In this bulletin:

• UN names new Afghan envoy
• FACTBOX: Five facts about Kai Eide, new U.N. Afghan envoy
• NATO foreign ministers approve new Afghan plan
• Rice calls on NATO allies to aid Canada
• Sarkozy sets out France's Afghan stance to NATO: US official
• France warms to plea for help from Canada
• Czech Republic sends first civilian experts to Afghanistan
• Russia may offer Afghan route for Nato
• Russia fulfills obligations on Afghan debt – ambassador
• Hillary Clinton unveils Afghanistan Plan
• Prime Minister Harper praises Canadians making a difference in the lives of Afghan women and girls
• Afghan agency gets federal aid
• Not our job to show jails free of torture, Ottawa will argue
• Key Afghan district slow to recover despite 2-year Canadian security effort
• Afghan police seize 670 kg opium in Helmand province
• Afghanistan holds rare exhibit of work by female artists in Kabul
• Afghan women face harsh male attitudes
• International Women's Day Highlights Plight of Afghan Women

UN names new Afghan envoy

By Laura Trevelyan - BBC News, United Nations

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has nominated Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide to be the next UN envoy in Afghanistan. Mr Ban's earlier choice of Britain's Paddy Ashdown was blocked by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Mr Eide is currently the political director of Norway's ministry of foreign affairs and is a former ambassador to Nato. He is expected to take more prominent role co-ordinating international reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

Hamid Karzai vetoed Ban Ki-moon's choice of Paddy Ashdown for the key UN job in Afghanistan fearing, say diplomats, that his authority would be challenged.

Lord Ashdown served as the UN's High Representative and EU envoy to Bosnia from 2002 to 2005. Mr Ban has written to the 15 members of the UN Security Council informing them of his intention to appoint Mr Eide.

Now the Security Council must discuss the appointment, but diplomats say there is no reason to believe that Mr Ban's choice will not be endorsed. The Afghan government will support this appointment, sources tell the BBC.

FACTBOX: Five facts about Kai Eide, new U.N. Afghan envoy

Thu Mar 6, 2008 - (Reuters) - Following are key facts about Kai Eide, the Norwegian diplomat chosen on Thursday to be the new United Nations envoy to Afghanistan.

-- Eide, 59, is a career diplomat who has had long stints on NATO, where he served as Norway's permanent representative from 2002 to 2006.

-- Eide also worked with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a group which helped nation-building and democracy in post-communist Eastern Europe, including as chairman of the OSCE permanent council in 1999.

-- He also served in various positions at the United Nations, primarily in the Balkans. His most recent U.N. experience was special envoy of the Secretary-General to Kosovo. Earlier, he was a special representative of the United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

-- He served on the so-called Mitchell Commission, helping write the Mitchell Report about the Palestinian uprising which broke out in 2000.

-- Eide also advised the chief executive of Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro while not in the foreign service. Most recently, Eide was political director at Norway's foreign ministry, advising Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

NATO foreign ministers approve new Afghan plan

MURRAY BREWSTER - The Canadian Press March 6, 2008

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier emerged from a meeting with his NATO counterparts in Belgium on Thursday more confident that Canada will get the help it needs in southern Afghanistan.

He said in a phone interview from Brussels he walked other ministers through the Manley commission report, which recommended Canada extend its deployment in Kandahar to 2011, as long as alliance members sent 1,000 more troops to the south. Mr. Bernier called it a “constructive dialogue.”

The foreign ministers have signed off on a comprehensive Afghanistan strategy — a proposal that's expected to get final approval next month at a summit meeting in Romania.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier arrives for a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

“Our discussions today will help prepare the ground for the major meeting we will have in Bucharest, where heads of state and government will approve a political-military plan which will guide our operation in Afghanistan for the coming years, as part of a stepped-up, comprehensive, international effort,” said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Alliance officials did not detail the strategy, other than to say it will balance the needs of countries which have asked for more help in fighting the Taliban with demands from other members who say the mission is more about reconstruction.

Mr. Bernier held separate meetings with the foreign affairs ministers of both Belgium and France. He received an update on France's proposal to increase its combat presence in the war-torn country.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told him that no decision has been made on whether French troops are going to eastern or southern Afghanistan.

A senior Canadian official says Mr. Bernier was given — in a very short meeting — a glimpse at how deliberations among French officials are proceeding. A final decision, which is expected to be announced at the Bucharest summit, will be made by President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr. Kouchner said.

In a separate bilateral meeting, the Belgians were thanked for deploying four Mirage jet fighters to Afghanistan to support ground troops. “I emphasized that all NATO members need to do what is required to succeed in Afghanistan,” Mr. Bernier said following the meeting.

“This includes ensuring (the NATO force) has the necessary resources and is using those resources in the most effective way possible.”

Alliance military planners say a deployment of French troops to eastern Afghanistan could still benefit the Canadians because it would free forces already there to move to Kandahar.

Rice calls on NATO allies to aid Canada

'We have to respond as an alliance' - Peter O'neil,  Canwest News Service  Published: Friday, March 07, 2008

BRUSSELS - Stephen Harper's battle to convince allies to provide reinforcements for the Canadian mission in Afghanistan's treacherous southern region received high-profile backing here yesterday from Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State.

