In this bulletin:

• Roadside bombing kills 3 guards of road construction company in S Afghanistan 
• Two British, one Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan
• Norwegian base in Afghanistan attacked
• Georgia offers 500 troops to NATO Afghan force
• Afghanistan 'most important issue' for NATO
• Bush to Meet NATO Allies Divided Over Adding Troops in Afghanistan
• New Joint Effort Aims to Empower Afghan Tribes to Guard Themselves
• CIA director calls Afghan-Pakistan border 'clear and present danger'
• NATO: Overtaxed Allies Assess Role In Afghanistan
• No change in attitude of ISI, attacks likely to continue: Narayanan
• ANP gets in touch with local Taliban
• US willing to discuss militants’ issue: Rice
• Pakistani tribesmen free Afghanistan-bound bus
• Taliban hail PM’s statement on FCR
• The Longest War
• Questionable peace if Taliban are part of it
• The Afghan-Turkish agreement on removing visa requirement for diplomatic passport was approved by the Afghan Cabinet
• Press Statement of MFA on the release of the anti-Islamic film
• Afghan lawmakers pass resolution aimed at censoring un-Islamic images on TV
• What Afghanistan wants to see on television
• 10,000 returns in first month of repatriation from Pakistan
• World Bank to Fund Renovation of Power System in Afghan Capital
• ISAF inaugurates Sarobi hospital pavilion, police station

Roadside bombing kills 3 guards of road construction company in S Afghanistan 

KABUL, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Three security guards from one local road construction company were killed by roadside bombing when patrolling in the construction site in southern Afghan province of Kandahar Monday, said an official.

Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the chief of Jalai district of Kandahar province told Xinhua that it occurred at around 12 a.m.(GMT0730) as the security guards of road construction firms were patrolling by vehicles.

"Three guards were killed and one vehicle was completely damaged when their vehicles hit mines planted by militants," he said, "the company is building highways connecting Kandahar to western province of Herat."

No one has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.

More than 8,000 people had been killed in violent incidents in Afghanistan in 2007 while over 300 have lost their lives in conflicts and militancy so far this year in the war-battered country.

Two British, one Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) — Two British Marines and a Danish soldier were killed in Afghanistan, officials said Monday, days before a NATO summit is to hear appeals for more forces for the fight against the extremist Taliban.

The soldiers were slain in the southern province of Helmand, a region caught in the throes of an insurgency led by the Taliban and the centre of Afghanistan's massive drugs trade -- a source of funding for the rebels.

The Danish soldier was killed Monday and two other Danes were injured in heavy battles with Taliban fighters alongside British troops near the town of Gereshk, the Danish military said.

Helicopter gunships were called in to the fight, which also involved tanks, heavy artillery and mortars, it said.

The British Marines were killed when an explosion blew up their vehicle on Sunday as they were on a routine patrol further north, British Lieutenant Colonel Simon Millar told AFP.

The blast, the cause of which has not been determined, was near the remote Kajaki Dam, a vital water and power source for Helmand which the British military has held since the Taliban were driven out nearly two years ago.

Most of the 7,500 British soldiers who are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed across Afghanistan are in Helmand, where there are also about 500 Danish troops.

The latest death takes to 36 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Nearly 220 died last year, most of them in hostile action.

Also Sunday, five Dutch soldiers were wounded, one so seriously that his legs had to be amputated, in two separate explosions in the southern province of Uruzgan, which neighbours Helmand.

A Norwegian base in the north meanwhile came under rocket fire, but there was no damage, ISAF spokesman General Carlos Branco said.

Of the nearly 40 nations in ISAF, about 17 are in the south, which has seen the most intense unrest of an insurgency led by the Taliban, who were in power in Afghanistan before being ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Canada has demanded reinforcements of at least 1,000 soldiers if it is to extend its stay in southern Kandahar province.

That commitment is expected to come at an April 2-4 NATO summit in Bucharest, where Afghanistan will be a key topic.

"We've been saying for some time that all of us need to do more in Afghanistan, and I think you're going to see countries coming up and doing more," US national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.

Washington has been pushing its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to send more troops to Afghanistan and lift restrictions on those already there to help combat the resurgent Taliban.

Hadley said it was "pretty clear" the NATO summit would yield a strong statement of support for success in Afghanistan, but declined to say which countries would increase their commitments or in what way.

"We need to step it up. I think you'll find the countries are stepping up," especially in strife-torn areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan, he said.

Commanders of ISAF, which numbers 47,000 troops, have said the force is about 6,000 to 10,000 troops short what it needs.

Last year was the deadliest of the insurgency, with about 8,000 people killed, according to United Nations' figures. Most of them are rebels who are replaced by men trained in militant bases in Pakistan, officials say.

Several hundred Afghan security forces and about 1,500 civilians have also died in the insurgency.

In other Taliban-linked violence reported Monday, three Afghan guards providing security for a road construction site were killed in a bomb blast in Kandahar, a district chief said.

The Afghan defence ministry said meanwhile a dozen "terrorists" were killed in operations at the weekend in Kandahar and neighbouring Zabul.

Norwegian base in Afghanistan attacked

MEYMANEH, Afghanistan, March 31 (UPI) -- Three rockets targeted a Norwegian military base in northern Afghanistan early Monday, prompting the evacuation of the base, military officials said.

The military base in Meymaneh, the provincial capital of Faryab, came under attack in the early morning. The base held about 150 Norwegian and 50 Latvian soldiers at the time, the spokesman for the Norwegian armed forces, Lt. Col. John Inge Oegland said in Aftenposten.

"We're taking this very seriously," said Oegland. "It was an attack on our base but also an attack on NATO." A roadside bomb killed a Norwegian soldier last fall and the base came under attack around the same time.

Georgia offers 500 troops to NATO Afghan force

Mon Mar 31, 2008 - TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia is offering to send a 500-strong force to join NATO operations in Afghanistan, a defense ministry source said on Monday, two days before an alliance summit considers Georgia's application for membership.

"Talks on sending up to 500 Georgian peacekeepers to Afghanistan are now under way," the source, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.

To date, the ex-Soviet state's only contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan has been a solitary doctor, though Georgia has several hundred servicemen serving in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led coalition.

