In this bulletin:

• Red Cross staff seized, Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan
• U.S. troops open fire on Afghan civilians: witness
• Taliban spokesman denies Afghan govt claim of arrest in southern Afghanistan
• Karzai meets world leaders on UNGA sidelines
• Dr. Spanta meets his counterparts in New York
• Bush, Karzai agree to agree on Afghanistan
• Russian abstention from UNSC voting surprises US
• Troop pullout would jeopardize Afghanistan aid: official
• Villagers blame Canadians for Afghan killings
• Eleven nations call on Japan to renew Afghan mission
• No more troops to Afghanistan, says Spain
• Canada should cease combat as NATO test, Liberals say
• In Afghanistan, Anger in Parliament Grows as President Defies Majority’s Wishes
• Afghan farmers find alternative to opium: marijuana
• Pain relief for Afghanistan
• We're losing in Afghanistan too
• Afghanistan: Children share deprivations of imprisoned mothers
• An elusive quest for justice in Afghanistan
• The sun delivers water

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, left, and Mohammed Haneef Atmar, Minister of Education for Afghanistan, center, meet with former President Bill Clinton during the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Chip East, Pool

Red Cross staff seized, Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) - Four Red Cross staff, two of them foreigners, were kidnapped near the Afghan capital while two Danish soldiers were killed in an attack by Taliban insurgents, officials said Thursday.

An overnight operation near the border with Pakistan, meanwhile, killed 18 Taliban, a provincial official said separately, adding there were some civilian casualties although he could not confirm claims that eight were killed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross employees were captured Wednesday about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul while on a mission to secure the release of a German engineer kidnapped 10 weeks ago, officials said.

Security forces had on Thursday afternoon surrounded the "armed thieves" who abducted the four and they were expected to be freed soon, said Anayatullah Mangal, governor of Sayed Abad district, where the group was snatched.

"We are sure they will be freed safe and sound," he said.

The ICRC would not confirm the group had been kidnapped, saying only that they had not returned from a mission Wednesday to facilitate the release of the German engineer and around four Afghans abducted with him in mid-July.

The report of a new kidnapping comes after a string of abductions of foreigners in Afghanistan, some claimed by the insurgent Taliban movement and some blamed on criminals after cash.

A Taliban spokesman said his group was not involved in the disappearance of the Red Cross workers.

"There are criminal groups who would abduct people for ransom. It might be their work," Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The hardline Islamic Taliban launched an insurgency soon after being driven from government in late 2001 in an invasion led by the United States after the 9/11 attacks, which were blamed on Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan.

The insurgents have stepped up their attacks this year, with 5,000 dead -- most of them rebels, according to an AFP count based on official reports.

In the latest incident, Taliban fighters attacked a military base in the south of the country on Wednesday, killing two Danish soldiers, the Danish army said Thursday. A third Dane was wounded, it said in a statement.

The Danish contingent with the 40,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) numbers around 400 soldiers and is primarily deployed in southern Helmand province under British command.

Including the latest deaths, 175 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year alone, most of them in combat operations against Taliban militants.

One of those, a soldier from the separate US-led coalition, was killed on Tuesday in the south during one of two major battles with the Taliban that also left nearly 170 militants dead.

Officials in eastern Kunar province on the border with Pakistan reported, meanwhile, that ISAF forces had carried out an operation overnight that killed at least 18 Taliban.

"There have been some civilian casualties from the operation but I don't have the exact figure," provincial spokesman Zarghon Shah Khaliqyar said.

People who said they were wounded in the operation were treated in a hospital in the provincial capital Asadabad, and said around eight civilians were killed.

"Four of my daughters are killed and my husband's second wife has also been killed in the bombing," said a woman who gave her name as Tella Gulla.

ISAF said it had no information about an operation in Kunar nor of civilian casualties.

In another incident, Taliban militants attacked a police post near the southern town of Qalat Wednesday and killed six policemen, provincial police chief Mohammad Yaqob said. Three policemen were wounded.

In another development, the government announced it had arrested the Taliban movement's main spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi. A person believed to be the man himself however called media to deny he had been captured.

U.S. troops open fire on Afghan civilians: witness

By Noor Mohammad Sherzai Thu Sep 27, 3:43 AM ET

BATI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. troops opened fire on civilians near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Thursday after a failed suicide car bomb attack on their convoy, a Reuters witness said.

There was no immediate comment on the reported incident either from U.S.-led coalition forces or from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The witness said three suicide bombers in one vehicle attacked a convoy of U.S. troops in the village of Bati Kot, 15 km (9 miles) east of Jalalabad, but none of the soldiers was hurt.

Two of the bombers were immediately killed in the blast. The third, dressed in a police uniform, survived only to be shot dead by troops, the witness said.

A fire brigade vehicle arriving at speed at the scene then suffered brake failure and rammed into the U.S. vehicles. Troops inside then opened fire, wounding a number of bystanders.

"I saw everything," said Reuters correspondent Noor Mohammad Sherzai. "I saw the suicide bomb attack ...

"I saw the fire brigade vehicle rushing to the area at top speed, somehow its brakes failed and hit one police vehicle and coalition vehicles, then the Americans started firing at the people and everyone lay flat on the ground and then fled the area."

Sherzai said a number of people had been wounded in the attack, but he did not know how many. "I ran away to save my own life."

At least two people were taken away by ambulance, he later said. U.S. troops cordoned off the area. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

An ISAF spokesman in Kabul said the force was aware of the attack but that there were no casualties reported. Afghans staged angry protests in Jalalabad in March after U.S. Marines killed at least 10 civilians there following a suicide bomb attack.

Elsewhere, two Danish soldiers were killed in an attack on a forward operating base near the town of Gereshk in the southern province of Helmand overnight, a British military spokesman said. Another Danish soldier was also wounded in the attack.

