In this bulletin:

• New efforts to free Red Cross workers in Afghanistan
• One of kidnapped engineers killed, say Taliban
• Senior officials linked to drug smuggling: Afghan VP
• Tougher NATO line sought on Afghan drugs
• NDP claims "deeply offensive:" former Afghan Chief of Staff
• Canada defends policy on Afghan clans
• Canadians won't pay Afghan cleric 'bribe'
• U.S. fire scatters crowd after Afghan bomb
• Tougher Taliban in western Uruzgan
• Thousands flee Taliban, aerial bombing in south
• By Matthew Moore and agencies
• Stable Afghanistan Vital to Central Asia, Europe, United States
• Karzai touts Afghan investment climate
• Afghan models reveal the beauty under the burqa
• Life and Death in Party City

New efforts to free Red Cross workers in Afghanistan

Ghazni (AFP) - Negotiators were in touch Friday with the captors of four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, who were held in Afghanistan during a mission to free a German kidnapped by the Taliban.

Contact had been made with the group that seized the men on Wednesday in the province of Wardak, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kabul, and military action had been ruled out to free the men, an Afghan official told AFP.

"The Red Cross office advised us not use any military action for the safety of the kidnapped people and the issue must be solved via mediation through tribal elders," said the governor of Sayed Abad district where they were taken.

"We are in contact with the kidnappers via tribal elders and influentials," governor Anayatullah Mangal said. Mangal has said previously it was not clear who was holding the four.

The Red Cross workers did not return to Kabul on Wednesday after their mission in Wardak, where the 62-year-old German engineer and five Afghans were captured 10 weeks ago.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not say they have been kidnapped but that they had been detained and were expected to be freed soon.

Besides the two Afghans, one of the men was from Myanmar and another from Macedonia, it said.

"We are in contact with all the involved parties," spokeswoman Graziella Leite Piccolo said in Kabul. An "armed group" was involved in the abduction, she said, without elaborating.

The incident comes after a string of abductions of foreigners in Afghanistan, some claimed by the insurgent Taliban movement and some blamed on criminals seeking ransom.

The Taliban reiterated Friday that it was not involved in the disappearance of the Red Cross staff.

A man identifying himself as the group's main spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, said: "This is not our work. I cannot say anything at this stage who might have done it."

The Afghan government said Thursday it had captured Ahmadi but there was some doubt they had the right man. A man who sounded like Ahmadi called media to say he was still free.

The ICRC has played crucial roles in facilitating the release of some of the Taliban's other hostages, including 21 South Korean Christian aid workers captured mid-July and released in August.

The 21 were freed after talks between the rebels and Seoul that were facilitated by the Red Cross. Before the negotiations, the Taliban killed two other South Korean hostages.

The insurgent movement, which was in government until late 2001, said afterwards it would kidnap more foreign nationals as abductions were an effective way to pressure the Afghan government and its international allies.

A Bangladeshi national with a development organisation was abducted in Logar province, adjoining Wardak and Kabul provinces, on September 15 and has not been released.

The Taliban have not claimed involvement and his captors appear to be criminals after ransom.

Afghan police announced Friday, meanwhile, that they had freed two employees of the government's rural development ministry who were abducted in the southern province of Nimroz with their driver 15 days ago.

Counter-terrorism police had "put pressure" on the kidnappers through local leaders and were able to arrest five people involved in the kidnapping, Nimroz province police chief Mohammad Daud Askaryar said.

Attacks by Taliban increase, approach Afghanistan capital

Seen capitalizing on public concern, weak government

By John Ward Anderson, Washington Post, September 28, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - Preying on a weak government and rising public concerns about security, the Taliban are enjoying a military resurgence in Afghanistan and are now staging attacks just outside the capital, according to Western diplomats, private security analysts, and aid workers.

Of particular concern, private security and intelligence analysts said, is the new reach of the Taliban to the provinces ringing Kabul, headquarters for thousands of international security troops. Those troops are seeking to shore up the government of President Hamid Karzai, help stabilize the country, find Osama bin Laden, and rebuild a nation deeply scarred by almost three decades of warfare. So far, they have had only mixed success.

"The Taliban ability to sustain fighting cells north and south of Kabul is an ominous development and a significant lapse in security," said a recent analysis by NightWatch, an intelligence review written by John McCreary, a former top analyst at the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

While the number of attacks around the capital has been small compared with the number of attacks in other areas of the country, McCreary wrote, the data showed that the Taliban this summer "held the psychological initiative. They still lack the ability to threaten the government, but moved closer to achieving it than they have in six years."

Analyses by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a project funded by the European Commission to advise private aid groups about security conditions across the country, found "a significant monthly escalation in conflict" in the first half of the year. Attacks by armed opposition groups increased from 139 in January to 405 in July, according to the project's director, Nic Lee.

"Every month there's a 20 to 25 percent increase in offensive activity," he said, adding that attacks in June and July were 80 percent to 90 percent higher than in the same period last year, showing a general escalation in the conflict, rather than seasonal fluctuations.

"Attacks have spread across the entire southeast border area, with a rapid escalation in the east, and in the last four months in the center" around Kabul as well, Lee said. "These guys have the strategic intent to take back the country."

NATO and US officials have not released their own statistics about attack trends, but they dispute the notion that the Taliban are significantly expanding operations from their traditional base in the south or that Afghanistan is sliding backward.

US Army General Dan K. McNeill, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said much of the activity attributed to the Taliban and other militant groups probably was not part of the antigovernment insurgency, but probably was related to criminal activity, narcotics trafficking, and tribal disputes. And in some cases, he said, levels of conflict are up because more NATO, US, and Afghan forces are pushing into areas of the country where they had never operated. There are an estimated 50,000 international troops Afghanistan, about half of them American.

"Logic tells you the number of incidents you report are going to be increased," he said.

The Taliban's use of guerrilla warfare tactics - particularly suicide attacks and roadside bombings - is on the rise, largely because the insurgents cannot challenge foreign security forces through conventional means, McNeill said. About 60 percent of Afghanistan - a country slightly smaller than Texas and with 32 million people - experiences on average less than one significant security event a week, he said, although "the south and the east are clearly exceptions."

The rise in attacks reflects "acts of desperation," said Humayun Hamidzada, the spokesman for Karzai. "If you go and blow up 20 civilians, what does it show? Does it show strength? It shows their weakness. It's no resurgence. It's just showing who they really are."

The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and promulgated a harsh and often unorthodox brand of Islamic law. The group intimidated and brutalized citizens, particularly women, destroyed Afghan culture, isolated the country internationally, and allowed it to become a base for bin Laden and Al Qaeda, which planned out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, in part, from camps in Afghanistan.

Following the attacks, US-led forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban, and began an intense manhunt for bin Laden, who remains at large.

In the aftermath of the invasion, senior American, Afghan, and Pakistani officials described the Taliban as a spent force. Today, that assessment is widely doubted.

"The question is, were they ever defeated, and I don't think they ever were," McNeill said.

