Security Council extends NATO-led Afghanistan mission

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN Security Council on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to extend for one year the mandate of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, but Russia abstained.

Fourteen of the council's 15 members approved a resolution that decides to extend the authorization of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for a year beyond October 13, when it was due to expire.

But Russia, a veto-wielding council member, said it could not support the text even though it strongly backed ISAF's mission to combat "terrorism" in Afghanistan.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that he abstained after sponsors did not take into account suggestions he and others made to clarify why a certain paragraph was inserted, and expressed concerns that individual countries' domestic affairs had played an undue part in the insertion.

The paragraph in question was to "express appreciation for the leadership provided by NATO and for the contributions of many nations to ISAF, including its maritime interdiction component." It did not name a particular country in relation to the maritime operation.

But the Russian envoy linked this insertion to the internal affairs of "some members" of the United Nations -- an apparent reference to Japan, where opposition politicians have made a political issue of the country's involvement in ISAF.

"A decision was made to give priority to domestic considerations of some members of the United Nations," Churkin said. "The unity of the Security Council has been sacrificed to undue haste."

"We believe that the maritime component is necessary exclusively to combat terrorism in Afghanistan and should not be used for other purposes," he added.

US Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad explained that the paragraph was added after council members noticed the raging debate in Japan about Tokyo's contribution to the maritime interception of "terrorists" affecting Afghanistan.

"This is an opportunity for the Security Council to underscore the importance of this mission and to express by that recognition the appreciation that we all have for the important contribution that Japan is making," Khalilzad said.

Ahead of the vote, Japan's defense ministry earlier Wednesday voiced hope that the council resolution would weaken an opposition bid to end Tokyo's mission supporting US-led operations in Afghanistan.

The United States has warned that relations would suffer with Japan, one of its closest allies, if Tokyo does not renew its contribution, which involves supplying fuel to coalition war jets and ships. Legislation on the deployment expires November 1.

Japan's main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, whose bloc won control of the upper house of parliament in July elections, has vowed to end his country's Afghan mission, saying Tokyo should not be part of "American wars."

More than 50,000 international troops mainly operating under ISAF are helping the Kabul government in its battle against resurgent Taliban extremists.

Germany extends Afghan stay

By AP Thu, September 20, 2007

BERLIN -- The German government has approved a one-year extension of its peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

The decision will still need parliament's approval.

Germany has nearly 3,000 troops serving in NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, largely in the relatively peaceful north.

The decision to extend the mandate comes with polls showing growing skepticism among the German public.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council voted late yesterday to extend the authorization of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan for another year. The NATO-led alliance has raised its troop level to almost 40,000 in the face of an emboldened Taliban insurgency.

Taliban attack leaves 24 dead in Afghanistan

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — A Taliban attack on a police post in western Afghanistan sparked a battle that left at least 20 militants and four police dead, a provincial governor said.

Dozens of Islamic fighters attacked a police position in Badghis province Wednesday, setting off a three-hour gunfight, governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri told AFP.

"Twenty militants were killed and nine militants were wounded in the fighting. Four police were also wounded," he said.

The governor said there were hundreds of attackers but the claim was not independently confirmed.

Western Afghanistan is relatively peaceful compared to the insurgency-hit southern and southeastern parts of the country, where militant attacks are an almost daily routine.

But Bala Murghab district, the scene of the latest attack, has seen a spike in violence in the past months.

Seven Afghan soldiers and 20 militants were killed in a battle there last month that was sparked when Taliban militants ambushed an Afghan and NATO army convoy.

Taliban insurgents have waged a bloody insurgency since their ouster from power in late 2001 by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, which has claimed thousands of lives so far.

In another incident related to the insurgency, six militants were arrested and one was killed Wednesday in southern Zabul province, the defence ministry said.

Afghanistan hands over 11 prisoners

By Ibrahim Shinwari September 20, 2007 Thursday

LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), Sept 19: The Afghan authorities on Wednesday handed over 11 Pakistani prisoners to officials of the political administration at the Torkhum border, officials said.

The prisoners had been recently released from the Pul-i-Charkhi prison in Kabul. They were immediately shifted to a Landi Kotal lock-up where they would be interrogated by a team of investigators after which they would be allowed to go home, the officials said.

Two of them had lost their senses, they added. Authorities said the prisoners were kept in different jails of Afghanistan and were recently shifted to Pul-i-Charkhi. They were arrested on charges of espionage and entering Afghanistan without legal travel documents, the officials said.

They insisted that most of them were labourers and had gone to Afghanistan in search of employment.