British troops launched a large operation north of Gereshk last week to clear Taliban rebels from the area. U.S. troops said they had killed scores of Taliban insurgents in the last few days in operations in Helmand and neighboring Uruzgan province.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said on Thursday that police had captured Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf. But a Reuters reporter received a message purportedly from Yousuf after the Interior Ministry statement was released.

Taliban spokesman denies Afghan govt claim of arrest in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A man claiming to be the Taliban spokesman that Afghan authorities said they have captured called The Associated Press on Thursday to deny it.

"I've not been arrested," the spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the AP, disputing an Interior Ministry statement that he had been captured in southern Helmand province on Wednesday.

"I don't know if they arrested some innocent villager with the same name," he said, adding the government often claims to have killed or arrested Taliban leaders in reports later found to be false.

Ahmadi, who is one of the most public voices for the fundamentalist insurgency, called an AP reporter with whom he has frequent phone contact. The reporter recognized the voice as Ahmadi's.

The Interior Ministry said Ahmadi was taken into custody with his brother during a police operation Wednesday in the village of Sufiyan in Helmand - a province wracked by some of the fiercest fighting in Afghanistan that has claimed more than 4,400 lives this year.

The Helmand provincial police chief confirmed that someone with Ahmadi's name had been arrested, but admitted it was possible that the captive just shared the Taliban spokesman's name.

"We have arrested Qari Yousef and his brother from a house yesterday, but I don't know which Qari Yousef it was or how many there are," said Helmand provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

Another Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, had also contacted another AP reporter to dispute the Interior Ministry report, saying Ahmadi was free.

The Interior Ministry spokesman could not immediately be reached for further comment. Ahmadi is the first person many journalists contact for Taliban comment on violence and kidnappings in Afghanistan.

As the Taliban has stepped up its insurgency against foreign troops and the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai in the past several years, it has made increasingly sophisticated efforts to communicate with the media.

But it remains virtually impossible to confirm the identity of Taliban spokesmen because they do not appear in public and communicate only by phone or text message. Nor is it possible to establish their location and exact ties to the militia's leadership.

Journalists say there are at least four Taliban militants claiming to be Ahmadi. Two AP reporters who have interviewed him several times said they have spoken with different men with different voices who have claimed to be Ahmadi. The AP did not use those comments.

Recently there have been two Taliban spokesmen - Ahmadi, who covers southern Afghanistan, and Mujahid, who speaks on the militia's activities in the north and east.

Two other spokesmen have been arrested in the past two years and were swiftly replaced. On Jan. 15, Afghan agents arrested Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif in eastern Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan.

Afghanistan's intelligence service later distributed a video of what it said was Hanif, 26, being questioned and claiming that Pakistani intelligence was helping to hide Taliban leader Mullah Omar inside Pakistan - a charge denied by Pakistan.

A predecessor of Hanif, Mullah Hakim Latifi, was arrested in 2005 by Pakistani police in southwestern Baluchistan province.

Karzai meets world leaders on UNGA sidelines

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai Monday met a number of world leaders on the sidelines of the 62nd UN General Assembly here. He also attended a high-level meeting on climate change.

The Afghan president met his Polish counterpart Kaczynski, Iraqi, Bangladeshi, Canadian and South Korea prime ministers. Issues of bilateral interest and Afghanistan's reconstruction figured prominently at the meetings.

President Karzai sought more cooperation and assistance from the international community. Diplomatic sources familiar with the meetings said leaders of all the countries reiterated full support to Afghanistan.

At his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the two covered a host of issues including Canada's mission in Afghanistan. Karzai and Harper talked about regional cooperation and positive involvement in Afghanistan.

Lalit K. Jha

Dr. Spanta meets his counterparts in New York

Posted On MoFA site: Sep 26, 2007

Afghanistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Spanta met a number of his counterparts on the margin on the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. He held separate meeting with minister of foreign affairs of India, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Australia, South Korea, Luxembourg, Estonia, Norway, Slovak, US Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher and the EU External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. In these meetings, Dr. Spanta exchanged views on latest developments in Afghanistan and other issues of mutual interest and concern. Dr. Spanta accompanies President Karzai to the UN annual summit.

Bush, Karzai agree to agree on Afghanistan

The two presidents meet in New York and vow to fight narcotics trafficking, terrorism and the Taliban - By James Gerstenzang, Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2007

NEW YORK -- President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed Wednesday on the need to work jointly to fight narcotics trafficking, terrorism and a resurgent Taliban, and on the necessity of international help with energy needs, a White House official said.

The two, in New York for the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly, met for about 30 minutes at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Bush used the session for an update on conditions in Afghanistan six years after the U.S.-led invasion, and for a public display of renewed support for Karzai, who took office on the heels of the Taliban's defeat.

With prompting from Karzai, who was seated at his side, Bush noted that child mortality had started to drop in Afghanistan, and that it was in the interest of the United States to continue helping the struggling country.

Afghanistan continues to trouble the Bush administration, with the Taliban keeping up attacks and elements of Al Qaeda thought to be hiding there and in nearby Pakistan.

On Tuesday, U.S. military officials reported that a daylong battle near a Taliban-controlled town in Helmand province killed more than 60 Taliban fighters and one soldier from the U.S.-led coalition. In a separate battle Wednesday in Oruzgan province, officials reported more than 65 Taliban troops killed.

And Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf recently has been under domestic pressure to scale back counter-terrorism efforts because of political turmoil.

For the White House, Afghanistan carries political as well as security implications, with critics saying that the Iraq war has diverted military resources and attention from efforts to rout Al Qaeda elements still operating out of Afghanistan.

Administration officials say they have been able to support Afghanistan while continuing military operations in Iraq. At the same time, Bush has faced criticism from some Republicans for not doing enough to fight narcotics traffic originating in Afghanistan.

Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the two presidents discussed how to cut back on opium poppy cultivation and ways to provide the Afghan people with alternative means to make a living.

