In this bulletin:

• Coalition soldier, Afghan spy chief killed
• Seven police killed, four injured in attacks
• Six Taliban eliminated, four injured in Ghazni clashes
• Accomplice of suicide bomber detained in Paktika
• Afghan security agents arrest 3 Taliban trainers from Pakistan
• Japan set to end Afghan mission despite global appeals
• Taliban causing Afghan aid crisis, says UN
• ISAF concludes investigation into civilian casualties
• Key tribal leader on verge of deserting Taliban
• Terrorist camps in Afghanistan: Iranian claim scorned
• Sub-jirga to meet in Islamabad in first week of November
• UN leads Afghan campaign to eradicate polio
• Foreign Affairs confirms reports of abuse
• Government brushes aside report that Afghan prisoners are still tortured
• Afghan govt objects to biometric system
• Thousands flee Pakistan militant clashes
• Pakistan in new Taliban peace process
• Protesters march against Canada's mission in Afghanistan
• Afghan women are finding a voice in world of journalism
• Pajhwok wins third award at int'l photo contest

Coalition soldier, Afghan spy chief killed

Kabul (AFP) - A US-led coalition soldier was killed in a military operation in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, while an Afghan spy chief and three colleagues died in a roadside bombing, officials said.

The foreign soldier died and another another coalition soldier and an Afghan policeman were wounded west of Kandahar city airfield, a US military press statement said.

Kandahar was the former stronghold of the Islamist Taliban regime, which has been leading a fierce insurgency since it was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

"A coalition service member was killed today while conducting combat operations," the statement said. "In addition, one coalition service member and one Afghan national policeman were wounded and evacuated for treatment."

International military forces in Afghanistan do not release the nationalities of their casualties, leaving that task to their home countries.

The latest incident brings the death toll of foreign soldiers serving with the US-led coalition and the separate NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to 190 this year.

A coalition soldier was killed Monday in a similar incident in neighbouring Helmand province in a roadside bomb blast targeting a convoy delivering supplies for Afghan army forces.

Separately a roadside bomb struck the vehicle of a district intelligence chief in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing him and three colleagues, officials said.

The head of the National Directorate of Security for the Qarghai district of Laghman province was on his way to work as his vehicle was blown up, provincial spokesman Nizamudin Mangal told AFP.

"The security director and his three friends including his driver were martyred in the blast," Mangal said.

Meanwhile three militants were killed in an Afghan army operation Monday in south-central Uruzgan province. The insurgents fled the area leaving behind three bodies, the defense ministry press statement said.

In addition six rockets were fired on the airport of western Herat province which is the base for the NATO-led troops in western Afghanistan and Afghan forces. The rockets caused no casualties.

There are more than 55,000 foreign soldiers fighting a growing insurgency alongside Afghan forces.

Seven police killed, four injured in attacks

KABUL, Oct 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): At least seven policemen have been killed and another four wounded in three separate incidents, officials said on Sunday.

Five cops were killed and one injured in an attack in Khashrod district of the western Nimroz province. Provincial police chief Muhammad Dawood Askaryar told Pajhwok the police patrol was attacked in Razi area in the midnight.

Taliban said seven policemen were killed in the ambush. Spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi told Pajhwok over the telephone their men had taken away arms and ammunitions from the slain policemen.

In Ghazni province, one cop was perished and two more wounded in a remote-controlled bomb explosion Saturday evening. Brig. Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai, police chief of the province, said the blast had taken place in Nazar village of Rashidan district.

He said the policemen were on patrol when their vehicle hit the landmine. Hospital sources said condition of the injured soldiers was stable.

In yet another attack, militants have killed one policeman and injured another in the restive Tagab district of the central Kapisa province.

Three workers of a local road construction company had also been injured in the attack in Joibar area of the district, officials said.

A police vehicle was blown up killing two policemen and injuring four others in the same area just a few hours before the attack, residents and officials told Pajhwok.

District chief Maulvi Massoud said the second attack was carried out while the police vehicle was on way from Nijrab to the centre of Tagab district.

Qari Mansoor, calling himself spokesman for Hezb-i-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said their men were responsible for the ambush.

He said four policemen were killed in the attack. He said the first attack was also carried out by their men.

Six Taliban eliminated, four injured in Ghazni clashes

GHAZNI CITY, Oct 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Six Taliban insurgents were killed and another four wounded in two separate clashes with police in the restive southern province of Ghazni, on Sunday.

A policeman was also injured in the encounter that erupted in Sfanda village on the outskirt of the provincial capital after a Taliban attack on convoy of Coalition forces Afghan police.

Police official Noor Muhammad, who took part in the firefight, informed Pajhwok Afghan News they seized rocket-propelled grenades, different kinds of projectiles, three Klashnikov assault rifles and as many motorbikes from the militants.

Eyewitnesses claimed Coalition warplanes pounded the area following the clash, but the bombardment caused no damage. Ghazni police chief Brig. Gen. Alishah Ahmadzai, who confirmed the encounter, had no details.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi denied the police claim about killing six insurgents. Only two guerrillas were injured in the shootout, he said, adding two Coalition vehicles were damaged and the soldiers on board killed.

In the Qarabagh district of the same province, police officer Pir Muhammad said, rebels attacked a convoy of vehicles supplying goods to the US-led forces. Two containers were set aflame while another two crashed as a result of the assault, he added.

The drivers were also injured, the Lewanay Baba check-post commander continued, saying three Taliban were eliminated in ensuing fire from police constables. The militants could not be immediately reached for comments.

Accomplice of suicide bomber detained in Paktika

SHARAN, Oct 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Authorities claimed on Sunday arresting an accomplice of a suicide bomber, who killed four Afghan soldiers and a civilian in Barmal district of the southeastern Paktika province a day earlier.

Paktika intelligence chief Brig. Farooq Sangari told Pajhwok Afghan News the 203rd Military Corps personnel detained Amanullah - a resident of the border province - from a house in Barmal this afternoon.

