In this bulletin:

• Taliban militants behead 4 workers in Afghanistan
• Taliban being trained outside Afghanistan: Musa Qala Chief
• Germany, U.S. reject more troops for Afghanistan but press NATO to help Canada
• Afghan chief doubts more troops needed
• NATO asks for rapid reaction force in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan risks 'failed state'
• Diplomat eyed for top UN post
• US funds madrassas in Afghanistan
• Samad terms Manley report a balanced analysis
• PM puts onus on military to explain prisoner policy
• Canadian troops not dodging the capture of Afghan prisoners: MacKay
• Canada's demand gets attention
• Bush Ignores Afghan School Violence
• Afghanistan's Senate endorses reporter's death sentence: official
• Afghan Women Protest Aid Worker’s Kidnapping
• Copper project tests Afghanistan's resources
• India to build Afghanistan's parliament house

Taliban militants behead 4 workers in Afghanistan

KABUL, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants beheaded four local employees of a private construction company in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, said the Interior Ministry in a press release.

"The militants abducted these people last week from Kamdish district of eastern Nuristan province and brutally beheaded them after the Taliban demand for ransom was not met by the families of the ill-fated men," said the press release.

All the victims had worked for a local road construction company called Mohammadi.

Taliban insurgents have yet to make comment. However, the militants in the past have repeatedly targeted road construction firms and in some cases murdered their employees.

Taliban being trained outside Afghanistan: Musa Qala Chief

By Akram Norzai - Jan 29, 2008

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok Afghan News): Musa Qala district Chief Haji Abdul Salam in an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday said the Taliban were being trained outside Afghanistan and come here for fighting against Afghan and foreign forces in the restive Helmand province.

Salaam resident of Shah Karez village in Zamindar area of the Kajaki district who was also district chief of Kajaki during Taliban era later he was acting governor of the central Uruzgan province for almost 47 days, and he was staying in his home after the fall of Taliban in 2001.

He became district chief of the restive Musa Qala district when the Afghan National Army (ANA) recaptured the district from the Taliban fighters after 11 months in December 2007.

He said there are no former Taliban in Afghanistan, but the Taliban who fight against government are trained outside of the country and sent here for bringing instability and disturbance to the war raked country.

About his relations with the Taliban Salam said he was a staunch member of the movement but after the fall of Taliban I opted to stay put at home. "After the fall of Taliban I opted to divert all my energies to the reconstruction of my country", he claimed.

He said he had apprised government that the people of Musa Qala district want peace and hate fighting, the government must construct schools, clinics, and roads for them to bring a comfortable life for the new generation.

Many areas of the district are secured and Taliban fighters sporadically spread their threatening letters in some areas of the district, when they sometimes attack on the foreign forces they later escape from the area by motorbikes, he said.

He rejected the claims of civilians who said the Afghan and foreign troops have forcefully seized their markets and homes. He said: "We have rented their markets and houses and we pay considerable amount for it."

Germany, U.S. reject more troops for Afghanistan but press NATO to help Canada

OTTAWA - Germany's ambassador to Canada says he's optimistic NATO will be able to meet the conditions for a continued Canadian combat role in Afghanistan - but strongly doubts any German troops will be moving south into Kandahar province.

The comments from Ambassador Matthias Hopfner came Tuesday as a U.S. Defence Department official suggested no more American reinforcements are in the cards beyond the 3,200 marines recently announced.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made it clear his patience with reluctant NATO allies is wearing thin by promising to withdraw Canada's 2,500 troops from Afghanistan in February 2009 unless alliance members send 1,000 additional troops into the lawless southern province of Kandahar.

An independent panel led by former Liberal minister John Manley urged Harper to make Canada's extension of its combat mission in Kandahar conditional upon NATO moving the new troops into southern Afghanistan, and the addition of helicopters and unmanned surveillance drones to support the 2,500 Canadian troops there.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Hopfner said he believes the conditions laid out by the Manley panel can be met. "I would think so," said Hopfner. "I would be optimistic that NATO will be able to solve these requirements.

"At the same time, we must continue to remind everyone that Germany right now is the third largest troop supplier in Afghanistan, and not a nation that hides away with just a symbolic number of soldiers in Afghanistan."

Germany has almost 3,200 boots on the ground and appears likely to add another 250 soldiers as a Quick Reaction Force to replace the Norwegians in northern Afghanistan this summer, said Hopfner.

Any additional troops for the south would have to be agreed to by the German parliament.