Karzai said his country was regaining self-sufficiency in food production after years of shortages spurred by the chaos created by a Soviet-supported government and then the Taliban.

Johndroe said the two presidents also talked about the importance of helping Afghanistan use its natural gas and coal to meet the country's energy needs.

Russian abstention from UNSC voting surprises US

UNITED NATION, Sept 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States Monday said it was surprised at Russia's abstention from UN Security Council voting on extending the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mandate in Afghanistan.

The voting was held last week and Russia was the only country on the 15-member Security Council that did not support the resolution extending the ISAF mission in Afghanistan by a year until October 2008.

"We do not have a particularly clear understanding why it was necessary (on the part of Russia)," Kristin Silverberg, Assistant Secretary (International Organisation), told Pajhwok Afghan News.

In the post-Taliban era, this is probably for the first time that a major world power has not supported a UN Security Council resolution on Afghanistan.

The representative ambassador, however, said his country had traditionally supported ISAF and the continuation of its mandate remained important in combating the terrorist threat posed by Taliban and al-Qaeda.

"We thought the final resolution was very good and the strong support from other members of the Council, I think, indicated really a broad-based support for the ISAF and continued importance of international presence in Afghanistan," Silverberg said.

Giving reasons for Russia's decision to abstain from the voting, diplomatic sources said it sought a clarification on the issue of maritime interception.

The particular paragraph, opposed by the Russian delegation, says the Security Council expresses its "appreciation for the leadership provided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and for the contributions of many nations to ISAF and to the OEF coalition, including its maritime interdiction component."

In response to another question, she said: "The UN has a very important and constructive role in Afghanistan. I was recently visiting the country and met with UN officials who deal with the political issues and many who deal with the development and other issues.

"The UN has played a key role with the help of USAID and other organisations to address issues like health care. It is cooperation from all parties that has led to significant improvement in health care like child mortality rates and infant mortality rates." Lalit K. Jha

Troop pullout would jeopardize Afghanistan aid: official
CanWest News Service; Victoria Times Colonist, Thursday, September 27, 2007

VICTORIA - Canada's foreign aid workers can't remain in Afghanistan until 2011 if it's too dangerous after a possible pullout by troops in 2009, a foreign affairs official said Wednesday.

The number of civilians in Afghanistan with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Foreign Affairs Department alone have almost doubled in the last year, said David Mulroney, associate deputy minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

But, "We couldn't maintain it without somebody providing that degree of security we have now," said Mulroney, who spoke at the Union Club in Victoria.

The 71st Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, was killed Monday. His body is being returned to Canada tonight at CFB Trenton in Ontario.

Afghanistan is the largest recipient of Canada's foreign aid, with $200 million spent last year. The number of CIDA and Foreign Affairs workers almost doubled to 13 from seven, and 20 from nine, respectively, in just the last year.

"I don't think we can ever forget the fact the international community allowed Afghanistan to become such a backwater, forgotten, impoverished place that it has provided a home to one of the most lethal and ultimately deadly terrorist groups and attacks we've seen," Mulroney.

"By building stability in Afghanistan, in a troubled region, and by contesting control of Afghanistan with some of those same people we are contributing to international security," he said.

Parliament will vote on whether to continue in a fighting role in the NATO-led mission beyond 2009.

Villagers blame Canadians for Afghan killings

GRAEME SMITH - Globe and Mail Update September 26, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Hundreds of protesters blocked the main highway west of Kandahar city today, claiming that foreign soldiers killed two local clerics in an overnight raid.

The Canadian military says it wasn't involved in the operation last night in Senjaray, a sprawling suburb where military convoys have often faced ambushes.

However, witnesses' vague descriptions of the troops who broke through doors in the middle of the night have led many residents to blame the Canadians. “Death to Canada, death to foreigners, death to Karzai,” a protester yelled.

House raids are always unpopular in southern Afghanistan, where violating the privacy of a home is considered a more serious affront than it is under Western traditions, and the death of two religious teachers has aggravated local reaction to the searches.

The dead men belonged to the Alizai tribe, a group already disenfranchised from the government; most of those protesting were members of the same tribe.

A resident who saw the bodies said that both men appeared to have been shot in the chest. “They are arresting and killing innocent people,” said a tribal elder who attended the protest.

Eleven nations call on Japan to renew Afghan mission

TOKYO (AFP) — Eleven nations jointly called on Japan's political opposition to drop objections to a naval mission supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan, which the new government is fighting to renew.

The call came a day after Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda promised in telephone talks with US President George W. Bush to do his best to extend the mission, which provides free fuel to coalition war jets and ships.

The opposition, saying that officially pacifist Japan should not be part of "American wars," has vowed to end the mission since taking control of one house of parliament.

In a joint statement, envoys from 11 nations said Japan "has made unique and vital contributions" to international efforts "to promote peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan."

"The members of the coalition acknowledge and greatly appreciate Japan's support in this regard and hope that Japan will continue its important contribution," the diplomats said after a meeting hosted by Pakistan.

The envoys who attended the talks included US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, who earlier met but failed to persuade Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), to extend the naval mission.

"I'm always ready to meet with Mr Ozawa. We would enjoy having a good relationship with the DPJ as we've had in the past," Schieffer told reporters at the residence of his Pakistani counterpart, Kamran Niaz.

Besides the United States and Pakistan, the joint appeal was also signed by ambassadors or senior Tokyo-based envoys from Afghanistan, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and New Zealand.

Fukuda took over as prime minister Tuesday from Shinzo Abe, who resigned after staking his job on renewing the Afghanistan mission.

Opinion polls Thursday showed that Fukuda enjoyed strong initial support and that public opinion had shifted to support extending the naval deployment.

The DPJ and a pacifist group have alleged that some of the Japanese fuel has been diverted to US ships which are part of the Iraq war.

Schieffer denied the pacifist group's report last week that Japan provided fuel in February 2003 to the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, which took part in the invasion of Iraq.

