In this bulletin:

• Poland plans to extend troops' presence Afghanistan
• Britain tells US: We're winning Afghan battles but not the war
• Musharraf reassures U.S. on militants
• Iran's envoy to Paris elaborates on status on Afghanistan at EP
• NATO Chief: No Pressure on Berlin for South Afghanistan Mission – DW
• Taliban commander says reports of death premature
• Al-Qaeda fights back at Afghan peace bid
• Taliban logic
• Afghan Sidestep Around Combat
• Efforts on to control prices of oil, gas: Farhang
• 'Kite Runner'author urges sustained help for Afghanistan
• Stick by Afghan refugees, author urges West
• Insecurity main obstacle for Afghan returnees
• Reaching His Prime Time in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: Female Soccer Star Achieves Goals

Poland plans to extend troops' presence Afghanistan

WARSAW (AFP) — Polish Defence Minister Aleksander Szczyglo said Thursday he had asked for government approval to keep 1,200 Polish soldiers in Afghanistan deployed there into 2008. The PAP news agency said he made the announcement during a visit to Kabul.

The Polish force in Afghanistan operates under NATO's 36,000-strong International Security Assistance Force and handle security in the southeast Ghazni and Patika provinces.

Their elite units are also stationed in Kandahar in the south of the country. According to a June poll, 78 percent of Poles disapprove of Poland's continued military role in ISAF, while 17 percent are against and five percent had no opinion.

A 28-year-old lieutenant killed by a greande blast in August became the first Polish casualty in Afghanistan.

Britain tells US: We're winning Afghan battles but not the war

The Times, UK, 09/13/2007 By Tom Baldwin and Richard Beeston

Britain is risking a new foreign policy rift with the US after bluntly telling the Bush Administration that it is “winning the battles but losing the war” in Afghanistan.

Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, fear that the US remains “fixated” by Iraq and is failing to address what they regard as the real front line in the war on terrorism.

Disagreement has surfaced already over the US military’s desire to spray opium poppy fields from the air with herbicide, as well as to continue its bombing strikes on Afghan villages, which Britain complains undermines its strategy of “winning hearts and minds”.

Other areas of contention include what Britain regards as Washington’s indulgent attitude towards Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, who is accused of tolerating, even conniving with, widespread corruption inside his government.

One source said: “The Americans see a bit of military success in Afghanistan and think it’s all fine. They are blinkered by Iraq and this is becoming symptomatic of a lack of serious engagement on policy across the piste.”

Mr Miliband has instigated a strategy overhaul on Afghanistan which, although not a formal “review”, is causing alarm within a US Administration still smarting over Britain’s withdrawal of troops from Basra in southern Iraq this week.

Some US officials suspect that Mr Brown intends to slide out of the “bad war” in Iraq by concentrating on the “good war” in Afghanistan. They acknowledge that the Basra pullout was based on military advice but had still hoped that Britain would wait for General David Petraeus’s crucial progress report to Congress next week.

State Department and Pentagon officials have told The Times that Britain appears to “want rid of Karzai”, while others have complained through diplomatic channels about “mixed messages” coming from the Brown Government. The Foreign Office denies that it is seeking Mr Karzai’s removal, but diplomats admit that there is a “sharp difference of opinion with the Americans” about the Afghan President.

Mr Miliband has pushed Afghanistan up the policy agenda, choosing Kabul as the destination for his first trip abroad as Foreign Secretary in July. He wants to “step up the game” by building the strength of the Kabul Government and security forces, luring a broader range of Afghans into the administration, as well as tackling longstanding corruption surrounding the narcotics trade.

Some of the issues were aired this week by a team of Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence officials in Washington to discuss next year’s Nato summit, which is likely to be dominated by the mission in Afghanistan.

The US, which contributes more than two thirds of Nato’s military strength in Afghanistan, is frustrated by the British refusal to countenance air-spraying of opium crops, a key source of revenue for the Taleban. Helmand province, where 7,000 British troops are based, produced a record crop of poppies this year, the largest output anywhere in Afghanistan.

Rather than alienate locals, the British forces are keen to take the longer route of training Afghan anti-narcotics teams and persuading farmers to plant alternative crops.

The MoD disclosed that an 18-year-old soldier was one of the two who died when a roadside bomb exploded in Helmand province on Wednesday, making him the youngest British victim of the Afghan fighting so far.

The ministry said that the two men were Private Ben Ford, 18, and Private Damian Wright, 23, of the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment. Private Ford, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was on his first overseas deployment after joining the Army in July 2005. He and Private Wright, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, died when their Land Rover was blown up while on patrol north of Lashkar Gah.

Major Paul Gilby, officer commanding C Company The Mercian Regiment, said of Private Ford: “Young on paper, in life he was mature beyond his years in attitude, bearing and ability.” His family said last night: “We are immensely proud of our son and know that he lost his life doing something he was proud to be part of and that he loved.”

A number of 18-year-old soldiers have died in Iraq.