"For the time being I find it rather difficult to imagine that the German parliament would give an additional mandate - and that would be necessary - for even more soldiers that would then be deployed in the south."

"There is a limit of (German) military capacity."

In Washington on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told a briefing that the latest American reinforcements won't be boosted as a result of the Canadian conditions.

But it remains unclear whether the current temporary seven-month deployment of American marines could stay on to meet the Canadian troop demand.

Just over two-thirds of the marines, 2,200 soldiers, are scheduled to arrive in March in the dangerous region in southern Afghanistan. That will bring the U.S. deployment in Afghanistan to more than 30,000 troops.

"That's as much and as deep as we're going at this point," said Morrell.

He didn't explicitly rule out some of that U.S. marine contingent remaining to bolster the Canadian troops after February 2009, when Canada's currently military mandate expires. But Morrell suggested the Americans would like to see other NATO countries step up.

"We've got a number of allies with us there," he said. "And hopefully they can see to it to dig deeper and find additional forces to help this effort.

"Hopefully, we'll make some progress there that will help the Canadians extend their commitment to the mission."

U.S. Defence Secretary Roberts Gates, meanwhile, told the Associated Press that more troops are needed in Afghanistan, but "certainly not ours."

Gates hasn't talked to Peter MacKay, the Canadian defence minister, since John Manley's commission report on Afghanistan was released last week, according to Morrell.

Hopfner called the Manley report "a very commendable and in-depth analysis of the situation" - while noting the German parliament has been provided with similar independent studies of the Afghan mission annually since the German military first deployed there in 2001.

Afghan chief doubts more troops needed

SMH 01.30.08- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has expressed doubt whether the deployment of more foreign troops to Afghanistan will improve the security situation.

"I am not sure whether deploying more troops would be the right answer," Karzai told German newspaper Die Welt. Concentrating on the training camps and refuges where the terrorist groups had fled was more important, Karzai said.

"Afghanistan is not a (terrorist) refuge. It was one, but we have reversed that," he said. "For us, the war is not here but elsewhere," the Afghan president said.

Afghanistan needed to expand its human capital and institutions more than anything else, Karzai said, pointing to the army, the police, the civil service and the judiciary.

US President George W Bush has called repeatedly for NATO countries to respond to the need for greater effort in Afghanistan, but major alliance members such as Germany and France have restricted the way their forces can be deployed.

A furore broke earlier this year over comments from US Defence Secretary Robert Gates after he was reported to have criticised the training of NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan.

The Western alliance has around 37,000 troops deployed in the country.

NATO asks for rapid reaction force in Afghanistan

BERLIN: NATO has formally asked Germany to deploy a rapid reaction force in northern Afghanistan to replace a Norwegian contingent, a defence ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

The German government has been expecting the request and officials in Berlin suggested last week that the country would comply, despite strong opposition among the German public to its five-year-old military mission in Afghanistan.

According to NATO sources, the alliance is asking Germany to prepare a contingent of 250 troops who will be stationed at Mazar-e-Sharif, replacing the Norwegian force, which will withdraw in the summer.

Germany has some 3,200 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the 37-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The overwhelming majority of the troops are stationed in the relatively calm north of Afghanistan and Berlin has resisted mounting pressure to deploy troops in the south to help its NATO partners fight a tenacious Taliban insurgency. Government officials have in recent weeks denied that supplying a rapid reaction force would amount to sending men into combat.

They pointed out that the force was designed to provide emergency support to other troops in the north and that though its brief includes hunting “terrorists” and dealing with kidnappings this is not its main task.

Senior German defence official Thomas Kossendey said last week that Germany would not need a new, wider parliamentary mandate to deploy the rapid reaction force and that it would “remain in northern Afghanistan”.

The current mandate limits the German force in Afghanistan to 3,500 soldiers.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung has said he expects to make a decision on the request by February 8. Germany has faced strong criticism within NATO ranks for refusing to send troops to southern Afghanistan to help tackle the Taliban. afp

Afghanistan risks 'failed state'

BBC - Afghanistan risks turning into a failed state and becoming a forgotten war, a study led by a US diplomatic and military team has concluded. The study by former UN ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Marine Corps

General James Jones is due to be released later on Wednesday. One of its recommendations is for more Nato troops to be sent to Afghanistan, the AP news agency reports. The Taleban have mounted a comeback in Afghanistan over the past two years.