Many analysts say they believe the Taliban continue to draw support from elements in Pakistan, an assertion hotly disputed by the government in Islamabad. The consensus among independent intelligence analysts is that the Taliban leadership is headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan.

One of kidnapped engineers killed, say Taliban

KANDAHAR CITY, Sept 27 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - One of the four engineers and doctors kidnapped in the southern Zabul province has been killed, a Taliban commander said late Thursday.

The engineer was killed yesterday, said the militant commander, who did not cite any reason for the slaying. The source, in an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, refused to answer queries as to the fate of the remaining captives.

Gulab Shah Alikhel, secretary to the Zabul governor, confirmed the engineer had been kidnapped on Wednesday from the Peace Bridge locality near Qalat. He said efforts were on to recover the remaining kidnappees.

Senior officials linked to drug smuggling: Afghan VP

KABUL, Sept 27 - (Pajhwok Afghan News) - The burgeoning drug commerce would be hard to rein in if high-ranking government officials involved in narcotics smuggling were not prosecuted, a senior official warned on Thursday.

First Vice-President Ahmad Zia Masood, addressing a ceremony that marked the opening of a Counter-Narcotics Police complex, said: "We should admit that some top-ranking government officials are unfortunately linked to the smuggling of drugs."

In addition to their complicity in the illegal trade, Masood pointed to increasing corruption in almost all government departments. Together, he reasoned, the twin problems led to an unprecedented rise in opium production in Afghanistan this year.

"The government should take stringent measures against those involved in drug smuggling," stressed the vice-president, who alleged some district chiefs - supported by governors and other powerful quarters - were hand in glove with poppy farmers.

Masood opined support to the Afghan government from the international community in combating the drugs scourge had failed to produce the desired results. "On our part, it is self-deceptive and illogical to arm 200-300 policemen with sticks and task them with eradicating poppy fields."

The complex, constructed at the cost of $18 million provided by the US and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is spread over 22.5 acres in Qasbi area of Kabul. France too has contributed to the centre constructed in two years.

Speaking on the occasion, Drugs Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Karen P. Tandy observed Afghanistan's war on narcotic smugglers and poppy farmers began from the newly-built complex.

"This police force will combat elements intent upon destroying peace in Afghanistan and posing a threat to the whole world," she remarked, describing drug smuggling and terrorist as intertwined issues.

Tougher NATO line sought on Afghan drugs

By Mark John - SANGIN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The abandoned villa of a Helmand province drugs baron may seem an odd venue to plot tactics to combat Afghanistan's opium trade.

Local lore tells of the Russian dancing girls who entertained its owner before he gave up partying and fled the British forces who since last year have used the villa as one of their bases in the country's drugs heartland.

Now alliance soldiers and diplomats gather round its emptied swimming pool to discuss a push by the United States and Britain for NATO to put more of its muscle into stemming a drugs industry they say has become a cash cow for insurgents.

"Counter-narcotics enforcement has not been front and centre. It has to be blended with military intelligence," Karen Tandy, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said of patchy efforts by local authorities and Western backers so far to rein in a trade which permeates Afghan society.

"More needs to be done to target traffickers. Interdict them and you cut off a chunk of funding to the insurgents," she said during a visit by NATO officials to Sangin, the southern Afghan town notorious as an opium trading centre.

The United States and Britain want the alliance's 40,000 peacekeepers in the country to provide more of the vital intelligence, transport and security back-up needed to help under-resourced Afghan officials arrest drug kingpins.

The proposal will mean NATO getting more closely involved in so-called interdiction and is deeply sensitive in the 26-nation alliance, which has played a low-key role in counter-narcotics for fear of turning Afghan public opinion against its soldiers.

But with a U.N. report last month naming Afghanistan as the largest drugs producer since 19th century China, and Western concerns about a growing nexus between drugs traffickers and insurgents, pressure had been building for a change of stance.

"We are seeing more and more linkage with the insurgents. We are heading towards a narco-terror situation," said NATO's top commander of operations U.S. General John Craddock, adding he would personally raise the issue of a greater NATO role.

August's report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime showed the area of Afghan land where opium poppies are grown rose 17 percent to 193,000 hectares this year, reflecting a failure of local and British-led international efforts so far to stem the trade.

Britain argues the report masked progress in the west and north, but that the violent insurgency in south Afghanistan has hampered the effort in provinces such as Helmand -- which by itself counts as the world's top opium producer.

Backers of a tougher stance insist that counter-narcotics operations could remain under Afghan leadership and that there would be no NATO role in eradication of poppies against the wishes of local farmers.

"What frightens some allies is the thought of NATO soldiers tearing up poppy plants. That is not what we are talking about here," said one senior NATO diplomat.

High-profile prosecutions of those traffickers would act as a deterrent and benefit the tarnished image of Afghan justice, widely perceived as marred by corruption, runs the argument.

Moreover by targeting traffickers who cream off the profits rather than the poppy farmers at the bottom of the supply chain, there is less risk of alienating local populations such as those in Sangin where poppy-growing is widely considered normal.

"They don't see it as wrong," said one soldier at the Sangin base of local perceptions to opium poppy. "Trying to convince farmers not to grow poppy would be like asking farmers in the Midwest (of the United States) not to grow wheat."

Other NATO nations will need convincing that a bigger role in interdiction operations will not suck up already scarce equipment, such as the helicopters and air transport that are vital to standard military operations in Afghanistan.

"It's possible you start competing for your assets," said Major General Frederik Meulman, an officer in the Dutch ISAF contingent.

In a first ISAF role in an interdiction operation, over 100 German troops provided air transport and security for Afghan and DEA agents to raid premises in the north Kunduz province in June, yielding arrests of two suspected drugs ringleaders.

Tandy acknowledged such operations take up NATO resources, but argued the pay-off was less violence to deal with.

NDP claims "deeply offensive:" former Afghan Chief of Staff

Hamid Karzai's former chief of staff demands a retraction from the NDP following the party's claim that the Canadian military penned a speech given by the Afghan president

Kate Lunau | Macleans.ca, Sep 27, 2007

Denouncing recent allegations by the NDP as "baseless" and "deeply offensive," the Afghan president's former chief of staff is to send a letter to party leadership calling for a retraction, according to Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada Omar Samad.

The letter, which Samad told Macleans.ca will be sent "within the next day or two," follows accusations from the NDP that the Canadian military penned a speech given by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Canadian Parliament on Sept. 22, 2006. In the speech, Karzai praised the Canadian military effort in Afghanistan, and denounced NDP leader Jack Layton for his opposition to the mission.

Jawad Ludin, who was Karzai's chief of staff at the time the speech was given and is now the ambassador to Norway, wrote the letter to the NDP. The letter will not be publicly available, Samad said. He noted that Ludin "was responsible for putting [the speech] together with the help of Afghan diplomats and senior advisors." While preparing the speech, Ludin requested statistics on the Canadian military presence and development aid to Afghanistan, Samad said.

