In this bulletin:

• US still unsure where bin Laden is hiding, Negroponte says at Afghan ceremony to mark 9/11
• Afghans losing hope: former FM and Massoud aide
• 15 dead in new Afghan violence
• UN's special Afghanistan envoy backs talks with Taliban
• What the increasingly confident Taliban want in exchange for peace
• Taliban Threatens New Operation In Southern Afghanistan
• US concerned about Iranian weapons going to Taliban
• NATO Needs Until 2009 to Build Up Afghanistan's Army
• Afghanistan: Abe Resignation Throws Japan's Mission Into Uncertainty
• Afghanistan can count on full German support: Merkel
• Debate goals in Kandahar, not timeline, Harper tells opposition
• Harper eyeing bigger Australian role in Afghanistan
• German general to leave Afghan mission amid dispute
• Pakistani army kills up to 40 militants
• Pak Taliban warn MPs against voting for Musharraf
• Pakistan crisis 'hits army morale'
• The stink of our failure
• Doctor on call in Afghanistan
• WFP food-for-work provides hope for Afghans
• Tons of Saudi dates for Afghan children

US still unsure where bin Laden is hiding, Negroponte says at Afghan ceremony to mark 9/11

The Associated Press – Kabul, Tuesday, September 11, 2007: The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State said his country is still uncertain where 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden is hiding, as American soldiers silently marked the moment six years earlier when the first hijacked jetliner hit the World Trade Center in New York City.

"I think our best assessment is that he is still alive and that he is somewhere in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area," said John Negroponte, who met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday during a visit to Afghanistan. "I would also make the point that wherever he is, he is hiding, he and his close associate Mr. Ayman al-Zawahiri (al-Qaida's No. 2).

"And that is a very different situation than the one that prevailed prior to Sept. 11, 2001, when he had completely free use and free reign of the country of Afghanistan, and that situation has been changed and that, needless to say, was a very, very important change for the better."

Karzai, speaking at a news conference, lamented the thousands of people killed on 9/11 but also said the attacks helped refocus attention on Afghanistan, which had been overrun by the Taliban and al-Qaida. He thanked the international community for helping to "return Afghanistan to the people of Afghanistan."

At a ceremony at a U.S. base in Kabul, Maj. Gen. Robert Cone told some 100 soldiers that there is "no alternative" to victory over terrorism.

"We are here now six years later, not as a conquering force, not as an invader seeking to vanquish the Afghans, but rather to do what is right — to seek out and destroy our common enemy," Cone said. "As allies, we will train and equip the Afghans. We will help them to provide for their people because we are Americans."

At the main U.S. base at Bagram, a moment of silence was held at 8:46 a.m. EDT — 5:16 p.m. in Afghanistan — the time the first jetliner hit the World Trade Center. A 21-gun salute and Taps played a short time later.

Negroponte took part in a remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Embassy flag pole, where some of the rubble from the 9/11 attacks is buried.

"Defeating an insurgency increasingly fueled by the narcotics trade is a painstaking process, but progress is being made and we will not abandon the people of Afghanistan to the likes of the Taliban and al-Qaida," he said. "So while we remember the events of this day six years ago with sorrow, we can measure the progress we've made here since then and look ahead with optimism to the future."

Afghans losing hope: former FM and Massoud aide

Kabul, AFP, 09/10/2007 - Afghanistan is supported by the world's strongest military forces and the Taliban are weakened, but Afghans are still losing hope, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah told AFP in an interview.

The distance between people and the government is growing, Abdullah said as the country marked the sixth anniversary of the assassination of famous commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, who fought the Taliban and Soviet occupation.

Abdullah, 47, was close to Massoud, whose September 9, 2001 killing by Al-Qaeda operatives was the first suicide attack in Afghanistan and came two days before the 9/11 attacks that led the US to topple the Taliban regime.

"Today the Taliban are weaker than that time, much weaker," he said Saturday.

"The forces fighting against the Taliban, together with the people of Afghanistan -- these are the strongest military alliances in the whole world."

However people were less hopeful than in 2001, he said, adding that in his opinion, the country lacked the vision of a leader like Massoud.

Growing insecurity, government inefficiency and incompetence and the absence of a coherent development strategy have contributed to popular disillusion, said Abdullah, who was controversially dropped as foreign minister last year.

In 2002, for example, Afghanistan could have coped for "at least a few months" without the international troops now here to fight the Taliban. "Today we cannot afford this for six minutes," Abdullah said.

"The Taliban, from a situation in late 2002 and 2003 when they used to cross the border from time to time to conduct operations, today they have bases inside Afghanistan," he added.

Afghans initially supported the democratic process adopted after the Taliban was toppled, but Abdullah noted: "Today what I hear from the people, it is only something like losing hope."

Abdullah, who had a high media profile during the Soviet resistance, is today the secretary general of the Massoud Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that raises money for various assistance projects in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai has been accused of sidelining members of Massoud's Northern Alliance in his current administration, a charge he denies.

Key figures of the alliance, including parliamentary speaker Younus Qanooni, are among the president's main opponents in Afghanistan's emerging democracy.

Karzai said at a ceremony Sunday to commemorate Massoud's killing that he expected Abdullah to be back in government "soon."

15 dead in new Afghan violence

Kabul (AFP ) - At least 15 people including a dozen Taliban insurgents and a civilian road worker were killed in a new string of violent attacks across insurgency-hit Afghanistan, officials said.

In the southern province of Zabul, nearly a dozen rebels were killed Tuesday after Afghan security forces called in US-led coalition warplanes to bomb their positions, the US military said.

The rebels had been spotted preparing an ambush on the Afghan troops, Major Timothy Dinneen told AFP.

Two Afghan policemen were killed Wednesday when a Taliban-type bomb ripped through their patrol vehicle in the eastern province of Paktia, an Afghan military spokesman told AFP, pinning the blame on the insurgents.

Also in Paktia, a bomb blast in the restive Zurmat district -- a Taliban hotbed -- killed a road worker on Tuesday, said the spokesman, Mastak Khan.

Taliban fighters have stepped up their attacks in recent months with almost daily attacks targeting Afghan and Western military targets.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which has 37,000 troops separate from those of the 12,000-strong US-led force, said Taliban attacks were likely to increase during the holy month of Ramadan due to start Thursday.

"There was a spike in Taliban activities last year," Major Charles Anthony told reporters in Kabul. "I guess you could say that maybe it is a reasonable estimate to think there may be another spike again this September as well."

Taliban insurgents have made a bloody comeback since the movement's ouster from government by a US-led invasion in late 2001 for sheltering Al-Qaeda operatives.

