of 900 troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

ISAF in Kabul confirmed a soldier had been killed, as well as "a number of Taliban," but could not give details.

About 100 kilometres (60 miles) south, Taliban fighters overran a police post early Friday and killed seven policemen, a police commander said.

"They killed seven of my policemen and took with them the remaining six," said commander Abdul Hakim Jan, who is in charge of several posts in the Arghandab area of Kandahar province.

The main Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed his group was involved. "We slaughtered all the 12 policemen in the police post," Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location. There was no way to verify the differing tolls.

Small police posts in remote areas are among the main targets of the insurgents, who picked up their anti-government campaign soon after being driven from power in 2001 in a US-led invasion. More than 700 policemen have been killed in attacks this year.

Separately, a US-led force that operates alongside ISAF announced "several militants were killed" in an operation Thursday targeted at groups said to be helping foreign fighters taking part in the insurgency.

A coalition soldier was wounded in the fighting in the central province of Ghazni, the force said in a statement.

"After hostilities ceased, coalition forces recovered several weapons and explosives from the dead militants that were destroyed on site," it said.

"During the weapons recovery, coalition forces discovered one of the militants was an armed female combatant."

It would be extremely unusual for a woman to be fighting in conservative Afghanistan, especially with the ultra-Islamic Taliban.

Elsewhere, five children and two women were wounded when a rocket landed on a civilian house a couple of hundred metres (yards) short of the headquarters of the governor of the eastern province of Kunar, police said.

"Apparently the governor's office was the target," provincial police chief General Abdul Jalal Jalal told AFP, blaming the attack on Taliban insurgents.

The new unrest comes with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Afghanistan to assess operations of the 37-nation force.

De Hoop Scheffer, who held talks with President Hamid Karzai Thursday, has been calling on ISAF nations to beef up their commitments to the force, which is under pressure particularly in the south.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported Thursday that government parties had agreed to extend the Dutch mission in Afghanistan for about two years until 2010, despite controversy at home.

'There is reason for optimism,' NATO chief says

GRAEME SMITH - From Friday's Globe and Mail November 23, 2007

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — A panel on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan will hear today from NATO's chief, who says he intends to deliver a message that the situation isn't all "gloom and doom."

Development work in the districts around Kandahar serves as an example of continued progress despite the rising violence, said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing against those who warn of looming disaster for the international effort.

The optimistic theme of the Secretary-General's visit to the south was echoed earlier in the day at a press conference with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, and the NATO chief described the publicity campaign as an attempt to brighten the picture of Afghanistan as countries such as Canada debate their role in the country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently appointed a panel led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley to write a report on the mission, before Canada decides whether to extend its commitment of troops past February of 2009.

"I'll speak to the Manley panel tomorrow morning in Kabul," Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said, during a tour of Canada's provincial reconstruction team headquarters in Kandahar city. "Usually you see those discussions in an atmosphere of gloom and doom. And in other words, here I'll push back a bit."

The NATO leader spoke one day after the release of a report by the Senlis Council, an international think tank, which described the potential for a collapse of the Afghan government in the coming years if the Canadian and Dutch withdraw and the Taliban capture major cities.

Although the President was scornful of the report yesterday, Mr. Karzai has previously invoked similarly nightmarish scenarios when discussing the possible effects of troop pullouts, saying the country might descend into civil war.

Few others have raised such harrowing possibilities, but a broad consensus emerged this year that security is getting worse. Violent incidents increased almost 25 per cent in the first half of 2007, according to a paper by the UN Department of Safety and Security, and twice as much of the country's landmass represents a high risk for visits by humanitarian aid workers as compared with last year.

Thousands more people have died this year, marking a new peak in the escalating conflict. Rather than disagree with the grim statistics, Mr. de Hoop Scheffer pointed to the aid projects that continued despite the carnage.

"If you look at the facts, look at the development, realize what many districts were like in this province a year ago, and what kind of development you see now, the conclusion is definitely justified that you see an increase in the standard of living of Afghan people living here, and you see a lot of reconstruction and development going on," he said. "In other words, there is reason for optimism in Afghanistan."

He repeated variations of the same statement without elaboration and declined to talk about details, telling journalists they should request NATO briefings on development in the south.

In fact, NATO's briefing material gives an ambivalent view of progress in southern Afghanistan. The Afghan Country Stability Picture, a database of all known aid projects compiled by NATO, shows total funding for completed and continuing projects in southern Afghanistan as of August totalled $1.56-billion, but the majority of that work was concentrated into about a quarter of the southern districts.

The south remains highly dangerous for aid workers, and the NATO database reveals how those conditions have encouraged a clustering of development efforts around the major cities. The only multimillion-dollar energy projects completed so far have been located inside urban zones; agricultural and rural PRT projects have reached only six of 16 districts in Kandahar; and across the entire south the status of a majority of the planned agriculture and rural projects is marked as "unknown."

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer's view of Kandahar city was limited to a swoop over the streets in a Chinook helicopter; far below him, extra police were patrolling in the wake of a brazen Taliban attack on police headquarters in the city centre earlier this week, which had resulted in a gun battle.

Further down the highway from the military airport where the NATO leader landed, on the same afternoon he was speaking, Taliban insurgents kidnapped the director of customs for the Spin Boldak district, the main gateway to Pakistan. His bodyguard was killed and two others injured in the attack, police said.

Opposition says military too optimistic

Canadian Forces accused of maintaining 'culture of secrecy' after Commons address

GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Friday's Globe and Mail November 23, 2007

OTTAWA — The Canadian military was accused by opposition MPs yesterday of providing a deceptively rosy picture of the situation in Afghanistan and maintaining a "culture of secrecy" about Taliban gains.

The allegations came after Brigadier-General Peter Atkinson, the Director General of Operations, Strategic Joint Staff for the Canadian Forces, appeared before the Commons defence committee to provide an update on the Afghan operation.

"The success of last month's operations increased the stability and security throughout the Zhari and Panjwai areas, resulting in good progression of the government of Canada governance and development objectives," he told the committee.

Brig.-Gen. Atkinson talked about the increasing effectiveness of the Afghan police, the opening of roads, and the enhanced safety of Canadian troops and their Afghan allies. He also pointed to signs of progress like a trade show in Kandahar city that showcased the work of local artisans and the construction of a causeway that is creating jobs and confidence.