In an interview with Macleans.ca, Samad reiterated his outrage at the NDP's allegations. "My initial reaction was to laugh about this, and then to feel somewhat insulted," Samad said. "I hope the NDP realizes they have jumped to a conclusion that is not accurate, and there may also have been some inaccuracy in the report they saw."

Karzai reviewed the speech in question several times before delivering it before Parliament, and at times spoke spontaneously without referring to his notes, Samad said.

"There is a lot of bilateral discussion that goes on prior to an important visit, or a speech or communiqué," Samad emphasized. "To say that some raw data or statistics being given constitutes writing a speech is far-fetched."

Canada defends policy on Afghan clans

GRAEME SMITH - From Friday's Globe and Mail September 28, 2007

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Canada will not immediately try to douse the anger that flared up this week in a village near Kandahar city after two religious teachers were killed in their homes, a military officer says, in a case that reveals the way Canadian forces are handling rebellious tribes.

The raid by foreign soldiers that left two mullahs dead on Wednesday was only the latest reason for upset in the village of Senjaray, a suburb of Kandahar city. Almost all of the people who protested in the hours afterward were members of the Alizai tribe, a group that often feels disenfranchised by the new government. They claim they're denied reconstruction projects and shut out of positions of influence in the local administration.

A Canadian official confirmed yesterday that some of the Alizais' complaints have a factual basis. Villages considered hostile to the government are shut out of assistance programs in the hope they will become more compliant, and that policy won't change just because the Alizais are shouting “death to Canada” in the streets, said Lieutenant Derrick Farnham, a civilian-military liaison officer at Canadian headquarters in Kandahar.

“We try very hard not to be reactionary, to go and quell anger and solve it immediately,” Lt. Farnham said. “That's something that has been done in the past, and it's been termed the ‘great game' in Afghanistan, where locals play one side off the other in terms of getting treats and gifts, and that's something we want to avoid.”

The Canadian civilian-military co-operation unit, known as Cimic, is responsible for handing out valuable reconstruction contracts, and the bundles of cash often represent the first benefits of government control that villagers experience after the Taliban have been driven away.

The Cimic team has mapped the districts west of Kandahar according to their alignment with the government and concentrated on helping villages that seem most eager to co-operate, Lt. Farnham said, on the theory that disgruntled villages will envy the money dished out to their pro-government neighbours and try to emulate them.

This strategy of reinforcing good behaviour runs against the historical methods that foreign powers have used to subdue the restive tribes of Afghanistan, the lieutenant said. The British and the Soviets both tried to buy off their enemies, he said, but the benefits didn't last and both empires eventually failed to secure the country.

“We don't want to be in a situation where we're just seen as bribing people who have a grudge against us,” he said.

“When we make progress, it's sometimes described as glacial. It can't be fast, and it probably wouldn't be best to be fast. It has to be small steps that are steadily forward.” He acknowledged that the Canadian strategy might aggravate anti-government sentiment among some tribesmen, but added that it's impractical to launch projects in areas where they're not welcome.

“It may harden attitudes,” he said. “But we are not invited into many areas. We have tried to go into some areas, we have tried to do development there, but we're not wanted.” Besides projects, the Canadians can also help by listening to villagers' concerns, he added.

“Just giving them a forum can really count,” Lt. Farnham said, although he said he isn't aware of any plans to hold meetings with the people who protested this week.

The protests have set back Canadian attempts to build trust among the people who live near a strategic stretch of highway outside Kandahar city, another military official said.

“You can build it [confidence] for 100 days and in one afternoon you can lose it all,” he said.

Canadians won't pay Afghan cleric 'bribe'

September 28, 2007 - Bruce Campion-Smith , OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan–Canadian officials have moved quickly to assure Afghan officials that their troops played no part in this week's shooting deaths of a local religious leader and his brother.

But military officers say they won't rush to use development projects to appease simmering public anger over the deaths, which prompted some 500 Afghans to block a highway west of here Wednesday.

"We don't want to be in a situation where we're seen as just bribing people who have a grudge against us," said Lieut. Derrick Farnham, a Canadian who works with the civil-military team on reconstruction.

"That's something that's been done in the past and it's been termed the great game in Afghanistan where locals play one side off the other in terms of getting treats and gifts. That's something we want to avoid," he said.

"There's been too long a history in Afghanistan or giving things and doing projects to try and solve problems. That's not the goal at all. It's to re-establish a country and make it work by itself."

Tensions have been running high since Tuesday when residents say foreign soldiers killed the two men during house raids in Senjaray, a community west of Kandahar.

A Canadian official said the two men were Taliban insurgents.Still, the deaths prompted a rare public demonstration as residents blocked a main highway. Chanting "death to Canada" and "death to foreigners," they called for international troops to be sent home.

"I can assure you that no Canadian force was involved in that operation," one military official said yesterday. "Right now we're talking to the governor to explain to him that it was not a Canadian operation."

Despite Canadian denials, the family of the dead men demanded that amends be made. "My cousins are killed illogically," Abdul Hai, 25, said yesterday. "They must be given compensation."

An area elder said the family should receive land or money for the deaths.

"There are 18 family members left at the same house, including children and women," said Qudratullah, 39. "Only one man remains at the family to feed the family, so that makes no sense that one man can feed the 18 family members."

The Senjaray neighbourhood is in Zhari district, a traditional home for Taliban activity. Because it doesn't support the government, it's lost out on lucrative redevelopment contracts.

"We don't have good access to the side that doesn't want us there. We operate fairly well in that half of the district that wants us. And we want to help them," Farnham said.

But he said when those in the disenchanted district see improvements happening elsewhere, they'll get "jealous" and seek help. "Our response will easily be ... let us help you," he said.

Still, he conceded that the lack of opportunities might harden attitudes among those residents. "But we are not invited in to many areas. We have tried to do development there. We're not wanted."

Farnham admitted the simmering public anger – and the problems that produce them – won't be so easily settled. "There's been good reason to be disenchanted with Afghanistan for 30 years and it's not something we can solve overnight," he said.

"There's been 30 years of revolts and fighting. To think that it's going to end just because we're here is not reasonable. There are going to be problems no matter what we do. We're going to try and minimize the problems."

Meanwhile, two Canadian soldiers are recovering in hospital after being wounded yesterday during a morning firefight with insurgents in the Panjwaii district.

One soldier was shot in the leg; the other suffered shrapnel wounds from a rocket-propelled grenade. They were evacuated to the medical facility at the Kandahar airfield, where they were in stable condition last night. It's expected one soldier will be taken to Landstuhl, Germany for further treatment.

The action happened in an area west of Ma'sum Ghar where Canadians conducted an offensive Monday to retake territory for a police substation.

As a result of operations over the last several weeks to reinforce territory and establish these new stations, a pocket of Taliban insurgents are now surrounded in Zhari district. Canadians are hoping they'll lay down their weapons.

Getting ragtag Afghan National Police into shape - Canada's exit strategy

PULCHAKAN, Afghanistan - Mohammad Haq pulls up the sleeve of his black shalwar kameez to show the scar from a Taliban bullet. He has another on his right temple, one on his abdomen and another on his back.

