In this bulletin:

• World's oldest oil paintings in Afghanistan
• Schools torched, teachers missing in Afghanistan: police
• Afghan police kill 9 Taliban fighters in Kandahar
• 6 police killed at checkpoint in southern Afghanistan
• Indian, Nepalese abducted in Afghanistan: officials
• Afghan Ministry Bans the Broadcast of 5 Foreign Soap Operas
• Afghan leader says he backs ban on hit Indian soaps
• British soldier killed, one injured in Afghan explosion: ministry
• Gates: U.S. air force not doing enough in Iraq, Afghanistan
• Half of Afghan children not in school, U.N. says
• Afghan leader calls for support
• EU minister supports peace-talks with the Taliban
• Afghanistan: no way out, says serving U.S. officer
• Pakistani Taliban welcome release of militant chief: spokesman
• TNSM renounces militancy; Sufi Mohammad freed
• Pakistan sending Afghan refugees back home despite warnings
• Afghan minister arrives in Islamabad for four-nation talks on gas pipeline
• Afghan government to buy US$50 million ( € 31.4 million) food relief as prices skyrocket
• Press conference by Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Country Representative, Shigeru Aoyagi, UNESCO Country Representative and Nilab Mobarez, UNAMA Spokeperson's Office
• RAF destroys £10m spy plane in Afghanistan
• Dam Busters
• Oda is in Kabul
• Oda joins controversial governor at literacy event in Kandahar city
• Bernier thwarted Khalid's departure as Kandahar governor: parliamentarian
• U.S. Military Plan for Dying Afghan Girl Goes Awry

World's oldest oil paintings in Afghanistan

Tue Apr 22, 2008, KABUL (Reuters) - Scientists said on Tuesday they have proved the world's first ever oil paintings were in caves near two destroyed giant statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, hundreds of years before oil paint was used in Europe.

Samples from paintings, dating from the 7th century AD, were taken from caves behind two statues of Buddha in Bamiyan blown up as un-Islamic by Afghanistan's hardline Taliban in 2001.

Scientists discovered paintings in 12 of the 50 caves were created using oil paints, possibly from walnut or poppy, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France said on its Web site on Tuesday.

"This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world, although drying oils were already used by ancient Romans and Egyptians, but only as medicines and cosmetics," said Yoko Taniguchi, leader of the team of scientists.

It was not until the 13th century that oil was added to paints in Europe and oil paint was not widely used in Europe till the early 15th century.

Bamiyan was once a thriving Buddhist centre where monks lived in a series of caves carved into the cliffs by the two statues.

The cave paintings were probably the work of artists traveling along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China, across Central Asia to the West and show scenes of Buddhas in vermilion robes and mythical creatures, the ESRF said.

Afghanistan's Taliban government used dozens of explosive charges to bring down the two 6th century giant Buddhas in March 2001, saying the statues were un-Islamic.

Later in the same year, U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government after it refused to give up al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks.

Now work is underway to try restore the biggest of the two statues, once the tallest standing Buddha in the world, but the mammoth task could take a decade to complete.

Schools torched, teachers missing in Afghanistan: police

Militants have torched two mixed-sex schools near the Afghan capital, police said, and the Taliban said it had kidnapped two teachers and a school superintendent.

Police blamed the attacks on the schools near the small town of Logar, 50 kilometres south of Kabul, on the "enemies of Afghanistan" - a phrase that most often refers to Taliban militants.

At one school, they beat and tied up the superintendent and set fire to the eight-classroom building, Logar deputy provincial police chief Abdul Majeed Latifi told AFP. The roof collapsed and windows, doors and furniture were badly damaged, he said.

At roughly the same time, attackers set fire to a nearby school. The blaze was put out by residents and police and only the principal's office and one classroom were affected, Mr Latifi said.

"This was also a mixed boys and girls school, where girls study in the morning and boys in the afternoon," he said.

Afghanistan's education system has been under attack for years with most incidents blamed on the Islamist Taliban, which denied girls education during its 1996 - 2001 grip on power and is today fighting the new government.

Violence left 220 pupils and teachers dead in 2007, the Education Ministry said last month. The UN's children's organisation UNICEF said Monday that there had been 236 attacks on schools in 2007, with 23 recorded so far this year.

In a separate incident, gunmen captured a school superintendent near the south-central town of Ghazni late Sunday and two male teachers, the provincial government said.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said loyalists of his militia had captured the three. Police said the men were still missing. - AFP

Afghan police kill 9 Taliban fighters in Kandahar

By NOOR KHAN – KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan police killed nine Taliban fighters in a skirmish Tuesday, a day after militants attacked a checkpoint and left six border policemen dead, officials said.

About 200 police officers clashed with militants during a search operation launched following Monday's attack in Arghasan district of Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, a police commander in the area.

Authorities recovered the bodies of four dead militants after Tuesday's clash, while the insurgents took away five more dead fighters as they retreated, Raziq said.

The violence comes amid a spate of attacks on security forces in the volatile south. Militants regularly target the police force, which is seen as weaker than the better trained and equipped national army.

Last week, 11 officers were killed when militants attacked their checkpoint north of Kandahar city.

More than 900 policemen were among the 8,000 people killed last year in insurgency-related violence, officials said. The high casualty rate comes despite some $4 billion the U.S. has spent to train and equip the police in the last three years.

Meanwhile, gunmen abducted two Indian road construction workers and a taxi driver as they were traveling Monday from Herat toward Kabul, police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said. Authorities were searching for the men, but have made no arrests, Ahmadi said.

Indian road construction workers have been targeted before in the region. On April 12, a suicide attacker blew himself up next to an Indian road crew, killing two Indian workers and their Afghan driver.

6 police killed at checkpoint in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Police say Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing six police officers.

Police commander Rehmatullah Khan says the militants attacked the border checkpoint in Arghasan district of Kandahar province late Monday and then withdrew. Khan says some militants were wounded but had no other details.

Militants often attack the Afghan police force, which is seen as weaker than the better trained and equipped national army. Last year, more than 900 police officers were killed in militant attacks.

Indian, Nepalese abducted in Afghanistan: officials

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — An Indian and a Nepalese national working at security training camps in western Afghanistan have been kidnapped, apparently by the Taliban, police and a security firm said Tuesday.

Initial investigations found the pair were abducted by Taliban militants late Monday in Herat province, the Afghan interior ministry said.

The ministry said both men were Indians, but a US-based company providing security for the Herat training camp where the pair was based identified the missing men as an Indian and a Nepalese national. The Indian government also confirmed one of its citizens was missing.

Sayed Ibrar Hashimi, the Herat security chief for the company, EOD Technology Inc, said the pair and their Afghan driver had been travelling late Monday to the district of Adraskan, which borders Iran.

"Before reaching the district, armed men kidnapped them," Hashimi told AFP, citing information provided by the driver. The driver said he had been freed but the two foreign nationals were taken away, he said. Police are questioning the driver.

