In this bulletin:

• Gains for Afghanistan's children imperiled by recent violence – UNICEF
• Afghan children on the brink of catastrophe: UNICEF
• 140, Uzbeks, Afghans arrested from Pak-Afghan border
• Karzai demands fewer airstrikes in Afghanistan-media
• NATO nations scrape together reinforcements for Afghanistan
• 2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
• Taliban kill Australian commando in Afghanistan
• Australia urges Europe to do more in Afghanistan
• National interests hamper NATO in Afghanistan: Gates
• NATO 'losing' fight in Afghanistan
• PM dismisses Hillier's Afghan assessment
• Pakistan’s intelligence agencies did not create Taliban: former Taliban FM
• Attack targets pro-Taliban cleric
• MEPs want to turn Afghan opium into painkillers
• Opinion: Time to Shift Focus in Afghanistan - DW 
• War without end
• Afghan Apprehensions
• Central Asian states to meet on deeper interaction
• Farah Provincial reconstruction team funds $1.7 million bridge
• School opening creates space for more than two thousand students

Gains for Afghanistan's children imperiled by recent violence – UNICEF

UN News Centre - 25 October 2007 – Violence, a decaying health system and unabated attacks on schools in Afghanistan are combining to hamper progress for the country's young people, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned today.

The agency's “Child Alert Afghanistan” report, launched in Geneva and Kabul, is based on the findings of Martin Bell, UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies, who made a a two-week trip to Afghanistan in July and August.

“Despite a multitude of plans and proposals, projects and partners, and the support of many countries working to bring peace and progress to Afghanistan, I have witnessed a spike in insecurity that is causing more and more schools to close and more and more children to be killed,” said Mr. Bell.

“Families, especially in the South, are caught in the middle of this crossfire, out of reach of humanitarian assistance. Simply put, it is make or break time for Afghanistan's children.”

As conflict engulfs large parts of Afghanistan, Child Alert underscores the need to pull together the security necessary to allow children to go to school. Forty-four school attacks occurred in the first six months of 2007. Girls' schools and at times girls themselves are targeted, stalling or reversing progress in female education made since the fall of the Taliban regime, and causing attendance to drop significantly in secondary school.

Health workers lack access to over 40 per cent of the country, and even those areas that can be reached are under constant threat, according to the report. It argues strongly for greater efforts to address the high maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan, where more than 60 women died daily in 2005 from pregnancy-related causes, while nearly 900 children under five died every day in 2006.

“Being a child in Afghanistan means waking every morning unsure if your walk to school will come under gunfire,” Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF's Country Representative, said at the report's launch in Geneva. “It means perhaps growing up without a mother because she died in the one of the most dangerous countries in the world to give birth.”

On the positive side, the report finds that the UNICEF-supported polio eradication campaign achieved progress; new cases drop from 31 in 2006 to 11 so far this year. More than 15,000 vaccinators have visited the whole country as part of the National Immunization Days organized by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Public Health to reach 7.3 million children.

UNICEF working to help the children of Afghanistan through various initiatives, but the agency's $16.7 million appeal has come up 43 per cent short of its target.

Afghan children on the brink of catastrophe: UNICEF

AFP, 10/26/2007 - GENEVA — Children in Afghanistan are increasingly at risk as the country's security situation deteriorates and the central government's authority is weakened, the United Nations Children's Fund said on Thursday.

The conflict between Taliban insurgents and multinational forces, the increased use of suicide bombings and attacks on schools, mean that Afghanistan's children "are probably more at risk now than they have been since 2002," said Martin Bell, UNICEF UK's ambassador for humanitarian emergencies told journalists.

Bell hailed "great progress" in health, nutrition and education sectors in recent years, but warned the growing conflict between the Taliban and multinational forces risked turning the clock back 10 years.

"Despite a multitude of plans and proposals, projects and partners ... I have witnessed a spike in insecurity that is causing more and more schools to close and more and more children to be killed," Bell said in a new report.

US-led multinational forces invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks to overthrow the Islamist Taliban regime, which provided a base for Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda fighters.

Since 2001, there have been substantial increases in school enrolment with girls now comprising one-third of all pupils, up from around just three percent when the Taliban were in power.

However Bell warned that schools and teachers were facing increasing intimidation and attack by resurgent Taliban forces, who do not believe women should receive an education.

Some 44 schools have been forced to close in the first six months of 2007 alone, he said. Bell also said the greater use of air strikes by US and other NATO forces inevitably increased the risk of civilian casualties.

His report cited the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission as saying that neither side had respected the laws of armed conflict, and that children were now more vulnerable than at any time during the war.

Bell said that there could be "no long-term military solution," thus echoing views expressed by Britain's top military commander.

"There is a common misperception that the issues in Afghanistan ... can be dealt with by military means. That's a false perception," Air Chief Marshall Jock Stirrup told Britain's Sky News television.

140, Uzbeks, Afghans arrested from Pak-Afghan border

CHAMAN: Security forces have arrested 140 Afghan and Uzbek nationals during a search operation in Chaman area near Pak- Afghan border.

DPO Chaman Naseebullah Khilji told Geo News that police on Wednesday arrested 20 Uzbek citizens during a raid at a house near Pak-Afghan border.

Later ATF had cordoned off the border area and 120 more Uzbek and Afghan citizens were arrested in the search operation.

DPO said that majority of arrested persons belonged to Afghanistan’s northern areas. Three agents who helped people in crossing the border were also arrested.

The detainees were shifted to Saddar Police Station in Chaman. Police put on high alert and more raids are underway.

Karzai demands fewer airstrikes in Afghanistan-media

Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:06pm EDT - NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the U.S. military to limit airstrikes against insurgents because they are killing too many civilians, the Afghan leader says in a U.S. television interview.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan fuel resentment of foreign forces and Karzai's Western-backed government. He has repeatedly asked U.S. and NATO troops to do everything they can to minimize civilian deaths.

"The Afghan people understand that mistakes are made. But five years on, six years on, definitely, very clearly, they cannot comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power," Karzai told CBS program "60 Minutes," in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, according to a partial text released by the network.

