In this bulletin:

• More Than 40 Dead in Afghan Violence
• Afghanistan Reports 2 Government Officials, 5 Militants Killed
• Sarkozy to pledge 1,000 more French troops for Afghanistan: report
• New hope for Helmand province
• Afghan police confiscate 1.5 tons of poppy
• Back to school in Afghanistan under threat of violence
• High-profile French aid opens Afghan school
• In need of a czar
• Afghan Idol finale, Prophet protests show two faces of Afghanistan
• British troops target Afghan drug trade
• Inside Afghanistan: A Talk with US Ambassador William Wood
• Afghanistan: New Helmand Governor Confirms Desire For Talks With Taliban
• Suicide Bomber Strikes Busy Shrine in Southern Afghanistan
• Democracy in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan to privatise national telephone firm
• Ambassador Haron Amin responds

More Than 40 Dead in Afghan Violence

By RAHIM FAIEZ – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 40 insurgents in an air and ground battle in southern Afghanistan, a security official said Sunday.

Separately, two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition died after hitting a roadside bomb.

Troops seized dozens of weapons — including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns — after Saturday's battle in Dihrawud, a district in Uruzgan province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said many militants were killed, including a commander, but provided no figures.

An official at the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details about the battle, put the number of dead at more than 40.

Also Saturday, U.S.-led coalition troops hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar province as they were conducting a security patrol with Afghan troops, the coalition said in a statement. Two soldiers died, it said, without releasing their nationalities.

In the northern province of Jawzjan, five Afghans working on a de-mining team were killed and eight others were wounded when their truck was attacked by militants, said Kefayat Ullah Ablagh, head of the U.N.-funded Afghan Technical Consultants.

Ablagh said it was the first time de-mining workers in his company had been attacked by militants since the country's civil war ended in the mid 1990s.

Afghanistan Reports two Government Officials, 5 Militants Killed

March 22, 2008 - KABUL (AFP)--Five rebels and two officials were killed in new unrest in Afghanistan, authorities said Saturday. The U.S. military announced it had arrested five men suspected of aiding Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Security forces killed three Taliban "commanders" and two of their bodyguards in operations in the southern province of Uruzgan late last week, the interior ministry said.

It did not identify the "commanders," a label that could cover insurgents with just a handful of men operating under them. Satellite telephones and weapons were seized, the ministry said in a statement.

A commander of the highway police in the northern province of Kunduz was gunned down in an ambush late Friday, said the provincial police's General Mohammad Ayob Salangi, who blamed the attack on the Taliban.

Northern Afghanistan does not see as much Taliban activity as the south, but Kunduz is among the more volatile provinces, with another radical faction, Hezb- e-Islami, also active there.

Also in the north, a district chief from Jawzjan province was stabbed to death by unknown attackers early Saturday, district police told AFP.

A Taliban spokesman claimed the group was responsible for both murders.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition announced it had arrested three people in the eastern Ghanzi province on suspicion of helping Al-Qaeda and foreign fighters operate in Afghanistan.

Another two were picked up in the southern province of Kandahar during a search for a Taliban commander, it said in a statement.

The coalition and a larger force led by the North Alantic Treaty Organization are helping Afghanistan tackle a Taliban-led insurgency that has grown over the past two years.

There are nearly 70,000 troops from about 40 countries in the country but commanders are calling for more - especially in the south - with this year expected to be as deadly as last year, the worst of the insurgency.

U.K. media reported Saturday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will tell U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown next week that he plans to send an extra 1,000 French soldiers to Afghanistan.

Sarkozy to pledge 1,000 more French troops for Afghanistan: report

Sat Mar 22, LONDON (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy will tell British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during a state visit next week that he plans to send an extra 1,000 French soldiers to Afghanistan, the Times reported Saturday.

One anonymous senior minister told the paper that Britain's Ministry of Defence is working on the assumption that Sarkozy will reveal a deployment of "slightly more than 1,000 troops to the eastern region" to fight the Taliban.

Sarkozy wants to underline his commitment to NATO during the visit but a formal announcement may not be made until a NATO summit in Bucharest next month, the paper said.

The United States has strongly and consistently urged other NATO countries to bolster their troop contributions in Afghanistan, charging that some nations are not pulling their weight.

And Paris has already suggested that it might respond by increasing its current 1,600-strong deployment to the NATO-led force.

Sarkozy said in August last year that he wanted to renew the NATO military alliance, prompting some experts to speculate he could end the French boycott of NATO's integrated military command started by president Charles de Gaulle in 1966.

Anonymous French diplomatic sources quoted by the Times said that no final decision had been made and the paper added Sarkozy was still considering whether he wanted the troops to go to the south or the east of Afghanistan.

Sarkozy is visiting Britain for a two-day state visit from Wednesday next week. On the day of his arrival, he will make a speech to both houses of parliament, a rare honour for a foreign leader.

Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will be the guests of Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle outside London on Wednesday night at a banquet in his honour.

