In this bulletin:

• Suicide Bomber Kills 23 in Remote Afghan Province
• Three civilians killed in Afghan bomb blast: police
• Dutch commander's son among two killed in Afghanistan: ministry
• Taliban behead two Afghans
• Bodies of engineers killed in Afghanistan arrive in India
• UN warns Pakistan on refugee plan
• Poisoned wheat kills 10, sickens 100 in Afghanistan: officials
• Al Qaeda Replacing the Taliban
• No US plan to fight terror in Pakistan tribal belt: watchdog
• Election delay is 'against constitution', MPs say
• Govt ends funding for Afghanistan diplomat
• Ex-Taliban ambassador hints at peace talks
• Phoenix SPI: Canadians Pessimistic About Ability to Win in Afghanistan
• Opposition calls for removal of Bernier from Foreign Affairs
• French Push in Afghanistan to Spur Bin Laden Hunt, EU Aide Says
• Indian soap operas cause a stir in Afghanistan
• Carryings on up the Khyber
• Advocating Canadian Leadership on Afghan Aid
• Good roads and irrigation surpassing security issues? Call that success
• 'Employers Meeting' Held in Kabul in Preparation for the Graduation of The Afghanistan Technical Vocational Institute's (ATVI) Inaugural Class

Suicide Bomber Kills 23 in Remote Afghan Province

The New York Times, 04/18/2008 By Carlotta Gall

KABUL - A suicide bomber struck outside a mosque in southwestern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 23 people, including two senior police officials and several children, officials said Thursday evening.

An estimated 31 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred just before evening prayers in the border town of Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz Province.

Nimruz is a remote desert area, sparsely populated and poorly policed, where traffickers smuggle drugs across into neighboring Iran. There has also been an increase in insurgent activity in the province.

Many of those killed and wounded were civilians, shopkeepers and guests at a hotel, the provincial governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad, said by telephone.

He said he believed that police officials had been the bomber’s targets. One of those killed was Bismillah Khan, a district police chief, and another was the commander of a battalion of border guards, he said.

“They are the enemy of the poor people, the enemy of human beings,” the governor said of the attackers.

Also on Thursday, the American military said that two United States marines from a unit that arrived last month had been killed and that two were wounded Wednesday morning when an explosion hit their convoy in the southern province of Kandahar.

Under NATO rules their nationality was not released immediately, said Capt. Kelly Frushour, the unit’s public affairs officer. She gave few details of the episode except to say that it had been a hostile attack, and that the wounded were being sent to the American military base at Landstuhl, Germany.

The marines came from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a force of 3,200 that was sent to Afghanistan recently to help NATO troops faced with a continued insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan. NATO commanders in Afghanistan have called for more forces repeatedly over the last two years, but were rebuffed until the Marine unit arrived.

The marines came with their own artillery, helicopters and Harrier fighter planes, and were expected to add considerable combat capability to the NATO forces, which have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since being deployed in 2006.

About 2,200 of the marines will work with NATO forces and serve as a task force capable of being used across the country as needed. The remaining 1,000 will provide training and support for the Afghan Army and police forces under United States command.

The Marine unit has been stationed at an air base just outside the city of Kandahar, and has yet to see combat.

In comments reported in The Baltimore Sun, members of the unit complained recently that the slow and cumbersome NATO command structure had delayed them from being utilized, and that they had been wasting time on the base rather than fighting insurgents.

Three civilians killed in Afghan bomb blast: police

KABUL (AFP) — Three Afghan civilians died in a roadside bomb blast near the capital Kabul on Friday, police said, a day after a suicide bomber killed two dozen people in the southwest of the country.

The men were killed and another wounded when their vehicle hit a bomb laid on a road frequently used by Afghan and international forces in Logar province just south of Kabul, provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa told AFP.

He blamed the attack on Taliban-linked Islamic militants who are waging a bloody insurgency. "This was the work of the armed opposition groups. The road is often used by foreign forces," Mustafa said.

The attack follows a suicide bomb blast in the southwest province of Nimroz on Thursday evening which killed two dozen people including two senior police officials. A spokesman for the Taliban said the group could not immediately claim responsibility for the Nimroz attack.

"We can't claim that suicide attack yet. Our mujahedin on the ground have not yet reported having carried out such an attack on Thursday," rebel spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone.

Thursday's attack in the provincial capital Zaranj took place in a crowded market place near the city's mosque where dozens of worshippers had left after evening prayers.

Provincial governor Ghulam Dastgir Azad told AFP Friday the death toll had risen to 25 after a woman died after being wounded in the blast.

The Taliban, ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001, have stepped up attacks in recent weeks as the weather improves for their so-called spring offensive.

Nearly 100 people including six foreign soldiers, two dozen Afghan police and more than 30 civilians have died in violence this month, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

More than 8,000 people, including 1,500 civilians and nearly 220 foreign troops, were slain in the conflict last year, according to a UN report. About 70,000 international troops are based in Afghanistan helping President Hamid Karzai's US-backed government tackle the insurgency.

Dutch commander's son among two killed in Afghanistan: ministry

Fri Apr 18, THE HAGUE (AFP) - The son of the Netherlands' newly named top military commander was among two Dutch soldiers killed in a bomb blast on Friday in southern Afghanistan, defence ministry officials said.

Two other soldiers were injured in the incident that killed the son of General Peter van Uhm, said General Freek Meulman. The general was named top commander of the Dutch armed forces on Thursday. His son is Lieutenant Dennis van Uhm.

"We remain determined to do what is expected of us -- united," Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said at a press conference.

The four soldiers were returning from a reconnaissance mission when the bomb blast hit their vehicle. The two killed were 23 and 22 years old.

Among the two injured, aged 20 and 25, one is in critical condition while the other is stable, said Meulman.

The Taliban had threatened to step up attacks against Dutch forces in Afghanistan if a far-right Dutch lawmaker aired his anti-Islam film. It was aired last month.

More than 1,600 Dutch soldiers are currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Sixteen Dutch soldiers have been killed in the country, either in accidents or combat. The Dutch government decided in November to extend the mission until late 2010.

Taliban behead two Afghans

www.quqnoos.com - Written by Taqiullah Taqi Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Militants chop off heads after warning Afghans not to work with foreigners

THE TALIBAN have chopped off the heads of two Kunar construction workers kidnapped yesterday (Tuesday), police say. Police believe the Taliban warned the two men that they would be killed unless they left their jobs with a foreign contractor. Their decapitated bodies were found today.

Police chief of Kunar province, Abdul Jalal Jalal, said: “These two workers were local inhabitants of Kunar province and were working for the coalition forces constructing buildings.

“The Taliban kidnapped them yesterday while they were going home from work.” The Taliban have not commented on the killings.

It is thought that the Taliban took the two men into the mountains first, cut their heads off and then pushed them into a river in Kunar’s Manogi district. Jalal said the bodies of these two men were found with their heads cut near a river in Kunar’s district.

Bodies of engineers killed in Afghanistan arrive in India

Times of India, India, 17 Apr 2008 NEW DELHI

The bodies of the two Indian engineers who lost their lives in a suicide bomb attack on Saturday while working on a road project in Afghanistan were brought to Delhi on Tuesday morning. After the Afghan ambassador and officials from Border Road Organisation (BRO) placed wreaths on the coffins, the bodies were flown to the respective home towns.

According to sources, the bodies of Mahendra Pratap Singh, a resident of Varanasi and C Govindasamy of Bangalore were flown into Delhi at 10.45 am.

The two were working on a road project in Gurguri village in the southwestern district of Nimroz when at 9 am local time, a man emerged from a car and blew himself up. Five other Indians and two Afghan personnel were also injured in the attack.

The bodies of the deceased were airlifted to Kabul and then flown to Delhi on Tuesday. From the international terminal, the bodies were brought to the Shraddhanjali Sthal towards the domestic terminal where they received a guard of honour and Afghan Ambassador S Makhdoom Raheen and DG of BRO, Lt Gen A K Nanda placed wreaths on the coffins.

Nanda, when addressing media personnel after the ceremony, said: "We are taking all possible measures to protect our personnel in Afghanistan. We have taken steps to further tighten security."

Arrangements were then made to transfer the bodies to the respective hometowns. While there were no flights to Varanasi in the afternoon after the wreath laying ceremony was over, Singh's body was taken to Varanasi in a special Air Force plane.

Govindaswamy's body, however, was flown to Bangalore in an Indian Airlines flight, IC 403, at 4.30 pm. This was the second such attack on road building crew in a week. Authorities suspect the hand of the Taliban extremists in the attack.