"The war in Iraq did not start until March 20... and Kitty Hawk was originally dispatched for Operation Enduring Freedom," Schieffer said, referring to the war against Afghanistan's Taliban extremists.

But Schieffer said he took the claim "seriously" and would reinvestigate.

While Japan also supported the Iraq invasion, such refueling would be illegal as Japanese legislation says the naval mission is only for the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan.

No more troops to Afghanistan, says Spain

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Monday informed President Hamid Karzai that his country would not send troops to Afghanistan.

Zapatero briefed Karzai on the decision of his government even as he condoled the death of two Spanish soldiers in western Afghanistan on Monday. "No more troops," the prime minister reiterated.

Spain has some 690 Spanish troops as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the war-torn country. With the two deaths on Monday, the number of Spanish soldiers killed has increased to 85.

At the meeting on the sidelines of the 62nd General Assembly, the Spanish prime minister is believed to have renewed the pledge of support to Afghanistan in different fields barring military.

Karzai thanked Spain for continued support. He also condoled the death of the two soldiers in Farah on Monday. Karzai said the Spanish troops had been instrumental in stabilization of the country. Lalit K. Jha

Canada should cease combat as NATO test, Liberals say

Dion says troops must withdraw in 2009 even if no other country will take over

PAUL WALDIE From Wednesday's Globe and Mail September 26, 2007

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says Canada should end its combat role in Afghanistan in 2009 even if no other NATO country is prepared to step in.

"We need to know if NATO works," he told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday. "Because otherwise other countries will be more and more reluctant to take any responsibility, because they will be afraid to be there forever."

Mr. Dion said the Afghan mission is a challenge for NATO because it marks the first time the alliance has ventured beyond its geographic base. He said a strong commitment by Canada to cease combat operations after February, 2009, will be a test of whether NATO is truly a multilateral organization.

If elected prime minister, he would pull Canadian troops out of Kandahar after February, 2009, even if that left the region without a NATO combat force, he said.

Mr. Dion said he would tell the alliance: "We're gone. We'll do something else. We're ready to work with you to see what will be our role, but the combat mission in Kandahar must be, as soon after 2009, [done] by another country or a set of other countries."

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said this week that Canada will notify NATO in April whether it will extend its combat mission in Kandahar. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also said that Parliament must approve any extension beyond 2009.

Canada has 2,500 troops stationed in southern Afghanistan as part of a NATO coalition fighting the Taliban. The area is considered one of the most dangerous parts of the country.

Mr. Dion also said that he is prepared to vote against the Harper government's Throne Speech on Oct. 16 if it fails to include clarification of the Afghanistan mission as well as a reintroduction of clean-air legislation and a plan to combat poverty.

"I cannot stand up for a Throne Speech that I think is against the interests of Canada and against the honour of Canada," he said.

Mr. Dion also defended his recent call for Canada to demand a civilian trial for terrorism suspect Omar Khadr, a Canadian who is being held in the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay.

"It's a matter of rights," Mr. Dion said. He said Canada is alone among most Western nations in not asking that its detainees be repatriated.

"What we are asking for is not to bring him [to] a Canadian court. but to bring him [to] a legitimate U.S. court."

This week a U.S. military appeal court overturned a lower court decision and ruled that a military court is the proper venue to hear Mr. Khadr's case.

When asked how he would grade his performance since winning the Liberal leadership race last year, Mr. Dion, a former university professor, gave himself an A.

He added that it was really for others to rate him, but the fact that Mr. Harper's Conservatives have not pulled away in the polls is a sign that his leadership is working.

"I would argue it's because Canadians have more confidence in our convictions and sincerity," he said, "especially they are more comfortable in my sincerity than Mr. Harper's."

In Afghanistan, Anger in Parliament Grows as President Defies Majority’s Wishes

By KIRK SEMPLE, NY Times

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 — In May, the lower house of the Afghan Parliament voted overwhelmingly to oust the country’s foreign minister on the grounds of incompetence. In a different time and place, the matter might have been over as quickly as it began.

But this is Afghanistan, still in the tense, halting infancy of a new democratic era. And more than four months after the vote, much to the anger of the parliamentary majority, the minister remains in his post, protected by the man who appointed him: President Hamid Karzai.

Mr. Karzai said the vote was illegal and motivated simply by politics. The legislators have accused the president of snubbing the Constitution and undermining the democratic foundations of the republic.

The dispute is the most serious manifestation of the long-simmering tension between the Karzai administration and the warlords and former mujahedeen in the legislature, who want more control over policy making. It threatens to bring Parliament to a halt and pitch Afghanistan into a political crisis.

Mr. Karzai’s opponents have promised to boycott Parliament unless he removes the minister, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta. In recent days, a group of more than 50 legislators, most of them members of a new opposition coalition, have threatened to quit altogether over the president’s intransigence.

“This is serious,” said Wadir Safi, a member of the faculty of law and political science at Kabul University. “It’s dangerous for the government and the nation.” The showdown, he said, is eroding whatever public confidence in the elected leadership remains.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Mr. Karzai, a member of the Pashtun majority, cast himself as a unifier of the country’s diverse political and ethnic populations, and he sought to elevate government above party politics.

During the writing of the new Constitution, he advocated a strong presidential system to break the power of the country’s warlords. The northern ethnic groups advocated a parliamentary system with a prime minister, which they hoped would break the Pashtuns’ longtime grip on power.

The presidential system — and Mr. Karzai — prevailed. “Karzai has a particular vision for dealing with government, and it doesn’t involve a big role for the legislative branch,” said a Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

But the president has long been dogged by criticism of ineffectiveness and chronic indecision. Government corruption and poppy cultivation are rampant and public services remain a wreck; food prices are soaring, unemployment remains high and resurgent Taliban forces in the south are pressing toward this capital.