The president will have talks with Brown at Downing Street on Thursday, ahead of a summit at Arsenal football club's Emirates stadium in north London, while their respective wives are expected to lunch together the same day. It will be the first full-scale state visit by a French president in 12 years.

New hope for Helmand province

By Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Kabul

There are few jobs in Afghanistan as daunting and as dangerous as governor of Helmand province, but this weekend step forward Gulab Mangal, the new hope for Helmand.

The southern province, where thousands of British troops clash daily with Taleban insurgents, grows half the country's opium poppies, and it has had two governors in the last two years. There are few places as complicated.

Traditional tribal structures have broken down and Taleban militants, drug lords and criminals mix into an already complex set of tribal tensions and historical rivalries.

So what makes Governor Mangal think he can succeed where others have failed? "It's a big challenge, but there will be a lot of changes in the next year," he says.

For a start he is not from Helmand, but a Pashtun from Paktika province in the south-east.

He argues it means he is more likely to strike a balance as he does not come into the job with the baggage of being from one tribe at the expense of another.

"The first thing I will do is to hold a series of shuras, or meetings, with tribal councils across the province to try and gain widespread support for the Afghan government," he says.

And he sees reconciliation with local Taleban commanders and foot soldiers as an important part of the job - trying to persuade them to switch over and back the government.

"I'm going to work hard to get the insurgents to change sides and work with the government rather than against it. "The British are already doing this and we will work together," he adds.

Despite the controversy which saw a British and an Irish diplomat being expelled last December, talking to the Taleban is official government policy. The new district head of Musa Qala in Helmand is a former Taleban commander.

He was brought in to govern after the Taleban were forced from a town they had held for months by a joint operation involving Afghan and international security forces.

Things in Musa Qala are going well so far, with 500 children now going to the refurbished school and a number of development projects being put into place to persuade people the government is better for them than the Taleban.

Jalali Popal is head of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance which has been tasked with strengthening an area crucial to Afghanistan's success.

He sees reconciliation as an important element of improving security.

"Anyone who wants to lay down their guns and accept the Afghan constitution, values and current version of the administration can enjoy all the privileges of any Afghan. It's always been the policy," he says.

"We choose our governors on five criteria - loyalty to the constitution and the current administration; efficiency and effectiveness; leadership and management skills; interacting with the international community effectively; and fighting corruption.

"Gulab Mangal has been very successful as governor of Laghman and Paktika - which was in a similar position to Helmand at the time - he brought a union between the government and the people effectively.

"We think it is more useful that someone not from Helmand should be appointed there." And Governor Mangal comes well recommended by members of the international community and the British who will be working with him.

"He is one of the most accomplished governors to have served Afghanistan since 2001," said Chris Alexander from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"He brings experience, credibility to the job - credibility in both security and development issues."

But a former Governor, Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, is close to President Hamid Karzai and has been perceived as a strong voice of opposition to the previous governors, Daud and Wafa.

Governor Mangal will have to tread carefully in the complex tribal dynamics of Helmand, where there will be many pitfalls and, of course, the constant threat of attack by suicide bombers.

Afghan police confiscate 1.5 tons of poppy

KABUL, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Police in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province confiscated more than 1.5 tons of opium poppy and detained three persons in this regard, a press release of the Afghan Interior Ministry said Saturday.

    "During a routine patrol police found 1,570 kg of opium poppy from a vehicle in Khogyani district on Friday and took three persons into custody on charge of involvement in smuggling the contraband," the press release said.

    It did not give more details.

    Nangarhar, once a poppy growing province in eastern Afghanistan, has been listed among the 13 poppy-free provinces out of the country's 34 provinces this year.

    Afghanistan with an output of 8,200 tons of opium poppy in 2007became the single largest supplier of the raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world.

Back to school in Afghanistan under threat of violence

KABUL (AFP) — Schools in northern and central Afghanistan reopened Saturday as the education ministry said it planned to expand a protection scheme after unrest left 220 pupils and teachers dead last year.

Most killings were in the south where the warmer climate means classes continue through the just-ended winter and where the threat of Taliban-linked unrest is keeping 300,000 children out of school, a spokesman said.

More than 500,000 new enrollments were expected in the northern and central areas this school year, spokesman Hamid Elmi told AFP, taking the number of children in school nationwide to 6.2 million.

This compares with about one million enrollments five years ago, although half of Afghan children -- mostly girls -- are still not in school, according to the United Nations.

"Last year we lost 220 students and teachers in the violence," Elmi told AFP. This included in a suicide bombing in the northern province of Baghlan in November that killed nearly 60 students.

Insurgents, some linked to the 1996-2001 Taliban government that did not allow girls to go to school or women to teach, also destroyed dozens of schools last year.

Already at least three have been attacked this year, the last a newly completed school torched on March 14 in the southern province of Kandahar.

Elmi said "protection councils" were in place at 3,000 schools in the volatile south and more would be established nationwide this year to "exclude them from political skirmishes."

"Through this we hope to protect the schools and education institutions," he said. The councils are made up of parents and education officials as well as elders who are influential in their communities.