UN warns Pakistan on refugee plan

BBC News / Friday, 18 April 2008

Pakistan needs to revise a plan to repatriate 2.4 million Afghan refugees by the end of 2009, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said.

The head of the UN refugee agency in Pakistan, Guenet Guebre-Christos, told the BBC that the plan was unworkable and would create instability.

Pakistan said it still hopes most of the refugees will return by the end of next year. It says Taleban militants blamed for attacks often shelter in refugee camps.

The UNHCR has already agreed to Pakistan's plan to shut down four camps that Islamabad says pose a security threat. Many of the refugees fled during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Most live in towns or cities, rather than camps.

Pakistan announced the plan to repatriate the refugees early in 2007, when relations with Afghanistan were particularly tense. Repatriations are supposed to be voluntary, but many refugees say they do not want to return.

"Since 2001 almost five million Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan and other places and for a country that has been ravaged by war for the last 30 years, rebuilding is a very slow and painful process," Ms Guebre-Christos said.

"Some areas in Afghanistan are not yet very secure, so assuming that all Afghans must return immediately is a fallacy. "Therefore we count on the government of Pakistan to continue to be a generous host, and to review the situation constantly."

The UNHCR argues that "people are not commodities" and that the plan needed to be "revised and reviewed".

It said that refugees who were repatriated would likely go back to Pakistan as illegal immigrants. "Because of the porous border they are likely to return," Ms Guebre-Christos said, "and they will simply inflate the number of illegal migrants in Pakistan.

"On the other side, these are also the poorest of the poor, and they could join other undesirable elements, and fight back."

But Pakistan's commissioner for Afghan refugees, Imran Zeb Khan, said his country should not have to "carry the burden" of the refugees alone, and would still try to get close to its target for 2009. "We will give it our best shot," he said.

Millions of Afghan refugees have already returned from Pakistan, Iran and other countries since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

Poisoned wheat kills 10, sickens 100 in Afghanistan: officials

Thu Apr 17, 1:22 PM ET KABUL (AFP) - Ten Afghans have died and more than 100 have fallen ill with liver disease after eating wheat contaminated with a poisonous plant, heightening food insecurity in the country, officials said Thursday.

The plant, known locally as Charmak, grows in wheat fields and was harvested at the same time in the remote Gulran district in western Herat province bordering Iran, said health officials.

A similar outbreak of the disease in Afghanistan in 1974 killed dozens of people. There have also been cases in India and some central Asian nations in recent years.

"Yes, I confirm more than 100 people have been affected and 10 people have died. We learnt about it in early February," public health ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim told AFP.

"This is the second outbreak of the disease since 1974. It's caused by eating a certain plant that grows in the wheat fields," said Fahim, who is also a medical doctor.

The condition is caused by alkaloids in plants from several herbs, including comfrey, formerly used to make a popular herbal tea in many parts of the world.

People who consume them develop liver disease and many die while others suffer long-term health problems. "Back then (in 1974) the plant was eliminated and the people were told to not consume it. I think it has come back," he said.

Ghulam Sayed Rashid, head of the provincial health department, also confirmed that about 10 people had died from the disease and that his department was working to curb the epidemic.

"What we've done in an emergency response to the outbreak is we have told people to stop consuming the wheat from their own district which is likely to be containing the poison," he told AFP.

The Afghan Red Crescent Society in Herat said it had distributed wheat to local residents.

Aid officials said earlier this week that in response to growing food insecurity, they had stepped up assistance to more than two million Afghans in recent months.

In recent months, bad harvests, rising global population and the development of biofuels have all contributed to rapid rises in global food prices.

Al Qaeda Replacing the Taliban

Strategy Page - April 18, 2008: American diplomatic and military officials in Afghanistan believe that al Qaeda in their area has become more dangerous than al Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. government still believes Iraq is the main battle, even though the terrorists are on the run there and suffering heavy losses. In Afghanistan, or, actually, across the border in Pakistan, al Qaeda has established bases it was unable to maintain in Iraq. Some of the terrorist camps in Pakistan have been there since 2002, but al Qaeda, admitting defeat in Iraq, has sifted people, cash and energy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The terrorists are having a very different experience on each side of the border. In Afghanistan, the Taliban and al Qaeda are betting beaten. High losses, and lost influence, mark the past few years operations in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, there is much less police and military influence with the terrorists, and the tribal areas along the border have become a rest and rebuilding area for the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The victories in Afghanistan come largely because of the 70,000 U.S. and NATO troops there. The Afghan army only has 70,000 troops. Well trained, by regional standards, the soldiers are used all over the country. The 60,000 national police are less well trained and led, actually, many are corrupt and inept. While about a third of the foreign troops are not allowed to fight, those that do, however, are unstoppable. The Taliban cannot win by running, and if they stand and fight, they die. Al Qaeda thinks they can win using suicide and roadside bombs. This strategy failed in Iraq, mainly because of the large number of Iraqi civilians killed. The terrorists are killing lots of Afghans the same way in Afghanistan, and with the same result. A recent suicide bomber killed 24 worshippers in an Afghan mosque. This does not go over well with public opinion. The really bad news is that the most dangerous enemy in Afghanistan is the tribes and warlords, who have dominated the region for thousands of years.

On both sides of the border, many pro-Taliban tribes are negotiating with the government to stop the fighting. But the more radical Taliban are linking up with the growing al Qaeda organization and going into the terror business. Most of the tribesmen want to get away from battles they can't win, and make some money. The drug trade offers quick cash, and more economic progress than has been seen in this part of the world for a long time.

Afghanistan will send troops and pilots to India for training. India, which has decades of counter-terrorism experience, will show Afghan officers and troops techniques that have worked in defeating Islamic terrorists and tribal separatists. India will not send troops to Afghanistan, but it already has security guards there to protect Indian aid workers (particularly those building roads and other infrastructure projects in the countryside.) Taliban attacks on these Indian projects has enraged India, not intimidated them. Indians are resented, and even hated, by Afghan religious conservatives. These attitudes result in actions like the recent Afghan ban on Indian soap operas. These shows are very popular on Afghan television, but enrage Islamic conservatives. That's because the daily episodes largely depict non-Moslems (most Indians are Hindus, a polytheistic religion that devout Moslems consider "pagan"). Bans on Indian media (movies, videos, magazines, as well as TV shows) are common in Afghanistan, and often are ineffective. Eventually bribes, or heavy demand, defeat the religious opposition.

No US plan to fight terror in Pakistan tribal belt: watchdog

AFP, 04/18/2008 - WASHINGTON - More than six years after the September 11 attacks, the United States still does not have a coherent plan to destroy a key staging area for terrorist attacks into the country, according to an independent government watchdog.

There is "no comprehensive plan" to destroy the terrorist threat and close down the safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), said the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The vast, impoverished, mountainous and unpoliced FATA belt shares a border with Afghanistan and is regarded by Washington as a key sanctuary for top terrorists who masterminded the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

US officials have said that Al-Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar are believed seeking refuge in the tribal areas, a charge vehemently denied by Pakistan, a key US ally in the "war on terror."

The FATA is also seen as a staging area for Al-Qaeda attacks in support of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where US and NATO troops have suffered heavy casualties battling a long drawn insurgency.

In addition, the report said the area was serving as a training center for new terrorist operatives to stage attacks in such areas as the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Officials from both the United States and Pakistan agreed that "Al-Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in Pakistan's FATA," said the report from GAO, the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress.

It urged relevant US security authorities to develop a comprehensive strategy to eradicate the FATA terrorist threat.

"We believe that such a plan would help to ensure coordination, integration, and implementation of US efforts to close the terrorist safe haven in the FATA," it said.

The GAO findings gave immediate ammunition to Democrats, who control Congress, to slam the Bush administration.

"It is appalling that there is still no comprehensive, interagency strategy concerning this critical region, and this lack of foresight is harming US national security," said Democratic lawmaker Howard Berman, head of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.

"Clearly, a bold new plan is urgently needed," said Senate foreign relations committee chairman Joseph Biden.

He said he and virtually all Democratic Senators sent a letter to President George W. Bush last week cautioning him that "an Al-Qaeda attack on the US homeland would likely originate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region."

"We urge you to work with Congress on a comprehensive new strategy to change course now, while time still remains," the letter said.

The Bush administration, Biden said, continued to deny congressional requests for details on some six billion dollars spent on "reimbursements" for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts.

Berman asked the administration to talk to the new civilian leadership in Pakistan to devise a "plan for victory over the extremist elements."

The GAO report said any comprehensive plan should place someone directly in charge of a multidepartment effort to improve accountability and articulate a clear strategy to destroy the FATA terrorist sanctuary.