Amanullah helped the suicide bomber cross the first entrance to the Afghan National Army (ANA) base, said the intelligence chief, who claimed the assailant, before blowing himself up, told soldiers at the second gate that he was brought to the centre by the detainee.

While being searched by the security personnel, the attacker detonated the explosives strapped to his body, Sangari added. The detainee may reveal vital information that could lead to the arrest of other suicide attackers, he believed.

Brig. Zahir Murad, in charge of the media office at the Defence Ministry, said on Saturday the bomber was wearing a military uniform. Apart from the five fatalities, as many people were injured in the explosion that took place near a US base.

Afghan security agents arrest 3 Taliban trainers from Pakistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan security agents have arrested three Taliban "trainers" on their way to Kandahar from Pakistan.

Abdul Qayoom of the National Directorate for Security, the Afghan intelligence agency, says the arrests were made on the main highway from Urozgan province to Kandahar.

Qayoom says it is believed the men were trainers for the Taliban, who have been attempting to recruit new members to become suicide bombers.

The three suspects are from Peshawar, Pakistan. Qayoom told reporters at a Saturday afternoon news conference that all three had confessed.

Many of the suicide bombers who have plagued both Canadian and NATO convoys in Kandahar have been recruited by the Taliban from refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Japan set to end Afghan mission despite global appeals

Tokyo (AFP) - Japan's two largest parties failed to agree Tuesday on continuing a naval mission in the Indian Ocean, dealing a setback to the government which has pledged to support the US-led "war on terror."

With legislation allowing support for the "anti-terror" mission expiring Thursday, Japan's refueling on Monday of a Pakistani destroyer was likely to be the country's last contribution to the military effort for the time being.

The suspension comes amid growing opposition to the "war on terror" across countries which are part of the coalition, which is battling a deadly insurgency by remnants of the extremist Taliban regime ousted in 2001.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda failed to reach a breakthrough in a meeting with opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, who has vowed to fight the legislation allowing Japan to provide fuel and other support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

"I asked for his party's cooperation regarding the new anti-terrorism bill and explained the situation, but as of today we did not reach any agreement," Fukuda told reporters after the meeting.

Ozawa, who is famed as a shrewd politician and is pushing for an early general election, has said that officially pacifist Japan should not be part of "American wars."

"I told him that I cannot approve of it," Ozawa told reporters. "We need to have principles, which means that unless it's part of UN operations, it would not be possible."

Fukuda argues that Japan, as the world's second largest economy, must play a greater role in global security. His predecessor Shinzo Abe abruptly resigned last month in part due to his failure to extend the mission.

The opposition won one house of parliament in July elections on a backlash over a series of domestic scandals under Abe, giving the bloc power to stall legislation.

The Japanese public has been split over the naval mission and the opposition has highlight scandals at the defence ministry, including the former top bureaucrat's admission that he accepted gifts from a military contractor.

A recent Kyodo News survey found that 46.4 percent of the public supported the naval deployment and 42.9 percent were opposed, with the rest undecided.

Ozawa rejected appeals from Western nations, Pakistan and Afghanistan to back the mission, including a personal visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Germany has also seen waning support for its own troop deployment in Afghanistan, although the German parliament signed off earlier this month on extending the mission.

Analysts said that the suspension of the mission showed the world the weakened power of Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955.

"I think the United States, Europe and other nations understand the snag came due to domestic politics, not a change of course by Japan as a whole," said Takehiko Yamamoto, a security expert at Waseda University.

Fukuda is expected to visit the United States next month on his first trip overseas as prime minister.

Professor Tomoaki Iwai of Nihon University expected the lower house of parliament, where the ruling coalition holds a commanding majority, eventually to use its power to override the upper house and restart the mission.

"It will not likely have any impact on the Japan-US alliance as everyone knew there would be a political tug-of-war after Mr. Abe's sudden departure," Iwai said.

Taliban causing Afghan aid crisis, says UN

Declan Walsh in Islamabad, Tuesday October 30, 2007, The Guardian

The UN yesterday demanded that the Taliban stop killing aid workers and looting aid convoys so that emergency supplies can reach vulnerable Afghans before the onset of winter.

Tom Koenigs, head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, said 34 aid workers had been killed by the Taliban and criminal gangs and 76 abducted so far this year.

Most of the victims are Afghans, including doctors, mine-clearers and engineers. Some 55 aid convoys have been looted.

"Such attacks are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and they must stop," Mr Koenigs told reporters in Kabul. "We need all parties to recognise that the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people must come first, above fighting and above politics."

The aid crisis is a byproduct of wider insecurity. Taliban attacks have destabilised wide swaths of south and east Afghanistan, and a pocket of provinces around Kabul. Aid workers say many areas are becoming no-go zones.

The conflict is "clearly spreading and in certain areas is intensifying," said Reto Stocker, head of the International Red Cross in the country. More than 5,300 people have died so far this year.

Yesterday the Afghan government said it killed 50 Taliban fighters in southern Uruzgan province, while a suicide bomber in Helmand province killed three civilians and one coalition soldier.

The impact of the violence is spread unevenly around the country. Some large cities and northern areas have enjoyed stability since 2001 and seen improvements in health and education. But in the south and east the humanitarian crisis is rapidly growing. In provinces such as Helmand - where battles between British and Taliban troops can claim more than 100 lives a day - schools are closed, thousands of villagers have fled and aid convoys are regularly looted.

The UN World Food Programme has lost 1,000 tonnes of food aid because of a six-fold increase in attacks on convoys this year, according to its Afghanistan director, Rick Corsino. As a result no aid convoys have moved between Herat in the west and Kandahar in the south for six weeks.

The Afghan education ministry says 400 schools in the south and east are shut because of violence. Taliban fighters have burned down 20 schools in Helmand in the past 15 months.

