In this bulletin:

• Taliban free German hostage in Afghanistan
• Gunmen attack Afghanistan mosque
• Afghanistan to carry out more executions of convicted felons, after 15 shot to death
• 8 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes
• Canada reminds Afghanistan not to execute captured insurgents
• Coderre affirms Afghanistan pullout by 2009
• Afghanistan a mission of baby steps
• Afghanistan: Ring Road's Completion Would Benefit Entire Region
• Political Paralysis Lets Pakistan Militants Thrive
• Iran: New air base on border with Afghanistan
• AFGHANISTAN: Rate of refugee return slows ahead of winter
• Japan opposition refuses to budge on Afghan mission
• No ordinary trip: Visiting Afghanistan

Taliban free German hostage in Afghanistan

Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:53pm BST - By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban rebels freed a German hostage in Afghanistan on Wednesday after more than two months of captivity, Germany's foreign minister said.

"The German citizen ... who was kidnapped in Afghanistan is once again free. We are happy and relieved," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.

The German engineer, Rudolf Blechschmidt, later arrived at the German embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, an embassy spokeswoman said.

"He has arrived at the embassy and he is being medically examined right now," the spokeswoman said. "He seems physically well, but of course he has lost a lot of weight."

Blechschmidt and five Afghans were seized along with another German in Wardak province, just southwest of Kabul, in July. The Taliban kidnappers shot dead the other German soon afterwards after he suffered a heart attack.

The Taliban had demanded Germany withdraw its more than 3,000 troops from Afghanistan, something Berlin flatly refused to do.

The local Taliban leader behind the kidnap, Mullah Nizamuddin, handed the German and the five Afghan captives over to government authorities in exchange for the rebel chief's father and three supporters arrested after the incident, the private Afghan Pajhwok news agency said.

The six captives were kept in a darkened room with one blanket between them in a mountainous area of Wardak, according to an Afghan reporter who visited the men last week.

The rebels last month briefly kidnapped four employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who had travelled to accept the handover of the six men, but the deal feel through.

A day after the two Germans and five Afghans were abducted, the Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans in the neighbouring province of Ghazni. Two of the Koreans were shot dead, but the rest of the hostages were freed after a month in captivity.

Taliban rebels have increasingly resorted to the tactics of kidnap and suicide bombing after suffering heavy casualties in conventional armed clashes with Afghan government and foreign forces.

Gunmen attack Afghanistan mosque

By Alastair Leithead - BBC News, Kabul

Two people have been killed and at least 10 injured in Afghanistan after gunmen opened fire in a mosque during prayers in a province bordering Kabul.

In a separate incident, also near the capital, a mullah was shot dead. The mosque shooting took place in Wardak province which borders Kabul. A police chief said around 10 gunmen entered the building in Abad district.

They opened fire, killing two people and injuring others including a boy. Police are trying to find a motive.

But it does not appear to be any kind of tribal or local dispute, and the Taleban are suspected to be responsible.

In neighbouring Logar province on Tuesday night the Afghan interior ministry said a mullah on his way home from prayers was abducted and then shot a number of times. He died of his injuries.

Attacks on religious figures, especially against those perceived to be pro-government, have increased over the past year. But they are still unusual.

They are also a reminder that the insurgency is not just limited to bombings and fighting in the south and east of the country.

Assassinations and tactics designed to intimidate local people are being used across Afghanistan and are getting increasingly close to the capital.

Afghanistan to carry out more executions of convicted felons, after 15 shot to death

The Associated Press - Monday, October 8, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan will continue with executions of inmates on death row, despite international concern over the recent killing of 15 convicted prisoners by gunfire at the country's main prison, a presidential spokesman said Tuesday.

Humayun Hamidzada, the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said that executions at Pol-i-Charki prison the outskirts of Kabul will be a lesson "for those who are committing such crimes, as murder, kidnapping, adultery and rapes."

Afghanistan on Sunday executed 15 prisoners by gunfire, including a man convicted of killing three foreign journalists during the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, officials said. Other crimes committed by those executed included kidnapping, adultery and armed robbery.

On Monday the U.N. protested the executions, which could complicate some NATO countries' Afghan missions because they oppose the death penalty.

The mass execution took place according to Afghan law, which calls for condemned prisoners to be shot to death, said Abdul Salam Ismat, who oversees Afghanistan's prisons.

The decision was made following pressure "from the people, from the law and the victims of the crimes," Hamidzada said. "The Afghan government is doing what its laws dictate," he told a news conference in Kabul.

Officials said no Taliban or al-Qaida fighters were among those executed. Afghanistan's former hard-line Taliban regime carried out public executions at Kabul stadium.

Among those executed was Reza Khan, who was convicted of adultery and the murder of one Afghan and three foreign journalists in 2001.

The four were Australian TV cameraman Harry Burton, Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of the Reuters news agency, Maria Grazia Cutuli of Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and Julio Fuentes of the Spanish daily El Mundo.

Also executed was Farhad, also called Pahlavan. He was involved in the 2005 kidnapping of Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni, who was freed after three weeks.

The leader of the group which kidnapped Cantoni, Temur Shah, was also on the list of the persons to be executed Sunday, but managed to flee, Hamidzada said.