The United States has provided Pakistan more than 10.5 billion dollars for military, economic, and development activities in the 2002-2007 period.

According to the US State Department, Pakistan deployed 120,000 military and paramilitary forces in the FATA and helped kill and capture hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives.

The operations had also left about 1,400 members of Pakistan's security forces dead.

Election delay is 'against constitution', MPs say

www.quqnoos.com - Written by Hamed Haidary Wednesday, 16 April 2008

MPs accuse commission of breaking constitution by delaying elections

MEMBERS of Parliament and political analysts have accused the Independent Election Commission of breaking the constitution by delaying next year’s presidential elections.

But the Independent Election Commission, which last week moved the 2009 elections from Spring to Autumn, says that any preparations for the elections would be made impossible by the winter weather if it stuck to the original date.

Khost MP Said Mohammad Gullab Zoi said yesterday (Tuesday): “If we change the law, we must ask the Lower House first. What the commission has done is against the constitution. No one can change the constitution.”

The commission made the decision to push back the elections the day after President Karzai told Parliament that the constitution would not by changed and that he would not extend his time in office.

The president must leave office on May 21 of his fifth year in power, according to Article 61 of the constitution. Presidential elections must be held within 30 to 60 days prior to the president stepping down, the Article says.

Some political analysts also accuse the commission of acting illegally by pushing the elections back, while others say the government forced the commission to delay the elections so it could remain in power for longer.

Political analyst, Ahmad Saedi, said: “Anybody who does something against constitution is breaking the law, and must be punished.”

But the independent election commission sticks by its decision, arguing that elections during spring would be “impossible”.

Deputy head of the Independent Election Commission, Zekria Barikzi, said: “If we launched elections in the spring, it would mean that we have to make some preparations at the end of winter, which is extremely difficult in Afghanistan, and almost impossible in some parts of the country.”

Govt ends funding for Afghanistan diplomat

RTE.ie, Ireland, Thursday, 17 April 2008

The Government has ended its financial support for the EU diplomat Michael Semple, who was expelled from Afghanistan amid claims that he was undermining the country's security.

Mr Semple, who is an Irish national, received around 10,000 a month from the Department of Foreign Affairs for his work in the country.

He was expelled from Afghanistan on Christmas Day, where he was Deputy EU Special Representative. He said he had been involved in 'reconciliation' work.

President Hamid Karzai claimed Mr Semple and UN worker Mervyn Patterson had met with members of the Taliban and had threatened national security. Last year Mr Semple received 120,000 from the Irish Aid budget.

Documents released to RTÉ News under the Freedom of Information Act show the Department of Foreign Affairs decided to end Mr Semple's funding in the days after his expulsion, with one official claiming he may have made an 'error of judgement'.

The documents also show that officials were not able to independently verify what Mr Semple had been doing before he was expelled. Mr Semple was told no money would be available to him were he to return to Afghanistan in some other role.

Funding ended at the same time as his mandate as deputy special representative. Officials noted that this appeared to be a 'logical break' and would avoid giving the appearance that it was linked to his expulsion.

Ex-Taliban ambassador hints at peace talks

www.quqnoos.com - Written by Mujahid Kakar Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Zaeef says foreigners must leave before Taliban negotiates with government

THE FORMER Taliban ambassador to Pakistan has hinted at a major shift in the Taliban’s policy towards opening peace talks with President Karzai’s government.

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the best known public faces of the Taliban, has said in an exclusive interview with Quqnoos.com that it was “still possible” for the Taliban and the government to start negotiating a peace deal.

“As long as foreigners are here, it will be difficult for the Taliban to negotiate. But it is still possible that the Taliban will open talks with the government and the people of Afghanistan.

“The negotiations will only work if Afghan people are making their own decisions and their own choices in the negotiations,” Zaeef told quqnoos.com. The comments signal a significant change in Taliban policy.

In the past, the militant group has refused to open peace talks with the government, which it previously accused of being a puppet regime propped up by foreigners.

Mullah Zaeef made it clear in the interview that the Taliban would only look to broker a peace deal with the government if the international community left Afghanistan.

“The only way to solve the problems and to stop the fighting is through negotiation. The only problem is the foreigners in the country,” Zaeef said.

He also said it was possible that the country’s former president and current United Front leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani, had already opened talks with the Taliban.

“Rabbanni is an Afghan: anyone from the north, east, south or west of Afghanistan can take part in the negotiations and take part in the peace process.”

But he denied that talks between the Taliban and Karzai’s government had already taken place. “The president has announced the issue several times through the media, but no practical steps have been taken.”

Despite this, some MPs think that Taliban-style draft laws, the recent ban on Indian soap operas and the new election date are all signs that the government is willing to appease the Taliban.

Some MPs argue that appeasing the Taliban would allow peace talks to begin, but others say Karzai is trying to at garner Taliban support before the 2009 elections.

New draft laws drawn up by the Commission for Anti-social Behaviour call for a ban on everything from women and men talking together in public to a ban on loud music and shops that sell “revealing” clothing.

In the interview, Zaeef defended the Taliban’s ideology and said that lawlessness in Afghanistan forced the group to take “such an extremist stance”.

“When the Taliban came to power, there was no discipline or regulation in Afghanistan. There was no regular army and everywhere there was fighting. “Under the Taliban, there was no fighting, there was security, there were no killings except those according to Sharia.”

He accused NATO of killing thousands of civilians, burning down homes and collectively killing Taliban supporters.

He branded Karzai’s government “unstable” and said it should tell foreigners to leave Afghanistan. The US army captured Zaeef in 2002 after he was refused political asylum in Pakistan.

He is no longer a member of the Taliban regime although many believe he acts as an unofficial mediator between the Karzai government and the Taliban.

Phoenix SPI: Canadians Pessimistic About Ability to Win in Afghanistan

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 17, 2008) - A new survey by Phoenix SPI finds that very few Canadians believe the NATO mission in Afghanistan will succeed in establishing a lasting democratic government in that country. Moreover, an overwhelming majority believes that once the NATO forces leave, Afghanistan will once again become a haven for terrorists.

- 64% of Canadians think that the NATO forces will fail in establishing a lasting democratic government in Afghanistan, compared to 30% who believe that the war can be won.

- 78% believe that once the NATO forces have left, Islamic radicals will move back into the country and use it as a base for terrorist activities. Only 15% of Canadians discount this possibility.

Methodology: telephone survey of 1039 adult Canadians, conducted April 8-12, 2008. Margin of error is ±3.0%, 19 times out of 20.

Established in 2003, Phoenix SPI is one of the top suppliers of public opinion research to the Government of Canada.

Opposition calls for removal of Bernier from Foreign Affairs

CAMPBELL CLARK - April 18, 2008, Globe and Mail

OTTAWA -- The three opposition parties in Ottawa have settled on one thing they all want: the head of Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.

After Mr. Bernier's gaffe this week in Afghanistan, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc have moved from criticism of his remarks to calls for him to be fired for what they insist is a broader pattern of incompetence.

Yesterday, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae called a news conference to devote 40 minutes to an indictment of Mr. Bernier as a Foreign Minister who, he said, is "in over his head." Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe echoed the call, saying Mr. Bernier is "not competent enough."

And the NDP's Paul Dewar proposed an innovative method of tormenting an errant minister, putting forward a motion to call Mr. Bernier to explain his performance to the opposition-dominated foreign affairs committee, who would then vote on whether they have confidence in the minister.

The calls for Mr. Bernier's resignation have been sparked by his diplomatic gaffe in Afghanistan, where he publicly suggested that Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid, who has faced allegations of corruption and involvement in torture, should be removed from office.

It alarmed diplomats who fear Canada's behind-the-scenes efforts to remove the governor have been injured. "Is it the right person at the right place, at the right time?" Mr. Bernier asked then. The government later issued a statement quoting Mr. Bernier as retracting the comment, but the damage was done.

"We could ask the same question about him. Is he the right man at the right place? What I'm saying is he's not, because this undermines Canadian diplomacy," Mr. Rae said.

"He's placed the government of Afghanistan in an impossible situation. If they do what Canada wants, it means that in the minds of people in Afghanistan they could say it is a weak government that responds only to external pressure."

He insisted that Mr. Bernier's problems run deeper, calling him a "weak minister" who has failed to act in international crises in Pakistan, Kenya, Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe, to take part in international initiatives such as those aimed at banning cluster bombs, or to press cases of Canadians abroad such as Brenda Martin, imprisoned in Mexico for more than two years before trial.

He noted that questions on foreign-policy issues in the Commons are often answered by other ministers, arguing it is a sign of confusion in the government.