The released men were identified as Siyar Khan, Murad Khan, Said Wali and Hidayat of Peshawar, Abdul Halim, Niaz Ali and Hazrat Ali of Nowshera, Jamal Khan of Mardan, Muhammad Nazim of Multan, Muhammad Amjad of Rawalpindi and Iqbal Khan of Bara, Khyber Agency.Arms recovered: The Khasadar force in Landi Kotal seized nine pistols of US-origin from a car at Enzari checkpost on Wednesday. Driver of the car Awal Khan and his accomplices Rihmatullah, Umat Wali and Zar Ali were arrested.

Tanker blast: An empty oil tanker parked outside the customs offices on the Afghan side of the Torkhum border was slightly damaged in a bomb explosion on Wednesday.

The vehicle was immediately removed by the Afghan police from the site.

New NATO operation aims to secure southern Afghanistan for development

KABUL, Afghanistan - A spokesman says a new NATO-led operation aims to drive the Taliban out of their southern stronghold in Afghanistan to secure the area for development.

A clash nearby has left at least two people dead, including a private security guard. About 25 hundred Afghan and NATO troops have launched the military operation in the Gereshk region of Helmand province, the site of the fiercest battles this year and the world's largest opium-producing region.

Spokesman James Appathurai at NATO headquarters in Brussels says the troops have secured a bridge, built a crossing over the Helmand River and established an operating base after searching and clearing compounds near the river.

In Zabul province, meanwhile, militants attacked a private security company in Shah Joy district, killing one security guard, the Defence Ministry said.

The ensuing gunbattle left one suspected insurgent dead and Afghan soldiers arrested three others, it said.

No Afghan soldiers were hurt in the incident.

Insurgency-related violence has killed more than 4,500 people this year, including 3,100 militants and 600 civilians.

In southern Uruzgan province, the U.S.-led coalition accused the Taliban of using children as human shields during a battle Wednesday.

As coalition aircraft prepared to bomb the site, they held their fire after spotting children in one of the militant compounds.

The soldiers did fight the insurgents when they tried to flee the compound and more than a dozen suspected militants were killed, the coalition said. The report, which was impossible to verify independently, did not list any casualties among troops or civilians.

The U.S.-led coalition and the NATO force in Afghanistan themselves were strongly criticized earlier in the year by President Hamid Karzai and others for causing civilian casualties in air strikes on suspected militant locations. The number of such casualties has dropped recently.

The UN Security Council voted late Wednesday to extend the authorization of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan for another year.

Its resolution reiterated its concerns about "the increased violent and terrorist activities by the Taliban, al-Qaida, illegally armed groups and those involved in the narcotics trade."

Bin Laden video to declare war on Musharraf-site

Thu Sep 20, 2007 4:37 AM EDT139

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Islamist Web site said on Thursday it would carry a new video from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in which he declares war on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistani army.

It gave no details and the video was not available immediately on the site that carried the scrolling headline.

It was not clear when the video might appear. Bin Laden last appeared in a video on September 7, saying in his first appearance for almost three years that the United States remained vulnerable despite its power.

The Saudi-born militant also appeared in an audiotape on September 11, praising the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks on New York and Washington six years ago.

Officials announced on Thursday that U.S.-allied Musharraf would seek re-election on October 6 despite legal challenges in the Supreme Court and slumping popularity.

The outcome of the mounting political and constitutional crisis is of keen interest to the United States, which has counted on Musharraf's support to guarantee the success of Western intervention in Afghanistan and the war against al Qaeda.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a mountainous, inaccessible region that U.S. intelligence has described as a safe haven for al Qaeda.

Karzai pleads for Canadians to stay in Afghanistan

GRAEME SMITH From Wednesday's Globe and Mail September 19, 2007 at 1:46 AM EDT

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."

Karzai wants Canadians to stay in Afghanistan despite controversy over war

KABUL (CP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai is appealing to Canadians to continue to fight terrorism in his country.

Karzai said he is aware of the controversy in Canada about the country's role in the war, but his central Asian nation won't be ready to stand on its own by the time Canada's current combat mandate ends in February 2009.

"The presence of Canada is needed until Afghanistan is able to defend itself and that day is not going to be in 2009," Karzai told Canadian journalists brought to Kabul from the Canadian base at Kandahar Airfield to meet with him Tuesday.

Karzai said that by helping Afghanistan, Canada is making the world a safer place - "Canada included."

Afghanistan cannot afford for Canada to withdraw its roughly 2,500 troops, he said. "Look around and see that the enemy is not yet finished; it is not yet defeated."

"Therefore, it is our responsibility, all of us, to continue to work to defeat terrorism and we cannot defeat terrorism unless we secure Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"If we do not, it will become a base for them again. There are elements, there are hands working to do that once again and we must not allow it."

Karzai said all of the evils that existed before the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001 would return and the country would descend into anarchy.

