In this bulletin:

• NATO launches new Afghan operation
• UN Expected to Extend Afghanistan Force
• Karzai urges Canada not to withdraw troops in 2009
• Karzai pleads for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan rejects preconditions for Taliban talks
• Taliban's demands stall Afghan talks
• Karzai to address UN general assembly
• U.S. Praises Afghan Poppy Progress, Urges More Effort
• Heavy fighting in S Afghanistan
• British soldier killed in Afghanistan blast
• NATO Combats Afghan Deployment Cracks
• Taliban Behind South Korean Abductions Said Killed
• Building a Dam in a Bid to End Afghan Instability
• Opposition Split on Afghan Alternatives
• Afghanistan drives wedge through Germany's Greens
• Soaring prices add to Afghan misery
• Afghanistan: $1.1 million seed purchase to help food problem
• Afghanistan: New thinking to rebuild Afghan agriculture, new book says
• Efforts on to attract Japanese investors
• KEC bags Rs 317cr deal in Afghanistan, BS Reporter
• Kite Runner flies into controversy

NATO launches new Afghan operation

Updated Wed. Sep. 19 2007 - The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan -- NATO forces launched a new military operation Wednesday in Afghanistan's most violent southern province, while the alliance said it was investigating a shipment of weapons intercepted near the border with Iran this month.

About 2,500 Afghan and NATO troops began the operation in the Gereshk region of Helmand province, the site of the fiercest battles this year and the world's largest opium-producing region.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the troops would conduct military "security and stabilization" operations in the upper Gereshk Valley, but provided no other details.

Meanwhile, a NATO spokesman said ISAF was investigating the source of a weapons shipment recently intercepted by troops in Farah province near the Iranian border.

"Although we know that it came from the geographic area of Iran, there is no definitive indication that it came from the Iranian government. We're still evaluating what is contained in that shipment," spokesman Maj. Charles Anthony said.

A Washington Post report Sunday said the shipment seized Sept. 6 was being sent to the Taliban and included armor-piercing bombs similar to those that have been used in roadside bombs against foreign troops in Iraq. NATO previously intercepted two shipments of weapons said to be from Iran in April and May.

NATO's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan McNeill, has said there is no evidence linking the Iranian government to the shipments.

Last month, President Bush said he thinks Iran is playing a destabilizing role in Afghanistan, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said Iran is playing a helpful role in the country.

During a visit to Kabul last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he has "serious doubts" that his country is supplying weapons to Taliban insurgents, and called Afghanistan a "brotherly nation" whose stability is paramount for the region.

Insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan has killed more than 4,300 people this year, mostly militants, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomb attack in the Garmsir district of Helmand left eight Afghan police officers wounded, including three who were in critical condition, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

In other violence, Taliban militants in southern Zasbul province attacked and killed three Afghan security guards protecting a construction project Wednesday in Qalat, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, spokesman for the governor.

A joint operation Tuesday between Afghan forces and the Afghan intelligence service left three militants dead in Wardak province, including a senior member of the militant group Hezb-i Islami, which is led by renegade former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Defense Ministry said. Three insurgents were wounded, and four were arrested in the operation in Nirkh district.

Also, two militants were killed and three arrested in a joint operation by Afghan police and coalition forces Tuesday night in Spin Ghar district of Nangarhar province, the Interior Ministry said.

UN Expected to Extend Afghanistan Force

By EDITH M. LEDERER – 11 hours ago - UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is expected to extend the authorization of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan ahead of a high-level meeting on Sunday to focus on promoting national reconciliation in the country.

The final draft of a resolution extending the mandate for a year, which was circulated late Tuesday by France, reiterates the U.N.'s concern about "the increased violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban, al-Qaida, illegally armed groups and those involved in the narcotics trade."

The NATO-led alliance has raised its troop level to almost 40,000 in the face of an emboldened insurgency led by the country's former Taliban rulers that has demonstrated the fragility of Afghanistan's fledgling Western-style democracy. The United States maintains about 13,000 troops in a separate counterinsurgency force.

The violence, centered in the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, is the deadliest since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban's hard-line regime after Sept. 11, 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

More than 4,300 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are co-chairing a high-level meeting at U.N. headquarters on Afghanistan on Sunday.

The U.N. chief said Tuesday it would focus on increasing the U.N. role in the country, improving coordination of different political entities, helping promote an Afghan national dialogue and reconciliation, and encouraging a regional dialogue.

The draft resolution condemns all attacks targeting civilians and Afghan and international forces. It expresses concern at "the harmful consequences" of the violence and terrorist attacks on the Afghan government's ability to guarantee the rule of law and provide basic services to the people.

The draft also expresses concern at "the links between terrorism activities and illicit drugs, resulting in threats to the local population, national security forces and international military and civilian personnel."

It stresses the need for further strengthening of the Afghan National Army and police, and for disbanding illegal armed groups, justice sector reform and counter-narcotics efforts.

It welcomes the expansion of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force throughout the country and extends its authorization for a year beyond Oct. 13.

Karzai urges Canada not to withdraw troops in 2009

Updated Tue. Sep. 18 2007, CTV.ca News Staff

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called on Canada to maintain its military presence in Afghanistan after 2009, saying his country will fall into the hands of terrorists without Canada's help. Karzai spoke to members of the Canadian media in Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Tuesday.

He told reporters he is aware of the controversy over Canada's military role, but said 2009 is fast approaching and Afghanistan won't be ready to take over security by the deadline.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set February 2009 as a deadline for Canada to end its combat role unless consensus can be reached in the House of Commons to extend the mission. "He was talking about what would happen if Canadian troops were to pull out in February of 2009," said CTV's Steve Chao in Kabul.

"He said that unequivocally it would mean that Afghanistan would fall back into anarchy -- that it would bring back the safe havens to terrorists and terrorists would be able to strike once again into the United States and Canada."

Karzai didn't set a timeline for when he believes Afghanistan will be ready to stand on its own feet. Karzai said Canadian troops have made a major difference in southern Afghanistan, where most of their efforts have been focused.

"He says the last two years that they have been there, there has been a remarkable change in terms of the safety. And despite the insurgency he says that they are actually bringing education, bringing reconstruction, the things that Canadians most care about," Chao said.

Karzai also took a share in the responsibility, pledging that if Canada committed its troops to a longer stay in Afghanistan, he would personally work on ending corruption, rebuilding infrastructure and trying to bring good governance to the country.

He also sent a special message to Quebec. Karzai said he is aware that the debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan is perhaps most intense in Quebec, and he said the province's "sons and daughters" serving in there are accomplishing important work.

Nearly six years after helping topple the Taliban government, Canadians are still fighting and dying in Kandahar province. "We have to have patience," said Karzai. "It's not going to be fixed in a day or two.''