Mr. Dewar noted that Mr. Bernier appeared unaware of his legal responsibilities as minister when asked about his role in approving the transfer of satellite licences when U.S. company Alliant Techsystems Inc. sought to buy the operator of Canada's Radarsat-2 satellite.

"What we need to do now is hold the minister to account ... to ask him questions as to, first of all, what was he thinking when he made the comments and mused out loud about the governor of Kandahar being removed? And what are his qualifications for the job?"

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has insisted that his Foreign Minister does not need to go, that his quick retraction showed he is up to the job. In the Commons on Tuesday, he called Mr. Bernier "a good Quebecker and a good Canadian who is working for Canadian interests internationally."

French Push in Afghanistan to Spur Bin Laden Hunt, EU Aide Says

By Marie-Louise Moller and James G. Neuger

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- France's plan to send a battalion to eastern Afghanistan improves the chances of catching terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, the European Union's anti- terror chief said.

Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda cohorts are operating out of rugged tribal areas along the ill-defined border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator.

France's dispatch of 700 troops to one of the hardest- fought regions of Afghanistan is ``an excellent sign'' of Western determination to hunt down bin Laden, De Kerchove said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Brussels yesterday. ``I'm very confident that our people will in the end find him.''

The survival of al-Qaeda's leadership, the rise of spinoff groups in northern Africa and the potential for home-grown radicalism in Europe have escalated the terrorist threat in the 27-nation EU, De Kerchove said.

De Kerchove said he has no specific intelligence pointing to the arrest of bin Laden, the ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, who has followed up last year's four public statements by making three so far in 2008.

Bin Laden eluded U.S. forces in the caves of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in December 2001, and since then has been a shadowy presence on global television screens with strategically timed predictions of doom for the West.

Some recent pronouncements came with subtitles in English and German, a sign that bin Laden is trying to mobilize followers in Europe, De Kerchove said.

Bin Laden is seeking ``to inspire behavior all over the world,'' De Kerchove said. ``So he's still active. As long as they can benefit from safe havens, of course they will remain active for some time.''

In a first stint in eastern Afghanistan, France put 200 special-forces troops under U.S. command from 2003 to 2006. The new battalion, offered by President Nicolas Sarkozy at this month's North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, would be under allied command.

De Kerchove said the EU is intent on stepping up contacts with the new government in Pakistan, noting that EU foreign- policy chief Javier Solana will travel to Islamabad in coming weeks with an offer of closer cooperation.

EU governments created the role of anti-terror coordinator after Islamic militants killed 191 people in bombings of commuter trains in Madrid in 2004, the deadliest terrorist attacks on European soil.

The post has loose authority to coordinate the counter- terror policies of EU governments, leaving ample room for the bureaucratic turf wars that the Department of Homeland Security has only begun to address in the U.S.

The first holder of the EU job, Gijs de Vries of the Netherlands, stepped down last year after failing to persuade national governments to give up more control over policing and intelligence gathering.

De Kerchove, 51, assumed a lower profile after taking the post in September. A trained lawyer, law professor and 13-year veteran of the EU's central institutions, the Belgian native brought an insider's knowledge of EU deal making that his predecessor lacked.

National cultures of secrecy, varying legal norms, a country-by-country jumble of police structures and the lack of a common immigration policy have hampered the EU's attempt to lash together its anti-terror operations.

In his first report since taking office, De Kerchove in November pointed to ``considerable deficiencies'' in national intelligence sharing as ``one of the main obstacles'' to a Europe-wide anti-terrorism strategy.

A meeting of EU justice ministers today and tomorrow is likely to widen the bloc's definition of terrorism to cover public incitement to commit terrorist acts and the use of the Internet to recruit and train operatives, De Kerchove said. ``This is a very important piece of legislation,'' De Kerchove said in the interview.

Britain, the scene of two failed Islamist terrorist bombings in 2007, rates the threat of an attack as ``highly likely,'' Europol, the EU's police-coordination arm, said in an April 9 assessment. Europol reported an increase in the threat level in the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain in 2007, and tabbed the threat as ``high'' in France and Italy.

``The level of the threat has increased these last months or weeks,'' De Kerchove said. ``As a whole, it's a bit higher than it was before.''

European police arrested 201 suspected Islamist terrorists in 2007, down from 257 in 2006. In addition to attacks in London and Glasgow that went awry, two plots -- by a three-person cell in Germany and an eight-person ring in Denmark -- were foiled in the planning stages.

De Kerchove pointed to sub-Saharan Africa as a breeding ground for anti-Western radicalism, noting the presence of training camps in Mauritania, Mali and Niger. Terrorism rooted in the Sahel region and in the Maghreb of northwest Africa is a ``serious and growing concern for Europe,'' he said.

Indian soap operas cause a stir in Afghanistan

By Jonathon Burch - Reuters Thursday, April 17, 2008

KABUL: Indian soap operas, with their tales of family drama and trysts among the rich and beautiful, have transfixed Afghans brought up on turgid state broadcasts and under a Taliban prohibition on television. But not everyone is a fan.

Conservative Muslim clerics and some politicians are outraged by the soap operas aired hour after hour by more than a dozen private television stations that have sprung up since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Branding the programs immoral and against Islamic culture, the critics have started a campaign to press the private channels to pull the plug on the soaps.

At Friday prayers at Kabul's largest mosque, Enayatullah Balegh, an influential cleric and university teacher, said that he and his followers were adamant.

"We are 6,000 people in this mosque," he said in front of his congregation, and his intention "is to go and blow up all the TV antennas if they do not stop it." The congregation chanted in response: "God is greatest, we are ready."

The clerics' campaign gained traction this month when some members of Parliament, supported by the Ministry of Information and Culture, issued a declaration to private TV channels to stop broadcasting five Indian soaps.

But the television stations appear defiant. "It is against the media law," Masoud Qiam, a senior presenter for Tolo TV, said in an interview, referring to the declaration. "We will not stop the airing of the soap operas."

Tolo is Afghanistan's most popular TV channel, broadcasting a mix of news and entertainment. It has had several brushes with conservatives over its fare. "We don't consider any of the programs against our culture. These are the most-watched programs that people like," Qiam said.

Conservatives object to the Indian soaps because they show men and women together, women dressed "immodestly" and the worship of Hindu idols. The channels have made concessions, cutting scenes of Hindu worship and blurring areas of bare flesh. But that hasn't appeased the critics.

"These programs have changed the behavior of our women and children; we don't want them," said Gullab Khan, who was attending Balegh's Friday prayers. "All Muslims know that these things are not allowed in Islam."

Afghan law forbids publication of material "contrary to the principles of Islam." Problems arise in the interpretation of the law. Despite a wave of unprecedented freedom since the overthrow of the puritanical Taliban, Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative Islamic society.

But more and more Afghans are returning from exile, bringing back new ideas. A large youthful population, particularly in the cities, is eager for new ways.

Afghanistan has its own pop stars who sing ballads and folk songs, and even a rap star. The Afghan version of the American Idol talent show, put out by Tolo, was a sensation but it also raised criticism, especially when a woman finished in third place.

President Hamid Karzai, who has a reputation as a liberal but has been under pressure from conservative forces over several issues including television, has stepped gingerly into the fray.

Trying to keep both sides happy in the run-up to a presidential election he is expected to contest next year, Karzai has insisted that media freedom will be upheld but added that unsuitable material should not be broadcast.

"There will never be interference with media freedom but media freedom should be compatible with the culture of the Afghan people," Karzai said at a recent news conference.

"We wish television to stop them," he said, referring to programs "in contradiction with daily life." Most viewers don't see any contradiction.

"I like Tulsi a lot, my children like her a lot," said Dell Jan, a mother of six, referring to the main character in one of the most popular Indian soaps. It is broadcast by Tolo and it is one of five shows the conservatives want taken off the air.

"When the serial starts on TV, we stop all work, even eating, and watch it," she said. "We love it — it's entertainment for the children."

Opium poppy eradication is fueling the Taliban; the U.S., NATO, and Afghan Government should focus on delivering increased livelihoods programs and enhancing interdiction of traffickers. Report released prior to major international meeting on Afghan policy in Tokyo on Wednesday 6 February; Hard copy of the report is available upon request. To get a copy, please provide your address and contact information to info.cic@nyu.edu.

New York - A report by the Center on International Cooperation of New York University – Counter-narcotics to Stabilize Afghanistan: the false promise of crop eradication - released in the run-up to a major international meeting on Afghan policy in Tokyo, warns that U.S.-driven efforts to eradicate the country's opium crop, rather than deprive the Taliban of funding, will instead make more drug money available to fund insurgency, terrorism, and corruption.