The ministry also planned to build and extra 1,150 schools countrywide which would accommodate 1.4 million students, Elmi said.

The post-Taliban government is praised for making great strides in improving access to education in Afghanistan, where around 70 percent of adults are illiterate.

High-profile French aid opens Afghan school
Canwest News Service Saturday, March 22, 2008

KABUL - As two young boys swung effortlessly from the top bars of a jungle gym, a steady stream of brightly dressed girls flowed into the sun-dappled grounds of the Lycee Malalay.

Fresh from celebrating their traditional New Year two days earlier, Afghanistan's first day of school unfolded here Saturday morning with gushing enthusiasm - and it provided an intentional lesson for Canada's heavily criticized development strategy for Afghanistan. The large blue wooden sign bearing the school's name also declared: "Made possible by the support of the French people."

Canada's almost invisible approach to aid in Afghanistan was criticized recently by the report of the Manley panel, which said the $120 million in annual aid Canada pumps into this country is all but invisible.

The Canadian International Development Agency disburses the money through United Nations agencies, the World Bank and other international groups, filtering it into broad spending envelopes for worthy, yet faceless, international initiatives across Afghanistan.

The Manley panel said CIDA should develop a "signature project" - maybe a hospital or irrigation project - to show the people of Kandahar, where Canada's 2,500 troops are based, the country is actually doing something to help them. The Senlis Council think-tank, among others, has identified the decrepit and sparsely equipped Mirwais Hospital, which serves a major swath of Kandahar Province, as a worthy benefactor.

CIDA Minister Bev Oda has bristled at the recommendation, as have other non-governmental organizations, saying that sort of flash isn't what true aid work is all about.

With or without a sign out front blowing its own horn, France's decision to reopen this historic young women's academy six years ago was clearly appreciated Saturday by the student body. Afghanistan Education Minister Hanif Atmar also sent his thanks through a letter read out to students.

France made the reopening of this school and another academy for boys the centerpiece of a $90-million development strategy for Afghanistan in 2002.

Asked Saturday how much money the French government has sunk into the Malalay, Ambassador Regis Koetschet gave a bemused shrug and said he would have to consult with one on his staff, then took the stage at the opening day assembly to address 200 students.

"France, like Afghanistan," he said, "attaches great importance to the education of young girls."

Hilay Siddiquizi, a 20-year-old graduate of this academy, stood filming the ambassador's every word, as two young girls at stage left absent-mindedly twirled two small Le Tricolore.

Later, Siddiquizi reflected on the eight years her family spent in Pakistan as refugees, before they returned here after the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

Siddiquizi was able to return to school here six years ago to finish her studies after the French reopened it. "I never thought one day we'd sit in our country and watch people speak on the stage," she said, sitting shoulder to shoulder with her mother Asifa, who was a teacher in the pre-Taliban era.

Now, she's two years away from finishing her teachers' training and graduating with a university degree in English literature. If she wanted to, Siddiquizi could start working tomorrow.

Najib K. Omary, a senior Education ministry official, lamented the shortage of qualified teachers Saturday, even though he was grateful for an infusion of several million dollars from the international community that has pushed Afghanistan's student population to 6.2 million, in a country of about 30 million.

At the primary level, half are girls, while they account for more than one quarter of the high-school-age population.

"There is very much a shortage of teachers. There is no teacher that does not have work," said Omary. Female teachers are in particularly high demand because men are not widely accepted as proper teachers for girls.

"Culturally, there are some points to be considered," he said. "In the provinces, some families are not prepared to send girls to be taught by men."

Boys and girls can mix in schools up to Grade 4. At Malalay, that means almost 500 boys can join the 1,600 females.

Clad in blue jeans under her blue waistcoat and scarf, not to mention the camera she was brandishing, Siddiquizi stood out as a very modern Afghan woman. She was happy to see a new generation starting out their studies at her old school, and said it was indicative of what she has witnessed in Afghanistan over the last six years.

"It has changed a lot. When we came back, there were new places, new schools built up. Now women go to this school or university. "University has changed a lot. Now they don't wear burkas."

"It's missing lots of things," Siddiquizi added, but women now have more opportunities than before. "If they work hard and study harder, we can be optimistic about the future."

In need of a czar

Written by Haroun Mir   - Sunday, 23 March 2008 12:29

More soldiers will die and more money will be wasted unless s development czar speeds up the pace of reform

NATO’s military commanders and experts blame a lack of development as the main cause for the deterioration of security in Afghanistan.

But one of the foremost impediments to development in Afghanistan is the lack of economic vision and coordination among different Afghan ministries and donor countries. The need to coordinate all international efforts to rebuild the Afghan economy and the country’s civil society is more important than strengthening the Afghan security forces.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, the Afghan government and the international development agencies in Afghanistan have been unable to offer a realistic national development strategy. While coalition forces in Afghanistan try to bolster the Afghan security forces, development agencies from the same countries have yet to agree on coordinating their efforts.