And he wrapped up by talking about the boost to the mission from the delivery of two large C-17 heavy-lift aircraft. "This has been a huge enabler," he said, "and has taken some of the stress off our [Hercules] fleet in a big way."

The message got a frosty reception from the committee. "He's trying to convince the committee, through rose-coloured glasses, that everything is going well. But things aren't going all that well," charged Bloc MP Claude Bachand, who labelled the briefing a "waste of time."

Mr. Bachand pointed to a report this week of the Senlis Council, an international policy think tank with an officer working in Afghanistan, that told a much different story.

Reading from the Senlis report, Mr. Bachand said the increasing hold that the Taliban is exercising over the southern provinces where the Canadian troops are stationed has pushed the security situation to "crisis" proportions.

"The Taliban has proven itself to be a truly resurgent force," said the Senlis report. "Its ability to establish a presence throughout the country is now proven beyond doubt; research undertaken by Senlis Afghanistan indicates that 54 per cent of Afghanistan's landmass hosts a permanent Taliban presence, primarily in southern Afghanistan, and is subject to frequent hostile activity by the insurgency.

"The insurgency now controls vast swaths of unchallenged territory including rural areas, some district centres, and important road arteries."

Mr. Bachand said a comparison of the Senlis analysis with the update provided by Brig.-Gen. Atkinson left him "very disappointed."

"We're seeing the C-17 that went into Afghanistan. Well, what a surprise. Do you think we thought that it wouldn't go there?" asked Mr. Bachand. "And it shows one thing, Mr. Chairman, that the culture of secrecy at DND is continuing."

Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic, said she shared Mr. Bachand's concerns. "You have indicated to us today that security has increased in the south region and evidence that we are getting from other sources would indicate exactly the opposite," she told Brig.-Gen. Atkinson.

And Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said he too would prefer a more candid account from the military.

"I believe the time has come to call a spade a spade. There is a situation in Afghanistan, there is a situation under NATO - a lack of cohesion," said Mr. Coderre, who organized his own trip to the war zone earlier this year.

"They have to come clean and tell us what's going on," he said. "We can handle the truth."

NATO chief insists Afghan lives improving
CanWest News Service; Calgary Herald; with files from Agence France-Presse and Reuters Friday, November 23, 2007

CAMP NATHAN SMITH, Afghanistan -- The situation in Afghanistan is improving in spite of reports to the contrary, said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as he finished a whirlwind tour of Canada's Kandahar City base Thursday.

"I'm a television viewer in Belgium or in the Netherlands. I've been regularly in Canada as well. I know about the discussions," de Hoop Scheffer said. "Usually you see those discussions in an atmosphere of gloom and doom."

Contrary to the negative media stories, de Hoop Scheffer said, "we see an increase in the standard of Afghan people living here and we see a lot of reconstruction and development going on. In other words, there is reason for optimism in Afghanistan."

De Hoop Scheffer will meet today in Kabul with the independent panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan, headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley. The five-member panel, tasked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper with advising Parliament on the contentious issue of Canada's future work in unsteady Afghanistan, met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday, a Canadian government official said.

Operating under the banner of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, Canadian troops work primarily in Kandahar, one of most dangerous provinces in Afghanistan. In total, 73 soldiers and one diplomat have died in the Afghan mission since 2002. Two more Quebec-based soldiers were killed just last weekend.

In Canada, debate continues over whether the mission is worth the cost in lives.

While certain quality-of-life indicators, such as infant mortality rates, have improved in Afghanistan, the violence and insurgency have shown no signs of abating and, in many cases, have become worse. While security issues are at their worst in the south, the northern part of the country is becoming increasingly volatile.

A recent report from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security said security has deteriorated in 2007, with the Afghan National Police becoming a primary target of insurgents and increasing intimidation of westerners or those who support the government.

On Thursday, while de Hoop Scheffer visited the Canadian base, a high-ranking Afghan customs official was kidnapped as he travelled to Kandahar City from Spin Boldak, near the border with Pakistan. One of his security guards was killed and two others were injured.

"The challenges are also huge," de Hoop Scheffer acknowledged in Kandahar. But he added, "the more reconstruction we see ... the less opportunity the spoilers will have to do their dirty and ugly work."

Earlier in the day during a visit to Kabul, the NATO chief and Karzai criticized a European think-tank report that said the Taliban were installed in more than half of Afghanistan. De Hoop Scheffer said the Senlis Council report, released Wednesday, "should not be considered as realistic."

"Of course, there are parts of Afghanistan where the going is tough from time to time," he told reporters after talks with Karzai. But "the analysis the council makes on the situation in Afghanistan, I simply do not share."

The report called for NATO's ISAF to be doubled in size to 80,000, saying a study found that 54 per cent of Afghan territory has a permanent Taliban presence.

Karzai said Thursday that Taliban leaders were increasingly contacting him to try to find ways of making peace. "We have had an increasing number of contacts from Taliban from within Afghanistan and from Pakistan," Karzai said.

Afghan and western military leaders and diplomats recognize talks will ultimately have to be held to end the Taliban insurgency, which has claimed some 5,000 lives this year alone. But, they say, talks should be held from a position of strength.

Meanwhile, parties in Holland's centre-left coalition government have agreed to extend to 2010 the Dutch mission in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS. The mission is current slated to end next August. The country has lost 12 soldiers since deploying last year as part of the ISAF mission.

NATO is trying to persuade its partners in ISAF to recommit to the tough mission in Afghanistan, which critics say risks failure, and to meet a shortfall of soldiers and equipment.

De Hoop Scheffer said Thursday that NATO will increase the number of transport helicopters in Afghanistan by leasing private aircraft. Some of those helicopters will go to the south, where Canadians now often travel by land convoy and operate at risk of hitting a roadside bomb.

2 people killed in accidental blast in Afghanistan

KABUL, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- An accidental blast occurred as some policemen were playing with explosion materials at a police compound of southern Afghan Zabul province on Thursday morning, killing a district police chief and his eight-year-old son, a spokesman for provincial administration said.

"The explosion materials the policemen were handling suddenly exploded as Daichopan district police chief Ebrahim Khan and others were sitting inside the district compound," Gulab Shah Ali Khel, spokesman for Zabul's governor, told Xinhua. Three policemen were also injured in the blast, he said.