Musharraf reassures U.S. on militants

An attack kills 15 soldiers even as the Pakistani president tells Negroponte that he is doing all he can.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 14, 2007

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Amid a surge of fighting in Pakistan's borderlands and a suicide attack on a military installation, President Pervez Musharraf assured a senior U.S. envoy Thursday that his government has been doing all it can to fight Islamic militancy.

At least 15 soldiers were killed in the attack on the mess hall of an army installation about 60 miles south of Islamabad, the capital, military officials said.

Separately, Pakistani military officials said government troops had killed dozens of insurgents in two days of fierce fighting in North and South Waziristan, the most restive of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Local militant sources said dozens of soldiers also were killed, which was flatly denied by the chief military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad.

Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte's visit had been scheduled months earlier, but comes as Musharraf is struggling to cope with a domestic political crisis challenging his rule as well as an increase in militant attacks against the military.

In his previous position as national intelligence director, Negroponte warned this year that senior Al Qaeda figures had found sanctuary in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

During this visit, however, Negroponte has not made public mention of that assessment, instead taking pains to praise Pakistan's role in combating Islamic insurgents.

"There is no doubt whatsoever of Pakistan's commitment to restoring and establishing security in that part of the country and doing more than its share in the war against terror," Negroponte told reporters Wednesday.

After the meeting, Musharraf's office issued a statement saying that "the president reaffirmed Pakistan's firm resolve to fight extremism and terrorism."

It also said the United States had committed $750 million over five years for development in the tribal areas, among the country's poorest regions.

Pakistan has deployed more than 90,000 troops in the borderlands, where U.S. intelligence says Al Qaeda and Taliban elements have been regrouping and rearming. Thousands more troops were sent into the tribal areas after militants began a campaign of suicide bombings in revenge for a July showdown in Islamabad in which government forces stormed a radical mosque.

However, the military campaign has produced no notable successes, and some embarrassing failures. Militants last month captured at least 200 troops -- they apparently surrendered without firing a shot -- and the government has been trying to broker their release.

Given the precariousness of Musharraf's political situation, Negroponte has been careful to avoid any criticism of the president's recent actions, including the summary deportation of a top opposition leader this week. He reiterated U.S. hope that the political process, including parliamentary elections to be held by early next year, will be peaceful.

In Pakistan, high-profile action against militant groups has sometimes coincided with the visits of high-ranking U.S. officials. A senior Taliban leader was captured on the day Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in March.

Thursday's vehicle-borne suicide bomb at Ghazi Tarbela, a base used by elite troops, was the second attack this month on a military installation near the capital. On Sept. 4, a pair of suicide bombings in the garrison town of Rawalpindi killed 25 people.

In the most recent clashes in North and South Waziristan, Pakistani military officials said as many as 50 militants were killed Thursday and about 30 the day before. Troops used helicopter gunships and heavy artillery after insurgents attacked a military base, they said.

Militant sources and local tribal leaders said nearly 100 troops had been killed in the fighting. The clashes have been taking place in remote areas that are closed to outsiders, and it was not possible to verify the casualty claims by either side.

Iran's envoy to Paris elaborates on status on Afghanistan at EP

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran, 09/14/2007

Iran's Ambassador to France elaborated at European Parliament on Iran's status regarding Afghanistan Thursday, answering EP members' questions on the matter.

Ahani who had attended the EP on an invitation extended to him by Afghan-EU Friendship Group, said that cooperation aimed at restoration of security in that country in one of the diplomatic priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranian Ambassador to Paris addressing the Strasbourg based EP members in France, said, "We would spend our entire efforts on that respect, since naturally restoration of security in Afghanistan plays a big role in accelerating the Afghan refugees' repatriation to their motherland form Iran."

Emphasizing the need to boost the international efforts aimed at reconstruction of Afghanistan, Ahani also referred to the moves made in that respect in that country during the course of the past few years.

He said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has allocated over 450 million US dollars of credits to this issue, while playing a very positive role in implementation of infrastructure projects in various parts of Afghanistan."

Ahani referred to a recent state visit by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Afghanistan and the signing of some important documents during that visit, adding, "Iran, with its rich financial and expert manpower resources, is ready for comprehensive cooperation with Afghanistan."

Iran's Ambassador to France also referred to the great problem of narcotic drugs trafficking from Afghanistan, that has been several folded ever since the US led occupation of that country, arguing, "Iran has been engaged in an all out anti narcotic drugs trafficking campaign during the course of the past decades, dedicating the dear lives of over 3,000 police and disciplinary forces to the cause." Ahani added, "Yet, due to the rapidly growing volume of narcotic drugs trafficking from Afghanistan in recent year, fighting against the deadly phenomenon calls for serious will of the international community and mobilization of lots more of anti narcotic drug officers."

Pointing out that the main destination of the narcotic drugs smuggled from Afghanistan is Europe, Ahani criticized the weak and insufficient cooperation and contributions of the European countries in that respect, emphasizing the need for EU's playing of a more significant role in the matter.

Elaborating on philanthropic approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran in acceptance of over three million Afghan refugees and the problems and difficulties with which our country has been entangled for decades in that respect, he said, "The 9th Government is determined to automatize the affairs of the remaining Afghan refugees in Iran, in accordance with country's immigration laws."