Authorities were investigating the circumstances of his escape, he said.

Tom Koenigs, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. "has been a staunch supporter of the moratorium on executions observed in Afghanistan in recent years."

"I expect Afghanistan to continue working towards attaining the highest human rights standards and ensuring the due process of law and the rights of all citizens are respected," he said.

The government said Monday that Karzai had ordered the executions following a decision by a special commission he set up to review rulings by the Supreme Court.

"We of course respect the concerns raised by the international community, the U.N. and others, but the capital punishment is not only practiced in Afghanistan, but in many countries, including in Europe," Hamidzada said.

"What we do is what is best for our people and what is in light of our constitution," he said.

Foreign troops often hand over captured militants to the Afghan government, raising the question of whether some countries might stop surrendering prisoners.

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Rijs said on Monday his country "had understood there was a moratorium on the death penalty in force."

But he said Dutch troops would still hand over prisoners because the Netherlands had signed a memorandum of understanding with Karzai's government guaranteeing those inmates would not be executed.

8 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes

Associated Press - October 10, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected militants dead and three detained, an official said Wednesday.

The clashes occurred in Zhari district of Kandahar province on Tuesday evening and Wednesday, and there were no casualties among NATO or Afghan forces in the fighting, said provincial Police Chief Sayed Agha Saqib.

A roadside bomb targeted a police vehicle in the same district Wednesday, wounding four officers, Saqib said.

Afghanistan is going through its most violent period since the U.S. invasion six years ago, mostly in its southern provinces. More than 5,100 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on information from Afghan and Western officials.

Canada reminds Afghanistan not to execute captured insurgents

OTTAWA - Canada's Foreign Affairs Department offered a muted response Tuesday to the execution of 15 prisoners in Afghanistan.

It refused to criticize the government of President Hamid Karzai, but noted that NATO-captured prisoners must be spared the death penalty and that human rights in general must be respected.

A Foreign Affairs spokesman read a prepared two-line statement after human rights groups criticized the silence coming out of Ottawa.

"Canada expects the government of Afghanistan to live up to its international human rights obligations," said Jamie Christoff.

"The arrangements the government of Canada has signed with the government of Afghanistan, concerning the treatment of detainees, stipulates that no Canadian transferred detainees may receive the death penalty."

The bland statement stands in contrast to the Dutch foreign ministry, which called the executions "extremely unwelcome." Both Canada and the Netherlands oppose the death penalty.

A senior Conservative, who spoke off the record, suggested that the Harper government is reluctant to "interfere" in what is an internal matter for the Afghans. Canadian military officials in Kandahar said the same thing.

The prisoners were tried under Afghan law, government officials said. But several organizations, including the United Nations, have expressed concern about the state of the war-torn country's justice system, which has been described as "a work in progress."

The lawyer for two human rights groups said the Conservative government's initial silence and then half-hearted response raises serious questions about its commitment to upholding Canada's opposition to the death penalty.

"This calls into question our involvement with the Afghan government generally," said Paul Champ, a lawyer for Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"When it comes to the detainees Canada and other NATO countries are handing over, we have to be seriously concerned about whether the death penalty is going to be applied to those individuals."

On Sunday, Afghanistan's chief of prisons announced that 15 prisoners had been executed, including the man responsible for the murders of three Western journalists and a local photographer in 2001.

It's the first time in three years that the death penalty has been imposed in Afghanistan and likely won't be the last. Karzai's government says it will continue to execute prisoners, but not those captured by NATO forces - a guarantee Champ says no one can rely on because detainees in Afghan jails routinely go missing.

"They can't rely on any of the assurances that the Afghan government provides," he said.

"It's not because the Afghan government is deceptive or dishonest. The simple fact of the matter is they do not have the capacity to ensure they are going to observe those promises."

The sentences were carried out as Canada's foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier, wrapped up a visit to Kandahar over the weekend.

In Kandahar, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said he's worried about the executions and wonders whether the Afghan justice system is fair and independent enough to allow such drastic punishment. He said it harks back to the days when the Taliban held public executions in soccer stadiums.

"I'm against capital punishment so I'm very, very concerned," he said. "The Taliban were doing that. It's the same thing."

Both Amnesty and the civil liberties association have been fighting to halt the transfer to Afghan authorities of insurgents captured by Canadian troops. Both groups have warned that Afghanistan's spotty human rights record means that there is a likelihood that the prisoners could be abused or even killed.

Last spring, published reports said as many as three dozen Taliban fighters handed over to the Afghan prison system by Canadians had been abused. The revelation led Canada to sign a revised, tougher transfer agreement with the Karzai government.

Coderre affirms Afghanistan pullout by 2009

Liberal Defence Critic; 'Not abandoning Afghan people'
Matthew Fisher , CanWest News Service , Tuesday, October 09, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - No matter what he learns on his two-day "fact-finding mission" to southern Afghanistan, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said yesterday he and his party would insist Canada must end its combat mission here when the current mandate expires in February, 2009.

"We're not abandoning the Afghan people. There might be another way at the military level to help them," Mr. Coderre said during a tour of NATO's main base here that was organized for him by officers from the Canadian contingent. "But we believe about the combat mission that rotation [out of a combat role] is in order."