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, stressed in a CTV interview that Canadian troops have helped his forces protect civilians as well as pave the way for his people to reform the judiciary and other institutions

"We are focused on rebuilding the country," he said. "Hopefully Canadians will see over time that not only is Afghanistan a country that is moving forward, but that Canadian aid has helped and continues to help."

Samad also said that if it weren't for the deployment of Canadians, Kandahar would have fallen into Taliban hands.

Karzai pleads for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan

GRAEME SMITH - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail September 19, 2007

Kabul — Afghanistan risks a descent into chaos if Canadian soldiers withdraw from the country too quickly, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday, warning of dark consequences for his country and the entire world if the foreign troops abandon the fight against the Taliban before the war is finished.

In an unprecedented move, Mr. Karzai summoned Canadian journalists to his heavily guarded palace in Kabul and spoke passionately about the need for a renewed commitment of troops after the Canadian mandate expires in February of 2009.

He evoked the worst period in his country's recent history, when civil wars killed tens of thousands in the early 1990s, saying a similar disaster could happen again if his military support falters.

"Afghanistan will fall back into anarchy," he said. "Anarchy will bring back safe havens to terrorists, among other things, and terrorists will then hurt you back there in Canada and the United States. Simple as that."

It was an unusually bleak assessment from a leader whose optimism has sometimes led to criticisms that he is too cloistered inside his Kabul fortress. But he finds himself facing a difficult campaign of persuasion in the coming months, as Canada considers the future of its 2,500 troops and Dutch parliamentarians debate the withdrawal of 2,000 soldiers whose commitment ends next year.

Even the current number of troops isn't enough to give the Afghan government the confidence it needs to fight corruption and solve problems of human rights, Mr. Karzai said, because those reforms would force confrontations with armed factions.

"We definitely need the steady, strong backing of the international community, and that has not been there," Mr. Karzai said.

"If there is a concern about corruption, or violation in instances of human rights and law and order, the international community must come forward with the requisite application of force."

Mr. Karzai also described progress in his attempts to negotiate with the Taliban. Initial investigation of the insurgents' calls for peace talks have shown that some Taliban appear to be genuinely interested in dialogue, he said, while some hard-line factions don't seem serious in their demands.

He has rejected two of the main ideas suggested by the insurgents in their public calls for talks, saying he isn't interested in any negotiations preconditioned on the withdrawal of foreign troops and he does not want a power-sharing arrangement that would rewrite the rules of Afghan democracy.

"There is a constitution, there is a way of life," he said. "Let them come and participate [in elections] and win."

But the President seemed keenly aware that his hard line on peace talks will be impossible to maintain if the Canadians and other foreign troops withdraw from the dangerous south. Towns and district centres would fall to the insurgents, he said, and the countryside would resemble the confused battlefield that existed from 1992 to 1996, when factional wars left Afghanistan divided into countless rival fiefs.

"Exactly that will happen, exactly," Mr. Karzai said. "If you leave prematurely, before we can defend ourselves in terms of our own abilities, government, institutions, and all associated factors, Afghanistan will fall back."

Mr. Karzai showed a keen awareness of Canadians' ambivalence about the Afghan mission, even offering a "merci beaucoup" for viewers in Quebec where support is weakest, and he seemed eager to contradict some ideas raised in the Canadian debate.

Canadian officials have said that Afghan forces could be ready to take over the lead role in protecting Kandahar by the time the Canadian commitment expires in 18 months, but the Afghan President bluntly disagreed with that assessment.

"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself, and that day is not going to be in 2009," he said.

Rather than emphasize the human cost of withdrawal, Mr. Karzai repeatedly came back to the theme of Canadian security relating to the fight against extremism in Afghanistan.

"Leaving Afghanistan alone now will bring back all the evils that were here," he said. "We know they're still around — look at the situation in Pakistan, look at the situation in Algeria, the suicide bombs there."

He continued: "You can look around. You can see the enemy is not yet finished, is not yet defeated. Therefore it's our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism. And we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan. If we do not, it will become a base for them again."

Despite his sombre message, the President said he remains optimistic about Afghanistan's overall progress over the past six years. He faces elections next year, and says the country has enjoyed great achievements with the help of foreign donors.

"In comparison to the depth and width of the problems we had six years ago, it's massive, it's significant, and we should all be happy with that."

Afghanistan rejects preconditions for Taliban talks

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan government is ready for peace talks with the Taliban, but will not accept preconditions demanded by the Islamist rebels such as the withdrawal of all foreign troops, a presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated his call to Taliban insurgents to enter peace negotiations in a speech he made on the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

But the Taliban said they would only accept talks if all of the roughly 50,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan left first, a new constitution was accepted and a stricter interpretation of Islamic law imposed.

"The Afghan government is not open to negotiations with any preconditions, we are not going to have any preconditions," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference.

The only promise the government would give the Taliban ahead of any talks was a guarantee for the safety of rebel negotiators. The Taliban said they were sticking to their demands.

"Our position is very clear -- the withdrawal of the foreign troops is a must, also the imposition of real Islamic law and the re-writing of the constitution," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.

"As long as foreign forces are in Afghanistan, negotiations are useless," he said. "We don't want to talk to foreigners, we want to talk to Afghans to bring peace and security ... As long as foreign forces are present, Afghanistan will never be peaceful."

The last two years have seen a steady rise in violence across Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency has spread from the south to many areas previously considered safe.

The expansion of Taliban areas of operations comes despite heavy losses inflicted on their forces by the Afghan army and mostly Western forces.

Analysts say frustration with the lack of security, the slow pace of development, official corruption and anger over civilian casualties feeds Taliban support.

An outright military victory over the Taliban is also unlikely, so the best Karzai's government and its Western backers can hope for is some form of accommodation with the Taliban that splits them from their al Qaeda allies, diplomats say.

Afghan and U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

After their defeat, the Taliban regrouped in the mountains along the border with Pakistan or in large parts of Afghanistan left untouched by the small U.S.-led invasion force -- places the new Afghan government also lacked the manpower to control.

The Taliban has also adapted more sophisticated tactics imported by al Qaeda fighters from Iraq such as suicide attacks and roadside bombs meant to convince Afghans that the government and Western troops cannot bring security.

Taliban's demands stall Afghan talks

From wire reports - KABUL — The Afghan government is ready for peace talks with the Taliban but will not accept preconditions demanded by the Islamist rebels such as the withdrawal of all foreign troops, a presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated his call to Taliban insurgents to enter peace talks in a speech on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Taliban said they would only accept talks if all of the roughly 50,000 foreign troops — including 24,000 U.S. troops — left first; a new constitution was accepted; and strict Islamic law is imposed.