The south of the country has seen the worst violence since the Taleban were thrown out of power in the US-led invasion of 2001. "Afghanistan stands at a crossroads," says the study which has been seen by AP.

"The progress achieved after six years of international engagement is under serious threat from resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, mounting regional challenges and a growing lack of confidence on the part of the Afghan people about the future direction of their country," it says.

The study also recommends the appointment of a US special envoy, and for Washington's Afghan policy to be decoupled from its Iraqi one.

Democrats in the US Congress have long argued that the Bush administration has failed to contain terrorism in Afghanistan by diverting resources to Iraq. The Nato-led force has almost 37,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Diplomat eyed for top UN post

Kai Eide, a veteran diplomat in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, has emerged as a leading candidate to be the United Nations' special envoy to Afghanistan. Jan Egeland, a former top UN official himself, calls Eide "a good choice."

An appointment of Eide could further Norway's goal that the UN take on a much more active role in Afghanistan, with more authority over the rebuilding of the war-torn nation. Norway wants the UN to have more control than NATO has now.

Eide confirmed to Aftenposten that he has "registered" that his name is on the list of candidates to be the new UN envoy in Kabul. "If an offer comes, it would be natural to discuss it first with my family, the foreign minister (Jonas Gahr Støre) and others directly affected," Eide told Aftenposten.

It's widely expected that the new UN envoy will receive a larger mandate than his predecessor. The last envoy left Kabul in December and British diplomat Paddy Ashdown withdrew his candidacy over the weekend.

Ashdown didn't have the support of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who reportedly feared Asdown would have too much power over Afghan authorities. Great Britain also has a history as a colonial power in Afghanistan, and has more than 7,000 troops in the country at present.

Egeland, a former vice secretary general of the UN, said Eide did a good job in the Balkans and has experience working with the UN and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe). "He has a very good network on both sides of the Atlantic and in several international organizations," said Egeland. "I would think that he also has the confidence of the Afghan authorities."

Eide was in Kabul earlier this month during the terrorist attack on a hotel where a Norwegian delegation led by Støre was staying. Støre, now traveling in China, declined to comment on Eide's candidacy.

US funds madrassas in Afghanistan

By Jon Boone in Khost, Financial Times January 29, 2008

The US military is funding the construction of Islamic schools, or madrassas, in the east of Afghanistan in an attempt to stem the tide of young people going to radical religious schools in Pakistan.

Such schools spawned the Taliban movement, which harboured Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader behind the September 11 terror attacks on the US, before it was swept from power in 2001.

Commander David Adams, head of the US provincial reconstruction team in Khost, the province on the border with Pakistan, said more were planned.

“We would like to see small religious schools in every district so that parents don’t have to send their children over the border [to Pakistan],” he told the Financial Times.

The initiative shows how much leeway US commanders have been given to implement counter-insurgency strategies that focus on development and education.

In parts of eastern Afghanistan, US soldiers distribute copies of the Koran and “mosque refurbishment kits” that include sound systems powered by solar panels and prayer rugs.

John Kael Weston, the state department’s political representative in the Khost reconstruction team, holds weekly meetings with madrassa students.

“Just look at it from their perspective – if we just talk about girls’ education, for example, it just plays into the propaganda about the US. They think that the Americans will be opening up strip joints and restaurants selling alcohol on every corner.”

Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s minister of education, is pushing for madrassas to fall within the state system to ensure that the curriculum includes secular disciplines such as science and languages as well as traditional religious education.

Colonel Martin Schweitzer, brigade commander of Task Force Fury, which is responsible for security and reconstruction in parts of eastern Afghanistan, said he had been reassured by Mr Atmar’s approach.

“We’re talking separate schools for boys and girls to develop the curriculum that’s within their governmental parameters of how they want [to develop] their people and their country, their vision and their way of life.”

Samad terms Manley report a balanced analysis

By Lalit K Jha - Jan 27, 2008

New York, January 27, 2007 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, has said that the Manley penal report gives a balance analysis of various options and what needs to be done to achieve success in Afghanistan .

The report is very frank, the analysis is comprehensive and gives Canadians a strong reference point, Samad told Pajhwok Afghan News in an interview .

Headed by former foreign minister, John Manley, the five-member Independent Panel on Canadas future in Afghanistan submitted its report to the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, early this week. The reports recommend conditional but long-term extension of the Canadas military mission in Afghanistan till the Afghan forces are strong enough to manage its own security .