Taliban claim killing 4 policemen in Kunduz

KUNDUZ/GARDEZ, Nov 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban claimed killing four policemen including a Crime Branch officer and wounding another four in Qala-i-Zaal district in the northern Kunduz province Tuesday night.

Provincial security Chief Brig. Gen. Noor Muhammad Amarkhel told Pajhwok Afghan News that insurgents had attacked patrolling party of the security force in the area in which one cop was killed and another one was wounded.

He added that police force was also able to arrest one of the attackers along with some weapon and the search in the area has been intensified.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accepting responsibility for the incident claimed the killing of four policemen in the attack. Meanwhile six rockets were fired on Zurmat district of the southeastern Paktia province.

The spokesman of 203 rd Tandar Military Corps Muhammad Gul told this news agency that the rockets landed in a remote area of the district and caused no casualties.

Helmand elders voice concern over civilian casualties

LASHKARGAH, Nov 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Several tribal leaders from Garmsaer and Nawa districts of southern Helmand province have voiced their concern over civilian causalities during operations by the security forces in the province.

To protest against the operations, over 80 elders from Nawa and Garmsaer districts came to capital Lashkargah on Wednesday. These elders complained five days back coalition forces killed civilians instead of Taliban in joint operations with Afghan National Army.

The tribal elders claimed foreign forces enter the residential houses killing and arresting people. Haji Sadullah, a tribal elder in Garmsaer district told Pajhwok Afghan News the operations were launched in Tobi village of the district.

Abdul Wali a tribal elder said: "we are helpless people, we can not say any thing to Taliban or foreign and Afghan forces, both sides kill us". The tribal elders met intelligence, police and provincial officials besides PRT and handed over their complaints to them.

Asadullah Wafa, Helmand governor said: "Taliban hide in residential houses, the operations are carried out with utmost care but still civilian causalities occur for which we regret".

The governor said Taliban were using residential houses as shield and that was why civilians were facing heavy losses.

He added I will do my best to avoid civilians' casualties and I have asked coalition forces several times to avoid such operations.

Coalition forces 82 nd taskforce spokesman in Bagram Maj. Chris Belcher however rejected the claims about civilian casualties in Garmsaer operations. He told Pajhwok Afghan News they have come to Afghanistan to bring peace and stability.

He said a few days back they launched operations in Garmsaer district against the militants where they killed 24 and arrested 11 others.

He added they transferred 42 civilians to safe areas.

Belcher said: "we have an assessment group, who assess the incident before and after the operations. And we launch our operations based on the assessments"

The Taleban’s Northern front

The insurgents are building their network in the province of Badghis, in an attempt to open a gateway to Afghanistan’s north.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 274, 20-Nov-07)

While the attention of the Afghan government and the media is focused on major battles in the south of the country, the Taleban are making major headway in a northern region.

Badghis, a north-western province wedged between Herat and Faryab, has been the scene of heavy fighting for the past two months, and the insurgents have occupied three of the province’s seven districts. They have also established intelligence and operational networks in most district centres.

This was the first of the north-western provinces to fall to the Taleban in 1997. Now the insurgents are looking to repeat their earlier success, using Badghis as a launchpad for operations in the provinces further east, which include Jowzjan, Balkh, Takhar, and Badakhshan.

In Faryab, directly to the north of Badghis, the Taleban have established a foothold in mountainous areas, and are trying to expand their networks there as well. The Taleban have launched several sorties in both provinces in the past two months and claim that the Bala Murghab, Ghormach and Qades districts of Badghis are largely in their hands.

“We are trying to open up this route just as we did in the past,” said Mullah Dastagir, a self-proclaimed Taleban commander in Badghis. “Our policy is different up here. We have openly engaged the government and foreign forces in the south, but in the north we are quietly expanding our area. The government is weaker here than in the south and the mountains have provided good terrain for our operations.”

Dastagir claimed that the Taleban were in control of many mountainous parts of Badghis. “We would like to occupy the province right away, since the capital [Qala-ye Nau] and some of the districts are still under government control. We could do it in one single attack, but we are waiting for a larger operation. Our strategy is to go for many provinces at once,” he said.

The Taleban are increasing their military presence in the area and will soon be ready for action, said Dastagir, adding, “We are trying to work under cover now, and we see that people are welcoming us warmly. Soon we will occupy the whole entrance to the north.”

The Taleban attacked Badghis’s Bala Murghab district on September 20, in a three-hour battle that left four policemen and 20 insurgents dead. Two days later, the Taleban attacked Qaisar, a district in Faryab, resulting in the capture of an insurgent commander named as Rassulak.

On September 25, a police vehicle hit a roadside mine in the Ghormach district of Badghis, killing three and injuring four. Officials blamed the insurgents. When a helicopter belonging to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force crashed in Ghormach the same day, the Taleban claimed responsibility. Also that day, a Chinese road construction company worker was kidnapped by the insurgents in the Qaisar district.

Afghan government forces launched a counter-offensive in the Ghormach and Bala Murghab districts, and official reports put the death toll among the Taleban at more than 20. The rebels denied this. The governor of Badghis, Ashraf Naseri, denies that the Taleban are gaining ground in his province.

“The Taleban’s claims that they have captured mountainous areas show that they are weak,” he told IWPR. “They cannot fight on flat terrain; they hide out in the mountains where normal people don’t live.”

But officials in Faryab confirm that the Taleban are making headway. “Yes, they are coming to us through Badghis,” said General Khalilullah Ziayee, Faryab’s security commander. “They are trying to attract people to their side.”

The general insisted that the north would not go the way of the south, where the insurgents control large swathes of territory.

“The Taleban do not have military operations in this province they way they do in the south,” he continued. “They are acting covertly, gathering intelligence. Sometimes they carry out attacks on motorbikes, just to show that they are active here.

“Our mountainous areas like Qaisar, Almar and Kohistan are becoming vulnerable. We have expanded our operational and intelligence activities. We have increased our forces in some particularly exposed areas and have even sent forces to Ghormach district to help the Badghis police. The Taleban cannot operate freely.”

But residents of Badghis and other northern provinces say that the Taleban now exert an influence that is felt in their daily lives.

“The Taleban have reached the area,” said Fazel Rahman, a resident of Bala Murghab district. “It is not important how many buildings are under the government’s control. The Taleban are present in the villages and many people have joined them. Unemployment and the government’s failure to help people have resulted in this situation – the Taleban are getting stronger by the day.”