She declared that allies must heed the Prime Minister's call for 1,000 more troops, helicopters and surveillance drones for the dangerous Kandahar region.

"We believe that the alliance has an obligation to deliver on that, because this is a NATO mission," she told journalists at the end of a one-day meeting of North American Treaty Organization foreign ministers.

"This is not a Canadian mission or a Danish mission or an American mission. It's a NATO mission and we have to respond as an alliance."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed confidence Canada will get the allied reinforcements it says it needs to extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009.

"The Canadian contribution is very important and the debate that you've had, I think, has been a very valuable debate," Mr. Miliband said when asked by Canwest News Service whether Canada will get the help it is seeking.

"I am confident that the nations of the coalition are going to stick together to ensure that we can all make a maximum contribution in Afghanistan in an effective way."

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, who met with French counterpart Bernard Kouchner to discuss Paris's plans to expand operations in Afghanistan, said he is expecting an answer on Canada's aid request within weeks.

"There are no decisions taken by our allies to be [allies of Canada] in the south, but all allies understand the necessity for Canada and NATO to have the sufficient force to fulfil the mission," he said.

NATO allies, while publicly voicing sympathy for Canada's position, are urging countries to stop raising the possibility they might pull out of the country.

They said the new strategic and political plan to be unveiled at a major NATO leaders' summit in Bucharest next month will declare that allies share a long-term commitment to the campaign against Taliban insurgents.

There are fears the threats by the Canadians and Dutch to withdraw troops simply embolden the Taliban and raise questions among ordinary Afghans about whether they should show loyalty to Western troops who might abandon the country.

Afghanistan "is a core mission of NATO. It is the central mission of NATO. It must be successful," Ms. Rice said.

Mr. Kouchner, meanwhile, confirmed media reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, rather than ship soldiers to Kandahar as Canada has requested, may dispatch troops to the east.

"Some requests were made in a very friendly and open fashion by Canada," Mr. Kouchner told journalists.

"The French President said that we were going to increase our commitment in response to this request, which we will do. However, we have not made a definite choice between the east and Kandahar, and there are other choices as well."

He said Mr. Sarkozy will make the final decision in consultation with French generals. He added, with a smile, that he and Mr. Bernier may visit Afghanistan together in early April.

"I have talked about it [Canada's request] with my friend Maxime and we will see. By the way, we might be together in Afghanistan at the beginning of April." Mr. Bernier said he will consider the suggestion of a joint trip.

Sarkozy sets out France's Afghan stance to NATO: US official

BRUSSELS (AFP) — President Nicolas Sarkozy has written to France's NATO allies to lay out Paris's position on Afghanistan ahead of an alliance summit, a US official said.

The alliance is drawing up a plan to link the military, political and development aspects of its most challenging mission, amid complaints that some countries are not pulling their weight and warnings of failure.

"Sarkozy sent a letter about long term commitment, comprehensive approach, Afghans in the lead and the importance of the Afghan-Pakistan relationship," the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I think you will see that reflected -- we all agreed on these things -- in the official statement, if we get it right," the official said, referring to the planned announcement at NATO's summit in Bucharest April 2-4.

The "comprehensive approach" is NATO jargon for a plan linking NATO's security efforts with the political and humanitarian work of the United Nations, European Union and non-governmental organisations.

"We are working on this vision statement which is designed to ensure that we are all explaining the why, the what and the when of Afghanistan to our publics the same way," the US official said.

The aim is "to reaffirm why it was that NATO decided that our security and our values had to be protected in Afghanistan."

Sarkozy's letter is said to have arrived in Washington last Friday. "It was a great letter," the official said.

Earlier on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged NATO countries to foster good relations with the new government in Pakistan and to encourage its ties with Afghanistan.

"It will be important to take measures to build confidence with the new government in Pakistan and the government in Afghanistan," he told reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

The party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had been expected to nominate Pakistan's new prime minister to lead a parliament that could decide the fate of President Pervez Musharraf, but a decision was delayed.

Musharraf has been a key ally in the US "war on terror", part of which is being fought across Pakistan's northern border with Afghanistan, where a NATO-led force has struggled to overcome a Taliban-led insurgency.

NATO has some 43,000 troops in the International Security Assistance Force it has led since 2003, with the aim of spreading the rule of the weak central government and fostering reconstruction in the conflict-torn country.

France warms to plea for help from Canada

March 07, 2008 - Mitch Potter EUROPE BUREAU

BRUSSELS–As NATO builds momentum toward a "renewal of vows" for Afghanistan, Canada and France yesterday revealed their foreign ministers will embark on a joint mission to Kabul next month in a move that could presage the announcement of badly needed reinforcements for Kandahar province.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, speaking after what he termed "a rich exchange of views" with his NATO counterparts, hinted anew that France is poised to assume a more robust role in Afghanistan in such a way that, either directly or indirectly, will ease the burden on Canadian soldiers.

The size and destination of French reinforcements for Afghanistan will be revealed by President Nicolas Sarkozy at the NATO summit April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.

Kouchner, who was speaking to reporters after a meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels, then referred vaguely to an upcoming journey with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.

"You never know," said Kouchner, smiling cryptically, "We may end up together in Afghanistan at the beginning of April."