Hashimi said the men were employed by an Indian company called HED. The Indian national was a logistics officer in charge of purchasing and the Nepalese worked on food supply for the Afghan police training camps, he said.

The police spokesman for western Afghanistan, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, told AFP the pair had called police late Monday and said: "We're in trouble."

"After we sent our police to the area, they had gone missing. We found their vehicle abandoned," Ahmadi said. "They're kidnapped," Ahmadi said, adding however that police had not been contacted by any group that may have taken the men.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the men had been travelling by taxi to the district when they were kidnapped. "The national police's initial findings show that Taliban have abducted these people," it said.

In New Delhi, the Indian foreign ministry confirmed one of its nationals was missing. "We are investigating," said an official who asked not to be named.

Taliban insurgents have been blamed for scores of such abductions over the past years, but criminal gangs also snatch people to extort ransom.

Two Indian engineers were killed in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 12 in a double suicide attack claimed by the Taliban.

Afghan Ministry Bans the Broadcast of 5 Foreign Soap Operas

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL, NY Times, 4.22.08

KABUL, Afghanistan — After four years of watching television programs test the boundaries of decorum and build devoted audiences in the process, conservatives are striking back.

In the latest battle of the long-simmering war between cultural conservatives and liberals, the minister for information and culture ordered television networks to stop broadcasting five soap operas on Tuesday, saying they were not in keeping with “Afghan religion and culture.”

The minister, Abdul Karim Khurram, said last week that he had made the decision in consultation with the Council of Clerics, made up of the country’s most influential religious leaders.

The private television companies initially refused to obey the order and said they would plead their case to Afghanistan’s president. The television shows, all soap operas produced in India, continued to be broadcast every evening and have much of the urban population hooked.

As the deadline approached, however, one network, Ariana TV, buckled and pulled one of the soap operas, “Kumkum,” on Sunday. The network was immediately deluged with calls from viewers, said Abdul Qadir Mirzai, Ariana’s chief news editor.

Control of television and its content has been a hotly debated issue here for decades. The strictly conservative Taliban government banned it outright, and the government before that, run by mujahedeen leaders, banned female singers and presenters.

But under President Hamid Karzai, who is backed by the West, television has flourished, with 17 private television companies starting in the past six years, 11 of them based in Kabul, the capital. Numerous cable television companies also provide a wide selection of foreign films and television shows.

The Afghan networks present a mix of news, popular-music programs and imported serials and soap operas, and are hugely popular, drawing crowds in teahouses and ice cream parlors. Call-in shows, including an Afghan version of “American Idol,” also have large followings, as do news programs.

Many viewers in this struggling country are so absorbed by the soap operas that they rush home in the evening to find out what happens next. Will Prina on “Life’s Test” convince her husband that she is not having an affair with a tycoon, Mr. Bajaj? Can Tulsi, the heroine of “Because the Mother-in-Law Was Once the Daughter-in-Law,” ward off the schemes of her husband’s former mistress? Both shows are among the five banned by Mr. Khurram, the minister of culture.

The television companies have also made themselves felt on the political front, not only by broadcasting probing news reports but also by taking sides in ethnic and language debates, which reflect political divisions in Afghanistan.

As Afghanistan prepares for a presidential election next year, some station owners and journalists contend that the ban on television programs is part of a political tussle for control of the airwaves. Political party leaders have opened their own television stations, which are already challenging the Karzai government.

President Karzai has signaled that he sides with the conservatives in the controversy over the serials. Although he said that he would ensure the freedom of the media while he was in power, he has said several times that programs that go against Afghan culture should not be allowed.

Despite his liberal leanings, Mr. Karzai has been swayed before by conservatives on cultural issues. After complaints in Parliament two years ago, Mr. Karzai appointed the more conservative Mr. Khurram as minister of culture, replacing Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, who oversaw the expansion of free media after the fall of the Taliban.

Mr. Khurram ordered the ban of the five shows after strong protests in Parliament over a recent televised awards ceremony on a private station, Tolo TV, that showed Afghan men and women dancing together, an activity that is virtually taboo in this country.

Mr. Khurram has defended his action, saying he did less than the Council of Clerics, or Ulema, had asked. “The Ulema wanted to ban all TV serials,” Mr. Khurram said in an interview. “But I tried hard to ban only those serials that caused the most upset.”

Describing one of the soap operas broadcast by Tolo TV, he said, “There are scenes that are difficult for an Afghan family to watch, such as that of a woman with more than one husband.”

A member of the Council of Clerics, Said Enayatullah Baligh, who is the imam of Kabul’s large Khishti mosque, confirmed the council’s opposition to the television programs. “These are not acceptable to our faith and culture, and we will campaign to ban them,” he said.

Abdul Hamid Mubariz, director of the National Association of Journalists, an independent group that supports Afghan journalists and media organizations, called the ban “unjustifiable.”

“Our position is clear, and we defend the freedom of speech,” said Mr. Mubariz, who is a former deputy minister of information and culture. Under the law, complaints about media content should be first considered by a media commission and programs cannot be banned outright by the minister, he and others said.

Ehsanullah Arianzai, director of Ariana TV, the network that acceded to the order to drop “Kumkum,” suggested that some of the politicians calling for the ban were motivated less by beliefs than by business concerns. He said they had started rival television stations and that they were having difficulty competing with the established ones.

The ban would hurt Ariana TV financially, Mr. Arianzai said. “From a commercial perspective, it would put pressure on us as we receive a lot of advertising for these serials,” he said.

The television companies defend the shows largely on the basis of their popularity. The companies said they had already edited out culturally offensive scenes, like those in which actors exposed too much flesh.

Masoud Qeyam, a senior reporter and editor for Tolo TV, said his station used the revenue from the popular soap operas to finance its highly regarded news programs. “These programs have the largest number of people watching them,” he said. “It is through them that we are able to broadcast other programs, such as the news.”

Tolo’s executives said Monday that they were resisting the ban but that they had not decided what to do beyond the deadline.

Afghan leader says he backs ban on hit Indian soaps

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai defended a decision by his government to ban a handful of Indian soap operas, saying they violated his nation's moral standards and culture.

The culture ministry has given several privately run television stations until Tuesday to stop showing certain popular serials based on tales of love, disputes and the daily lives of Indian Hindu families.

At least one has already been taken off air after the ban, which authorities say was prompted by a call from religious scholars who labelled the shows "un-Islamic".

Asked about the move, Karzai told a media briefing his government was committed to media freedom.

But, "like the rest of the countries in the world, we want our television broadcasting to be in line with our culture, based on our society moral standards," Karzai said.

The serials show unveiled Indian women in waist-exposing sarees, sometimes blurred out for the Afghan audience, and couples on dates. Sometimes characters are seen worshipping Hindu statues, which also feature in the background.

Karzai said religious leaders and ordinary citizens had contacted him to complain about the programmes, which are shown across most of the more than a dozen stations that sprung up after the 2001 fall of the Taliban.