Asked if he wanted less use of air power, Karzai said, "Absolutely. Oh, yes, in clear words and I want to repeat that, [there are] alternatives to the use of air force and I will speak for it again through your media."

More than 370 civilians have been killed this year in NATO operations against militants, according to estimates by aid workers and Afghan officials.

NATO disputes this figure but acknowledges some civilians have been killed, mostly when Taliban insurgents attack from civilian houses.

Karzai faces growing criticism over rampant corruption, insecurity, booming drug cultivation and a failure to raise living standards in the country. He has warned that more civilian casualties would destabilize his government and threaten the continued presence of foreign troops.

NATO nations scrape together reinforcements for Afghanistan

Thu Oct 25, 4:37 AM ET - NOORDWIJK, Netherlands (AFP) - NATO defence ministers resumed talks Thursday after drumming up fresh troops for Afghanistan despite reluctance, led by Germany, to deploy to dangerous parts of the country.

On the final day of an informal meeting in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the ministers were set to tackle the thorny issue of the US missile shield with Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov.

They were also to reassess the NATO Response Force (NRF), a contingent of several thousand soldiers able to be rapidly deployed to the world's hot-spots, which is fraying at the edges through lack of troop commitments.

Pressures for the 26 NATO nations to provide forces around the world, in places like Darfur, Chad, Lebanon and Kosovo, have weighed heavily on allied efforts to find troops for volatile southern Afghanistan.

"I wouldn't say I am satisfied but today was considerably more positive than I anticipated," US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said late Wednesday, after leading the charge for more combat troops and equipment.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is trying to help spread the influence of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government across the country and encourage reconstruction.

But it has faced stiff resistance, notably in the south and east, from Taliban-led insurgents, and civilian and military casualties have begun to wear away at public support for the mission.

Officials declined to speak on the record about which countries had made offers as those pledges must be confirmed at a so-called "force generation conference" in Belgium next month.

But an alliance diplomat said that nine nations had come forward, and one senior official said that non-NATO nations Albania, Croatia and Georgia were among them, as well as member country Slovakia. If confirmed, the official said, it could mean a total of 1,000 more troops.

France said it would for the first time send dozens of military trainers to southern Afghanistan, where heavy fighting has taken place, according to a defence ministry official.

The trainers, expected to total around 50, would be embedded with Afghan soldiers in the southern province of Oruzgan, where some 1,700 Dutch troops are based.

The diplomat said that such trainers -- members of Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams (OMLTS) -- were the key to NATO handing over security duties to the Afghans and leaving the country sooner.

"Successful training of Afghan forces will be central to any progress," Gates underlined.

Germany has often come under the spotlight for resisting moves, for which it would need parliamentary approval, to redeploy away from the relatively stable north of the country and play a greater combat role.

But German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung insisted that reconstruction work was at least as important as fighting insurgents, and suggested that Berlin's stance is unlikely to change.

"There are 3,200 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and in the south there are 30,000 soldiers. It would be a great error if Germany didn't assume its responsibilities in Afghanistan," he told reporters.

"I don't think these demands for more military engagement are very judicious," he said. "The north must remain our prime focus." A NATO official said some other nations had offered the same argument.

The talks came on a day when the governor of the troubled Khost province on the border with Pakistan survived a Taliban-style suicide attack, one of more than 120 suicide bombings this year blamed on the fundamentalist militia.

2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Insurgents ambushed NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two alliance troops dead and three others wounded, while a coalition airstrike in the south killed 18 suspected militants, officials said Friday.

The eastern clash occurred in the mountainous Korangal Valley in Kunar province late Thursday, after insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons ambushed a joint NATO-Afghan foot patrol, a NATO statement said.

"The combined force repelled the insurgent attack with direct and indirect fire and close-air support," the statement said.

Several AK-47 assault rifles, used by insurgents, and the remains of at least one militant were recovered from the area of the battle, it said.

"The rough terrain in this mountainous region of Afghanistan and the time of day the engagement occurred made it difficult to confirm additional insurgent casualties," the statement said.

The wounded troops were transported to a military medical facility and were in stable condition.

NATO did not identify the nationalities of the dead and wounded soldiers. Most of the troops in that part of the country are American.

In the south, an airstrike on a group of Taliban fighters on Friday left 18 militants dead in the mountainous area of Daychopan district, in Zabul province, said Fazel Bari, Daychopan's district chief.

The strike follows a U.S.-led coalition and Afghan attack on a gathering of another group of Taliban militants on Wednesday in the same district that killed 10 insurgents.

Authorities recovered the dead bodies of 18 militants killed in the Friday strike, which also included foreigners, Bari said.

U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led troops could not immediately confirm that any airstrikes had taken place in that area. Casualty figures from remote battles are hard to verify independently.

Afghanistan this year has seen the heaviest fighting since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. In all, more than 5,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence, most of whom were militants, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Taliban kill Australian commando in Afghanistan

Thu 25 Oct 2007, 11:01 GMT By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian special forces soldier has been killed fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, Australian defence officials said on Thursday.

The soldier was shot and killed while taking part in Coalition military operations against Taliban bases in a valley in Uruzgan province, the Australian Defence Force commander told reporters in Canberra.

"This is an operation where we are taking the fight to the Taliban," said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. "It is absolutely essential that we get in there and deal with them in their sanctuaries, and that's the sort of operation that was under way when this happened."

Houston refused to reveal details of the clash or which Coalition forces were involved as the operation was continuing.

The soldier was the second Australian killed in a fortnight in the restive province. His death comes amidst campaigning for a November 24 national election marked by popular opposition to Canberra's military role in both the Iraq war and Afghanistan.

Conservative Prime Minister John Howard, who this week promised to review the role of Australian combat troops in Iraq as he battles polls showing near-certain defeat, said the SAS commando had died "serving the cause of liberty and freedom".

"He died on active service in a just cause and in a cause to which the Australian government and many other countries around the world remain very firmly committed," Howard said.

Australia, a close U.S. ally, was one of the first nations to commit troops in late 2001 to the U.S.-led war to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda militants from Afghanistan. It also has about 1,500 troops in and around Iraq.