Speaking separately to Canadian journalists, Bernier confirmed the joint journey but would not say if it suggests France is emerging as the partner Ottawa needs to extend its Kandahar mission.

Bernier said he remained "hopeful" and the message from many of his NATO counterparts yesterday, including British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, suggested a growing confidence that Ottawa's bottom-line call for another 1,000 soldiers, to work alongside the 2,500 Canadian soldiers deployed in Kandahar, will be answered at the Bucharest summit.

Amid growing expectations of an answer to the Canadian dilemma, NATO foreign ministers instead turned their attention yesterday to hashing out the language of a comprehensive strategy that many member nations hope will bridge differences in the alliance and bring fresh energy and focus to the drifting mission in Afghanistan.

Here again, France is emerging as a leader, due to the near unanimous approval of a Paris-backed draft document that reduces the NATO-led coalition's goals in Afghanistan to four key points, which Kouchner outlined yesterday.

"A strategy is necessary," Kouchner said, one that first and foremost would see "a common determination of the allies to stay engaged in Afghanistan for the long-term," with a renewed emphasis on reconstruction and "clear prospects for a gradual handover to Afghan authorities at all levels."

A critical component of the new strategy is the appointment of a new United Nations special envoy with the authority to co-ordinate and streamline the sometimes disparate efforts of agencies involved in rebuilding and redeveloping Afghanistan, Kouchner said.

Doubts remain as to whether NATO's new comprehensive strategy – likely to be unveiled in Bucharest – will amount to much more than a public relations exercise. One source at NATO headquarters said there is "some cynicism within" that the document will outline anything new that doesn't exist under NATO's current operational plan for Afghanistan.

Another senior NATO source called the document a vehicle for "the renewal of vows.

"Let's face it, we've had a really tough couple of years in Afghanistan. So there is a strong sense now that we have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and for everyone to look each other in the eyes and to say anew, `We are together on this, right? And this is how we are going to do it,' " the source said.

"Canada needs to hear that. All the countries doing the heaviest lifting need to hear that. The Afghans need to hear that. That is not merely public relations. That is getting everyone back on the same page again."

Czech Republic sends first civilian experts to Afghanistan

PRAGUE, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic Thursday sent first three civilian experts on agriculture, construction and geology to Afghanistan as part of its Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the central Logar province.

    The experts are expected to stay in Logar for around one year, while the whole Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team will stay there for three to five years.

    The Czech government planned to send another 50 soldiers to Logar, bringing the number of Czech troops in the province to 139.It also mulls to expand the total number of soldiers dispatched to the war-torn Asian country to 415 this year.

    After Lithuania and Hungary, the Czech Republic has become the third NATO member with a PRT in Afghanistan.

    It also runs a field hospital in Afghanistan's capital city Kabul and a special Czech military police unit will soon engage in combat in the southwestern province of Hilmand.

Russia may offer Afghan route for Nato

By James Blitz in London March 6 2008 Financial Times, UK

Russia is for the first time talking to western governments about the possibility of allowing goods destined for Nato’s military mission in Afghanistan to be transported across Russian territory.

In a development that could signal the start of a significant level of practical co-operation between Russia and Nato in Afghanistan, diplomats in Moscow and Brussels are working on a plan that would allow non-military material – such as clothing, food and petrol – to cross Russia by land.

Despite the frosty relationship between Russia and the west in many policy areas, Dmitri Rogozin, Russia’s new ambassador to Nato, signalled a strong interest in forging agreement in this area at a recent meeting of the Nato-Russia council in Brussels.

His proposal has since been followed up by intensive talks between Nato and Russian officials on the precise routes to be used, amid hopes of reaching agreement at next month’s Nato summit in Bucharest.

According to diplomats at Russia’s Nato mission, the supply routes would have to pass from Russia through former Soviet republics, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which are being consulted on the move.

“Consultations on the possible arrangements are being held between experts from Russian agencies and people from Nato,” said a senior Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Discussions are focusing on the approximate volumes of cargo that could be transported and the entry and exit routes for the shipments.”

A senior European diplomat at Nato said: “Rogozin has signalled an interest in practical co-operation with Nato – not least on Afghanistan – and we hope something will come from that.”

The Russian proposal could be an important boost for the Nato mission fighting the Taliban, say western diplomats.

Nato’s 43,000 troops in Afghanistan rely heavily on supplies transported via Pakistan. However, Pakistan’s political uncertainty has long been regarded by Nato military commanders as a potential risk to operations, making the offer of a northern supply route through Russia attractive.

Western diplomats at Nato say it is too early to know whether the Russian proposal signals a change in Moscow’s policy towards the west after the election of Dmitri Medvedev as Russia’s president last week.

Instead, they argue that Russia has always had a strong interest in seeing the Nato mission in Afghanistan succeed because Moscow wants to keep Islamist fundamentalism at bay on its southern borders.

“By helping the Nato mission in Afghanistan, Russia is looking after its strategic interests,” said one diplomat.

Russia fulfills obligations on Afghan debt – ambassador

MOSCOW.  March 7 (Interfax) - Russia has refuted reports that there are problems with the writing off of the Afghan state debt.
    
"This is absolute nonsense. As to the Afghan debt everything has been completed.  I state this with due responsibility," Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said in an interview published by the Vremya Novostei newspaper on Friday.
    