Mr Corsino estimated the UN has six weeks to rush food to 400,000 people living above the snow line before winter cuts off the roads. Five million Afghans need some form of food assistance, he said.

ISAF concludes investigation into civilian casualties

Source: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) - October 28, 2007

ISAF has concluded a thorough investigation into allegations of civilian casualties during an operation in Wardak Province on Oct. 22, and has found the allegations to be completely without merit.

“We take all allegations of injuries to Afghan civilians very seriously and have a dedicated team to ensure that a timely and thorough investigation is conducted in such cases, even if the allegations may be due to insurgent propaganda”, said Maj. Charles Anthony, ISAF Deputy Spokesman.

On the morning of Oct. 22, ISAF positively identified a large group of anti-government militants in Jalrez District setting an ambush intended for ISAF soldiers. ISAF forces called in airstrikes on the militant positions. Based on the stories of local villagers, a district official contacted several news media organizations the following day and stated that more than 11 civilians had been killed. The investigation found that there was no credible information to support such claims and this was confirmed by Wardak Provincial Governor Naimi.

This is the second unsubstantiated claim concerning civilian casualties to surface from Wardak Province this month. On Oct. 15, a police official was quoted by several media organizations as saying that three to seven civilians had been killed in an airstrike. The officer later denied ever making such statements.

ISAF Public Information Office

Key tribal leader on verge of deserting Taliban

Telegraph, 10/29/2007 By Tom Coghlan in Kabul - An Afghan tribal leader is in talks to defect from the Taliban and take thousands of armed tribesmen with him to fight alongside British forces in southern Afghanistan

The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with Mullah Abdul Salaam and his Alizai tribe, which has been fighting alongside the Taliban in Helmand province.

Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001.

Military sources said British forces in the province are "observing with interest" the potential deal in north Helmand, which echoes the efforts of US commanders in Iraq's western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from their al-Qa'eda allies.

The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afghan government. It would be the first time that the Kabul government and its Western allies have been able exploit tribal divisions that exist within the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Nato forces in Helmand have been monitoring mounting tensions within the Taliban around the towns of Musa Qala and Kajaki.

"We have been aware in the last week that guns have been pulled and different armed camps formed within the Taliban in that area," said a military source.

According to tribal elders in Helmand and Western diplomats in Kabul, Mullah Salaam had been attempting to negotiate with the Afghan government in secret.

But details of the talks were leaked late last week to his erstwhile allies and this reportedly led to a split in the Taliban ranks.

Other Taliban leaders have since plotted to assassinate Mullah Salaam. "Mullah Abdul Salaam is very influential and he has the support of thousands of our tribe," said Haji Saleem Khan, the head of the Shura (or tribal council) of the Alizai in Helmand.

"When the Taliban found out that he planned to join the government three days ago they tried to kill him. But they have failed.

''These negotiations are still secret. We are going to see the government again today."

Another tribal leader in Helmand, Haji Abdul Rahman Sabir, the former provincial police chief, said of Mullah Salaam: "He was a very powerful figure in both the jihad [against the Soviet Union] and also the Taliban time.

"He is being protected by his tribe. There are 200 fighters around his house and they are waiting for support from the government. It is very important that the government helps."

A Western diplomat said that President Hamid Karzai had asked Nato forces to intervene in support of Mullah Salaam, but so far no Nato troops have been committed.

Lt Col Richard Eaton, a spokesman for British forces in Helmand, said: "The solution in counter insurgency is always ultimately political.

''The military can set conditions but there must be a political process and in Afghanistan that will always include a tribal dynamic."

Tribal friction and competition for power and resources in Helmand underpins the insurgent violence that has engulfed the province.

The Itzakzai tribe in particular have been key Taliban supporters, principally because they have felt excluded from both provincial power and the province's lucrative drugs trade since 2001.

Some sections of the Alizai, by contrast, have been dominant within both the drugs trade and provincial power structures.

Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the former provincial governor who was allegedly a kingpin in the local drugs trade, was an Alizai.

However, within the Alizai are three sub-tribes and it is one of these, the Pirzai Alizai, that Mullah Salaam controls around Musa Qala.

The town is a drug-growing area and has been a centre of Taliban power since the collapse of a British-backed truce between the local government and the Taliban in February.

Terrorist camps in Afghanistan: Iranian claim scorned

KABUL, Oct 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US embassy, parliamentarians and analysts have scorned as groundless the Iranian interior minister's allegation that the Americans have established terrorist training centres in Afghanistan in recent years.

At a conference of interior ministers from countries neighbouring Iraq, Mustafa Pur Muhammadi charged: "The US has set up terrorists training camps in Afghanistan over the past few years." The Iranian minister insisted his country had concrete evidence to substantiate the accusation.

He also voiced concern at a sharp increase in opium production and trafficking in the region after the deployment of American troops to Afghanistan. Those stoking the fire of narcotics would eventually be devoured by its flames, Muhammadi warned while speaking at the moot two days back.

The Iranian minister's statement came after US Defence Secretary Robert Gates voiced grave concern over non-stop arms supplies to Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists from Tehran.

Meanwhile, the media office at the US Embassy in Kabul told Pajhwok Afghan News: "The Iranian allegations are baseless" It argued the presence of US forces in Afghanistan had been mandated by the United Nations.

According to the embassy media office, the Americans had come to the landlocked country to support its government and people. It accused Iran of trying to distract people's attention from the main issue: Arms flows from Tehran to insurgents in Afghanistan.

Daud Zazai, member of the Wolesi Jirag (Lower House of Parliament), remarked: "I disagree with the utterances of the Iranian interior minister, as no terrorist training camps exist in Afghanistan."

He linked the ongoing wave of violence to interference from neighboring countries and argued the militants had no weapons-manufacturing factory. It was the neighbouring countries which were supplying arms and ammunitions to the fighters to achieve their goals in Afghanistan, he observed.