It has some strong messages and recommendations for Canada and its future role within the framework of international communitys commitment. It has also given some strong view about Afghanistan itself, which we appreciate coming from friends who care about our common success, he said .

We all can benefit from its assessment and the recommendations made, he said .

In the next few months, Canada would have to make important decisions about its post-2009 Kandahar mission. Harper is soon expected to initiate a debate in the Parliament followed by a vote. Meanwhile a public opinion poll released by CanWest News Service and Global National said following the release of the Manley Panel report the support for withdrawal from Afghanistan has declined .

The report advocates not leaving Kandahar, but it also puts emphasis on training Afghan security forces and doing real development work that changes and improves the lives of the Afghans. It also addresses some of the concerns regarding weak institutions and governance and corruption in Afghanistan .

Our point of view has been we do not anticipate the situation to stabilize by 2009, specially Kandahar and for the Afghan forces to be ready at that point to take over. So we need a commitment that goes beyond 2009. This report acknowledges that fact, Samad said .

When asked about the condition of deployment of 1,000 NATO troops for the continuation of Canadas military mission in Afghanistan, Samad said he is hopeful that such issues and challenges can have a solution .

We are hopeful that we will see that some of these issues are addressed, he said . ajr

PM puts onus on military to explain prisoner policy

Harper stands firm on operational secrecy, says it's up to Forces to release information

CAMPBELL CLARK, Globe and Mail- January 30, 2008

OTTAWA -- The military is free to release information about Afghan detainees if it chooses, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday, as he was criticized for excessive secrecy on how Canadian troops handle their prisoners.

As opposition parties challenged his assertion that all such information must be kept secret because of military operational security, Mr. Harper said that revealing details is the Canadian Forces' call.

"These are operational matters of the Canadian military. If the Canadian military chooses to reveal that information, that's their decision. But the government certainly isn't going to release it on their behalf," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons.

Opposition MPs pressed for information about what Canada is doing with prisoners since it stopped transferring them to Afghan authorities in early November because of a credible allegation of torture - a policy change revealed by government lawyers last week.

They raised concerns that the government might be allowing informal detainee transfers in the field when Canadian Forces conduct joint operations with the Afghanistan National Army.

The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that Canadians were holding detainees at Kandahar airfield, taking fewer prisoners and releasing some quickly.

In the House, NDP Leader Jack Layton asked why Canada will not reveal information about detainees when some NATO allies do.

"Is he saying that the British, Dutch and the Americans are imperilling their national security by releasing information about their detainees to the public? Is that what he's saying?" Mr. Layton asked in the House.

Mr. Harper replied: "I guess what it means is that Canada makes its own policies."

The United States regularly issues news releases about the number of prisoners it captures in Afghanistan, but does not provide comprehensive information about how many have been detained. Britain and the Netherlands report how many prisoners they have taken and how many were transferred or released.

One military expert, retired Colonel Mike Capstick, said military commanders would have concerns that revealing precise information about the number of detainees could give insurgents an estimate of how effective Canadian efforts are, and allow them to guess who had been captured. He said broader information about how they are handled is unlikely to be as sensitive, and information on when the government knew transfers were halted is not a security concern.

Government lawyers revealed last week that Canada quietly suspended the transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities on Nov. 5. The Opposition charged that Mr. Harper and other government ministers misled the public by failing to disclose the change.

On Thursday, Mr. Harper's communications director, Sandra Buckler, said the military did not tell the government about the suspension of transfers, but retracted that on Friday, saying she "misspoke."

The Globe reported yesterday that General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, angrily called Mr. Harper on Friday to say he was "tired of being used" in political controversy. Mr. Harper denied that yesterday.

"In fact, I have not had any telephone conversation in the last several weeks with General Hillier," Mr. Harper said in the Commons. "I did talk to General Hillier last week, not about prisoners but about the Manley report and also to wish him well on the well-deserved vacation with his wife in the Caribbean."

In a statement last night, Gen. Hiller also denied that a conversation about prisoners took place.

"The recently alleged conversation between myself and the Prime Minister of Friday past did not take place," the statement said. "At the time I was on one of the few breaks I have had since I became CDS, and made no effort and felt no need to contact the Prime Minister - being furious over anything was the furthest thing from my mind. I know that I, and the men and women who work for me, have the support of our Prime Minister in all the dangerous missions undertaken routinely."

Asked if Gen. Hillier spoke to anyone in the Prime Minister's Office or if someone called on his behalf, a spokeswoman said: "Not that I am aware of."