The report, co-authored by Barnett R. Rubin with Jake Sherman, argues that the international community's priority of eradicating opium production disproportionately harms impoverished farmers, who lack legal livelihoods. Depriving these rural communities of their livelihoods before secure alternatives are available drives them to align with the Taliban. The eradication policy also fails to target traffickers and processors at the high end of the value chain, whose gross profits make up 70-80 percent of the drug economy. It is their profits, not those of farmers, that are passed on Taliban, other illegal armed groups, and Afghan government officials who protect the drug trade.

“Proponents of ‘forced eradication’ believe they are integrating counter-narcotics with counter-insurgency, but instead are making badly conceived counter-narcotics a recruiter for the insurgency,” according to Rubin. “If ‘forced eradication’ is implemented where economic alternatives are not available, Afghans will conclude that foreigners are in Afghanistan only to pursue their own interests, not to help Afghanistan.”

The Joint Coordination and Management Board responsible for implementing the Afghanistan Compact (involving the U.S., financial donors, NATO troop contributors, the UN and the Afghan government) will meet in Tokyo on 6 February, and Professor Rubin argues that its substantive focus should be on overhauling counter-narcotics policy, promoting an alternative strategy involving:

• Increased targeting of major drugs traffickers and interdiction of drug convoys by NATO and Afghan forces;
• Ending forced opium eradication where Afghans lack confidence in economic alternatives;
• Gradual measures for the reconciliation and reintegration of cultivators and traffickers who are willing to support the government to move out of their illicit occupations;
• "Top to bottom" reform of the Afghan Ministry of the Interior, with a primary focus on rooting out corrupt senior officials.

The report concludes that if the international community and Afghan government do not develop a new counter-narcotics strategy involving these elements, the continued impact of eradication on poor communities may provoke resistance to the current Afghan government on a level comparable to that against the misguided land reforms of the Communist authorities and Soviets in 1978-79, presenting the government’s international supporters with a choice of military escalation or defeat. Counter-narcotics done properly is exactly what Afghans have been asking for: removing criminal power holders and bringing security and development.

Carryings on up the Khyber
By Andrew McGregor – Asia Times online 4.11.08

Taliban deputy leader Mullah Bradar Muhammad Akhand announced "a new series of operations" under the code name Operation Ebrat (Lesson) on March 27. The Taliban's spring offensive is "aimed at giving the enemy a lesson through directing powerful strikes at it, which it can never expect, until it is forced to end the occupation of Afghanistan and withdraw all the occupier soldiers ... We will add to the tactics and experiences of the past years new types of operations. The operations will also be expanded to cover all locations of the country, in order for the enemy to be weighed down everywhere."

There are indications that a main target of the offensive will be the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier, in particular the strategically vital Khyber Pass. Citing an improvement in the skills and capacity of

the Afghanistan National Army (ANA), Afghanistan's Defense Ministry immediately dismissed the announcement as "a psychological campaign and not a reality which could be implemented on the ground". In reality, the situation along the border is extremely precarious and threatens the ability of coalition forces to operate within Afghanistan.

The first in a planned series of six joint intelligence centers along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border was opened at the Afghanistan border town of Torkham on March 29.

When the plan is fully implemented there will be three such centers on each side of the border at a cost of US$3 million each. There are high hopes for the centers, which have been described by the US commander in Afghanistan as "the cornerstone upon which future cooperative efforts will grow". According to US Brigadier General Joe Votel, "The macro view is to disrupt insurgents from going back and forth, going into Afghanistan and back into Pakistan, too. This is not going to instantly stop the infiltration problem, but it's a good step forward."

The centers are designed to coordinate intelligence-gathering and sharing between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the intelligence agencies of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The project is an outgrowth of the earlier Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) established in Kabul in January 2007. This center, comprising 12 ISAF, six Afghan and six Pakistani intelligence officers, was initiated by the military intelligence sharing working group, a subcommittee of the tripartite plenary commission of military commanders that meets on a bimonthly basis. The JIOC is designed to facilitate intelligence-sharing, joint operations planning and an exchange of information on improvised explosive devices. The working languages are English, Dari and Pashto, aided by a number of translators.

The new border centers will each be manned by 15 to 20 intelligence agents. One of the main innovations is the ability to view real-time video feeds from US surveillance aircraft. The commander of US troops in Afghanistan, Major General David Rodriguez, described the centers as "a giant step forward in cooperation, communication and coordination".

Despite such glowing descriptions, there remains one hitch - Pakistan's military has yet to make a full commitment to the project. According to Major General Athar Abbas, the director general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations, a military information organization, "At this time this proposal is being analyzed and evaluated by the concerned officials. But Pakistan has not yet come to a decision on this matter.".

General Abbas and other officials have declined to discuss Pakistan's reservations or even to commit to a deadline for a decision. It is possible that the failure to sign on as full partners in the project may have something to do with the stated intention of Pakistan's new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, to pursue a greater focus on negotiation than military action in dealing with the Taliban and other frontier militants. There may also be reservations on the part of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to share intelligence on their clients within the Taliban.

Actual intelligence cooperation along the border is hampered by a number of factors, not least of which is a basic inability to agree on exactly where the border lies. In the past, Pakistan has responded to complaints from Afghanistan of Taliban fighters infiltrating across the border by threatening to fence or even mine the frontier, a shocking proposal to the Pashtun clans that straddle the artificial divide. Afghanistan's long-standing policy is simply to refuse recognition of the colonial-era Durand Line, which it claims was forced on it by British imperialists in 1893. Pakistan accepts the Durand Line, but the two nations are frequently unable to agree on exactly where the 2,400-kilometer line is drawn.

The United States is pursuing a number of initiatives to increase security and diminish the influence of the Taliban in the frontier regions of Pakistan, including a massive economic aid program, counter-insurgency training for the Frontier Corps and enhancement of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) monitoring and surveillance abilities in the area.

The CIA already gathers information on the region from overflights of its unmanned Predator surveillance aircraft, which can also deliver precisely targeted missiles on suspected Taliban safe houses. Complicating efforts to increase security in the border region is a belief within Pakistan that the United States is preparing to intervene militarily in Pakistan's frontier region.

In a March 30 interview, CIA director Michael Hayden declared that the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region would be the most probable source for new terrorist attacks on the United States: "If there is another terrorist attack, it will originate there." The CIA chief warned that the situation along the border "presents a clear and present danger to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, and to the West in general and to the United States in particular". Hayden also suggested that Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were present in the Pakistan tribal frontier, where they were training "operatives who look Western".

A spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry responded angrily to the CIA director's comments, stating that if the United States has information about the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leadership, it should share it with Pakistan so it can take action. "Such a statement does not help trace alleged hideouts ... Terrorists have threatened Pakistan and targeted our people. We are, therefore, combating terrorism in our own interest."

Syed Munawar Hasan, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic political party, suggested that Hayden's statements were "white lies", similar to Washington's allegations of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Munawar urged the new government to stand fast in the face of what he described as US threats to invade Pakistan, despite the establishment of a democratic government. The provincial assembly of the North-West Frontier Province issued a unanimous condemnation of Hayden's remarks.

The location of the first joint intelligence center at Torkham reflects the strategic importance of this border town at the Afghanistan end of the fabled Khyber Pass.

It is the main gateway for supplies to US and ISAF forces within Afghanistan and is believed to be one of the main targets for the forthcoming Taliban spring offensive. Linking Afghanistan's Nangarhar province and Pakistan's Khyber Agency, Torkham is traditionally the busiest commercial border post between the two countries.

A new round of attacks on Torkham may have already begun - as many as 40 oil tankers destined for coalition forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in a series of explosions in a Torkham parking lot on March 20. There were 70 to 100 tankers awaiting clearance to cross into Afghanistan at the time.

Only a day before the attack on the tankers, an effort by a US Army colonel to expedite border clearances for military transports at Torkham failed when the chief Pakistani customs official refused to meet with her. Vehicles typically wait in parking lots at Torkham for up to 20 days awaiting clearance to proceed.

Part of the problem is due to delays in permits faxed to Torkham from the US base in Bagram near Kabul - until these are received the vehicles are forbidden to cross into Afghanistan. There are also accusations that some tanker operators may be selling their fuel along the road in Pakistan before deliberately torching their vehicles at Torkham to claim the insurance on the missing load.