NATO Chief: No Pressure on Berlin for South Afghanistan Mission – DW

Contrary to earlier reports, there is no pressure on Germany to increase its military operations in Afghanistan by deploying troops to the troubled south of the country, NATO head de Hoop Scheffer said in Berlin.

"There is no pressure on Germany to go into the south," de Hoop Scheffer said after meeting Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday, Sept. 13.

He repeated, however, that the alliance would prefer its member countries to put as few restrictions on the use of their troops as possible. Other NATO members, including the United States and Canada, have requested nations drop restrictions on where troops are deployed.

"It is unfair to criticize Germany... I am realistic, I understand the domestic political situation in Germany," de Hoop Scheffer said.  "And it is not only in southern Afghanistan where there is danger. Germany has also had casualties in the north."

Two German police officers and a foreign ministry employee were killed by a bomb in Kabul in August, bringing the German death toll in Afghanistan to 25 soldiers and three police officers. A German engineer has also been held hostage in Afghanistan for nearly two months.

Germany has nearly 3,000 troops stationed in the relatively peaceful north of Afghanistan on a training and reconstruction mission as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"We will maintain the predominance of our military presence in the north, and regarding the specific tasks, we will focus on training the Afghan army," Steinmeier told reporters after meeting de Hoop Scheffer.

The German army's Afghanistan mandates prevent it from being used in the south, where military casualties are higher. There has been pressure on Germany to lift this restriction, particularly to allow military instructors to accompany the Afghan troops they have trained.

Germany has also sent six reconnaissance Tornado jets to Afghanistan to assist ISAF operations throughout the country. The German parliament will debate renewing the mandates this autumn.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday pledged her country's support for peacekeeping in Afghanistan despite increasing opposition from German voters to the mission.

  De Hoop Scheffer also met with German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung in Berlin

An opinion poll published by Stern magazine on Wednesday showed 52 percent of respondents in favor of withdrawing all German forces. Just 43 percent were in favor of them staying, compared with 60 percent two years ago.

De Hoop Scheffer and Steinmeier also agreed the NATO-led KFOR force remained necessary for securing peace in Kosovo. The NATO head said the force provided a secure environment for the Albanian majority in the Serbian province and for the Serbian minority.

Following failure to agree on Kosovo's final status at the United Nations as a result of the threat of a Russian veto in the Security Council, Steinmeier said there was no alternative to the three-party talks on the future of the province, involving the United States, the European Union and Russia.

A UN mediation group has been given until Dec. 10 to draw up a proposal for the future status of the Serbian province, which has been under UN administration since 1999.

"Nobody is able to say whether this will be successful," Steinmeier said. "We believe there is a realistic chance."

Taliban commander says reports of death premature

Reuters, 09/14/2007 -SPIN BOLDAK - Taliban commander Mullah Brother told Reuters on Friday he was "alive and well," more than two weeks after the Afghan government announced he had been killed.

Brother served as a top military commander for the Taliban government until it was driven from power in 2001, and is a member of the movement's leadership council led by fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Afghan Defence Ministry said late last month Brother was killed in ground fighting in Helmand during a U.S.-led raid, launched after Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan army convoy between Sangin and Sarwan districts.

But, Brother said the report was part of America's disinformation campaign.

"I am alive and well and the Afghan government had issued a false news about my death," he said, speaking by satellite phone to a reporter familiar with his voice.

The rebel commander warned of a new offensive, involving suicide attacks, roadside bombs and guerrilla raids during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on Friday.

"All preparation has been completed for carrying out new attacks across Afghanistan and a new operation named "Nusrat" (Help) will be launched in the holy month," he said, speaking from an undisclosed location.

More than 7,000 people have been killed during the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period of the six-year Taliban insurgency.

Al-Qaeda fights back at Afghan peace bid
By Syed Saleem Shahzad – Asia Times

KARACHI - Similar to US General David Petraeus' plan of reconciliation with the Iraqi tribal-based national resistance and alienation of al-Qaeda, Washington has a two-pronged approach of political settlement with "reconcilable" insurgents and all-out war on radical extremists in the theater of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This initiative was given a fillip this week by both the government in Kabul and the Taliban, while al-Qaeda, which stands to lose the most, is already on the offensive - as in Osama bin Laden's latest video - in a bid to re-energize itself to maintain its support in the Afghan struggle.

A Taliban spokesman on Tuesday responded that they were prepared for talks with Kabul after President Hamid Karzai offered on Sunday to stage negotiations. "Peace cannot be achieved without dialogue," Karzai said.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi was quoted in the media as saying, "For the sake of national interests ... we are fully ready for talks with the government." He added that the Taliban had a "limited" number of conditions, but he did not explain further.

Tribal elders and clerics in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province are now active in canvassing for a jirga (tribal meeting) that would include the Taliban. These endeavors are backed by both Pakistan and the United States.

The lessons of last month's grand "peace jirga" in Kabul have been learned. While that meeting was groundbreaking in bringing together hundreds of tribal elders, clerics and others from Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was always doomed to be nothing more than symbolic without the participation of the Taliban, who were not invited.