Parliamentarian Nasima Niazi reacted: "I don't think the US is backing Taliban and al-Qaeda networks in Afghanistan. In the wake of 9/11, Washington has been fighting both the groups with all its might," she contended.

Some political and military analysts believe Afghanistan had been a victim of Soviet-American confrontation and jockeying for influence in the region in the not-so-distant past. Now political rivalry between Iran and the US tends to affect the landlocked country, they think.

The fourth conference of Iraq's neighbouring countries including Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Bahrain discussed the regional security situation and other relevant issues.

Sub-jirga to meet in Islamabad in first week of November

KABUL, Oct 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The meeting of the jirgagai or sub-jirga between Afghanistan and Pakistani is scheduled to be held in the first week of November.

A press release from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs here said that the two sides would expedite the ongoing process of dialogue for peace and reconciliation with the 'opposition'.

During the smaller jirga meeting, the two sides would discuss the plan to convene the next Joint Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga, said the release.

It said that Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Farooq Wardak visited Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on the invitation of Pakistan Interior Minister and chairman of the Jirga Commission from Pakistan on October 23.

The meeting between the two ministers was held in cordial atmosphere. Wardak also met members of the Pakistan Jirga Commission, including Governor of NWFP Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmad Ghani and Minister for Culture Dr. Ghazi Gulab Jamal.

The Afghan side handed over the list of Afghan jirgagai members (25 members each from Afghanistan and Pakistan) and the Pakistani side informed that it would convey names of members from its side in a few days.

UN leads Afghan campaign to eradicate polio

Techniques used in massive drive are the same ones the Canadian military is hoping will secure Kandahar province

OMAR EL AKKAD - From Tuesday's Globe and Mail October 30, 2007

KANDHAR, AFGHANISTAN — For the past three days, some 7,000 Afghan volunteers have travelled across the country as part of one of the most ambitious medical projects on the planet, a drive to immunize more than 1.1 million Afghan children against a crippling disease long-since eradicated in the developed world.

But the Unicef-led, monthly National Immunization Days campaign isn't just one of the largest drives against polio in the world. It also incorporates every strategy for getting things done in this war-torn and fiercely tribal country: getting villagers onside, employing well-connected local citizens to negotiate access to dangerous parts of the country and giving Afghans the tools to help one another, the same strategies on which Canadian troops are betting the future of Kandahar province.

Indeed, the goodwill of local villagers is the only form of protection for most of the 7,000 volunteers, including those responsible for immunizing children in areas under Taliban control.

"We don't have other measures," said Shahwali Popal, who heads the immunization project out of Unicef's Kandahar city office. "We are not soldiers, we don't fight."

Over the past few years, polio rates in Afghanistan have served as one of the most accurate indicators of the worsening security situation in this country. Of the nine polio cases discovered this year, seven were in Kandahar and Helmand, where the fiercest fighting is going on.

The statistics mirror a worsening situation for virtually all humanitarian agencies in Afghanistan this year, with a spike in attacks against aid workers and a growing area too dangerous to visit.

"Inside the cities it's improving," Dr. Popal said. "Outside the cities there is a risk. Security is a major problem."

It's a blistery Monday morning in Kandahar city and a group of half a dozen young men are walking through the back alleys of a mud and brick neighbourhood, dodging a stream of wastewater that surrounds the simple, single storey homes. The men carry small, cylindrical canisters full of tiny vials, each containing a few drops of liquid that, administered orally, may one day save the children of this neighbourhood from a lifetime of misery.

The young men make up about three or four of the thousands of Unicef-led vaccination teams currently prowling the country. Each team consists of two people, and every six or seven teams are monitored by a supervisor.

In Kandahar city, the teams move from door to door, looking for children five years old or younger. The supervisors carry tally sheets and record every child who is vaccinated. But the process is by no means systematic; noticing the teams at work, parents from down the street come by, bringing their children. Occasionally, the teams will come across one of the many unaccompanied youngsters running around in the back alleys. To find out if a passing boy is young enough to receive the vaccine, a team member raises the boy's hand over one side of his head and down around the other side. If the boy's hand doesn't reach past his other ear, the theory goes, he's young enough to receive the vaccine. The boy's arm doesn't reach, so a volunteer gives him the vaccine, marks one of his fingers with a pen, and moves along.

"Sometimes it's difficult for new volunteers," said Shah Mohammad, a 19-year-old team supervisor and Grade 12 student. "Sometimes the volunteer won't put the right amount of drops and it's difficult for the supervisor to control all the teams."

But while the operation may look a little slapdash on the ground, every one of these immunization drives is the product of weeks of work and years of experience.

Every Wednesday, a group of representatives from Unicef, the World Health Organization and other groups meet in a room adjacent to Kandahar city's Mirwais hospital. The meeting room's walls are plastered with maps. Most are neighbourhood-specific, drawn in bright-coloured markers by the people who live there. The level of detail is down to every mud hut; the mapmakers even draw tiny minarets on each mosque.

"We try to select [the volunteer] from the same locality," Dr. Popal said. "He knows the area; he knows how many people there are."

In a country composed of various, often warring, ethnicities and tribes, local knowledge is important to such a project. But with fighting raging throughout much of southern Afghanistan, local knowledge is now vital.

To get into some of the most dangerous areas of the country, the project relies on "access negotiators," well-known local residents who are also known to the Taliban and can persuade fighters to let the volunteers in. The tactic often works, allowing the drive to reach children in areas that even the Afghan police won't go to without backup.

But this year has been especially bad for aid workers in Afghanistan. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission, insurgents and criminal gangs have killed or abducted 110 aid workers this year and looted 55 humanitarian convoys. At least 78 districts across the country are now rated extremely risky for UN aid workers.

Things have gotten so bad that the United Nations issued a public appeal yesterday to end attacks against its convoys before winter sets in and cuts off remote villages from aid deliveries.