The detainee controversy has dominated questions in the Commons in a week where Mr. Harper asked for Liberal support to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009, as long as NATO provides 1,000 more troops and helps resolve equipment shortages.

Mr. Dion said he will discuss the issue, but has not dropped his assertion that the "combat" mission must end in February, 2009, to focus on training - although he said troops might do that in Kandahar.

Germany's ambassador to Canada, Matthias Hopfner, said yesterday he was "optimistic" that NATO will meet Canada's demands, but strongly doubts that Germany, which has 3,200 troops in Afghanistan, will move troops south to Kandahar province.

Canadian troops not dodging the capture of Afghan prisoners: MacKay

(CP)- OTTAWA - Canada's defence minister denied suggestions Canadian troops are allowing Afghan forces to take custody of Taliban fighters to take political heat off the federal government.

"That is not the practice of the Canadian army," Peter MacKay said Tuesday as the Conservative government faced a second straight day of opposition pounding over prisoners.

His comments came as human-rights experts say the only way to extract Canadian soldiers from the moral morass created by the transfer fiasco is for Canada - or NATO - to build its own detention facility.

In court action last week to halt the handover of prisoners, human-rights groups raised the possibility that Canadians were allowing Afghan troops to claim prisoners rather than take on the responsibility themselves.

With the doors to Afghan jails temporarily closed because of torture concerns, the questions of what Canadians do with prisoners; whether they have captured any; and where they are being housed has gone from being a hushed distress among advocates to a vocal concern in the House of Commons.

The Conservative government has repeatedly thrown questions about the handling of captured militants under a blanket of operational security, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it clear Tuesday that the military decides what secrets to keep.

"If the Canadian military chooses to reveal that information that's their decision, but the government certainly isn't going to reveal it on their behalf," Harper told the Commons.

Canada suspended the handover of prisoners on Nov. 6, 2007, one day after diplomats discovered a credible case of abuse, where a suspected militant was beaten by Afghan guards with an electrical cable and hose.

Human-rights groups have said they are worried Canadian troops are simply standing aside and letting the Afghan National Army or local police take custody of suspected Taliban.

MacKay denied it, but added the government is loath to tell field commanders what to do on a case-by-case basis. It's still unclear what is happening to prisoners.

Afghan police and tribal leaders in the Panjwaii district, a hotbed of insurgent activity, told The Canadian Press earlier this week that Canadian troops have taken very few - if any prisoners - since the transfer suspension was ordered.

Such a scenario would explain the surprise with which the U.S. and NATO greeted news that Canada had suspended transfers.

A news release from U.S. authorities on Jan. 2 contains a reference to coalition forces making captures in Musan, outside of Kandahar, but it's unclear whether Canadians were involved.

When militants are detained and held by Canadians, it is usually during large-scale military operations, such as last fall's sweep through the Arghandaub district, north of Kandahar. Smaller raids, targeting specific Taliban leaders or cells, are often carried out by U.S. Special Forces and those insurgents who are taken alive fall into the American system.

The Taliban are usually less active in the winter, another factor that could explain the supposed absence of prisoners. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused the government during question period Tuesday of having no plan to deal with such an important human-rights concern.

MacKay said last weekend that the prisoner handover to Afghan authorities would resume when the military is comfortable that there have been prison "improvements," but wouldn't define what that meant.

The Afghanistan Compact - the international agreement governing reconstruction - estimates it will be at least 2010 before that country's prison system is in good enough shape to be considered free of possible abuse.

The approach of the spring fighting season means the federal government will soon have to make decisions, and an international law expert said the solution should be a Canadian-or NATO-run jail.

"I'm quite confident in the abilities of the Canadian military that they can build an adequate temporary facility on short notice, if they wanted to do so," said Michael Byers, chair of international law at the University of British Columbia. "This is not rocket science, putting up fences and temporary accommodation."

Both the Canadian army and NATO have repeatedly said that they have no intention of building a jail to house Afghan militants, even though a number of allied governments are contributing to the construction of maximum-security prison for drug offenders.

Members of the military alliance argue they don't have the troops or resources to adequately guard prisoners and that the detention of insurgents is properly a matter for the government of Afghanistan.

Privately, many European countries worry that a short-staffed NATO prison would lead to an "Abu Ghraib-style disaster" - a reference to the notorious U.S. operated jail in Iraq.

Another alternative would be to hand prisoners over to the Americans, as happened prior to December 2005. A senior Canadian defence official said "there's no way" the government is prepared to accept that kind of political heat.