An Australian soldier died on October 8 when his armoured vehicle was demolished by a Taliban roadside bomb, also in Uruzgan, where almost 1,000 Australian soldiers are working with Dutch troops on security and reconstruction.

His death was Australia's first in direct military action in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

Howard's Labor opponent, Kevin Rudd, has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq but keep soldiers in Afghanistan. Opinion polls show Australians are widely opposed to both wars and have begun to lose faith in Howard's tough security stance, which has won him previous elections.

Houston said the SAS soldier had been on patrol when he was severely wounded by small-arms fire. A Coalition medical team flown in by helicopter evacuated him to hospital but was unable to save him.

"Unfortunately despite the best efforts of his mates and the aeromedical team the soldier succumbed to his wounds," he said.

Taliban insurgents have been intensifying their attacks over the past 20 months, the bloodiest period since the U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in Kabul in late 2001.

Last month, three Australians were wounded during a firefight with Taliban forces near Tarin Kowt, also in Uruzgan province.

Australia urges Europe to do more in Afghanistan

SYDNEY (AFP) — Europe shonuld deploy more troops to the dangerous southern regions of Afghanistan, Australia's foreign minister said Friday as the country mourned its second soldier killed there in three weeks.

Alexander Downer said Australia would welcome forces from NATO's European members joining them in southern Afghanistan, the former stronghold of the extremist Taliban regime and now the focus of insurgent attacks.

"Many of the European NATO countries have their troops in the north, which is not free of Taliban activity, but it is a good deal quieter and a less threatening environment," Downer told reporters.

"We would like to see some of the restrictions that European parliaments have placed on their troops lifted."

His comments echo those made earlier this week by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said restrictions on where European troops could be deployed and what they could do were putting NATO soldiers at a serious disadvantage.

Downer was speaking following the death of an elite Australian soldier in southern Uruzgan province who was killed by small arms fire while on patrol.

Special Air Services (SAS) Sergeant Matthew Locke's death late Thursday followed that of trooper David Pearce who died after his vehicle hit a roadside bomb on October 8.

Prime Minister John Howard said despite the likelihood of more fatalities, he would not flinch from his support for the US-led operations in Afghanistan or Iraq, where Australian troops are also serving.

"It always gets difficult in democratic societies if these conflicts go on for a long time," Howard told commercial radio.

"People do grow, with the passage of time, more weary of them; I understand that. But it can't alter the calculation somebody in my position has to make that it's in the national interest."

National interests hamper NATO in Afghanistan: Gates

HEIDELBERG, Germany (AFP) — US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that national restrictions on forces in Afghanistan were putting NATO troops at a "sizeable disadvantage" in the fight against the Taliban.

"Restrictions placed on what a given nation's forces can do and where they can go put this alliance at a sizeable disadvantage," Gates told a conference of European armies in Germany on the final stop of a six-day European trip.

"While there will be nuances particular to each country's rules of engagement, the strings attached to one nation's forces unfairly burden others, and have done real harm in Afghanistan," Gates said.

Gates did not not single out any country for criticism, but his comments appeared to be partly aimed at Germany, which is reluctant to deploy to the south of Afghanistan where most of the insurgent activity is focused.

In a meeting of NATO defence ministers in the Netherlands this week, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung insisted that the reconstruction work carried out by 3,000 German troops in northern Afghanistan was just as important as fighting insurgents.

The ministers offered more troops for Afghanistan, although gave little concrete detail.

In a call for countries to make good on their pledges, Gates said the failure of countries to meet commitments "puts the Afghan mission -- and with it, the credibility of NATO -- at real risk."

Germany is part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that is trying to help spread the influence of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government across the country and encourage reconstruction.

However, the bulk of the troops fighting insurgents in southern Afghanistan are from the United States.

In western Germany, Gates visited the largest US airbase in Europe, Ramstein, and the Landstuhl military hospital where many of US servicemen wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq are treated.

He was then to fly back to Washington after a trip which also took in Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

NATO 'losing' fight in Afghanistan

October 25, 2007 - LONDON, England (CNN) -- NATO has "lost" its military campaign in Afghanistan, a former UN envoy warned Thursday, as Britain's prime minister met his Afghan counterpart and coalition defense ministers struggled with strategies in the war-ravaged country.

Former UN High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Paddy Ashdown warned major instability was inevitable in the region if resurgent Islamic extremists gained the upper hand.

"We have lost, I think, and success is now unlikely," Ashdown told British newspaper the Daily Telegraph. He said the implications for losing in Afghanistan were worse than losing in Iraq.

"It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will have serious implications internally for the security of our own countries and will instigate a wider Shiite-Sunni regional war on a grand scale," Ashdown said, comparing its potential scale to that of World War I or II.

But a NATO spokesman said he was baffled by Ashdown's comments. "I couldn't begin to understand what he's talking about," James Appathurai told CNN.

"We are firmly committed to this, we feel we're on the right track, and we're going to keep going. There is no doubt."

U.S. commanders also believe NATO is winning in Afghanistan, but victory will still take years and requires a long-term commitment of more troops and equipment.

On Thursday Gordon Brown and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met at Downing Street in London.

At a press conference Karzai called for continued commitment from the international community, but added he wants to gradually give more responsibility to the Afghan people.

"Is it time to leave Afghanistan? No. Is it time to add more responsibility to the Afghan people? Yes," Karzai said.

"While that commitment by the international community is necessary and important, we must also concentrate on reducing the burden from the international community and adding more of that to the shoulders of Afghanistan," Karzai said.

Brown called for greater "burden sharing" in the battle against the Taliban.

"We have got the Taliban on the defensive by the combined efforts of everyone," he said.

"We are all determined that Afghanistan should never become a failed state again, and to support the democracy that's been created in that country."

But he added the long-term solutions in the country, which was controlled by the hardline militia for five years until it was ousted in late 2001 by a U.S.-led military coalition, could not rely on defense and security only.

"The military effort must be complemented by the diplomatic effort and the development work that's being done," he said.

His comments come as NATO defense ministers meet in the Netherlands in an attempt to call for more troops to step up the fight against the Taliban.