Some media organizations reported earlier that Russia has failed to fulfill an agreement on a many-billion Afghan debt.
    
"Such irresponsible statements undermine the activity of state agencies as to Afghanistan," Kabulov said.
    
Currently, an agreement on the delivery of Russian arms to Afghanistan is being drafted, the ambassador said. "Everything is transparent there.  Meetings between defense ministers and between our military experts need to be organized. The demand of our Afghan partners needs to be thoroughly discussed, and this is not a problem for us," he said.

Hillary Clinton unveils Afghanistan Plan

Lalit K Jha - New York, March 7, 2008 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The leading Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, Thursday unveiled a plan for what she said is forgotten front line in Afghanistan, and is aimed at winning the war against terror in this South Asian country.

Christened “Plan for Forgotten Front Line in Afghanistan”, its key elements include seeking increased international support; better co-ordination with the Afghan Government and redesigning counternarcotics program. Revealing the details of her Afghan plan before a group of retired admirals, generals and other senior officials, Clinton said if elected as the US president she would make Afghanistan her highest priority after Iraq.

As the US President, Clinton said she would appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who would co-ordinate with NATO forces against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region. She also promised to work towards supporting Afghan Government’s capacity for self-governance.

This is for the first time that Clinton has unveiled her Afghan policy i n such a great detail. Apparently she is motivated by the March 5 th victories in Democratic primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Observing that war in Afghanistan can’t be won without a new Pak policy, Clinton promised to dump Bush’s Pakistan policy. “For the past seven years the Bush administration has pursued a one-dimensional policy toward Pakistan, focusing its high level attention overwhelmingly on President Musharraf to the exclusion of other important political actors in Pakistan and its civil society. It is time for this to change,” she said.

Stating that she would increase non-military assistance to Pakistan, Clinton said she would also work towards improving Indo-Pak relationship. “Promoting a stable relationship between India and Pakistan which will further contribute to Afghanistan’s long-term stability,” she said.

Increase International Support to Afghanistan: Observing that Afghanistan needs greater international support, Clinton said as President she would ask NATO allies and other nations to play a larger role. One of the key elements of her plan would be to ask NATO members to remove national caveats. National caveats weaken our NATO effort and create resentments within the Alliance, she said. 

Clinton will encourage countries unable to contribute more forces instead to increase assistance to Afghanistan.  As President, she will be prepared to send additional American troops to Afghanistan as part of a stronger, larger NATO effort.  She will consult the field commanders and our Allies in deciding how many troops are required, said the policy details issued by her campaign office.

More funds to ANA: Accusingthe Bush Administration of neglecting the needs of the Afghan National Army and Police, Clinton said she would allocate more funds for their training and up gradation of their equipments.

“Hillary will ask NATO and other international partners to take a larger responsibility for training and equipping the ANA,” the policy document said.

“She will make it a priority that the Afghans receive modern weapons and airlift capabilities to win their war, not hand me downs left over from the Cold War.  She will make greater use of Afghan forces in US-NATO operations, as the Afghan government seeks,” it said.

Emphasis on agriculture: As President, the plan said Hillary will target enforcement against drug lords, labs, and corrupt officials, not farmers. 

Using the inspirational agricultural programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal as a model, she will propose to the international community and the Congress a multi-year program to develop Afghanistan’s agricultural sector to provide alternative livelihoods. 

“This is the best way to undermine the terrible nexus of drug lords, corrupt officials, and Taliban who are now strangling the legitimate side of Afghanistan’s economy.  This would mean an integrated approach to agricultural development that employs all resources from seeds to fertilizer, irrigation to electrification to roads, and markets to education,” the plan said.

Revitalize International Support for Reconstruction:   The plan said, Clinton will convert the first international donors conference after taking office to a summit-level meeting.  “This meeting will help to revitalize and recommit flagging international support for Afghanistan’s long-term reconstruction and the Afghanistan Compact, and to ensure that donors meet their pledges,” it said. 

Clinton will encourage greater support of donors from the EU, Russia, China, India, and Japan, as well as the Gulf States.

Strengthening Self-Governance capacity: Observing Afghan government needs to reach out to the people in a tangible way to gain respect and support, Clinton said a major investment in infrastructure will need to be made. 

“As President, Hillary will encourage the international coalition to provide the infusion of trained administrators, builders, designers, educators, and rule of law specialists to jumpstart this initiative,” the plan said.

She will support greater funding and coordination for Provincial Reconstruction Teams to address local needs based on local priorities.  The government needs to have the respect of the people by providing them with things that will improve their lives.  We must help them -- but ultimately they must do it for themselves, it said.

Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan: Appointment of a special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Clinton said would be a key aspect of her plan.

As President, she will appoint a special envoy to work with Afghanistan and Pakistan and NATO to develop a regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda said the plan.

“This strategy would include the provision of needed security aid and expertise to Pakistan as we worked with that country as a full partner in addressing extremist threats,” it said.

“Military aid would be accountable.  The envoy would also attempt to engage Iran to prevent drug smuggling and support the Afghan government.  This would give the United States an opportunity to engage Iran positively in an area in which we share common interests,” the plan said.