Haq, 26, is an Afghan National policeman and he's one of the lucky ones. He's alive. He also appears to be stoned on a hot afternoon at the Pulchakan police substation.

Drug use is a known problem among the Afghan police, a ragtag bunch with many other shortcomings. Yet they are a cornerstone of Canada's exit strategy from this war-torn land.

In military talk, the Afghan National Police have a problem with "survivability." It means they're dying and in great numbers.

The Pulchakan police substation is in the Zhari district of Kandahar, heartland of the Taliban and a place where 33 Afghan police were killed by insurgents this summer.

In July alone, 71 Afghan police were killed by insurgents in NATO's Regional Command South, which covers the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan and Nimruz of Afghanistan.

According to the International Crisis Group, approximately 630 Afghan policemen were killed in the year ending March 2007. The Afghan Interior Ministry says 500 have died since then.

"That's one of the reasons we've been put together," says Maj. Louis Lapointe, commander of the Police Operational Mentoring Liaison Team, a new program involving 50 Canadian military police and infantry who have just started training the Afghan police.

"The enemy they're facing is not a normal burglar or a normal thief," Lapointe says.

"They're facing insurgents who are well-equipped and they've got some kind of military training, which the police don't have."

The Afghan police also lack other important things.

Some of them have boots; others don't. Many seem to share a single uniform, while others don't even try to work in uniform, leaving them indistinguishable from farmers in a field or Taliban fighters.

They are notoriously corrupt, ill-equipped and poorly-trained - if they're trained at all. A glaring example came earlier this month when Afghan police opened fire on Canadians as they approached a substation en route to a mission.

The youngest of the police are 12 to 14 years old, and few of them can read or write.

Yet an effective, functioning local police force is what's required before Canada and other foreign governments can scale back their presence without giving up the progress they've made.

Canadian military and political officials have ruled out negotiation with the Taliban to end the war. In theory, Afghan security forces should be ready to take on the burden of fighting the bloody insurgency themselves when international forces leave this sunbaked country.

But even now, NATO's International Security Assistance Force simply doesn't have the numbers to guard the ground they've gained from from the Taliban.

Referring to the nine Afghan police officers he and his colleagues have been training, Sgt. Jean-Pierre Dion said: "This is the future."

"This is how we're going to eventually leave Afghanistan," Dion said as he prepared for the night watch at the recently retaken Pashmul police substation in Zhari district.

Pashmul is one of four substations where Canadians are on site mentoring police.

The Pashmul station - the term "checkpoint" has been abandoned due in part to the negative connotation of "taxes" collected unofficially by Afghan police - was abandoned to the Taliban by police during the changeover of Canadian troops this summer. Canadian troops recently took back control.

When the mentoring teams arrived, the police here were not working in shifts. The six to 10 national police who manned Pashmul woke when they woke, and kept an eye on the surrounding hills and fields when they kept an eye on the surrounding hills and fields.

As Canadians kept watch in tandem with Afghan police one night, a soldier confides that "if we weren't here, I don't think they'd be out here."

At the nearby Pulchakan substation, police slept in the fields outside the compound so that if the Taliban attacked, they wouldn't be killed.

They earn an average of about $77 a month. Afghan officials have promised to raise that to about $150 a month but it has yet to happen.

Ultimately, there are plans for upward of 80,000 Afghan policemen. But with such a staggering death rate, recruitment has fallen short - far short.

Haji Murtaza runs a bakery in Kandahar city and he's seen first-hand the handiwork of corrupt police officers.

"Once a policeman came to my bakery and did some shopping, but in the end he was not going to pay me," says Murtaza, 55. "He pulled his gun out on me, so I let him go."

Although he likes the idea of an independent Afghan force, Murtaza says they're not there yet.

"At the moment, Afghan forces can't defend themselves from the enemy, so it makes no sense that they will be able to save civilians," he says.

Before he was ousted as chief of the provincial police in Kandahar, Sayed Aka Sakeeb acknowledged the problems, including poor education among recruits.

Sakeeb said his force was understaffed, the equipment was old and there was not enough of it. "Sometimes, our guns don't fire," he told an interpreter.

What he didn't mention is that police also sell their ammunition and equipment - and they're not selling it back to international forces.

The uncertain status of Sakeeb himself, a warload with his own militia, reflects the problems faced by the police. Rumours had circulated for a while that he was no longer police chief but he continued to act as one.

On Thursday, there were reports that Sakeeb had finally left his post, taking his militia and their weapons with him.

It has been a year since Canadians began a similar mentoring program with the Afghan army and results have been positive.

A police telephone line has been put in place in Kandahar - a sort of Afghan 911 - but so far only Taliban have called, to threaten police.

In the coming months, Afghan police will learn basic military skills from the Canadians, like weapons training and how to respond to an enemy ambush.

Two weeks into the program, the police mentoring team are all too aware of the obstacles ahead of them, yet they are determined.

"I've got a good group here," says Sgt. Marc Langelier, whose team has been at the substation in Lakokwel for 12 days. "Most of them are older and they've been fighters for many, many years."

"They want to learn."

But in this crumbling country, corruption and survival are deeply entwined and difficult to discourage. "There is corruption," admits Lapointe. "Our soldiers are professional soldiers so they will lead by example."

In the light of the moon at the substation in Pashmul, Afghan commander Mohammad Khan says he welcomes the Canadians. "I like to work with them," he tells visitors. "If they can stay two weeks or three weeks, that's good."

Just 28, Khan is a veteran fighter and his eight policemen, all in uniform, are among the more promising in the new program.

Khan says they don't have body armour, enough ammunition or helmets. There aren't enough of them to conduct proper patrols, and they don't have a vehicle or enough weapons.

But he is determined they will hold off insurgents once Canadians leave. "We can do it," he says through an interpreter.

Unlike most of the policemen in the district, Khan is from another province and has no tribal ties that affect his work. "If you're good with the people, they're good with you," he tells his visitors.

The next day, however, Canadian soldiers said they discovered that Khan had accepted money from a passing vehicle.

Earlier this week, one of the Canadian soldiers training Afghan police at Pashmul was shot in an ambush while on patrol. He remains in serious but stable condition in hospital.

U.S. fire scatters crowd after Afghan bomb

By Noor Mohammad Sherzai

BATI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least one U.S. soldier opened fire to scatter a crowd of civilians and police on Thursday after failed suicide bomb attacks on a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military and witnesses said.

A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy in the village of Bati Kot, 15 km (9 miles) east of Jalalabad, killed the driver, two passengers and a nearby civilian, but none of the soldiers was hurt, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Afghan police securing the site in eastern Afghanistan were then attacked by an insurgent dressed in police uniform. He was killed by the police and coalition troops before he could detonate his suicide vest, the statement said.

To add to the confusion, a fire brigade vehicle speeding to the scene rammed into the U.S. and Afghan vehicles.