Mr. Coderre's presence on the far side of the world had much to do with a possible federal election campaign in which Afghanistan is expected to be one of the key issues. If he had not missed a UN flight from Kabul to Kandahar on Sunday, he would have been at this dusty, bustling centre of NATO's war against the Taliban at the same time as Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who also treated his brief visit like a whistlestop campaign event. Both men visited the same Tim Hortons, sought out troops on the same boardwalk and were briefed by senior officers at the same command centres.

In a foretaste of the election campaign, the political rivals from Quebec traded accusations just before Mr. Coderre's arrival here about whether or not the Liberal MP had gone through the proper channels to set up his trip and whether or not he had received sufficient help from the Tory-led government.

Mr. Coderre and Mr. Bernier used the exotic backdrop of the busy military airbase to stake out their different campaign positions about Canada's proper role in the Afghan war. Mr. Bernier boasted of the progress that had been made since the Canadians arrived here 19 months ago and suggested that an undefined future combat role might be required to protect those working on development and reconstruction projects.

Mr. Coderre emphasized that it was time for other NATO countries to join the fight and that Canada should not be blamed by its allies for withdrawing its troops from the front lines.

"I don't think we should point fingers at one country," if Canada decided to terminate its combat mission, Mr. Coderre said. "If we say there is a rotation, we don't have to be shy. We did a great job for three years."

While complimenting the troops on what they had done so far, and saying that he and his party supported them, Mr. Coderre said he had not changed his position or that of his party.

"For now, I have to be convinced and I am not convinced," he said.

Canada should consider augmenting its existing Provincial Reconstruction Team and increasing the number of military mentors it has placed with the Afghan army and police, Mr. Coderre said. He also suggested NATO already had contingency plans if Canada cut back its combat commitment.

The problem with what NATO had been doing in Afghanistan is that the military alliance "lacked cohesion," he said. "How can we get all countries to participate?"

Canada switched its forces to a combat role in Kandahar from a relatively quiet peacekeeping mission in Kabul in February, 2006. But only the U.S., Britain, Romania and the Netherlands also signed on for combat.

Unless extended by Parliament, the current Canadian mission is to end in February, 2009. While favouring a new combat mandate if Parliament approves, the Harper government has sent mixed signals about exactly what Canada might do next. It has repeatedly pledged to have a full Parliamentary debate about the question.

Afghanistan a mission of baby steps

Diplomats and military commanders understand clearly Afghanistan is a nation that won't be rushed

October 08, 2007 - Bruce Campion-Smith, OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

KANDAHAR–Haji Agha Lalai is an elder statesman in Panjwaii district, touted as a possible candidate for the Afghan parliament.

He's an influential man who has seen foreigners come and go in his country. And he has advice for the Canadians in his troubled region: undertake more development projects to help "change the thinking of the local people."

In a mission that has cost the lives of 71 Canadian soldiers and at least $500 million in aid dollars, Canada is still fighting for the hearts and minds of the Afghan population.

Afghans are not indifferent to the Canadians. Soldiers walking down the main street of a Panjwaii district town hear shop owners voice their appreciation for improved security, for pushing back insurgents.

But Afghans know the battle is not won yet and so are reticent about offering their wholehearted support to a foreign force that might not be here in two years.

That's why President Hamid Karzai is keen, desperate even, to ensure Canadian forces stay in Afghanistan after their current commitment expires in February 2009.

"The presence of Canada is needed till Afghanistan is able to defend itself. That day is not going to be in 2009," Karzai told Canadian journalists at a recent news conference clearly staged to deliver a message back home.

"Look around and see that the enemy is not yet finished, not yet defeated."

Scholars have made careers analyzing the tortured history of this place. But a visit of a few weeks is enough to get a feel for Canada's mission – and its pace.

This is a country that won't be rushed. Despite the optimism of politicians in Ottawa, there's no false hope here among diplomats and military commanders. Just a clear-eyed understanding of how hard the job will be.

With Canadians fighting to regain ground held just last year and development efforts hampered by tenuous security, gains are usually described in terms of "baby steps."

"We should not expect that this is going to turn on a dime," says Lt.-Col. Bob Chamberlain, head of the Canadian reconstruction team in Kandahar province.

Ottawa has devoted 2,500 troops to this mission, so many that it has no spare capacity to send a force anywhere else in the world. As well, the federal government is pumping more than $100 million in aid dollars each year into Afghanistan.

A veteran government observer familiar with Canada's mission here says both development and military commitments are badly overstretched. Both need to be cut in half if Canada hopes to sustain its commitment in the long term, said the official, who asked not to be named.

"I'm hopeful, not optimistic. This place deserves the commitment. It's long term. Do democracies have patience?"

The federal Conservatives say they plan to decide the future of the mission next spring. Between now and then, the mission faces some key challenges, including:

Afghan security forces Ottawa is touting the growing capabilities of the Afghan National Army and the police force as Canada's exit strategy. Soon, the government storyline goes, Canada will be able to hand over responsibility for security to the Afghans and withdraw gracefully. Perhaps. But there's no hope of the Afghans being ready for that job this year, probably not even next year.