On Wednesday diplomats said nine of the 26 NATO nations had made new troop offers, the Associated Press reported.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not satisfied with the numbers, although the response had been "more positive" than he had anticipated.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said while there had been offers from some nations, more troops were still needed.

"We have 90 percent filled of what we need, but ... there are still shortages," he told a press conference. The new troop offers are expected to be confirmed next month.

PM dismisses Hillier's Afghan assessment

Prime Minister's Office at odds with top soldier's 10-year time frame to train troops and police

October 26, 2007 - Allan Woods Toronto StaR, Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–The Prime Minister's Office has dismissed the blunt assessment from Canada's top soldier that the task of training Afghanistan's army would take at least five years longer than the 2011 end date the government laid out in last week's throne speech.

Gen. Rick Hillier, speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Kandahar, told reporters it will take "10 years or so" to build a national army that can defend the government against insurgents and potential external threats.

"You don't just build that overnight and the international community will have to be involved for some time to see this through to the final level where you've got a government that works effectively," Hillier said yesterday.

"It's going to take 10 years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number that Afghanistan will have, and make them professional, and let them meet their security demands."

The goal of building up the army from its current count of 45,000 soldiers into a 70,000-strong force has taken on increasing importance among NATO member countries as it becomes politically more difficult to persuade nations to fight against a robust Taliban insurgency. Hillier said it takes about three years to train a battalion of up to 600 troops.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the case in his Oct. 16 throne speech for a two-year extension of the military mission, saying that is what is needed to complete the training of the Afghan army and police.

"Our government believes this objective should be achievable by 2011," the speech said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier yesterday dismissed questions in the House of Commons about the discrepancy between Harper's and Hillier's assessments. However, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, Sandra Buckler, stuck to the early end date, saying it was "achievable" and in line with the Afghanistan Compact, the agreement drawn up between the international community and the Afghan government. In her emailed statement, Buckler did not acknowledge Hillier's comments.

"We have said so many times before, and will continue to emphasize (that) it will be Parliament that will ultimately decide how long our Canadian Forces will remain in Afghanistan," she wrote.

The government has convened a panel chaired by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley to examine the possible options for Canada's future in the war-torn country. After its findings are released in February, MPs will be asked to vote on whether to extend the mission or inform NATO that Canada will not remain in Afghanistan past February 2009.

But the debate is already raging, and the confusion that emerged yesterday set off a nasty debate in Ottawa that had the opposition accusing the government of lying to Canadians.

"This is an enormous discrepancy and it comes down to who's telling the truth about this war," said NDP Leader Jack Layton.

"If what we're saying is that it's an open-ended war in perpetuity then I think a lot of Canadians are going to want to express a real concern about that."

All of the opposition parties said they trusted Hillier's assessment over that of the Conservative government.

"I think that Gen. Hillier is telling the truth and Stephen Harper is in politics. Period," said Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe.

The confusion came at the end of a NATO meeting in the Netherlands aimed at boosting international participation for the coalition's mission in Afghanistan, particularly in the more dangerous southern provinces. Nine countries have reportedly come forward with offers of assistance, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Georgia.

The Germans have offered military trainers, but will restrict them to the more peaceful northern sections of the country. France has put up 50 military trainers bound for Uruzgan province where the Dutch are doing most of the fighting.

Even though Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Bernier, the foreign affairs minister, invested much time drumming up replacements or support for Canadian troops in Kandahar, there were no firm offers to send new troops to one of the country's most dangerous regions.

Pakistan’s intelligence agencies did not create Taliban: former Taliban FM

* Mutawakil doubts Taliban will attend Islamabad peace jirga
* Claims foreign troops needed until Afghans can resolve differences
* Says there is no such thing as ‘moderate’ Taliban

By Daud Khattak

KABUL: A former Afghan diplomat has denied the claim that Pakistani intelligence agencies created the Taliban and aided their government, saying that the “roots of the Afghan problem lie inside Afghanistan”.

Maulvi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, foreign minister in the Taliban regime, told Daily Times from his residence here that, “In my view, the root cause of the problem lies in Afghanistan and a solution must be sought within the war-devastated country.” He said Afghanistan’s internal situation, including the establishment of mini-states by warlords, infighting among mujahideen and widespread lawlessness in the wake of the Soviet pullout had led to the emergence of the Taliban, which had drawn support from all segments of Afghan society.

He said the best way of bringing peace to Afghanistan was to let the Afghans decide their own future without any outside interference. He appreciated the recent peace jirga between Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying the positive beginning could go a long way towards resolving Kabul-Islamabad disagreements. However, he added, the jirga “would not address internal issues facing Afghanistan”.

No Taliban at jirga: He said he did not believe the Taliban would attend the second jirga in Islamabad considering their opposition to the first jirga. He said the US-led coalition’s support was required for successful peace talks with the Taliban. “The US-led coalition, NATO troops and other international backers of the Afghan government must lend support to negotiations. It is the only way out of the existing quagmire,” he said.

He said the existing security situation was dismal, adding that the Afghan government had failed to bring about peace and stability by opting for war. They did not attempt to initiate dialogue after toppling the Taliban regime, he added.

Favours foreign troops: Mutawakil said he favoured the presence of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan until the various Afghan factions were independently able to resolve their problems. He said it would not be a speedy process and would require time and patience. He said the battles between Taliban insurgents and foreign troops would never end and could only lead to bad consequences for Afghanistan. “Whether balanced or otherwise, a war such as the one being fought by NATO and coalition forces in Afghanistan can never reach a logical conclusion,” opined the former minister.

Regarding the replacement of NATO and US troops with a force drawn from Muslim countries, Mutawakil said foreign armies were not the answer to the Afghan imbroglio. He also said neighbouring countries such as China, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia did not have a good history of participation in the region’s peace efforts.

No moderate Taliban: Concerning talks between “moderate” Taliban and some European countries, he said there was no such thing as a moderate Taliban. Seen as a moderate Taliban himself, Mutawakil confessed that the Taliban regime had made several mistakes. However, he said they would amend those in any future set up. He also said he thought that Mullah Omar was still controlling the Taliban. “Considering that no other man inside the movement has challenged him, it is enough to believe he is leading the militia,” he concluded.