"The Afghan government is not open to negotiations with any preconditions," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference. The only promise the government would give the Taliban ahead of any talks was a guarantee for the safety of rebel negotiators.

The Taliban said they were sticking to their demands. "The withdrawal of the foreign troops is a must, also the imposition of real Islamic law and the re-writing of the constitution," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.

"As long as foreign forces are in Afghanistan, negotiations are useless," he said. "We don't want to talk to foreigners; we want to talk to Afghans to bring peace and security."

Violence has risen the past two years as the Taliban insurgency has spread from the south to areas previously considered safe. The increase has come despite heavy losses inflicted by the Afghan army and Western forces.

Afghan and U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 after it refused to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Taliban regrouped in mountains along the border with Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan untouched by the U.S.-led invasion force — places where the Afghan government lacks control.

The Taliban has also adapted more sophisticated tactics imported by al-Qaeda fighters from Iraq, such as suicide attacks and roadside bombs. Also Tuesday:

• U.S. airstrikes targeting a meeting of Taliban leaders killed a commander involved in the kidnappings of 23 South Koreans two months ago, Afghan officials said.

Mullah Abdullah Jan was among 12 killed in the strike on a mud-brick housing compound overnight, said Ghazni provincial police chief Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai.

The U.S.-led coalition said "several" suspected militants were killed and four detained during an operation that included gunfire and airstrikes. The coalition could not immediately confirm that Jan was killed.

Jan would be the fifth Taliban commander allegedly involved in the abductions who has been reported killed in recent days.

• NATO reported that one of its soldiers had died in an explosion. It did not provide further details.

•Karzai pleaded with Canada on Tuesday not to withdraw its 2,500 troops when their mission ends in early 2009, saying to do so would only help deliver his country back to the Taliban, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

Seventy Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.

Karzai to address UN general assembly

Kabul (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will next week address the UN General Assembly on developments six years after the fall of Taliban and separately meet world leaders on international cooperation here.

The president will lead a high-level Afghan delegation to the UN General Assembly starting September 25 in New York, Foreign Minster Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told reporters.

He will inform the session of achievements and challenges in Afghanistan six years after the Taliban government was removed by a US-led coalition.

The president is also due to meet US President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the meeting, as well as the leaders of various nations supporting Afghanistan, including Canada, France, Iran, Poland, and South Korea.

On September 23 Karzai is to address an international conference on Afghanistan co-chaired by the United Nations, Spanta said.

The conference of Afghanistan's key supporters "is an opportunity for the assessment of achievements and finding effective ways of cooperation between Afghanistan, the UN and the international community," the minister said.

Afghanistan depends on international aid and military forces to try and establish security in the face of a rising Taliban insurgency that is backed by Al-Qaeda, and to rebuild after decades of war.

Despite the international assistance, the country's illegal opium production has jumped this year, violence has increased, and fundamental institutions -- such as the judiciary and police -- are still weak and notoriously corrupt.

U.S. Praises Afghan Poppy Progress, Urges More Effort

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - WASHINGTON, September 18, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The United States says Afghanistan has made some gains in its fight against the cultivation of opium poppies.

But in its annual report on drug trafficking around the world, the State Department also said opium accounted for one-third of Afghanistan's economy.

And it urged Kabul to increase its efforts against poppy cultivation, which provides much of the world’s heroin supply.

Christy McCampbell, the head of the department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. said the Bush administration was aware that Afghan President Hamid Karzai faced great difficulties in ending cultivation of the opium poppy and that Bush applauded Karzai's efforts in the midst of a war with a resurgent Taliban.

"Opium accounts for one-third of their economy, according to UN statistics," McCampbell told reporters. "This contributes of course to the widespread public corruption, to the damages of economic growth -- of licit economic growth, and it definitely strengthens the insurgency problems there."

The report also acknowledges that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 17 percent this year over last year. But McCampbell emphasized that this increase was, in her words, "almost exclusively" restricted to the country's southern regions bordering Pakistan, where the Taliban has more influence.

The situation in northern Afghanistan is altogether different, McCampbell said.

"There is one model of success that can be drawn by comparing the marked difference in cultivation between the northern and southern provinces," she said. "Thirteen of the northern provinces are now poppy-free. That's seven more than last year that [were] poppy-free. In the north, sufficient security has allowed for alternative development programs to take effect, and it's helped the farmers to improve their economic livelihood."

Although Afghanistan doesn't face an immediate threat of a cut in U.S. aid, McCampbell said the Bush administration still wanted it to increase its efforts against poppy cultivation, which provides much of the world’s heroin supply.

"President Bush looks to the government of Afghanistan to take further steps to combat poppy cultivation and corruption," McCampbell said. "Despite the significant gains the country has made since 2001, the country does continue to face tremendous challenges. Not addressing these challenges now could undermine security, compromise democratic legitimacy, and imperil international support for vital assistance to that country."

Afghanistan is one of 20 major drug-transit and drug-producing countries identified in the report.

McCampbell said those were the same as in 2006. They include countries in Latin America such as Bolivia and Guatemala; Caribbean countries like Haiti and Jamaica; and East Asia nations, including Laos and Myanmar.

The report designated these countries as having "demonstrably failed" to slow the spread of illegal drugs. In some cases, the consequence for that failure could be a reduction in the amount of U.S. aid they receive.

The report said Washington would not impose penalties on Bolivia, the world's third-leading producer of coca, because it believes the government in La Paz, like Kabul, made a good-faith effort to fight its production last year. The coca leaf is the basis for cocaine.

Also, the United States identified Venezuela and Myanmar as having failed to fight the spread of illegal drugs in 2006. It said Venezuela's government did little to keep its territory from being a transit point for narcotics, and it accused Myanmar of being Asia's largest producer of methamphetamines.

Heavy fighting in S Afghanistan

By Chris Morris - BBC News, Kabul Tuesday, 18 September 2007

There have been more military clashes in southern Afghanistan between Afghan and international security forces and Taleban insurgents.

It has been announced that a British soldier was killed in Helmand province on Monday. The Afghan defence ministry says 14 Taleban were killed in two separate clashes elsewhere in the province.

Police also say that a Taleban leader who kidnapped 23 South Koreans in July has been killed in a US air strike. There is no independent confirmation of the claim.

A British soldier serving with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) was killed after an explosion hit his army truck in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.

The Ministry of Defence in London says he was taking part in a routine logistics convoy.

Elsewhere in Helmand, Afghan officials say nine Taleban insurgents planning an ambush were killed in an American air strike, while five others died when they attacked Afghan and US-led forces.

The latest fighting comes as the United Nations in Afghanistan is mounting a big public campaign to promote International Peace Day later this week.