NATO has been beset in recent months by noisy infighting over Afghanistan about troop levels, tactics and the refusal of some European allies to send soldiers into the fiercest fighting in southern areas of the country.

Georgia hopes to be given a Membership Action Plan (MAP) -- a roadmap to eventual entry to NATO -- at an alliance summit starting on Wednesday in Bucharest.

A tiny Caucasus nation, Georgia has drawn ire from its imperial master Russia because of its close ties with the United States and its bid to join NATO.

Georgia boosted its force in Iraq from 850 to 2,000 last year. It later said it would cut its contingent to 300 servicemen by August 2008.

But after Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington this month, officials in Tbilisi said the contingent in Iraq would not be cut and would stay until the end of the year.

Several Georgian soldiers, who are deployed in and around Baghdad, have been wounded during the Iraq deployment, which started in 2003. But none have been killed.

Afghanistan 'most important issue' for NATO

USA Today, By Richard Wolf 31/03/2008 USA TODAY WASHINGTON

Iraq may dominate the headlines more often, but when leaders of 26 NATO nations gather in Bucharest, Romania, this week for their annual summit, the war in Afghanistan will be the hot topic. President Bush will seek more help against the resurgent Taliban from NATO allies reluctant to put troops at risk, particularly when public sentiment in Europe runs against a long-term commitment.

"This is the most important issue facing NATO. All the other issues are secondary," says James Goldgeier, senior fellow for transatlantic relations at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It really cuts to the core of whether or not this alliance is relevant to the 21st century."

Before the week is out, decisions will be made on NATO membership for three Balkan nations — Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Two former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, will seek to begin the membership process. Russia opposes that effort, as well as U.S. missile-defense plans for Eastern Europe, so Bush will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to try to smooth relations between the two old Cold Warriors.

Still, the NATO commitment in Afghanistan will dominate discussions. For nearly five years, NATO has led the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, a coalition of 40 nations. The United States, which has about 17,000 troops under the ISAF and 14,000 operating separately, has almost four times as many troops in Afghanistan as any other country.

Eight others — Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Poland and Australia — have more than 1,000 troops stationed there. Seven countries have 10 or fewer; Georgia has one.

NATO members committed to boosting efforts in Afghanistan 16 months ago at a summit in Riga, Latvia. But last fall, NATO failed to come up with 3,000 additional troops sought by the United States. As a result, 3,200 Marines are being sent.

Canada has threatened to withdraw its troops. French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated last week that he would commit an additional 1,000 troops on top of the 1,515 there. That's likely to be the best news out of Bucharest, despite Bush's call for more assistance.

"Frankly, the bar is low enough that 1,000 French troops would constitute success," says Philip Gordon, former director for European affairs at the National Security Council and a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. "It's a saleable outcome, but it's far from perfect."

Bush was upbeat last week in an interview with foreign reporters. Sarkozy's additional commitment "will pretty much ensure that this conference is a successful conference, because nations will watch very carefully," he said. "It is a strong statement that NATO understands the threats, understands the challenges and is willing to rise to them."

National security adviser Stephen Hadley says Bush will stress "the need for all countries to make (Afghanistan) a priority, the need for us to develop a more integrated strategy for success and the need for all of us to do more."

The French commitment could stop Canada from withdrawing, because it would free some U.S. troops to leave eastern Afghanistan and go south to help Canadian troops there.

But France's move isn't likely to spur much in the way of additional offers from other countries. Nor is it likely to prompt nations such as Germany, Italy or Spain to permit their troops to conduct counterinsurgency operations, as opposed to force protection and reconstruction work.

The United States has pushed repeatedly for these nations to lift such limits, which are also called caveats.

"I see no indication whatsoever that in Germany, there's any appetite either for major troop increases or for an expansion of the mission," says Charles Kupchan, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow.

The reaction in much of Europe, Goldgeier says, is " 'we didn't sign up for that.' "

Although the American public is more supportive of the war in Afghanistan than it is of the conflict in Iraq, some European allies see the U.S. effort in Afghanistan as unfocused, says Julianne Smith, Europe program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "You've got a little bit of finger-pointing going on," she says.

Bush to Meet NATO Allies Divided Over Adding Troops in Afghanistan

By Peter Baker and Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, March 31, 2008;

President Bush left for Europe today to try to rescue the faltering mission in Afghanistan, and key NATO allies plan to meet his demands for more forces with modest troop increases, though not by as much as U.S. military officers say is needed to put down a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

France has signaled it will announce at this week's NATO summit that it will send another 1,000 troops to Afghanistan, while Britain plans to send about 800 more and Poland has already promised another 400. But Germany and others refuse to contribute additional ground forces, and the United States may have to increase its own commitment to make up the shortfall, U.S. and European officials and analysts said.

The friction over force levels underscores a philosophical divide between the United States and its allies over the best approach in Afghanistan more than six years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government -- and, more broadly, over the future of the NATO alliance. The summit in Bucharest, Romania, which begins Wednesday, will also test the allies over issues such as NATO enlargement, missile defense and the relationship with an increasingly muscular Russia.

Nothing on the agenda is more important to Bush's legacy than turning Afghanistan around. "It's very clear that we all need to do more," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said last week. "The president's message is going to be one of the importance of success in Afghanistan, the need for all countries to make it a priority, the need for us to develop a more integrated strategy for success and the need for all of us to do more."

Gen. Dan K. McNeill, top commander of the NATO-led international force, has already sent the alliance a similar message in starker terms: Provide more troops or accept a longer war. "I'd like the NATO allies and their non-NATO partners in this alliance to properly resource this force," he said in a recent interview at his Kabul headquarters, "and absent that, that they adopt the patience and will for a slower pace of progress."

McNeill estimated that it will be necessary to maintain at least the current foreign force level in Afghanistan -- now about 55,000, including 27,000 U.S. troops among NATO and non-NATO forces -- for at least three to five years until Afghan security forces are ready to take over. It will take that long for Afghan forces to obtain the airplanes, helicopters and other logistical support they need to be fully independent, he said.