UN's special Afghanistan envoy backs talks with Taliban

Berlin (IRNA) - The United Nation's special envoy to Afghanistan Tom Koenigs expressed support for talks with the radical Taliban militia, the daily Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported Wednesday.

Pointing to Taliban's positive reaction to the negotiation offer by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, he said, "So far many have said we do not negotiate with terrorists, meaning also the Taliban. However, the Taliban movement is multifaceted. You cannot lump all of them together."
Taliban leaders said Monday they were open to an offer by the Afghan government to hold peace talks with the Taliban and the Hezb-e-Islami group of Gulbeddin Hekmatyar.

Last month, German deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg had also hinted at possible talks with "moderate and reasonable" Taliban elements.

What the increasingly confident Taliban want in exchange for peace

GRAEME SMITH – Globe and Mail, September 12, 2007

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The Taliban and their allies say they are ready to accept President Hamid Karzai's invitation to peace talks, but with tough conditions that show the insurgents' rising confidence about bargaining with the embattled Afghan government.

The Taliban's demands include an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops and a rewrite of the Afghan constitution, according to interviews The Globe and Mail has conducted with key figures who would be integral to any political settlement.

Hope for negotiations surfaced after Mr. Karzai said on Sunday that he wants to talk with the insurgents - a statement he has made with increasing frequency as the violence rises. But this time, the Taliban took the unusual step of answering the President, issuing a statement on Monday saying they are prepared to meet with him.

Kabul is investigating the Taliban's invitation, a presidential spokesman said yesterday, adding that insurgents who want to negotiate will not be arrested.

But Kabul will need to make more substantial promises to get talks started, said Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, reached by telephone at an undisclosed location.

"The government hasn't made any serious attempt to talk with us," Mr. Ahmadi said. "If they want to talk, we have two demands: All foreign troops must leave, and we must have an Islamic democracy in Afghanistan."

The Taliban spokesman was vague about his definition of Islamic democracy. Afghanistan's constitution already defines it as an Islamic republic, but it also sets aside a quarter of seats in parliament for women and makes other provisions that give the country a more moderate character than it had under the Taliban.

"The United States brought democracy to Afghanistan, but it was un-Islamic," Mr. Ahmadi said. "We need democracy, but under the laws of Islam."

Although he did not elaborate, he mentioned that another insurgent group has been thinking along similar lines: Hizb-i-Islami, the largest band of gunmen that fights alongside the Taliban.

That group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, recently gave a video response to questions from a researcher for The Globe and Mail, outlining his requirements for a ceasefire.

Like the Taliban, the old warlord listed the removal of foreign troops as his first demand.

But he also offered a more detailed political scheme: "Afghan people must sit together and reach the decision that the foreign troops should leave," he said. "The Americans must accept this, and they must leave. We will never participate in meetings in which they don't discuss this issue."

He continued: "Power should be handed over to a temporary government, and they will have a meeting of tribal elders, a new constitution, and work under Islamic rules. We should have real and fair elections, which follow Islamic rules. Under these circumstances, I am ready for negotiations."

Both Mr. Hekmatyar and Mr. Ahmadi remain in hiding; the former has been designated by the United States as a terrorist and supporter of al-Qaeda.

The name Ahmadi is likely a pseudonym, sometimes assumed by different Taliban spokesmen in hopes of avoiding the fate of their predecessors who have been killed or captured.

This points to one of many hurdles for a political settlement: The United Nations has formally designated the Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan as terrorists, making it politically and legally difficult for the Kabul government to reach a compromise.

"If they're labelled as terrorists, how can they talk?" said Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who heads one of Pakistan's largest religious parties, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, which voices support for the Taliban but disavows any direct link with violence.

"The key lies in the hands of the Americans," Mr. Rahman said during an interview earlier this month in Islamabad.

"They should empower the Afghan government to talk with the Taliban. But the atmosphere is not yet conducive."

The Taliban spokesman agreed that the terrorist designation might hamper talks. During recent negotiations with the government of South Korea for the release of hostages, Mr. Ahmadi said, the Taliban believed that the United States was trying to stop the discussion because it violated the principle of not negotiating with terrorists.

In the end, however, the success of the Korean talks shows pragmatism can overcome such objections, Mr. Ahmadi said.

Canadian military officials in Kandahar have said they do not talk with the Taliban under any circumstances, although their NATO allies have not been as firm. The Dutch military in neighbouring Uruzgan province openly describe talks with insurgents as part of their strategy, and many observers viewed the British military's failed peace deal last year in Musa Qala district as an agreement with the Taliban.

In Ottawa, the Conservative government's Foreign Minister, Maxime Bernier, recently criticized the South Korean government for negotiating with the Taliban for the release of hostages.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists, for any reason," he said. "Such negotiations, even if unsuccessful, only lead to further acts of terrorism."

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton, however, has long called for negotiating an end to the war, while the Liberals have not been vocal on the issue.

So far, the only publicized method for reaching out to the Taliban has been the Peace Through Strength program, a mediation effort aimed at encouraging defections from the insurgency. The program has suffered a lack of funding, however, and cannot offer the Taliban very much except a written promise of immunity from prosecution.

"Karzai wants us to get letters, and be free to sit at home," Mr. Ahmadi said. "This is silly, it's not acceptable."

Whatever compromise might eventually be accepted by the Taliban would probably be hard for the international community to swallow, Mr. Rahman said.

"The West accepts Islam as a religion, but not as a state system, and this is unfortunate," he said.

Taliban Threatens New Operation In Southern Afghanistan

RFE/RL, September 12, 2007 -- Taliban spokesman Qari Yusef Ahmadi says militants will soon launch an operation in southern Afghanistan led by Mullah Bradar -- a senior Taliban commander who was earlier reported to have been killed.

Ahmadi told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the planned offensive in Helmand Province is called Operation Nasrat -- Arabic for "triumph."

Mullah Bradar is thought to be a close relative of supreme Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The Afghan Defense Ministry said in late August that it had killed Mullah Bradar during a joint operation with NATO forces in Helmand Province.
 
But Counterterrorism Police Chief Abdul Manan Farahi said on September 8 that Bradar's death was not confirmed, and that the Defense Ministry's report may have been mistaken.

Ahmadi's announcement of the operation comes just days after he issued a statement saying the Taliban would be willing to consider negotiations with the Afghan government -- if Kabul made a formal offer. Ahmadi released that statement after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on September 9 that his government is willing to hold talks with the Taliban.

Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, says authorities in Kabul are investigating Ahmadi's statement and the possibility of negotiations.

Hamidzada said Taliban fighters who are sincerely interested in talks to find a "solution for peace" would not be arrested if they came forward.

But he also said the government has not received a formal offer for talks from the Taliban, and that if one were made, Kabul would decide about it "at that time."