The head of the UN mission here has called for a complete cessation of violence on 21 September, while the World Health Organisation and the UN Children's Fund have appealed for three days of calm.

They want to vaccinate children across the south of the country against polio. Posters promoting International Peace Day have appeared around the capital Kabul.

But military clashes have become routine here and several thousand people have been killed during the course of this year.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan blast

Tue Sep 18, LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier has died in southern Afghanistan after an army truck was damaged by an explosion, the Ministry of Defence in London said Tuesday.

The soldier, from 36 Engineer Regiment, was killed in Helmand Province just after 3.30pm local time Monday following a blast involving an army dump truck in a logistics convoy near Gereshk.

The soldier was pronounced dead on arrival at the medical facility at the Camp Bastion base. Another soldier was also injured in the explosion but did not suffer life-threatening wounds, the ministry said.

The death brings to 79 the number of ministry personnel who have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001.

Britain has around 7,000 troops in the country -- the second-highest after the United States in the United Nations-sanctioned, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The figure is set to rise to around 7,800 by the end of the year.

NATO Combats Afghan Deployment Cracks

September 19, 2007 – CFR, Greg Bruno

Some lawmakers are pressing to get Germany’s NATO troops out of Afghanistan. (AP Images/Joerg Sarbach)

Opposition leaders in Germany are calling for an end to military involvement ( IHT) in Afghanistan. Mounting combat casualties have party leaders in Canada also urging a pullout ( TheStar). In the Netherlands, too, lawmakers are mulling a drawdown, frustrated over Dutch forces’ disproportionate share of combat missions in an increasingly restive (AP) south. Should the three countries withdraw, experts say, it would significantly hinder peacekeeping and redevelopment efforts in the war-ravaged country nearly six years after the ouster of the Taliban leadership. Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands are among the top suppliers of soldiers to the alliance, which combined account for 6,800 of NATO’s 39,000 troops (PDF) in the country. The only larger troop contributors are the United States—the single largest with fifteen-thousand troops—and Italy and Britain, which also face domestic pressures to withdraw. “If Afghanistan is NATO’s most important mission, countries should deliver what they promise ( IHT),” says NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

NATO’s Afghan deployment—the largest-ever for the North-Atlantic alliance and its first mission outside Europe—has become a test case for voluntary international military operations. Some see it as the most significant challenge to NATO in the alliance’s fifty-eight year history. Barnett R. Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University, says NATO and the U.S. must find “successful political consolidation” to win the support of the Afghan population. Helle C. Dale of the Heritage Foundation says to succeed in Afghanistan NATO should seek to expand its troop and funding levels and consider “ another round of enlargement.”

But despite appeals for more troop contributions, only eight-thousand soldiers were added to NATO forces in the past year (PDF). A recent NATO fact-finding mission concluded the alliance “still suffers from a lack of personnel and assets” and is unable “hold a cleared area after a successful operation.” A July 2007 Congressional Research Service report points to disagreement over how the International Security Assistance Force, NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, should restore order and redevelop a country ravaged by resilient narcotics trade (PDF). Some NATO countries oppose combat missions, leaving countries fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda—like the Netherlands—resentful of NATO’s inability to increase military support. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who seeks to persuade a skeptical public that German forces must remain in northern Afghanistan, has so far resisted NATO pleas to send forces ( IHT) to the south.

At the same time, there are signs NATO has contributed to progress in Afghanistan. A 2007 NATO report cites encouraging economic, democratic, and infrastructure gains since the Taliban’s fall. Merkel noted these successes in warning against a withdrawal of German troops. “There is no alternative,” she said in a recent speech (Deutsche-Welle). “We must not leave Afghanistan to the terrorists again.” Yet significant hurdles to an effective NATO presence remain. Kurt Volker, deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the U.S. State Department, questions whether NATO’s force is big enough to produce real gains. Others say Afghanistan poses a test to U.S. leadership of the alliance. In particular, writes one Congressional Research Service analyst, some allies want the United States to “provide leadership and resources to counter the destabilizing influences upon Afghanistan of two neighboring states, Iran and Pakistan.”

Taliban Behind South Korean Abductions Said Killed

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

September 18, 2007 -- The police chief of Afghanistan's Ghazni Province says an air strike by U.S.-led coalition forces has killed the Taliban commander who orchestrated the kidnapping of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers in July.

Police General Ali Shah Ahmadzai said Mullah Abdullah Jan, the Taliban commander of Ghazni's Qara Bagh district, was one of 12 Taliban killed by the overnight attack.

Neither the U.S. military, NATO's International Security Assistance Force, nor the central government in Kabul had any immediate comment on the report. Officials in Kabul said earlier that police had killed another commander behind in the kidnappings -- Mullah Mateen.

On September 16, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said police had killed three other Taliban commanders who allegedly were involved in the abductions. Taliban militants killed two of the kidnapped aid workers and released the remaining hostages last month. (AP, AFP)

Building a Dam in a Bid to End Afghan Instability

By CARLOTTA GALL, The New York Times Tuesday, September 18, 2007

KAJAKI DAM, Afghanistan — The police posts on the hilltops around Kajaki Dam look out over empty villages and a deserted bazaar, where weeds grow and rubbish blows down the street. The population left a year and a half ago and only a few hundred people remain here, most of them soldiers and police officers guarding Afghanistan’s jewel of industry, its largest hydroelectric dam, against Taliban insurgents.

The Taliban are dug in a few miles beyond in otherwise deserted villages and have cut off all access roads, holding this tiny community in a stranglehold. British troops, here for the last eight months, have held them back, but only enough to create a security bubble some four miles in diameter around the dam.

This is where the United States government plans its largest project in Afghanistan, the repair and upgrade of the half-century-old dam, which American officials say will cost $150 million during its first year and up to $500 million in total. The project will include the construction of a 55-mile road to the dam through Taliban-held country, the installation of an additional turbine and the building of new transmission lines and substations to bring electricity to 1.7 million people in southern Afghanistan. American officials say more than 4,000 jobs will be created at the height of construction.

An ambitious project, considering that Kajaki lies in northern Helmand province — the most problematic of all Afghanistan’s provinces, with uncontrolled poppy cultivation and at least half the land under the control of Taliban insurgents, drug lords and smugglers. Heavy fighting between insurgents and American and NATO forces occurs daily.

Yet for those very reasons, the United States Agency for International Development, the government agency coordinating American aid projects in Afghanistan, is focusing on Helmand like no other province. Alongside plans for the Kajaki Dam, it is supporting agricultural, educational and health programs in an attempt to wean farmers off poppy cultivation and workers away from fighting.

“We are developing a strategy as if Helmand were a country,” said a Usaid official, who did not wish to be identified, citing agency policy. “If Helmand was a country, it would be the fifth largest Usaid country project in the world,” he said.