But beyond security concerns, the immunization drive's organizers have also had to deal with education barriers. Some Afghan villagers don't know what polio is. To combat this, organizers once again tailor their message to the local level. A massive education campaign is targeted at four distinct and influential groups of people in virtually any Afghan town or village: teachers, health workers, elders and mullahs.

"We used to have some people who say no to the vaccine," said Khalid, a 23-year-old Kandahar City resident who works as a translator for the U.S. forces here and whose little brother received the vaccine yesterday. "There are some families who are illiterate, who don't know what polio is, but they are very few."

The organizers also keep an eye on public relations. Each monthly drive is preceded by an advertising campaign that includes posters, ads on the back of rickshaws and even the occasional sponsored soccer match. This month's drive in Kandahar kicked off at the governor's house, with the deputy governor administering the first vaccination.

Thanks to the project, health workers in Afghanistan have come tantalizingly close to wiping out polio in Afghanistan, which, along with Pakistan, Nigeria and India, is one of the last places on Earth where the disease is endemic. But after years of work, the drive's organizers are now largely helpless as the disease re-emerges through the fog of war in southern Afghanistan, a region that's largely becoming inaccessible to aid workers.

Foreign Affairs confirms reports of abuse

DANIEL LEBLANC - From Tuesday's Globe and Mail October 30, 2007

OTTAWA — Canadian inspectors heard reports of abuse from Afghan detainees captured by Canadian troops during 11 unscheduled visits conducted after they gained access to the country's jails last spring, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department said yesterday.

However, the government said yesterday that reports those detainees were still being tortured was Taliban propaganda.

"We do expect these kind of allegations from the Taliban," House Leader Peter Van Loan said during Question Period. "I would caution the honourable member against taking them as the word of the truth instantly without penetrating beyond them. As he well knows, we now have in place mechanisms to monitor and follow up Canadian-transferred Taliban prisoners."

The government initially offered the same reaction when The Globe and Mail published a number of stories on the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan this year. However, it was later forced to acknowledge that the Red Cross was not reporting back to Canada as former defence minister Gordon O'Connor had repeatedly claimed. Ottawa then signed a beefed-up agreement in May that gave Canadian officials the right to visit Afghan jails without notice.

The Montreal newspaper La Presse reported yesterday that prisoners in Afghanistan's Sarpoza prison were given electric shocks, beaten with bricks, had their fingernails ripped out and were forced to stand up for days without sleeping, even after the agreement came into effect.

La Presse attributed its account to a spokesman for Afghanistan's national human-rights agency and cited an unidentified senior prison official. The newspaper also interviewed three accused Taliban captives.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said Canadian officials have heard of allegations of mistreatment since they obtained "unprecedented private access to detainees" in May.

"Since then, our officials have made 11 unannounced visits to detention facilities and have conducted private interviews with a number of detainees," Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Isabelle Bouchard said. "When allegations of abuse are made, we always follow up immediately." Ms. Bouchard said she could not provide further details.

The opposition Liberals urged the government yesterday to stop transferring detainees until it obtains assurances the Afghans are respecting the Geneva Conventions.

"If it cannot guarantee that those prisoners are protected, it's got to stop transferring,'' deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said.

Government brushes aside report that Afghan prisoners are still tortured

OTTAWA - The Conservative government dismissed incendiary new allegations about the abuse of detainees in Afghanistan as an empty invention of the Taliban enemy.

A newspaper report says prisoners at the Sarpoza facility were electrocuted, bashed with bricks, had their fingernails ripped out and were forced to stand up for days without sleeping.

A Montreal newspaper attributed its account to a spokesman for Afghanistan's national human-rights agency and cited an unnamed senior prison official. The newspaper also interviewed three accused Taliban captives.

But the Conservatives brushed aside the report as Taliban propaganda. “We do expect these kinds of allegations from the Taliban," said Tory House leader Peter Van Loan.

"It is their standard operating procedure to engage in these kinds of accusations." The government initially offered the same reaction when similar reports surfaced last spring.

After vigourously dismissing those claims, the Conservatives signed a new deal with Afghanistan to put a stop to a practice that the government had described as an enemy invention.

Under that deal, Canadian officials have been allowed to monitor detainees in at least 11 separate visits with prisoners in Kandahar. Van Loan did not respond to a query demanding to know if Canadian emissaries had been to Sarpoza prison recently.

Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff told Van Loan it was irrelevant who was making the accusations - the government's responsibility was to determine if they had merit.

"Geneva Conventions obligations - human rights obligations - don't depend on whether you like the people. They're human beings," said Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff.

"These responses indicate a government that simply doesn't understand what it is to defend the reputation of Canada as a protector of human rights."

The Geneva Conventions forbid torture. Some human-rights experts have said that handing over captives to jailers that may use torture is also considered a war crime.

The report painted a chilling portrait after a recent visit to a Kandahar prison.

About a third of prisoners are still being beaten, says a spokesman for the organization that is constitutionally mandated to monitor human rights in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said that once Canadian soldiers turn their captives over, the abuses are committed by Afghan secret service agents.

"The Canadians give us a sealed envelope with the names of the prisoners. The problem is that list never corresponds to the one compiled by the secret service," Shamuldin Tanwir told the newspaper.

A senior official at the Sarpoza prison in Kandahar is also quoted as saying: "Yes. The detainees are tortured by the secret services before they're brought to us."

It's not even clear how many of the detainees can even be considered enemy insurgents under international law.

Amnesty International argues that under the Geneva Conventions, the Canadian or Afghan governments must hold individual hearings to determine the status of any captured fighter. They say those hearings have not been occurring in Afghanistan.

Insurgents in that country tend to fall into one of two broad categories: hardliners who either belonged to the brutal Taliban regime or strongly supported it, and others who are paid or coerced into fighting.

Some of those so-called soft Taliban are no more than ordinary farmers who've been forced at gunpoint into joining the insurgency.