In Canada, the federal Conservatives support extending the current mandate but the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois are opposed. The NDP wants Canadian troops withdrawn immediately from the war-torn country.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the current mission would continue only if his minority Conservative government could get a consensus in Parliament. He has no plans for a vote on the issue in the near future.

MacKay, Gates set to meet in Washington; Afghanistan likely to top agenda

WASHINGTON - Canada's Defence chief is set to meet with his U.S. counterpart in Washington Thursday.

The hour-long chat at the Pentagon will be the first time Peter MacKay sits down with Robert Gates in his new role. MacKay was shuffled into the portfolio last month after serving as foreign affairs minister. Afghanistan will be sure to top the agenda. MacKay was in Amsterdam Wednesday, where he said NATO must do more to find partners for the Afghan mission.

He'll be lobbying NATO members to become more active in dangerous Southern Afghanistan at informal talks in the Netherlands next month.

Bernier drums up support
TheStar.com - September 20, 2007 Allan Woods OTTAWA BUREAU

Canada's `credibility' is at stake if Ottawa ends Afghan mission in 2009, foreign minister says

MONTREAL–Canada risks losing "all credibility" in the eyes of the world if it withdraws from the NATO mission in Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said last night.

Speaking at the opening of a conference looking at the country's involvement in Afghanistan, Bernier said pulling out would amount to Canada going "back on its word" to the Afghan people and to its NATO allies.

When Parliament resumes next month, Afghanistan is expected to dominate discussion.

The Conservative government has promised to let MPs vote before deciding to extend the combat mission and Bernier's speech last night was part of a public relations push to win support for continuing the fight against the Taliban in Kandahar province.

"Canada cannot, without losing all credibility in the international arena ... abandon such a crucial mission," he said in a speech. "We also cannot simply abandon the Afghan people to their fate. To do so would jeopardize all the development work and security building that has been done on the ground."

Canada has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

Speaking to Quebecers, whose interest has been heightened since the arrival in Kandahar of the francophone Vandoos, Bernier said "Quebecers finish the job they started" and the job in Afghanistan is not yet done.

The speech appears to be part of a two-pronged strategy that has the Conservative government trying to build support within Canada while also pressuring the international community to take some of the burden off Canada's shoulders.

In The Hague yesterday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and his Dutch counterpart, Eimert van Middelkoop, said the NATO military alliance must do a better job of convincing other countries to move into southern Afghanistan. In the Netherlands, as in Canada, there is tremendous pressure on the government to pull its 2,000 troops out of Uruzgan province once the country's mission mandate expires next year. In both cases, critics cite the high casualty rates and varied progress being made on the ground.

"NATO should do more to prevail on member states and partners to be active in southern Afghanistan," MacKay was quoted as saying in a statement by the Dutch defence ministry.

In an interview published yesterday, NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer insisted that no country fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan would leave until the job is finished.

"There are 40 countries participating in the NATO mission in Afghanistan," he told the NCR Handelsblad newspaper. "And nobody can leave, nobody will leave."

He was speaking specifically about the impending decision by the Dutch government concerning the future of its 2,000 troops in Afghanistan. But the same pressures apply to Canada.

When the alliance meets in Noordwijk, Netherlands next month, the Canadian and Dutch governments plan to redouble their efforts to have NATO countries offer to step into Kandahar and Uruzgan when their respective missions expire. But similar efforts over the past year by Canada, the U.S. and senior NATO officials have fallen flat. Just last week, the German government decided to keep its troops in the safer northern parts of Afghanistan despite calls for more help in the south.

"We are showing a lot of effort and have a great responsibility in the south of Afghanistan but within NATO the responsibility must be shared better, a Dutch news agency quoted Middelkoop as saying.

In a meeting about the future of the mission, Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a direct appeal to the Canadian public, saying that if Canada pulls out of Afghanistan in February 2009, his country will descend into chaos.

Rage against the mission greets new minister

MIKE BLANCHFIELD CanWest News Service Thursday, September 20, 2007

Tries to sell policy on Afghanistan. Protesters arrested in Montreal as Bernier gives first speech as foreign affairs minister

It was a baptism of fire for Canada's new foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, with almost a dozen angry protesters shouting him down as he tried to sell his government's military involvement in Afghanistan.

Bernier, however, rolled with the chaotic scene that unfolded before a dinner audience at an upscale downtown hotel ballroom, calling the interruptions "an expression of democracy."

The aim of yesterday evening's speech was to try to persuade fellow Quebecers to stay the course and "finish the job" in Afghan-

istan, even though opposition parties have called for a withdrawal of troops somewhere between now and February 2009.

Bernier eventually finished his job - but not before almost a dozen young men and women were removed from the dinner after rising individually to fire off a series of verbal volleys.

"Canada cannot, without losing all credibility in the international arena, simply go back on its word and abandon such a crucial mission," Bernier said.