Yet the violence in Helmand, which escalated last year as the Taliban swarmed in while British troops were deploying to the province, has already delayed work on the Kajaki Dam for a year. Even if the situation improves enough to start work on the road in the coming months, the installation of a new turbine, which is too heavy to be airlifted and has to be trucked in, and new transmission lines will not be completed until the end of 2008.

In the tiny community of British soldiers and local police officers and security guards living at Kajaki, that is unbearably far off. They live in limbo, cut off from normal life, unable to travel far beyond the camp or the deserted bazaar for fear of the Taliban. The policemen have not had relief or seen their families in more than a year and a half and went unpaid until recently.

Some foreign assistance did come to Kajaki after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan engineers at the dam said. Germans repaired one of the two American Westinghouse turbines installed at the dam in 1975, bringing it back up to its full 18-megawatt capacity. A Chinese company was to begin work on a new turbine. Indians repaired a crane in the power station at the base of the 300-foot-high dam, and Americans built housing for foreign workers and hired guards.

But when the Taliban moved into the area last year and rained rockets down on the camp, the foreigners pulled out, and many Afghan civilians left as well. The foreigners’ promises of development, including a clinic, a school and roads, evaporated.

“People are thinking they are not serious,” said Muhammad Zaman, 43, the engineer on duty at the power station one afternoon. “It is six years they are promising,” he said.

Yet the power station workers — 43 workers on 24-hour shifts — keep coming to work from nearby villages and have managed to persuade the Taliban to let them cross the front line.

“We always talk to the Taliban and tell them this is an important project — it will bring more electricity and save on oil, power, and will save water,” Mr. Zaman said. “To some extent they agree, but there are some who come from Pakistan, and they are saying that the project should not go forward.”

The Taliban leadership is widely believed to be operating out of the city of Quetta in Pakistan and has sought to disrupt assistance programs and prevent people from cooperating with the government and foreign forces.

The civilians of the Kajaki area are suffering the most from the standoff, driven from their homes and unable to farm their fields, the workers said.

“I am worried about the villagers,” said Haji Abdul Razziq, the district chief. “They are poor and now they are scattered in the desert, living under trees and bushes, beneath the mountains. They are in a very bad situation, between life and death. Seven children have died from the severe heat.”

Mr. Abdul Razziq said that an old man had come to see him and told him he was going around begging at night because he was so ashamed to be seen.

The winter would be worse for the 600 families who have been displaced from their homes south of the camp, he warned. Hundreds more have left villages to the north.

“The only way to help them is to clear the Taliban away completely from the area, then you can help the people,” Mr. Abdul Razziq said. “At the moment the enemy has become so weak, they just need a slight push.”

Yet when British troops conducted a patrol to the village of Mazdurak, just a few miles to the north, they came under fire from three directions and had to call in a deafening barrage of artillery and air support to knock the Taliban out.

There will be little relief for the displaced families in the coming months, let alone progress on the dam, British soldiers warned. So far, their orders are only to preserve the four-mile buffer zone while the bulk of British forces in Helmand concentrate on areas farther south.

“It’s a huge undertaking to build and secure a route to get equipment in,” said Maj. Tony Borgnis, a company commander with the Royal Anglian Regiment, which has been fighting the Taliban farther south for the last five months. “I cannot see it happening in my tenure,” he said.

Opposition Split on Afghan Alternatives

By Lee Berthiaume, Embassy Mag. (Canada), September 19th, 2007

While the Bloc Québécois and Liberal Party agree that Canada should notify NATO it will not extend its combat mission in southern Afghanistan beyond February 2009 immediately, they are split on whether an alternative mandate be proposed at the same time or debated and agreed upon at a future date.

Meanwhile, experts say if Canada is to adopt a new mission–there are several alternatives–it will likely have to tell NATO by the end of 2007 or the alliance may not be able to find a suitable force to take over in Kandahar.

When Parliament rose in June, Mr. Harper appeared to back off his staunch support for extending the combat mission beyond its February 2009 expiry date, saying he would be seeking consensus on the mission's future in Parliament.

Since then, the Liberals and Bloc Québécois have called on the government to notify NATO immediately through official channels that Canada's combat mission in the volatile Kandahar region will be over at that time.

On Sept. 2, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in an interview on CTV's Question Period that "As far as the signal that has been sent already, our current configuration will end in February 2009, obviously the aid work and the diplomatic effort and presence will extend well beyond that, and the Afghan compact itself goes until 2011."

But speaking in Sydney, Australia, last week, Mr. Harper told reporters he doesn't want to hold a vote "unless we're able to have a situation where a vote would be successful–where there would be some agreement among at least some of the opposition parties that would carry the day and would give a mandate to our Armed Forces."

This, it appears, would entail defining a new mandate that would be acceptable to at least one opposition party, whose support would be necessary for the proposal to pass.

Bloc Québécois Defence critic Claude Bachand said his party's priority is to ensure the mission as it's being carried out now will end in February 2009, and that NATO is given enough time to plan for that eventuality.

"It's not like packing your tent on the campground and going out the morning after," he said of a Canadian withdrawal from Kandahar. "If you're responsible, you have to tell your allies we're not going to be there after February 2009."

Otherwise, Mr. Bachand added, Canadian forces may be forced to carry on beyond that date out of sheer necessity, though he said that may be exactly what Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hoping for after telling reporters last week that he doesn't "see the necessity of rushing into a vote."

"What I've read is Harper is not really eager to bring a vote early," Mr. Bachand said, "which might be a tactic to tell us when he brings it forward, 'Listen it's too late now for 2009, we'll have to wait for 2010.'

"They know we can't go out of there the day after we say we're out."

Debates on Mission Alternatives - However, Mr. Bachand said the Bloc is looking at alternatives for Canada's role in Afghanistan, and being able to tell NATO what Canada will be doing would be best.

"I think it would be more responsible to put forward an alternative, but right now I don't have the mandate to tell you it will be this, this and this," Mr. Bachand said. "We're having debates also, and the only thing where we're having consensus is on ending military action by February 2009.

"The main issue is: When are we getting the troops out of there, and are we taking all of the troops out of there or are we going to leave some troops to protect the reconstruction issue, protect the humanitarian issue, and protect the instructor issue."

The Bloc has called on the government to outline its vision of Canada's role in Afghanistan past February 2009 in next month's Throne Speech.

Liberal Defence critic Denis Coderre, however, said the time for debating Canada's future role is after–and only after–Canada notifies NATO it won't extend its current mission.

The Liberals have warned that they will use the first opposition day of this fall's parliamentary session to force a vote on notifying NATO of the end of Canada's current mission.