The hardline Taliban regime banned television and even images of living creatures as "un-Islamic."

The president also claimed there were a number of "foreign programmes" on Afghan television of a level seen "nowhere in the world."

The tussle over soaps reflects post-Taliban Afghanistan's struggle between modern and ultraconservative values with, for example, the culture ministry also condemning one station for showing Afghan men and women dancing together.

British soldier killed, one injured in Afghan explosion: ministry

LONDON (AFP) — A British soldier died Monday when his vehicle apparently hit a mine in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry in London said.

The soldier, from the Queen's Royal Lancers Regiment, was killed in the explosion at about 9:00 am local time as he provided security to a supply convoy returning to Britain's Camp Bastion base in Helmand province.

"The soldier was evacuated to the medical facility at Camp Bastion, but tragically was declared dead on arrival," a ministry spokesman said in a statement.

A second soldier was injured in the blast and is receiving treatment at Camp Bastion. The families have been informed.

The incident takes the number of British personnel to die in Afghanistan since 2001 to 94 since the start of operations to oust the hardline Taliban government in Kabul in October 2001.

Gates: U.S. air force not doing enough in Iraq, Afghanistan

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the air force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."

Gates complained in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the air force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."

The Pentagon chief praised the air force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to undertake more creative ways of thinking about helping the war effort.

He said he has been trying for months to get the air force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, like the pilotless Predator drone that provides real-time surveillance video, to the battlefield.

"Because people were stuck in old ways of doing business, it's been like pulling teeth," Gates said. "While we've doubled this capability in recent months, it is still not good enough."

To push the issue harder, Gates said he established last week a Pentagon-wide task force "to work this problem in the weeks to come, to find more innovative and bold ways to help those whose lives are on the line."

Half of Afghan children not in school, U.N. says

KABUL, April 21 (Reuters) - Half of Afghan children are still not going to school and the biggest group missing out on an education are girls, the United Nations said on Monday.

The Taliban banned girls from school when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, but there are now more girls in education than there were boys at school under the hardline Islamists.

There are also more Afghan children in school now than ever before, but many problems remain.

"In Afghanistan, despite the progress in school enrolment over the last two years, half of school-age children are estimated to be out of school," Shigeru Aoyagi, country director of UNESCO in Afghanistan, told a news conference in Kabul.

Working children, street children, children in prison and disabled children were among those excluded, the U.N. said, but by far the biggest group are girls.

"We still have 1.2 million girls of school age who do not have access to school in this country," Catherine Mbengue, head of UNICEF in Afghanistan, told the news conference.

The main reasons for girls missing out on school were that many of them either work to support their families or marry young, Mbengue said. There is also a lack of woman teachers.

The literacy rate for women aged 15-24 in Afghanistan is 14 percent compared with 51 percent for men.

Nearly 150 Afghan students and teachers were killed and around 100 schools burnt down by Taliban militants in the Afghan year that ended in March, the Education Ministry said, but a record 5.7 million children are now in education.

But of those attending school, only 35 percent are girls and while the number of Afghan schoolchildren is going up, the proportion of girls in education has stayed the same, an aid group said on Monday.

The lack of women teachers, only 28 percent of the total, meant parents were often reluctant to send their daughters to be taught by men. Parents were also reluctant to send their girls to schools too far from the home, CARE International said.

Around a third of state schools were exclusively for boys, CARE said, but the number of girls in education could be increased cost-effectively by alterations to these existing buildings to ensure segregation of the sexes demanded by conservative Afghan culture or by different time-tabling for boys and girls.

Parents also need to be convinced of the value that Islam places on the education of girls, it said.

Afghan leader calls for support

Obstacles remain, vice president says at end of U.S. visit

By JOHN IWASAKI, P-I REPORTER

Although Afghanistan has made a dramatic shift to democracy since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, poverty and drug-financed terrorism remain daunting obstacles that require international support to overcome, Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili said Monday during his first visit to the Seattle area.

"Terrorism is not an Afghan phenomenon," Khalili said as he finished a 12-day unofficial visit to the U.S., which included talks with Vice President Dick Cheney and members of Congress.

He said countering terrorism is a complex matter that must also address Afghanistan's intertwined problems of poverty, unemployment, opium production and the insurgency.

"Terrorism is misusing the poverty of the people," using the drug trade to finance suicide attacks and government corruption, Khalili said through a translator during an interview at a Kirkland hotel.

"There is a need for a world will to stand alongside of the Afghan people to fight against the smuggling and cultivation of narcotics," he said.

Khalili, 57, was sworn in as second vice president of post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2004. His U.S. visit was arranged largely through Aziz Sadat, an Afghan-American businessman from Monroe who created the Afghanistan National Institute for Peace and Justice in Kabul.

The organization, which is affiliated with the Conflict Resolution Institute in Tacoma, works on resolving economic, educational and other differences among Afghan tribal leaders.

"We're finding ways to educate and to bring better policies to the Afghan people," Sadat said. "The Afghan people should be the decision makers."

Sadat said many resources for the rebuilding of Afghanistan came from Washington state, including volunteer physicians and donated medicine to refugees.

The U.S. has more than 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since the 2001 invasion.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said that the U.S. intends to increase combat forces in 2009.

Khalili said he could not predict how long a U.S. military presence will be needed in Afghanistan, "but there is strong will in the international community to support Afghanistan."

The overall condition of Afghanistan "can't be compared with six years ago," he said, citing significant improvements in health, infrastructure, public policies and democracy.

"We have an elected president, elected parliament, a democratic open society, a huge number of media, freedom of speech," he said, attributing the "unprecedented" situation to support from the U.S.

The aid group Care International said Monday that only 35 percent of the 5.4 million students in Afghanistan's schools are girls, a percentage similar to the past six years.

The group attributed the disparity to a shortage of female teachers, the number of boys-only schools and cultural barriers in the Islamic country.

Khalili acknowledged that "women have been deprived in parts of society," but noted the presence of women in high-ranking government positions and in the lower house of parliament, where about a quarter of the members are female.

EU minister supports peace-talks with the Taliban

Written by Sear Zia - www.Quqnoos.com Tuesday, 22 April 2008 15:34

Javier Solana says it would be 'unfair' to refuse foreign support for talks

THE EUROPEAN Union’s foreign minister has said the EU will back peace-talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government as long as both sides respect the constitution.

In an exclusive interview with Quqnoos.com, Javier Solana said that it would be “unfair” if the international community failed to support negotiations between the militants and the government.

“We will support whatever is the agreement, but it has to be compatible with the values of the constitution,” he said.

“It would be very unfair from the international side not to support the process which is for reconciliation and peace among the people of Afghanistan.”

He added that any negotiations should be led by the government and the Afghan people, and said that foreigners should stay out of peace-talks with the Taliban.