"I know that you are proud and responsible people, people of your word," the cabinet minister from the Beauce riding said. "Quebecers finish the job they have started."

Bernier was the keynote speaker at a dinner that kicked off a two-day conference on Canada's mission in Afghan-

istan. The conference is sponsored by an inter-university group formed by nine principal researchers at Université de Montréal and McGill University. The group is part of a Canadian network of university centres working in the field of defence and security and receives most of its funding from the Department of National Defence, according to the group's website.

Bernier said Canada cannot simply abandon the Afghan people to their fate and that to do so would jeopardize gains in development and security that have been made on the ground.

But it was a message Bernier struggled to get out over almost a dozen university-age hecklers, several of whom paid $30 to gain access to a dinner where he was the keynote speaker.

Several hecklers had to be forcibly removed from the room by Montreal police - including one man who was allowed to cross the ballroom unhindered and stand across Bernier's head table, shouting at the minister.

Outside the hotel, 100 anti-war protesters started picketing about 6 p.m., as Bernier's dinner and speech were getting under way inside. Most of the activists left by about 7, one protester told The Gazette.

When Montreal police escorted at least two activists out of the hotel, the remaining 20 protesters shouted at a line of police officers who blocked the hotel's driveway entrance.

At least three men and one woman were restrained with handcuffs.

One woman and two men, all in their 20s, were arrested, Montreal police Constable Raphaël Bergeron said.

One was cited for mischief, another was arrested for obstructing the duties of a police officer inside the meeting with Bernier, and another was arrested for assaulting a police officer and uttering threats.

All were released on a promise to appear in court later.

"We weren't interested in talking to Bernier," said Patrick Cadorette, 33, a member of the anti-war group Block the Empire.

"We went to disrupt the meeting. He was going on and on about reconstruction (in Afghan-istan). But nobody talks about how it's the Americans who destroyed everything there."

Cadorette said he doubted Bernier would be any more effective at selling Canada's Afghan mission to Quebecers than previous cabinet ministers have been. "People here don't know who he is," he said.

It was a small but loud expression of emotion that served as a clear reminder of the unpopularity in this province of Canada's top foreign policy objective in Central Asia.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promoted 44-year-old Bernier to foreign affairs, moving Peter MacKay over to defence, in a cabinet shuffle last month designed in large measure to help the government bolster its message about the Afghan mission among reluctant Quebecers.

Quebec's Royal 22e Régiment forms the backbone of the Canada's 2,500 soldiers currently stationed in Kandahar, and has suffered three fatalities since being deployed there last month.

Fearing a domino effect of NATO countries withdrawing, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has implored Canada to keep its soldiers in Afghanistan after its February 2009 commitment expires, warning his country would plunge into anarchy if foreign troops leave.

The Harper government has proposed an exit strategy under which NATO would train enough army and police officers to take over Afghanistan's security, but Karzai cast doubt on that scenario.

NDP leader Jack Layton said he does not believe Canadians could be easily sold on the mission, simply by changing the government's messengers through a cabinet shuffle.

"I think it's sad that one has to turn to a sales job when we're talking about war," Layton said in an interview.

max harrold of the gazette contributed to this report

NATO rapid-reaction force hobbled by cuts

Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:02 PM By Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's flagship rapid reaction force has fallen below full strength less than a year after its launch because over-stretched allies have withdrawn pledges of military assets, NATO sources said on Monday.

The NATO Response Force (NRF), brainchild of former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was conceived to field troops from a pool of up to 25,000 at a few days' notice and is the flagship of NATO efforts to revamp itself after the Cold War.

It was declared fully operational last November but alliance sources said it had dropped below full strength after nations in past weeks diverted equipment from it for use in a variety of existing military operations on the ground.

There are also divisions within NATO over how the force should be used.

"You will not see a press release but we are working on the basis it is not at FOC (full operational capacity). It does not have the heft to do what it set out to do," said a senior NATO officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Options for NRF are being examined, notably what options need to be looked at to make it more palatable to contribute forces," he said, adding the matter was raised by NATO chiefs of defense who met in the Canadian city of Victoria last week.

The officer did not name any nations but noted contributions pledged by the United States last November had been critical to its launch. Among the equipment now withdrawn were long-range air transport and helicopter assets of which the United States has by far the alliance's biggest stock, he added.

No U.S. official at NATO headquarters was immediately available for comment.

The NRF shortfall is only the latest sign of the growing "over-stretch" on the West's national armies, many of whom are suffering the strain of deploying troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Africa and the breakaway Serb province of Kosovo.

THEORETICAL?

General Ray Henault, the Canadian who chairs NATO Military Committee, said last week its peace operation in Afghanistan was being hampered by a shortage of troops and that the alliance was continually having to press nations to live up to commitments. Aside from the United States, the armies of major NATO nations such as Britain and France have for months complained of being stretched too thinly in operations around the globe.