"February 2009 is tomorrow, it's very close," Mr. Coderre said. "And because we respect our allies, we have to go upfront right now."

He accused Mr. Harper of trying to "buy time for political purposes" by delaying a vote and trying to "put pressure" on the opposition parties by calling for a new proposal.

But Mr. Coderre was adamant that the Liberals would not talk about the post-February 2009 mission until after NATO was officially notified that Canada's combat operations would end.

"It's important right now not to play around," he said. "That's the chapter we need to end first, and then we'll start another one.

"We have to settle the issue of the combat mission first. You do not negotiate at the same time. We have said we do not want abandon Afghanistan, but we need clearly, as a start, to say that we put an end to the combat mission."

If Canada doesn't do so, NATO will not be forced to deal with other important issues, like caveats countries like Germany have in place that restrict the types of operations their troops can play in the country, he said.

Both critics, however, left open the possibility of Canadian military personnel operating in the country in a different role.

A Variety of Options - Experts say Canada's future involvement could take many different forms.

The first could be a full withdrawal of Canadian forces, with development and reconstruction efforts, as well as diplomatic and political work, remaining.

In this scenario, one important question will be whether Canada continues to focus on the Kandahar region, where its 330-person Provincial Reconstruction Team has been working since August 2005, while CIDA has dedicated a large amount of money to projects in that area.

If Canadian forces pull out but the other projects continue, they will need security forces to ensure work can continue. Also, it's unclear whether Canada's rebuilding efforts can simply be transferred to a new area, not only because of the types of projects, but also the contacts that have been established.

Another option would be moving the entire mission to another part of the country, possibly taking over for another NATO member. In the best-case scenario, this would involve the other nations' armed forces moving down to take over in Kandahar. Whether any country would be willing to do that, however, appears highly doubtful.

Canada could also continue its reconstruction and development work in the Kandahar region, with the Afghan National Army (ANA) moving in to take over combat operations, with a pared down Canadian military presence continuing to provide training and support.

In June, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier said the Canadian military's first priority now is the training of Afghan security forces.

Whether the ANA would be ready by February 2009 to do this, even with continued Canadian assistance, is another question.

Since May, Canadian trainers have been working with two ANA battalions–called kandaks–in Kandahar and has been working to help them learn large unit tactics and grasp the realities of modern combat.

Speaking from Afghanistan on Sept. 14, Col. Stephane Lafaut said Afghan soldiers excel at operations involving small units, like patrols and ambushes, due to having lived through decades of war.

However, large operations are still a challenge for them; learning to account for and plan logistical aspects of a large unit actions, and taking time to develop a plan rather than making snap decisions are all part of the process, Col. Lafaut said.

There are also cultural barriers to overcome, such as teaching senior officers seeking advice and options from subordinates before making a decision.

Col. Lafaut said he is often asked whether the ANA will be ready to take over for Canadian Forces by February 2009.

"I don't know," he said. "There are some units of that brigade, some kandaks, that will be ready. There are some others that may not be ready. "There's no yes or no answer to that question."

No Ground Forces 'Undesirable' - Houchang Hassan-Yari, head of the politics and economics department at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., said if the ANA can take over combat operations, albeit with some coalition support, Canada does not have to rush to decide on it's post-February 2009 role.

The same may be true if a country that is already involved in such missions–such as the United States or United Kingdom–decide to take Canada's place.

However, if a NATO country that doesn't have a large military presence in Afghanistan–or even one like Germany or France operating in a relatively quiet area–were to take over, Mr. Hassan-Yari said it could take up to a year.

Not only will those forces need to learn everything Canadian forces know, they will need to prepare for combat and allow for some overlap time.

"If somebody's going to replace the Canadian forces, they have to be there before the Canadians leave," he said. "The problem would be any interruption. The absence of forces on the ground would be the most undesirable scenario someone can imagine."

Alain Pellerin, a retired colonel and executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, said unless there is a clear idea of who will take over for Canada, a vote needs to be held before Christmas.

"Look at the Vandoos that arrived there in August," he said. "They've been training for almost nine months solid in preparation for this. So if you decide to pull the plug, you need to let the allies know more than a year in advance, if anyone picks up the slack."

Afghanistan drives wedge through Germany's Greens

BERLIN (AFP) — Germany's Greens, one of the most influential ecologist parties in the world, risk being split in two by deep divisions over the country's role in Afghanistan.

At a stormy weekend conference, party leaders failed to win the support of members for a parliamentary vote later this month on extending the deployment of Germany's 3,000 troops in the strife-torn country.

It appeared to be a case of the anti-war values of a party which is now in opposition coming back to the fore after a period some members view with deep unease.

This after all was the party that stood 'Green' logic on its head in the 1990s when its most charismatic and influential member, Joschka Fischer, persuaded his colleagues to back German military involvement in Kosovo and subsequent conflicts.

When the Greens were voted out of office two years ago, Fischer traded in his role as foreign minister for a job teaching at Princeton in the United States. Fischer's successors are finding they lack his touch when it comes to winning over sceptics.

In Goettingen on Saturday, the Greens' co-leaders Claudia Roth and Reinhard Buetikofer had hoped to secure support for prolonging the German mission in Afghanistan, a role Berlin undertook in the name of the war on terror.

Buetikofer warned delegates that a withdrawal from Afghanistan now "would not bring peace but a new escalation of violence, war and civil war."

His call fell on deaf ears, as a large majority of delegates called on the 51 Green members of parliament to oppose an extension of the mission in Afghanistan.

That led to accusations that Roth and Buetikofer had seriously misjudged the mood of the party -- the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily called them political "midgets".

When MPs were called to a hastily convened meeting on Tuesday, a majority said they would abstain in the Bundestag vote, but several said they would disobey orders and vote against the government.

The Greens have had a rocky time since leaving the government at the 2005 general election, and the party's future looks increasingly shaky.

Not only are they now the smallest group in the German parliament, trailing behind the Free Democrats and the former communists of the Left Party, but their raison d'etre -- pro-environment policy -- has been 'stolen' by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative.

Despite being in opposition, the Greens' stance on Afghanistan could exert influence on the Social Democrats, one of the partners in Merkel's unusual left-right coalition government.

Merkel reiterated last week that she firmly supported continuing the Afghan mission and the government is made up of the two biggest parties so should be able to muster enough support to win the vote.

The Greens have shown however that opposition to Germany's role in Afghanistan is growing, a fact reflected in the latest opinion polls that show a majority of the public in favour of withdrawal.

Soaring prices add to Afghan misery

By Chris Morris, BBC News, Kabul - As the residents of Kabul prepare to break their fast at the end of the day, the street markets in the centre of the city are as busy as ever. But this year, during the holy month of Ramadan, there is a real struggle to make ends meet.