Also important would be lifting the restrictions each nation sets on what its forces can do. On the wall beside McNeill's desk is a chart detailing the various restraints, with columns labeled "Prohibited" and "Yes, but . . . ." McNeill said he repeatedly asks foreign governments to lift limits temporarily. "I'm batting about .500," he said. In a war, he added, "it's not a good average."

The resistance by many NATO allies to stepping up their involvement despite pressure from Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates means that a greater burden will probably fall on the United States, administration officials said. Bush has authorized another 3,200 Marines for Afghanistan for seven months, but without more European help, he may be pressed to send even more U.S. forces or to extend the Marine buildup.

The debate in Bucharest comes after attacks in Afghanistan spiked by nearly 30 percent in 2007. A recent report by the Atlantic Council of the United States, headed by retired Gen. James L. Jones, a former NATO commander, warned that "NATO is not winning in Afghanistan." As the summit approaches, NATO leaders are trying to formulate a new strategy, drafting a "vision statement" intended to reassure European publics weary of the conflict, but Europeans reportedly resisted including a five-year commitment to Afghanistan sought by Washington.

The NATO leaders plan to debate strategies for southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has been strongest. One idea under discussion is for the U.S. military eventually to take over the regional command for the south, which is currently headed by the Canadians and includes primarily British, Canadian and Dutch forces. Another proposal is to lengthen military tours, said William Wood, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, "so we're not swapping people out all the time." He suggested "extending the period for whoever is in charge of the south so it doesn't rotate every six or nine months."

U.S. troops in Afghanistan now serve 15-month tours, but other NATO countries balk at extending their shorter tours. "If they had us do more than six months, everyone would quit," British Bombardier Tim Dean, who is fighting in the southern province of Helmand, said in a recent interview.

Canada and other key NATO allies are pressing for a shift in their core military mission from combat to training Afghan security forces, in part to ease homefront concerns over casualties, officials said. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper even threatened to pull out unless NATO sends another 1,000 troops and helicopters to bolster it in the south.

"Britain at least has long historical memories of what happens to British troops in this land," said British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles. "So we need to have a sense of perspective for moving our troops out of direct military combat operations into mentoring and training roles that will probably last decades. What neither the Afghan public nor our publics at home will support is the sense of this being a war without end."

At the heart of the discussion is whether NATO should even be projecting force so far from its own borders or return to its historical role of self-defense. "This is a debate we've seen inside the alliance for the last couple of years," said Julianne Smith, head of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "but it's really coming to a head over Afghanistan, because part of the alliance feels that Afghanistan should be a precedent for future missions and part of the alliance feels like it should be an exception, perhaps never to be repeated again."

Bush champions the precedent side of the debate, framing success in Afghanistan as vital for NATO's future. He flies this morning to Kiev, Ukraine, where he will visit before heading to Bucharest tomorrow. After the summit, he will stop in Zagreb, Croatia, to welcome nations expected to be invited into NATO, and then head to the Russian resort of Sochi to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

Bush has pushed for months for a greater NATO commitment to Afghanistan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose nation has 1,500 troops on the ground, said last week that he will send more forces. French officials said details are still being finalized, but it appears likely to be a battalion of elite paratroopers. If the French are sent to the U.S.-led eastern region of Afghanistan, that could free up the United States to move 1,000 of its troops to the south, meeting Canada's demand for help.

The British, who already have 7,800 troops on the ground, plan to send the equivalent of another battalion plus a headquarters unit as well, though it was unclear if this will be announced at the NATO summit, British officials said. Poland has already promised to send 400 more troops by the end of April.

Bush took the French promise as a sign of progress. "It will pretty much ensure that this conference is a successful conference," he said last week. "When you combine our commitment, the Canadian commitment, the British commitment and the French commitment of troops that will be in harm's way, it is a strong statement that NATO understands the threats, understands the challenges, and is willing to rise to them."

New Joint Effort Aims to Empower Afghan Tribes to Guard Themselves
By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 31, 2008;

Afghan, British and U.S. officials have launched a new security initiative to empower tribes and other residents -- including former Taliban -- to guard their communities in southern Afghanistan against insurgents and criminals.

The controversial multimillion-dollar program, approved last month by President Hamid Karzai and a group of senior Afghan and foreign officials, will provide radios, phones and cash to village and tribal elders, who in turn agree to work with government forces and deny haven to insurgents. The program would also promote reconciliation by vetting and integrating former Taliban.

"You can call them night watchmen or home guards. They are not a formed militia, and there is no net increase in weapons. . . . It is simply creating an antibody to the Taliban in these communities," a senior Western official said. "Taliban commanders and their fighters have come over to us and say they want to work with the government . . . so this is already happening."

The initiative, called the Afghan Social Outreach Program, is partly a response to the troubled Afghan police force, which is widely viewed as predatory, officials said. It is part of a broader governance effort lead by Jelani Popal, head of the six-month-old Independent Directorate of Local Governance, which reports to Karzai. "There is a problem of corruption . . . warlordism and the drug mafia," Popal said.

Popal has been assessing governors and district leaders, and, with Karzai's authority, removing ineffective or criminal ones. He is also helping districts and provinces create their own development plans.

"The most important change in Afghanistan on the civilian side in 2007 was the removal of responsibility for local government from the flawed Ministry of Interior," said U.S. Ambassador William Wood.

British Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles said, "We've got to do it the Afghan way . . . by empowering communities."

Others warn the initiative could backfire. "If you begin to lean solely to local security solutions, you may inadvertently re-empower some old power brokers," said Gen. Dan K. McNeill, head of the International Security Assistance Force.

CIA director calls Afghan-Pakistan border 'clear and present danger'

HOPE YEN , Associated Press March 30, 2008

WASHINGTON — The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaeda has established a safe haven presents a “clear and present danger” to the West, the CIA director said Sunday.

Michael Hayden cited the belief by intelligence agencies that Osama bin Laden is hiding there in arguing that the U.S. has an interest in targeting the border region. If there were another terrorist attack against Americans, Mr. Hayden said, it would most certainly originate from that region.

“It's very clear to us that al-Qaeda has been able for the past 18 months or so to establish a safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border area that they have not enjoyed before, and that they're bringing in operatives into the region for training,” he said.