"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," said Reuters correspondent Noor Mohammad Sherzai.

A spokesman for U.S.-led coalition forces said only one soldier had opened fire. "A U.S. servicemen fired two shots and those shots were away from the crowd and not directed toward the crowd," said Major Joe Klopple.

The shots were fired to disperse the crowd out of concern for their safety because of what was thought to be another approaching suicide bomber, the U.S. statement said.

Sherzai and other reporters at the scene said many shots were fired and Afghan police were among those fleeing the scene.

"I was running away as fast as I could, but some of the police overtook me," Sherzai said. The police, he said, "were very angry because the Americans were shooting and wanted to shoot back but others stopped them".

"A bullet hit the ground between my legs while I was running," said Takiullah Taki, a cameraman for private Afghan channel Tolo TV. "Some Afghan national police wanted to shoot back, but others said that would make the situation deteriorate further so they did not."

Four Afghan investigators were injured in the vehicle accident and taken to hospital, the military said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack.

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 neighbouring Uruzgan province.

Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said on Thursday police had captured Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf. But Yousuf called a Reuters reporter and denied he had been detained. "I'm here in this room. I'm free," he said.

Tougher Taliban in western Uruzgan

Radio Netherlands, by RNW Security and Defence Editor Hans de Vreij reporting from Uruzgan - September 26, 2007

Heavy fighting has been reported in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. On Tuesday, 65 Taliban fighters were reportedly killed near the community of Deh Rawod in Dihrawud District. Last week, a Dutch soldier was killed in a similar clash in the same region of western Uruzgan. NATO is now looking at ways to reinforce the Dutch NATO contingent there. A small Dutch base in Deh Rawod doesn't have enough troops to stop the Taliban.

Dihrawud district is of key importance. It controls vital North-South and East-West routes in Uruzgan. And it borders on Helmand, the province where Taliban fighters find themselves under increased pressure from mainly British NATO troops. The district also has a strong symbolic value. It was here that Hamid Karzai (pictured) began his march on Kandahar city in late 2001, his first steps on the path to the presidency. It's also here that the supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, had strong family ties before most of his relatives had to leave.

On Tuesday, Dihrawud district was the scene of a violent clash between Taliban fighters and the Afghan National Army (ANA), supported by US troops that are part of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and by close air support. In the past few weeks, Dutch soldiers and ANA troops have also been involved in fierce fighting with the Taliban in this particular district. Last Thursday, a Dutch soldier, 20-year old Tim Hoogland, was shot and later died of his wounds - the first Dutchman killed in a direct fire fight in Afghanistan. The Dutch Chief of Defence, General Dick Berlijn (pictured below) explains:

"In Deh Rawod we've seen a worsening situation. We are in contact with NATO to see if the NATO chain of command is of the opinion that the region should be reinforced."

One of the problems the Afghan, Dutch and American troops in Dihrawud district are facing is an enemy which is well-organised, well-trained and heavily armed. Quite a difference from the 'amateur' Taliban militias Dutch and other NATO troops also encounter. General Berlijn:

"We have seen an improvement of their tactics and procedures. A year ago, 'amateur soldiers' was maybe a good way to describe them. We now see they are much better [trained]. (...) We know there are foreign fighters there and we think that these fighters train the Taliban. It's something that we take very seriously."

General Berlijn declined to reveal the nationality of the foreign fighters in Western Uruzgan. But last week, Radio Netherlands found out in Uruzgan itself that the presence of fighters from Pakistan and Bosnia is known beyond any doubt - in fact, prisoners have been taken from their ranks and handed over to the Afghan authorities. It is assumed that Chechen fighters are also active in Dihrawud district.

But how strong are the Taliban in Uruzgan? Kamp Holland, just south of the provincial capital Tarin Kowt, is the main Dutch base in Uruzgan. Colonel Nico Geerts is the commander of the Dutch-Australian 'Task Force Uruzgan' . The Colonel told Radio Netherlands it's virtually impossible to gauge the strength of the opponents:

"That is very difficult to say. That would suggest that we know everything that is happening in this province. That's not true. The Taliban are also part of the population, so you can't count them. (...) We have different levels of Taliban fighters; local fighters that are pressed to be part of the Taliban for one operation. Each estimate is wrong."

According to the Dutch Chief of Defence, NATO is now looking at ways to reinforce the small Dutch contingent in Western Uruzgan. If need be, reinforcements could be sent from the Netherlands itself, but it's primarily an issue NATO should deal with, says General Dick Berlijn.

Thousands flee Taliban, aerial bombing in south

KANDAHAR, 27 September 2007 (IRIN) - Over 2,500 families have left their homes in different districts of insurgency-battered Helmand, Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan over the past two months, provincial officials told IRIN on 27 September.

Many displaced civilians who have flocked into Kandahar city say they left their homes because Taliban insurgents tried to force them to join their ranks, feed and care for their wounded fighters and provide financial support for their campaign.

Hundreds of families have also been displaced because of intense aerial bombing by international forces in their bid to defeat Taliban rebels in the southern provinces, displaced people in Kandahar said.

"About 590 families from Uruzgan Province and 1,500 from Helmand Province have recently come to over a dozen locations around Kandahar city," said Ahmad Shah Peerali, head of the rural rehabilitation and development department in Kandahar.

The head of Kandahar provincial council, Ahmad Wali Karzai, said hundreds of civilians had abandoned their homes and properties in Shah Walikot, Ghorak and Maiwand districts since August.

"Because of the numerous demands that Taliban fighters make on civilians, about 750 families have moved to areas inside or close to the city [Kandahar]," Karzai said.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahamadi, however, denied the insurgents forced people to work for them: "It is only propaganda," Ahmadi said on the phone from an identified location.

Aid versus security

Kandahar Province is already home to thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who live in several camps, and the influx of new IDPs has put pressure on the limited humanitarian assistance currently being made available to hundreds of thousand of needy people in Kandahar Province, local authorities say.

"If government and aid organisations do not help us quickly," said one displaced man from Helmand Province, "our children will die this winter."

Shelter, food, medicine and drinking water are among the most urgent needs, said aid workers.

"Either they [government and aid organisations] should help us here [in Kandahar] or the government should improve security in our areas in order for us to return," said Hayatullah, a displaced man from Uruzgan Province.

"Stop bombing our villages and we will go back to our homes," said an elderly man, Abdul Bari.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), in collaboration with three government departments, has launched a quick needs assessment survey the results of which are to be shared with international aid organisations, including UN agencies.

Najibullah Barith, head of the ARCS in Kandahar, said: "After we get an understanding of the needs, we will ask the UN and other donors to help us respond."

There are, however, accessibility problems, which have prevented a reliable needs assessment from being carried out quickly.

According to local officials, recently displaced people have sought temporary refuge in different locations such as in relatives' houses, uninhabited government buildings, rented housing and in old IDP camps.