Afghan govt objects to biometric system

QUETTA, Oct 29: At a joint meeting on Monday, the Afghan authorities reiterated their reservations about the introduction of biometric system at the Pak-Afghan border post near Chaman.

Reliable sources said the Islamabad decision to make the biometric system functional from November 1 was discussed at length during a trilateral meeting attended by Pakistani, Afghan and Nato officials.

The sources said the Afghan officials characterised the system as an obstruction in the way of free movement of Afghans living on both sides of the border. The Nato officials, however, did not object to the Pakistani government’s plan.

The commandant of the Frontier Corps from Pishin Scouts, Colonel Masood, and other officials represented Pakistan at the meeting.

The Pakistani delegation returned to Chaman in the evening.

Thousands flee Pakistan militant clashes

Mingora (AFP) - Thousands of people have fled a scenic valley in northwest Pakistan despite a tense ceasefire between government forces and supporters of a firebrand Taliban-style cleric, residents said Tuesday.

Men and women, some holding small children, have been wading through the freezing cold water of the Swat river to reach safer places since the truce came into force on Monday morning, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The Swat Valley tourist area was wracked by four days of fighting that claimed the lives of several troops and more than 60 militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, a religious leader campaigning for Islamic law.

"As as the authorities opened roads our tribal elders held a meeting and unanimously decided that people in the fighting zone should leave," resident Akbar Khan, 58, from Salanda village told AFP.

"There were around 10,000 people in Salanda and several adjoining villages who left yesterday," he said.

The villages are all near a religious school used by Fazlullah's followers as their headquarters, although the hardline cleric himself is said to have fled to another area.

In Salanda later Monday militants showed local journalists the bodies of four people they said were security personnel and two kidnapped soldiers still in their possession.

"We have allowed the authorities to collect bodies of the soldiers but they have not yet contacted us," Fazullah's spokesman Maulana Sirajuddin told AFP by telephone.

There was no immediate official reaction. "The civilian population has become sandwiched between the rival fighters. We don't know who is right and who is wrong," labourer Mohammad Ibrahim said.

"People are scared of the shelling and they want to move to safer places. They are not bothering to carry their belongings."

Abdul Ghaffar, 45, a cab driver said he saw roads full of hundreds of people "using all sorts of transport, buses, trucks and cars even tractors."

Pakistan moved 2,500 troops into Swat on Wednesday to counter Fazlullah, who is also known as "Mullah Radio" for his fiery speeches on his private radio station in which he calls for a holy war on the authorities.

But on Thursday 30 people were killed in a bomb attack on a paramilitary vehicle in the region and the following day Pakistani troops began to attack militant positions, culminating in helicopter gunship raids at the weekend.

Pakistan in new Taliban peace process

Asia Times, 10/29/2007 By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Although the emphasis shifts almost daily, Washington's three-pronged plan to "tame" Pakistan and Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in the region is gathering momentum.

The one prong is represented by former premier Benazir Bhutto, recently returned from exile and entrusted with presenting a hard line against militancy. Last week's bomb attack on her homecoming parade in Karachi, in which more that 140 people were killed, has temporarily placed her in the background.

Then there is opposition heavyweight Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose star is in the ascendant at present. He is the key link with Taliban insurgents, and has already made a breakthrough by negotiating American-sponsored "small tribal jirgas" (councils) at which indigenous elements of the Afghan resistance, including the Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, will discuss peace issues. (Asia Times Online broke this development on August 24 - see Talks with the Taliban gain ground.)

The third prong is President General Pervez Musharraf, who, using American largesse, will pump millions of dollars into the tribal regions in an effort to isolate the militancy there.

This is Washington's three-pronged policy to mobilize the masses in the region against militancy. The policy echoes that of 1999-2001, when Washington tried to orchestrate plans with Pakistan against al-Qaeda. The result was the attacks of September 11, 2001, against the United States. And this time too, al-Qaeda can be expected to fight back on all fronts.

The small jirgas are expected to begin early next month. Farooq Wardak, the Afghan government representative, is minister of state for parliamentary affairs and deputy chairman of the Jirga Monitoring Commission. He will lead a delegation to Islamabad at the invitation of Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

This is the first time that the Taliban have been given official representation in a dialogue process sponsored by Washington, and this could be the first step toward an American exit strategy for Afghanistan.

However, Asia Times Online investigations reveal that the more the West hatches plans to isolate global jihadis in Iraq and Afghanistan, the more they look for options to retaliate against the West.

Rehman has certainly emerged as the man of the moment. Only six months ago, when a group of journalists asked the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, whether he had met Pakistan's leader of the paliamentary opposition (since resigned), he replied that Pakistan is a country of many million people and he could not meet every "Tom, Dick and Harry".

But since then Rehman has been "honored" with a meeting with Boucher. Rehman is an astute politician and his importance has grown in the past few weeks, especially in the runup to the presidential elections that saw Musharraf win another term, pending approval by constitutional authorities, and the attack on Bhutto.

"I can safely predict he will be the most important person in any future setup," commented Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, the federal minister of railways who was previously Pakistan's information minister and who is considered a part of Musharraf's inner "kitchen" cabinet.

In recent days, Rehman has spoken to top Taliban commanders, including Mullah Bredar in Quetta, and succeeded in obtaining tacit approval for a ceasefire, pending the Americans announcing a process for withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Rehman guaranteed that once the Taliban agreed to be a part of the dialogue process through the small jirgas, the US would gradually unfold its withdrawal plans.

Both parties agreed to take steps for peace and reciprocate each other's efforts. The Taliban were assured by Rehman that their participation in the jirgas would be a milestone in which their resistance would be accepted as legitimate.

After the initial jirgas, in which some political settlement would be agreed on, a grand jirga will be convened at which the Afghan nation will press its demands for a national Islamic government and the withdrawal of foreign troops. The Taliban agreed to this schedule. This year, a grand jirga representing hundreds of key figures from Pakistan and Afghanistan was held in Kabul, but the Taliban were excluded, so it achieved nothing concrete.