Mr. Hayden added that that those operatives “wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles (airport, outside Washington) with you when you're coming back from overseas — who look Western.”

Washington has sought reassurance that Pakistan's new coalition government will keep the pressure on extremist groups using the country's lawless northwest frontier as a springboard for attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.

Over the weekend, Pakistan's new Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, pledged to make the fight against terrorism his top priority. But he said peace talks and aid programs could be more effective than weapons in fighting militancy in tribal areas along the Afghan border. It was the new government's latest rebuke of President Pervez Musharraf's military tactics, which many Pakistanis believe have led to a spike in domestic attacks.

On Sunday, Mr. Hayden declined to comment on reports that the U.S. might be escalating unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas out of concern that the pro-Western Musharraf's influence might be waning. Mr. Hayden only would say that Pakistan's co-operation in the past has been crucial to U.S. efforts to stem terrorism there.

“The situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border presents clear and present danger to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the West in general and United States in particular,” he said. “Operationally, we are turning every effort to capture or kill that leadership from the top to the bottom.”

On Iraq, Mr. Hayden said it could be “years” before the central government might be able to function on its own without the aid of U.S. combat forces. Mr. Hayden said he would defer to the specific assessments of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, who return to Washington next month to report to Congress.

NATO: Overtaxed Allies Assess Role In Afghanistan

By Ahto Lobjakas, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty March 31, 2008

As NATO leaders meet in Bucharest on April 2-4, they will take stock of the situation in Afghanistan and the toll the conflict has taken on the alliance.

The patience of the countries that are bearing the brunt of the fighting against the insurgency in Afghanistan's restive south is wearing thin. More than 200 international troops were killed in the country last year in the heaviest fighting since the ousting of the Taliban government in 2001, and there is strong domestic pressure on the governments of Canada, the Netherlands, and Romania to pull their troops out.

The United States and Britain are urging other allies to join the fight in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, but no one is accepting the offer. Germany and Italy are staying in the relatively safer north and west, respectively, a situation which NATO officials say is unlikely to change.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last week that he will send another 1,100 troops to the U.S.-controlled eastern part of Afghanistan, but this is unlikely to help the situation in the south, where the overwhelming majority of the fighting is taking place. The United States has begun deploying 3,200 marines to Helmand and Kandahar on what it insists will be a temporary mission.

With no military solution in sight, NATO is turning to other organizations for help. Alliance leaders have invited top officials of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, and other organizations to attend a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on April 3.

In Brussels on March 27, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the meeting will be an "illustration of top-level international commitment" to Afghanistan.

"The meeting in and of itself is a demonstration of what we call the comprehensive approach to Afghanistan," Appathurai said. "That this is not simply a military issue -- it is very much a comprehensive issue relating to the full spectrum of areas in which there needs to be international support for Afghan efforts, and that includes governance, it includes reconstruction and development, and, of course, the military aspects as well."

NATO leaders will approve two "comprehensive" strategy documents at Bucharest. One, to be made public, will amount to a restatement of NATO's commitment to Afghanistan. The main focus of the other -- a classified document -- will be on the time frame of that commitment.

Officials say that on the eve of the summit, there is no consensus among the allies. While a minority led by the United States would like NATO to vouch for Afghanistan's security for at least a generation, most allies are loath to extend that guarantee beyond five years.

NATO and Afghan officials hope the quickest route to security, and respite for Western troops, will be to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan security forces, especially a beefed-up Afghan National Army (ANA).

The Afghan government enthusiastically concurs, trying to make the most of NATO's presence. Speaking from Kabul by videolink to journalists in Brussels on March 27, Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said NATO's first priority should be setting the ANA up on its own feet.

"We strongly believe that having more ANA [forces] is the best solution," Wardak said. "It is cheaper economically, it is politically less complex, and it will also save lives for our [Western] friends and allies."

But it appears the ANA -- which is expected to have 70,000 fully trained and equipped troops by May -- will need many years before it is ready to fully take over from NATO.

Wardak said that the ANA most urgently needs attack aircraft, transport planes, and heavy weaponry.

The United Arab Emirates and the Czech Republic have agreed to donate Soviet-manufactured helicopters to Afghanistan, and NATO will finance the purchase of C-27 transport planes from Italy.

Major General Robert Cone, a U.S. officer at the Combined Security Transition Command in Afghanistan who heads ANA training, said on March 26 that Afghanistan's future air force will not be fully operational until 2013.

Cone also said that although the ANA will reach 80,000 troops in March 2009, this will not be enough to secure the country -- even when backed up by the 47,000 NATO troops currently in the country and 16,000 separate U.S. troops. He said NATO and Afghan officials are currently studying the numbers needed to make the ANA self-sufficient.

In a subtle but distinct shift of emphasis from Defense Minister Wardak, Cone said the key to securing the country lies in building up the police force. He said the "local police are the face of the government on the ground." He noted, however, that the Afghan National Police "lags by some years" behind the ANA in its development, citing as a main reason the "relatively many opportunities for corruption" that are open to police officers.

Many are also illiterate and not qualified for the job. Cone said that out of some 17,000 police who were tested recently, some 8,000 were dismissed as not being up to the required standard. There is a U.S.-led retraining effort under way in the provinces -- but that has so far covered only seven of Afghanistan's 364 districts. Cone said that while there are 1,300 mainly U.S. trainers on the ground, another 800 are needed -- plus an additional 1,500 troops to provide security for the trainers.

A 190-strong EU police-training mission is about to get off the ground one year behind schedule. However, EU personnel will confine themselves to supervising higher-level reforms in Kabul and the provincial centers.

NATO commanders play down the threat posed by insurgents. NATO's supreme commander in Europe, General Bantz Craddock, told RFE/RL on March 14 that the unrest is confined to a relatively small part of the country.

"If we look at the past year, we find that over 70 percent of the security problems are located in 10 percent of the districts," Craddock said." Six percent of the people live in those districts. So we can see it's a localized issue here."

"That's no solace or consolation to the people who live there," he added. "On the other hand, I think that we can see there's now opportunity for some 94 percent [of the Afghan people] to see significant progress. We've just got to push the efforts to do that, not only with the Afghan government leaders, but also with the international community."