Similarly, there are a least five Afghan ministries directly involved in development projects. None of them coordinates its work.

Clumsy reconstruction efforts end up as aberrations: building schools with no teachers or clinics without nurses and doctors because Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs), tasked with building many of these schools and clinics, never liaised with Afghan agencies that train or provide staff.

The Afghan authorities have constructed electricity cables that run from the Uzbek border to Kabul, and yet the Uzbek government has do far not agreed to sell electricity to Afghanistan.

The January 2006 “Afghan compact”, approved at the London Conference on Afghanistan as a strategic development policy, was well presented, and donor countries pledged more money.

However, it failed to bring much needed results in terms of economic improvement for the majority of Afghans, who have remained stuck in the cycle of poverty.

In fact, Afghanistan’s National Development Strategy is written by the Western experts for the Western governments to extract more assistance for Afghanistan.

But it does not take into consideration all the non-economic factors, such as social, political, and security conditions, which have become major obstacles for economic development in the country.

The current National Development Strategy in Afghanistan is based on dual mandates: the development of a free market economy, and its integration into regional and international markets.

Meanwhile, national development strategies in successful developing countries have focused on poverty reduction, job creation, improving workers’ skills, and attracting foreign investors.

Which of these strategies should become the priority in Afghanistan?

Unfortunately, this question is debated by experts from donor countries and international multilateral organisations; it does not include Afghan players from civil society and the business community.

“Free market economy” has become the slogan of choice for Afghan officials in charge of economic policies. But in the absence of justice, rule of law, and enforcement of property rights, the result is not the common pursuit of happiness but rather lawless greed and mafia-like structures where bribery and corruption is rampant.

The “invisible hand” has yet to benefit most impoverished Afghans who are more aware of the very visible hands of corruption that heist from the public treasury.

Similarly, Afghan authorities, before achieving important structural economic reforms, have hastily engaged in multilateral trade agreements. The desire of government officials to satisfy the demands and requirements of international multilateral organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for policy adjustment has blinded them to the national economic priorities.

Like in many other poor countries, officials from these big international multilateral organisations, who have no clue about relevant local social and political issues, make important policy decisions for Afghanistan.

In the absence of indigenous policy experts and institutional mechanisms, Afghanistan has relied on the capacity of both the international multilateral institutions and foreign experts. Most of the time foreign institutions and experts look at successful policies in their own or other countries, and then try to copy and paste them onto Afghanistan.

Everyone in Afghanistan knows that good governance, justice, and the rule of law are key factors for stability in the country.

But, in the six years since the collapse of the Taliban, reforms have stalled. Many more Afghan and coalition forces will die, and plenty of Afghanistan's scarce financial resources will be wasted unless government officials replace empty slogans with real measures.

If they fail in this, they should not be surprised to see the will of coalition governments which support Afghanistan shrinking fast, especially in light of mounting pressure from their increasingly frustrated public.

In fact, alleviating poverty, ensuring political stability, and building a civil society in a war-torn and an under-developed country such as Afghanistan is daunting enough, even if there is a long-term commitment and lots of resources.

If a development czar, with ample experience, unfettered by bureaucracy and with the necessary authority, were to take charge of coordinating all national and international efforts to rebuild the Afghan economy, the pace of development might just improve fast enough for results to be seen, both by the donor countries and the Afghans they are supposed to help.

Haroun Mir is co-founder and deputy director of Afghanistan’s Center for Research and Policy Studies.

Afghan Idol finale, Prophet Protests show two faces of Afghanistan

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press / March 22, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - In a well-guarded hotel on top of a high hill, a lively audience of Afghans and American VIPs watched the season finale of Afghanistan's version of "American Idol." Singers performed on a star-shaped stage while cutting-edge graphics flashed in the background.

Meanwhile, only a couple hundred meters (yards) down that hill, thousands of Afghans demonstrated Friday against the publication of Prophet Mohammad drawings in Denmark, yelling "Down with Denmark" and "Death to America."

The protesters burned flags of the Netherlands and Denmark and an effigy of a Dutch filmmaker and lawmaker.

Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, was among the VIPs watching the filming of "Afghan Star." But because of the protests outside, he couldn't leave the hotel when he had planned to. He took note of the irony.

"I love it, fabulous. Better than 'American Idol,'" Holbrooke said of the show. "It shows the two Afghanistans. The riots down there and the show up here."

Holbrooke skewered the way President George W. Bush's administration has handled the Afghan conflict, saying Washington "neglected" the country "and now we're playing catch-up."

He said any of the three remaining candidates for president _ Republican John McCain and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama _ would do better in Afghanistan than Bush.

"All three candidates will put more emphasis on it than President Bush," Holbrooke told The Associated Press in the hotel lobby. "The war in Afghanistan is going to go on longer than the war in Iraq, at a lower intensity."

But Holbrooke, a supporter and adviser to Hillary Clinton, said the Democratic candidates would phase out of Iraq faster than McCain and put more resources into Afghanistan. He said Clinton would like to increase support for agricultural programs to help create jobs in the country.