The police force remains a ragtag array of underpaid, poorly trained officers with deeply rooted problems of corruption. Gains have been made in Kandahar city but in rural Panjwaii and Zhari police officers are killed at a disturbing rate.

The army is in better shape, thanks to three years of mentoring by the Canadians but has yet to plan and conduct a major operation on its own and relies heavily on the Canadians for backup.

Parliament Hill The voices in Ottawa don't come close to conveying the complexity of the situation on the ground here.

The New Democrats' call for the troops to be brought home immediately ignores the question of security in Kandahar when the Canadians pull up stakes.

The Liberals, who sent the troops to Kandahar originally, say they'll agree to a new mission for Canadians, but only if troops are shielded from combat. That's an unrealistic proposal in an insurgency where there is no defined front line.

And the Conservatives are guilty of gilding the lily at times with their rosy updates of development work that downplay the tenuous state of security.

Too few troops The military base at the Kandahar Airfield is a sea of uniforms from countries around the world – but few of them actually venture out to confront insurgents.

That has left the troops who do venture out – such as the Canadians, the Dutch and the British – stretched thin and carrying a heavy load. There have been repeated calls for nations to send more troops and equipment.

Too few Diplomats United Nations workers in Kabul admit there are not enough of them to help the Karzai government establish a working administration. Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier last month urged the UN to appoint a special envoy with international stature to raise awareness of the UN-mandated Afghanistan mission and co-ordinate security and development efforts.

Canadians know lots about the military mission but not so much about diplomatic or development programs. That's largely because military officials are given wide latitude to talk publicly, but officials with departments such as Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency are kept on a short leash by the Prime Minister's Office.

Afghanistan: Ring Road's Completion Would Benefit Entire Region

By Ron Synovitz

October 10, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Financing is in place and construction is expected to begin soon on the last remaining section of Afghanistan's "Ring Road," a highway that loops the rugged mountain terrain and sparsely populated countryside to connect its major cities.

The Ring Road was conceived in the 1960s as a highway that makes a giant circle within the country to link its major cities. Secondary roads are meant to link provincial capitals and smaller towns to the Ring Road -- much like the spokes of a bicycle wheel.

But despite its name, the Ring Road has never been a proper ring. War broke out in the 1970s before the northern section of the Ring Road was built. And in the decades of fighting that followed, large stretches of the existing 3,000-kilometer highway fell into disrepair or were destroyed.

A main focus of internationally backed reconstruction since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001 has been to repair the existing highway and finish building the remainder of the Ring Road.

But it wasn't until October 2 that a loan to finance the final section of unbuilt highway was announced by the Asian Development Bank -- a stretch passing though mountainous terrain in northwestern Afghanistan near the border with Turkmenistan.

"We're providing $176 million, along with the government of Afghanistan, which is also contributing $4 million," says Brian Fawcett, the Asian Development Bank's country director for Afghanistan:

"And this will be for the road from Bala Murghab to Leman, which is 143 kilometers," he adds. "This section of road will almost complete the Ring Road. The government of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Development Bank will do [the financing for the 50-kilometer section] from Leman to Amalick. And then the complete Ring Road will be finished."

The bank describes the Ring Road as the "backbone" of Afghanistan's transportation network, and its completion will be a major milestone for internationally backed reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

But Fawcett tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan it is unlikely the work will be finished by the proposed deadline in the Afghan National Development Plan, a strategy that was approved at a conference of international donors in London in April 2006.

"First, the [Afghan] government has to recruit the consultant for the project. And then, after the consultant finalizes the design of the road, then the contractor will be recruited," Fawcett says. "So I think that the work will start, perhaps, in the first quarter of 2008. And the work will take 2 1/2 years to complete."

Fawcett says the security of consultants and construction workers is a concern that the Asian Development Bank has raised with the Afghan government. He says the Interior Ministry has responded by sending additional police to Badghis Province and the northeastern part of Herat Province, where the work is to take place.

Niklas Swanstrom is a specialist on Central Asia and director of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, an independent think tank in Stockholm, Sweden. He says that the completion of the Ring Road will be a major benefit not only to Afghanistan but also to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

"The reason why it hasn't been completed is, first of all, financing. It's tremendously difficult to get good finances. And then, of course, the political situation has been very unstable. So even if you had financing, you would have a problem securing the actual construction of the Ring Road," Swanstrom says.

"The consequences of this have been very negative," he says. "Afghanistan has been a crucial factor in the whole economic equation of Central Asia. There have been estimates, for example, that the impact of [completing the Ring Road along with] all the regional network of trade would be 771,000 full-time jobs. It would be immense. It would be very positive."

Swanstrom sees the Afghan Ring Road within the larger scope of infrastructure and transportation projects aimed at improving trade ties in the entire region.

"Financially, it will be very important if Afghanistan can act as a link for the Central Asian states toward" a seaport like Karachi in Pakistan, he says. "Trade could increase tremendously. I don't think the impact will be that large in the initial stage.