Just six days after Afghans marked the International Day of Peace on 21 September, at least 160 people have died in armed conflicts in southern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

US forces accompanied by Afghan soldiers "killed more than 100 insurgents in an engagement" in southern Helmand Province on 25-26 September, a US military press release said on 26 September.

In neighbouring Uruzgan Province "more than three dozen insurgents were killed as they prepared an ambush," read another US military statement released on 26 September.

The US military said three non-combatants were wounded in the crossfire and evacuated to a military medical facility in Uruzgan Province. Local people, however, said at least 10 civilians died in the military operations.

In both military operations aerial strikes were used to subdue the insurgents, according to US military press releases.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has repeatedly called on international forces to reduce aerial strikes, which reportedly pose greater risks to civilians, and increase ground operations in order to better ensure civilian protection.

Afghan troops 'likely to lose British gains'

By Matthew Moore and agencies,
Last Updated: 9:26am BST 28/09/2007

British troops may have to re-take land already seized from the Taliban because Afghan troops are unable to defend the gains, according to the Nato commander in the country.

Eighty-one British soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan, many in brutal battles with militia in the southern province of Helmand in the last six months.

The campaign has seen several key strategic victories, with Taliban forces pushed back and many of their bases captured.

But General Dan McNeill told the BBC this morning that British forces may have to do it all over again next year.

He warned that an expected Taliban regroup over the winter may overwhelm Afghan National Security Forces units deployed to guard the Nato gains.

"I think there is some chance of that because the Afghan national security forces have not been as successful in holding as we would like them to be," he said. "We are likely to have to do some of this work again."

In July a Commons Defence Committee report declared that while some progress had been made in training Afghan government forces, they were still "some way off operating independently".

British troops are currently active across Helmand, but many of the bitterest battles have been fought in the Sangin Valley.

As part of Operation Achilles, they are attempting to reassert government control over the entire valley and the Kajaki hydro-electric dam which lies at its northern tip.

General Dan McNeill, an American, replaced General David Richards, a Briton, as Nato commander in Afghanistan in February.

Stable Afghanistan Vital to Central Asia, Europe, United States

Long-term, comprehensive approach needed

By Phillip Kurata, USINFO Staff Writer (State Dept.)

Washington -- The security and well-being of the trans-Atlantic community depend on successfully stabilizing Afghanistan so that it will not be a source of narcotics or a haven for terrorists, U.S. and European officials say.

The United States and its European allies have contributed $26.8 billion to Afghanistan since 2001, enabling the country to make large strides in providing better lives for its people.

In health care, more than 80 percent of the population now has access to medical facilities, compared with 9 percent in 2004.  More than 4,000 medical facilities have opened during the past three years and more than 600 midwives have been trained and sent to every province.

In terms of infrastructure, more than 4,000 kilometers of roads have been completed and construction has started for 20,000 new homes for Afghans returning to Kabul.

The private sector has begun to flourish, as indicated by the 10 percent of Afghans who now own cell phones.  Multinational companies such as Coca-Cola, Siemens, Nestlé and Etisalat have invested.  Strong consumer demand is boosting Kabul’s economy, leading to heavy road traffic, new shopping malls and new hotels.

"We are making real progress in Afghanistan and, together, we and the Afghan people will succeed," Kurt Volker, principal deputy secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said September 14 in Helsinki, Finland.

Yet Afghanistan remains the leading supplier of opium and heroin in Europe, where drug overdoses are one of the leading causes of death among young people and the cost of treating addiction exceeds $750 million a year.

"This is a modern plague among the young people of Europe, and it illustrates how tackling the narcotics problem in Afghanistan can directly impact the health and well-being of Europeans," Volker said.

Britain's minister of state for the foreign and commonwealth office, Kim Howells, said defeating the drug trade in Afghanistan, which supplies 90-95 percent of the world's opium, will take at least a generation.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer underscored the importance of the international community's commitment to Afghanistan at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on Afghanistan in January.

"The international community intends to keep the initiative in Afghanistan," he said.  "That means more reconstruction. ... Clear commitments with more support for the government, for the Afghan national army, the security forces and the Afghan national police."

De Hoop Scheffer said the international community must maintain a long-term commitment with a comprehensive approach in dealing with Afghanistan to prevent the country from again becoming a haven for terrorists who have staged attacks in both the United States and Europe.

Volker said al-Qaida is looking increasingly to Europe for opportunities to attack.  "The Madrid train bombings of March 2004, which killed 119 and wounded more than 600, were undertaken by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, better known as the Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe.  The London bombings of July 2005, which left 52 dead and more than 770 injured, also could be traced to this group," he said.

The NATO civilian spokesman in Afghanistan, Nicolas Lunt, said that although NATO is involved in military activities in Afghanistan, "its defining contribution will be roads, hospitals, schools, thriving markets, healthy children, wheat-filled fields, decent policemen and competent administrators."

Indeed, with the help of the international community, Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the Taliban regime was toppled six years ago.  The Afghan economy grows 12-14 percent a year, making it the fastest-growing economy in the region.

The latest success story in the development of Afghanistan is the completion of a new bridge connecting Afghanistan to Tajikistan and giving it access to Central Asian trade. (See related article.)

The 672-meter-long bridge, costing $37 million, with customs buildings, inspection bays, and check points at both ends, spans the Oxus River.  The United States provided the bulk of the funding, but Norway, Japan and the European Union also joined the effort.  Before the bridge was built, the only way across this part of the river was by a limited-capacity ferry that did not operate throughout the year.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez attended the opening ceremony of the bridge and commented, "Much as the Silk Road was integral to the great civilizations in the past, the byways of the region are again proving to be the crossroads of commerce, of peace and of stability."

The U.S. Agency for International Development also plays a vigorous role in Afghanistan's development, overseeing a multifaceted program that supports agriculture, alternative livelihoods to opium poppy cultivation, democracy and governance, economic growth, education, health and infrastructure.

Karzai touts Afghan investment climate

NEW YORK, Sept 27, (Pajhwok Afghan News) - On the last day of his US visit, President Hamid Karzai, for at least an hour Wednesday morning, donning the mantle of a successful CEO marketing Afghanistan.

The venue was Opening Plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative of former president Bill Clinton. The audience included leaders of the US corporate industry and some 40 past and present heads of state.

"Afghanistan is the place to do business in," Karzai said as he urged entrepreneurs to invest in his war-torn country.

Afghanistan was a country beginning from ground zero, he observed, saying investment in any area of public consumption yielded massive returns. "Investment is profitable in Afghanistan," he insisted.

In a bid to allay the corporate industry's security concerns, Karzai said: "Of course risk is everywhere. The perception of security and actuality of security in Afghanistan is different."

Narrating the success story of mobile phones, Karzai said: "Investments in Afghanistan have increased and offer a lot of opportunities for the future. The best example is that of mobile phones."

And then he suddenly took out a pen from his pocket. As if he was a marketing executive, Karzai said: "We just began using the Afghan Pen. I have one in my pocket. It is called Afghan which means Afghan Smooth. It runs smooth, you can try it. Afghanistan is the place for business."