Against such operational problems, the shortfalls of the NRF -- which has not been deployed for any of the range of missions it was intended for since being declared fully operational at a summit last November -- may appear theoretical.

But alliance officials say it has exposed a deep rift within NATO about when exactly to use the force, to which NATO nations are expected to devote land, air and sea forces for six months at a time.

Some such as France insist it should remain predominantly a rapid reaction force, while others like the Netherlands have suggested it could be used to plug holes in existing operations such as Afghanistan.

"Is it a force of last resort? Or is it there to be actually used?" said one alliance source, noting some nations were wary about deploying it because of the drain on national resources.

The debate is expected to focus high on the agenda of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in the Netherlands next month.

UN trying to verify civilian casualties with limited resources

DUBAI, 20 September 2007 (IRIN) - The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on 19 September rejected alleged implications in an IRIN report dated 5 September 2007 that it was seeking to be a "body-counting" authority in Afghanistan.

"It's very misleading," said UNAMA spokesman Adrian Edwards. "We certainly do our best to verify civilian casualty incidents to the best extent we can, but investigating and establishing the cause of every death in Afghanistan is well beyond even our capacity."

On 4 September Afghanistan's human rights watchdog, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), said civilian casualties in the country peaked in August with the reported deaths of 168 civilians in armed conflicts, suicide attacks, explosions and aerial bombardments. The AIHRC put the number of such casualties in July at 144.

Edwards, however, said UNAMA was not in a position to issue definitive numbers of civilian deaths. Part of the problem was that researchers could not get easy access in areas of conflict. "These are insecure areas and it is difficult to access them. We all have to do our best with limits on information," he said.

The UNAMA spokesman also mentioned lack of adequate resources as a factor. He said UNAMA's Human Rights Unit had around six people in each of the mission's eight regional offices. The unit collects data on civilian casualties from various available sources and tries to verify the data. Based on that, Edwards said, UNAMA can give a general indication of the trend in civilian casualties but not an exact figure.

"However, even if we had exhaustive information [on civilian casualties] it would ideally be something for the national authorities to release, not us," he said.

Afghan civilian dead, four injured in traffic accident with Canadian convoy

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An Afghan civilian was killed and two others remained in hospital Thursday following a traffic accident involving a Canadian convoy in Kandahar city.

The accident occurred just before 11 a.m. on Wednesday as a Canadian combat logistic patrol was heading back to the international base at Kandahar Air Field.

The civilian vehicle coming toward the convoy pulled out to pass and lost control as he tried to pull back into his lane in the face of the military vehicles.

The lead vehicle in the Canadian convoy, an RG-31, tried to swerve but was unable to avoid the vehicle, said a military spokesperson.

Five passengers in the civilian vehicle were injured, three seriously.

Canadian soldiers secured the scene and called for a medivac. Three wounded Afghan civilians were taken to a medical facility at the Kandahar military base, where one civilian was later confirmed dead.

The two others remained in hospital Thursday in stable condition.

"ISAF goes to great lengths to ensure that patrols are conducted safely. This incident is deeply regrettable," said Wing Cmdr Antony McCord, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command South.

Afghan elders complained over the summer about the military convoys that cut through Kandahar city, the only connection to the main routes through the region and a gauntlet of potential threats for international soldiers.

Two Afghan civilians were killed by gunfire earlier this year when a man on a motorcycle approached a British convoy in a threatening manner.

Hecklers shout down minister's pro-Afghan speech

Mike Blanchfield The Ottawa Citizen Thursday, September 20, 2007

Police oust protesters; Bernier touts mission

MONTREAL - It was a baptism by fire for Canada's new foreign minister, Maxime Bernier, with almost a dozen angry protesters shouting him down as he tried to sell his government's military involvement in Afghanistan.

Mr. Bernier, however, rolled with the chaotic scene that unfolded in an upscale downtown hotel at a dinner at which he was the keynote speaker, calling the interruptions "an expression of democracy."

The aim of last night's speech was to try to persuade fellow Quebecers to stay the course and "finish the job" in Afghanistan, even though opposition parties have called for a withdrawal of troops between now and February 2009.

Mr. Bernier eventually finished his job -- but not before almost a dozen men and women were removed from the dinner after rising individually to fire off a series of verbal volleys.

"Canada cannot, without losing all credibility in the international arena, simply go back on its word and abandon such a crucial mission," Mr. Bernier eventually told the international symposium of Afghanistan experts, academics and diplomats.

"I know that you are proud and responsible people, people of your word," the cabinet minister from Quebec's Beauce riding said in the English text of his first address on the issue that is expected to dominate his portfolio. "Quebecers finish the job they have started."