In the last week of September, US ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson visited Rehman, after which Rehman publicly announced that the US was ready to plan for an exit strategy from Afghanistan once a proper mechanism was in place.

Al-Qaeda ideologues have been watching developments closely, and are working on a counter strategy. The first part of this is to groom a Taliban leadership that will be inflexible on the issue of resistance.

For instance, Sirajuddin Haqqani has emerged as a caliph within the Taliban movement. He is the son of the veteran Afghan resistance figure Jalaluddin Haqqani, and the Western alliance considers him the most powerful commander in Afghanistan. (For an interview with Sirajuddin Haqqani, see Through the eyes of the Taliban Asia Times Online, May 5, 2004.)

Importantly, Sirajuddin's constituency is not the Afghan Taliban but Pakistani jihadis and Arab fighters who will not compromise on their goal of complete victory for al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Sirajuddin is al-Qaeda's answer to Rehman's peace process. Since the killing of Mullah Dadullah this year, there is no one in southwestern Afghanistan to guarantee any deals.

Rehman is also attempting reconciliation in Pakistan's tribal areas of Waziristan, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have a strong grip. He is courting figures such as Sadar Abdul Rahman and Maulana Mahmood, but it is not an easy task.

"Our people supported Maulana Fazlur Rehman for the cause of Islam, but he has sold our interests for the sake of politics. The Taliban are ready for any sort of negotiations, but if the negotiations are held to support US designs in the region or to ask us to surrender, our fight against NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] in Afghanistan, that will be a non-starter," Dr Essa Khan, the chief spokesperson of the Pakistani Taliban and chief of the Pakistani Taliban in the Bannu region, told Asia Times Online.
Essa was evasive when asked whether the Taliban had targeted Rehman's residence in Dera Ismail Khan in North-West Frontier Province a few months ago, saying that spilling the blood of the people was done by politicians, not by the mujahideen.

"We want to fight American forces. We want them to come to Waziristan and attack us so that we can fight against them. We don't want to fight against our own brothers [Pakistani soldiers] who are pitched against us as Washington's ally. We think this hypocrisy will be finished once American forces attack us in Pakistani territory and we will have a single enemy against us to fight with and we will be fighting against them with all our conviction," said Essa in response to a question about allowing US forces hot pursuit operations into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Rehman has something to give, though. By June 2008, the US will have made US$180 million available for development work in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. US ambassador Patterson has been meeting members of Parliament from these areas (the majority of them hail from Rehman's Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam - JUI) and has assured them that the US will distribute the money with their collaboration.

Last week, US President George W Bush urged Congress to give an additional $60 million for the development of the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Bush administration has also assured Pakistan that it is committed to setting up reconstruction zones in the tribal regions. Goods produced in the zones will be allowed duty-free access to the US market.

Speaking to Asia Times Online in Karachi, twice-elected premier Bhutto dismissed any chance of reconciliation with militants until they surrendered.

"There are two theories to deal with the militants. There is the theory of a ceasefire with militants and peace treaties with them. In 2002, under the same theory, the JUI [led by Rehman] was given [the provincial government] of North-West Frontier Province. I think there is a need to assess this policy. I don't believe in any negotiations with the militants until they surrender their weapons. I completely oppose speaking to irregular militias."

Bhutto also believes that a powerful segment of the establishment is still on the side of the militants, what she calls a legacy of late dictator General Zia ul-Haq.

"Those who don't want the moderate middle to mobilize on the streets were behind the October 18 blast. These are the same anti-democratic forces that destabilized the PPP's [Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party] past governments," Bhutto said.

Bhutto wrote a letter to Musharraf in which she accused retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, retired Brigadier Ijaz Shah, the Intelligence Bureau chief, and the chief minister of Punjab, Chaudhary Pervaiz Illahi, as the main supporters of those who carried out the bomb attack against her. "I named the people whom I understood as suspects and I think an inquiry should be conducted against them," Bhutto said.

She also accused al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden of conspiring against her first government in the late 1980s by financing former premier Nawaz Sharif against her.

When asked whether bin Laden was directly behind the October 18 bombing, Bhutto simply replied, "There is a lot of money in this battle through arms smuggling and drugs and all the faces of the perpetuators of this battle should be exposed."

Bhutto's tough line, Rehman's policy of reconciliation and Musharraf's pumping of money into the tribal areas have the single theme of isolating the militants.

Al-Qaeda's big plans
These constant pressures are once again forcing al-Qaeda to spin the game so that it can also influence the "war on terror".

Western intelligence has named Abu Obaida al-Masri as the new chief of al-Qaeda's external operations with the aim of targeting Europe.

Western intelligence has also revealed a powerful camp in the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. According to their information, the camp is run by Abu Haris al-Jazeri. Other prominent associates include Najib al-Fala, Omar Jalali, Bilal Abu Daghlol, Hussain al-Babi and Ahmed Taufiq. Fala and Jazeri are French citizens and the others are Tunisian.

According to the intelligence reports, this al-Qaeda camp is planning attacks in Europe, notably the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

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

Protesters march against Canada's mission in Afghanistan

CanWest News Service - Sunday, October 28, 2007

OTTAWA -- Anti-war protesters didn't exactly fill the streets but they did file through many downtown arteries across the country Saturday to protest Canada's involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

In Ottawa, about 100 determined protesters met at the National Gallery of Canada in the early afternoon -part of a collective group of protests - which Canadian Peace Alliance organizers were calling the Pan-Canadian Day of Action Against War in Afghanistan.

Those who attended the protest in Ottawa - and who put up with the on-and-off rain - represented various ages. Robert Batsch, 49, brought his daughters Jamie, 18, and Robyn, 12, to show their collective displeasure with the situation in Afghanistan.