This, however, glosses over the fact that the stronghold of the insurgency in the Helmand and Kandahar provinces is also the epicenter of Afghanistan's massive opium industry. Both provinces also border Pakistan, and NATO officials admit that the local Pashtun tribes do not recognize the highly porous border.

General Cone and Defense Minister Wardak both said the Afghan security forces must eventually be "capable of defending Afghanistan."

However, the country must be won first, and this is unlikely to happen as long as the southern insurgency continues to provide a launching pad for attacks in the west and the north -- which also contain sizeable pockets of the ethnic-Pashtun population. An increasing number of Western officials in the country believe Afghanistan cannot be won without coming to some kind of understanding with the Taliban.

RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher contributed to this report

No change in attitude of ISI, attacks likely to continue: Narayanan

Economic Times, India, 27 Mar, 2008 NEW DELHI

National Security Adviser MK Narayanan on Wednesday said that the gravest threat is from militant camp set up along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and termed it as the epicentre of terrorism.

While delivering the '25th Air Chief Marshal PC Lal Memorial Lecture' in New Delhi, Narayanan said: "We have seen no change in the attitude of ISI, the mentor of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the attacks on India from Pakistan is likely to continue."

Narayanan said that Bangladesh is being used by fundamentalist and extremist forces of Pakistan to launch attacks on Indian soil. He said one couldn't deny that strong anti-India sentiment existed in some pockets of Pakistan.

India needs to have consensus to deal with the problem which had existed since Independence, he said. "We are aware that Pakistan's military strategy is India centric and Islamabad 'frantically' acquiring missile and weapons system from abroad with a view to confront and draw parity with India," Narayanan said.

He said that no one should doubt India's desire to see a stable Pakistan, and hoped that democracy is well established there fully in order to weaken the extremist and fundamentalist forces.

Narayanan said that India has been a victim of terrorism for a long period, and added that New Delhi follows zero tolerance policy on terrorism.

Commenting on volatile situation in Afghanistan, he said: "A stable Afghanistan is vital for India. We are deeply committed to rehabilitation and rebuilding of the country and safeguarding of the Karzai regime is essential for peace in the region."

ANP gets in touch with local Taliban

Dawn, By Zulfiqar Ali - PESHAWAR, March 29: The Awami National Party and the local Taliban have formally made contacts to negotiate peace and find a solution to the growing militancy in the NWFP and tribal areas.

The ANP has already expressed its desire of bringing all hostile quarters to the negotiating table to work out a lasting solution to the war-like situation along the Durand Line and in some settled districts of the province. The local Taliban had welcomed the ANP’s move, sources told Dawn.

ANP central information secretary Zahid Khan confirmed that his party was in contact with the Taliban. “Yes, the ANP has been in contact only with the local Taliban, but Amir Haider Hoti (the chief minister-designate of the NWFP) will formally announce modalities for talks after assuming the charge,” he told Dawn on Saturday.

NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani is likely to administer oath to Mr Hoti by Tuesday evening after getting ascertainment from the provincial assembly.

Mr Hoti has already announced that his government will hold talks with militants in order to maintain peace in the province. He said ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan had conveyed to a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher that his party would negotiate with the local Taliban to find an amicable solution to the problem.

ANP sources said the Taliban had agreed to initiate peace talks, adding that tribal elders had been facilitating negotiations between the ANP and the local Taliban.

The Taliban have welcomed the ANP’s victory in the elections and congratulated the party leadership. “Greetings have been extended to the ANP leadership and Mullah Omar has praised party’s victory in the elections,” said a senior officer-bearer of the ANP.

However, he said he did not know exactly whether Mullah Omar of Afghanistan had greeted the party or it was a local Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.

Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad recently told a public meeting in Bajaur that his men had started negotiations with the ANP. He claimed that the ANP had taken an initiative and offered talks to the Taliban.The sources said that Tahrik Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud had also offered his cooperation to the new government for resolving the crisis.

US willing to discuss militants’ issue: Rice

Dawn, By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, March 29: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the United States and Pakistan should hold discussions to decide how to tackle the problem of militancy in the tribal areas.

“I think we will be interested in conversations with the new government as to how to address this part of Pakistan where, clearly, terrorism is a really big problem,” she said.

In an interview to The Washington Times, Ms Rice indicated a slight change in US attitude towards engaging the militants. Instead of an outright rejection, as it did in the past, Ms Rice signalled a desire to listen to the Pakistanis how they plan approach the issue.

Commenting on media reports that Pakistans new government wants to engage militants hiding in the tribal area in a dialogue to end the conflict, Ms Rice cautioned: “There is experience with the effort of the Musharraf government to have a pact with them. It did not work out.”

Pakistani tribesmen free Afghanistan-bound bus

Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Peshawar, 29 March: According to local officials, the Pakistan-Afghan Friendship bus which was hijacked, on way from Peshawar to Jalalabad [eastern Afghan city], has been freed after talks between hijackers and local officials.

The bus was held by armed men, from Soltankhel tribe, in the Takia area of Khyber Agency [of Pakistan this morning].

There were nearly 35 passengers on board the bus and was heading for Jalalabad from Peshawar.

[Passage omitted: Another bus was hijacked on 26 March. Note: Tribesmen had been demanding release of eight of their men from detention in Afghanistan].

Taliban hail PM’s statement on FCR

Daily Times 30 March 08

KHAR: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan on Saturday welcomed Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s statement that the new government would repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and talk to militants in the Tribal Areas.

“The prime minister has won the tribal people’s hearts,” Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar told local reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location. The government should “immediately enforce Shariah” in the Tribal Areas, he said. “The people of the Tribal Areas have long been waiting for Shariah.”

The Taliban spokesman said the militants would respond “positively” to the government’s dialogue offer.

But he said the Pakistani government should stop participating in the US-led war on terror. “This government should say bye-bye to pro-US policies,” he said. staff report.

The Longest War

Washington Post, United States By Richard Holbrooke Monday, March 31, 2008

KHOST, Afghanistan -This former Taliban stronghold, where Osama bin Laden spent time planning the Sept. 11 attacks, has become an American success story. The Taliban is being pushed out, and a government presence is extending into previously hostile territory. At NATO headquarters in Kabul, most of Khost has been moved out of the "red" column -- at least for now.