Prime Minister Harper praises Canadians making a difference in the lives of Afghan women and girls

6 March 2008 - Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today praised two Canadians who are making a real difference in the lives of Afghan women and girls.  During a meeting in his Parliament Hill office, the Prime Minister thanked the duo for complementing Canada’s efforts in the war-torn country.

“I would like to thank these remarkable women for providing hope and support to thousands who were denied basic human rights and brutalized by the Taliban for the simple, heinous reason that they were female,” said Prime Minister Harper. 

The Prime Minister met with Alaina Podmorow, the 11-year-old founder of Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan, and Lauryn Oates, the vice-president of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan.  The sister organizations raise funds for health and education programs for women and girls in Afghanistan, and promote human rights for Afghan women.

“Working with our Afghan allies and Canadian aid organizations, Canada is helping to build a secure, prosperous, democratic Afghanistan.  It’s an honour and a privilege to meet two women who are working to make this endeavour a success,” said Prime Minister Harper. 

Afghan agency gets federal aid

By BILL KAUFMANN, CALGARY SUN

The efforts of a Calgary-based agency in educating Afghan teachers and girls has received a $600,000 boost from Ottawa.

A proposal by Canadian Women for Afghan Women has been accepted and the federal money will be used to train as many as 500 teachers over two years, said Janice Eisenhauer, the group's executive director.

"It's very exciting for us ... now we'll be able to sustain the schools longer," said Eisenhauer, a Calgarian whose group has adopted schools in several villages in the Kabul area.

Under the now-deposed Taliban, Afghan females were forbidden to attend school, but oppression is still widespread. "There are challenges around the opium, warlords and the government."

She said her agency attempts to keep an Afghan stamp on its operation to avoid attracting guerrilla attention. "We keep it pretty quiet in where we are and what we're funding."

The money will allow the group to hire an Afghan program co-ordinator.

Not our job to show jails free of torture, Ottawa will argue

Seeks to dismiss request by rights group on behalf of Afghan detainees

March 06, 2008 - Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau Toronto Star

OTTAWA–Canada has no legal responsibility to ensure Afghan jails are free of torture before it hands over battlefield detainees, government lawyers will argue in Federal Court today.

The lawyers will ask that a request from human rights groups to prevent the military from transferring suspected insurgents to Afghan jails be dismissed, according to a copy of their written arguments, obtained yesterday.

The government will contend that Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties' Association cannot prove that transferred detainees risk being tortured in Afghan jails.

But even with the well-documented history of abuses in Afghanistan's penal system, there is no burden on the Canadian military to prove its detainees will be well treated. Nor is there any responsibility for Canadian officials who decide there is no real risk of torture but are proven wrong.

"The decision-maker does not have to guarantee the absence of torture nor does its finding that there is no real risk of torture need to be correct in hindsight," says the government argument. Lawyers say that officials only have to show that it is reasonable to think that detainees will be well treated.

"Nothing in the evidence so far supports even a serious argument that the current impugned assessment is unreasonable."

Last year, Canada was forced to rewrite a 2005 transfer agreement with the Afghan government when allegations surfaced of widespread abuse in local prisons and very little oversight by Canadian officials in Kandahar.

The May 3 agreement allowed Canadians to inspect prisons and interview detainees in private. This monitoring led to several allegations of abuse and one, discovered Nov. 5, 2007, that was considered "credible." That case prompted the suspension of Canadian transfers, as well as a probe into the actions of a senior police official. But it also led the Federal Court last month to throw out the request by human rights groups for a halt to transfers.

The rights groups argue that Canadian soldiers involved in transfers to Afghan jails risk violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if those prisoners are tortured. They also say that Canada risks running afoul of global anti-torture treaties and the Geneva Convention.

Military and diplomatic officers announced the resumption of Canadian transfers to Afghan jails last Friday. They expressed confidence that sufficient measures were now in place to prevent abuse, including photos to track detainees, video monitoring of prisoner interviews, training for guards and weekly doctor visits.

But the latest court documents note that since Canada suspended transfers, two additional allegations of abuse were brought to light in late November. Those are now the subject of separate investigations.

Amir Attaran, a lawyer for the human rights groups, said that word of two more investigations suggests the government can't be trusted when it says any real risk of torture has abated with the arrest of one senior police officer.

Key Afghan district slow to recover despite 2-year Canadian security effort

PANJWAII DISTRICT, Afghanistan — The sweet smell of life hangs over the bazaar in the centre of Panjwaii, a district that begins about 35 kilometres outside Kandahar city.

Spices and nuts overflow from fruit and vegetable carts. Donkeys laden with hay clop along the road. Rhinestones twinkle off fabrics waving in the wind. It wasn't always this way.

On the other side of the highway, in cemetery after cemetery, poles strung with dusty flags mark the graves of hundreds of people who have lost their lives in the fighting over this crucial piece of land.

About an hour and half away by road, in the middle of the Canadian compound at Kandahar Airfield, there is a similar memorial.

A marble monument with plaques bearing the names and faces of all of 79 Canadian soldiers who have died in Afghanistan - at least 22 of them in Panjwaii. Trooper Michael Hayakaze was killed there last Sunday by a roadside bomb.

The Panjwaii is the heartland of Kandahar province. Its return to the prosperity it knew more than 30 years ago has been a priority for Afghans and Canadians since Canada took over military operations in Kandahar in 2006.