Attack targets pro-Taliban cleric

The Associated Press - 10/25/2007 - PESHAWAR - Security forces backed by helicopters attacked a stronghold of a pro-Taliban cleric in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, trading fire with his militant supporters near the scene of a suicide attack that killed 20 people, police said.

The fighting broke out in the village of Imam Dheri where the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, has a sprawling seminary. Earlier this week, some 2,500 paramilitary troops were deployed in the surrounding district of Swat to combat his militant supporters.

Militants in the village and security forces were firing with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and other weapons across the rushing Swat River, witnesses said. Hundreds of residents fled, local shop-owner Rahman Khan said.

Residents said they saw four helicopters hovering over the area and could hear loud explosions from heavy weapons fire. Mohammed Zubair, 35, said he saw one of the choppers firing rockets near Fazlullah's house.

"The security forces attacked a building where Maulana Fazlullah had been appearing in recent days to urge his followers to target the Pakistan army, police and other security forces," said Muhib Ullah, a local police official, in the nearby town of Mingora.

Ullah said it was unlikely Fazlullah was inside the seminary. In an FM radio broadcast on Wednesday, Fazlullah reportedly announced he was shifting to neighboring mountainous district, Kohistan. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Also Friday, militants fired at a helicopter carrying a senior army officer. They missed the target and the helicopter made safe landing, said another local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. The army declined to comment, referring questions to the provincial government.

On Thursday, a suicide car bomber hit a truck carrying Frontier Constabulary troops through a crowded area of Mingora, killing 19 soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 35.

The devastating attack underlined the worsening security situation in Pakistan, particularly in the conservative region near the border with Afghanistan where militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda increasingly hold sway. The rise of militancy in the region has shaken the authority of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terror.

Fazlullah's spokesman denied the cleric's involvement in the bombing, saying he wanted peace in the region and only wanted to impose Islamic law.

Swat, until recently regarded as one of Pakistan's main tourist destinations, lies about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

Fazlullah is the leader of Tehrik Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammed, a banned pro-Taliban militant group which sent thousands of volunteers to fight in Afghanistan during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The blast came a week after the bloody assassination attempt in the southern city of Karachi on ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who plans to start traveling elsewhere in Pakistan on Saturday.

Bhutto, whose grand homecoming to Pakistan after an eight-year exile was shattered by a suicide bombing that killed 136 people, is widely seen as a possible partner of Musharraf in fighting extremism if she fares well in upcoming parliamentary elections.

Bhutto is due to go to her hometown of Larkana on Saturday to pay homage at her father's tomb, about 430 kilometers (270 miles) northwest of Karachi. She also wants to go to Lahore and the capital of Islamabad despite fears of another attack.

Bhutto has blamed Islamic militants for last week's attack on her convoy in Karachi, but also accused elements in the government and security services of complicity in assassination plots, demanding international experts be called in to help in the investigation. The government has rejected such a move.

MEPs want to turn Afghan opium into painkillers

26.10.2007 - 09:26 CET | By Jochen Luypaert

The European Parliament has proposed turning Afghanistan's massive poppy crop into legal opium-based pain-killers in order to enhance stability and reduce poverty in the conflict-torn country.

On Thursday (25 October), MEPs adopted a report which urged member states to devise and submit a plan to the Afghan government aimed at controlling drug production in Afghanistan.

This plan should include a pilot project aimed at turning the illicit production of the narcotic into legal analgesics.

The report also makes an appeal to do more to develop the poorest areas of the country, especially in those not yet producing opium on a large scale, by "carefully and selectively engaging in manual eradication".

In addition, the plan should urge the Central-Asian country to tackle corruption at the "highest levels" of its government, in particular the Ministry of the Interior.

Explaining its motives, the parliament said that "insurgents, warlords, the Taliban and terrorist groups are obtaining their major source of funding through trade in illicit narcotics", thereby endangering the fragile political stability and economic development of the country.

The report, drawn up by Italian liberal MEP Marco Cappato, was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 368 for and 49 against, and has been welcomed by the Senlis Council.

The Paris-based think-tank, which has been trying since 2005 to gain a foothold for the idea, believes that the US-led poppy crop eradication has been largely ineffective.

Furthermore, it is convinced that destroying poppy fields and yields could be counter-productive and give the Taliban a decisive advantage in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.

"By linking the country's two most valuable resources – poppy cultivation and strong local village control systems, the controlled cultivation of poppy for the local production of morphine can be secured," the think tank's Director of Policy Research, Jorrit Kamminga said.

Afghanistan supplies more than 90% of the world's opium, generating about €2.1 billion in revenues a year. The World Bank has estimated that about 40% of Afghanistan's economic activity is opium-related.

Opinion: Time to Shift Focus in Afghanistan - DW  

As the US urged NATO allies to help share the burden of the fighting in Afghanistan at a meeting of defense ministers in Noordwijk this week, DW's Christoph Hasselbach says there's still time to make the mission work.

In Europe, many NATO member countries are getting fed up with demands, primarily from Washington, for greater military involvement in Afghanistan -- demands that have persisted ever since the launch of the NATO mission. For years, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has been doing the rounds of the European capitals lobbying for more troops, helicopters and transport aircraft, only to be fobbed off with vague promises. Germany has finally agreed to extend its broad activities in Afghanistan by deploying reconnaissance tornados, but it refuses to send soldiers to the hostile south of the country. Given the public's waning support for the mission and Berlin's political status quo, this is simply out of the question.

Other countries have pledged a total of several hundred more troops, but it remains to be seen if and when they will ever arrive.

But interestingly, the focus of US demands has shifted. Both De Hoop Scheffer and Afghan President Hamid Karsai are attaching new significance to training the Afghan forces. According to NATO's secretary general, the country needs to stand on its own two feet. Subsequently, German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung announced at Noordwijk in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Oct. 24, that Berlin would be tripling the number of German military trainers in the strife-torn country.