"You have to connect Afghanistan with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and, more importantly, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan -- because that's really where the economy comes from. Then you have the Persian-speaking crescent [of Iran, northern Afghanistan, and Tajikistan]. For the Iranians, I don't think we should exaggerate the geopolitical impact of this network. On the contrary, I think the Iranians will struggle very hard to actually get the same benefits as many other countries."

Swanstrom says that with no railroad network in Afghanistan, completion of the Ring Road will aid Afghans enormously. But he says there are other benefits than simply making overland travel within the country easier.

"Afghanistan's exports will increase by 54 percent over the next five years," Swanstrom says. "Very much of that is through agriculture. And you will see quite substantial job creation -- long-term employment. It is also an increase in freight. Transit trade. Cotton going from Uzbekistan into Afghanistan and shipped all over the world. And, of course, if you can have oil and gas transit through Afghanistan, that's where the major gains will be made for Afghanistan in particular. "

But although Swanstrom says the development of transit corridors is "all good," he says there is one potentially negative aspect of completing the Ring Road and tying it into the highway networks of neighboring countries -- the possible strengthening of organized criminal groups in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

"With this new infrastructure development, it will be much easier for the Afghani drug lords to transport heroin and opium from Afghanistan to the rest of the region. That's something that needs to be dealt with because it's going to be very, very difficult to handle it," he says.

"We need to construct new institutions -- legal institutions. We have to strengthen the police, the military, the drug-enforcement agencies. We have to make sure that judges and political leaders are uncorrupt," he adds. "That's a huge commitment not only from Afghanistan and the Central Asian states, but also from the international community. And we haven't done much. We're looking at the restructuring of much of the Afghan institutions. That's fundamental."

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Ayaz Barhar contributed to the story from Kabul.)

Political Paralysis Lets Pakistan Militants Thrive

By CARLOTTA GALL – NY Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 9 — Three days of fierce fighting have convulsed Pakistan’s tribal areas and exposed what tribal elders, politicians and local officials concede is the government’s lingering paralysis in dealing with the threat from Al Qaeda and Taliban militants spilling out of the region.

The fighting, the heaviest in more than four years, has left at least 45 Pakistani soldiers dead as pro-Taliban militants and foreign fighters mount a vengeful campaign on all law enforcement in the area.

The clashes come on top of months of deteriorating security after the militants tore up peace agreements with the government in July. Since then, more than 250 members of the security forces have been killed in sustained attacks, the highest losses since the 1970s.

The upheaval underscores complaints by a range of officials that the government has been so absorbed in securing the re-election of Gen. Pervez Musharraf as president that it allowed the security threat to go unchecked.

Even after General Musharraf’s re-election on Saturday, parliamentary elections and wrangling between the president and an incoming civilian government could allow the situation in the tribal areas to drift even further, they warn.

“The whole system of government is in jeopardy and the people are confused,” Mehmood Shah, a retired brigadier who served as secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas until 2005, said of the region.

“The government is absolutely paralyzed,” he added. “It will take some time for them to turn the tables.”

Today, by nearly all accounts, the government is caught in a double bind. After several years of trying to crush the militants, the government entered into a peace agreement with them and with the local tribes playing host to them in 2006. Those accords have now broken down.

At the same time, the government has concluded that it cannot defeat the militants with arms alone, officials say. The public, too, is against another military campaign, which it sees as serving an American agenda, not Pakistani interests.

Western officials, meanwhile, insist that if left alone, the militants and their Qaeda allies are more dangerous, because they can exploit the freedom of movement and the territory to train and plot more attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and even farther abroad.

The lack of focus and leadership in the government has left the police, bureaucrats, tribal officials and the military reluctant to act, Mr. Shah said, even in the face of increasingly brazen assaults. Clashes are reported almost daily, he said, and the attacks are almost always initiated by the militants.

“They are definitely reactive, not proactive,” a Western defense official said of the Pakistani military, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Pakistani Army still has a long way to go in training and adopting a new counterinsurgency doctrine, another Western military official added.

The militants and their Qaeda allies have taken advantage of the disarray to spread their attacks and influence on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The fierce fighting of the past few days, which has included bombing by the Pakistani air force, has occurred in North Waziristan, where local pro-Taliban militants and members of Al Qaeda have carved out a stronghold for themselves since 2001.

And the militants continue to dispatch fighters, roadside bombs and suicide bombers to Afghanistan, according to Seth Jones of the Rand Corporation, who received security briefings from NATO and United States forces on a recent visit there.

They are also able to run an effective propaganda operation and to shelter high-level Qaeda members, including Ayman al-Zawahri, who is believed to be in or around the tribal region of Bajaur, he said.

Not least, the militants have sought to counter recent steps taken by the government to bolster local security forces and stem the militants’ influence in the neighboring North-West Frontier Province and beyond.

In fact, the militants have increasingly expanded from their early aim of fighting United States forces in Afghanistan to waging an insurgency inside Pakistan itself.

Even as a bloody siege between armed militants and security forces unfolded in July at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the capital, tribesmen mounted numerous attacks on military checkpoints and police positions across the frontier area.

They then reached deep into the heart of the military and intelligence establishment with suicide bombings against a busload of intelligence personnel and at the mess hall of a special forces camp near Islamabad on Sept. 13.