Mr. Bernier said Canada cannot simply abandon the Afghan people to their fate and that to do so would jeopardize gains in development and security that have been made on the ground.

But it was a message he struggled to get across over the voices of almost a dozen university-age hecklers, at least some of whom had paid $35 to get into the event. Several had to be forcibly removed by Montreal police -- including one man who crossed the ballroom unhindered to stand across from the head table and shout at the minister.

Outside the hotel, a little more than a dozen demonstrators shouted insults at police. At least three men and one woman were handcuffed.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promoted 44-year-old Mr. Bernier to foreign affairs last month in a cabinet shuffle designed in large measure to help the government bolster its message about the Afghan mission among reluctant Quebecers.

Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment now forms the backbone of Canada's 2,500 soldiers stationed in Kandahar, and has suffered three fatalities since being deployed there last month.

Fearing a domino effect of NATO countries withdrawing, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has implored Canada to keep its soldiers in Afghanistan after its February 2009 commitment expires, warning his country would be plunged into anarchy if foreign troops leave.

Afghan general: peace talks 'complex'

By BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press
September 20, 2007

BAZARAK, Afghanistan - One of Afghanistan's most renowned anti-Taliban commanders predicted Thursday that proposed peace talks would be a "long and complex process" but likely would be snubbed by hard-liners and foreign fighters in the Islamic militia.

The comments by Gen. Bismillah Khan — made during a visit by the most senior U.S. military chief for the region — appeared to reflect a more cautious approach by some in the Afghan military toward a push by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with the Taliban.

"This could be a beginning," Khan said following meetings with Adm. William Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command. "But it's a long and complex process. Its not something that will have a significant effect in the short term."

Khan, the army chief of general staff, predicted that some Afghan supporters of the Taliban could be drawn into expanded negotiations for reconciliation with Karzai's Western-backed government — which has been offering peace deals to individual fighters for years.

But he said that foreign jihadists and core Afghan supporters would probably never come to the table.

"There are factions in the Taliban that will reject (talks) completely, he said after taking Fallon on a tour of the tomb of slain anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massood in the Panjshir Valley, about 50 miles northeast of Kabul.

Khan was a top Northern Alliance commander under Massoud, who was killed in 2001 by two Arab bombers posing as journalists. Khan later fought alongside the U.S. forces that helped topple the Taliban following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Fallon's stop in Afghanistan — part of a 10-day visit that includes the Persian Gulf and Iraq — seeks to review U.S.-led strategies to battle Taliban guerrillas struggling to regain footholds around the country. Fallon oversees U.S. military forces across Central Asia, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.

The overtures for peace talks received initial encouragement from a Taliban spokesman and have been welcomed by NATO and the United Nations. But the Taliban leadership returned with preconditions that would effectively kill chances for talks — that the Pentagon and NATO withdraw its forces and Islamic law is re-imposed on the country.

More likely, said Khan and other Afghan officials who greeted Fallon, is that the peace talk offers could attempt to splinter the Taliban and other militant groups between those looking for reconciliation and others seeking to fight on.

Washington urges Taliban fighters to surrender. But it rejects blanket peace talks, saying the U.S. won't negotiate with terrorists. Some Taliban commanders are held at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants last month forced the government of South Korea to negotiate directly with them over the fate of 23 South Korean church volunteers kidnapped in central Afghanistan in July.

Polio campaign could get boost on Peace Day

KABUL, 20 September 2007 (IRIN) - Humanitarian aid organisations and health bodies have expressed readiness to carry out a polio vaccination campaign in insecure parts of Afghanistan should armed conflicts cease on International Peace Day on 21 September.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has launched the campaign in volatile southern and eastern provinces where 1.3 million children are targeted for polio oral drops.

“Peace would create a good opportunity for us to eradicate polio in this country,” said Tahir Pervaiz Mir, a WHO expert in Kabul.

Hundreds of locally trained vaccinators are also expected to immunise about 85,000 children who have totally missed vaccination and immunisation this year in areas under the influence of Taliban rebels.

A purported spokesman for Taliban insurgents, Qari Yousuf Ahamdi, told IRIN their fighters would allow the immunisation drive in areas currently under their control.

Local elders in Kandahar and Helmand provinces - hotbeds of the insurgency - have given assurances that Taliban gunmen would not attack or abduct vaccinators, said a UN official who did not want to be identified.

Afghanistan is among only four polio-endemic countries in the world where the disease has not been eradicated so far.

According to UNICEF and WHO, five children have been paralysed by this preventable disease in recent weeks.

Alleviation of suffering

The UN has 6,000 local and international staff in Afghanistan and the heads of over a dozen UN agencies have said peace would enable them to alleviate human suffering in the country.