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said during a visit to Kabul on September 11 that there are inconsistencies in the Taliban's statement.

"There have been these reports about the Taliban's interest in talking. I think we all need to understand a little bit better what is being suggested because there is contradictory information about exactly what is being proposed," Negroponte said. "We would want to know the view of the government of Afghanistan. Whatever happens...these talks by the Taliban should be handled in such a way by the government of Afghanistan that it does not, in any way, undermine or prejudice all the important political, social, and economic accomplishments that have occurred in this country."

Negroponte also said that Washington is concerned about Chinese and Iranian-made weapons that have been discovered in Afghanistan -- including Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles that have turned up in the possession of Taliban fighters.

Negroponte suggested that the Chinese-made weapons might be arriving in Afghanistan after first being purchased by the government of Iran, and said that he has raised the issue with Beijing.

"We have tried to discourage the Chinese from signing any new weapons contracts with Iran," he said. "We are concerned by reports -- which we consider to be reliable -- of explosively formed projectiles and other kinds of military equipment coming from Iran across the border and coming into the hands of the Taliban."

The U.S. State Department has said in the past that it cannot prove that the Iranian government has sent weapons directly to the Taliban. But it says the large amount of Iranian weapons turning up in Afghanistan suggests that there are links between Tehran and illegal weapons shipments to militants in Afghanistan.

US concerned about Iranian weapons going to Taliban

KABUL (AFP) — Deputy US Secretary of State John Negroponte reiterated Tuesday concern about weapons from Iran supplying the Taliban and said Washington was also discouraging China from selling arms to that country.

Negroponte told reporters in Kabul that he had discussed with Beijing "their weapons sales to the country of Iran and our concern about those weapons sales."

"And we have tried to discourage the Chinese from signing any new weapons contracts with Iran," the official said.

Media reports early this month said Britain had privately complained to Beijing that Chinese-made weapons were being used by the Taliban in Afghanistan, where there are nearly 50,000 international soldiers.

Negroponte said Washington was also worried about the Taliban acquiring weapons, made in Iran, capable of piercing armoured vehicles.

"We are concerned by reports which we consider to be reliable of explosively formed projectiles and other types of military equipment coming from Iran and into the hands of the Taliban," he said.

US and British officials have alleged for months that weapons from Iran are going to the Taliban rebels fighting the Afghan government and its international allies.

But Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose government relies on the United States for funds and military strength, has insisted there is no evidence to prove this.

He said during a visit to the United States last month that Iran was "a helper" against extremists.

Afghanistan's independent Pajhwak Afghan News agency cited an unidentified government official saying this month that four depots of arms manufactured by Iran, China and Russia had been discovered in the western province of Herat.

The report said it was not clear if the weapons were new or had been stored in Afghanistan's nearly three decades of conflict.

NATO Needs Until 2009 to Build Up Afghanistan's Army

By James G. Neuger - Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- NATO needs at least another year to build up the Afghan army before local forces can start taking the lead in the fight against the Taliban, the alliance's top commander in Afghanistan said.

Afghanistan's army numbers around 35,000 to 40,000 and won't reach a goal of 70,000 until the end of 2008, said U.S. General Dan K. McNeill, commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan.

``We're well on track to complete that by the end of next year'' and it will take ``some time after that'' before the Afghan army becomes ``an independent force,'' McNeill told a Brussels press conference today.

NATO has 39,000 troops in Afghanistan battling the resurgent Taliban, the radical Islamic movement toppled from power by the U.S. in 2001. McNeill said the alliance needs to build up forces further before it can start debating drawing them down.

NATO's combat mission is growing increasingly controversial in Europe following a spate of civilian casualties and concern that runaway poppy production is setting back the development of a modern economy.

Only 31 percent of Europeans back the military campaign against the Taliban, with opposition highest in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, a German Marshall Fund survey found last week. American support stood at 68 percent.

Germany's Parliament is weighing the future of the 3,000 German troops in Afghanistan, mostly in noncombat roles. Some Social Democratic lawmakers are calling for the pullout of 100 special forces serving with a U.S.-led counterinsurgency force that is separate from the NATO command.

NATO defense ministers vowed in June to send more trainers and equipment to strengthen the Afghan army, saying only local forces can defeat the insurgency against Afghanistan's elected government, led by Hamid Karzai.

The army has added recruits at the rate of 2,000 to 3,000 a month this year, up from 600 a month last year, McNeill said. NATO and Afghan forces have conducted several combined operations, with one now in progress with U.S. troops in the east, he said. ``They've upgunned their effort to produce an army,'' McNeill said.

Afghanistan has made less progress in building up a police force to hold areas seized from the Taliban, and tribal frictions in some places create an opening for the insurgency, McNeill said.

He pointed to ``some checkered results'' in ``one of the more troubled districts'' in western Kandahar province. Still, the security situation ``looks fairly good relative to what it was this time last year,'' he said.

``We've not a big enough force to clear all the areas out and hold them all,'' McNeill said. ``The Afghans are going to have to come in behind us and be a hold. There've been a couple of times this fighting season that I wish they would have done better as a hold force.''

Afghanistan: Abe Resignation Throws Japan's Mission Into Uncertainty

September 12, 2007 (RFE/RL) --Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced he is to resign after a difficult year in office. The surprise announcement today came after a series of political scandals and a defeat for Abe's party in July's elections to the upper house of parliament.

But the final straw appears to have been the deadlock over Japan's controversial naval mission, which for six years has been providing fuel support for coalition forces in Afghanistan. The legislation allowing the Indian Ocean mission expires on November 1, and Abe had staked his job on parliament agreeing to extend it. RFE/RL's Kathleen Moore spoke to Robert Ward, a Japan expert with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, about the ramifications for Japan's Afghan mission.

RFE/RL: What is the Japanese naval mission and what is up for renewal?

Robert Ward: They provide fuel and water for the coalition operation in Afghanistan. Basically this legislation expires in November and they need to renew it.

Clearly the U.S. government is desperate that they do that but because the ruling Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] did so badly in the recent upper-house elections and lost to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan [DPJ], whether this will be able to be renewed or not looks quite uncertain because the DPJ is adamant it will oppose the bill when it goes before parliament in November.

RFE/RL: Polls show Japanese public opinion also quite divided on the mission. Why is it so controversial?

Ward: It goes back to the perennial discussion in Japan on the role of Japan's military outside Japan, whether it should be purely defensive or whether it should have a more active role abroad. Junichiro Koizumi, the previous prime minister, was quite clear he wanted Japan's military to be more active abroad.

Because it's a divisive issue, it's very difficult for politicians to get support across the board, there are a lot of people out there who don't like the Japan's involvement in this Afghanistan operation.