The Taliban realize that jirgas are an Afghan tradition in which rivals attempt to hammer out their differences, and there are now high hopes that once the Taliban and members of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan sit down face-to-face with Afghan government officials, the ice will melt.

Whatever the results of such jirgas, one thing is sure - the Taliban's relations with al-Qaeda, which have had their ups and downs before the present reconciliation, will deteriorate.

Despite optimism in Washington and Islamabad over the latest peace moves, in the meantime there will be no let-up on the part of coalition troops in Afghanistan, as they are committed to applying maximum pressure on the Taliban.

Operations have already been increased in the southwestern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. However, with the number of casualties rising, most member countries want to see tangible results, such as the Canadians, who are engaged in operations in Kandahar, the second-toughest area after Helmand.

Six years since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, there is also war fatigue in the militant camp, as well as among the population. The indigenous segment of the Afghan resistance, drawn from the tribes, especially wants to see results.

Men want to get back to their fields and to the routines of life. The tribes of southern Afghanistan want dominance in the central government and prosperity in the Pashtun heartland. And they don't mind whether the Taliban achieve this target through the bullet, the ballot or the jirga - they just want results in the near future.

The Taliban are aware of this, and that the tribals are not ideologically motivated to fight an indefinite battle. This is one of the factors in their willingness for talks with Kabul.

For the al-Qaeda ideologues sitting in Iraq and the Pakistani tribal areas, they face a situation similar to the one they now have in Iraq.

Four years ago, after Saddam Hussein fell, al-Qaeda saw the opportunity to grab the resistance by the scruff of the neck and transform it from a low-level guerrilla war into a real "surge" against the US military.

Al-Qaeda's calculated strikes at the nerve center of the US-Shi'ite alliance abruptly sharpened the round edges of the resistance and stoked the fires of sectarian strife. In the atmosphere of intense insecurity that resulted, many common Iraqi people lost their impartiality, joined the resistance and helped al-Qaeda by providing bases and logistics. Al-Qaeda emerged as a leader of Iraqi resistance.

The situation has changed over the past months, though, as the US has been relentless in pursuing al-Qaeda and courting Iraqi tribes, which are turning their backs on al-Qaeda. Many top al-Qaeda commanders have been assassinated by tribals and they are increasingly calling for al-Qaeda to leave and allow the Iraqi national resistance to fight its own battle.

In Pakistan, al-Qaeda adopted a similar approach in North Waziristan and South Waziristan in 2005 by breaking the natural alliance between Pakistani militants and tribals on the one side and the Pakistan army on the other. The result was the establishment of the Islamic State of North Waziristan and the Islamic State of South Waziristan, with al-Qaeda as a key player in both.

But under relentless pressure from the US to crack down on foreign militants in Pakistan, Islamabad was able to drive a wedge between locals and al-Qaeda. This culminated in January in the Pakistani Taliban massacre of hundreds of Uzbek militants and the expulsion of al-Qaeda commanders from the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. They have since been able to re-establish themselves.

Osama bin Laden's videotape can be seen in this context. Al-Qaeda has lost its supremacy in Iraq, and risks being sidelined in Afghanistan and Pakistan should the nascent peace process take hold.

Bin Laden's appearance is a powerful reminder that al-Qaeda is still the leader in the global resistance. One can expect a "surge" in al-Qaeda's activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to justify this tag and reclaim the resistance movements.

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

Taliban logic
Winnipeg Free Press, Editorial, 09/14/2007

BEFORE 9/11, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they committed many atrocities against the Afghan people. Unfortunately, in this post-20th-century world with a hundred-odd years of genocide and horror behind it, that is not hard to imagine.

The Taliban, however, also committed atrocities against civilization, against history itself, which is a more difficult concept to comprehend. During their tenure, they destroyed priceless artifacts of South Asian civilization because they stemmed from religions other than Islam, including two giant statues of the Buddha carved out of a cliff-side.

This week in the Northwest Frontier region of Swat along the Afghan-Pakistan border, Islamic militants believed to be Taliban terrorists held a village hostage while they tried to destroy another statue of the Buddha carved out of a cliff 2,000 years ago.

They failed, but not before they had demonstrated that nothing in their view of the world and their neighbours has changed since they were toppled by a NATO-led coalition that brought democracy to Afghanistan six years ago.

This week, the Taliban responded to an invitation from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to open negotiations to end the fighting. Their response emphasized once again and even more strongly that nothing has changed in their view of the world or their intolerance of other opinions.

They will come to the table once all foreign troops have withdrawn from Afghanistan and once Mr. Karzai has agreed to establish an "Islamic democracy," a phrase that is an oxymoron in Taliban terminology. In short, they will agree to come to the table if the Afghan government, the United Nations, NATO and countries such as Canada agree to roll back everything that has been won, everything that has been achieved for Afghans in six years of war. In other words, a Taliban negotiation, a Taliban compromise, consists of getting everything they want before they begin to even talk. After that, they can bargain up.