At the end of last year, President Karzai expelled one of the EU’s diplomats for allegedly talking to the Taliban. Mr Solana refused to talk about the diplomat, Michael Semple, saying that “this is a problem which is over”.

Recently, President Karzai said he wanted to open talks with the Taliban, but insisted that he would only negotiate with those militants who were ready to recognise the country’s constitution.

Last week, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Zaaef, told Quqnoos.com that the Taliban would talk with Karzai’s government as long as foreigners left Afghanistan.

His words were seen as a shift in Taliban policy, which had previously rejected the government as a puppet regime controlled by America.

The EU’s foreign minister also said that the government’s ban on Indian soap operas would be a “step backwards” for freedom of speech in Afghanistan.

President Karzai said he supported the ban at a joint press conference with Solana yesterday.

Solana rejected recent claims that the government was appeasing the Taliban by banning the soaps.

Some MPs have said the ban is an attempt to pacify the Taliban before the elections in 2009.

“I do not think that is the case if that will be the case I would be against and no one has talked to me in that sense,” Solana said.

Afghanistan: no way out, says serving U.S. officer

Canwest News Service Monday, April 21, 2008

NATO and coalition forces are "stumbling toward failure" in Afghanistan and no amount of military success against the Taliban will bring an end to the war without a fundamental change in political policy, says a provocative article written by a serving U.S. army officer.

Col. Thomas Lynch, contributing in the latest edition of The American Interest, a Washington-based policy journal, says the U.S. and NATO cannot win in Afghanistan without convincing both Afghans and Pakistanis that Western military and economic support is there to stay.

Only a permanent NATO force - of the kind that guaranteed the security of western Europe after the Second World War, and still safeguards the security of South Korea - can bring about peace and stability in Afghanistan, says Lynch in his article titled "Afghan Dilemmas: Staying Power."

Lynch served as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Kabul in 2004. For the past four years he was stationed with the U.S. army in Afghanistan, Iraq and Qatar, and is now on a temporary fellowship with the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank.

In an e-mail interview with Canwest News Service, Lynch also says Canadian forces should consider leaving Kandahar - handing their hard, counter-insurgency role to the Americans - and taking on a new "stability" mission in the less volatile areas of northern or western Afghanistan.

"I am a longtime fan of Canadian military forces," he says. "I served with them in Europe during the Cold War in my early career, and saw them daily in their NATO-ISAF stability and security duties around Kabul in 2004 and 2005. They are good troops."

Yet, despite his admiration for Canadian soldiers, Lynch says Canada, like most European allies, lacks the equipment and resources - helicopters, close-air support, logistics and "economic support tools" -to take charge of the tough, counter-insurgency work required in southern Afghanistan.

He says the U.S. "miscalculated" when it gave NATO control of the counter-insurgency mission in southern Afghanistan in 2006, thinking that peacekeeping and stability work would follow.

Instead, the Taliban insurgency flared up, forcing Canada and other NATO members into a combat role they were not expecting. That in turn, prompted the bickering over troop commitments that now plagues the alliance. Lynch says NATO's troop commitments are not what ails the mission.

"The mission in Afghanistan is not in jeopardy mainly because NATO members refuse to provide sufficient troops," he says. "The real issue is the transitory and uncertain U.S. military posture in Afghanistan."

Lynch says the key to success lies in the politics of Pakistan, which has long viewed Afghanistan as a source of strategic depth against India: fear of India in the east, and fear of losing control of Afghanistan on its western frontier, have been a driving force in Pakistan since independence. That is why Pakistan helped create the Taliban as a puppet government in Kabul - and why elements of the Pakistan government still support them.

Lynch says only by convincing Pakistan - and the majority of Afghans - of its will to guarantee the security and stability of Afghanistan for decades to come, can the U.S. and its allies put an end to Taliban support, both from inside Pakistan, and from ordinary Afghans. 

Consider that the U.S. has abandoned each country to their fates once before, withdrawing from the region soon after the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan.

Today, "our uncertain commitment to Afghanistan has the effect of bolstering Taliban propaganda (while providing) incentives for Pakistan to hedge its bets."

NATO can claim military supremacy over the Taliban, says Lynch, but so what? "Our focus on tactical military facts obscures the Taliban's overall political success. Sanctuary in Pakistan has enabled the Taliban to evade decisive military engagement in order to rearm, regroup and train to fight another day," he says.

Meanwhile, the Taliban spreads the message: "'America will leave Afghanistan prematurely, as it has abandoned Afghanistan in the past; and when America leaves, we Taliban shall return to power and kill all Afghans who have collaborated with unbelievers.'

"Until we find a way to make this message less than credible," says Lynch, "tactical battlefield successes against the Taliban will amount to little." 

What can Canada do towards this goal? Maintain its military commitment to Afghanistan to 2011 and beyond, says Lynch, but more importantly - help convince the U.S. and NATO to guarantee the regional security of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, with long-term political and economic treaties, and a small military force based permanently in Afghanistan.

"I believe that a lasting U.S./NATO strategic presence can be the same kind of force for stability and modernization that the U.S.-led western military coalition was in Korea, and was with NATO in western Europe from 1947 to 1989," says Lynch.

"The U.S.-led coalition is not winning this war . . . now is the time to make a fundamental correction."

Pakistani Taliban welcome release of militant chief: spokesman

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A spokesman for Taliban rebels in Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed the release of a top militant chief who led Islamist fighters against foreign forces in Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistan on Monday freed Sufi Mohammad, the chief of banned hardline group Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), following a peace agreement with tribal elders. He had spent seven years in detention.

His release came after the new government said it would hold talks with militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, abandoning President Pervez Musharraf's military-based counterinsurgency strategy.

"We welcome his release, it is a positive development and augurs well for peace in the area," Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement) Pakistan, told reporters in Peshawar by telephone.

"If the government accepts our other demands and frees all those held illegally and imposes Sharia (Islamic law), it would be good for the country," Omar added.

Omar said the Taliban were still waiting for the release of Abdul Aziz, the leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which was stormed by government troops in July last year with the loss of more than 100 lives.

Aziz remains under detention. Pakistani forces captured him fleeing the mosque while dressed in a woman's all-covering burqa.

Officials said Mohammad's release had no links with the efforts to secure the release of Islamabad's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who went missing in February in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district.

"The negotiations for the release of Sufi Mohammad had been going on long before the envoy went missing," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Mohammad was arrested in October 2001 as he returned from Afghanistan with his followers after the US-led military launched a campaign to oust the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

Mohammad and around 30 other militants freed on Monday are going back to their homes, said Sardar Hussain Babek, the information minister of troubled North West Frontier Province.

"They have assured us that they will remain peaceful and no TNSM member will indulge in subversive activities," Babek told AFP. "The release is in line with our policy of peaceful dialogue and it will help restore peace and order in Swat region," he said.

Swat, a scenic north-western tourist area, has been wracked by clashes between militants and troops since late last year, part of a wave of violence across Pakistan that has left at least 2,000 people dead since early 2007.