Batsch said he did not like the role Canada was taking in the war, and that Canada's military should stick to peacekeeping and stay away from military actions. "War is not the answer," Batsch said. "You don't fight to create peace."

His daughter Jamie said the war had gone on far too long and the federal government was not paying attention to the voice of its people. "They shouldn't be making decisions that not everyone agrees with," she said.

Sardar Nasery, 54, who immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan, said people in his homeland don't want to see Canadians taking part in military actions in their country - because it has such a destructive effect on their lives.

"By being combative, it just causes lots of problems," he said. "We know that people from both sides - Canadian and Afghan people - are being killed."

The protesters marched through the streets banging pots and handheld drums, waving banners and chanting anti-war songs and slogans. People along the sides of the streets took pictures and offered support in the forms of waves, smiles and the occasional donation to rally volunteers collecting money.

The rally lasted about an hour and wound its way to the front of the Office of the Prime Minister.

About 200 protesters waved anti-war placards and chanted their way through the rain-drenched streets of downtown Montreal while in Calgary, marchers also demanded the pull-out of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.

"When I think about the lives lost, the devastation and the millions of dollars wasted, I get really angry," said Collette Lemieux, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance, to more than 50 people gathered in downtown Calgary.

Carrying signs and chanting, the protesters marched to the U.S. Consulate, dogged by a handful of hecklers.

There are approximately 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan, most in the volatile south region.

Last month, Calgary's Cpl. Nathan Hornburg became the 71st Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan since 2002.

In the throne speech last week, the Canadian government signalled it planned to continue training the Afghan army and police to defend their own people, a task it expects to achieve by 2011.

Ottawa Citizen with files from Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald

Afghan women are finding a voice in world of journalism

No longer silenced by the Taliban's, Afghanistan's female journalists still face their share of challenges in the field.
Ottawa Citizen, Monday, October 29, 2007

For one year, Humaira Habib lived in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. By law, she could not show her face nor attend school. At any time, she could have been whipped with wires for a sin as minor as wearing nail polish or having shoes that clicked too loudly in the street.

Immediately after the Taliban fell, Ms. Habib enrolled at Herat University and in 2004, was part of its first graduating journalism class.

"At first when we started working as journalists, it was hard because it was new. Female journalism was new in all of Afghanistan," said the 25-year-old, who is on an eight-month scholarship to study at McGill University in Montreal.

"It was strange for people, something unusual, but now it's getting better because all women worked hard and they tried a lot to tell people to tell men that this is our life and we have to do this."

Today in Afghanistan, more than six years after the Taliban's regime fell, almost 1,000 voices that were silenced for years are being heard and the faces that were unwillingly covered are being broadcast into people's homes.

"They were like birds that were not allowed to fly and kept in cages that were not allowed to sing," Khorshied Samad said Monday. "When the Taliban were driven from power, they were set free and were able to sing and to soar."

Mrs. Samad was born and raised in San Francisco's Bay Area, but was sent to Afghanistan - where her father is from - in 2002 by ABC News. She ended up staying and working there for three years, for a while as the head of Fox News in Kabul.

Mrs. Samad has lived in Canada since her husband, Omar Samad, was posted here as Afghanistan's ambassador three years ago. Since then, she has been a passionate advocate for Afghanistan's women, recently curating a photo exhibit entitled Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News.

Tuesday night she will give a speech of the same name to the National Press Club that touches on the role of Afghanistan's women in developing both its media and its politics.

"Oftentimes, Afghan women today - in the Parliament and in the ministries and in the media - are the ones who have the courage to bring up uncomfortable topics and challenge the men around them," she said.

However, while Mrs. Samad says the majority of Afghan men are supportive of women's role in a post-Taliban society, there are those left with a "medieval" attitude who can be extremely dangerous.

Within six days earlier this year, two female journalists were murdered. Shakiba Sanga Amaj, a local television newsreader, was shot by her family in an honour killing on May 31.

On June 5, Zakia Zaki, a 35-year-old radio presenter, was shot while lying in bed, holding one of her young children.

"She was killed because she was a strong female voice who was shining light on various issues and she was representing the strength of Afghan women," Mrs. Samad said.

François Bugingo, the international vice-president of Reporters Without Borders, pointed to these two assassinations as examples of the extreme challenges faced by Afghanistan's female journalists.

"They're getting many threats, either to them, or they're getting pressured indirectly through their families," he said.

After the Taliban fell, he said, 350 news organizations were formed in the country. Today, in the face of rising insurgency and increased religious pressures, there are only an estimated 75.

In its 2007 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders placed Afghanistan 142 out of 169 countries.

Mrs. Samad said she knows everything in Afghanistan isn't rosy, and is honest about the challenges the country faces. However, while she acknowledges Afghanistan's remaining challenges, she said, she tries to also speak about the amazing progress that has been achieved, since many Canadians she has spoken to are unaware of it.

"Those who have lived and worked in Afghanistan can bring a certain knowledge to the table that Canadians are really hungry to listen to."

Tickets are sold out to this evening's dinner, but the photography exhibit, Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News, is available online at www.voicesontherise.org.

Pajhwok wins third award at int'l photo contest

KABUL, Oct 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pajhwok's photographer Safia Safi become the third prize winner at the Photo Contest in the Second World Congress of news agencies held by EFE in Estepona, Spain.

More than 200 photos from around the world were placed in the contest. A photograph of the dead body of Zakia Zaki, directress of the US-funded Radio Peace, was declared as the third position winner with majority votes.

Zakia was shot dead inside her house on the night of June 5 in the central province of Parwan. Although no militant group had claimed responsibility for her killing, officials and people close to the slain directress believe she was targeted for airing programmes against violence and terrorism.

Pajhwok's representative at the contest Abdul Salam Jawad said the competition was held in three categories. Pajhwok's photograph won the award in the category of Facts Reporting.

This is the first time an Afghan news agency participated in international photo competition and won the third award.

Muhammad Wais Khitab

[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.]