Khost shows that, with the right combination of resources and leadership, it can be done. But Khost is not simply a good-news story. It also underscores a larger, troubling truth: The conflict in Afghanistan will be far more costly and much, much longer than Americans realize. This war, already in its seventh year, will eventually become the longest in American history, surpassing even Vietnam.

Success in Khost required some of America's best troops. Today elements of the legendary 101st Airborne Division -- the Screaming Eagles of the Battle of the Bulge -- are replacing troops from another storied unit, the 82nd Airborne, who, over 15 tough months, took Khost back. That success resulted from tactics developed locally by a stellar team: a courageous and honest provincial governor, Arsala Jamal, who has survived four assassination attempts; a creative American troop commander, Lt. Col. Scott Custer (yes, he is a direct descendant), who devised a more aggressive system of joint patrols with local Afghan army units; and a remarkable young Foreign Service officer, Kael Weston, who has established a direct dialogue with tribal leaders, university students, mullahs, madrassa students and even Taliban defectors.

As I saw in hours of meetings with these groups, Weston's intense hands-on process identifies problems and misunderstandings that might otherwise spiral out of control. One of these -- serious enough to attract international media coverage and public expressions of concern from Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- was the death of several women and children in two recent nighttime U.S. Special Forces actions. The tribal elders were blunt in our meeting; a white-bearded chief said, "Not even my brother can enter my house at night, but you Americans did not even knock." Gov. Jamal, his own closeness to the Americans making him even more vulnerable, was distraught. "This undermines everything we are trying to do here," he said.

Jamal and the elders understood that locally based American troops were not involved in the operations and that the targets were supposed to be an important Taliban cadre. Despite the furor, they stressed that they want the Americans to stay as long as necessary, knowing that will be a very long time; without NATO's continued presence, their government would fail. They have little confidence in the Afghan army, even though it seems to be improving, because there is as yet no indication that it can function in difficult conditions without active NATO support. Moreover, the elders, like everyone else, despise the national police -- Afghanistan's most corrupt institution. I heard firsthand accounts of blatant police shakedowns on the main roads, police destruction of agricultural produce because the officers were not paid off and direct police participation in the drug trade (which makes the police and the Taliban de facto partners).

The police are the front edge of Afghanistan's biggest problem. In conversations with more than 80 foreigners (diplomats, journalists, soldiers), Afghans in the private sector and, most important, senior members of the Karzai government, I found unanimity on only one point: The massive, officially sanctioned corruption and the drug trade are the most serious problems the country faces, and they offer the Taliban its only exploitable opportunity to gain support.

One case came up repeatedly, that of the notorious warlord Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum. After he attacked, brutalized (allegedly with a beer bottle) and almost killed a rival warlord recently, Dostum was not arrested, despite pleas from Afghanistan's chief law enforcement officials. Kabul was aflame with theories regarding Karzai's decision not to move against Dostum; even the university students and the tribal elders in Khost raised it with me. The effect on Karzai's standing and reputation has been enormous. Excuses were made, but none justified his open disregard for justice.

This affair also highlights the conundrum Afghanistan presents the United States and NATO. There will be more successes like Khost as additional NATO troops, including 3,000 U.S. Marines, arrive later this year. But with each tactical achievement, Afghanistan will become more dependent on international support, which will always be better, faster and more honest than anything the government will be able to supply.

In the extraordinary intensity of what James A. Michener called "one of the world's great cauldrons," in his 1963 bestseller, "Caravans," no one has had time to think about the day after the day after tomorrow. The effort in Afghanistan is vital to America's national security interests, and we must succeed -- as the team in Khost has. But even as the United States and its NATO allies move deeper into the cauldron, questions must be asked: When, and how, will the international community hand responsibility for Afghanistan back to its government? Will short-term success create a long-term trap for the United States and its allies, as the war becomes the longest in American history?

Richard Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations, writes a monthly column for The Post. 

Questionable peace if Taliban are part of it

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia Faridullah Bezhan March 31, 2008
After six years of fighting in Afghanistan, sharing power with the Taliban has been suggested as the way to end the war. Negotiating with the "moderate" and "good" Taliban is an idea the Afghan Government and the coalition forces have employed since the removal of the Taliban at the end of 2001.

All parties, including the Afghan Government, the United States and those Western countries that have considerable numbers of troops in Afghanistan, have been, at different levels, in secret negotiations with the Taliban. So why have all parties suddenly come to a more overt consensus that a political settlement with the Taliban is a solution?

The possibility of a coalition government that includes the Taliban came about after the Taliban dropped their demand that talks could start only after the withdrawal of foreign forces.

The coalition forces would have a special opportunity to change the Taliban's political and ideological nature if they became part of a coalition government, as the movement has never shared power with any political party.

The elements of the Taliban that the powerbrokers wish to include have been called "moderate", but the parties the President, Hamid Karzai, identified last September as those he wished to meet include those that have never been painted as moderate by themselves or anyone else. This includes Mullah Omar, who has led the Taliban since their emergence in late 1993, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of another insurgency group, which received most of the military and financial aid from Pakistan in the 1980s, and was also responsible for inter-factional fighting in the early 1990s during which thousands of civilians died and the capital was destroyed.

At the same time Karzai said he was open to peace talks, Western nations, including the US, supported this idea of negotiation. The United Nations even offered to mediate. Amazingly, some of the Northern Alliance leaders, the Taliban's internal opponent, began to sing the same song.

This is the first time Karzai has gone so far as to effectively legitimise the insurgency. Not surprisingly, the Taliban for the first time responded positively to the idea of negotiations with the Government as there were no preconditions. Although the Taliban later changed their stand, it shows a new kind of rhetoric on their part. There are three main reasons for the Taliban's positive response to overtures from Karzai. First, in the past few months they have lost some of their most prominent commanders, including Mullah Dadullah, who was responsible for the regrouping of the Taliban after their collapse, and the tactics of suicide bombings, raids and kidnappings.

Second, with the coalition force's use of air raids, the Taliban cannot hold their territorial gains.

Third, the international community is placing increasing pressure on Pakistan to end its support for the Taliban.