Those who try to stand up to the militants face intimidation, or worse. On Sept. 15, Maulana Hassan Jan, a well-known cleric who was a mentor to many Taliban, was shot and killed in the frontier city of Peshawar after denouncing suicide bombing.

The crowd that turned out to mourn the cleric filled a stadium. Yet the mourners turned their ire on the government officials present, including the interior minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, forcing them to leave.

Still, the government prefers to pursue negotiations with the militants rather than fight them, said the governor of the North-West Frontier Province, a retired general, Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai.

“Obviously our priority is peace, because if there is no peace there would be no development,” he said in a recent interview in the governor’s colonnaded residence in Peshawar.

The government wanted to renegotiate the peace agreements, introducing more stringent measures, and to win over the militants and tribespeople with the promise of a nine-year, $2 billion development program.

The governor said the military would be used where required. But he expressed the hope that once local security forces were better trained and equipped, the government could withdraw the military from the tribal areas, deploying troops only on the Afghan border.

For months, General Musharraf and his officials have talked similarly of the need for a comprehensive approach that involves political engagement, development and an increase in local security forces.

In support, the United States has pledged $750 million over five years in development assistance and is helping to train local security forces, the Frontier Corps and the Frontier Constabulary.

Javed Iqbal, the additional secretary for the tribal areas, also advocates negotiation over military action. “The use of force is not going to take us anywhere,” he said.

Yet the most important element — political engagement — is lacking, many in the region say. “If there is sincerity, the tribal elders and the people can mediate and find a negotiated solution to this problem,” said Malik Khan Marjan, a tribal elder from North Waziristan who heads a council of elders. “But there are no talks, only fighting,” he said.

Mr. Marjan heads the 67-member elected council for his region of North Waziristan. In all, there are 476 elected council members from the seven tribal regions.

Mr. Marjan said the government had never bothered with the council, and the council members had never met with the president, except once to attend a speech. “He did not have time to hear us,” Mr. Marjan said. “We had no chance to tell him what we think. Things are deteriorating and there are no decisions, no consultations.”

The predicament facing the government is illustrated by the capture on Aug. 30 of about 250 soldiers. The man holding them is Baitullah Mehsud, a veteran of fighting in Afghanistan. He is wanted for dispatching militants across the Afghan border and running militant training camps, according to the governor, Mr. Orakzai. He said the government was demanding that Mr. Mehsud free the soldiers. Tribal elders had negotiated the freedom of 32 men, and last week, Mr. Orakzai said he was hopeful they could negotiate an end to the ordeal.

Only days later, Mr. Mehsud dumped the bullet-ridden bodies of three soldiers at a gas station, after demanding that the military cease operations in the area.

Iran: New air base on border with Afghanistan

Tehran, 10 Oct. (AKI) - Iran has inaugurated a new air force base in Birjand, close to its eastern border with Afghanistan. The new Ghaem al Mohammad air base is reportedly equipped with the latest generation radar system and will play host to a squadron of Iranian fighter jets.

"This base will serve to respond to any attempt by the enemy to attack the Islamic republic," said General Ahmad Mighani. "Our enemies must know that if they attempt to attack our country, we will teach them a lesson they will never forget," he said.

AFGHANISTAN: Rate of refugee return slows ahead of winter

KABUL, 10 October 2007 (IRIN) - Fewer Afghan refugees are returning home from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan than in the summer when uptake of a temporary repatriation assistance programme was at its peak, especially in Pakistan.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of returnees from Pakistan is currently averaging 200 per day, down from a peak of 12,000 per day in April.

The UNHCR return assistance programme, which provides every returnee from Pakistan and Iran with about US$100, will be suspended from 31 October 2007 to 1 March 2008 in Pakistan but continue throughout the winter in Iran, Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN.

“During September 16,718 Afghans returned home from Pakistan and Iran with UNHCR assistance, a 16 percent decrease on the month of August and a 25 percent decrease compared to July,” the UNHCR said in a statement on 9 October. A decrease in returns is normal in winter when many roads become impassable.

In the last seven months, the UNHCR has assisted over 347,500 Afghan refugees to return home from neighbouring Pakistan, but over two million Afghans still live as registered refugees in that country.

Since the UNHCR launched its voluntary repatriation of Afghans in 2002, over 3.2 million of them have been assisted to return to their country, according to the UNHCR.

There are over 900,000 registered Afghans in Iran who can legally stay in the country. Only 5,500 have voluntarily returned home so far this year, UNHCR statistics show.

The numbers of Afghans returning from Iran voluntarily have reduced to an average of 40-50 per day, the UNHCR’s Farhad told IRIN.

A substantial number of Afghans live and work in Iran illegally, but their exact numbers are unknown. The Iranian authorities have deported tens of thousands of them in the last six months and have vowed to expel more.

“We have received a note from Iranian officials that about 20,000 Afghans will be deported from Iran in the very near future,” Sultan Ahmad Baheen, an Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, told IRIN on 9 October.

Afghan officials and some aid workers say the country faced a humanitarian challenge and the government did not know how to respond when thousands of Afghans were expelled from Iran in April and May this year.