Torkham has also become a nearly unregulated transit point for legal and illegal migrants since the demolition of the border gate by the National Highway Authority of Pakistan two years ago. A series of meetings between Afghan and Pakistani officials - attended as well by NATO officials - has been unable to agree on the design and other details of a replacement gate. Smuggling and illegal crossings have spun out of control while tensions between the respective border authorities nearly erupted into open fighting in September 2006.

Pakistan's reluctance to make a full commitment to intelligence-sharing raises a number of difficult questions: Is the ISI still cooperating with or even aiding the Afghan Taliban? Do the military and the intelligence services operate outside of political control? Is it possible to collaborate with the Taliban and not the Taliban's allies, al-Qaeda? Why do the better-armed and better-trained regular forces frequently relinquish their security role in the frontier regions to the poorly-equipped Pashtun Frontier Corps?

After a meeting on security and terrorism issues with chief of army staff Ashfaq Pervez Kiani on April 3, a spokesman for Gillani stated that the prime minister was formulating a comprehensive terrorism strategy "based on political engagement, economic development and backed by a credible military element". Many within the new government believe that President Pervez Musharraf's aggressive military approach to the frontier crisis over the past several years is responsible for the recent rash of suicide bombings and other attacks that have taken scores of lives across the country.

In the meantime, there is a dangerous lack of coordination on border issues in which all parties bear responsibility. There is every indication that the Taliban have identified Torkham as a crucial weak point in the supply and logistics system that maintains the international military presence in Afghanistan. The failure to share intelligence combined with bureaucratic delays and infighting along the Afghanistan/Pakistan frontier threatens the entire coalition mission in Afghanistan.

Dr Andrew McGregor is the director of Aberfoyle International Security in Toronto, Canada.

Advocating Canadian Leadership on Afghan Aid

By Jeff Davis - Embassy, April 16th, 2008

Oxfam International released a widely circulated report last month by its Kabul-based Afghanistan policy adviser, Matt Waldman, that was highly critical of international development efforts in the Central Asian country.

Mr. Waldman was in Ottawa last week to talk aid effectiveness with officials from Canada's Afghanistan task forces, ministerial staffers, and opposition politicians, including Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae, NDP Defence critic Dawn Black and NDP Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar.

Embassy had a chance to sit down with Mr. Waldman to discuss his report and the overall state of development in Afghanistan. The following is an edited excerpt of that interview:

Why did you come to Ottawa?

We have been advocating to and lobbying policymakers and politicians on the recommendations in these reports. We've also been arguing for Canada to take a leading role on taking the case to other large donors, especially the U.S., to improve the international engagement in Afghanistan and for those donors to improve the quality of their aid. We think Canada is in a strong position, given the presence of its troops, its very large contribution of aid and its very well regarded aid programs, to really [lobby others] to adopt the best practices in terms of aid and development work.

How is the international community doing in terms of funding development efforts in Afghanistan?

I think it is clear that there has been progress, but it has been slow and has not been sufficient. We report that only $15 billion of aid has been dispersed, and according to research that has been undertaken in Afghanistan and other post-conflict countries, Afghanistan has received only relatively little in comparison [to other post-conflict situations]. It's hard to calculate exactly the difference, but relatively speaking, when you look at aid per capita, it's been significantly less than post-conflict states such as Bosnia or East Timor.

Which donor countries are doing well in terms of aid and development efforts?

Britain and Canada are doing well in their aid work. Both countries allocate a majority of their aid to international trust funds, which support the work of the Afghan government, and national programs, which have proven effective, such as the Afghan National Solidarity Programs.... We're concerned about the United States. We think it could co-ordinate its aid better and provide more aid to the Afghan government, or at least in agreement with the Afghan government.


How much of the development money from international donors is actually reaching the people of Afghanistan?

We estimate that perhaps as much as 40 per cent of international aid to Afghanistan is going back to donor countries in the form of corporate profits of the large contracting companies and in the high salaries of expatriate consultants.... What we have to do is rigorously assess whether each on of those consultants, who cost in total up to half a million dollars per year, whether they are providing value for money.... It's important to note Canadian aid doesn't suffer from this problem.... And I should say that still over half of aid to Afghanistan is "tied," by which the donor countries require the procurement of good and services from their own states. So of course, that is, in many cases, not cost effective. In addition to that, it is in our view breaching a responsibility that donors undertook in the Afghanistan Compact to increasingly use Afghan resources, whether that's materials or national staff. Support for the local economy could make a big
difference.

How is the development of Afghan agriculture coming along?

We think there has been a severe under-resourcing of agriculture in Afghanistan, despite the fact that perhaps 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture. We think that perhaps some $500 or $600 million has been spent directly on agricultural projects over the last six years. This is broadly equivalent to what the U.S. military spends in Afghanistan in one week. So you can see that in some sense it is not surprising that people are growing poppy when there are few genuine, sustainable, reliable alternatives in terms of other crops or farming opportunities.... It is a matter of real urgency to build the capacity of the Department of Agriculture at the local level. In some provinces they have fewer than 20 staff, some of whom have no qualifications in agriculture at all and only limited funds for programs

How are development efforts going in Kandahar province?

What we've seen is that there's been some progress but it is being jeopardized by increasing insecurity. There's no doubt there have to be intensive efforts to promote civilian-led processes in development. That means building the institutions of the Afghan state at the local level, because the ministries are concentrated in Kabul.

Good roads and irrigation surpassing security issues? Call that success

SEAN M. MALONEY | April 9, 2008 | MacLeans’s

The Nyala armoured vehicle rolls out of Camp Nathan Smith on a cold morning, headed west of Kandahar city. The troops have an iPod speaker system in back, incongruously blasting AC/DC's Highway to Hell. "I would have preferred Blue Öyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper!" I yell to Sgt.-Maj. Michel Pelletier, who laughs and nods. The Nyala and its LAV III escorts wind their way through the city and up a pass. In no time, thanks to the new paved road, we're overlooking Arghandab district, a rolling agricultural zone flanking the vital Arghandab River. Surrounded by hills and with the Dala Dam situated like a cork in a bottle to the north of the valley, this district is vital ground for the security forces. It is the western gateway to Kandahar city.

We're here for the weekly shura with the district's formal and informal leadership. We dismount, meet up with "Hamid," our interpreter, and pass by bored policemen and through a maze of shoes left outside by the attendees. The meeting room is cozy and soon crowded. I'm amazed by the different varieties of turban worn by the bearded district elders: greys, browns, gold piping, silver piping. The turban is an expression of individuality and class in an otherwise dun-coloured environment. Everybody is shaking hands and I hear parchment-like flesh rasp as an elder grips my hand and raises his hand to his heart. I return the gesture: "Assalaam alaikum!" There are elaborate greetings: "How are you, God be praised?" "My health is good. God willing, my crops will also be plentiful this season. How is your health?" Chai is offered and poured. Pelletier and I are introduced, and the shura begins.

Shuras are robust, lively meetings: I've attended many in Afghanistan. I'm expecting recriminations about security — where are the coalition forces? What are we doing about corrupt police? About insurgent intimidation? I brace myself for a barrage of finger pointing. Pelletier asks about security, and a bearded Pashtun wearing spectacles rebuffs the question. "It isn't a matter of security. We want to talk about generators for electricity. We want to improve the irrigation system along the river. Oh, and you're building roads for those who hate you in Panjwai district. We like you — but you're not building roads in Arghandab! Why not?" The shura erupts in a chorus of guttural "Wuhs!", Pashtun for "Yeah!" I'm taken aback. For a shura to be focused solely on development issues is a complete turnaround from last fall, when Canadian and Afghan forces were fighting to eject the Taliban from the banks of the Arghandab.

In late October 2007, there was a flurry of reports that the Taliban were going to seize Arghandab district, about five kilometres northwest of Kandahar city. The district's patriarch, the charismatic Mullah Naqib, had recently died from complications in the wake of an assassination attempt, leaving a power vacuum. The Canadian intelligence apparatus kept a careful watch, but until the enemy brought together forces and made an overt move, little could be done to pre-empt them. Then, some 200 Taliban fighters infiltrated the district in small numbers and massed across the river from the district centre. They told the population they were in charge.

A tidal wave of cellphone calls from the inhabitants caused a panic within Kandahar city, and as far away as Quetta, Pakistan, and even the United States. The exponential growth of the cellphone network in southern Afghanistan, practically non-existent back in 2003, dramatically escalated this panic, as did the local and international media. Karen Foss, a Foreign Affairs staffer at the Provincial Reconstruction Team, received calls from practically everybody she knew in Kandahar: " I had a friend who lived in the city that was even prepared to cancel his wedding. We had a disturbance in Arghandab, and here were people convinced that the city was about to fall!" Essentially, 200 enemy fighters managed to intimidate a city with a population of around a half-million. Inadvertently.