U.S. prisoners in Afghanistan are housed at Bagram airfield, a facility the International Committee of the Red Cross has raised concerns about in the past.

The military base north of Kabul is teeming with roughly 630 prisoners.

Canada's demand gets attention

NATO defence ministers set to discuss Kandahar mission ultimatum

January 30, 2008 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Canada's Afghanistan ultimatum will be at the top of the agenda when NATO defence ministers meet in Lithuania in one week's time, a spokesperson for the military alliance said yesterday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this week that Canada's 2,500 soldiers in Kandahar must be backed up by an additional 1,000 troops from another country or he will pull out of the Afghan mission in February 2009.

NATO spokesperson James Appathurai said he is optimistic NATO can find more soldiers, but indicated that Harper's threat has caused some alarm at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"Clearly there is an issue in Kandahar and this will certainly be discussed in Vilnius," he said, referring to the Lithuanian capital where defence ministers will gather on Feb. 7 and 8.

The comments came as Washington endorsed Harper's criticism that NATO's efforts have not been adequate in Afghanistan, particularly in Kandahar province.

The Pentagon has long complained European militaries are not sending enough soldiers or sharing enough of the risk in Afghanistan, and a spokesperson said yesterday that NATO could not count on the U.S. to carry a heavier load.

The U.S. is deploying 3,200 marines to Afghanistan in March, 2,200 of whom will be sent to Kandahar and other dangerous southern provinces.

But that rotation will only last seven months, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell said in Washington. "That's as much and as deep as we're going at this point," he said. "We've done, as I made clear, what we can do."

Harper has vowed to lead a diplomatic effort to convince Canada's NATO partners to make greater contributions to the multinational force, and his efforts are focused on a major meeting of the alliance in Bucharest in April.

But Canada will also get help from Washington, Morrell said.

"You will hear from us, as we get closer to Vilnius and Bucharest, a desire to have our allies who are providing combat forces to the efforts in Afghanistan ... see what more they can do," he said. "So, hopefully, we'll make some progress there that will help the Canadians extend their commitment to the mission."

Last week's report by former Liberal minister John Manley on the future of the Afghan mission painted a gloomy picture of disjointed United Nations and NATO efforts and of poor co-ordination of aid and development dollars. But it also said the Canadian mission was bound to fail, and should be ended, if Canada did not get military help, plus transport helicopters and unmanned aerial surveillance craft.

"We obviously have taken good note of what Harper has said and we have read the Manley report very carefully. We share the view that Afghanistan needs long-term support, and that includes military support," Appathurai said.

He said 10 countries have already promised to boost the number of soldiers they have on the ground in Afghanistan, including Poland.

"I don't think there is any reason to call into question NATO's credibility. The mission continues to increase in size and continues to achieve success," he said.

Bush Ignores Afghan School Violence

By JASON STRAZIUSO – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In his State of the Union address, President Bush called Afghanistan a young democracy where children go to school and Afghans are hopeful. But he didn't mention the violence that has killed 147 students and teachers, and closed 590 schools in the last year — almost as many as the 680 the U.S. has built.

Bush's rosy outlook for a country that once hosted al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden didn't contain any falsehoods. New roads and hospitals are being built, just as he told the nation Monday night.

Boys and girls are going to school in record numbers. Some 5.8 million students, including 2 million girls, are now in class, compared with less than a million under the Taliban.

But some here might say Bush glossed over the bad news. Last year saw a record level of violence, and military leaders and analysts expect the suicide bombings, clashes and kidnappings to increase in 2008.

"The security is going from bad to worse, especially in the south and the east," said Abdul Kaiyoom, 47, who works for Afghanistan's Education Ministry. "International forces have very modern equipment, but the Taliban have a heavy influence in the outlying areas, and they are taking territory from the government."

Bush said the sending of an additional 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan — a decision made just this month — would help continue the country's successes. But in reality, it came only after U.S. officials couldn't persuade other NATO countries to send more soldiers to bolster the 28,000 U.S. forces already there.

"Thanks to the courage of these military and civilian personnel, a nation that was once a safe haven for al-Qaida is now a young democracy where boys and girls are going to school, new roads and hospitals are being built, and people are looking to the future with new hope," Bush said.

USAID, the government's aid arm, has built or refurbished 680 schools in Afghanistan since 2001. Still, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif told The Associated Press last week there is a shortage of qualified teachers — and schools themselves.