According to Fazel, clashes between the Taleban and government forces most often result in victory for the insurgents.

“The police just return to their bases after the fighting, but the Taleban remain to spread their message among the people,” he said. “The government knows exactly where the Taleban are concentrated, but they cannot do anything; they just watch as the Taleban gain ground.”

The Afghan government, backed by NATO, has recently deployed more forces in Badghis to combat the Taleban’s growing influence. Brigadier General Dieter Warnecke, the NATO commander for the northern region, confirmed that the Taleban have established small centres in the north-western part of Afghanistan from which to launch their operations.

Speaking at a press conference in September, he said the Taleban have set up camps in Faryab where they plan attacks on other parts of the north.

“According to our information, Pakistan and Iran play a significant role in establishing and developing these centres in north-western parts of Afghanistan,” he said. “For this reason, Faryab has become a trouble-spot for us.”

Satar Barez, the deputy governor of Faryab province, agreed with the NATO commander’s assessment.

“Currently the army, police and NATO forces have been deployed in Faryab, particularly in Qaisar district,” he said. “This is the only thing that can prevent the further expansion of the Taleban.”

He insisted the Taleban forces here consisted largely of mercenaries and foreign fighters, and not local recruits. “People in this region will not cooperate with these Taleban,” he said.

But many people are not optimistic about the government’s attempts to stop the insurgents’ forward advance here. Maulawi Sheikh Ahmad, a member of parliament from Faryab province, blames the international troops for the Taleban expansion.

“It is the presence of foreign forces that has caused an increase in the number of Taleban,” he said, speaking at the funeral of a former militia commander in late October. “In the past, there were no foreigners and no Taleban. Now that foreigners have come into the region, the Taleban have followed. The foreigners have provoked them, and this will result in people joining hands with the Taleban. Our people do not have good memories of foreign operations in the south and the east.”

Political observers believe the high concentration of NATO and Afghan forces in Badghis and Faryab is evidence that the government is taking the threat seriously.

“The government’s statements that they have increased their deployment of NATO and Afghan troops in Badghis and Faryab show that the Taleban have a lot of influence in these provinces,” said Qayum Babak, an editor and analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. “Up until now, the government has been underestimating the threat.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Pak-Afghan border to be guarded with new system

KABUL, Nov 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan will install electronic Sensor system on a number of spots on the border areas of the country to avoid cross-movement of the anti-social elements, security officials said on Wednesday.

Brig Gen Said Amanullah Saddat deputy chief of the border police in the Interior Ministry told Pajhwok Afghan News preliminary works for installation of the electronic machines had been completed.

Speaking during a certificate distribution for 27 Rapid-Action Forces graduates for the eastern Nangarhar province, he said the project would cost $45m to be provided by United States.

Though it was not know when the project would be functional but Sadat said that cross border movement was the attention of both Kabul and Islamabad due to the increasing terrorist activities.

A day earlier, Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak while talking during the cabinet ministers meeting in Kabul had informed about a tripartite agreement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO Forces for setting up joint base for coordination against terrorism in the porous border regions of the two countries.

Three bases would be established in the Afghanistan territory and as many in the Pakistani soil, he had asserted.

Cabinet ministers also agreed with the decision terming it as a positive step for improving security in the region. Afghanistan and Pakistan share 2500 kilometer long border.

New Player in Afghanistan's Great Game

Salon, 11/23/2007 By Andrew Leonard -In what is being called "the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan's history," a Chinese mining company has won the right to exploit a huge copper field not far from Kabul, the Financial Times reports. The price tag: 3 billion dollars. The spoils: a potential 12 million tons of copper.

Extracting the copper will be a mighty endeavor for the China Metallurgical Group (MCC), which beat out contenders from Russia, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. to win the bid. MCC must first build a power plant to provide electricity for the mining operations, and simultaneously develop coal resources to fuel the power plant. Excess power from the plant will be used to supply Kabul with much-needed electricity. Thousands of jobs will reportedly be created, though if China's record in Africa is any guide, many of those jobs may be filled by Chinese workers, and not Afghanis.

In the context of China's scramble to secure natural resources across the globe, the successful multi-year bid is just another data point to match up with soybean imports from Brazil, oil from Sudan, and liquefied natural gas from Australia. But it's also intriguing from a geopolitical perspective. The Great Game first featured England and Russia fighting over Afghanistan. Then the Americans replaced the Brits, and squared off against the Soviet Union.

Soviet geologists are believed to be the first to have pinpointed Afghanistan's copper resources, which have now been confirmed by the United States Geological Survey. But China will mine them.

At first glance it's hard to imagine two countries more different than China and Afghanistan -- one is the world's emerging superpower, the other is the epitome of a failed state. But China and Afghanistan actually share a 76 kilometer border, albeit mountainous and impassable for much of the year. Afghanistan is believed to be rich with a vast variety of mineral resources for which China has a seemingly insatiable hunger. And there China is, just a stone's throw away.

It is remarkable to think about how the world has and hasn't changed since the U.S. started dropping bombs on Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. The U.S. remains mired in an apparently endless struggle against jihad on multiple fronts. But if it hadn't topped the Taliban, would Afghanistan be "safe" for foreign mining companies? And while the U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting its war in Iraq, China spends its currency doing business.

‘Afghanistan to benefit from zero import duty’

Country to become 8th member of SAFTA from Feb - The Hindu Business Line
November 22, 2007

New Delhi, Nov 21 Afghanistan’s economic engagement with India will receive a major boost from February when the nation becomes the eighth member of SAFTA.

As a member of SAFTA, Afghanistan will receive the benefit zero import duty by India on 4,536 tariff lines, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Commerce, said here on Wednesday.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Doing business with Afghanistan’ organised by the FICCI along with the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) and USAID, he said currently under the preferential trade arrangement with Afghanistan, the rules of origin stipulate 50 per cent domestic value addition for export within the South Asian region.

Once Afghanistan comes under the SAFTA fold, this would come down to 30 per cent. “This would mark a significant step forward for the Afghan economy and help boost its export to India,” he added.

The Minister also announced that India would undertake a review of the 744 items in sensitive list of export, largely in the areas of agriculture and textiles.