As public confidence in Mr. Karzai has evaporated, opposition has escalated sharply from within the government, led by regional power brokers who feel he has marginalized them.

During his three-year interim presidency, Mr. Karzai created a cabinet that fairly reflected the country’s political and ethnic factions — including military commanders who had led the fight against the Soviet occupation and, later, the Taliban. But Mr. Karzai largely purged his second cabinet of warlords and replaced them with technocrats, shifting the balance of power in favor of Western-oriented Pashtuns like himself.

In March, a coalition of legislators and other politicians formed a sprawling coalition called the National Front. At its core were former members of the Northern Alliance, the mostly non-Pashtun resistance group that fought the Taliban. The coalition is a direct challenge to Mr. Karzai’s vision for governance: It has vowed to make a series of constitutional and electoral changes that would weaken the presidency and give more influence to political parties.

And it showed its strength in the drive to toss out Mr. Spanta, the foreign minister. A Western-educated technocrat who has shunned tribal politics, Mr. Spanta had alienated the warlords and former mujahedeen in Parliament with his opposition to a blanket amnesty for war crimes committed during Afghanistan’s three decades of conflict. His supporters say he also angered some politicians by refusing to appoint their allies and relatives to ministerial and diplomatic posts.

Last spring, Mr. Spanta and the country’s minister of refugee affairs, Ustad Akbar Akbar, were accused by many legislators of failing to stop the expulsion from Iran of about 50,000 Afghan refugees and immigrant workers. On May 10, the 248-member lower house voted to oust Mr. Akbar, according to a provision in the Constitution that allows Parliament to recall ministers. Two days later, a majority of lawmakers voted against Mr. Spanta.

Mr. Karzai accepted the resignation of the refugee affairs minister, pending the appointment of a replacement, but took the matter of the foreign minister to the Supreme Court, contending that the issue was not directly related to the Foreign Ministry. The court supported the president.

The legislators, in turn, have insisted that the court’s opinion was nonbinding. (Afghanistan does not have a constitutional court, and though the Constitution provides for a committee to supervise its “implementation,” Mr. Karzai’s government has not formed one.)

Both sides have dug in their heels. Both ministers remain in their jobs. Saleh Mohammad Registani, a member of the National Front, said he would quit Parliament unless Mr. Karzai drops Mr. Spanta. “If the executive doesn’t pay attention to our decisions, what can we do?” he asked in a recent interview. “If 60 M.P.’s resign, definitely Parliament will collapse.”

For his part, Mr. Spanta said that he had submitted his resignation “two or three times” to Mr. Karzai, but that the president had rejected it. “I’m still minister of foreign affairs,” he said in an interview. “I have the support of the president.”

The struggle could be seen as the healthy growing pains of a new democracy, some analysts say. But Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister under Mr. Karzai and a member of the Northern Alliance, said Afghanistan is too fragile to withstand this sort of political standoff.

“Somebody should put an end to it,” he said in an interview. “All of you have shown your stamina, your perseverance, your strength — or whatever you want to call it. You cannot pull the rope until it breaks.”

Afghan farmers find alternative to opium: marijuana

BALKH, Afghanistan, Sept 27 (Reuters) - As Afghanistan struggles to cut its raging opium production, aid workers try to find alternative crops, but for some former poppy farmers the choice was easy -- they planted marijuana instead.

Afghanistan' s opium crop topped all records this year, producing some 93 percent of the world's supply of the drug.

But while there has been a sharp rise in poppy production in the troubled south, the drug crop has been eliminated in a growing number of provinces in the safer north of the country.

Balkh province in the north was trumpeted as a success story -- from 7,000 hectares of poppies cultivated in 2006, it was declared opium-free in 2007 after strong local government action.

But around the ancient citadel of Balkh, in fields where pink poppy flowers stood last year, jagged green marijuana stalks poke above other crops and in places whole cannabis fields produce a pungent aroma strong enough to be picked by passing motorists.

The farmers are still cautious. "They are not my fields," said Shamseddin, surrounded by head-high cannabis plants in full flower. "I don't know who they belong to," he said, dropping a sickle to the ground and nudging it away with his foot.

Others said they only planted marijuana to shield their cotton fields from livestock or that it was just a trial crop.

"The landlords used to plant poppy, but then the government came along and destroyed the crops," said farm worker Mohammad Yassin.

"This year we planted marijuana, the dealers will come and buy the crop from us, so we'll see what we make from it. We probably won't plant any next year."

Marijuana, while not as profitable as opium, still makes more money than other legal crops.

"In order to survive and feed their families, the farmers have to cultivate marijuana," said Balkh drug squad chief Faiz Mohammad. "Other crops don't give a good profit."

Last month the United States unveiled a carrot-and-stick strategy to combat opium production. It plans to spend $25 million to $50 million in the next fiscal year to reward provinces that make significant progress against drugs.

The governor of Balkh, a former warlord, was credited for much of the success in eliminating opium in his province, but has complained he has yet to receive the promised incentives for doing so, let alone any funds for cutting back cannabis crops.

"Every year the international community announces that it is spending millions of dollars on counter-narcotics but we haven't seen a dime of that money," the Institute of War and Peace Reporting quoted governor Mohammad Atta as saying.

Balkh drugs squad chief Faiz Mohammad said his officers had made a start in informing farmers they should not plant cannabis and had requested funding from the national and local government to destroyed marijuana fields, but it had yet to arrive.

Pain relief for Afghanistan

Using Afghan opium poppies for legal medicines is an interesting idea -- but it would require real security

Brian MacDonald, Citizen Special Thursday, September 27, 2007

The rather recently arrived, but amply funded, Senlis Council has released the latest of its broadsides, promoting its "Poppy for Medicine" project, while at the same time slagging Canadian diplomacy in Afghanistan.

The striped-pants set probably shouldn't get their knickers in a knot though, since Senlis's treatment of CIDA and UNICEF was even more savage.