After two years, the bazaar is only now coming back to life. The struggle is continuing in efforts to move past securing the district and jump into full-scale development.

"During the fighting, Panjwaii was empty," said district chief Haji Baran Shah.

"There was one baker, one butcher. And slowly, slowly people are starting to come back. But It is time to start doing more."

The Panjwaii sits along the Arghandab River, a main waterway in the province. It is the birthplace of the Taliban - the insurgency's leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is from here, as are several others.

It's also the home of an estimated 80,000 Afghans, the second-largest concentration outside Kandahar city.

"In 2006, people were living in desperation, in fear, in Panjwaii," said Mohammad Ehsan Zia, Afghanistan's minister for rural rehabilitation and development.

"People had no hope while the Taliban were still there."

Canada's strategy in the district consists of four steps: secure, hold, stabilize and develop.

Fighting to secure the Panjwaii has been underway since June 2006, when military leaders said after a series of skirmishes that the area had been pacified.

Only two months later, Panjwaii was the scene of the heaviest fighting Canada has seen to date in Kandahar - Operation Medusa, a lengthy campaign that saw 15 Canadian killed, dozens injured and the death of 600 to 1,000 insurgents.

The operation was declared a success in ridding the area of the large Taliban presence, but pockets of the insurgency still bubbled up in various villages and towns.

Meanwhile, aid agencies continued with the tentative steps forward they had started before the fighting.

In 2005, the Canadian International Development Agency had begun targeting funding directly at districts in Kandahar province, in addition to the national programs it had been supporting since 2001.

"We've never really left Panjwaii," said Sandra Choufani, a development officer with CIDA, which has allocated $100 million a year in aid to Afghanistan since 2001, with over $40 of that being spent directly on Kandahar province this year.

"It's an important district, in addition to Kandahar city, it's where most of the population is. It's natural for us to be focused in those areas."

Aid was centred around food distribution and health campaigns, including polio vaccinations.

Throughout the first half of 2007, the military worked at holding onto the Panjwaii through stepped-up efforts to train and equip the Afghan National Army and police.

The Afghan government launched an ambitious series of local development projects through a program called Community Development Councils, or CDCs, funded in part by CIDA.

CDCs get together to make a list of projects they'd like to see in their villages, and then together with the Afghan government, fund and complete them.

There are now 40 CDCs operating in Panjwaii.

The aim of the program is to shore up support for the local government by providing development under the Afghan flag. In turn, this is supposed to decrease support for the insurgency.

"In 2006, we had to go looking for people to give aid," said Zia. "But now they are coming to us looking for assistance."

Through the middle of 2007, aid and security were working in tandem, and the Afghan army was slowly getting stronger.

By the end of the summer, the military felt confident enough to pull back and let local police, who had only weeks of training, hold down the fort.

The police were "too weak," said Haji Agha Lalai, Panjwaii's representative on the Kandahar provincial council. "Seventeen, eighteen police were killed. The Taliban had all the power again."

About one-third of the Panjwaii fell back under Taliban control. Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of all of Canada's overseas missions, admitted the Canadian Forces had overestimated the success of the initial training program.

"Certainly in Panjwaii district in particular, it didn't work," he said on a recent visit to Kandahar. "They were not able to operate independently and to provide security in those areas."

For the military, it was back to trying to secure the region. The fall of 2007 saw an operation to regain the lost territory and revitalize the training program for police.

"I had just moved back when the fighting started again," said Nasir Ahmad, 14. "But now I think it has gotten better."

A series of checkpoints have now been established across Panjwaii, manned by Canadian and Afghan forces, and work began on the Joint District Co-ordination Centre that would oversee security efforts in the region.

Police are also undergoing stronger, more extensive training in the coming weeks. "Security is 90 per cent better now," said Maj. Gul Bacha, the Afghan National Army commander at the co-ordination centre.

The Civil Military Co-operation teams also stepped up their development efforts, building bridges, canals and starting the work for a major road-paving project.

"Now the area is in our control," said Bismillah Khan, the police chief in Panjwaii.

"Before, Taliban had their checkpoints in these area. But now they don't have any checkpoints. They only can fix mines somewhere."

By mines, Khan means IEDs - improvised explosive devices, the scourge of the Panjwaii.

Though ambushes and direct attacks by insurgents against Canadian forces are down, IED attacks continue. More than a dozen Afghans have been killed since January along with three Canadians.

IEDs are what the military term asymmetric threats. Their lethal force is responsible, in part, for stalling Canada's efforts to move past securing and holding the district.

"The stabilization and development side reinforce the secure-hold side of things. They both have to go together," said Stephen Wallace, vice-president of CIDA's Afghanistan Task Force.

"If you start to see a breakdown, because of asymmetrical attacks and so on, of this secure-hold combination, then that's where the stabilization and development part is pretty tough."

Though the military is paving a stretch of road that will hopefully cut down on the number of IED incidents, villagers say the Taliban still have a visible presence in several villages.

They send night letters threatening people who work on projects linked to Canadians. A 15-year-old boy was killed in January after receiving one such letter.

"I have even seen them in my garden," said Musha Jan, 40, as he waited in line at a recent one-day medical clinic held by the military in Panjwaii, the first since before Operation Medusa. "What can you do? I cannot tell them to go away."