Retaking Arghandab district was a geographical imperative as much as a psychological one. Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, his commanders and Afghan allies could not allow the Taliban to gain a foothold. "It was critical that Arghandab not be turned into another Zharey [where the enemy is entrenched next to the city], so we went in as quickly as we could," Laroche explained. "The enemy had continuously tried to surround and interdict Kandahar city — it is his objective. We couldn't allow this to take place."

Within 24 hours, lightning speed in circumstances like this, B Company from 3rd Battalion, the Royal 22nd Regiment, pulled out of their positions and headed north. The new Leopard 2 A6M tanks from the Strathcona's C Squadron linked up with an Afghan National Army infantry company. With the tanks and the Afghans on the left and Maj. Dave Abboud's B Company on the right, the combined force led by Lt.-Col. Alain Gauthier fought its way through the complex terrain of woods, fields and compounds west of the river. Afghan National Police forces screened to the east. "The battle took two days," said Abboud. "We had a couple of really sharp firefights. We went in dismounted because of the terrain. The Taliban weren't expecting that. They're used to us fighting from vehicles or blowing us up with IEDs."

The Taliban force was corralled, with the Afghans and the tanks pushing them east and B Company pressuring them to move north and away from the river. A single air strike killed a group of Taliban after they pulled back and were consulting with their commanders, leaving the snake headless. Resistance collapsed and the tattered remnants melted away. "The word that we'd succeeded in Arghandab got out as quickly as the panic had," Karen Foss explained. Canadian and Afghan forces were treated to what amounted to a victory parade as they departed. For Dave Abboud, it was the proudest moment of his career thus far. "We were exhausted, but the people were lining up and cheering. It was like Holland in 1944."

The importance of operations like Arghandab won't show up in the pessimistic, sterile numbers generated by international organizations and think tanks based in Kabul, organizations whose personnel rarely travel to the south. I asked the PRT commander, Lt.-Col. Bob Chamberlain, why this was the case. "Our Civil Miliary Co-operation [CIMIC] people have their pulse on the communities in ways that those groups don't. They rely on polling conducted through various intermediaries. We hear that the local people are tired of constantly being asked questions by strangers. The possibility that the numbers don't accurately reflect attitudes and dissatisfactions is very real. It is only through constant contact with the communities that we can even approach some understanding of what is going on here," Chamberlain emphasizes, "especially in terms of development."

Panic similar to the Arghandab event, however, exists within the development community. The kidnapping of a female U.S. aid worker in January led to more "the-sky-is-falling" behaviour from the NGOs, who assumed it was Taliban action. It is still not clear whether it was or not, but it sparked fear and, in some cases, was used as an excuse to suspend activities. "The issue here," Rashid, an Afghan friend, tells me, "is that there is a severe perception problem. We are constantly astounded by the pronouncements of some of these organizations. It just doesn't conform to what we're seeing here in terms of enemy activity. Or in terms of development."

The reality is that the development is uneven. The most egregious failure I saw was the inability of the Canadian International Development Agency to carefully monitor paving progress on Highway 4, the vital millennia-old trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan. CIDA dismissed reports from Canadian reconnaissance squadrons that work was not being done, preferring to rely on the reports of its contracted partners. After five months, tens of kilometres of road remain an unpaved dust bowl with frequent jingle truck rollovers, their cargoes spilled out on the ground, leaking lubricants and fuel. I travelled to Spin Buldak with Maj. Pete Huet's Recce Squadron along Highway 4 — there is no security problem from Kandahar city until you get to the outskirts of Spin Buldak, where Taliban suicide bombers constantly try (and fail) dramatically to kill Col. Abdul Rezziq, the local commander of the border police. For a country that built a railroad through British Columbia, there is no excuse for the lack of progress in paving Highway 4.

On the plus side, CIDA's ability to work through intermediaries has paid off in health care. CIDA's representatives are upbeat about the polio eradication program, and particularly about education efforts to improve birthing techniques in the remote districts, even those with a significant enemy presence. Indeed, I was told that UNICEF would not even be operating in the province if it weren't for the Canadian PRT and the Canadian Forces working alongside the aid agencies in the field. CIDA representatives are at the forefront of "banging on the doors of the development community" to get more action in the south, according to a CIDA staffer.

I spoke with Bob Chamberlain about blockages in development at the provincial level. "Asadullah Khalid [the Kandahar governor] is now down to two cellphones from six. He now has more and better staff and he's finally delegating." In the past, the governor was focused nearly exclusively on security issues, but now he is directing more attention to economic and social development. I sat in with the Provincial Development Committee, an organization that had been moribund for the past two years, and was surprised that real business was actually discussed: in this case, a $22-million CIDA project to improve the water and sewage system in Kandahar city. Such discussions, and the amounts of money, would have been inconceivable a year ago.

To find out how this was all working at the district level, I went with Sgt. Dan Frenette to Dand district, south of the city. Like the Arghandab shura, the Dand shura was focused on development. Frenette said the local community development councils — effectively village councils — were now working with district development assemblies to sort out priorities among themselves without immediately coming to the Canadian PRT. There is, however, a severe backlog in uncompleted projects, which is generating grievances. One reason is the emergent provincial mechanisms. As one Dand shura member told me, "Our dissatisfaction is with the province. Kabul is a remote place. We don't know anybody there. Canada is even further away."

There's also frustration with the slow pace CIDA and the NGOs operate at, their traditional development timelines (which can run into years), and a comparative lack of accountability. Such organizations are not used to having to react quickly in a counterinsurgency environment, and are completely unaccustomed to the sort of microscopic scrutiny and demands for accountability that are brought to bear on the Canadian Forces in the post-Somalia environment.

There are other needless delays. For example, according to PRT staffers, demands from bureaucracies in Ottawa that the Sarpoza Provincial Prison should somehow conform to Canadian building code and Western human rights standards have frustrated Correctional Services of Canada. This has a spillover effect on improving the justice system — if you have no place to put people, is there any point in arresting them? "Why should prisoners have a higher standard of living than the average Afghan citizen?" one bewildered PRT staffer explained.

The Taliban contests Zharey district and the northern part of Panjwai district. Another agriculturally rich area, it abuts the vital Highway 1, the main east-west highway in southern Afghanistan. In 2005, coalition forces didn't venture into Zharey district. After several battles in 2006 and incursions in 2007, the Taliban are now on the defensive and are incapable of using the area as a base to attack Kandahar city or to interdict Highway 1. Maj. Louis Lapointe leads the Police Operational Mentor and Liaison Team in the area. "We have several improvements in this district — the police now have a joint coordination centre and we now have a 911 tip line. The expansion of the cellphone system has led to more and better information on enemy and criminal activity in the district. We now have locals telling us when the enemy lays IEDs." Afghan police and army personnel are now largely responsible for Zharey, with Canadian mentoring backup. The enemy is so frustrated he is now burning cellphone towers to stop the flow of information — even though the insurgents need the same system to communicate.

Capt. Mike Laroque, the passionate and energetic CIMIC leader for Panjwai, is involved with several projects, including road paving. This joint project employs 450 local men and will eventually connect both districts. "This serves several purposes," he says. "Employed people are less inclined to be insurgents, and the population has a stake in the project and will be inclined to protect it. We get better security from IEDs, and communities can get produce to markets more efficiently."

The effect of these and other operations has been to force the Taliban away from the more important centres in both districts — and away from Highway 1 and the city. The Taliban still lash out with IED attacks, but the movement has lost a lot of ground with the populations of both districts, and is at present incapable of mounting the same level of violence it exhibited back in 2006

The action is shifting west. Maywand district has had a reputation as Taliban-dominated, a seam between Helmand province and Kandahar province, and one of the insurgents' logistics routes into Zharey district. Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard, commander of ISAF's Regional Command South, decided to launch a series of raids into Maywand using the 1st Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, a British unit that is the ISAF's southern regional mobile reserve. I accompanied the Gurkhas, led by Lt.-Col. Jonny Bourne, on this operation.

The Gurkha battalion flew in at night on Chinook and Lynx helicopters and surprised the insurgents in Maywand. Those who panicked and tried to escape were killed by air strikes. Others who hid among the population were flushed out as the Gurkhas searched compounds and discovered a number of cars that were being prepared as suicide bomb vehicles, and vast amounts of information on enemy intentions and structures. Enemy leaders in Maywand were even instructed by their command to escape the onslaught and make their way to Pakistan, but several were apprehended. At the same time the Afghan army rolled into the town of Hutel and conducted joint patrols throughout the area with the Maywand police, who had recently been replaced to a man as their predecessors were fired for hijacking World Food Programme convoys. The population was pleasantly surprised by the show of force: "We have an army again!" one grinning elder proudly told me.