In the past, Karzai tended to use the prospect of talks more as a card to threaten his political opponents, the Northern Alliance, than as a clear plan to include the Taliban in his administration. But Karzai is increasingly losing his popularity and his main objective of negotiating with the Taliban is his own ambition to stay in power. Because his opponent, the Northern Alliance, has established a new front with other political players, Karzai can only overcome the political deadlock, and survive in the next election, if he can bring the Taliban onside.

Pakistan has been trying to persuade the US to negotiate and continue negotiations on political settlement with the "moderate" Taliban since the Taliban regime collapsed at the end of 2001. Pakistan's policy is based on the conviction that sooner or later the West will lose interest in Afghanistan, as has happened before. Moreover, Pakistan is not pleased by Karzai's close relationship with India. Despite international pressure and internal political dynamics, Pakistan continues to provide sanctuary and covert support to the Taliban. Thus it is in Pakistan's interest to have more friends in the Afghan Government as a way of weakening Indian influence there. This might have the added benefit of reducing internal pressure on the Pakistani regime from Pakistan's own Islamic parties.

Despite some successes, the Taliban cannot remove the Government from without. But power-sharing with the Taliban would put into question the legitimacy of its overthrow by coalition forces in the first place. For the Afghan Government it would mean sacrificing some gains of the last six years. For the Taliban it would mean abandoning a rigid ideology. But neither side is the final decision-maker.

The real players are outside Afghanistan, namely the US and Pakistan. Pakistan's internal crisis is worsening, despite the recent elections, and it may not be able to support the Taliban to the extent it has done in the past. The US supports negotiation with the Taliban, while at the same time prosecuting war with them on an unprecedented scale. A peaceful settlement seems difficult. Nevertheless, a political settlement is the only true hope for peace. The real question is, what sort of peace would it be if it featured the Taliban in government?

Dr Faridullah Bezhan is a research fellow at the Monash Asia Institute at Monash University. He arrived in Australia 10 years ago as a refugee from Afghanistan. He is writing a book called War And Anti-War Literature In Afghanistan.

The Afghan-Turkish agreement on removing visa requirement for diplomatic passport was approved by the Afghan Cabinet

Posted On: Mar 30, 2008

The agreement on removing visa requirement for diplomatic passport between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Republic of Turkey which was signed in September 29th, 2007, was approved by the Afghan Cabinet, in December 3rd, 2007.

The agreement has been also approved by the Cabinet of the Republic of Turkey and released in the official journal of that country, in January 1st, 2008.

The approving and execution of this agreement, according to clause 1 of the article 9 of the agreement, may be implemented from April 15, 2008.

Press Statement of MFA on the release of the anti-Islamic film

Released on: Mar 29, 2008

The government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan once again expresses its severe concern due to release of the anti-Islamic film titled “Fitna”.

The government of Afghanistan believes that attacking the values and religious beliefs of millions of Muslims throughout the world cannot be justified with the principle of the freedom of expression.

This act will cause irreparable damage to the culture of pluralism in the contemporary civilization and will mislead the humanity.

The government of Afghanistan appreciates the reactions of the government, the Prime Minister, and the people of Netherlands in rejection of a small extremist minority and believes these provocations are to be remained in their limits and can never be the policy of a government, which is committed to all accepted international values, standards, and human rights.

Afghan lawmakers pass resolution aimed at censoring un-Islamic images on TV

By ALISA TANG,Associated Press Writer AP

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's lower house of Parliament passed a resolution Monday seeking to bar television programs from showing dancing and other practices deemed un-Islamic.

The decision came just days after the private Tolo TV channel aired a dance number featuring men and women together on an Afghan film awards program.

The Information and Culture Ministry condemned the scene, saying "dancing by men and women together was completely against the culture of the Afghan, Muslim society."

The parliamentary resolution, drafted by a commission for cultural and religious affairs, said dancers should not be shown on television, and un-Islamic scenes should be cut from Indian TV series broadcast in Afghanistan, said Din Mohammad Azimi, a lawmaker and member of the commission.

Azimi said the resolution also includes an article saying Afghan banks should not offer interest-bearing accounts because Islamic law forbids interest.

The resolution, which is not now legally binding and cannot be enforced, will go before the upper house of Parliament for consideration, Azimi said. It would also have to be approved by the president before becoming law.

Afghan media have bloomed following the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime in 2001, and Tolo TV has become one of the country's most popular channels with its steady stream of programing, including music videos and Indian soap operas.

But government officials and powerful factional leaders frequently pressure broadcasters because of programs deemed too racy or overly critical.

Last year gunmen entered the home of Zakia Zaki, the female owner of a radio station, and shot her to death in front of her 8-year-old son. Zaki had apparently criticized local warlords who warned her to change her station's programming.

Shaima Rezayee, a popular host for an MTV-style music show, was shot dead in 2005 after clerics criticized her show as "anti-Islamic."

Tolo TV's owner Saad Mohseni said the dancing on the awards show Friday was "very tame by any standard" and the women were dressed modestly.

Tolo TV often blurs any images deemed insulting to Islam, such as statues of Hindu gods on Indian programs and even the uncovered necks and shoulders of Indian actresses.

"It's the re-Talibanization of Afghan society," Mohseni said. "Every single week they come up with something new."

He called on the Afghan government and the international community to take a stand against the religious conservatives, saying they "cannot allow a very small minority within Afghan society to call the shots."

What Afghanistan wants to see on television

By David Blair in Kabul, The Telegraph (UK) March 31, 2008

When Afghans turn on their televisions, they do not want to be regaled with current affairs or debates on the Koran. Instead, they want Indian soap operas, complete with sari-clad women and convoluted love stories.

Tolo TV, the country's most popular broadcaster, was quick to learn this lesson. The Indian dramas which dominate peak time get 10 or 11 million viewers; news programmes cause a national turn-off.

Afghan television is the most visible symbol of the country's transformation since the Taliban's downfall in 2001.

The ancient regime condemned television as "un-Islamic", closed down every broadcaster and publicly crushed thousands of TV sets with bulldozers.

Today, Afghanistan has 13 stations, yet the old suspicion of television as a corrupting, Westernising influence remains strong. Saad Mohseni, head of the Moby Media Group which includes Tolo TV, said the authorities were "not tolerant or relaxed at all".