“With peace in Afghanistan, we can help ensure that no Afghan school child fails to concentrate on their studies because of an empty stomach,” Rick Corsino, the country director of World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters.

In the lead up to Peace Day, UNICEF and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have urged that children and teachers at schools and literacy centres around the country be protected from all acts of violence, the UN News Centre said on 19 September.

Precarious ceasefire

On the eve of International Peace Day the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has launched one of its biggest military operations in southern Helmand Province.

According to an ISAF press release about 2,500 Afghan and international troops, backed by aerial support, are involved in the operation, which aims to “identify Taliban forces and drive them out of their traditional strongholds in the Upper Gereshk Valley”.

Asked if ISAF would suspend military operations on 21 September, Gen Dan McNeill, commander of ISAF, said in a statement: “No one wants world peace more than the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines serving their respective countries as part of the ISAF. Every day, the men and women of ISAF answer the noble call of assisting the Afghan people to find peace and long-term security.”

Meanwhile, an official at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence said no plans for a temporary ceasefire were in place on Peace Day.

Report shows Afghanistan mired in corruption

By Harvey Thompson 20 September 2007

Previous to the current mantra of the US-led occupation of Afghanistan as the “winnable war,” it was the “war for hearts and minds.”

Although hardly mentioned of late, it relied on the concept that the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 would lead to the reconstruction of the country’s battered infrastructure and civil society, and the stabilisation of its security.

After five and a half years, both these objectives are as far away as ever. Under the shadow of a foreign occupation and US/NATO-sponsored warlords, the mass of Afghans—who are both directly and indirectly increasingly supportive of the insurgency— have slipped further into urban poverty and rural destitution while a handful of corporate contractors, government officials and drug barons benefit from increasing social instability and an ever-expanding narcotics economy.

To give one example, a Working Paper was published in July, entitled Corruption perceptions and risks in humanitarian assistance: an Afghanistan case study by Kevin Savage, Lorenzo Delesgues, Ellen Martin and Gul Pacha Ulfat.

Delesgues is Director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA). Savage is a Research Officer with the Humanitarian Policy Group. Oxfam Afghanistan also supported the study, who in turn acknowledged Christian Aid’s Herat team for its support in the field research.

The report focused on the delivery of aid to a long-established, internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Herat in the period 2001 to 2003, as well as more general interviews in Kabul. The authors conclude, “the picture it paints is a devastating one.”

They write, “The intervention by the United States in 2001 and the subsequent fall of the Taliban hugely increased international attention on Afghanistan. This saw a massive increase in the number of organisations and the size of humanitarian assistance projects implemented in the country. Organisations already present in the country, heavily constrained and limited in their past work by the Taliban government, were now able to expand their scope, and many more organisations came to Afghanistan to begin operations. There was also a huge increase in the amount of funding available for humanitarian assistance. Such assistance was desperately needed. Some 80 percent of Afghanistan’s population lives in rural areas where there is high pressure on arable land, as well as cyclical droughts and continual threats to livelihood assets from chronic political instability.

“In 2001, Afghanistan had been suffering the effects of countrywide drought since 1996, and localised natural calamities—earthquakes, floods, landslides, agricultural pests—which continue to place great strains on the population, particularly in the rural areas. The unprecedented drought left much of the population very vulnerable to food insecurity and caused large-scale displacement. Many thousands of people were in desperate need of assistance by the time of the intervention and the fall of the Taliban.”

After pointing out that many of the personnel and structures in the IDP camp at Herat remained as under the Taliban after 2001, the report states, “Although several studies have focused on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan before 2001, few deal with humanitarian aid, or indeed the issue of corruption in the humanitarian system, following the overthrow of the Taliban regime.”

The report reconsiders the apparent contradiction of the fortuitous position of aid agencies after the fall of the obstructionist Taliban regime and the futility of their efforts ever since.

“The resources that became available to resolve the conflict and rebuild the country seemed promising, but five years later, and despite considerable progress, the country remains one of the poorest in the world, with reports of chronic aid mismanagement, waste and corruption.”

Although, as the authors assert; waste and corruption are not synonymous, they insist that the two have often accompanied each other.

“The spending imperative was especially evident in the run-up to the 2004 Afghan elections and the need for the US in particular to present Afghanistan as a success story, especially in view of the ongoing conflict in Iraq.”

As examples of this, the report cites the construction of the USAID-funded Kabul-to-Kandahar highway, a campaign promise by President Hamid Karzai before the 2004 elections. The road was built in less than two years, but is already disintegrating due to poor design, bad planning and poor-quality materials.

Another example concerns the USAID’s “Accelerating Success Initiative” under which US construction firm Louis Berger built and renovated 533 schools and clinics at a cost of $226,000 each. The Afghan government could apparently have carried out the work for $50,000 per building. Many of these buildings were later damaged during the winter because of poor design quality.