Inside the hotel's ballroom, Rafi Naabzada, a 19-year-old ethnic Tajik, was voted the winner of the third season of "Afghan Star," the country's most popular TV show. The two finalists _ the other was Hameed Sakhizada, a 21-year-old ethnic Hazara _ together received more than 300,000 text message votes.

A female singer from the most conservative Afghan tribe, the Pashtuns, was voted out last week, finishing in third place. She had drawn the ire of conservative clerics in Afghanistan, who said women should not be singing on TV.

Saad Mohseni, the founder of Tolo TV, which produces "Afghan Star," said the show is helping bring about social change in Afghanistan.

"Not just in music, but in the way people voted, the way they lined up in an orderly manner (outside the show) ... the way the losers are gracious. No one is threatening violence. That's a huge change," Mohseni said.

He estimates that 11 million Afghans watch "Afghan Star." The country's population is around 30 million.

At the bottom of the hill, thousands of Afghans chanted and held signs against Denmark, where newspapers recently reprinted drawings of the Prophet Mohammad, and the Netherlands, where Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders plans to release a film criticizing the Quran this month.

"We want to say to America and the European Union, this is not freedom of speech. It's barbaric, and they must stop the film's release," a cleric told the crowd.

The cleric also called for Danish troops in Afghanistan to leave. Denmark has 600 troops in Afghanistan serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in an audiotape released this week, warned of a "severe" reaction to European publication of the cartoons. His message raised concerns al-Qaida was plotting new attacks in Europe.

British troops target Afghan drug trade

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 22 (UPI) -- British special forces reportedly killed an alleged drug trafficker and his 6-year-old son in new military efforts aimed at drug lords in southern Afghanistan.

Targeting the Afghan drug industry is a new objective for the British troops, The Daily Telegraph reports. In the past, NATO forces have focused on the Taliban, arguing that going after drug traffickers would undermine counterinsurgency efforts.

The British troops are working with Battalion 333, an Afghan unit and operating mostly at night.

The deaths occurred during a raid of a house in Helmand province. Another son of the slain man told the Telegraph soldiers broke down the door.

"They blew up the front door," the boy said. "They were yelling. They had torches on the end of their guns. My father was shouting tujeman (translator). We couldn't understand them. They shot him and he fell to the ground. When my brother sat up in the bed, they shot him too."

British military authorities said the man was told in three languages to put his hands up and shot when he did not comply. They said the bullet that killed the 6-year-old had been aimed at the father.

Inside Afghanistan: A Talk with US Ambassador William Wood

Asharq Al-Awsat (UK) / March 22, 2008, By Mohammed Al Shafey

Kabul, Asharq Al-Awsat- William Wood, US ambassador to Afghanistan, expressed great satisfaction with the coalition forces' achievements on the ground in Afghanistan in the past two years. The ambassador was speaking last week inside the new embassy compound, a few meters from the Mesud Square in the center of the Afghan capital to Asharq Al-Awsat and a group of Western journalists representing NATO. The new embassy building is more like a military fort because of the many ramparts and stepped up security measures at the entrance. As for the interior of the embassy, it is no less in value than the interior of any luxurious establishment in Europe. The embassy compound contains buildings and flats of the highest level, with a swimming pool, tennis grounds, and green lawns everywhere.

Before meeting with US Ambassador Wood, 56, talk was rampant regarding the Taliban's threat to blow up mobile telephone networks' poles in Afghanistan, unless the telephone companies suspend their services at night. The fundamentalist movement says in local newspapers that the US forces use telephone signals to pinpoint the locations of the rebels.

Mobile telephone companies moved to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban Movement in 2001 and spread widely in the country. Taliban Spokesman. Dhabihallah Mujahid vowed that, "If the mobile phone companies do not comply within three days, we will destroy their offices and towers." Taliban asks the four mobile phone companies that operate in the country to stop service from 5 pm to 3 am the next morning, local time. However, the US ambassador expressed his conviction that the threat is not serious, because the fundamentalist movement too uses mobile phone networks in its communications. Wood said that 3.5 million people currently use mobile phone companies' services and that there are four major communications companies competing against each other in the country. This mobile phone service is a burgeoning industry in Afghanistan. Under the Taliban rule, there was no single mobile phone set or a single communications company in the country, with the exception of a few telephones that were connected to satellites, however according to experts; US forces use satellite signals to locate the positions of wanted individuals and do not need the services of mobile phone companies.

In the beginning of his statement, US Ambassador Wood affirmed that the United States' commitment in Afghanistan will not be limited to reconstruction, development, and stability. He said that the international community spent $45 billion in Afghanistan since the end of 2001 to this day, including the amount of $23 billion that the United States spent in the period from 2002 to 2007. He added that 48 percent of these funds were spent on restoring security and stability, 9 percent on fighting drugs and cultivation of heroin, and 34 percent on rebuilding and developing the infrastructure in the capital, Kabul, and other provinces. The US ambassador said that Afghanistan needs more roads as part of the reconstruction and development plans, even though the reconstruction commissions have built more than 11,000 km of roads to date. He added: We also need more universities. He noted that there are some 6 million students in primary and secondary schools in Afghanistan.