He added: "President Karzai himself has been quite tolerant and if push comes to shove, he'll defend the free press. But the government is not one individual, it's a number of movements, parties and ideologies.

"Individuals in the government are not happy with the free media and they have put obstacles in our path and we've probably suffered more than any other station. But we're still here."

Anyone running a TV station in Kabul encounters challenges found nowhere else in the world. Mr Mohseni must generate his own electricity - the mains supply only four hours of power on a good day - and hire his own armed guards in a city plagued by violence.

He believes his viewers are deeply disillusioned by the state of Afghanistan. "The level of frustration has reached boiling point," said Mr Mohseni.

"It's not because Afghanistan hasn't improved. It has improved. But relative to expectations, what people were promised hasn't been delivered."

10,000 returns in first month of repatriation from Pakistan

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

KABUL, 31 March (UNHCR) - Approximately 10,000 Afghan refugees repatriated from Pakistan under the UN Refugee Agency's first month of assisted voluntary repatriation, a significant decrease compared to the same period last year when nearly 40,000 non-registered Afghans returned. The high number of last year's return was mainly attributed to a six-week grace period granted to unregistered Afghans who opted to be assisted home from March to mid-April that year.

This year's refugee returns figure stands almost the same as 2006 when approximately 9,000 Afghans returned during the month of March. At five Encashment centers inside the country, returning Afghans receive return assistance averaging $100 per person depending on their destination. They are mostly heading to the eastern provinces, particularly Nangarhar.

The number of refugee return has seen a significant decrease since 2005 which is mainly attributed to the fact that the vast majority of Afghan refugees have lived for more than two decades in exile, Afghanistan's limited absorption capacity and socio-economic issues such as landlessness, homelessness and access to jobs and basic services.

Last year registration results reflected a very young Afghan population in Pakistan - 55 percent are below 18 years of age while 74 percent are aged below 28. This suggests that many of them were born and raised in Pakistan after the influx started in 1979, and have never lived in Afghanistan.

On Friday March 28, the 15th Tripartite Commission Meeting between the Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was held in Dubai under the chairmanship of the UNHCR.

The three parties discussed a range of issues including the deterioration of security and its impact on the reintegration environment of returnees, challenges of voluntary return and Afghan refugees temporary stay in Pakistan.

The parties agreed to explore different approaches to the voluntary and sustainable return of Afghans from Pakistan amid rising insecurity in both countries.

The parties welcomed the decision by the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board (JCMB) to convene an International Conference in autumn this year and agreed to jointly mobilize international attention and advocate for additional support.

"The international conference will be an important step in galvanizing international support on return and reintegration" said Abdul Qadir Ahadi, Afghan Deputy Minister of Refugee and Repatriation.

The parities once again reaffirmed their commitments to safe, dignified, gradual and voluntary repatriation in accordance with the absorption capacity in Afghanistan.

Some 3 million registered Afghans remain in exile in the region today, including about 2 million in Pakistan and 910,000 in Iran. Many say they cannot return home due to a lack of security, shelter and livelihood opportunities.

UNHCR has repeatedly stressed that any return to Afghanistan must be voluntary and gradual to make sure that repatriation is a durable solution. The agency has also called for the international community to do more to help returnees settle back in their homeland.

World Bank to Fund Renovation of Power System in Afghan Capital

Monday, 31 March 2008, 03:00 CDT RedOrbit, TX
Text of report by state-owned National Afghanistan TV on 30 March
[Presenter] The Energy and Water Ministry and a representative of the World Bank signed a contract worth 16m dollars to renovate the system for distribution of low-voltage electricity in Kabul city. My colleague Asghar Jawed has more details.

[Correspondent] After signing the contract, the minister of energy and water told journalists that under the contract, 138 transformers with a capacity of 250 to 630 kilovolts will be installed at Power Station No 2 of Kabul city, which covers the Shahr-e Naw, Wazir Akbar Khan, Char Qala, Qalai-e Fathollah, Taimani, and Qalai-e Wakil areas.

He added that work on the installation of the transformers was under way and would be completed by the end of the month of Sonbola in 1388 [late 2009].

The minister of energy and water said his ministry spent 94 per cent of its budget last year, and that it was another achievement for the ministry.

Speaking about the extension of the power cable from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, the minister said the cable would reach Afghanistan by the end of the month of Aqrab in the current year [October- November 2008].

He expressed concern over the shortage of water in the country. Mohammad Esmail said 95 per cent of the people enjoyed electricity at the beginning of last year, but that the distribution of electricity to Kabul residents fell by 50 per cent at the beginning of the new year [new Afghan year beginning 21 March].

[Mohammad Esmail, water and energy minister] With the arrival of the electricity cable from the north and with the completion of the ongoing installation of new power plants, we will be able to complete the electricity network of Kabul city, and the general electricity problems in the city will be addressed.

[Correspondent] The minister of energy and water expressed hope that, in spite of the problems and drought in the country, his ministry would be able to take practical measures in building and renovating power plants throughout the country.

Originally published by National Afghanistan TV, Kabul, in Dari and Pashto 1330 30 Mar 08.

ISAF inaugurates Sarobi hospital pavilion, police station

Source: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, March 31, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – ISAF troops celebrated the opening of two new structures Saturday.

Sarobi district sub-governor, Seyid Suleyman, and ISAF's Italian Task Force Sarobi inaugurated a new pavilion of the district hospital. The pavilion will enhance the hospital's capacity as it will be equipped with a radiology station, a surgery room and an analysis lab.

On the same day, the inauguration of the renovated police station took place in the city centre, attended again by the district sub-governor, the head of the Police kandak and ISAF's Italian officers. The structure was completely refurbished and given new offices and observation towers.

Both projects, worth approximately $170,000, were funded by ISAF's Italian troops and implemented by local contractors throughout the last three months.

"Thanks to ISAF and to the Italian Task Force based in Sarobi, health and security will be certainly and considerably improved," said Mr. Seyid Suleyman, who is holding weekly meetings with Task Force Sarobi to find ways of cooperation and development in the fields of security, health and economy.

[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.]