Canada does not bargain with the Taliban, although some political leaders, particularly New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton, imagine that it might somehow be useful to do so. Events this week show exactly how wrong that belief is. One cannot negotiate with ideologues who know no reason.

The war in Afghanistan can only be won on the battlefields and in the reconstruction programs that are building a new society there.

Afghan Sidestep Around Combat - Embassy, September 12th, 2007, EDITORIAL

Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad, with his typical savoir-faire, sidestepped the question of Canada's controversial military commitment to Afghanistan at his country's first national day celebration in Ottawa last week.

The midday event attracted two cabinet ministers, Stockwell Day and Bev Oda. But–despite its location in Ottawa's Drill Hall–it was a showcase not of Canada's combat or even government role, but of people-to-people contributions between Canada and Afghanistan.

Mr. Samad told his audience about the work of Canadian NGOs, and even saluted Miss Teen Canada Cassondra Paletta, who appeared at the event in her tiara, for her well-intentioned but somewhat puzzling plan to deliver teddy bears to Afghan children.

But it was the story of the sacrifice of a Canadian carpenter who died building a school in northern Afghanistan that set the tone for Ambassador Samad's event.

Vancouver carpenter Mike Frastacky worked on and paid for a school project in Nahrin, Afghanistan. He did it with his own money and by collecting small donations from his friends and family. As he was completing construction of the school for 550 boys and girls he had been building for four years, he was shot to death by unknown killers.

The sacrifice of Mr. Frastacky and the many other Canadians who have come to know and love Afghanistan may or may not have anything to do with Canada's military mission. That mission, which has never been fully explained to Parliament in all its complex history, should live or die on it own merits. But the personal giving of Canadians and Canadian NGOs to Afghanistan, even in the face of danger, will and should continue with or without a combat presence.

It was good that Mr. Samad chose the high road by commemorating the work of ordinary Canadians while leaving the necessary debate over the military mission to the Hill.

If Parliament had returned, as it was supposed to next week, that debate would have moved to centre stage. But prorogation has given the politics of war an extended vacation.

Efforts on to control prices of oil, gas: Farhang

KABUL, Sept 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Commerce and Industries Muhammad Amin Farhang Tuesday said the ministry was struggling to control the skyrocketing prices of liquefied petroleum gas and oil in the country.

He was summoned to the Meshrano Jirga or Upper House of Parliament to brief the parliamentarians on recent increase in prices of gas, petrol and diesel.

He told the senators that the government had sent a delegation to discuss import of gas and petrol from the Central Asian states. In a bid to control the increase in prices, the government was going to open two petrol pumps and 20 gas centres in the capital city.

Two government-owned petrol pumps are presently working here which are selling petrol and diesel on prices far lower than the private petrol pumps. Farhang said an agreement had been signed for import of gas from Uzbekistan. Without naming any individual or company, Farhang said certain contractors were responsible for the recent increase in prices of petroleum products.

The minister said documents of several contractors, who had won the contract by submitting the lowest bids for provision of oil and gas, were proved counterfeit. They had been detained and under investigations.

The senators criticised the minister for his ministry's daydreaming in terms of price hike in the country. The House asked the minister to take steps to bring down the prices of gas and oil to the normal level.

'Kite Runner' author urges sustained help for Afghanistan

The Associated Press - Friday, September 14, 2007 - KABUL, Afghanistan: The author of two best-selling novels set in Afghanistan said the country is moving in the right direction but that the international community must remain committed to rebuilding the war-torn nation.

Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner" and current New York Times No. 1 "A Thousand Splendid Suns" wrapped up a 10-day tour of northern Afghanistan on Thursday as a goodwill envoy for UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.

The Afghan-born author said in a U.N. statement distributed Thursday that the country is at a "crossroads" and that there are signs of disillusionment inside Afghanistan and the international community.

"A long-term engagement is absolutely critical if the country is to continue moving in the right direction," said Hosseini, a naturalized U.S. citizen. "Afghanistan needs time, patience and relentless effort."

During his tour, Hosseini visited UNHCR projects in the north but couldn't visit the south because of ongoing violence fueled by a resurgent Taliban militia.

The visit was his first to the country since finding fame with his 2005 hit "The Kite Runner." Hosseini left Afghanistan in 1976 and now lives in California.

Stick by Afghan refugees, author urges West

By Hamid Shalizi - KABUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Millions of Afghan refugees who returned home after the overthrow of the Taliban desperately need help to rebuild their lives and are counting on the West, best-selling novelist-turned UN envoy Khaled Hosseini said on Wednesday.

Wrapping up a 10-day visit to assess the plight of around 5 million refugees who have returned from Iran and Pakistan since 2002, Hosseini urged the international community to pledge long-term commitment to his native Afghanistan.

"I think sometimes there's a tendency in the West to think, wow, millions of people have come back to Afghanistan, things must be just wonderful and great," Hosseini, author of best-seller "The Kite Runner" and goodwill envoy for UN refugee agency UNHCR, told Reuters in an interview.

"Often they have come back to very difficult conditions ... there's a lack of jobs, they don't have homes, they don't have land," he added. "I hope that the West listens to their voice and stays committed to them."