The panel discussion was moderated by Clinton himself, who asked Karzai: "If someone here is interested in investing in Afghanistan, is there a reasonable chance to get back his investment?"

Lalit K. Jha

Afghan models reveal the beauty under the burqa

By Jon Hemming - MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Sept 28 (Reuters Life!) - A model strutting the catwalk is hardly revolutionary in most countries, but Afghan television's answer to "America's Next Top Model" is breaking boundaries and revealing the beauty under the burqa.

Nearly six years after the overthrow of the strict Islamist Taliban government, almost all women in deeply conservative Afghanistan still only appear in public wafting past in the burqa's pale blue, their dark eyes only occasionally visible behind the bars of its grille.

But in the relatively liberal northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a local television station has started to show a different image of Afghan women with an extremely low-budget take on the hit "America's Next Top Model", a reality TV show in which judges choose prospective models from a group of contestants over several weeks.

"I was really enthusiastic to make this program because I wanted the girls to present the clothes and themselves," said Sosan Soltani, the 18-year-old director of the program.

"Afghanistan is free and these girls are the future of this country," she said.

Four girls in brightly colored traditional costumes with baggy pants and long loose-fitting shawls and headscarves strode down the impromptu catwalk decked out in traditional Afghan rugs. Seemingly less confident than their Western counterparts, they avoided the gaze of the all-male film crew and press.

A quick change later, the same four appeared in camouflage combat trousers, sneakers and embroidered smocks. Then came denim jeans, open-toed sandals and colorful lightweight jackets.

None of this would be at all risque in the West, but in Afghanistan, such attire can spark outrage, especially when broadcast on television.

"According to Sharia law, Islam is absolutely against this," said Afghan Muslim cleric Abdul Raouf. "Not only is it banned by Islamic Sharia law, but if we apply Sharia law and to take this issue to justice, these girls should be punished."

More than 10 other models due to take part in the program failed to turn up after hearing that members of the international press would be present, fearing the wider broadcast of the show could lead to trouble for them, their friends said.

Those who did brave the possible backlash were determined. "It is a great idea I think for Afghan girls, to encourage them to go a step forward," said 19-year-old model Katayoun Timour.

"We know that in Afghan society 90 percent of people think it is not good, that it's absolutely wrong," she said of the program. "We had objections from people, but I tell them it is not something bad, they should see it in a positive way."

But on the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif, it was hard to find anyone who objected to the program, especially among the young.

"It is a good program," said 28-year-old shopkeeper Ahmad Sear. "People watch and like it, especially women are interested in this program -- through this program and the clothes they wear, they might be able to develop their country."

"Young people are interested in fashion and the program introduces new clothes to them," said businessman Ahmad Nasir. "It also complies with Afghan culture, so it's fine."

But asked if he looked more at the clothes or the girls, he replied with a smile: "The girls of course." Then added, "the clothes are important though."

Model Timour said she wanted the outside world to see a different image of Afghan women.

"I have seen outside Afghanistan they have a different kind of idea about women in Afghanistan -- they think they are always wearing the burqa and sitting at home but it is not like that," she said. "Girls in Afghanistan are beautiful."

Life and Death in Party City

Heidi Kingstone - A great deal of table-hopping goes on most days at L’Atmosphere, the popular French restaurant on Forth Street in the ‘upmarket’ Kabul neighbourhood of Qala-e-Fattulah. It’s one of those ex-pat places where everyone knows everyone. In the summer its large green garden is heavy with the scent of those famous Afghan roses that grow in great abundance. When the weather turns warm the fearless swim in the cold aqua-coloured water of its sub-Olympic size pool, or just hang around drinking wine and smoking, quite a contrast to what goes on outside the heavily barricaded entrance that stops Afghans from entering. Earlier in the year when five Talibs were released in March in exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, the table-hopping accelerated. Usually/often populated by journalists hard at work on their laptops or engaged in earnest conversation about Afghanistan, on this night everyone agreed that as a result of the Italian government’s action the price on journalists’ heads had just gone up. Perhaps it had. But as the story unravelled it turned out that the highest price was paid by Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was later beheaded.

As a foreign correspondent Afghanistan is a gift of a place to work. Stories seem to fall from sky and access to people is often much easier than in countries where the hierarchy is established and entrenched and movement far more restricted as in Iraq, for example. Afghans not only like to have their pictures taken, which is both delightful and peculiar at the same time, they also are generally happy to talk. Compared to Baghdad where I reported from in 2003/4 there is an entirely different feel and accessibility. Kabul is party city. You can head from one reception to another, from the bar at La Cantina to Red, Hot, Sizzlin’ and can always rely on the UN or other official organisations to host some nightly soiree, which makes networking fun and easy. Depending on the kind of socialising you are looking for – whether it’s with fellow journalists, the NGO crowd, the military, diplomats or shooters – it’s all on hand.

In the four months that I was based in Kabul, with occasional wonderings around the country including a few hours in Kandahar and trips to Bamiyan and Dai Kundi, I never felt remotely in danger. Maybe I walked around in a bubble-like existence because, after all, it is a war-zone. Infrequently I would look over my shoulder, or ask a question about safety, but having largely stayed away from the real conflict zones – Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzghan – I felt protected.

Clearly, for Afghan journalists, unfortunately used to a climate of violence, this is not the case. Just before I left in June, Shokiba Sanga Amaaj from Shamshad TV was murdered in her house. Threats to journalists are sadly common. When I went to visit Saad Mohseni, Afghanistan’s Rupert Murdoch, the Afghan-born entrepreneur who had spent 20 years in Australia before founding Tolo TV, he joked that the first thing you say to someone is, “I’m going to kill you. We are a violent people.” He wasn’t kidding. After the murder of Naqshbandi journalists in Kandahar, Helmand, Ghazni and Zabul, provinces, received death threats from the Taliban.

What is not a joke is that lawlessness threatens every journalist’s right to freedom of expression. That’s certainly the conclusion of Danish Karokhel, the director of Pajhwok Afghan News, an independent news service. The consequences of what we write in our free society are hardly dire and hardly matters of life and death. IN Afghanistan to tell the truth journalists often have to relocate for a period of time, or sometimes, they can never return to a region if they have done a critical story. In 2006, three journalists were killed and 50 incidents recorded involving beatings, arrests, threats.

Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative and ultra-traditional culture, one that is unlikely to change in the near future. Women journalists have been murdered and threatened. While they appear regularly on TV, which is a positive trend, the country is so conservative that the fact that women simply smile in sight of men causes complaints.

I am not sure that in all my travels around the world I have ever come across anywhere quite so foreign as Afghanistan. Perhaps this is why it has cast a spell over foreigners for so many centuries. Something about it traps your soul, but it is equally difficult to explain why. Kabul is not only desperately poor, but travelling to Afghanistan is like a trip back in time. I arrived in February to a city covered in mud. It dripped from everything – from the sky, from the leaves, it shot upwards from puddles.