The US ambassador emphasized that "The world's eyes are now turned toward Afghanistan. Therefore, we want Afghanistan to achieve success in peace, health, education, and reconciliation. We want a good government and want to see people from the city represented in the provincial and central governments."

Ambassador Wood served in the US diplomacy for over 30 years during which he served in Uruguay, Argentina, El Salvador, and Italy and served as ambassador in Colombia since 2003. He said the current year in Afghanistan is the year of energy. He noted that the (Kajaki) Dam in northern Helmand, which the United States built in the 1970s, currently needs two new turbines to make up for the shortage of energy, instead of Afghanistan depending on neighboring states to supply with it electricity. The ambassador spoke about the existence of some natural gas wells in Afghan territories. He drew a parallel between Colombia where he served in the past and Afghanistan where he is now serving as representative of US diplomacy.

He said that both countries suffer from drug problems. The ambassador said that 90 percent of the cocaine that is smuggled into the United States comes from Colombia, while 90 percent of the heroin in the streets of European cities comes from Afghanistan. He noted that the Helmand Province alone produces 50 percent of the world's output of heroin. Before 1998, Ambassador Wood served as political adviser in the US mission to the United Nations. He was a senior US negotiator at the Security Council.

US Ambassador Wood, a philosophy graduate from Bucknell University, cited examples from contemporary American history, saying that security and stability were restored to his country after years of civil war. He expressed his conviction that Afghanistan, which has suffered approximately 30 years of continuous wars since the Soviet invasion, will restore its security and stability.

In reply to a question by Asharq Al-Awsat, the US ambassador said he does not know the whereabouts of Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden. However, he said he is convinced that Bin Laden will be arrested one day and brought to trial. Ambassador Wood spoke about the presence of Arabs, Chechen, and Uzbeks in the ranks of Taliban. He noted that the fundamentalist movement's change of tactics and more dependence on suicide terrorist attacks partly express the movement's despair of the weak rebellion campaign that it has been waging. The US ambassador refused to comment on coordination between US forces and Pakistan in the pursuit of the Al-Qaeda leaders in the border strip. This pursuit recently resulted in the killing of Abu al-Layth al-Libi in northern Waziristan. The ambassador replied: "Ask the Pakistani side."

Afghanistan: New Helmand Governor Confirms Desire For Talks With Taliban

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, March 21, 2008

The new governor of an embattled province in southern Afghanistan has confirmed his intention to negotiate with "second- and third-tier" Taliban to achieve greater security.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, Helmand Province Governor Golab Mangal insisted that his call for talks enjoy the support of President Hamid Karzai.

"From the authority point of view, I can say that I'm the representative of President Karzai in the province and the highest-ranking official," Mangal said. "What I do in Helmand is always according to the guidance of President Karzai and the independent regional organ. Under the law, there is no problem regarding [my] authority [to conduct such talks]."

The central government in Kabul has at times struggled to reconcile its stated desire to rehabilitate militants who disavow armed resistance with its effort to counter terrorism and deliver stability to beleaguered regions.

Mangal stressed that the invitation to talks excludes what he called top-tier Taliban, whom he described as "foreign-affiliated" and Al-Qaeda militants.

Helmand is among the country's most violent provinces, and lies in what is frequently referred to as a "poppy belt" that contributes to Afghanistan's massive opium trade.

Mullah Abdul Rahim Taliban, a Taliban militant who also claims to be the rightful governor of Helmand, insisted to Radio Free Afghanistan that the central government is divided over its approach to negotiations.

Abdul Rahim Taliban cited a difference of views between Karzai's closest political allies, on one hand, and officials with strong links to former mujahedin allied under the former United Front (aka Northern Alliance).

"As the respected governor of Helmand says that they are ready to conciliate with moderate or second- and third-ranking Taliban, I would like to say that we are one group, we have one leader and one voice," he said. "On the other side, they have no authority to negotiate freely with us. Even inside the government, they are separated in two groups -- one is Northern Alliance and the other is Karzai group. The Northern Alliance is absolutely opposed to talks with Taliban."

Suicide Bomber Strikes Busy Shrine in Southern Afghanistan

By VOA News 21 March 2008

A suicide bombing near a busy shrine in southern Afghanistan has killed at least one policeman.

A local police official said the attacker blew himself up next to police guarding a shrine in Kandahar province filled with people celebrating the traditional new year Friday in Arghandab district. Several other people were wounded.

Another bombing reported near a shrine in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif injured four people.