“We are currently working on a review of the negative list particularly with regard to least developed countries in the South Asian region,” he added.

Mr Ramesh observed that the track record of Indian investment in the least developed countries of the region was not positive. He urged the Indian companies to make pro-active investments for the development of the Afghan economy.

Afghanistan's fruitful presence at IITF

The Times of India / November 22, 2007

NEW DELHI: Afghanistan may not conjure up great images in the mind, but at IITF, the country is putting its best foot forward. The result is impressive as its stall in Hall No. 8 is being supported by United States Agency for International Development.

From exotic Afghani melons and pomegranates to jewellery studded with the blue lapis lazuli stone, authentic Afghanistan is on display here.

One of the most striking sights in the Afghanistan pavilion are the large bright melons. These musk melons, the traders promise, are the sweetest someone can ever find. At Rs 40 per kg, they are precious, but the trader assures that the fruit is so wholesome that an entire family will have a hard time finishing the melon.

Hand woven Afghani wool carpets have a certain earthiness which makes them different from the exquisite Persian ones. However, they are not less expensive. "Some of the carpets are made from German wool, while others are indigenous. The good ones cost Rs 10,000 and more. They take at least a month to be completed," said an Afghani carpet exhibitor.

With the lapis lazuli jewellery, a little patience while looking can suddenly reveal excellent craftsmanship. Hard bargain here is also easy since most Afghanis understand English as well as Hindi.

Adjoining the Afghanistan pavilion are the khadi and herbal stalls. Khadi here is not what is used to be. Its expensive and exquisite, and blended with silk. Many khadi garments are painted with natural pigments that are the result of work put in by the Forest Research Institute. Handmade paper, pottery, herbal shampoos and soaps, all these stalls had eager buyers leaving with large shopping bags.

Too few development dollars actually spent in Afghanistan
CanWest News Service Thursday, November 22, 2007

KABUL -- Six years after the fall of the Taliban, the reconstruction of Afghanistan is a booming business for the private sector, but much of the work is still going to big foreign firms, say Afghan officials and development workers.

The building boom is no more evident than in Afghanistan's capital, where a five-star hotel, western-style mall and revamped U.S. Embassy have sprouted up in recent years.

"Construction is one of the motors of the economy," said Afghan Economy Minister Mohammad Jalil Shams. "Four years ago, Kabul was nothing like it is now."

Reconstruction is also moving forward in the more secure regions of the country, such as the areas around Herat in the west and Mazar-e-Sharif in the north.

But much of the rebuilding is funded by foreign aid agencies, which often award contracts to a select pool of multinational companies based outside Afghanistan.

"The biggest amount, let's say about two-thirds or even three-quarters, is going through the foreign budgets," Shams explained in an interview. "They, of course, choose their contractors."

Major donor nations, including Canada, spent about $1.36 billion in official development assistance to Afghanistan over a one-year period ending March 2006.

But only $424 million, or about 31 per cent, had a "local impact," according to a study released this spring. Peace Dividend Trust, an Ottawa non-profit agency, conducted the study for the Afghan Ministry of Finance. Local impact is defined as the proportion of aid money spent locally on goods and services.

Even Canada, where the Conservative government frequently trumpets the importance of development alongside security, has spent only 43 per cent of its development money with Afghan companies.

Compared with the U.S. and Germany, Canada generated much more local impact through its development aid, but was well behind the leader, Britain, which had a local impact of about 60 per cent.

"CIDA takes a lot of heat, but this is one area where they're actually very progressive," said Scott Gilmore, executive director of Peace Dividend, referring to the Canadian International Development Agency.

Canada has committed to spending $1.2 billion in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2011, making it the single largest recipient of Canadian aid. Last fiscal year, CIDA shelled out over $139 million in development assistance to Afghanistan.

"You can hire someone in Virginia, or you can hire someone locally," said Gilmore. "When you hire locally, it has so many positive multiplier effects on the economy."

Afghan firms are often hired as subcontractors on such work, but the "vast majority of funds are used to pay for international staff and the procurement of international materials," states the report.

"It's the path of least resistance," said Gilmore. "It's often easier for the procurement officer to pick up the Dubai yellow pages than it is to find an Afghan company to do the job."

Germany and the United States relied most on international contracts. In fact, nearly half the aid money spent by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) went to five big U.S. firms.

Peace Dividend declined to identify the firms, due to confidentiality agreements with the countries that provided data. But the big U.S. names in Afghanistan's reconstruction industry are well known: firms such as Bechtel, Louis Berger Group and BearingPoint.

A 2003 study by the Center for Public Integrity also found that most companies awarded the biggest contracts in Afghanistan or Iraq employed former high-ranking U.S. officials or had close ties to the government.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has since found that almost all war-zone reconstruction contracts are tendered competitively.

Even so, multinational firms tend to have a natural advantage, said Omar Zakhilwal, president of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency, which registers companies that set up shop in Afghanistan.

"They win the big contracts, because they have a better presentation, they have a better understanding of the contracting process," he said.

Prized Afghan pomegranates offer export hope to farmers

$120-million USAID development project aims to start fruitful export

CBC News (Canada) / November 22, 2007 - Ruby-red pomegranates famously grown in Afghanistan are part of a new development project aimed at starting a fruit export market after years of the illegal opium trade.

Treasured as the best in the world, Afghanistan's prized pomegranates — grown from shrubs in Kandahar province — will for the first time this year make their way to the lips of Canadian, European and Asian consumers.

"It's very good fruit. It's good for health, it's good for the blood and digestion," farmer Akhtar Mohammed said, cracking open one of the baseball-sized pomegranates to show off the red kernels inside.

Boxes of the pomegranates will play the latest role in a $120-million United States Agency for International Development project aimed at keeping the war-torn country out of the Taliban's grip.

While Afghans have long known how tasty Kandahar's pomegranates are, the fruit has largely been closed off from the rest of the world after nearly three decades of conflict and chronic drought. Shipments have only made it as far as Pakistan and India.

Now USAID is paying to box and ship the age-old crop to more foreign markets. The American government agency has helped open a new cold storage facility near Kandahar city to store the fruit.

Soon, shipments of pomegranates stamped "Product of Afghanistan" already resting in a hangar at the main military base near Kandahar will be loaded onto planes destined for markets in Vancouver, London and Singapore.