RFE/RL: Abe had threatened to resign if parliament did not support the mission's extension. But in the end he announced his resignation before the vote. Was this more to do with domestic issues, the recent election losses and so on, or with this foreign-policy issue?

Ward: I think for him there are a number of issues. One was the sheer difficulty of getting this through in the face of almost certain opposition from the DPJ, but more deeply it reflected his own increasingly untenable position in parliament. His cabinet decisions have been questioned, there have been a huge number of resignations from the cabinet on corruption charges and [other scandals]. So everything came together for Mr. Abe to mean he couldn't really go on himself.

RFE/RL: What does it mean now for the Afghan mission? Abe said a new prime minister would be better-placed to resolve the deadlock. Do you think that's the case?

Ward: No, I think the DPJ is now on a roll, it knows this is an issue it can really force the government into a difficult position on. They want an early election, they're going to use this issue to force an early general election.

[As regards] his successor, there are a huge number of questions if anyone actually want to lead the party into this difficult issue, he'll find it very difficult to get it through, So it's set up for a bloody battle between the opposition and the government in November, without much likelihood of a resolution in the way the Americans might like.

RFE/RL: What about his potential successors -- are their views on the mission the same as Abe's?

Ward: The LDP government is a broad church and people have lots of different views. One of the names being pushed at the moment is Taro Aso, who used to be foreign affairs minister. If he is chosen, and he is one of the front-runners -- though if he wants the job or not that's another matter -- but if he's chosen he'll pursue relatively the same policy as Mr. Abe has. But because it's such a poisoned chalice it's too early to say with any certainty what a successor might do. But Mr. Aso is most likely to follow Mr. Abe's line.

RFE/RL: But the LDP still controls the lower house and could overrule any upper-house decision not to extend the mission?

Ward: They could do that, but in terms of political and moral authority it would be very difficult for them to do that. So this is a really major issue for Japan.

RFE/RL: Meaning the mission is under threat?

Ward: Hugely, and that's why the Americans have been so worried about it, trying to get meetings with the opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa, trying to corral him into supporting this extension, but it does look very uncertain.

Afghanistan can count on full German support: Merkel

Berlin (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Germany's full support for peacekeeping in Afghanistan despite increasing opposition from German voters to the mission.

"I warn against the suggestion that we could leave Operation Enduring Freedom," Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

"As long as the danger persists, the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) stabilisation mission must continue to be supported by Operation Enduring Freedom."

The German parliament is expected this month to extend the mandate of the NATO-led ISAF mission, featuring about 3,000 German troops. A new mandate for six German Tornado reconnaissance jets operating in Afghanistan is also expected to be easily passed.

But the third mandate, concerning the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom, looks set for a rough ride from both the opposition and the Social Democrats, who are partners in Merkel's coalition government.

About 200 troops from Germany's elite KSK unit have a mandate to operate within Operation Enduring Freedom, although they are not currently carrying out missions.

Merkel said she had noted the concerns about Operation Enduring Freedom, but said: "We need to prolong all three mandates."

Public support for the Afghan mission is slipping, according to an opinion poll published by Stern magazine on Wednesday which showed 52 percent in favour of withdrawing all German forces.

Just 43 percent were in favour of them staying, compared with 60 percent two years ago. Germany said this week that Friedrich Eichele, the German head of the European Union's police training mission in Afghanistan, would leave his post just three months after being appointed.

A ministry spokesman said Eichele would return to Germany "as part of the reorganisation of the German federal police".

The government refused to comment on reports that Eichele had grown tired of wrangling between the EU, NATO and Afghan officials about how to give the training priority at a time when coalition forces were fighting an upsurge in Taliban attacks.

Debate goals in Kandahar, not timeline, Harper tells opposition

GLORIA GALLOWAY - With a report from Canadian Press September 11, 2007

CANBERRA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper fired another salvo today at the opposition's unwillingness to continue the current mission in Afghanistan past the expiry date.

In Canberra, where he had a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, the roles the two countries are playing to help the Afghan people were on the table.

The Australians are performing a reconstruction mission in Uruzghan province, which is under the protection of the Dutch, and they are fearful about what could happen if the Dutch pull out when their mission ends next year. The province is on the northern border of Kandahar.

Mr. Harper said Canada has no plans to take over that province once the Dutch leave. But both Mr. Howard and Mr. Harper said the two countries can work on joint projects in Afghanistan, and announced today that they would spend an additional $10-million on shared initiatives.

As for the possibility that Canada could withdraw its troops, Mr. Harper said he hoped that in the next year and a half the debate in Canada would turn from when Canadians will leave to what their objectives should be.

"I don't see the United Nations telling Canada to leave on a certain day ... ," Mr. Harper said.

Meanwhile yesterday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada cautioned that the world risks more attacks if peace and stability aren't restored in Afghanistan.

Mr. MacKay and Ambassador Omar Samad said the price of failure is too high for countries like Canada to consider abandoning Afghanistan before it is ready to defend itself against the forces of terrorism.

"Let's not forget that on 9/11, terrorism came to our shores on this continent," Mr. MacKay said after a private address in St. Andrews, N.B., to a meeting of ambassadors to Canada.

Mr. Samad said Canadians only have to remember what Afghanistan was like when it was abandoned and forgotten by the world in the 1990s.

"It fell into the hands of international terrorists, drug dealers, warlords and al-Qaeda," he said. "Do we want Afghanistan to revert and once again become a failed state and become a threat ... to the world at large?"

Harper eyeing bigger Australian role in Afghanistan

Receives encouraging signals as Howard recognizes `heavy burden' Canada is carrying in Kandahar

September 12, 2007 - Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa Bureau

CANBERRA, Australia–Canada has received encouraging signals from leaders here on the future of Australia's military commitment in Afghanistan.

The comments came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper ended his visit on a friendly note, and headed home to try to forge a consensus among opposition leaders about extending Canada's military mission beyond February 2009.

In light of that deadline, Australian Prime Minister John Howard was asked by Canadian reporters whether there's a role for Australia – a non-NATO country – in the dangerous southern part of Afghanistan that could help Canada.

"We have a lot of respect for the Canadians, and what they do for us, and it would not surprise that if in the course of discussing things, we looked at the sort of situation that you had in mind," Howard said at a joint news conference with Harper after their hour-long private meeting.

Howard acknowledged the "heavy burden" Canada is carrying in Kandahar province and said Canada and Australia "will continue to talk about our efforts in Afghanistan." He did not rule out some future role, though no "definitive" discussions on a "joint operation or a joint way forward" were held.

Australian Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, who is surging ahead of Howard in the polls with the country on the brink of a federal election, also pledged support.

Rudd, leader of the Labour party, has said he would re-direct soldiers from Iraq by mid-2008 back into Afghanistan, and left no doubt about his plans to carry through with that if elected.