The principle that Afghanistan needs to stand on its own two feet should be the bedrock of NATO's entire Afghanistan mission. But this obvious truth has long been forgotten. Not only the number of military casualties explains the skepticism on the part of the European public. Basically, people feel that the Afghanistan mission is a potentially bottomless pit. Theoretically, no help will ever be enough.

Will the country ever reach a point when it can look after itself? These days, military leaders are intelligent enough to know that naming a date is futile. Observers say that day will never come, but it looks as though NATO forces might remain in the Hindu Kush for years, if not decades. The western countries have little option but to stay put, even if the mission is a waste of human life and taxpayers' money. Clearly, it calls for considerable sacrifice -- every soldier who dies is one too many. But what would be the cost of another fundamentalist government in Afghanistan? Were this ever to happen, NATO would most certainly have been wasting its time.

As it stands, NATO has no choice but to persevere in its Afghanistan project. Whether Germany likes it or not, the project is about fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda. But Washington appears to have recognized that this fight is not only a question of military might.

What is needed is a comprehensive strategy consisting of military deployment, civilian rebuilding and training local security forces. In Iraq, this realization came too late. In Afghanistan, there's still time for NATO to act.

War without end

Oct 25th 2007 | KABUL - From The Economist print edition - Not winning, but not losing either

THE first flakes of snow are settling in the high passes along Afghanistan's eastern border. Within a few weeks the infiltration routes from Pakistan will be blocked to the Taliban, and the upland areas of Afghanistan will become unsuited to guerrilla warfare until the spring thaw.

Despite the Taliban's bold predictions of an apocalyptic “spring offensive” earlier this year, the NATO commanders leading the fight against them feel they were on the front foot during the summer. Since January almost 6,000 people have been killed, a 50% increase on last year. They included 200 NATO soldiers and more than 3,000 alleged Talibs. Insurgent violence is up by 20% on 2006. NATO claims this is largely because its forces have pushed into areas formerly held by the Taliban.

Nonetheless, as NATO's defence ministers gathered this week in Noordwijk in the Netherlands, few observers doubt that the Afghan insurgency has years to run. The Taliban seem to have enough recruits, as well as a refuge and logistical base in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. They also have enough funds, an estimated 40% coming from the drug trade.

“The only way the Taliban can be defeated is with strong Afghan government, strong Afghan security forces and a wedge driven between the insurgents and the people,” says NATO's commander in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill. He accepts that NATO's role is that of stopgap, as billions of dollars go into building the Afghan security forces.

An estimated 20-30% of the population in the south support the Taliban. The number of Taliban fighters lies between 6,000 and 20,000. Some 6,000 Taliban have been reported killed since 2005, with no sign that the loss has dented the insurgents' capability. Western diplomats generally accept that killing Taliban fighters will not, by itself, end the insurgency.

Suicide-bombings were all but unknown in Afghanistan until 2005. This year has seen more than 120. Roadside bombings are also increasing, as the Taliban adopt the tactics that have worked for Iraqi insurgents. NATO commanders claim this is a sign of desperation. British and American special forces have focused on attacking the Taliban leadership. In May they killed the Taliban's ground commander in the south, Mullah Dadullah Akhund. By one estimate, more than 50 mid-level commanders have been killed in Helmand province alone.

Local tribal elders say that the Taliban has taken severe punishment in the south. In Helmand there are reports of a lack of local willingness to fight for the Taliban. There is much talk of prising away “moderate Taliban” through negotiation. But Taliban fighters are now appearing in previously placid provinces such as Herat, Wardak and Badghis. General McNeill admits that NATO's nearly 35,000 troops are not enough to take and hold all parts of the country. In Noordwijk, a number of countries responded to America's plea for more soldiers, not so much for combat but to help train Afghan forces.

The insurgency now has more clearly the form of a single, loosely co-ordinated insurrection spanning western Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. NATO is publicly divided. The Taliban, too, are fragmented. Far from being the monolithic Islamists they were in 2001, they now span various groups with differing motivations. Alongside the diehard madrassa-trained Talibs are growing numbers of foreigners with al-Qaeda links. Less committed, so-called “tier-2” fighters are drawn to fight for many reasons: unemployment; to protect illegal opium crops; or to obey tribal loyalties.

Local politics also infects the insurgency. In Helmand, for instance, the Itzakzai tribe, feeling excluded from power since 2001, are big Taliban supporters. Many Afghans in the south would support any force offering a real hope of security and justice. On those counts, neither the Taliban nor the corruption-plagued Afghan government and its Western backers have yet made a convincing case.

Afghan Apprehensions

Wall Street Journal, 10/26/2007 - It's been six years since the Taliban regime fell, and Afghans are still optimistic about their future, according to a new national poll. But unlike last year's survey, worries about security are mounting. Some 46% of the survey's 6,623 respondents cite "security" as the biggest problem facing Afghanistan, up from 27% last year.

Little wonder, since the Asia Foundation poll was conducted in June, when Afghans had just witnessed a major spate of terrorist attacks. While 86% of respondents rate Kabul's security situation as "very good" or "quite good," the poll shows that Afghans farther out, especially in the west, southwest and south, feel significantly less safe.

Despite the upswing in concern, Afghans do see their security situation improving somewhat. The survey finds that most people perceive ordinary lawlessness, rather than insurgency or terrorism, as their greatest security worry. The percentage who single out the Taliban or warlords as the biggest problem facing the country is down significantly, at 17% this year from 32% last year. On a local level, 66% of Afghans say their security is "very good" or "quite good" in their particular area. Out of those polled, only 18% were victims of crime last year.

Part of that confidence may rest in Afghans' views on their nascent national crime-fighting organizations. Both the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police win extremely high marks from respondents for their perceived probity -- 90% "strongly" or "somewhat" agree that the army is "honest and fair with the Afghan people," and 86% strongly or somewhat agree to a similar statement about the police. Afghans are a resolute and upbeat people, and the country has come a long way since its Taliban days. Some 42% of respondents said they think the country is moving in the "right direction," and another 25% allow that some things are going right even as other things go wrong. Ironically, heightened security concerns may be a sign of progress -- after 30 years dodging bullets, people now think their government should do better.