Hosseini, who lived in Afghanistan as a young boy but then went into exile with his family through the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and is now based in the United States, visited returnees in far northern Afghanistan.

"One of the main problems that people have is joblessness. That's really at the top of everybody's list of priorities," he said.

He last visited Afghanistan in 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led defeat of the Islamist Taliban in 2001, and was struck by how the country's infrastructure had developed in the interim.

But a Taliban insurgency is raging, there are near daily clashes and ambushes, suicide bombings are rising and over 7,000 have been killed since early last year.

So much so that a film based on "The Kite Runner" -- a tale about the troubled friendship of two Afghan boys -- due to be released later this year had to be shot in western China.

"There was some talk about making the movie here, but I think the studio had some concerns about security," said Hosseini, whose second novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns" published earlier this year is also a runaway best-seller.

Promoting that novel, a story of two Afghan women thrown together by forced marriages to the same man, coupled with his work as a UN envoy are taking up all of his time.

And for his next novel? "I haven't started writing anything in terms of a third novel," he said. "Mainly I have been touring for the second novel and now have become involved with the UNHCR office here in Kabul about the situation of Afghan refugees."

Insecurity main obstacle for Afghan returnees

PESHAWAR, 13 September 2007 (IRIN) - Growing insecurity in Afghanistan is the main impediment to the return of more than 2 million registered Afghans still living in Pakistan today.

"No, I won't go," Ghayassudin, a 26-year-old taxi driver in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and home to most of the country's Afghan refugee population, said. "There is no peace there. It's simply not safe."

Raqibullah, 36, another refugee who came to Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of his country in 1979 and hasn't returned since, echoed that view.

"I came when I was a child, so Pakistan is my home. Why would I go if it continues to be dangerous?" he asked.

According to a joint report by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Pakistani government earlier this year, of the 2.15 million registered Afghans in the country, the vast majority (82 percent) indicated they did not intend to return to Afghanistan in the near future.

The most important factors cited for their reluctance to return were security (41 percent), shelter (30 percent) and livelihoods (24 percent).

This marks a change in the mindset from the 2005 census, when security was the third biggest reason for not repatriating, after lack of shelter and livelihoods.

Lack of access to land was also a major impediment to return, with 89 percent of registered Afghans in the country claiming to be landless.

Those intending to return originated primarily from the provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Kabul, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Logar. The majority (84 percent) were of Pashtoon ethnicity currently resident in NWFP, the report said.

Since the collapse of the Taliban regime in December 2001, about 3.2 million Afghans have returned to their homeland from Pakistan - the vast majority with assistance from UNHCR.

Hopeful of their country's future peace and stability, in 2002, the first year of the voluntary repatriation programme, 1.6 million Afghans repatriated from Pakistan.

However, those numbers have since dropped off, as more and more Afghans find themselves increasingly disillusioned with the rate of progress being made back home - both on the security and socio-economic fronts.

In 2003, around 340,000 Afghans returned, more than 380,000 in 2004, around 450,000 in 2005, and around 132,000 in 2006.

To date, 340,000 Afghans have returned in 2007, but this was due largely to an increase in the monetary grant provided per returnee, as well as an announcement by the government that those Afghans that did not register with the authorities and did not leave the country within a designated period would be deemed illegal.

The refugee agency launched a grace period of assisted repatriation for unregistered refugees on 1 March that ended on 15 April. More than 200,000 Afghans, mostly unregistered, left Pakistan for Afghanistan in this period.

For Afghans like Ghayassudin and Raqibullah, given prevailing security conditions back home, going back now simply does not make sense - a fact the UNHCR is well aware of, and continues to monitor.

"Currently there are major concerns about security developments in Helmand, Kandahar and the Ghazni area," Maryann Maguire, a UNHCR spokeswoman, told IRIN from Kabul, referring to those areas where a strong Taliban presence has emerged. "In recent weeks there has also been a stark deterioration of security in Kunar Province, as well as in [the provinces of] Wardak and Logar and the central region in general," she said.

Citing issues of access, she added: "It is difficult to assess the needs, provide information and carry out the mandate of the UNHCR with returnees as well as IDPs [internally displaced persons] in conditions where the safety of staff cannot be guaranteed."

Also of great importance was the restricted access that UNHCR was increasingly experiencing in areas considered "safe" until a few weeks ago. "This is having a direct impact on our ability to reach returnees who potentially need help the most," Maguire said.

Moreover, with security appearing to deteriorate further, the agency noted a lack of objective information in helping people consider their options.

The priority for the UNHCR is to have safe and unfettered access to all regions of Afghanistan where there are returnees or a potential for returns.

"Many initiatives have taken place on a local level between UNHCR and key players to ensure that security is guaranteed. But this is a long and complicated process and much more needs to be done. Furthermore, security is a collective effort which is the primary responsibility of the government of Afghanistan," Maguire said.

Reaching His Prime Time in Afghanistan
Murdoch-Like Magnate Builds Media Empire

By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, September 14, 2007

The head of a burgeoning Afghan media empire looked down at his new BlackBerry, vibrating against a table in Washington earlier this week. "Afghan civilians injured in Gereshk suicide bombing," read the e-mail headline.