"Six years on we remain resolute in our commitment to that engagement in Afghanistan and to our common objective of securing the destruction of Osama bin Laden," Rudd told Harper at a luncheon.

Howard's and Rudd's remarks came the same day U.S. Gen. David Petraeus reported that U.S. forces may be able to begin withdrawing some of their numbers, now that Iraqis are shouldering more of the security load.

The Petraeus report raises the prospect that Australians, too, who also have troops in Iraq, would, in the words of one Canadian official, "have more capacity to send more troops back into Afghanistan.

Australia is the largest non-NATO country among the 37 countries supplying troops in Afghanistan, "and we want them to stay there," said a Canadian official.

Canadian Gen. Ray Hénault, in Canberra yesterday on a previously scheduled visit to formally thank Australia for its contribution in Afghanistan, sat in parliament as Harper made his address.

German general to leave Afghan mission amid dispute

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 – IHT BERLIN: The general commanding the European Union's police training mission in Afghanistan is returning to Germany three months after his appointment because of wrangling with the European Union, NATO and officials inside the Afghan Interior Ministry, senior Western diplomats in Kabul said Tuesday.

Friedrich Eichele, a former commander of the elite German commando unit GSG-9 who was appointed in June to head the police mission, will return to run the special anti-riot police unit as soon as Berlin chooses his successor.

"We can confirm that Brigadier General Eichele will be returning to Germany very soon," said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Diplomats and security experts in Kabul said Eichele's early departure - reportedly at his own request - highlights the immense difficulties in trying to establish the small mission of 190 European trainers at a time when alliance forces have had to deal with an upsurge of fighting by the Taliban, Al Qaeda and local warlords, particularly in the south of the country. They said the mission had been underfunded, understaffed and poorly prepared.

"It seems that the EU was not really properly prepared for such a complex mission," said Ronja Kempin, an Afghan expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. "The EU seemed to have rushed into setting up this mission. Then there is one of the biggest difficulties of all - the pervasive corruption in the Afghan Interior Ministry with whom Eichele has had to work directly."

The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO have in recent months stepped up their efforts with President Hamid Karzai to tackle corruption and to improve and coordinate the training programs for the Afghan police.

The European Union agreed to take over the police training mission from Germany because NATO and the United States had asked Brussels to start providing civilian security in Afghanistan. The idea was that once NATO gained control of an area, the newly trained Afghan police would move in to maintain security so that the development agencies could carry out their projects.

But the EU police force has been hampered from the beginning, according to diplomats in Kabul. The EU member states have provided only half the personnel so far, with the remainder promised by next March. The European Commission, the EU executive, has delayed approving the budget for 70 armored cars, computers and office equipment which have still not yet arrived in Kabul. The total commission budget for the first year of the mission was €43.6 million, or $60.2 million.

Eichele's staff does not have enough cars, computers or offices to function, diplomats in Kabul said.

"We cannot travel outside Kabul because the armored-plated cars have not arrived," said an EU diplomat based in Kabul and who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. He said the original costs of the vehicles was €110,000 but had increased to €170,000 because the security specifications changed. "Germany gave us 15 such vehicles. Because the costs went up, the commission went back to drawing up a new budget, issue new tenders and so there were more delays."

The vehicles have to be assembled in an EU country and cannot be imported directly from neighboring countries, the diplomat said.

The Commission for External Relations, which is responsible for financing the EU's common foreign and security policy and part of the police mission, said Tuesday that there had been some delays. "There has been a bit of a delay because it is a very difficult mission," said a commission official. "The EU wanted to get it off the ground as quickly as possible. It is beginning to work now."

The police mission has also become embroiled in a turf war inside the European Union and with NATO. The EU's special envoy to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, wanted political control over the mission, which Eichele opposed. "There were personality clashes," said an official from Germany's Interior Ministry.

With the increase in fighting in several provinces, Eichele wanted guarantees from NATO that it would provide assistance if any of the police officers came under attack. In an interview last month with the International Herald Tribune, Eichele said "so far we have no cooperation agreement with NATO." The agreement has been held up by Turkey, a leading NATO member.

Instead, the European Union has forged separate agreements with the provincial reconstruction teams to ensure them some protection. These 25 provincial reconstruction teams were established by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and are intended to provide security to the aid agencies.

NATO said Tuesday it would continue to assist the police. "NATO has been providing assistance until now to European police in Afghanistan," said James Appathurai, a NATO spokesman. "I cannot imagine that in future NATO will not provide to EU officials anything less that the same support we provide to other organizations, like the United Nations."

Another issue facing the European Union is how to harmonize the many different police training programs.

Germany, which was in charge of the police training since 2002 until this year, spent just €70 million to train 16,000 police officers in three-year courses that focused on community policing.

The United States, by contrast, spent over $1.3 billion to train 40,000 police officers in courses lasting just three weeks and which tended to concentrate on highway controls.

Both projects have been criticized. They were either too long or too short; the police were poorly paid and often recruited by the Taliban; and there was little or no follow-up to ensure implementation, according separate reports published this year by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British House of Commons and by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Pakistani army kills up to 40 militants

Miranshah (AFP) - Pakistani helicopter gunships and artillery pounded pro-Taliban militant hideouts in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing up to 40 insurgents, the army said.

Hours earlier, dozens of Islamist fighters attacked a checkpost and kidnapped 12 troops a few kilometres (miles) away in the country's northwest, as rebels threatened to start killing another 200 being held in the area.

The incidents came as a visiting US official reiterated Washington's full backing for military ruler President Pervez Musharraf as a key ally in the "war on terror" amid political turmoil rocking the country.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte played down indications that the United States could launch unilateral strikes against militants in Pakistan's tribal areas.

"If we intend to carry out whatever activities we do in the tribal areas there will be complete respect for the sovereignty of Pakistan," Negroponte told a press conference in Islamabad.

Pakistani forces on Tuesday night launched the latest in a string of military operations on the border of the tribal regions of North and South Waziristan, which the US says is Al-Qaeda's new worldwide base.

"The miscreants were occupying mountaintops to launch several attacks on troops. We used artillery and Cobra gunship helicopters to dislodge them," top Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

"The ground troops have started reaching the area for mopping up operations once the firing ends," Arshad said, adding that the clash was ongoing.

Pakistani forces said they had killed a top pro-Taliban militant commander, Ismatullah Khan, last week in the same region along with five other militants.

Pakistan has been rocked by violence since troops stormed the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, with militants increasingly turning to kidnappings to press their demands for troops to stop operations against them.

In a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday, rebels armed with rocket launchers surrounded a security post on the outskirts of the troubled city of Bannu, which borders North Waziristan, officials said.