In fact, a fast tour through the reported e-mail exchanges between the Senlis field wallahs in Afghanistan and the local offices of CIDA and UNICEF suggests it's unlikely that anybody in Senlis has ever read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People.

That may be a pity, for the key elements of the Senlis Council's proposal for a pilot project to test the feasibility of "Poppy for Medicine" may actually be worth a look.

In a nutshell, Senlis proposes that small groups of Afghan villages be granted the authority to grow opium poppy for conversion locally into medical opiates for export to satisfy Third-World requirements for medical pain relief.

Technologically feasible? Maybe.

A recent study for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), titled "Documentation of a heroin manufacturing process in Afghanistan," records the steps by which "white heroin hydrochloride (is) produced using simple equipment and a small quantity of chemicals."

Setting aside for a moment questions of purity and quality control, and economics, one is left with the implicit premise that if criminal-grade heroin can be produced locally, why not try a pilot project to see if it might be possible to produce medical grade morphine, or codeine, or other medical opiates.

However, an overarching concern of such bodies as UNODC and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which are tasked to oversee the administration of the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its follow-on conventions, is the potential for diversion of medical opiates into the criminal drug distribution networks.

Thus, the existing small poppy producer programs in Turkey and India, authorized by the INCB to grow poppy for the production of medical opiates, depend heavily on close supervision of the farmers by Turkish and Indian government agencies who buy the crop, backed up by the honest and sternly reliable Turkish and Indian armies.

So, how does Senlis propose to achieve a Turkish/Indian level of control of licensed poppy production in order to avoid diversion into the criminal stream?

Senlis makes a unique proposal to rely, not on the Afghan National Army (or especially the Afghan National Police) but rather upon the traditional Afghan social control structures to be found in the village shuras -- described by Senlis as "community-level governance structures which strictly enforce social norms and behaviour at all levels of social and economic interaction in rural Afghan communities, through the principle of collective responsibility."

However, the "correlation of forces" (to use that old but useful Cold War term) between the criminal drug traders on the one hand, and the village elders of the shuras on the other, seems rather similar to the "facts on the ground" of Al Capone's South Side in the Chicago of the 1920s, with the key difference being the substitution of the ubiquitous AK-47 for the equally ubiquitous Thompson sub-machine gun -- the "Chicago Piano" so favoured by Capone and his mob.

Thus, without the firepower of the Canadian Battle Group to protect it, the "Poppy for Medicine" pilot project in Kandahar won't get off the ground.

It isn't surprising, therefore, that Senlis argues that the Canadians must remain in Kandahar past the end of the current mission in 2009.

Senlis president, Canadian lawyer Norine MacDonald, on the Sept. 24 release of their new study, "The Canadian Government Must Develop Fast Track Approach to Peace in Afghanistan," put it bluntly:

"We have to stay until the job is done. To leave before we have brought peace to the people of Afghanistan not only endangers Canada's own security for generations to come, it would be throwing away the commitment of resources and sacrifices -- including lives -- that we have made in Afghanistan. Pulling out before achieving victory is tantamount to giving Southern Afghanistan back to the Taliban and al-Qaeda."

"Poppy for Medicine" as a joint project of Senlis and the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, protected by the Canadian Battle Group in Kandahar post 2009?

Worth a look, maybe?

Maybe.

Colonel (ret'd) Brian MacDonald is senior defence analyst at the Conference of Defence Associations.

We're losing in Afghanistan too

Contra Donald Rumsfeld's rosy assessment, the country looks a lot like it did on Sept. 10, 2001. By John Kiriakou and Richard Klein – Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2007

Former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld says in the current edition of GQ magazine that the war in Afghanistan has been "a big success," with people living in freedom and life "improved on the streets."

To anyone working in the country, there is only one possible, informed response: What Afghanistan is the man talking about?

In reality, Afghanistan -- former Taliban stronghold, Al Qaeda haven and warlord-cum-heroin-smuggler finishing school -- feels more and more like Sept. 10, 2001, than a victory in the U.S. war on terrorism.

The country is, plain and simple, a mess. Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies have quietly regained territory, rendering wide swaths of the country off-limits to U.S. and Afghan forces, international aid workers and even journalists. Violent attacks against Western interests are routine. Even Kabul, which the White House has held up as a postcard for what is possible in Afghanistan, has become so dangerous that foreign embassies are in states of lockdown, diplomats do not leave their offices, and venturing beyond security perimeters requires daylight-only travel, armored vehicles, Kevlar and armed escorts.

Fear reigns among average Afghans in Kabul. Street crime, virtually unheard of in Afghan culture, has increased dramatically over the last three years as angry, unemployed and often radicalized young men settle scores with members of other tribes and clans, steal and rob to feed their families and vent their frustration with a government that appears powerless to help them. Taking a chance by eating in one of Kabul's handful of restaurants or going shopping in one of the few markets left is a new version of Russian roulette.

For U.S. officials and diplomats, Kabul is simply a prison. Embassies are completely closed to vehicular and even foot traffic. Indeed, at the American Embassy, the consular section issues visas only to Afghan government officials. If an average Afghan wants a visa to the U.S., he or she must travel to Islamabad, Pakistan, to apply. To allow Afghans to stand in line for visas at the embassy in Kabul would invite terrorist attacks or attract suicide bombers.

Consider that an American Embassy staffer going to the U.S. Agency for International Development office across the street is required to use an underground tunnel that links the two compounds. Even though the street is closed to all traffic other than official U.S. or U.N. vehicles and is patrolled and guarded by armored personnel carriers, tanks and Kalashnikov-carrying security personnel with a safety perimeter of several blocks, the risk from snipers, mortars or grenades is ever present.