And NATO said a soldier was killed on Thursday in an explosion in the south. The alliance did not release the soldier's nationality or the exact location of the accident. But U.S., NATO and Afghan forces are fighting daily battles against Taliban and other insurgents in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

Democracy in Afghanistan

Spoilt for choice - Mar 19th 2008 | KABUL, From The Economist print edition
Afghanistan has politics and electioneering as well as fighting and bombs

“IF THEY want to hold all these elections then all Afghans will ever do is vote.” So says the head of the Afghan parliament's elections committee, Salih Mohammad Registani. Having lived without democracy for 30 years, Afghans suddenly face a surfeit of it.

According to the 2004 constitution, the country will go to the polls in 11 of the next 17 years, the result of holding presidential, parliamentary and provincial-council elections on different cycles. If district-council elections were held on yet another separate cycle (as is proposed), the calendar would become more crowded still. Quite apart from voter fatigue, the financial burden will be enormous for the world's fifth-poorest country: it costs about $150m to hold each poll.

President Hamid Karzai, who completes his first term of office in May 2009, wants to synchronise the presidential and parliamentary cycles. This makes sense, not least because the elections will require a surge of international troops to guard against Taliban attacks on polling booths. But that would require parliamentarians to forgo one year of their term, an idea they do not like. The lower house voted this month to hold elections in consecutive years.

Many parliamentarians say that combining the polls would anyway require changing the constitution, which can only be done by a loya jirga (grand council)—which itself would have to be elected. And if a loya jirga were convened, it might want to tinker with the constitutional settlement in other ways—by trimming the power of the president, making Afghanistan “more Islamic” or reducing the 25% of seats reserved in parliament for women.

Time is short. Voter registration has to take place this summer if polls are to go ahead next year. So far, no plans are ready. The parliament has not yet decided which electoral system to use for the parliamentary vote, or even whether to allow political parties to take part (they were banned in the last election). Parliament may not change the electoral law in the final year of its term, so its members have only a few weeks left to take these decisions. In short, Afghanistan's arguments over the technicalities of voting are already complex. And that is before voters start thinking about whom to vote for.

Mr Karzai has not said he will run, though most people expect him to (not least, the Western governments which back him). His popular support, however, is lukewarm at best. His government has been tarnished by charges of incompetence and corruption, while his international backers have struggled to fulfil promises to rebuild the country. Large parts of the south, Mr Karzai's heartland, have descended into insurgent-inspired chaos. The president has become increasingly critical of the West, and particularly of Britain, the Afghans' historic foe.

But, as in 2004, Westerners think Mr Karzai will prove the worst Afghan leader except for all the others. He is from the dominant Durrani federation of the majority Pushtun tribe. He participated in the jihad against the Soviet occupiers but does not have blood on his hands from the civil war that followed. He did not leave his homeland for sanctuary abroad. (Those who did are called dogwashers: the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, said they washed the dogs of rich Americans.)

No other prominent politician has that mix. Afghanistan may have capable technocrats on call, such as Ehsanullah Bayat, a telecoms mogul, Amin Arsala, a former vice-president, and even, improbably, America's (Afghan-born) ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad. But they lived abroad. It also has former mujahideen commanders such as Burhanuddin Rabbani and Younis Qanooni, both Tajik leaders, and Gul Agha Sherzai, the energetic major of Jalalabad, whom Mr Karzai dubs the bulldozer. But they are tarnished by warlordism. An excess of would-be leaders, in short. And an excess of ways to vote for them.

Afghanistan to privatise national telephone firm
23 Mar, 2008, 1830 hrs IST, AGENCIES

KABUL: Afghanistan said Sunday it planned to sell up to 80 percent of its telecommunications arm in one of the most ambitious parts of the country's ongoing privatisation programme.

Bidders must register their interest in purchasing part of Afghan Telecom by April 4 and the tender process was expected to be completed in three months, Telecommunications Minister Amirzai Sangin told reporters.

The fixed line and wireless system had about 100,000 clients, he said. This compares to about five million for the booming mobile phone sector, which includes four providers and had investment of nearly one billion dollars, Sangin said.

Afghan Telecom would be worth about 190 million dollars after a network of fibre optic cables is put in place, an improvement which is due by year's end, his ministry said.

The sell-off is one of "the most ambitious privatisation projects in Afghanistan to date," it said in a statement on its website.

Asked about Taliban attacks on mobile phone towers, Sangin dismissed the insurgents' claims that cell phones were being used by the military to pinpoint their hideouts.

The Taliban extremist movement warned nearly a month ago it would target mobile antennae that were not switched off at night because they were being used to trace their bases.

About a dozen have been attacked since then, most of them in the volatile south where the insurgency is most active.

Ambassador Haron Amin responds

www.quqnoos.com  - By HE Ambassador Haron Amin

In a post-9/11 world, no one believed that reversing two-and-half decades of war in Afghanistan would be an easy task. Yet, six years later, with thousands of troops deployed from 38 nations and billions of dollars poured in to improve the overall security and socio-economic situation, people around the world were unpleasantly reminded of this when four reports (Afghanistan Study Group, Atlantic Council, National Defense University and Oxfam International) offered very bleak assessments on the current status. Those reports serve as stark warnings of how a failure in Afghanistan could potentially enable religious extremists to wage their war on a global scale.