They wounded a policeman and a soldier before whisking away 12 paramilitary troops, local security chief Amir Badshah said, adding: "They were local Taliban."

Separately a militant spokesman warned that they would start killing more than 200 soldiers who surrendered without firing a shot in South Waziristan nearly two weeks ago.

"We will start killing them in batches of three soldiers if the military operations do not stop," spokesman Zulfiqar Mehsud said.

Militants abducted another 15 soldiers in August in South Waziristan. One of the troops was beheaded by a group of teenage militants in a killing recorded on video, and the rest were freed later.

Musharraf also faces a political crisis ahead of his widely opposed attempt to be re-elected for another five-year term as president in uniform in coming weeks.

In a sign of his growing unpopularity, a poll released Wednesday showed that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is more popular among Pakistanis than Musharraf himself.

Pak Taliban warn MPs against voting for Musharraf

PESHAWAR, Sept 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Warning members of the national and provincial assemblies against voting for President Musharraf, Taliban in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan said "voting for Musharraf is haraam (unlawful) as he is an apostate (out of Islam) due to his cooperation with infidels".

"An apostate can't be a ruler according to Pakistans law. Therefore, all the members are requested to feel for their lives and children, so that we may stop our 376 suicide bombers (Fidayeen) who have been trained for you. And if you dont accept our demands, then..." the statement concluded.

The statement issued by the Taliban central office in Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, said: "You have cast your votes for Musharraf who ruled for five years and you and the whole world saw its consequences."

"You have seen what atrocities he (Musharraf) meted out to the Pakistani nation and especially against the ulema (religious scholars) of the madaris (seminaries) and mosques.

"Therefore, you are requested to avoid imposing this tyrant on us again and if someone votes for him, then he should be ready to face suicide attacks," the statement read.

Meanwhile, local elders have signed a peace deal with Taliban in Mohmand Agency of Pakistan on Sunday. The jirga, consisting of 200 tribesmen and elders from Safi tribe, made it clear to the Taliban representatives that they wanted peace in the area .

Malik Zahir Shah Safi, a jirga member, said the Taliban representatives assured the jirga that militants would not harm government officials or damage public property. The jirga decided if the local Taliban did not honour the peace accord, Safi tribes would side with the government.

Pakistan crisis 'hits army morale' – By Ahmed Rashid, Lahore - BBC

Ahmed Rashid, guest journalist and writer on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, reflects on mounting political drama and militancy in Pakistan.

Pakistan's worst ever political crisis that has divided the nation also appears to be having a dramatic impact on the morale of Pakistani troops on the Afghan-Pakistan border who are engaged in the "war on terror" and fighting the Taleban.

Talebanisation along Pakistan's border regions has escalated even more rapidly since the political crisis began.

As people flee their villages to escape armed extremists, the state has been unable to protect the population and is rapidly losing credibility and authority.

Moreover, the army's insistence that a pro-Taleban Islamic party once again be part of any future government that may emerge after expected general elections will only lead to a further lessening of state control, an increase in the pace of Talebanisation and further divisions in the nation.

The surrender of an estimated 280 soldiers, including a colonel and nine other officers, on 30 August in South Waziristan to just a few score Taleban fighters who blocked their supply convoy on the road to the main town of Wana shocked the nation.

The Pakistani Taleban, ostensibly belonging to the group led by Baitullah Mahsud, persuaded the troops to surrender without firing a single shot. The group comprised more than a dozen mid-ranking officers, including a colonel.

The militants then split the soldiers into groups and took them into the high mountains as hostages - much as the Afghan Taleban did six weeks earlier near Ghazni to a group of 23 South Koreans who were subsequently freed.

A jirga of tribal elders who met the Pakistani Taleban for two days returned empty handed. The Taleban demanded the release of 10 of their prisoners held by the government and insisted upon all troops leaving the Federally-Administered Tribal Area or Fata, which comprises the seven tribal agencies.

After the hostage-taking, the government arrested 100 Mahsud tribesmen - but was quickly forced to free them in order to appease the militants.

The army attempted to cover up the disaster by making conflicting statements, none of which appeared logical and all of which were contradicted by the militants and local tribal elders.

The government has banned all journalists from the region since 2004 so real information is sparse.

In case anyone doubted the militants' intentions, 10 Frontier Corps paramilitary soldiers and a major were kidnapped in Fata's Mohmand agency on 1 September, while two deadly suicide bombings killed several soldiers in Bajaur agency on the same day.

After a US intelligence estimate in mid-July that South and North Waziristan had become Terrorism Central and were the headquarters for al-Qaeda and the Taleban, President Pervez Musharraf sent 20,000 troops into the region breaking a ceasefire and a troop withdrawal treaty agreement the army had signed with the Pakistani Taleban in 2005.

The Pakistani Taleban are now demanding the army returns to the status quo. But that is impossible with the Americans breathing down Gen Musharraf's neck and threatening to attack al-Qaeda hideouts in Fata if the army does not move first. However, that is looking increasingly difficult.

Many of the army and Frontier Corp personnel serving in Fata are Pashtuns, the ethnic group that lives on both sides of the border and from which the Taleban in both countries originate. Pakistani Pashtun soldiers are now loathe to fire upon their fellow Pashtuns.

The last time the army attacked Fata in 2004 more than 700 soldiers were killed and dozens of Pashtun soldiers and Frontier Corp men deserted, while some army helicopter pilots refused to bomb their own fellow citizens. As a result, Gen Musharraf was forced to do a deal with the militants that took the troops out of Fata - much to the chagrin of the American forces based in Afghanistan.

This time the situation is much more serious. Apart from the Taleban there is widespread public anger against the army which could make the loss of morale amongst the troops much more serious. People have lost faith in the political system and in the army's attempts to concoct a new one.

In such a political vacuum it is only natural that extremism should grow and the Pakistani Taleban face only a modicum of resistance from the military.

Gen Musharraf has failed to convince the general public that the struggle against extremism is not just President Bush's war, but a struggle that all fair-minded Pakistanis must wage.

In the meantime, the army is insisting that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who leads the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), be part of any future government, whether it is led by Benazir Bhutto or the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.

The JUI has been the mainstay for the revival of the Taleban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

With supervision from Pakistan's intelligence services, thousands of JUI-run madrassas in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province have provided shelter to tens of thousands of extremists from both sides of the border.

As long as the JUI is a part of any future Pakistani government it is impossible to imagine how that government will be able to move against the Taleban.

Thus, by insisting that the JUI does become part of a future government, the army appears to be directly boosting the fortunes of the Afghan Taleban, even as Pakistani Taleban kidnap or kill Pakistani troops.