The price of basic food and fuel has soared in recent months, putting enormous strain on consumers. "At the moment, it's the biggest problem we face," said one customer, paying for several bags of vegetables at a roadside stall.

"I used to be able to buy my onions and tomatoes for 60 Afghanis. Now it's 100 Afghanis. It's suddenly got very high."

"It's the same for everything, potatoes, all the vegetables," said Omar, selling his wares from a small wooden cart. "The big businessmen are responsible. They hoard everything and push the prices up."

A small crowd soon gathered around us. Everyone had a story to tell. "Why is it so expensive?" shouted one man. "You should ask the government! Karzai doesn't care about ordinary people."

President Hamid Karzai says that he does. He convened a recent meeting at the presidential palace to deal specifically with the issue of price rises.

One cabinet minister pointed out that household gas, which should be sold at about 40 Afghanis ($0.8) per kilogram, is currently selling for 80 Afghanis.

The government has promised to identify anyone responsible for hoarding and surcharging and punish them. But that's not much consolation for drivers buying fuel for their vehicles at a nearby petrol station.

"If the prices continue to rise," one driver said, "we'll have to get out of our cars and start walking." He described queuing at the only state-run petrol station in Kabul - where the prices are cheaper - for three hours. "I gave up and came over here."

Another driver, Hashmi, arrived, to fill up his sports utility vehicle. The amount he pays has risen recently by 40%.

"It's unbearable," he said. "Forty per cent makes a big difference even for the rich. But for the poor it's a killer."

Everyone has a theory about why the price has suddenly shot up so much. Iran is said to be supplying less fuel than it was last year, and other neighbouring countries have increased the taxes they charge.

Lack of security elsewhere in the country is also a factor, as is the all-pervasive issue of corruption. Businessmen have to pay protection money - "nuisance taxes" - to transport their goods. And any increase is passed on to the consumer.

Still some people are clearly taking advantage of the situation to make far more money than they should.

"The business people have a moral responsibility," said Hamidullah Farooqi, the chief executive of Afghanistan's International Chamber of Commerce.

"But legally it's the government which should be controlling these things. If there's no (proper) implementation of the law, everyone will take advantage and jack up their prices."

One thing the Karzai government has brought to Kabul is a relative sense of security. The daily reports of military clashes and fighting elsewhere in the country don't have much affect on life in the city.

After so many years of war in and around Kabul, that is a real achievement for the government.

But if the price of basic food and fuel continues to rise, some people are bound to think about alternatives. And the only real alternative in Afghanistan at the moment is the Taleban.

Afghanistan: $1.1 million seed purchase to help food problem

Rome, 18 Sept. (AKI) - The United Nations World Food Programme has announced a 1.1 million dollar purchase of 4,000 metric tonnes of locally grown wheat in Hirat, Afghanistan.

The WFP said the purchase was a bid to overcome security problems hampering food deliveries and support poor Afghan farmers.

“Extended drought and conflict has had a devastating effect on Afghanistan’s wheat crop in recent years. But this year, we have had a better harvest, and WFP can buy a significant quantity of wheat locally,” said Rick Corsino, the organisation's Afghanistan director.

“WFP makes every effort to buy wheat locally or regionally wherever it can do so without disrupting markets.”

“ Insecurity on the southern ring road means we have been unable to move food for well over two months. With seriously depleted stocks, poor and hungry people in the west of the country have been suffering.”

For the first time, the WFP has also purchased 9,000 tonnes of wheat from Iran, which will be distributed in Badghis and Ghor provinces.

The recent break in supply affected over 100,000 people in the western region, including Afghans recently deported from Iran, men and women who carry out community work, and those enrolled in vocational courses under food-for-training schemes.

“When WFP can, and when a good harvest allows, it makes good sense to purchase locally grown cereals for our assistance programmes,” said Tony Banbury, WFP Asia Regional Director.

“This wheat purchase will bring food to vulnerable people in Afghanistan who really need our help, and WFP’s payments will help local farmers recover their livelihoods – a critical step for Afghanistan.”

Insecurity in many parts of Afghanistan, where WFP aims to provide food to 5.4 million Afghans in 2007, presents a major obstacle to humanitarian deliveries and continues to threaten projects.

Since June 2006, there have been 28 security incidents involving trucks carrying WFP food. The vehicles have been attacked and looted, and seven people have died. An estimated 750 tonnes of food has been lost.

Afghanistan: New thinking to rebuild Afghan agriculture, new book says

New York, 17 Sept. (AKI) - Efforts to rebuild the rural economy of Afghanistan must start with a better understanding of the country’s complex history, social background and extraordinary resilience of the Afghan people in repeatedly rebuilding their livelihoods, according to a new United Nations-sponsored book.

“Reconstructing Agriculture in Afghanistan,” co-published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the British publishing house Practical Action Publishing, is an attempt to advance development theory for fragile states by putting food security at the heart of a twin-track approach that integrates short-term emergency response to longer-term food security interventions for sustainable development.

The impact of recent history is significant on a country where 85 per cent of people rely on agriculture and which witnessed the destruction of irrigation systems by the Soviet army occupying it from 1979-89 and the subsequent migration of rural workers, the emergence of the Taliban regime and a countrywide drought that blighted wheat yields as well as livestock, savings and land.

At the same time however, the book argues that the brutal state-building of the 19th century and the influence of empires then predominant in the region, chiefly Russia and Britain, have all helped shape the agricultural landscape, creating a diverse legacy of different ethnic and regional identities, local economies and administration, self-interest and illicit trade.

These provincial markets and networks help explain the “extraordinary resilience” of the Afghan people, in repeatedly rebuilding their livelihoods despite a historical backdrop of disruption and political instability, the book argues.

As an example of cultural traditions and their impact, one chapter discusses the often-misunderstood role of women in helping shape the agricultural landscape.

“The position of women has been a potent symbol of Afghanistan to the outside world,” co-editor Adam Pain said. “There is a perception that women are completely powerless, but women are more powerful and are a lot more economically active than people give them credit for, in agriculture and elsewhere.”

The book also examines the role of the opium trade, which dominates so much debate on a country that accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world’s illegal output. Any approach to eradicating the trade needs to take into consideration local economies and power structures, where limited access to land and credit have left many farmers with little or no alternative to opium cultivation.

Development initiatives are taking place across the country, including an FAO project helping villagers set up their own businesses providing high-quality seed to farmers, and another developing a national agricultural information network that tracks food pricing, crop yields and weather warnings.

The book stresses that it is through long-term planning and good government, local and national, that Afghanistan can push forward, while education is also crucial.