The UN and aid organisations have repeatedly called on Iran to deport illegal Afghans in a humane manner and gradually. Afghanistan’s capacity to absorb and effectively reintegrate its citizens returning from outside is limited, the UNHCR said.

Japan opposition refuses to budge on Afghan mission

by Kyoko Hasegawa - October 10, 2007 - TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's main opposition leader on Wednesday refused to budge in his bid to end a controversial naval mission supporting US-led troops in Afghanistan, saying Tokyo should not simply follow Washington.

Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan which took control of one house of parliament in July elections, said his party may propose alternative plans on troop deployments overseas.

"After the ruling coalition has submitted its new bill, we may submit our own bill to show our opinions on the matter," Ozawa told reporters.

"Joining a military operation just because the United States tells us, that's not a consensus of the international community nor a consensus of the Japanese people," he said.

The latest opinion poll, however, showed more voters supported extending the mission than ending it and that recently installed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda enjoyed strong backing.

Japan refuels US and other coalition ships and planes in the Indian Ocean under legislation allowing participation in the "war on terror" passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The new premier has vowed to renew the deployment, saying Japan must take responsibility in international security. His predecessor, Shinzo Abe, resigned last month citing the opposition's intransigence on the issue.

The legislation is set to expire on November 1. Chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said Wednesday that the government would have a new bill ready around October 17.

The government has proposed a compromise to restrict refuelling to ships policing the Indian Ocean, not forces engaged in Afghanistan. Ozawa said the opposition would wait to see the government bill before commenting.

The opposition leader, famed as a shrewd political strategist, is pushing Fukuda to call an early general election.

Ozawa is a former ruling party stalwart who has long supported revising the pacifist constitution, which was imposed by the United States after World War II. He said he was not opposed to Japan taking part in "risky missions" so long as they were authorised by the United Nations. He has proposed sending troops to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations in Sudan.

Ozawa dismissed government criticism that his own proposals would violate the constitution, saying: "Japan agreed to the UN Charter and joined the UN."

The opposition grilled Fukuda in parliament Wednesday, questioning his statement when he was chief government spokesman in 2003 that Japan had not provided fuel to the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier.

Japanese defence authorities one day later confirmed the refuelling.

"I apologise for the problem in collecting information," Fukuda, a 71-year-old centrist veteran, told a parliamentary committee. "We will disclose information promptly and correctly in the future."

He again denied that Japanese fuel for operations in Afghanistan was diverted to the war in Iraq. The USS Kitty Hawk was deployed for operations in both countries.

A survey published Wednesday by the best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun showed that 49 percent of voters supported extending the naval mission, with 37 percent opposed.

The newspaper, which interviewed 3,000 voters nationwide, said that Fukuda's cabinet enjoyed approval of 59.1 percent -- double the rate for Abe's government before he quit last month.

No ordinary trip: Visiting Afghanistan

By CASSIE BIGGS, Associated Press Mon Oct 8, 3:30 PM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan - I'm at least 40 minutes into my flight — glass of white wine in one hand, book in the other — when it suddenly dawns on me that this is no ordinary vacation: I'm going to Afghanistan.

Like many people, my image of Afghanistan has been shaped by what I read and see in the media. Women in blue burqas, fields of opium poppies, fierce-looking turbaned men, and tanks churning through dust.

That may well be true, but what I found on a weeklong trip was a surprisingly green country with incredibly welcoming people. Often peeping from beneath those enveloping burqas I saw strappy high-heeled sandals and crimson-colored toenails.

I climbed the ruins of 12th century citadels, sacked by Genghis Khan, sat in sunlight beneath a canopy of apricot and apple trees in the Panjshir Valley drinking cardamom tea, and explored the empty niches of 5th century Buddhas famously blown up by the Taliban in Bamiyan.

With suicide attacks in the capital, kidnappings of foreigners and a resurgence of the extremist Taliban in the south, Afghanistan doesn't get many tourists. Most Western countries advise against all but necessary travel to Afghanistan, while some countries have outright banned it. The U.S. Department of State warns of "an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens ... throughout the country."

Still, a few travel agencies, many run by former backpackers, will arrange trips there.

For me, it had become a tradition to do something unusual on my birthday. I have chased hammerhead sharks in Baja, Mexico, explored the jungle lairs of Indonesia's former separatist guerillas and hung out with street kids in China. This year it was Afghanistan.

After e-mails with friends who lived there, security agencies and by chance, the son of a former Afghan diplomat, I had a loose itinerary: Kabul, Bamiyan, and the Panjshir Valley.

Due to concerns about kidnappings, and lack of a tourism infrastructure, independent travel is not easy or recommended, especially for a single Western woman.

So I had two choices - either a foreign-run travel agency in Afghanistan, spending upward of $1,000 a day, or I could hire a driver for a third the cost.

A friend recommended her driver, Shahabudin Sultani, a soft-spoken Bamiyan native dressed impeccably in a traditional cream Afghan tunic and trousers. And so at 6:30 a.m., we loaded bottles of water and bags of almonds and apricots into a minivan for the journey.

Although it's only 150 miles from Kabul, the drive to Bamiyan takes over 10 hours along a dirt path that winds high up into the snowcapped Koh-i-Baba mountains before dipping down into a verdant valley. A faster route — from the south — is not recommended as it passes through some risky regions.