Out of the country's 9,400 "schools," only 40 percent are actual buildings. Sixty percent of classes are held in tents or the open air.

But there's an even more worrying trend: The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks tripled in the past year, to 147, Hanif said, while the number of students out of class because of security has hit 300,000 since March 2007, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months. The number of schools closed has risen from 350 to 590.

That bad news might only grow worse. The Kabul-based security company that surveys conditions for international aid organizations in Afghanistan said in a report this month that 2007 will be seen as the year the Taliban seriously rejoined the fight.

"With the Taliban evidently resurgent, it has also become obvious that their easy departure in 2001 was more of a strategic retreat than an actual military defeat," wrote Nic Lee, the director of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office.

"In simple terms, the consensus amongst informed individuals at the end of 2007 seems to be that Afghanistan is at the beginning of a war, not the end of one."

More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — died in insurgent violence last year, the highest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, according to an AP count based on official figures. Insurgents detonated some 140 suicide attacks, a record level.

"All the suicide attacks happen against (international forces), but the attacks actually kill Afghan civilians," said Kabul taxi driver Saboor Amiri, 40. "If they can't provide security for themselves, how can they provide security for the civilians? ... Yes, we appreciate that they kicked out the Taliban, but now it's time for these forces to leave."

That won't happen. There is growing recognition in Washington that the U.S. risks further setbacks, if not deepening conflict or even defeat, in Afghanistan, and analysts say the Bush administration is taking the country and the growing unrest in Pakistan more seriously than in the past.

The number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has grown over the past two years from about 20,000 to the current force of 28,000, the highest of the war. The total will pass 31,000 this spring when the Marines arrive.

Some Afghans see that as a good thing, among them Mohammad Nieem, a 50-year-old Kabul shopkeeper.

"All the students going to school is a result of the efforts of the international community. We had elections. That was the first time in my life I saw an election," he said.

"Yes, we have security problems in some parts of the country ... (but) I appreciate that America is sending extra troops. This is something Afghanistan needs right now."

Associated Press reporter Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.

Afghanistan's Senate endorses reporter's death sentence: official

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's senate has endorsed a death sentence handed down by a court to a reporter and journalism student accused of blasphemy, the parliament media office said.

The senate, called the Meshrano Jirga (House of Elders), issued a statement Tuesday backing last week's decision by the Balkh province primary court and criticising international pressure over the case, an official told AFP.

The court sentenced Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, to death for distributing articles downloaded from the Internet that were said to question the Koran and the role of women in Islam.

"The Meshrano Jirga endorses the Balkh primary court's verdict on sentencing to death Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh who has been sentenced over insulting Islam and misinterpretation of Koran verses," said the statement read to AFP.

The house also "strongly criticises those domestic and international organisations which are pressurising Afghanistan's government and legal authorities when pursuing such people," it said.

The statement was signed Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of the senate who was briefly Afghan president in the early 1990s and is a close ally President Hamid Karzai.

The death sentence must pass through various higher courts and be approved by Karzai, who has been called on by international and Afghan media rights organisations to intervene in the case.

The extremist Taliban movement that is waging an insurgency against Karzai's administration has also called for "severe punishment" for Kambakhsh, whom they called the "new Salman Rushdie" -- a reference to the British-Indian author whose 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" was deemed blasphemous by then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , who called on Muslims to kill him.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, following a civil war by leaders of an anti-Soviet resistance who were also fundamentalist Muslims.

Afghan Women Protest Aid Worker’s Kidnapping

By TAIMOOR SHAH and CARLOTTA GALL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — About 500 Afghan women gathered Tuesday in this southern city to protest the kidnapping of an American aid worker and her Afghan driver and to call for her release.

The kidnapped woman, Cyd Mizell, 49, works for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation and was seized Saturday on her way to work in Kandahar, along with her driver, Abdul Hadi. Afghan officials said that they had no leads on who abducted them and that there had not been any contact with the kidnappers or demands by them.

In a strong show of support for Ms. Mizell, who has lived in Kandahar for six years, working on educational projects and women’s development, Afghan women’s associations called in speeches for officials, elders, ordinary citizens and young people to work for her release.

“This is against Islam, this is against Afghan culture, particularly against Kandahari custom, a woman’s abduction,” said the director of women’s affairs in Kandahar, Runa Tareen.

“Cydney Mizell was here to help Afghan women. She was living here and was proud and confident that Afghans have a nice culture that does not harm women.”