Efforts on to attract Japanese investors

TOKYO, Sept 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Officials of the Afghan embassy in Tokyo, Japan, say they are trying to encourage Japanese entrepreneurs to invest in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, second secretary at the Afghan embassy Hassan Sarosh said Japan was among the leading aid giving countries, but the Japanese private sector had yet to invest in Afghanistan.

He said security situation was keeping way Japanese investors and traders from investment in Afghanistan. At the same time, Sarosh said Afghan officials were in constant contact with investors and traders to launch businesses in Afghanistan.

Regarding Afghanistan's exports to Japan, he said Japanese have reservations about Afghan goods. People in Japan care less about prices and more about quality of an item.

"We've informed the Ministry of Trade about the problems with Afghan exports," said the official. He said trade relations between the two countries had improved and some 2,000 Afghan traders had visited Japan during 2006.

He said Japan would continue assisting Afghanistan in the war against terrorism and reconstruction of the country. He said Japan had contributed around 1.3 billion US dollars over the previous six years.

KEC bags Rs 317cr deal in Afghanistan, BS Reporter / Mumbai September 19,

KEC International has bagged a Rs 317 crore contract from Afghanistan's Ministry of Energy and Water for the construction of 2X110 KV transmission lines totaling over l00 kms, four sub-stations, and eight power distribution systems of 20 KV each.

The project will be executed in two lots - in the North and Eastern regions of Afghanistan - and will be funded by Asian Development Bank.

"With this win, the total value of orders, under execution in Afghanistan, is over Rs 500 crore. KEC has also just completed two important Asian Development Bank-funded projects there," Ramesh Chandak, managing director, KEC International, said.

The company has also been awarded a Rs 91 crore contract by Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam for the supply and construction of 400kv double circuit transmission line, and the project is scheduled to be completed by February 2009.

Kite Runner flies into controversy

By Charles Haviland - BBC News, Kabul Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Book-lovers and movie-goers are eagerly awaiting the release this November of the film version of a much-loved novel, the worldwide bestseller, The Kite Runner.

But it is running into controversy in Afghanistan, the country where most of it is set, and among Afghan diaspora communities.

Written in 2003 by the Afghan-American Khaled Hosseini, the book spans the years from the pre-war Kabul of the 1970s to the brutality of the Taleban era.

It deals with poignant themes such as exile, a son's longing to please his father and - above all - friendship and betrayal between two boys, the novel's central characters.

"I became what I am today at the age of 12, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975," the novel begins. "I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek."

That is the narrator, Amir, looking back on the boyhood moment that changed his life. Only later do we learn what he was witnessing - the rape of the boy who is both his loyal best friend and his servant, Hassan - by a psychopathic bully.

Instead of rescuing Hassan, Amir runs away. The incident changes their friendship for ever and is the defining moment of the book. Yet some of those involved in the film say they had no idea it would have such a disturbing scene.

The film version has been shot in one of Afghanistan's main languages, Dari, and using ordinary Afghans in many of the roles - including the three principal children, who were chosen from among 2,000 in Kabul schools.

That is a brave move aimed at achieving maximum authenticity. But it has created unforeseen hitches.

On a damp and muddy afternoon I visited a mainly Hazara neighbourhood of Kabul - the Hazara are a traditionally downtrodden ethnic group to which the fictional character of Hassan belongs.

Down a secluded pathway I paid a call on 11-year-old Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, the boy who plays Hassan, and his father Ahmad Jaan.

The father says it was only after arriving in Kashgar in western China - where the film was shot for security reasons - that he learned of the rape scene, and that he wanted to withdraw his son from it.

"When I told them I would not let Ahmad Khan take part in this film, they said: 'We won't film that scene'," he says. Ahmad Khan is the perfect actor for Hassan - like the fictional boy, he is always smiling.

But, like his father, he is uneasy about the film in which he is starring. "They didn't tell me about the story of this book," he tells me in English, recalling the audition and the casting.

He says he did do the rape scene although without removing his trousers - "because that's not right", he adds firmly.

Because this key scene was filmed in a non-explicit way, it seems that at the time Ahmad's father did not even realise it had happened.

I called up one of The Kite Runner's producers, Rebecca Yeldham, in Los Angeles. "The scene has been handled in a very, very discreet and non-gratuitous fashion," she said.

"The scene contains no nudity. It's rendered in a very sort of impressionistic way. But it's also important in being faithful to that story - that there's no confusions that the attack in the alley that took place on that child was a sexual violation."

I told her that according to Ahmad Jaan, the director had promised not to film the scene. "That's not correct," she replied. "No one ever made those assertions to Ahmad's father."

She said all the cast were warned beforehand that there would be "challenging scenes" in the film. But several other cast members have now joined Ahmad Jaan in saying that even though the rape scene has been filmed, it should be removed.

Nabi Tanha, the actor who plays Hassan's father in the movie - Ali - says he is uneasy about the bad language against Hazaras.

Ahmad Jaan says his fears are two-fold - that the film will worsen relations between Hazaras and the dominant Pashtuns (both the boy rapist and the principal character Amir are Pashtun); and that his own family may be in danger when the film comes out, because of Afghan concepts of dishonour.

"Of course I'm worried about it," he says. "My own people from my own tribe will turn against me because of the story. I am so worried they may cut my throat, they may kill me, torture me."

His son has been quoted as saying he fears his friends will shun him because they think he really was raped.

In Bamiyan, the Hazara heartland, I spoke about such fears to Musa Sultani, who heads the local branch of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.

Bamiyan has a painful history of violence inflicted on Hazaras by the Taleban and inter-ethnic strife going back much further, and Mr Sultani believes the film could reignite old tensions.

"This scene, in an Afghan context, can be interpreted as a dishonour to one community, to one ethnicity," he says.

"In a tribal society, people don't distinguish between fictitious or real things." That means that a piece of fiction or a joke could be taken with deadly seriousness.

However, not all the Afghans involved are as worried. Mustafa Maroof, who was a casting agent and translator, told the BBC that because the rape scene was filmed in an indirect way, there probably would not be an adverse reaction.

Producer Rebecca Yeldham is aware of the sensitivities now surfacing and says she is in touch with community organisations in Kabul.

But she says the fears - which have spread to expatriate Afghans using internet chat rooms - are based on a mistaken belief that the scene in the film is explicit while, in fact, it was filmed discreetly in deference to Afghan feelings.

"We don't believe the kids' lives are at risk. We don't believe we've put them in that position," she says.

But the producers' concerns are such that they have just decided not to release the film in Afghanistan - although DVD versions are bound to circulate there.

Steven Rubenstein, one of the film's publicity agents, told the BBC the novel's author, Khaled Hosseini, who was closely involved in the shooting, was also "very concerned".

The producers of The Kite Runner are proud to be using ordinary Afghan actors.

[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.]