Working in Supermax Afghanistan makes the USAID's performance all the more heroic. Since 2003, the agency has overseen the investment of more than $4 billion in Afghanistan, has built more than 500 schools and an equal number of clinics and has paved more than 1,000 miles of roads, all while suffering about 130 casualties at the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

By some measures, Afghanistan should be a feel-good story by now -- the Taliban is, officially at least, out of power, Al Qaeda has been chased to the wilds of the Afghan-Pakistani border and U.S. forces are on hand to consolidate and solidify a peaceful new order.

But the truth is very different. By any measure, this remains a "hot" war with a well-armed, motivated and organized enemy. Village by village, tribe by tribe and province by province, Al Qaeda is coming back, enforcing a form of Islamic life and faith rooted in the 12th century, intimidating reformers, exacting revenge and funding itself with dollars from massive poppy cultivation and heroin smuggling. As Al Qaeda reestablishes itself, Osama bin Laden remains free to send video messages and serve as an ideological beacon to jihadis worldwide. The country's president, Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, is in effect little more than the mayor of Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan is a political and military one-step-forward-two-steps-back exercise. The work there isn't just unfinished, it is more dangerous and less certain than policymakers in Washington and talking heads in New York studios can imagine. Those suggesting otherwise are either naive or flacking a political agenda.

John Kiriakou, now in the private sector, served as a CIA counter-terrorism official from 1998 to 2004 and recently returned from Afghanistan. Richard Klein, a former State Department official, is managing director for the Middle East and Arabian Gulf at Kissinger McLarty Associates in Washington.

Afghanistan: Children share deprivations of imprisoned mothers

KABUL, 27 Sept. (AKI) - Source IRIN - Fatima (not her real name) lives with her mother and a younger brother in Pul-e Charkhi prison, in the eastern outskirts of Kabul.

The 12-year-old was first brought to the prison four years ago, after a court sentenced her mother to 11 years' jail for murdering her husband.

"There are six women and seven children living with us in a single cell," complained Fatima, who added that she finds it annoying living with “those naughty kids”.

Unlike other children in Kabul, both Fatima and her brother are deprived of an education, because there is no school in Pul-e Charkhi prison, Afghanistan' s biggest jail.

"I dream of being able to go to school just like other girls," she said.

Fatima's education prospects are grim. In the absence of a male guardian outside the prison, both children are likely to stay with their mother until she is released in 2014. It is unusual for a young woman to live alone in traditional Afghani society.

According to Afghanistan' s criminal code, children who stay with an imprisoned guardian must have access to education.

In practice, however, the country cannot implement this legal provision due to the shortage of resources, officials acknowledge.

Over 60 children are currently living with female prisoners in Pul-e Charkhi prison, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which runs prisons in the country, told IRIN.

Children who live with their parents in prisons are currently entitled to a single food regime available for all prisoners. MoJ officials say a three-meals- a-day routine is in place in Pul-e Charkhi jail which provides sufficient nutrition for an adult.

However, according to a report published in August by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the prison food regime does not meet the nutritional requirements for children's physical and mental growth.

The report entitled Afghanistan: Female Prisoners and Their Social Integration highlighted problems of pregnant women who, in addition to nutritional deficiencies, also suffered from lack of health care.

"They [imprisoned women and their children] can receive no specialist health care or education, due to acute resource problems," said the report.

To mitigate the hardship for the incarcerated children a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Afghan Women’s Education Centre (AWEC), has set up a kindergarten in Pul-e Charkhi prison where children receive preschool training to build their cognitive skills.

AWEC also provides basic health services for pregnant women and children suffering minor illnesses.

The NGO’s services could not be relied upon indefinitely as it was dependent on donor funds, observers said.

NGOs working in Pul-e Charkhi prison who prefer anonymity due to the sensitivity of their work, say almost all children have been affected psychologically by the prison environment.

"They [children] do not concentrate in the kindergarten and show clear signs of obsession," said one aid worker who works with prison children.

The UNODC findings confirm the existence of a number of issues stemming from the prison’s environment which are considered unsuitable for the upbringing of children, particularly their health, social, educational and emotional development.

"Research has also indicated that the children of imprisoned mothers may be at greater risk of future incarceration themselves," the report said.

Afghanistan requires ample resources, institutional and legal reforms and generous international assistance to end the deprivation and suffering of children in prisons.

NGOs such as AWEC are advocating that legal measures be adopted which ban the imprisonment of pregnant women until at least six months after delivery, unless an extremely serious crime has been committed.

Others call on the international donor community to help the Afghan authorities construct schools, nurseries and other facilities adjacent to Pul-e Charkhi and other big prisons around the country.

An elusive quest for justice in Afghanistan

Asia Times, 09/27/2007 By Aunohita Mojumdar

KABUL - Afghanistan's latest National Human Development Report has called for a new and hybrid justice system that will bring together modern formal justice systems and the local traditional shuras and jirgas that have functioned as dispute-resolution mechanisms.

The proposal for a collaborative model is a radical departure from the current efforts to expand the reach of the modern formal justice system, an effort that has met with limited success so far. The differences in the two justice systems, both in law and in principle, are also likely to stir up some controversy, especially among purists.

Proposing the launch of a pilot project of the hybrid model in five provinces by mid-2008, the report, released on Wednesday, argues that the current formal justice system does not reach the majority of Afghans, with more than 80% of the cases throughout Afghanistan settled through traditional decision-making assemblies. By acting in isolation, state and non-state institutions of justice are missing an opportunity to improve the delivery of justice significantly, the report states.

The justice sector is an area that is commonly accepted to have lagged far behind others in the efforts at reconstruction of the country. Despite sporadic efforts at reform, the changes have not been far-reaching. Severe constraints in capacity, including basic training and education of judicial staff, have severely hampered uniform delivery of justice through the formal court systems, and public perception of corruption of the courts is also high.

The report notes this, saying the judiciary suffers from severe deficiencies: "Most judges cannot access legal textbooks, procedures and practices." Only a little more than half of the judges (in a random survey) were holders of university degrees in law or sharia. "Allegations of corruption within the formal justice system have tarnished its legitimacy and made the informal justice sector more appealing in the eyes of the many citizens."