Mohammad met chief minister Amir Haider Hoti late Saturday but did not speak to media. Followers covered his face from waiting cameramen because they view images of the human form as un-Islamic.

TNSM renounces militancy; Sufi Mohammad freed

DAWN - PESHAWAR, April 21: The NWFP government has released Maulana Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM), who had been in detention for more than six years.

He was released on Monday following an agreement with leaders of the banned organisation who denounced militancy and condemned the elements involved in attacks on state institutions, police and other law-enforcement agencies.

Under the agreement, the government withdrew all cases pending against Sufi and commuted his remaining prison term. The organisation formed in 1989 was banned in 2002 under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

“The organisation (TNSM) respects the government of Pakistan and state institutions so that peace and the writ of the state is restored in Malakand region,” said the agreement signed at the Chief Minister’s House.

“We want peace and complete writ of the government. Those people who are bent upon lawlessness will be invited to restore peace through peaceful means, but if they do not refrain from militancy the government will have the right to take action against them.”

“The government has taken the right decision and it will help in restoration of durable peace in the region,” Sufi Mohammad told journalists. He said disputes should be resolved through talks.

The six-point agreement was signed by Senior Ministers Bashir Ahmad Bilour and Rahim Dad Khan, Minister Wajid Ali Khan and ANP provincial chief Afrasiab Khattak from the government side and TNSM’s Malakand chief Maulana Mohammad Alam, Swat district chief Maulana Abdul Haq, Maulana Badshah Zaib from Upper Dir, Maulana Salar Khan and Saiful Malook from Buner, Dr Ismail from Bajaur and Multan Mir from Malakand.

The TNSM reiterated that army and police personnel and other government officials were their Muslim brethren and any violence against them was against the teachings of Islam.

Sufi Mohammad was arrested along with scores of his supporters on Nov 20, 2001, when they were coming to Pakistan from Afghanistan where they had gone to fight against US forces. He and 30 others were tried under the Frontier Crimes Regulations. He was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in 2002.

Under the agreement, the TNSM pledged to continue its struggle for the enforcement of Shariat through peaceful means.

It distanced itself from ‘elements’ involved in attacks on government officials, installations and law-enforcement agencies and condemned ‘miscreants’ indulging in such activities.

The preamble of the agreement released by the provincial government said that the death of innocent people in suicide bombings and attacks on government installations and functionaries were against Islam and moral principles and a violation of human rights.

Pakistan sending Afghan refugees back home despite warnings

SAEED SHAH - Special to The Globe and Mail April 22, 2008

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN -- Brightly coloured trucks carrying Afghan families and their possessions were winding through the Khyber Pass yesterday, as Pakistan continued to send refugees home despite warnings that the move could create a humanitarian crisis.

Last week, bulldozers moved in at Jalozai, the largest and oldest camp for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, which housed about 80,000 people. Rubble now lines both sides of the main road through the settlement, punctuated with neater piles of bricks and wood that refugees have salvaged to sell or take with them.

Shah Ghasi, 70, sat alongside one such pile yesterday, hoping for customers. His home in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, was destroyed during the Soviet invasion of the 1980s. He has been at Jalozai for 24 years. "We are homeless here now, and we will be homeless there [in Afghanistan]," he said.

More than two million Afghan refugees are settled in camps in Pakistan's northwestern frontier and tribal areas, where the rising influence of Taliban fighters from Afghanistan has concerned both Pakistan and the United States.

Each camp is believed to have its own Afghan overlord. The Shamshatoo camp is associated with the notorious military commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, while Jalozai was allegedly run by Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a veteran mujahedeen fighter and hard-line theologian.

"They [the camps] provide the perfect location for disappearing and recruiting, which is why we have been pushing for closure of these camps. You don't want to create a humanitarian crisis, but the security there is an issue," a Western diplomat told the Washington Post.

"You never know who comes and who goes in these camps," said Mehmood Shah, a former top provincial interior ministry official.

Jalozai was scheduled to close in 2007, along with three other camps in Pakistan, after an agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. However, the closing was delayed after UNHCR and Afghan elders in the camp appealed to the Pakistan government to postpone it for humanitarian reasons.

Pakistani authorities recently gave this month as the new deadline for all refugees to leave Jalozai, and this time they mean what they say, though they insist that only empty buildings are bulldozed.

Over in Hayatabad, a suburb of Peshawar, is a vision of the future for Jalozai. There, another huge camp, Kacha Garhi, stands empty, only a few mud walls still upright amid wind-blown desolation. Cleared of more than 50,000 refugees last year, it now looks like the site of a lost civilization.

Rahul Amin has known nothing but life at Jalozai; he was born there. The 19-year-old bus conductor, speaking at the camp, said Pakistan is his home. "We don't think of Afghanistan as our country," he said. "When I have raised my voice, it is for Pakistan."

A Pakistani official at Jalozai said that 1,043 families had left as of Saturday, but about 10,000 remain.

He insisted that the refugees had the option of relocating to another camp, but just 38 families had done so. "They signed a contract with us, 50 [Afghan] elders signed an agreement to leave. Their continued stay here is illegal," he said.

Jalozai was established in 1980, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, as Afghans began fleeing their country. More than three million went to Pakistan, most of whom are still in the country, but they were never given citizenship. They either lived in one of dozens of camps or melted into the Pakistani black economy.

"In other countries, you get citizenship after five years, here you don't get it after 20 years," said 21-year-old Hazmat Khan. "This [Jalozai] was just a jungle. We turned it into a town. There wasn't even a donkey here before."

Pakistan plans to send all Afghan refugees back by the end of 2009. But the office of the UNHCR in Pakistan has warned that the pace of the resettlement program risks creating a humanitarian crisis given the conflict in Afghanistan.

Afghan minister arrives in Islamabad for four-nation talks on gas pipeline

 ISLAMABAD, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Engineer Ibrahim Adil arrived in Islamabad on Monday to attend talks on the multi-billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.

    The two-day ministerial level talks will last from April 23 to 24. Indian oil minister Murli Deora will also attend the TAPI meeting, which is planned to officially induct India into the project. The project, now at its preliminary stage, is predicted to be completed by 2018.

    The capital of the pipeline, that is to originate from Turkmenistan's Daultabad gas field, is currently reported to have been revised to four billion dollars from 3.3 billion dollars in 2003.

Afghan government to buy US$50 million ( € 31.4 million) food relief as prices skyrocket

The Associated Press - Tuesday, April 22, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan has allocated US$50 million ( € 31.4 million) to buy food from neighboring countries, an official said Tuesday, amid skyrocketing prices of food staples like wheat.

Panicked Afghans have rushed to shops in recent days to purchase rice, flour and cooking oil. In one shop in Kabul, 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour was US$1 ( € 0.63) on Tuesday, up from 80 U.S. cents ( € 0.50) on Sunday.