Central Asian states to meet on deeper interaction

Pajhwok News 10/26/2007 - MANILA - Eight member countries of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme will discuss ways to deepen interaction and integrate more effectively with world markets at a meeting in Tajikistan early next month.

Bringing together ministers and senior officials from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, the two-day sixth ministerial conference of CAREC will be held in Dushanbe from November 2 -3.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said senior representatives of CARECs six-partner multilateral institutions (MI), bilateral and other regional organisations would also attend the meeting. Ministers will likely consider at the conference two wide-ranging initiatives aimed at strengthening cooperation.

According to an ADB press release, the first initiative is the CAREC Transport and Trade Facilitation Strategy, which would support the development of six strategic transport corridors crisscrossing the region, thereby improving access of these economies to each other and to global markets.

The press release said through trade facilitation, member countries would work to enhance the efficiency of trade as well as transparency and awareness of rules, regulations and procedures.

Craig Steffensen, Head of ADBs CAREC Unit, said: These efforts will improve the flow of people and goods around the region and across borders, providing a firm foundation for sustained growth.

Establishment of the CAREC Institute, which will have two main purposes, is second initiative. The first is to enhance the capabilities of CAREC government officials to engage in regional cooperation processes and to plan and implement regional cooperation projects.

Secondly, the press release added, the institute would outline new approaches to regional challenges based on international best practices, empirical research and policy analysis.

Implementation of these strategies and initiatives will result in a substantial deepening of regional economic cooperation and progress toward our long-term vision of Good Neighbours, Good Partners and Good Prospects, Steffensen hoped.

CAREC is an ADB-supported initiative to encourage economic cooperation in Central Asia. Initiated in 1997, the programme to date has focussed on regional initiatives in transport, trade facilitation, trade policy, and energy critical to improving the economic performance of the region and the livelihoods of all people - especially of the poor.

The Manila-based bank is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through pro-poor sustainable economic growth, social development and good governance. In 2006, ADB approved loans and grants for projects totaling $8.5 billion and technical assistance amounting to almost $242 million.

Farah Provincial reconstruction team funds $1.7 million bridge

Source: Government of the United States of America - American Forces Press Service

TOJG VILLAGE, Afghanistan, Oct. 24, 2007 – Construction is under way for a $1.7 million bridge across the Farah Rud River here. The project, funded by the Farah Provisional Reconstruction Team, will employ several hundred Afghans for two years.

Each year, the Farah Rud River rises about six feet, cutting the people in Tojg off from the main road and their farmlands. The nearest crossing is several hours away, in Farah City. Eight to 10 people drown annually attempting to cross the river.

The massive masonry and reinforced concrete bridge will span 300 meters and rise 12 meters over the center span.

The bridge will benefit not only the 10,000 residents of Tojg, but also people from the districts of Shib Koh, Qalay Ka, Lashe Juwain and Farah City.

Due to the size and duration of the project, several local contractors joined forces to create a joint venture company, pooling resources, equipment and manpower for the bridge construction. These companies include Shir Pir Construction Co., Bradaran Noori, Kheyaban Construction Co., and Meihan Parwar.

By reducing travel time to the city center, this link will enhance economic activity, improve response times for the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, and improve access to social services. The link also will extend the reach of the central government, allowing officials to conduct more frequent assessments of the outer districts.

"This project is right up there with some of the major projects we have done in Afghanistan. It's part of the foundation infrastructure, roads and bridges and dams, heavy infrastructure that allows transportation and goods and services to flow. Projects like this are critical for the functioning of the economy," said Navy Lt. j.g. Stephen Ramsey, an engineer at Farah PRT.

School opening creates space for more than two thousand students

Source: Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Behzadi School at Qala-I- Murad Big, District Of Shakerdara, Kabul Province Opened by MRRD Minister H.E. Mohammad Ehsan Zia

Kabul –24 October 2007: A new school in the District of Shakerdara opened during an inauguration ceremony attended by H.E. Mohammad Ehsan Zia, Minister of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

The Behzadi school at Qala-i- Murad Big cost 9.75 million Afs., paid for by MRRD through the National Solidarity Program, will allow more than two thousand girls and boys from 30 nearby villages to attend classes and purse their education. The new school has 16 class rooms, a library, a laboratory, two administration rooms, four store houses, and a first aid room.

During the school inauguration ceremony, H.E. Mohammad Ehsan Zia said: "The main objective of MRRD is to reduce poverty, shorten the gap between urban and rural living, and increase access to social services. Building schools and increasing the potential for improving access to knowledge and education for rural children helps us accomplish this. This is why the MRRD constructs roads, clinics, bridges, and public utility projects beside construction of school."

Currently, in the districts of Charasyab, Shakerdara, and Qarabagh of Kabul province eight schools are under construction, and five schools have recently been completed allowing more than two thousand boys and girls to pursue their education.

Rahmat Gul, a grade six student at Behzadi village of Shakerdara district, said: "Our school lacked sufficient classes. Most of the pupils were reading under trees and tents, and it was very difficult for us during winter and summer to walk long distances to school. Now with the school built, all of the pupils can study, and we won't have to worry about the rain or the heat. I hope all the kids in our country will have similar schools, and not have to walk great distances in the summer and winter."

The MRRD has begun construction on 310 schools at a cost of more than 650 million Afs . Completion of the schools will allow more than 47,000 school-aged children to pursue their education.

Community TV Comes to Helmand

The government has set up a new local television channel, but in a conflict-torn province, there may not be enough electricity to keep it running.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 270, 24-Oct-07)

Finally, some good news for a corner of Afghanistan that has seen more than its share of trouble over the past year: Helmand, the centre of drugs and insurgency, now has its own television station.

In late September, government officials cut the ribbon on Helmand Radio and Television, which will provide local residents with three hours a day of news and information in Pashto, the language of the overwhelming majority here.

While not everyone is convinced that a media outlet answering directly to the provincial governor will be able to provide an objective view of life in the province, most people seems overjoyed that there is at last an alternative to the national TV channels, which sometimes offend local sensibilities.