The formal court system, however, does represent Afghanistan's attempts to evolve a secular interpretation of law, based on international law and Western jurisprudence, elements that are missing in some aspects of the traditional justice system.

The traditional mechanism relies on customary law, or orf, that is delivered through the shuras or jirgas to settle disputes. The customary law varies according to region and ethnic group. While the main principle of customary law is to restore balance and order in a community, this order can sometimes be achieved by means that are considered to be brutal or violative of internationally recognized principles of humanitarian and human rights laws.

"Although the restorative aspect is a positive concept in itself, the way crimes and disputes are settled has an extremely harmful impact on the lives of women," a recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime states.

Baad, for example is identified as one of the four main principles of justice applied by traditional jirgas and shuras by the report. It "gives" a woman from the family of the accused to the victim's family as compensation. Though the underlying principle may be to create family ties and resolve the dispute, the outcome is the barter of a woman as a commodity. Other practices such as badal, forced marriages to settle disputes and forcing a widow to marry someone from her husband's family, however unsuitable, are part of the customary practices.

The report points out that such practices as baad are of serious concern and adds, "Women are almost totally excluded from participating in the decision-making of jirgas/shuras, resulting in serious consequences for their status and the protection of their rights."

The report argues that the hybrid model will harness the positive aspects of non-state dispute-settlement institutions while ensuring that their decisions are compatible with the Afghan constitution, Afghan laws and international human-rights standards. The report argues that unlike the state justice system, which creates winners and losers, the jirgas/shuras reach community-led decisions that promote restorative justice, helping to restore peace and dignity among the victims, offenders and other key stakeholders.

While arguing that the proposed collaborative system would make justice more widely accessible, efficient, cost-effective and humane, the report recognizes the challenge of reconciling inherent tensions between the formal and informal justice system while nurturing the respective strengths of these sometimes competing and conflicting approaches to the rule of law.

Though the proposal of the hybrid model is likely to evoke some controversy, what is undisputed is the urgent need for justice-sector reform and justice delivery systems. The judicial system is a first line of defense to many social ills in any democracy, especially in war-ravaged societies. The report's data on human development indices paint a dismal picture, showing that Afghanistan's human-development indicators are actually lower than earlier assessments.

The National Human Development Report for 2007, the second since the ouster of the Taliban, reveals a literacy rate of 23.5%, down from the 2004 assessment, which put it at 28.7%. Life expectancy is also lower at 43.1 years compared with the estimated 44.5 in 2004, according to the report released by President Hamid Karzai in New York on Wednesday. (The 2004 National Human Development Report was based on data collected in 2003, while the latest one is based on data collected in 2005-06.)

Analysts familiar with the figures, however, caution that no comparison should be made with the earlier-cited figures, since the methodology used is significantly different. Aiso Vas, technical adviser to the Ministry of Rural Development and the Central Statistical Organization of Afghanistan, which jointly carried out the National Risk and Vulnerability Survey of 2005, the basis for much of the report, is emphatic on this point, saying the sampling frame has changed.

Collection of data is difficult in Afghanistan, which has yet to see its first fully fledged census. Notwithstanding the risks of comparison, the current data reveal that Afghanistan remains among the poorest countries in the world, despite billions of dollars in aid over the past six years.

Positive trends in the report include an increase in gross domestic product and a drop in infant mortality, which has fallen from 165 to 135 per 1,000 live births, though maternal mortality figures remain constant at 1,600 per 100,000 live births.

The report also refers to another area of major concern, the increase in violence. In 2006 alone, it points out, the number of civilian deaths was twice as many as in 2005. Vested criminal interests preclude the Afghan judiciary from operating independently, free of intimidation and in accordance with the constitution and international human-rights standards.

The report states that a climate of impunity still prevails in Afghanistan and political resistance within the government and other state institutions to address past human-rights violations and war crimes persists.

"The judiciary, police and legislature are failing in their mission to meet the changing needs of Afghan citizens. Under-resourced with a limited reach, the formal state institutions of justice require a renewed and more coherent strengthening and restructuring effort," the report states.

Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian journalist who is currently based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for 16 years and has covered the Kashmir conflict and post-conflict situation in Punjab extensively.

The sun delivers water

Drinking water supply in Afghanistan

Source: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ)

Date: 13 Sep 2007

What seems a contradiction at first glance is a reality in Badashkhan Province in north-eastern Afghanistan. One pump, powered by electricity from 39 solar modules, delivers fresh water for up to 12 hours every day. "Now the 450 families in the village of Kushka Dara finally have drinking water," says Jörg Yoder from GTZ’s Development-Oriented Emergency Aid team. GTZ is supporting the project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

"We had to be pretty creative in this barren area," continues Yoder. One spring in the mountains near the village did not yield enough water and actually belonged to another village. Even drilling down to a depth of 60 metres produced not even a drop of water. "Only when we started looking for water in the valley with a divining rod did we find any," remembers Yoder. Now, the team had to build a shaft well, a 30 cubic metre reservoir in the village around 650 metres away and a main pipe with a pump to overcome the 70 metre difference in altitude. A 2.5 km circular pipeline with 17 tap connections now supplies water to the around 3,500 inhabitants of the village.

"The system is even eco-friendly," emphasises Jörg Yoder. Thanks to the solar modules and advice from GTZ’s renewable energy team the water reaches the village up the hill climate neutrally. Another advantage is that the pump requires little maintenance and has a long life. The villagers have already set up a fund to which each family contributes the equivalent of around 30 euro cents every month to keep the system running. The alternative would have been a diesel-powered generator with a shorter life and higher maintenance requirements. "The water supply system in Kushka Dara is a good example of how innovative technologies can be used in Afghanistan, too," concludes Yoder.

[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.]