This is only part of a wider tragedy that is a result of eight years of military rule when Gen Musharraf appeared to be running with the hares and hunting with the hounds - following a deeply contradictory policy course that has now caught up with him and helped plunge the country into its present chaos.

Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. He is the author of three books including Taliban and, most recently, Jihad. He has covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia for the past 25 years and also writes for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Daily Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal.

The stink of our failure

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail, September 5, 2007 at 4:12 AM EDT

KANADAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — I left Kandahar yesterday for the fourth time in 18 months. For the first time, I left filled with shame.

On the micro level, it was because a story that unfolded before a trusty colleague of mine, Steve Chao of CTV, was fresh in my mind. Mr. Chao was at Patrol Base Wilson, a Canadian base in the Taliban heartland of Zhari district, last weekend, and was interviewing a local Afghan National Police chief when, off in the distance, came the telltale smoke of a roadside bomb.

A U.S. private security truck escorting a tanker had been blown up, and its men and the ANP travelling with them were now under fire. The police chief, Colonel Gulam Rasool Aka, impeccably starched and dressed and to all appearances a good policemen (there are more of these than you would think), was on the phone to his guys taking fire. As Mr. Chao watched, a Canadian came out of a command post to ask what was going on. Col. Aka told him and asked if the Canadians could help; the man said, "Keep me informed," and disappeared back into the CP.

For all the problems that bedevil the ANP, and they are legion, not being able to rely on their Canadian allies traditionally has not been one of them.

Now, on this day at least it was, and though there may be good reason why and there's no doubt the Canadians cannot ride to the rescue of the alternately beleaguered and inept ANP every time, it still grated because I remember a time, last year, when Canadians were everyone's go-to boys.

But in a broader way, I left with the stink of failure in my nose. The Canadian mission in Afghanistan is not failing, though its progress is measured some days in millimetres (my late father had a far better term for such a fine unit) and it is far from perfect.

Like those of the other donor nations whose dollars flood this place, Canada's effort in this country has suffered from a surfeit of good will and a lack of hard-nosed resolve to make funds contingent upon action on the internal corruption that is rife in Afghanistan and the fledgling government of President Hamid Karzai.

Rather, what stuck in my nostrils was a failure of nerve: Canada, I fear, has lost its collective stomach for this exercise. It's too tough, too hard, too damn slow, and the cost - 70 lives down and, as an Ottawa-datelined story I read yesterday jauntily noted, "and counting" - is too great.

The signs are everywhere. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has pledged to quickly bring a motion to the House of Commons formally setting February, 2009, as the day Canada's combat role will end here. The NDP's Jack Layton is still demanding Canadian troops withdraw now, and has added the twist that Canada should take the lead in "peace talks" here.

Since the only group at war with Canada in Afghanistan is the Taliban and the warlords and narco-criminals who are their allies of convenience, I guess Mr. Layton means peace talks with them. Presumably, as the pundits are saying, Mr. Layton considers the Taliban's recent negotiations with South Korea - why, only two of those foolish but innocent hostages were murdered after all - is evidence of their new respectability.

And more tellingly, those in Ottawa skilled at reading the tea leaves of the Stephen Harper government suggest that the Conservatives have lost their appetite for this particular battle.

I hope they are wrong, but in light of what new Defence Minister Peter MacKay was last weekend telling CTV's Question Period, it's hard to remain optimistic. Mr. MacKay said that Canada's NATO allies have been reminded they "cannot count on our troops" after February of 2009, though he was quick to reassure Canadians that "the aid work and the diplomatic effort and presence will extend well beyond that."

Well, that is just a glorious crock. The critics of this mission like to say there has never been an honest debate about it in Parliament, the suggestion that if only there had been, fighting troops would never have been sent here because the Canadian people always prefer to see their soldiers in peaceable roles. That may or may not be true, but that's certainly what public-opinion polls indicate and it's what Canadian politicians appear to mostly believe.

But if you thought the previous debates were a farce, the coming one may make them look full and forthright. The truth is that in the south, including Kandahar province, which is the Canadian area of operations, there is barely an aid effort now, and that's with Canadian troops here in force.

That's not because Canadian soldiers haven't tried, or are overarmed mouth-breathers unable to grasp the delicate nuance of reconstruction and development work, the bleating of some NGOs notwithstanding. Soldiers are damned capable, better in my mind than the earnest folks at the aid agencies who claim to know best how to deliver help. And the troops have made a genuine difference in myriad small ways, which is how development really happens on the ground.

But the real aim here is to build the capacity of Afghans - in government, in its institutions such as the army and police and in politicians and district leaders - and that is painfully slow and barely visible work, especially when the good folks keep getting killed off and beheaded by those with whom Mr. Layton would conduct negotiations.

And it can't be done on any real scale until there's what everyone here calls security, by which they really mean someone has to regularly kick the snot out of the Taliban and their allies until they are reduced, as appears to be happening in Kandahar province, to suicide and roadside bombings and fleeting attacks, and eventually fewer of those, too.

That takes soldiers, and soldiers who are willing to fight, and suffer losses, and occasionally emerge with bloody noses. Canadian soldiers, including, most remarkably, the families of those who have died here, remain willing and committed. The Brits and Americans aside, none of Canada's NATO allies have shown much eagerness to step up to the plate, nor has anyone else.

So the truth of it is, if Parliament decides that, as Mr. MacKay put it, "our current configuration," meaning combat troops, will end in early 2009, no one should draw comfort from the promise that "the aid work" will continue merrily on. It won't. Neither is it likely another country will step up to fill the vacuum left by departing Canadian soldiers, and even if one does, they won't be as good at the hard work - of killing and being killed, as well as talking and building - as Canadians are. And Afghanistan will slide deeper into the chaos that as always is on a low boil, burbling within.

That's why I left Kandahar yesterday feeling ashamed. Where failure itself is often honourable, failing to stay the course is not, and that's what's in the air.

Doctor on call in Afghanistan

By Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Wakhan Corridor, North East Afghanistan - Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Strolling out along the narrow tracks between the streams and the golden wheat harvest, Dr Alex Duncan is clutching a set of children's scales and is off for his first consultation of the day.

With him are two of his daughters, Ruth, three, and two-year-old Libby, who jump around the fields and irrigation ditches as if it was their back garden.

Which of course it is, as they have lived in this village high up in the Wakhan Corridor of north-eastern Afghanistan all their lives while mum and dad have been trying to improve the health of some of the poorest people on earth.

"We're just on our way now to see a man who is being treated for tuberculosis to see if he's gained any weight," said the 42 year old general practitioner from Sussex.

It's harvest time in the Wakhan and everyone is out cutting the ripened crops into bundles with small metal sickles and preparing the grain for the long winter ahead.