The Gurkhas took time to attend community shuras, where the locals enjoyed the novelty of encountering British-led Nepalese troops, who in some cases spoke common languages and who bought, cooked and ate the same animals they did rather than relying on precooked rations. Expecting hostile pro-Taliban locals, the force got a surprise. "We're thinking of establishing an army strong point here," Bourne said, sounding out the shuras. "What do you think?" Invariably, the response from the grey-bearded elders was, "Sure. If you keep those corrupt bastard police from Hutel away!"

The Taliban were exploiting local grievances for their purposes and even pretending to be police. When I asked an elder what he thought about the Taliban, he said "They're un-Islamic bastards who can do nothing but kill. But what do we do if the police don't protect us?" It was the kind of story heard in Zharey and Panjwai back in 2006. No Taliban stronghold here, just a place where security and governance haven't yet arrived.

Six years into Afghanistan, and two years after Canadian troops took on the volatile south, all types of violence employed by the Taliban in Kandahar province are at significantly lower levels compared to 2006. There have been two rocket attacks against Kandahar airfield in the past three months: one on Christmas Eve, and one in February. In the summer and fall of 2006, there were rocket attacks nearly every second night. The Canadian base at Masum Ghar has been rocket-free for nearly three months; a Canadian Leopard 2 engaged and destroyed a Taliban rocket team with its 120-mm gun and the attacks dropped off. There are no longer suicide car-bomb attacks on Highway 4. Ambush activity on Highway 1 is low. At this point, the Taliban are incapable of holding districts with positional defence like they tried in 2006. All they can do is launch IED attacks against the security forces, blow up civilians with suicide bombers and conduct "night letter" intimidation campaigns. The Taliban do not control any of the critical districts they need to control Kandahar city. Without Kandahar city, they cannot succeed in southern Afghanistan. Special operations forces have made the city a lethal place for terrorists. When all is said and done, the Taliban have been continuously thwarted in their stated aims over the course of the past three years.

Most importantly, the Taliban have completely failed to provide a serious alternative for the Afghan people. Indeed, the government and its allies hold the initiative and have forced the Taliban to react to their development gains. Elders in Panjwai district sent a delegation to Quetta, where the Taliban is headquartered, and told them to stop attacking schools. There hasn't been a school attack in months. The Taliban backed away from interfering with health care delivery — in 2005, they were assassinating doctors and nurses. If the insurgents again use violence against doctors and teachers, they will lose influence with the population. If they do not attack, the development effort succeeds, and the Taliban lose influence over time to the government.

The most encouraging sign is the new splits that have appeared within the Taliban movement itself. The horrifying suicide attack that killed 100 and wounded 80 in February was so counterproductive that the Taliban refused to take credit for it. "The commanders who perpetrated that attack are now at odds with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, who has always been leery of mass casualty attacks directed against the civilian population," one analyst explained. A second attack the following day in Spin Buldak was probably not related to the first one, but the public backlash after another 38 deaths is causing some angst within the Quetta shura.

The first high-level defectors from the movement are coming forward, particularly Mullah Abdul Salaam in Helmand province. Salaam, who had been fighting the coalition and the government since 2002, has now changed sides and brought his fighters with him. Other commanders in Kandahar are inquiring about amnesty. Their reasons? Their followers are losing their enthusiasm in the face of improved security measures and no longer relish the corporeal non-existence generated by a precision air strike or the ignominy of being killed at night by adversaries they can't see. Consequently, the movement is starting to rely on more and more foreign fighters, who will be easier to kill because they can't blend into the population.

As one analyst quips, "If the Taliban can't get it up in 2008, they might as well just PTS [join the amnesty program] or commit suicide and get it over with. They are accomplishing nothing, and they have nothing to offer. Why do more people have to die? To what end? The greater glory of God? Or Mullah Omar? Or Osama bin Laden?"

The Taliban may very well wind up like the IRA, with splits generating ultra-violent but minority factions of smaller and smaller size until the effort peters out. Or it may be supplanted by al-Qaeda, much like the PLO was supplanted by Hamas in Gaza. The violence may not completely stop, but the coalition forces and their Afghan partners have a real opportunity to make up for lost time, provided bureaucratic gridlock and competition do not prove insurmountable.

'Employers Meeting' Held in Kabul in Preparation for the Graduation of The Afghanistan Technical Vocational Institute's (ATVI) Inaugural Class

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 25th, 2008, USAID Public Sector, in partnership with ATVI, held the first of a series of events scheduled through April 2008, titled "Employer's Meeting: Building Careers for Vocational Students". The seminar was led and largely organized by Ambassador Sardar Roshan, Executive Director of ATVI, and was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, and was implemented in part by the Student Leadership Team of ATVI. The Employer's Meeting highlighted ATVI's accomplishments, especially the achievements of its first graduating class. The Employer's Meeting also emphasized ATVI's capacity to produce qualified candidates in large numbers on a yearly basis in four sectors critical to the country's economical rehabilitation:

ICT, Automotive Systems, Construction and Horticulture. "We developed the training courses for these sectors to reflect and supplement the country's needs. Offering a potential workforce the tools necessary to succeed, it will encourage the rebuilding of a war-torn society," said Mr. A. H. Farouki, CEO of ANHAM LLC. ANHAM LLC, in partnership with the Afghanistan Ministry of Education, USAID, and Knowlogy International funded the construction and first year operation of the Institute. Knowlogy International is a subsidiary of ANHAM LLC, both of whom provided the majority of the funding needed to put ATVI on the road to success.

H.E. Mr. Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Minister of Education, led the event as the Keynote Speaker, announcing the graduates' eligibility for programs in both private and governmental sectors. H.E. Mr. Atmar has been involved with ATVI since its inception in September of 2006. Mr. Donnie Harrington, USAID Acting Deputy Mission Director, offered opening remarks following H.E. Mr. Atmar. USAID has been a critical participant in the funding effort leading to ATVI's construction and development. The Employer's Meeting was attended by over eighty five firms, the ATVI faculty and Student Leadership Team, as well as US and local government officials and media.

The attending firms encompassed all four sectors highlighted by the ATVI curriculum. The majority of the firms participating in the Employer's Meeting are also scheduled to attend the Job Fair. The participating speakers and panelists represented each sector highlighted at ATVI, with men and women equally represented. The prominence of female representation at the Employer's Meeting demonstrated the public's dedication to supporting the education and career development of women in the workplace. "Everyone involved with ATVI is happy to see the first class of graduates embark on their chosen careers, prepared to fulfill their roles in the rebuilding efforts of Afghanistan as responsible, productive citizens," said Mr. Farouki. Ambassador Sardar Roshan, Executive Director of ATVI provided closing remarks as well as thanks to all attendees. He emphasized his satisfaction and enthusiasm for the great strides ATVI has made in a year's time, as well as the foundation it has firmly set for its graduating class and current students. Through the cooperation of the Afghanistan Government, private entities, and public institutions, the pool of immediately employable candidates will create a cycle of community and economic development. This will become the source of Afghanistan's rebuilding efforts as they increase productivity, and overcome cultural and social obstacles. About ATVI:

ATVI is a co-educational facility where students are competitively selected through an examination process for the one-year condensed course. ATVI provides training for male and female students, drawn from Kabul, other major cities, and the rural areas. As a co-educational institution designed to support and educate all potentially productive members of Afghan society, ATVI strives to maintain a minimum threshold of 10% female enrollment. ATVI faculty and staff are highly qualified; all hold international educations, degrees, and certifications. More than half of the faculty members hold a Master's degree or higher. In order to build a self-sufficient, income generating institute, ATVI incorporates profit centers as a major component of its operations. These profit centers benefit the Institute, the local community, and the student as they provide the hands-on experience needed to compound and complement the education provided in the classroom. Designed to be mutually beneficial, the profit centers offer students the opportunity to experience and train for their chosen career in a real-life environment, the local community purchasing the service is charged a competitive and affordable fee, and the provided revenue is used to maintain scholarship programs and facility upkeep. About ANHAM, LLC: ANHAM, LLC (http://www.anham.com) is a leading contracting firm working throughout the Middle East and North Africa ("MENA"), Central Asia, and Europe. With a century's worth of experience between its principal founding companies, ANHAM is able to efficiently, effectively, and affordably deliver products and services throughout the world. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, ANHAM has international offices that specialize in providing local support and services to its initiatives, projects, and investments across diverse regions of the globe.

[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.]