Soraya Barna, a member of the provincial council of Kandahar, said: “We are so sad and we want her to be released as soon as possible. We want officials and others to multiply their struggle to find her soon and hope she will be back safely.”

Copper project tests Afghanistan's resources

von Jon Boone (Kabul)

The war-battered country might not be able to handle a huge but potentially lucrative deal. The debris left over from previous attempts to extract some of Afghanistan's colossal mineral wealth can be found just 35km south-east of Kabul.

All that remains from Soviet attempts in the 1970s to assess one of the world's biggest copper reserves is exploratory drill holes. But in five years, if all goes to plan, the landscape in the Aynak exploration area will finally be changed into one of the world's largest opencast mines, thanks to a $3bn (Pfund1.5bn) investment by the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC).

In November, the Chinese state-owned company beat eight other leading mining groups, including Phelps Dodge of the US, Hunter Dickinson of Canada and London-based Kazakhmys, to become the government's preferred bidder.

If contract negotiations are successfully concluded, MCC will have access to a reserve that, with copper prices running high, could be worth $42bn, according to one estimate.

By international standards, it is a huge project, involving the second-largest unexploited deposit in the world. By Afghan standards, it is gargantuan.

And therein lies both the potential reward and risk for a war-battered country that desperately needs the money such a deal could bring but which experts say is unprepared for regulating the sort of mega-projects that have caused social, political and economic catastrophes in other developing nations.

Lorenzo Delesgues, executive director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an independent research organisation that last month published a report on Aynak, says Afghanistan is not evenly matched with the company. "This is a multi-national company that is far bigger financially than Afghanistan. It's like David and Goliath, only David doesn't have any laws or regulatory framework to help him."

Copper mining can be destructive to the environment. Acid waste, for example, needs to be controlled to stop it polluting drinking water supplies and the run-off from Aynak could spill into Kabul's water supply, experts have warned.

But the rewards for getting the project right could be huge for Afghanistan. The investment in the project is equal to 35 per cent of all the international development money spent on Afghanistan since 2002.

Analysts say annual royalties will be about $400m - or 40 per cent of the 2006 Afghan state budget. The cash will be vital for a country that struggles to collect taxes and knows it has to wean itself off international aid money.

The project will also bring infrastructure development for which the country would otherwise have to wait decades, including a first railway line, which would link Afghanistan to Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Mahmoud Saikal, an economic adviser to the government, says Afghanistan should look to the example of post-independence India, which focused on developing its mineral wealth.

"The MCC deal only ¬covers one quarter of the exploration area and the country's other resources could be a lot more than we currently understand," he says. "There will be opportunities for similar deals."

Those other minerals include iron ore, gold, marble, emeralds, lapis lazuli and hydrocarbons.

But if the Aynak deal, which is seen as a test of how the country handles big foreign investment projects, goes sour, then much of that potential will remain untapped.

In the summer, concerns were raised about the tendering process by James Yeager, a consultant who worked with the ministry of mines. He warned that legal requirements for an inter-ministerial council to consider the rival bidders were simply being ignored. Other sources close to the deal have warned that the process lacked transparency.

The World Bank, which is bankrolling efforts to sharpen the ministry's capacity to handle mega-deals, said it was satisfied with the tendering process.

Analysts warn, however, that the contract negotiations and a yet-to-be-done feasibility study still offer potential pitfalls.

One westerner with intimate knowledge of the country's embryonic mineral extraction regime described it as a "Soviet-era structure that simply does not have the capacity to do the job".

"The risk will be that without the lawyers and accountants in place to monitor all of this, they won't be able to stop problems before it's too late," he said.

But Ibrahim Adel, Afghanistan's mining minister, said his ministry was being well advised by international experts and the country still had plenty of time.

"Extraction will not start for five years, so there will be sufficient time to get our experts and environmental inspectors trained," he said.

If those challenges cannot be tackled, however, the landscape around Aynak will be disfigured by more than a few Soviet-era holes.

India to build Afghanistan's parliament house

via Calcutta News.Net Wednesday 30th January, 2008 (IANS)

The Indian cabinet Wednesday granted approval to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to go ahead with the construction of Afghanistan's parliament house in Kabul.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the CPWD would also construct the Indian Chancery in the Afghanistan capital.

'The CPWD was already in the process for inviting tenders. The cabinet Wednesday approved the move for the combined projects of construction of Afghanistan's parliament and Indian chancery complex in Kabul,' Dasmunshi said.

[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.]