With threat levels still high, aid to Panjwaii remains focused on humanitarian assistance.

It is having an impact. In 2007, almost 2,000 tonnes of food was distributed and the polio eradication campaign reached more than 27,000 children under five years old each month.

But only three of the area's 35 schools are open. A one-day health clinic run by the military attracted hundreds of people, as the area only has one clinic itself.

Choufani said there are plans to expand schools and medical facilities in Panjwaii, but the local governments should be able to support them.

Zia acknowledged that while the CDCs are a good idea, funding for a second round of projects hasn't materialized in all cases.

What needs to happen, Lalai said, is for the large non-governmental organizations to get into the area to start the bigger projects like building clinics, schools and running training and teaching programs.

But the military and CIDA say Panjwaii isn't ready. "Is it secure enough for the non-governmental organizations to be streaming into (Panjwaii)?" asked Gauthier. "It's not."

As he strolled down the bazaar, Baran Shah pointed to a bombed out storefront he said was destroyed by a suicide bomber months ago.

"We leave it here to remind us of what can happen if we don't take responsibility for ourselves," he said. "Of course, the better sign that we were succeeding is if someone would just open a new shop."

Afghan police seize 670 kg opium in Helmand province

KABUL, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police have captured 670 kg of opium in a latest anti-drug operation in southern province of Helmand, a statement of Afghan interior ministry issued here said Thursday.

    The drug was recovered Wednesday from a car in Washir district of Helmand, a known hotbed of Taliban militancy, and three people with suspected links to drug trafficking were arrested, it added.

    In 2007, some 193,000 hectares in Afghanistan were devoted to the illicit cultivation of opium poppy, and the Central Asian nation now supplies an estimated 93 percent of the global illicit market for opiates, according to a report issued Wednesday by International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an anti-drug organization under the UN.

    "Afghanistan must do more to address its escalating drug problem," the INCB said.

Afghanistan holds rare exhibit of work by female artists in Kabul

SELF EXPRESSION? The works showcased images of a war-torn country in which women are still deeply oppressed.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seven years ago, the Taliban would have torn these paintings to pieces.

The 93 works show the emotions and images of a war-torn country in which women are still deeply oppressed. They depict war and weaponry, violence, entrapment, hopelessness - and hope.

But the Taliban would have been most offended because the artists are all women.

Twenty-three young artists displayed their work at an eight-day show in Kabul attended by some 3,000 people, according to event organizer Rahraw Omarzad. The show, which ended Monday, now travels to the western city of Herat.

Under the hardline Taliban regime, women were forbidden from leaving home without a male relative as an escort and girls were not allowed to go to school. Figurative art was banned and even destroyed.

"I couldn't paint during the Taliban regime because I didn't have enough material, and I wasn't allowed to go out and buy paint," said 22-year-old Maryam Formuli.

Echoing the frustration, Fareha Ghezal, 19, added, "I was young and couldn't go to the art centre to learn because as a girl, I wasn't allowed to go to school."

The artists, who ranged in age from seven to 26, guided visitors around the gymnasium of a Kabul high school, describing their work and taking photographs with the viewers.

"It was like a wedding party. There were a lot of people enjoying it," said 23-year-old Maliha Hashemi, dressed in the artists' uniform for the exhibit, a black knee-length jacket and a red, green and black scarf, the colours of the Afghan flag.

"Before the exhibition, we were afraid that the visitors wouldn't be satisfied with our work, but when it opened, all the visitors were encouraging and impressed," Hashemi said.

Several paintings depicted women shrouded in the all-encompassing burka that many Afghan women are forced to wear to protect them from the eyes of men who are not related to them.

One woman described her work - a grid of woven string with a tangled knot in the middle - as the impeccable order of the world outside Afghanistan, and the chaos those outside forces have caused within the country.

One extraordinary aspect about the show was the conversation the works sparked among strangers in a society in which men and women who aren't related rarely talk to each other.

One conversation illustrated how Afghan men and women can give remarkably different interpretations of a painting - and a woman's place in society.

Khadija Hashemi, 21, asked one man what he thought of her painting depicting an enormous caravan of women wearing blue burkas and riding donkeys into the desert horizon, with men accompanying them on foot.

The visitor said to her that the painting showed how much respect these men have for the women, letting them ride comfortably on the donkeys as the men suffered on foot on the difficult trek.

Not quite, she said. "They don't have any role in the selection of the path. They don't have the choice to change the path. Instead they just have to keep on moving where the donkeys are led by the men," she said.

-Nargis Nemat contributed to this report.

Afghan women face harsh male attitudes

KABUL (AFP) — Farida Tarana's music video is nothing like the raunchy Bollywood or Central Asian ones regularly shown on Afghan television, albeit with bare female arms, shoulders and cleavage smudged out.

The 25-year-old is conservatively dressed and stands almost still as she sings her first single, Qalbam Fedayat (My heart belongs to you).

But the performance is daring in its own way: Tarana does not wear a headscarf, making her the first Afghan woman inside the country to record a music video with her hair uncovered since the Taliban regime fell six years ago.

"It was a big step," she told AFP nervously around the time the song was released mid-February. "Someone had to do it."