Another day, another suicide bombing in another town. Another too-typical news event for Saad Mohseni's stations to broadcast across a country where prime-time programming is scheduled to fit the nighttime hours when electrical generators are switched on.

Mohseni, director of the Moby Media Group, was in Washington for meetings at the State Department and with U.S. media and business counterparts. His five-year-old company -- which got start-up help from the U.S. Agency for International Development -- owns two of the most-watched television networks in Afghanistan, an FM radio station, a video production house, an ad agency, a music label and a small magazine.

In addition to his nightly news program and a "Good Morning Afghanistan"-style talk show, Mohseni's Tolo TV network runs popular Indian soap operas, has a singing-contest show a la " American Idol," an amateur stand-up comedy show where comics get laughs in Persian Dari, a satire program that shows lawmakers in embarrassing situations and will, this fall, begin showing dubbed episodes of the Fox thriller "24."

In some ways, Mohseni, 41, is the Rupert Murdoch of Afghanistan.

Not only is he an entrepreneurial media lord with Australian roots who buys his soap operas from Murdoch's Indian Star TV network, his programming has been criticized as sensational, lowbrow and corruptive to the culture -- much as Fox's "The Simpsons" was panned when it hit the U.S. airwaves. And, like many of Murdoch's programs, Mohseni's are wildly popular. Both points of view came through in interviews on the streets of Kabul this week.

"Tolo TV is one of my favorite TV networks," said Wahidullah, 37, a former teacher. "I like most of its programs, especially the evening news and 'Dahlez Ha' " -- a current affairs program -- "which has already disclosed many secret things." On the other hand, Amanullah, 43, a car salesman, said: "Tolo TV . . . encourages people to immodesty and is really in contradiction to Afghan culture. My children are not allowed to watch it. If I had the ability to stop it, I would have stopped it very early."

Traversing Afghanistan's culture -- in places deeply conservative but youthful and surprisingly wired, wracked by a history of occupation, civil war and religious oppression -- can be as rocky as navigating the country's renowned moonscape terrain.

"We are mindful of the mullahs and clerics," Mohseni said during his Washington visit. He said that his network is the only one that the Taliban talks to, because it is seen as unbiased, yet it also broadcasts Afghanistan's most popular -- and Western-style -- entertainment programs. Tolo even had a dustup with the Afghan attorney general this year that resulted in some staff members being arrested and briefly detained.

"You can kick-start social change with TV," Mohseni said.

Women and men work alongside each other at Tolo (translated as "sunrise" or "dawn"), something that was forbidden under Taliban rule. Though some female contestants on Tolo's "Idol" show cover their heads, Mohseni said it is because they are following custom, rather than harshly enforced religious law.

"The thirst for freedom in Afghanistan that existed in Afghanistan prior to the fall of the Taliban is most evident in the explosion of media these last six years," Said T. Jawad, the Afghan ambassador to the United States, wrote in an e-mail this week. "More than 17 TV stations, 50 radio stations and 300 publications are contributing to a vibrant discussion of politics, culture, entertainment and religion, as well as women's and civil rights."

It's a high-stakes, high-risk market, but lately, Mohseni has been wrestling with a more prosaic problem: How do you schedule your prime-time programming around Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began yesterday and requires the faithful to fast until sundown each day?

"You wouldn't want to get between an Afghan and the dinner table after fasting," Mohseni joked. Consequently, to hold on to viewership, he is moving back his nightly news broadcast several minutes past sundown during Ramadan.

In a country as war-torn and sparsely modernized as Afghanistan, it is impossible to know exactly how many people watch television. Mohseni said his research shows that almost everyone can see it who wants to, but not necessarily at home. TV watching is more of a community experience, he said, with groups gathering in public spaces. Tolo can now be seen in 15 Afghan cities.

Like many expatriate Afghans with a plan, Mohseni came to Kabul after the U.S.-led invasion loosened the Taliban's turn-back-the-clock grip on Afghanistan's business, technological and cultural life.

Mohseni is the son of an Afghan diplomat who was stationed in Tokyo when the Russians invaded his country in 1979. His father resigned his post, moved his family to Melbourne, Australia, (coincidentally, Murdoch's hometown) and settled down.

Mohseni dropped out of college and sped to the business world, becoming first an investment banker in Australia. When that proved too tame, he moved to Uzbekistan in the mid-'90s, as that country was flexing its capitalistic muscles after decades of Soviet control, and became a commodities trader.

After a few years in Central Asia, and a cultural reconnection with other expat Afghans there, Mohseni headed back to Australia looking for opportunity. It came in the wake of the U.S. military response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . With no media background, Mohseni was not specifically looking to start a media business when he hit the ground in Kabul, but that's where he found the market gap.

By March 2003, Mohseni and his two brothers had launched Afghanistan's first privately run radio station, Arman FM, with their own money and a $228,000 grant from USAID. When Mohseni started Tolo in 2004, USAID kicked in another $2.1 million. The Mohseni brothers say they have so far invested more than $6 million of their own money.