This practice became routine in occupied Afghanistan:

“Much of the post-war funding in Afghanistan has flowed through international NGOs, which have then subcontracted work to local organisations. This work is then sometimes subcontracted again. This results in a long chain of upwards accountability that is hard to monitor and offers many opportunities for corruption.”

Noting that the number of registered NGOs increased 10-fold in just four years, it continues, “Afghan law has no room for not-for-profit charitable organisations, and the local NGOs receiving funding contracts to do this work have been considered private companies no different from standard profit-making businesses, and differentiated from non-operational ‘social’ organisations (which are registered with the Ministry of Justice).

“Many are in fact private for-profit contractors doing business with aid actors, such as building contractors. Others are businesses set up specifically to profit from aid contracts. Others are not-for-profit charities set up to implement aid work, more in keeping with the typical understanding of ‘NGO.’ Still others have been corrupt ‘briefcase’ NGOs set up specifically to defraud aid agencies and donors. Corruption, profiteering and profligate spending by NGOs have created a very negative perception of their work in Afghanistan, both locally and internationally.”

The report states that there is now widespread resentment against the NGOs amongst Afghans. Aware that large sums of aid have been given over, the broad mass of the population have seen no improvement in their circumstances but can’t help but note the vastly higher standards of living amongst NGO staff.

The report also mentions, although it does not detail, the official legitimising of corruption by US and UK authorities in their clandestine distribution of large sums of money to Afghan warlords in order to buy their support for the client government of Hamid Karzai—despite common knowledge that many warlords are involved in the drug trade.

In theory, it states, international aid agencies work under the Department for Disaster Preparedness (DPP) and the National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC). But these in turn rely heavily on the local offices of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), which are subject to pressure from provincial governors and local warlords and who thereby “have tremendous power to control allocations of aid and its disbursement.”

“...In Afghanistan, there is often a close connection between decision-makers and individuals with an interest in the decision. Most of the important warlords have a significant influence on the private companies working in the province.”

The report’s concluding remarks are inevitably a mixture of diplomacy and wishful thinking.

“While the study highlights how difficult it can be to operate and manage corruption risks in environments such as Afghanistan, it also shows that there are compelling reasons to improve how systems of control are managed and implemented. Large amounts of aid intended for suffering and vulnerable people flowed to powerful elites because they were able to exploit weaknesses in these systems. Investment in better controls and management might have prevented much of this abuse, and would undoubtedly cost less than the price corruption exacts in aid effectiveness.”

There has been sparse comment in the media about the endemic corruption gripping Afghanistan. Among the few exceptions was a BBC World Service report in July that looked at how the widespread corruption (including the Ministry of Interior) is creating popular disillusionment with the central government.

The report can be heard on BBC.

On September 6, the BBC also carried a piece quoting the Afghan urban development minister saying that land is being appropriated illegally by powerful individuals at a rate of 2 square kilometres (0.8 square miles) a day.

The minister, Yousaf Pashthun, said former military commanders, members of parliament and senior officials are seizing land and then selling it illegally. The “land mafia” have stolen 5,000 square kilometers of land this year. Pashthun said one of the reasons very little is being done about the problem is that many people in positions of power, including the government, are involved in the land grab.

Seed and plant health gets a boost in Afghanistan

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Kabul, 19 September 2007. Successful crop production depends to a large extent on the availability to farmers of disease-free seeds and other planting materials. It is for this reason that the Afghanistan government requested assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help establish a plant health testing and seed multiplication system in the country, provide necessary infrastructure and institutional mechanisms, review and update relevant legislation and regulations and train technicians in the use of appropriate technologies.

In response, FAO has provided funding up to US$ 420,000 as part of its Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) to support a 21-month project for Strengthening Seed and Plant Health Inspectorate Capacity in Afghanistan. This project will be complementary and part of the larger Euro 10 million Variety and Seed Industry Development Project funded by the European Union (EU).

An inception workshop of the TCP project was held recently in Kabul, which brought together 72 stakeholders from across the country to discuss the project’s programme of work and contribute from the outset to the preparation of an operational plan of activities. Present at the workshop were dignitaries including HE Mohammad Sharif, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Mr. Tekeste G Tekie, FAO Representative in Afghanistan and Mr. Matin Behzad, Advisor for Food Security and Rural Development in the European Union. The outcome of the one-day participatory workshop was a revised work plan and logical framework, which will guide the implementation and monitoring of the project’s activities.

It is hoped that this new project will help pave the way for establishing a modern certification system for seeds and vegetative planting materials moving within as well as in and out of the country and strengthening national seed and plant health institutions. One of the major outputs expected from the project is the establishment of a Seed and Plant Health Inspectorate Service as part of the National Seed Board once the Seed Law is enacted.

[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.]