It's hoped that sustained economic growth from legal crops could help abolish the opium business.

"It's very important because the main profit is going to the farmers," Mohammed Gula, a program manager with USAID, told CBC News. "They're the ones affected with the war, so with these pomegranates going on to international countries, they'll earn some good money."

An export market for the pomegranates will be expected to draw in at least $1 million for the local economy this year, following years of illegal cultivation of opium from poppy fields that dot much of the country. Poppies produce the raw ingredients for heroin, and Afghanistan accounts for 93 per cent of the world's opium production.

Compared with the $1 billion generated by the poppy trade, though, exporting fruit may not seem so lucrative. Still, fruit trader Haji Nasuallah said he was thrilled with the prospects.

"My hope is not only for pomegranates but for other fruits in our country, like grapes that we can peacefully export … which is very good for Afghanistan," he said. "We don't have fuel or gas or other exports to make our country famous. The only thing we have is fruit."

Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid said he hoped that in the next year, the market could expand to include grapes.

From pomegranates to poppies

Helmand’s farmers are chopping down their pomegranate trees for the more lucrative opium plants, while blaming the government for failing to help them.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 274, 21-Nov-07)

The beautiful red flowers of the pomegranate tree used to cover Helmand, a province which was famous for the luscious red fruit. But these days a different sort of flower blooms, as more and more of Helmand’s sandy soil is given over to the opium poppy.

“I had 1,500 pomegranate trees five years ago,” said Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Nawzad district. “They gave a very good yield. We loved the orchard, and I would never have destroyed it, but what else could I do? There was no market to sell the fruit. Birds would destroy the pomegranates on the branch, or else we’d pick them and they would rot at home.”

He finally decided to cut his losses and grow poppy. “The government says it’s against poppy, but drug traffickers go from house to house and buy our crop and give us a lot of money,” he said. “Find me a market for my pomegranates. Everyone hates poppy cultivation.”

Pomegranates cannot hope to compete economically with opium, which provided Helmand’s farmers with an estimated 530 million US dollars in 2007. Last year, this one remote province in southern Afghanistan furnished nearly half the world’s opium and its major derivative, heroin.

An average farmer can earn over 4,000 dollars per hectare for poppy, while the yield for pomegranate is barely one-tenth of that. Added to that is the problem of markets and storage.

But farmers like Abdul Jabbar say that they would prefer fruit to opium, if only the government would provide storage facilities and help them develop markets. The government, in turn, insists that farmers are not asking for help but are rushing to cut down their trees to make way for poppy.

While exact figures are difficult to come by, Helmand farmers say that the majority of the province’s pomegranate orchards have been destroyed in the past few years. This corresponds inversely to the astronomical rise in opium production over the same period. The amount of land given over to poppy in Helmand has nearly quadrupled in the past two years, rising from some 27,000 hectares in 2005 to 103,000 in 2007, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Runaway poppy production has been fuelled by the growth of the Taleban presence, which has made control all but impossible. Widespread corruption among government officials has contributed to the failure of a loudly-trumpeted crop eradication effort, and leads to a disdain for the law among citizens of the province. Expensive alternative livelihood projects have mostly failed, in part because of the same factors, the insurgency and corruption.

Opium is easier to store and sell than almost any other commodity, insist Helmand’s farmers. “I used to have 300 pomegranate trees, now I have just 20. The rest of my land is being used for poppy,” said Jahan Gir Aka, a farmer in Babaji district.

There was simply no market for the fruit, he said. “I believe that if the government could find us markets at a national and international level, all of Helmand’s farmers would go back to growing pomegranates,” he added.

Another problem is the absence of adequate storage facilities for pomegranates, which are perishable. Naseem Kharotai has a shop in Bolan, near Lashkar Gah, and has 500 kilograms of pomegranates to sell.

“If I don’t sell them soon, they will rot,” he said. “If we had cold storage, we could earn a good income on pomegranates. They aren’t very expensive right now, but if we had storage facilities we could sell them at a higher price in winter.”

Pomegranates keep well when stored properly, he said. In neighbouring Kandahar, where the United States Agency for International Development has helped provide cold storage and quality control, earnings on pomegranates have nearly doubled.

But security problems have held back development in Helmand, and farmers complain that the government has been slow to provide assistance. For their part, officials say the farmers are not asking for help.

“Not a single farmer has come to us to ask for help in finding markets of building storage facilities,” said Engineer Ghulam Nabi, the head of the department of agriculture in Helmand. Even if they did, the government has limited resources, he admitted.

“If the farmers come to us to demand markets and storage facilities, we might be able to do something for them,” he said. “We don’t have the capacity to do it on our own, but we could seek assistance from donor organisations. The important thing is that the farmers should come to us.”

The internationally-funded counter-narcotics programme, which in the past few years has pumped well over 100 million dollars into alternative livelihood programmes in Helmand, might be able to help.

But Engineer Abdul Manan, head of Helmand’s counter-narcotics department, told IWPR that it was not the job of his office to help farmers with other crops.

“No one has come to us to ask for such services,” he said. “If they do, we can send them to the department of rural development. But we do hope that farmers will turn to other crops than poppy for their livelihood.”

It will take more than hope, however. Nano Aka, a farmer in the Nawzad district, is against growing opium poppy. But he too cultivates the crop because, even with the risk of eradication, harvesting wages, tithes to local mullahs and bribes for the government, it brings him more income.

“I really don’t like poppy,” he said. “No one would grow it apart from the fact that it brings in money. Me, I like cultivating pomegranates.”

Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.

Govt okays 31 water supply schemes

KABUL, Nov 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Ministry of Energy and Water on Wednesday inked 31 different water supply and distribution projects with different local companies here which will cost $3.8m.

The projects to be executed in one year period will help irrigate 140 hector farmlands.

Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Ismail Khan minister for Energy and Water said the projects included cleaning and construction of water canals will be implemented in Ghazni, Nangarhar, Faryab, Herat, Samangan, Takhar, Konduz, Baghlan, Zabul, Nimroz, Sar-i-Pul, Bamyan, Kandahar and Logar provinces.

The projects are estimated to benefit 360,000 people, Khan hoped.

Presently there are 169 on-going water supply projects in the country, he added; work on 68 more water supply and distribution projects may begin in the near future.

Water supply system and its use was a key program of the ministry, he said, they were trying hard to reach the goal through construction of water dam in different parts of the country.