Dotted along the red craggy cliffs are dozens of fortress-like mud and brick houses with high walls pockmarked by rocket and bullet holes, ubiquitous reminders of war.

Children run along the path switching at donkeys loaded up with bails of wheat or herding goats past rusting Soviet tanks and abandoned mortar guns, some of which have been used as makeshift dams or bridges.

War has been a constant in Afghanistan, as regional powers battled for control of the territory often described as the cockpit of Asia, and the Bamiyan Buddhas were silent witness to much of it.

The two statues, at 174 feet and 125 feet, were hewn out of the red cliffs when Bamiyan, on the fabled Silk Road that linked Rome to China, was a thriving center of Buddhism and culture.

They survived the violent introduction of Islam in the 7th century, although Islamic leaders ordered that their golden-gilded faces and hands be sliced off. They escaped the murderous rage of Genghis Khan who lost his favorite grandson at the battle for Bamiyan's Red City in 1221, and razed the entire valley in revenge.

During the decade-long resistance against the Soviets, the honeycomb network of 2,000 caves that surround the statues housed thousands of war refugees.

Then came the Taliban, which initially promised to preserve the Buddhas, then blew them up in 2001 to an international outcry.

I stayed at the Roof of Bamiyan hotel in a yurt — small round huts made of mud and straw and covered inside with Afghan carpets.

The next morning, my birthday, as I watched the sun cast a honey hue across the patchwork valley of green and beige fields, it was not difficult to imagine how the Buddha's gold and jewel encrusted face would have shimmered as it caught the light.

After a breakfast of warm flaky Afghan bread, scrambled eggs and scented black tea, I headed to the village for a better look.

Although Bamiyan is one of the safest places in Afghanistan, I was careful to wrap up, covering my arms and legs and twisting a scarf around my head. I picked my way down the hill and through the dusty pathways of the village, drawing few stares and the occasional smile.

The towering niches, although empty, are more impressive close up. It's still possible to see the outline of the statues, and some parts remain, as if in bas relief, although most is in rubble.

UNESCO and Afghan archaeologists have spent years collecting and cataloguing fragments of the statues and stabilizing the cliff side.

For $3 — plus a negotiable "tax" — it's possible to explore the caves. I'm escorted by an earnest young Afghan archaeological student to the smaller statue, Buddha's wife.

As we approach a locked wooden door in the base of the cliff, my guide begs off, saying he wants to attend a party, and leaves me with a set of heavy keys, a yellow hard hat and a warning that "some parts are still unstable."

I inch my way up a narrow, dark and crumbling staircase that branches out on several levels into empty caves, some of which bear a hint of the elaborate paintings and frescoes that once decorated the now-musty interior.

The walls crumble beneath my touch. I step gingerly on the decaying floor, acutely aware that mobile phone reception is sketchy here and shouts for help would be futile. When at last I reach the top, I sit for a while in a Buddha-shaped cave where the devout once came to pray, looking out over green fields of wheat and potatoes to the snowy mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Most people leave after seeing the Buddhas, but there are other sites worth seeing, including the lakes of Band-i-Amir, five pools of sapphire blue set amid desert canyons, and the ruins of the Red City and the City of Screams, which were built in the 12th century and razed by Genghis Khan a century later.

The Red City, or Shahr-i-Zohak, sprawls out over three levels atop a red cliff mountain at the entrance to the Bamiyan valley. Sultani, my driver, used to play there as a boy, and practically skips his way to the top following our mandatory military guide, as I scramble up the path behind, clinging to parts of the citadel's fortifications and keeping an eye out for red-painted rocks, an indication of land mines.

Both Shahr-i-Zohak and Shahr-i-Gholghola, the City of Screams, were heavily mined during decades of war, although most have been cleared.

For my last adventure in Bamiyan, we head to Dragon's Valley, a mountain ridge in a valley of undulating anonymous gray sand dunes. Legend has it that a dragon terrorized locals, demanding each day a young girl and the occasional camel to eat. Until that is, Islam's dragon slayer Hazrat Ali split the beast in two with his sword leaving a fissure 3 feet wide at some points, and sparking a mass conversion to Islam.

The ribbed mountain does look like a dragon's scaly back. Inside the chasm you can hear the dragon's mournful rumbling - bubbling spring water streaming like tears from the dragon's eyes.

Over the next few days I pack in a day trip to the Panjshir Valley, visiting the marble and stone tomb of Ahmad Shah Masood, a resistance hero who was assassinated by al-Qaida a few days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The tomb is perched high on a hill with a commanding view of the valley he defended from Soviet troops.

I'm picked up early the next day by Great Game Travel company for a daylong tour of Kabul, the capital, that jumps between the 5th century city wall to 16th century Babur Gardens to the buzzing Kabul market. Here fighting cocks are sold for $100 each, and women in sky-blue burqas teeter on high heels as they jostle to buy tea and spices.

Standing on a hill looking over the city, our guide Ghulam Sakhi Danishjo points out the Kabul stadium where the Taliban once carried out public executions.

What happens there now? "Oh," said Sakhi, "now, they just play soccer."

[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.]