The U.N. World Food Program says the cost of a kilogram of wheat in Afghanistan has nearly doubled from 32 U.S. cents ( € 0.20) last year to 60 U.S. cents ( € 0.38) in March.

"Food prices have increased around the world, and that has caused an increase in food prices in Afghanistan," government spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said Tuesday.

Hamidzada said the Commerce Ministry has earmarked US$50 million ( € 31.4 million) for the immediate purchase of food from neighboring countries, including Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

Surging food prices, stoked by rising fuel costs that have increased production and transport costs, have triggered protests around the world in recent weeks. Riots have erupted over food shortages in the Caribbean and Africa and hunger is approaching crisis stage in parts of Asia.

Press conference by Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Country Representative, Shigeru Aoyagi, UNESCO Country Representative and Nilab Mobarez, UNAMA Spokeperson's Office

UNAMA: Good morning everybody. My name is Nilab Mobarez from UNAMA Spokesperson’s office and welcome to our weekly press conference this morning.

Our guest speakers today are Catherine Mbengue, Afghanistan Country Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Shigeru Aoyagi, Afghanistan Country Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They will brief us on Global Action Week for Education. This is an international campaign to highlight the fundamental right to education for all. The theme for this year is "Quality Education to End Exclusion."

On the occasion of Global Action Week for Education, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, will visit a school in Kabul this Wednesday, 23 April. We will share the details with you in a media advisory to be issued tomorrow.

Before we begin, if I may take a moment to echo President Karzai’s condemnation of the suicide bomb attack in Zaranj city of Nimroz province last Thursday [17 April 2008] which killed at least 20 people, including the chief of police of Khash Rod district and the Nimroz border police commander. Such wanton disregard for Afghan’s going about their daily life is staggering and cannot be justified under any circumstances.

Our thoughts and sincere sympathy goes to the families who lost loved ones, to others who were wounded, and to all those who were affected by this atrocious act.

FAO helps Afghan farmers to improve food security in the South

Over 56,000 households have benefited from 77 new irrigation facilities built by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the southern region of Afghanistan.

Of the new facilities 66 are in Kandahar, 3 in Helmand, 3 in Nimroz, 4 in Uruzgan and 1 in Zabul. These projects have rehabilitated over 100,000 hectares of essential agricultural land, and will help increase crop production by 25 per cent in the Southern Region.

The construction is part of the Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project (EIRP), funded by the World Bank and the Government of Afghanistan and implemented with the technical support of FAO, under which similar irrigation facilities will be built in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan by 31 January 2009.

UNHCR resumes Afghan voluntary returns as road reopens

The UN refugee agency resumed its Afghan voluntary return operation via Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Sunday, 20 April.

This comes after a five-day suspension (15-19 April) in assisted returns through NWFP to Afghanistan due to a blockade on the Peshawar-Torkham border road. UNHCR’s Hayatabad Voluntary Repatriation Centre (VRC) was closed during that period and Afghans were requested not to come forward for repatriation via Peshawar until further notice.

The road is now clear and open to traffic. As a result, Afghans can now approach Hayatabad VRC for repatriation.

600,000 children vaccinated against polio in Herat and Dai Kundi provinces

Over 600,000 children were vaccinated against polio in Dai Kundi and Herat provinces last week.

Under the National Immunization Days (NID), launched by the Ministry of Public Health and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 550.000 children in Herat and over 80.000 children in Dai Kundi were immunized against this contagious viral disease.

National Immunization Days cover children under the age of five and take place four times a year, twice in spring and twice in autumn.

RAF destroys £10m spy plane in Afghanistan

By Stephen Adams, Last Updated: 3:58pm BST 22/04/2008

The RAF deliberately blew up one of its own £10 million spy planes after it crash landed over Taliban territory in Afghanistan.

Faced with the prospect of the technology falling into enemy hands, commanders immediately despatched an elite unit to remove "sensitive items" from the unmanned Reaper spy drone.

The items were thought to be a high-intensity camera and memory chips. When the elite unit had done its job and left the area, a RAF Harrier was called in to destroy the remains of the crashed plane with a 1,000lb laser-guided bomb.

A military source said: "There was no way we could take even the slightest risk of the Taliban getting hold of any parts."

The top-secret Reaper, which had only been in service for six months, is thought to have suffered an engine failure before it was forced to land in southern Afghanistan on April 9.

The Ministry of Defence has refused to discuss why the 66ft wingspan, single-engine Reaper was forced to crash land, but ruled out enemy action.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We can confirm that on 9 April, a Reaper UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] made a forced landing whilst on an operation over a remote unpopulated area of southern Afghanistan.

"Sensitive items were recovered and the remaining wreckage was destroyed. "The reason for the forced landing is under investigation, however mechanical issues are suspected."

The RAF bought three of the US-made Reapers last year. The RAF announced in November that it had started using them to gather intelligence on Taliban activities in Afghanistan.

The Reapers are used to relay real-time information about the enemy's position back to battlefield planners.

Defence analyst Charles Heyman, a former British Army major, said it was a mistake to think that the Taliban could not learn lessons if they got their hands on a crashed Reaper.

He said: "It's wrong to think of the Taliban as not being sophisticated technologically. Certainly there are people in the Taliban's ranks who are just as technologically capable with information technology as anyone in the world."

According to the US Department of Defence Security Cooperation Agency, Britain is looking at buying another 10 Reapers as part of a wider £540 million deal.

Dam Busters

Coalition attacks have forced the Taliban to change its tactics in Afghanistan. Leaders of the fundamentalist movement say it's going to get more deadly.

Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai, Newsweek Web Exclusive Apr 18, 2008

In many ways the Kajaki dam is a symbol of Afghanistan's troubled history. Built by the United States back in the 1950s, it fell into disrepair for lack of spare parts under the Taliban. Now the United States is trying to rebuild the 330-foot-high earth-filled hydroelectric facility as the centerpiece of a hearts-and-minds strategy in the strategic Helmand River valley. If repairs remain on schedule, the dam will become the country's largest power source—producing some 52 megawatts of electricity—by the middle of 2009.

Of course, it's not going to be that easy. Analysts expect a summer surge from Taliban insurgents, who are already stepping up their assaults on the dam and other reconstruction projects in the east and south of the country. According to a report by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, nongovernmental aid agencies have suffered twice as many attacks during the first three months of this year as they did during the same period last year, leaving nine NGO workers dead and the same number wounded since January. The difficult-to-secure dam has been an especially enticing target. Insurgents control portions of the unpaved road leading from Helmand province's capital, Lashkar Gah, to the dam, forcing the Americans to airlift machinery and crews to the dam site in stark desert and mountain territory that resembles Arizona. A company of British paratroopers defends the facility by providing a three-mile wide security "bubble" on all sides.

Even so, Taliban forces sneak close enough to frequently shoot rockets, mortars, RPGs and small arms in the direction of the British base and the dam site. The insurgents approach the dam by filtering through several surrounding villages that grow a combination of opium poppies, wheat and corn, while at the same time warning local men not to work at the dam under penalty of death. "This [security perimeter] is a small area of goodness in a sea of unsavoriness," says British Maj. Mike Shervington, who commands D Company, 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Parachute Regiment, the dam's main security force.