Afghanistan has 75 million cubic meter water every year, while only 35% of it is utilized and the rest drain out of the country without being used, the minister concluded.

Afghanistan: Slow Again

New York Post, 11/23/2007 By Bill O'Reilly - KABUL - ON the road from the airport to the Afghan capital of Kabul, you pass a stone wall adorned with iron rings. The Taliban used these to chain Afghans who'd transgressed. Then the poor souls were publicly stoned to death. Justice, Taliban style.

After 9/11, America quickly defeated the Taliban government, which had aided and abetted Osama bin Laden's terrorist killers. America could have walked away right then, leaving Afghanistan to whatever warlord could achieve power.

But once again America tried to do something noble: The Bush administration poured billions into Afghanistan, where more than half the population is illiterate and life expectancy is just 44 years. Also, America convinced NATO forces to help occupy the country so that an infrastructure could be built and one of the most impoverished peoples on earth might have some hope of a better life.

For our trouble, we're now engaged in a vicious guerrilla war starring the remnants of the Taliban allied with al Qaeda killers. About 25,000 Americans are in the Afghan theater, plus some 26,000 NATO forces. These men and women are protecting the Afghan population as best they can, but chaos abounds.

That's because the neighboring government of Pakistan allows both the Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuary. US and NATO forces aren't allowed to hunt down the bad guys inside Pakistan, who thus have a safe place from which to launch attacks.

The Pakistani border town of Quetta is command control for the Taliban. Every intelligence agency in South Asia knows this. Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf could move against the Taliban and badly damage them. But he doesn't. He takes billions in US aid and allows these thugs a good night's sleep after they murder.

Picture yourself at Bagram Air Force Base, north of Kabul. The air is almost always full of dust because people seeking wood for fuel and grazing animals have destroyed the trees and grass. The terrain is barren and brown. The summers are brutally hot, the winters very cold.

You're halfway around the world, trying to help folks who are frightened and barely have enough to eat. You're fighting the good fight, but you know the ultimate battle will never be won until the terrorist killers are confronted in their lair. No matter how many engagements are won, there will always be more fanatical killers coming across the border. Yet the Western forces soldier on, most in a disciplined, heroic fashion.

Thus, Afghanistan remains one tough neighborhood. But in the last six years much progress has been made. There's a brilliant new hospital, hundreds of new schools and other public works are operating, and the beginnings of an organized society have taken root.

However, there are miles and billions to go before anybody sleeps. The Afghan conflict is far removed from the minds of most people in the world, many of whom couldn't care less or blame America for worldwide terrorism. America and NATO are trying hard in this forlorn backwater, but most of the world is sitting it out. As usual.

Politicians Argue Over Language of Schooling in Kabul

A plan for Pashto-language schools in Kabul reveals deep rifts in Afghan society.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 274, 21-Nov-07)

National unity has always been a difficult concept in Afghanistan, a country with a bewildering array of ethnic and tribal groups, and language often serves as the lightening rod for controversy. The issue recently resurfaced with a government plan to dramatically increase the number of Pashto-language schools in Kabul, the predominantly Dari-speaking capital.

While some politicians applauded the education ministry’s initiative, it has prompted a strong backlash from others.

During a roundtable discussion on Tolo TV, Kabul member of parliament Najibullah Kabuli went as far as calling the initiative a “crime”, and accused Education Minister Hanif Atmar of seeking to sow disunity among schoolchildren.

Education ministry spokesman Zahoor Afghan defended the proposal, pointing to Article 43 of the Afghan constitution which requires the state to provide classes in local languages in the areas where they are spoken.

“The real criminals are those who robbed and killed people and then forced their way into parliament using the power of the gun,” he told IWPR, before adding that Pashtun parents in Kabul were asking for opportunities for their children to study in their own tongue.

Another Kabul parliamentarian, Malalai Shinwari, supports the proposal. “This is the children’s right, and I hope the government will give them this right,” she said. “A child can learn better in its own language than in any other.”

Aqel Khan, a year ten pupil at the Rahman Babahi High School, said he couldn’t agree more. Before transferring to a Pashto-language school, he attended classes where Dari was the teaching medium.

“When lectures were given in Dari, I couldn’t understand them,” he said. “Here I can learn and remember things easily, as I am studying in my native language.”

Shinwari accused opponents of the plan of acting out of political motives. “They are fanatically opposed to Pashto and want to impose their own language on others,” she claimed.

But Sayed Shafiq, a legislator from Herat, a Dari-speaking area, said he fears separating children according to language will deepen the divisions in Afghan society.

“When one pupil goes to one class and a second to another, it creates disunity,” he said. “And from my point of view, it is a blow to Afghanistan’s image.”

At an October 31 press conference, Education Minister Atmar told reporters that providing classes in different languages is not new to Afghanistan.

“This issue has not resulted in disunity over the past 70 years, so why would it do so now?” he asked.

Dari and Pashto are by far the most widespread languages in Afghanistan, and very roughly speaking prevail in the north and south, respectively. Kabul parliamentary Fawzia Nasiryar pointed out that many other languages are spoken throughout Afghanistan, for instance Uzbek and Turkmen. If Kabul’s Pashtuns have access to education in their language, other linguistic minorities should be granted the same right, she argued.

“This action by the education minister is a tribal action,” she claimed. “If it isn’t tribal, why hasn’t he built schools for other languages? The minister is taking such action only for the sake of his tribe.”

Ministry spokesman Afghan defended the cabinet’s decision to create separate schools for Pashtuns, who are by far the largest group in Kabul using a language other than Dari in daily life.

There are about 200,000 Pashtun students in the city, according to ministry statistics. Of those, only 20,000 actually study in Pashto. Just five out of Kabul’s 175 schools are Pashto-only, while nine more provide classes in both Pashto and Dari.

Herat parliamentarian Ahmad Behzad applauded the initiative. “Both Dari and Pashto are our formal languages,” he pointed out. “People from all over Afghanistan live in the capital. Some pupils are unable to study in Dari, yet education in one’s native language is one of the pillars of the constitution.”

The education ministry’s contentious new plan is not the first time language and ethnicity have sparked controversy. During the 2003 Loya Jirga or national assembly, Pashtun and Dari-speaking Tajik representatives clashed over which language should have primacy in the constitution. Eventually both Dari and Pashto were recognised.