When the weather changed the mud turned to dust, which went everywhere, in your eyes, in your throat and to the darkest recess of your cupboard. As everyone who has ever been will tell you, the percentage of faecal matter in the air, due to open sewers and the geography of the capital, which is 1800 metres above sea-level, is frighteningly high. Afghans, in general, want to leave. Foreigners, like myself, are desperate to stay despite the hardships and restrictions, especially for women. Life is intense and the work satisfying, quasi-explanations. As a foreign journalist there is much to say.

At the moment the media situation is mixed, a momentum has built up that may be difficult to stop despite the threat from institutions or lack thereof, official intimidation, pending legislation, insurgents, lack of funding, past history and present culture. Just a few of the overwhelming problems that face Afghanistan. After almost 30 years of conflict starting with the Soviet invasion in 1979, the civil war fought by the Mujahdeen, and the rule of the Taliban that ended in 2001, institutions, much like the country itself, were left in ruins. The middle class had fled, universities closed. There was no educational system and no capacity. This remains almost as big a problem here as corruption, which isn’t to say there aren’t many talented and capable Afghans, there are, but capacity remains an issue. There is also a hunger for information. The first thing people buy is a $50.00 TV set and at $30.00 generator. TV ownership is running far ahead of electricity access bucking an international trend.

Afghans have become great survivors, some say opportunists. There is the famous story of a communist who within days had grown a beard and become a mujahideen who within days grew a longer beard and become Taliban who within hours shaved off his beard and was known as a technocrat. As a result people need to understand what’s going on because it’s survival. [Based on surveys and focus groups conducted by Tolo TV, which has 60 percent of the market share, people can tell the difference between propaganda and news.]

On the one side there are weeklies, dailies, monthlies which are a recent nationwide phenomenon, but a lot of times what you read in the papers is defamatory, there are no facts, no balance, just insults. When I went up to Bamiyan, the province in the north where the Taliban destroyed the ancient Buddhas, I spoke to the governor, a feisty and impressive woman called Habiba Sorabi. She was dressed conservatively, as women are, and she lamented the fact that her opponents could just hurl insults at her through the media without any restrictions or redress. There is also some simply dreadful journalism. Take for example the story of a suspected suicide bomber: “He said police detained the suspect after five-hour [sic]. He said: After searching the suspect, we came to know that he was a retard.” Another story explained graphically that "the whores were arrested from the restaurants where they were doing prostitution and where wine was also sold. He would not say to which countries the sluts belonged.”

Perhaps the government shouldn’t fear the media as much as it does. It feels the need to limit what is put out as the country because it is in a state of war. Neither the government nor the public understands what freedom of the press means. Why should they understand the concept any more than they understand or want ? democracy. It is the responsibility of the fledgling media to hold the government accountable for its actions and also for the media to be held accountable for what it writes. This is a new phenomenon. Afghan journalists get intimidated and are vulnerable in ways that Western journalists can only imagine, so the independence and freedom and diversity is extremely fragile, and will likely remain so until, or if, the security situation is stabilised.

As government ranks are stuffed full of [former] warlords, drug barons and many other unsavoury characters, it is hardly a leap to say that when there are reports on corruption these people don’t react well. There is still a feeling that the government can control information.

Until 2005-6 Afghanistan’s media was feeling somewhat positive. Law reforms had come in 2004, guaranteeing freedom of expression, replacing the existing Afghan press law of 1943. But in June the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of parliament or literally house of the people, passed a new media bill. [, which goes to the upper house of parliament and subsequently for presidential assent before it becomes law.]

The controversial bill has undergone many changes due to protests from journalists, MPs and the media itself, which rebuffed the original broad-ranging restrictions on media content. But licences will continue to be issued by the Ministry of the Interior and Culture. The law also stipulates that there needs to be a balance. It’s vague enough for people like Mohseni to worry about possible prosecution.

For many, though, the flourishing of the media is one of the real success stories of the last five or six years. That’s certainly Chris Alexander’s take. He is one of UNAMA’s two Deputy Special Representatives and at 37 already Canada’s former ambassador to Afghanistan. Sitting in the UNAMA’s Compound B in Kabul he says that “when history is written the vibrancy of independent media will be found to have played a pivotal role in the parliamentary and presidential elections.” He points to the 250 media outlets in this country, some tiny, some microscopic, not always economically sustainable but compared with 10 or 15 under the Taliban, extremely lively.

Statistics about media in Afghanistan are notoriously hard to come by and media outlets, often operated by one man or woman, open and close regularly. When I was there some long-term Afghan watchers suggested that failed-states-on-the-rebound need first to concentrate on political stability and physical security, otherwise, like Afghanistan, they won’t rebound for long. Some ask which is more important, the survival of an Afghan free media or survival of the Afghan nation-state. Perhaps the framework of ‘reconstruction’ as established at Bonn and upheld, ever since, needs a government that is perhaps liked, hopefully respected but ultimately feared.

As it is the international community has poured huge resources into training journalists, producers, photographers, editors, Tolo takes people when they are young at 20 or 21, some even at 17, and they get on-the-job training. That is how they attempt to break the mould of Soviet-style parrot-like reporting. People from the BBC have also worked with Tolo, and ‘intellectuals and academics’ review everything. “We try to employ people who are brave and intelligent, who are eloquent and have common sense,” says Mohseni. “Everything else then falls in to place.” But many international agencies, once gung-ho about training and funding, have lost interest after realizing the media outlets they had started were a long way off becoming sustainable. There is still no overall structure in place for the development of the media, and without international funding many papers and radio stations ?? could collapse. Journalists are still threatened by powerful people and bribed to take a certain line.

We take for granted the ability to call things as they are. When I was talking to Mohseni in his Kabul office, with the requisite number of multiple TV stations on in the background, the Blackberry beeping and telephone ringing, he made an interesting comment. “It’s a must now for people to be telling the truth. Our credibility is one of the reasons why we are successful. Bad things happen in our society, and we force the government to face up to the challenges. We can’t lie to our people even if it goes against Afghan culture, which is not very abrupt.” Honour, politeness and diplomacy are fundamental social skills in this rigid society. Just look at Pashtunwali – the Pashtun tradition of hospitality. Perhaps as a nation it is time for Afghanistan to change. If the media can impact how Afghans express themselves, more honestly, it’s a good thing.

For Afghanistan's journalism to flourish, and it is a big if, some of the issues it has to look at are teaching the police and other law enforcement bodies that the media is something to be protected, not muzzled or manipulated. Chris Alexander believes the government has to improve its strategic communications, and resist the temptation to blame the messenger; a credible public broadcaster needs to emerges; funding and manipulation of media from abroad needs to decrease; and a solid advertising market needs to emerge on the back of a flourishing private sector. All this is still very much a work in progress. In this insecure situation, the media has a similar challenge to almost anyone and anything else in this country - and that is to survive.

Heidi Kingstone is international correspondent for The Saturday Star in Johannesburg and writes regularly for a number of British and foreign publications. She has recently returned from four months in Afghanistan.

[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.]