It is imperative that the concerns above should compel us – we the Afghans and our international partners – to revise our strategies. Hence, they are recommendations at best, and currently under scrutiny by all stakeholders. But equally important is the understanding that we and our benefactors are also responsible for significant accomplishments in numerous sectors including education, health, telecommunications, and rural development. In fact, it was only six years ago that we took on the challenge of political, social and economic development simultaneously, a task which under normal circumstances takes decades if not centuries. And it is common knowledge that to build takes longer than to destroy.

Sadly, while our TV screens only show endless footage of suicide bombings, narcotics and poverty in Afghanistan, we miss out on a wealth of worthy news which goes unreported. There are now millions of Afghan stories that serve as testimony to the rapid developments taking place throughout the country, changes not so long ago unfathomable. I can personally attest that each Afghan upon waking up only dreams of a better tomorrow. At times, I am humbled by my peoples’ continued resilience and hope for a brighter future, a people who for so long were plunged into a war they had neither caused, nor could help stop. A recent survey by the Asia Foundation indicates that more than 70 percent of the population is optimistic about the future. Another puts 70 percent of the people to be just under 20 and eager to realize their peaceful goals. These alone are news enough to generate rays of hope even in quarters where pessimism prevails.

At the London Conference in January 2006, Afghanistan was labeled “a success story.” Since then the security climate has drastically changed as the Taliban and foreign terrorists have expanded their activities. Similarly, the international community and Afghanistan failed to adopt a feasible strategy for curbing narcotics. Too many promises and too little aid continue to disillusion our people. And finally, despite significant improvements, our institutions are still unable to meet peoples’ expectations. Today, we find ourselves being labeled a “failed state.”

In fact it was also at the London Conference that the Afghan Government and the international community signed the historic “Afghanistan Compact,” agreeing on a set of benchmarks promoting development, security, governance, the rule of law and human rights. Since then, we have also placed reinvigorated efforts into developing the Afghan National Development Strategy (ANDS), which will provide guidance on developmental matters. Emphasizing ownership, we have prepared sector-specific strategies while also estimating the investment need in each area in preparation for the upcoming Donors’ Conference in June in Paris.

Since insecurity, narcotics, slow development and weak institutions account for the ‘failed state’ scenario, I hope they will be adequately addressed.

The Soviet invasion claimed 1.5 million lives, wreaked havoc on all existing infrastructure, exiled or eliminated almost all the educated elite, uprooted institutions which began in the 1880s and cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. A major consequence of the invasion was how it fixated the Pakistani military on actively promoting a subordinate regime across the border, first by fueling factional fighting and later by the Taliban takeover. Moreover, since 9/11, that policy continues in the form of proliferation of religious madrassas and Taliban sanctuaries on the other side of the border. Consequently, the war on terror – despite an increase in the level of international troops – will not be winnable, unless the situation in Pakistan is fully addressed.

The alternative livelihood strategy to substitute narcotics must not be suppression-driven, but rather a long-term policy integrating agricultural and rural development while focusing on job creation. So far, only a fraction of foreign aid has gone for this purpose.

Aid to Afghanistan as compared to other post-conflict situations has been very little. For instance, per capita expenditure by the donor community in Bosnia was 12 times more and in East Timor 4 times more than that dispensed in Afghanistan. Hence, much more aid and therefore aid coordination are needed now that there is capacity for absorption as well as sector-by-sector apportionment in the ANDS.

Finally, institution-building, legal and judicial reforms require time, patience and investment. While the general administration and state building reforms are underway and being accelerated, it should be noted that state institutions existed in name only just a few years ago.

Let me say that we have no delusions about the problems at hand. However, we have a problem when the challenges are taken out of context. Even worse is when our achievements are completely overlooked. While we are far from failing yet, the only guarantee for achieving a failed state is to doubt our desire and resolve for change. We are determined to overcome the challenges in building a robust state, a free polity and a thriving economy. No hindrance along the way or pessimism in whatever form will derail us from the commitments we have made to our people and from the membership we have declared among the community of nations. However, what concerns us greatly is a faltering coalition with potential far-reaching consequences. Indeed in this struggle, no enemy – however weak – can harm us as much as the weakening of our partners’ resolve to stay the course. Let me end with a quote from Roy Gutman’s book entitled, “How We Missed the Story,” just recently published. “In the post-Cold War era, local conflicts have shown great potential for disturbing world order. Before 9/11, three administrations started from the premise that after the collapse of the Soviet empire, the United States could withdraw from parts of the world where it had no obvious material or strategic interestIn this new world, the gravest threats to American security and international stability may come from places that were on the periphery of superpower competitionAfghanistan was the venue for the bloodiest and longest battle of the Cold War, as well as the place where Soviet military power went down to defeat, and it became the bridge to a more dangerous world.”

We have come very far from the neglected, post-Soviet days and staying committed will not be as costly as abandoning Afghanistan once more.

[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.]