Shervington doubts that the local road—made dangerous by Taliban checkpoints and roadside bombs—can be sufficiently secured to allow a third turbine to be trucked in from Kabul within the next six months. "The enemy uses IEDs to deny us the ability to protect and bring development to the people," says Shervington. U.S. officials are optimistic that once the dam's three power plants come online and the level of the emerald-green reservoir behind the dam is raised another 40 feet through the installation of new gates, the surge of electricity and irrigation will help win residents over to the government's side. But Shervington knows he's in for a tough fight. "We are anticipating a very busy summer," he says.
 
While he prepares for a hard season, some senior U.S. officials are questioning the Taliban's ability to keep up the pace of its attacks. Last year was the most violent in Afghanistan since the Taliban was overthrown in late 2001, with the United Nations estimating that some 8,000 Afghans died—mostly insurgents, but also at least 1,500 civilians. Richard Boucher, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia affairs recently downplayed the Taliban's challenge. "The Taliban threats of a winter wave seem to have gone the way of last year's spring offensive," he told an Islamabad press conference earlier this month. "It never happened."
 
The Taliban, for its part, claims that its shift from large-scale engagements to smaller hit-and-run operations is less a sign of weakness than a change in strategy to counter heavy casualties incurred last year. A senior Taliban commander in southeast Ghazni province, who requested anonymity for security reasons but who has provided NEWSWEEK with reliable information in the past, says provincial insurgent forces may have lost up to 50 percent of their deputy commanders in 2007. The U.S. military believes it captured or killed some 100 midlevel Taliban commanders last year, as well as several senior leaders, in the east and south. As a result, says the Ghazni commander, Taliban leaders have ordered their lieutenants to limit insurgent operations to units of five to eight men to minimize casualties. Local commanders and subcommanders have been told not to meet in face-to-face strategy sessions in groups larger than two in case they are targeted by precision air strike. The Ghazni leader adds that commanders and fighters who had become dangerously negligent in using cell and satellite phones have been ordered to rely on harder-to-trace communication methods, such as couriers.
 
According to the leader, the Taliban are also planning to increase the number of suicide bombings, particularly vehicle bombs, as well as the planting of roadside IEDs and small-unit ambushes of Afghan and coalition supply lines. A record 150 suicide attacks took place in Afghanistan in 2007, and the Taliban official claims that there is a six-month waiting list to be trained as a suicide bomber (known to the Taliban as "wrestlers.") Twenty-four Afghans who were recently trained by Al Qaeda experts in the techniques of fashioning explosive-and-ball-bearing-laden suicide vests, and of wiring large-scale vehicle bombs, have recently infiltrated into Afghanistan from the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan, the commander says. Operations involving vehicle bombings may be "15 times" more expensive than those using an individual on foot wearing a suicide vest, he says, but they are more deadly and effective. He pointed to an early March suicide attack on an American and Afghan National Army post in Khost province's Sabari district in which an explosive-packed construction truck rammed into the base, killing two U.S. soldiers. According to the commander and a recent video released by the Jalaluddin Haqqani insurgent group, which is allied with the Taliban, the truck's driver was a young German of Turkish origin who had also been trained in Pakistan's tribal area. The Ghazni commander says the Taliban prefers to steal vehicles used in car bombs, not to save money but because they are more difficult to trace.

Indeed, Taliban commanders boast that between suitcases of cash sent to them by jihadi supporters in the Gulf and the millions they received in ransom for foreigners they kidnapped last year, funding has become less of a problem for their operations. And while they lack the firepower to go head to head with the coalition's military, their hit-and-run operations are taking a lethal toll. In recent days several Taliban commandos killed 11 policemen sleeping in their Kandahar outpost and a suicide bomber killed 23 people, including two senior policemen, in remote Nimruz province. In other attacks IEDs have killed six coalition soldiers, including the son of the new Dutch armed forces commander. Their deaths brought the number of coalition troops killed so far this year to 44. The small-scale fighting in Afghanistan may not make for big headlines, but its ability to disrupt projects like the dam is potent—and deadly.

Oda is in Kabul

By James Mccarten, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KABUL 21 April 2008- International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda is in Kabul as part of an ongoing push by Ottawa to refine Canada's goals and objectives in Afghanistan.

At a teacher's college in the bustling capital, Oda was greeted with flowers and open arms by administrators and Afghan Education Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar.

Students who asked Oda for more funding help were told by Atmar that Canada is already the top donor to the Education Quality Improvement Project, or EQUIP, Afghanistan's largest education program.

Last October, Oda announced $60 million over four years to better allow schools and communities to manage teaching and learning activities, build facilities and hire personnel, all with a special emphasis on educating girls.

"We now see young girls and young women attending teacher's college - they have curriculum developed, they've got textbooks now, as well as teacher training manuals," Oda said. "This (Atmar) kindly attributed to Canada's contribution."

Later, Oda told delegates at an aid conference that Canada plans to establish specific, focused benchmarks for its efforts in the war-torn country.

She says she has met with Afghan ministers to get a better sense of what Canada can realistically achieve before its scheduled pullout date in 2011.

"We have to ensure we are more focused, that we are going to outline the benchmarks that we want to achieve," Oda said. "We've accelerated the pace; that's why I'm here, and why we've had other ministers visiting as well."

Oda is the second federal cabinet minister to visit Afghanistan in the space of a week, following on the heels of Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.

Oda joins controversial governor at literacy event in Kandahar city

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda is singing the praises of Kandahar's controversial governor.

Oda, who today became the first cabinet minister to attend a news conference in Kandahar city, says Khalid remains a good partner for Canada in Afghanistan.

Oda travelled through the perilous city via military convoy to inaugurate a new Department of Literacy building, aimed at reducing the province's high adult illiteracy rate.

Canada pledged $1.4 million to the program last February. Oda toured the facility with Khalid, who later heaped praise on Canada's efforts and sacrifices in Kandahar province.

He says Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's call for his replacement last week, which was later retracted, was a "misunderstanding."

Bernier thwarted Khalid's departure as Kandahar governor: parliamentarian

KABUL — Asadullah Khalid was packing his bags and poised to depart his post as the governor of Kandahar province when Canada's foreign affairs minister inadvertently called for his ouster last week, a prominent Afghan politician says.

The controversial governor's imminent departure was almost immediately thrown into disarray when Maxime Bernier publicly urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to remove him, said Khalid Pashtun, a veteran parliamentarian who represents Kandahar.

Government operatives in the governor's palace had been warned of Khalid's departure to ensure bodyguards didn't start looting the palace, Pashtun said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"They reported to us that the governor is collecting and gathering all his gear, his stuff, and he's leaving for Kabul," he said.