The Afghan media market is rapidly growing and increasingly competitive, with plenty of start-ups like Mohseni's seeking the country's undertapped media consumers.

Aside from a lack of disposable income, Afghanistan has a demo Western advertisers would kill for. Sixty percent of the nation's 32 million residents are less than 20 years old. Illiteracy is widespread, so video and music have little competition from print for consumers' entertainment time and money. And there are more than 3 million cellphone customers in the country; users can vote for their favorite Afghan idol by text message and send video of themselves performing.

"Talk about market opportunities -- he's got the first TV and radio stations in a country where they had banned TV and radio," said Tom Freston, the former Viacom chief executive who has befriended Mohseni and introduced him to Western media moguls, including Murdoch.

Before he helped invent MTV in the early 1980s, Freston ran clothing businesses in Afghanistan and India and lived in the countries. When Mohseni's girlfriend (now his wife) wanted to open a clothing business in Afghanistan after the Taliban left, she tracked Freston down -- and also introduced him to her boyfriend.

Tolo TV "reminds me of MTV in the early days," said Freston, who has not invested in Mohseni's company. "Everyone there is under 25 years old, there's a lot of energy. The people who work for Saad are really motivated and emblematic of what a new Afghanistan could be. It's probably one of the only success stories since the fall of the Taliban."

Special correspondent Qudratullah Haidarzai in Kabul and staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this article.

Afghanistan: Female Soccer Star Achieves Goals

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - Six years ago, Shamila Kohestani of Afghanistan threw off her burqa and ran as fast as she could to escape a Taliban member who was whipping her because she was not wearing it properly. Today, Kohestani has another reason to run -- she's the captain of Afghanistan's national women's soccer team. She's scoring goals and winning games for her country, as correspondent Omid Marzban of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.

KABUL, September 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Shamila Kohestani says she had just begun wearing a burqa when a Taliban member saw her and whipped her for not wearing it properly.

"I was out wearing a burqa, but because I had just started to wear it, I did not have the practice to cover all my body," Kohestani says. "[The Talib] asked me why I had not covered the front part of my body. So he beat me and I threw the burqa off and escaped."

Twenty-year-old Kohestani is the captain of the first Afghan national women's soccer team. She and her 15 teammates traveled to Islamabad last month to play in a tournament held by Pakistan's national women's soccer league from August 16-24.

The Afghans won three of five games to find themselves in the final against a team from Karachi. Though they lost 1-0, they still consider themselves to be champions and a source of pride for their country.

"We Afghans are very proud today that our team placed second in this tournament," Shafiq Hamidi, an Afghan refugee living in Islamabad, said shortly after the Afghan women lost their final match. "I always thank God, and I am so proud that now Afghanistan has a name in the world." He continued by shouting, "Long live Afghanistan, long live Afghanistan!"

Having scored five of the Afghan team's 11 goals in the tournament, Kohestani received more attention than any other player.

"The captain was the star of our team," says Saboor Walizada, the coach of the Afghan women's soccer team, in an interview with Radio Free Afghanistan.

The Afghan women often play their games with both long pants and long-sleeved shirts, regardless of the weather. They also often wear head scarves, especially when they play in Afghanistan. Women were forbidden to play football during the reign of the radical Islamic Taliban regime. Men were allowed to play, but at halftime the players and all of the spectators were expected to pray.

Kohestani studied secretly in a house in Kabul during the rule of the Taliban, when girls were not allowed to go to school. As a girl, Kohestani says she dreamt of going to a public school and running on a soccer field.

"I asked myself how long will I have to stay at home [for school], not go outside and not get [a real] education?" Kohestani recalls. "Then I was convinced that the situation will not remain as it is and maybe one day I will go to school, play soccer, and do whatever I like."

Kohestani's first dream -- to go to a public school -- came true in 2002 shortly after the Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led coalition forces. But she had to wait two more years to reach her second one, which was to play soccer.

In order to receive money from FIFA -- world soccer's governing body -- the Afghan Football Federation had to promote soccer among women in the country. The job of hunting for female soccer players was given to Saboor Walizada -- a former Afghan national player -- who began his search in Kabul's girl schools.

"I went in their classes, and they were very willing to join a soccer team," Walizada says. "But to convince their families to let their daughters play soccer was the most difficult part of the job. Not every family I met agreed to let their daughter join my soccer team. Shamila's family was one of them. So far, some 500 girls have gotten the chance to play soccer in Kabul and the three northern provinces of Parwan, Jawzjan, and Sar-e Pul."

Since the end of the Taliban's reign, there have been some slight changes in the lives of Afghan women, at least in big cities. But for most Afghan women the atmosphere is not as green and open as a soccer field.

"In a soccer game, Shamila is always less than 100 meters away from the goal, and she has a soft, green field under her feet," says Fatema Hussaini, a law student at Kabul University and a women's rights activist. "But in the game of gaining freedom, she and other Afghan women might be 100 years away from the goal, and the field is full of difficult barriers."

(Radio Free Afghanistan's Sayed Feridon Ibrahimi contributed to this feature.)

[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.]