"People like my mother prefer to wear a headscarf but the new generation -- if they had the freedom, they would give it up."

There were threats, said Tarana. "They were calling to tell me they would kill me, that they would put a bomb in my car or home," she said.

Two weeks after the release of her single, she left the country, saying from her parents' home in Iran that she was afraid.

Choosing whether to wear a headscarf does not top the mountain of hardships facing Afghan women, who have the second-highest chance in the world of dying giving birth and also face forced marriages and violence.

Indeed most women wear a face-covering burqa when in public. But Tarana's decision, and the sharp reaction, reflects attitudes towards Afghan women in a society juggling religious fundamentalism as it nudges towards modernity.

As countries mark International Women's Day on Saturday, such issues also illustrate their efforts to assert themselves in a conservative society.

Government employee Lailuma Sadid, one of a handful of women in Kabul who usually does not cover her hair, said she brushes off insults about her dress.

In the most recent incident, a man told her in the city centre, "If you stand here for another minute, I will put a bullet in your head and drag your body on the road tied to a car," she recounted.

"If we take things like this seriously, then we better not leave the house," Sadid said.

Afghan women are trapped by a "backward society, ignorance, illiteracy and cultural retardation," she said. Most are treated as property once they are married and few enjoy equal rights in the post-Taliban constitution.

But there have been improvements since the hardline Taliban were ejected.

"Women can work, go to school, and leave home without a male relative. We have women represented in the cabinet -- maybe not enough; we have women in the parliament."

The biggest challenge remains maternal mortality, said Ramesh Penumaka, country representative for UN Population Fund.

About 24,000 women die around childbirth a year, he told reporters this week. The figure is about 25 times the number of civilians being killed in violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency.

"It's because girls are married very young. More than half the girls are married before they are 18 years, some as young as eight years," he said, adding 87 percent of cases were preventable.

But Penumaka also noted developments. Four percent of pregnant women were seen by a health professional in 2001; this rose to 30 percent last year.

Only six percent of deliveries were conducted by a skilled birth attendant in 2001, but last year it was 18 percent. Cook and cleaner Mahjan Sultani says she is definitely happier.

"I can work now. Under Taliban I could not. Life was difficult," said the Kabul resident. "My life is getting better."

But conservative cultural attitudes mean many "families will not permit female members to go to school, or work and be an equal member of the family like men are," she said.

"Women better do more fundamental work to change their lives than looking at clothes and headscarves," Sultani said.

The head of Afghanistan's first women's led political party -- National Need, launched mid-February -- agreed. Afghan women are oppressed by "indecent traditions and customs," parliamentarian Fatima Nazari told AFP.

"To be able to carry out jobs and meet our goals, it's better to behave as required by society so we are not forced to stop as Farida was."

International Women's Day Highlights Plight of Afghan Women

Thursday , March 06, 2008, By Khorshied Samad – Fox News

This year, International Women’s Day is occurring at a time when many countries, including the United States, are debating their future role in Afghanistan and either have or will decide the direction and focus of that role for some years to come.

If a central issue is still to help the Afghan people, however, especially to uplift women and children in terms of human security and socio-economic opportunities, none of this is possible without a relatively secure and peaceful environment, backed by sustainable growth and provided by the efforts of American and other allies in the troubled areas of this war-torn nation.

We must remember that it has only been six years since the Taliban regime was driven from power in Kabul. Since that time many positive developments have occurred, especially in relation to improving Afghan women’s rights and participation in society.

Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to work, attend school or pursue an education, receive medical care from male doctors and travel without a male relative, and they were regarded as non-citizens without rights or representation.

Over the last six years, millions of women and girls have had the chance to attend school, return to work, open businesses, gain access to health care and, generally, attempt to catch up with the time and opportunities that were stolen from them during those oppressive years.

Afghan women have a presence in government and strong voices in the parliament and in the media, and they have no intention to give up these progressive strides.

Already touting 23,000 members, the first political party for women recently was formed to develop a stronger platform for women’s rights throughout the country and in political arenas. Their organization and Afghan women in general, however, cannot accomplish their goals of developing a gender-balanced civil society with more access to education, training and rule-of-law protection without the sustained help of the international community.

Nearly 6 million children have returned to school since 2002 with at least 1.5 million Afghan girls in attendance. Boys still attend in greater numbers due to security concerns and other restrictions.

The increasing insurgency of Taliban and terrorist forces in the South and East has only deepened this divide and last year nearly 150 schools burned to the ground, 305 schools closed and 105 students and teachers were killed, all accompanied by warnings to locals not to send their daughters to school.

With the situation still so tenuous and under threat by those who prefer darkness created by illiteracy and separation from society to the freedom and opportunity gained through education and economic livelihoods, Afghan women need the continued presence of the international community to ensure that their human rights will be protected and upheld.

The Afghan people, and especially Afghan women, continue to be hopeful and grateful for all that the U.S. and the international community are doing to uphold the noble cause of helping a struggling nation onto a path of progress and peace so desperately needed after three decades of war and destruction. The stakes for Afghan society are, indeed, high, but clearly worth it.

Khorshied Samad is the former Kabul bureau chief and television correspondent for Fox News and the wife of the Afghan Ambassador to Canada.

[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.]