"It was happening. And all of a sudden, the guy is back, and making a very strong allegation that 'No one has the right to remove me'."

Pashtun said he believes Karzai, sensitive to the political dangers of being perceived by his constituents as a puppet of international forces, was forced to delay his plan to replace Khalid to avoid the impression he was doing the bidding of the Canadian government.

Khalid surfaced over the weekend, speaking publicly for the first time since Bernier's remarks - later retracted - touched off a diplomatic firestorm with Kandahar's controversial leader at its heart.

Khalid is an imposing figure in Afghan politics who spent four years as governor of Ghazni province after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 before Karzai, head of a centralized government that appoints its provincial representatives, moved him to Kandahar.

In his earliest dealings with Canadian government and military officials, Khalid was seen as a bright light, an eloquent and enlightened leader who moved easily in diplomatic circles.

In recent years, however, Khalid has fallen out of favour amid allegations that he was personally involved in the torture of Afghan prisoners - allegations the governor has vehemently denied. There have been persistent whispers of distrust among locals over allegations of corruption in the provincial government.

Friction has also resulted from what Khalid alleges is the refusal of some NATO troops, including those from Canada, to support the Afghan government's poppy eradication efforts.

He accused Canadian forces of ignoring repeated warnings about intelligence that indicated a pending suicide attack in the border town of Spin Boldak - an attack that ended up killing 38 civilians.

The Canadian Forces repeated their denial Monday that there is any problem with the relationship between the military and the Kandahar government.

"The spirit of co-operation between the Canadian Forces, the Afghan government and the Afghan National Security Forces is very strong and there are a growing number of mechanisms in place at the provincial and district level which are leading to ever closer co-operation and co-ordination," Lt.-Cmdr. Pierre Babinsky said in a statement.

"We meet regularly with the Governor of Kandahar province on security and other issues."

"The purpose of these discussions is co-ordination of our efforts in support of the government of Afghanistan." Pashtun described Khalid as a "robot" controlled by the president's powerful older brother, Qayum.

"The people don't support the governor because you're not on your own," he said. "Somebody else is controlling you by remote."

In the aftermath of the Bernier debacle, Pashtun said he met with senior tribal leaders from Kandahar who were perplexed at the fact Khalid was still in his job.

"They were complaining, expressing concerns - what happened?" he said. "Why all of a sudden was everything switched off?"

Pashtun said Bernier was only speaking frankly about Khalid and the breakdown in his relationship with Canadian forces. His only mistake was an overreach that stepped on diplomatic toes, he said.

"I think the foreign minister made an excellent comment; we really admired his comment. The only solution is we should change the guy," he said.

"I don't think it's going to work out. Now there's two ways: either the governor should leave, or the Canadians should leave. I don't think there's a third alternative. (And) we don't want the Canadians to leave."

U.S. Military Plan for Dying Afghan Girl Goes Awry

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

NPR - All Things Considered, April 21, 2008 · Much of the work of U.S. troops in Afghanistan involves helping local communities. They build schools and roads — and they host clinics for people living in remote areas who otherwise wouldn't get medical care.

But, occasionally, the Americans' good intentions run awry — sometimes, with potentially fatal results.

In this case, a 6-year-old Afghan girl's life is at the center of a lapse in communication. And while, after uncertainty over funding, an anonymous donor has offered to cover costs for surgery required to keep her alive, transportation logistics remain unclear as her condition worsens.

Beeping monitors and strangers in an Intensive Care Unit in the French Medical Institute for Children frighten Adila.

A few wails are all she can muster. Her dark eyes close. She falls asleep, exhausted from her outburst. She struggles to breathe, even with an oxygen mask.

Her Pashtun name is a variation of the Arabic word for "just." Yet what is happening to Adila seems anything but just. On this night, doctors try to stabilize her after she shows up for a heart test. Her lips were blue from a lack of oxygen.

Adila suffers from a birth defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. Parts of her heart are malformed and can't get enough oxygen to her tiny body.

Dr. Amena Shaheer, who heads this ICU, says the girl is in bad shape. But there is little they can do for her. Adila needs emergency surgery, immediately, she says.

An American army doctor who reviewed Adila's case, made a similar diagnosis. He wasn't available for an interview.

Relatives and Afghan officials say Adila was taken by her family to Camp Blessing, an American outpost in war-torn Kunar province in northeastern Afghanistan. There, the Army doctor hatched a plan to have Adila evaluated in neighboring Pakistan. If doctors there deemed her a suitable candidate, he would ask a charity called Save a Child's Heart to send Adila to Israel for corrective surgery.

The military told Adila's family that all they needed to do was to get her a passport and make the trip to Kabul. That's no easy task for an impoverished family without documents — and who rarely leave their remote village.

But with Afghan officials' help, Adila got her passport in one day. American soldiers nearby at the Kunar provincial reconstruction team, dug into their pockets for the $70 cab fare.

Last Tuesday, Adila and her guardian set off by taxi for Kabul. And that's when the American plan fell apart.

Adila's guardian, an uncle named Talib, says by the time they got to Kabul, the girl was dehydrated and blue from lack of oxygen. No hospital was aware of Adila's arrival or her case.

The Army doctor who made the plans had left the country. The people he asked to follow her case in his absence failed to do so.

So in a mad scramble, the Kunar PRT told Adila and her uncle to go to the CURE hospital in Kabul, run by a Pennsylvania-based charity group. Eric Sinclair, chief operating officer of the hospital, agreed to admit Adila and stabilize her.

"I applaud the work they are doing on behalf of the community, but in this case, they've dropped the red-hot potato, so to speak," says Sinclair of the military's effort.

Maj. Nick Sternberg, an American military spokesman, called it a miscommunication.

"Based on the fact that we've helped so many people in the past, locals often expect that once a problem has been given to us, it'll be taken care of immediately and completely," Sternberg says.

With the help of CURE hospital, Adila was sent across town to the French Medical Institute for Children, where she could get the tests she needs.

The half-hour trip sent the girl crashing again. She wound up in the ICU. Her condition improved and she was moved to a regular room, where she remains. But doctors say Adila is running out of time.

Officials at the CURE and French hospitals say they've repeatedly asked the Americans what they plan to do. Both charity hospitals say they are in no position to pay for Adila's treatment, let alone the surgery. They say she needs to be flown to Karachi in Pakistan, where the surgery can be done quickly.

Sternberg, the military spokesman, says soldiers reached into their own pockets to pay for her care at the French hospital. Sinclair says he waived his hospital's costs.

"There is a whole logistics nightmare again ahead of us and time is something that is pressing against us so we obviously need to come up with a solution very quickly," Sinclair says.

One of the main obstacles is money for the surgery. The medical officials in Kabul say it should come from the military, which sent Adila here in the first place.

Sternberg says they can't, under their rules, spend military funds on her surgery. But he says the army has located an anonymous donor willing to pay for it. How Adila will get to Karachi, though, is still unclear.

[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.]