Eight donkeys, heads roped together in a line, are whipped with a stick and screamed at by a small boy to make them walk in circles over the golden crop, their hooves breaking the wheat grains from the stalks.

In another field the farmer is further on - here the pile of grain and chaff is tossed up in the air with pitch forks to separate it once again.

Then the brightly-dressed Wakhi women, wearing red and purple materials, unusually for Afghanistan with their faces uncovered, step in and sieve the wheat grains down even further into a sack.

It's a six-week process which would take a combined harvester two hours, but there is no mechanisation here. Everything is done by hand, and if the cold and the snow comes early it's all ruined and families will go hungry.

"All Wakhi houses are the same," explained Alex as we dipped our heads through the small, narrow doors and into the big room which is for living, cooking, eating and sleeping.

"You have a tandoor oven in the middle for baking bread and a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out, but it goes out very slowly so when they are cooking the whole house fills with smoke, and this increases child mortality from respiratory diseases by about 10%."

It's one of the reasons he has discovered to explain a terrifying death rate among children - when he arrived a third died before the age of five. Now it's down to a quarter.

The number of deaths was a big shock to his wife Eleanor, a linguist, who has taken on the role of talking to the local women and teaching her own children every day - Ruth, Libby, Anna and Jacob, who's the eldest at eight.

"Their lives are really hard and sometimes tragic - often tragic. It's not unusual for women to lose a child or two children or maybe even three," she said.

"We have a neighbour who lives up the hill who has lost eight children and it's just heartbreaking really to see that.

"We found it really, really hard as we come from a culture where children don't die and here they just do die, a lot, and we had to learn from local people that they accept that this happened."

But through learning the Wakhi language, an archaic form of dari or Persian, the Duncans discovered there were a few simple things that could make all the difference.

Firstly women would not give babies breast milk for three or four days after they were born as they thought the first milk would be bad - in fact it contains vital nutrients.

There was no deep-set cultural reason for this and so women were trained to pass on the word that the milk was good, and that has had a huge impact. New stoves with chimneys have been designed by the community and are being tested to reduce the smoke.

And people now understand that first-cousin marriages can cause abnormalities in the children. The Duncans have monthly child weigh-ins under a big willow tree - and in 25 other villages, monitoring their progress and offering supplements to the most vulnerable.

Vaccinations are also given out by local health workers they have trained - it's making a difference and basic education for the women is helping reduce the number who die in childbirth, which is also a terrifying figure and one of the worst in the world.

The poor road means access to health care is beyond the reach of most, and Dr Alex's real answer - more girls being educated - is hindered by the lack of schools with decent teachers and few bridges, which means it's often too far for girls to walk to the nearest school. And it's not an easy place to live for this highly-dedicated British family.

They have a typical Wakhi one-roomed mud hut too, with no running water or drains, a pit latrine, no beds and little food other than the local bread, a little bartered rice and whatever they can cram onto the truck that drives up from Kabul once a year.

The whole family hunkers down on the floor under blankets every night, and the winters are especially harsh, with temperatures as low as -25C and just five hours of sunshine a day in the narrow valley bottom.

Handing out pills from the back of his white van - the mobile clinic - I asked Dr Duncan whether it was all worth it.

"Oh yeah," he replied, quite energetically. "No question about it. We're not going to be here forever, and we are having an effect on the health of the population which we couldn't do in the UK and that's a very satisfying feeling.

"It's not easy. You can't change the world in a day or save the world in six weeks, but slowly, slowly we can make some inroads. It's very hard, but it's very good."

WFP food-for-work provides hope for Afghans

Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

Towhed Abad, 11 September 2007 - After violence and drought brought the Afghan village of Towhed Abad to its knees, a WFP food-for-work road building project has given people the hope that their lives will improve. Jackie Dent reports.

About forty men are gathered outside the mosque, their eyes squinting from the searing hot sun. They are waiting patiently for their names to be called out to collect their rations of WFP

"We’ve had a hard time here but the new road has helped a lot of people food. Some come with wheelbarrows, in which children have chosen to laze about in." Mohammed Husein

The village of Towhed Abad is dusty and dry, and lies on the outskirts of Ghazni city in central Afghanistan. Before the 2001 war, Ghazni was famed for its spectacular citadel, its 1000-year-old minarets and embroidered lambskin jackets worn by rock stars like Janis Joplin.

These days, however, the city has a weariness borne from rising *insecurity in surrounding areas. Battles have erupted between insurgents and international forces in Ander district and kidnappings have taken place in the province such as those of a group of Koreans in July - many of whom were later released.

The local economy and livelihoods of the people of Ghazni have also been devastated by a nationwide drought. Poor rainfall in April and May in 2006 led to one of the worst harvests in years with millions facing a food and water crisis.

Extensive crop loss throughout the country resulted and an WFP assessment found that 1.9 million very poor people needed food assistance.

WFP has received around 110,000 tons from an appeal and much of this food has been distributed to beneficiaries working on food-for-work projects, including the men of Towhed Abad.

The town had a poorly-maintained road that was affecting the ability to get into nearby Ghazni city. With WFP support, 270 men received 16 tons of food rations in return for rebuilding eight kilometres of the road.

Among the crowd outside the mosque is Mohammed Husein, 18, a part time school teacher, who worked six days on the road project, alongside his father and brother.

“When the road was bad, it was hard for patients to get to the local hospital but now it is much quicker,” he says. “We’ve had a hard time here but the new road has helped a lot of people.”

“The drought has been hard and it is not easy to find a job,” he says. “But the food from WFP helps the people here in our village when times are bad. It also gives us hope that things can improve.”

Tons of Saudi dates for Afghan children

KABUL (AFP) — Saudi Arabia has given two million dollars of dates to supplement the diet of Afghan children who lack proper nutrition because of insecurity and disasters, the World Food Programme said Wednesday.

The 2,000 tons of dates will be given to given to children at primary schools, WFP said in a statement.

Insecurity and natural disasters such as drought and floods "have had a severe impact on the basic nutritional needs of millions of poor people, especially Afghan children," it said.

The Taliban-led insurgency raging in Afghanistan restricts the movements of aid groups.

WFP said in May, for example, that 20 of its food supply convoys had been attacked by gunmen in the previous year, resulting in the loss of more than 500 tons of food aid.

Afghanistan, which has suffered nearly 30 years of war, is one of the world's poorest countries and ranks among the lowest for basic indicators on health and living standards.

According to a UNICEF report released last year, it is fourth in the world for the number of children dying under five. About 54 percent of children under five suffer severe to moderate stunting because of poor nutrition.

Saudi Arabia was one of three countries that backed the 1996-2001 Taliban government. It dropped its support soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks by the Taliban's Al-Qaeda allies.

[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.]