“At last we don’t have to watch dirty programmes like those on Tolo,” said Nazardin, a resident of the Nawa district. “I am very happy that this television has started. If it works well, with enough programming, I don’t think anyone will watch those other stations any more.”

Local residents have been hungry for television in their own language and about their own culture.

The newer Afghan TV channels like the independent Tolo TV, are extremely popular in the north of the country, but cause resentment in this conservative southern province, which is heavily dominated by Pashtun tribal customs. Tolo’s standard fare of Bollywood movies, news in the other official state language, Dari, and political commentary that pokes fun at many ethnic groups including the Pashtuns have raised hackles in Helmand and other parts of the south.

“I am very happy that people can now watch their own television, in their own culture,” said Rahmatullah, a resident of Chan Jir, a village in the Nad Ali district. “Before this, my children were watching Tolo TV, but now no one will watch that station and its Indian programmes.”

Helmand television was in fact funded mainly by the Indian government, which contributed 100,000 US dollars for construction work and equipment.

The station will broadcast only to an area within a 40-kilometre radius of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, and for the moment will broadcast three hours per day, from six until nine in the evening.

The government has ambitious plans for the station.

“This television will put programmes on air that will encourage the people of Helmand to have peace, security, and culture,” said provincial governor Assadullah Wafa at the opening ceremony. “We will not show foreign culture or foreign programmes.”

It was hard work to get the station up and running. There is little local technical expertise, and engineers were reluctant to come down to Helmand because of security concerns.

“The station was supposed to open three months ago,” said the governor. “But due to the lack of engineers, it was delayed again and again. No one was willing to come from Kabul because of the security situation. I personally told the engineers from national television, based in Kabul, to help us launch this station, but they didn’t come.”

The experts finally arrived, but they were clearly unhappy about the security risks.

Helmand, the centre of the Taleban-led insurgency, is cut off from much of the rest of the country. The 145 –kilometre road from Kandahar is one of the most dangerous stretches of asphalt in the country, with suicide bombers, “improvised explosive devices”, and Taleban checkpoints quite common.

Flights are irregular and expensive. The only private company that flies with any frequency to Helmand charges 440 dollars for a one-way flight from Kabul to Lashkar Gah. This was clearly beyond the government’s means.

“We were very afraid, and we wanted to fly to Helmand, but the government couldn’t afford the tickets,” said Saber, an engineer who came from Kabul to help with setting up the station. “Now that we’re here, I am scared to death about getting back to Kabul.”

Aziz Rahman, another engineer, showed a bit more bravado. “I am not afraid of being killed,” he said. “I am just concerned for my family. They don’t want me to be here, and they are very worried.”

Launching the station was only half the battle. Now the provincial authorities have to lay on the power to keep it going.

The Kajaki hydroelectric station, in northern Helmand, theoretically furnishes much of the electricity for this province and for neighbouring Kandahar. But fierce fighting around the Kajaki dam has delayed a project to upgrade its generating capacity. Current levels of output are frequently interrupted when insurgents or local residents cut power lines in major switching stations such as Sangin.

Lashkar Gah also has generators to supply residents with power, but the money to run them is tight. Abdul Malek Mushfeq, the head of Helmand Radio and Television, says the power supply is the main problem facing his station.

“We don’t have a stable electricity supply,” he complained. “It comes and goes three times in an hour. This is no good for television.” He said the TV station had been given a generator, but did not have the money to pay for fuel.

“We haven’t even been able to start up the generator yet,” he said. “Even though we are a government institution, we get the same electricity as residents. When their power is off, ours is, too. So we are facing a big problem here.”

Mohammad Nabi, head of the provincial electricity department, confirmed there was a supply problem.

“The power coming from Kajaki is weak; it isn’t enough for the city,” he said. “Sometimes there is an overload at Kajaki and they just shut it down. Then we have no power at all.

“We would like to give the television station two power lines, so that when one isn’t working the other can provide back-up. But the automatic switch box that connects Kajaki-generated power and the generator is malfunctioning.”

Mushfeq said the station lacked the capacity to broadcast for more than a few hours a day. “We can only operate for three hours a day, because we don’t have enough resources, including equipment and journalists,” he said.

The station will relay some centrally-produced programmes from Kabul, as well as providing its own coverage of local government activities.

“We will cover meetings and conferences taking place in Helmand,” said Mushfeq. “Recently we went to every single government department and told them we’d be making programmes about their work,” he said. “For example, we went to the agriculture department and filmed them. We got information about how many farmers they had helped, what assistance they are providing to the population, and so on.”

The focus on local government may help to overcome some of the anger and disaffection that Helmand residents have felt at the lack of progress in their communities.

Mushfeq believes the TV station will bring people closer to those who govern them.

That may create the odd uncomfortable moment. In one of its first broadcasts, Helmand TV showed the mayor of Lashkar Gah abusing a reporter for asking what he felt to be an intrusive question.

“We just showed it without editing it,” said Mushfeq. “The mayor himself said, ‘go ahead, just put it on air’. And it was late, so we didn’t have time to edit it out.”

Such interviews could make for problems, said Mushfeq, although he stopped short of saying that the station would be subject to government censorship.

Local residents welcome the exposure given to local affairs.

“Last night I watched Helmand TV, and they were showing a local meeting. It was very interesting for me, as it was the first time I’d seen my own community elders on television,” said Muzamel Shukri, a resident of Nad Ali district.

Others were more sceptical, however. “I am not optimistic about this television,” said Hezbullah, who lives in the Marja district. “It’s government-run. And it needs lots of support. I can’t even watch it in Marja, because there is no relay tower and the signal is very weak. To be effective, the station would have to cover the whole of Helmand.”

Qudratullah, from Lashkar Gah, was critical of the quality of programmes he had seen. “These Helmand programmes are not worth watching,” he said. “The picture is very bad, and those long reports are very boring.”

But most were willing to give the new station a chance. “This television station is a good thing, because it may tell us what is really going on in our society,” said Malem Afzal, a resident of Marja district. “I swear I haven’t seen a good programme on national television in the last ten years. I am thirsting for our own television and our own programmes. It’s a shame they don’t have more [broadcasting] time.”

Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.

[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.]