The language used for Afghanistan’s national anthem further inflamed tensions. The words are currently in Pashto, but some politicians have threatened not to stand when it is being played.

Wahidullah Amani is IWPR’s lead trainer and reporter in Kabul.

Pakistan imposes food blockade on militants: officials

Peshawar (AFP) - Pakistani authorities imposed a food blockade and a 12-hour curfew in a restive northwest valley where troops are battling militants loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric, officials said Friday.

Residents in Swat valley said loudspeakers announced a daily curfew from 2:00am to 2:00pm.

Intelligence officials said food supplies to the areas where militants are holed up had been stopped and any kind of movement was already disallowed, to prevent weapons and other supplies reaching them.

"Ten trucks loaded with food supplies were ordered last night to stop in Mingora," an intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Several residents in the valley said there were no food shortages in the area so far, but feared problems if the curfews and roadblocks continue.

A spokesman for militant leader Maulana Fazlullah slammed the blockade in a statement, saying it would create hardship for residents.

Separately Friday, the military said a suspected militant was killed and another, believed to be wearing a suicide belt, escaped after being shot by police for failing to obey orders to stop.

The death toll since the start of last week in Swat, where fighters loyal to Fazlullah are demanding Islamic Sharia law, is now more than 220, according to army figures, including five soldiers.

The unrest began in Swat in July when Fazlullah's forces occupied several villages.

President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on November 3, has ordered the army to flush rebels out of the area.

Fazlullah is nicknamed "Mullah Radio" because he runs a pirate FM radio station that calls for a holy war on government forces.

Poor Afghans fulfill hajj dream

Many sell their land, belongings to raise cash for once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca

Mitch Potter - TORONTO STAR November 22, 2007 

KABUL–A cool $4,000 sounds reasonable for a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual pilgrimage that will have you rubbing shoulders with 2 million of your fellow Muslims in Mecca itself.

But here in Afghanistan, $4,000 might as well be $4 million, given that the vast majority of people consider themselves lucky to be gainfully employed for as little as $3 a day.

How then does one explain the parade of 24,100 devout and often elderly Afghan Muslims converging on the Kabul airport this week at the rate of 1,200 a day for the flight to Saudi Arabia? For many, the special charter to the annual hajj will constitute their first time in an airplane.

"Obviously, there are some Afghans with enough wealth to perform the hajj. But we have a problem here because some Afghans are not wealthy enough – and they go anyway," noted Sayed Moorullah Murad, deputy minister of Religious Affairs, the government branch that supervises the annual pilgrimage.

"We sometimes see people selling their land, selling their car, denying their basic needs to make this journey. The hajj is so relevant to the faith of the people that it can become blind faith, like an addiction."

The teaching of Islam, said Murad, is clear on the making of the hajj. Though it stands as one of the five pillars of the religion, it is required only for those with assets sufficient to care for their family a full year upon their return from Mecca.

Very gingerly, the Afghan government is tackling the hypersensitive subject by developing reforms to discourage those who would bankrupt themselves on the journey to spiritual fulfilment. Among the changes under consideration are hajj savings plans that will enable a gradual build-up of resources without the need for drastic financial decisions late in life.

"Part of our plans are not only to get people to Mecca financially sound, but to get them there at a younger age as well," said Murad.

"Afghans, because of their poverty, are among the oldest Muslim populations making the hajj. It is a physically demanding experience and each year, because of their age, we see Afghans die in the process. We would rather see them (travel) there in the prime of their life, when they are robust and ready for the demands of Mecca."

The hajj, which begins Dec. 18 and lasts four days, commemorates the trials of the biblical Abraham and his family.

At Kabul airport this week, heavy security enveloped a tent compound that serves as a pilgrimage reception zone, replete with dedicated medical facilities for men and women and a makeshift canvas mosque for prayer.

Asked why so much security was necessary given the Taliban's ideological commitment to the fundamentals of Islam, a police official said: "For some of Afghanistan's enemies, Islam makes no difference. We have had attacks before in this situation and we will not allow them again."

The 24,100 figure is extrapolated from a formula that allows for one pilgrim for every 1,000 Muslims. Many Afghans dispute the number, given that the national population is believed to far exceed the assessment of 24.1 million.

Permits to make the pilgrimage were allotted by random draw from more than 60,000 applications, with 12 per cent set aside for women.

The Afghan government is this year issuing each female pilgrim a white burqa emblazoned with the Afghan flag, a measure intended to ease the difficulty for those who lose their way in crowds that will peak in mid-December.

Men, apparently, are entrusted not to lose themselves. The ones at the airport each clutched a bright orange tote bag courtesy of a popular Afghan tea company, inside which was an ihram – a simple garment of white unhemmed cloth that is to be donned upon arrival in Mecca. The ihram will level the playing field between prince and pauper, symbolizing purity and the submission to God.

Surveying the pilgrims this week was Dr. Mohammad Haider, a Kabul-based neurologist who will be in charge of the Afghan medical station in Mecca. He estimates as many as 25 will not come back, given the challenges of the journey and the comparative age of the attendees.

"Of course we do all that we can to anticipate the medical needs," said Haider. "But we must also remember that for those who are nearing the end of their life, there is nowhere they would rather die."

One who will not be making the journey this year is Hajji Seid Amin u-Allah – but not for lack of trying. The Kabul businessman applied again this year, despite the fact he has made the hajj twice before.

"Once you go to Mecca, Mecca pulls you back again. It is an obligation to do it at least once. But it is better to do it more than once" explained u-Allah, 55, who made the journey last year accompanied by his 20-year-old son Hajji Seid Massi u-Allah. Like all hajj pilgrims, their names now begin with the honorific Hajji to represent the fact.

"There is a spiritual release that is difficult to describe," said the elder u-Allah. "You feel a total connection with God. But you feel a connection also to other Muslims, who are equal in the moment. Nobody is poor, nobody is rich. We are one."

The younger u-Allah acknowledges he spent his marital dowry – a gift of 200,000 Afghanis ($4,000) set aside by his father for each child – on the journey to Mecca.

"I am only 20 and I am not ready to marry. There is time for me to work hard and save for my future wife," he said. "But for me, it just felt right to make the application now and have the experience of Mecca while I am young. Now, I can live my whole life looking back on this amazing memory."

[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.]