In this bulletin:

• Taleban 'killing more civilians'
• Afghan officials: 3 accidental blasts kill 9 in Afghanistan
• Police and Army Officers Tied to Attempt on Karzai’s Life
• Afghan foreign minister expresses concern over talks between Pakistan, Taleban
• Afghanistan Backs Pakistani Militant Talks
• Letter: The View From Kabul
• No talks or compromises with terrorists: Qureshi
• Militant group orders Baitullah’s Taliban to leave Khyber Agency
• Taliban blame govt for deadlock
• Taliban warn people to sport beard or face action
• 17 shops blown up in Swat
• Several militants killed in Afghanistan
• Eide meets Canadian Prime Minister
• Singapore sends military engineers to Afghanistan
• Hungary plans to boost role in Afghanistan
• 'If we die, we will die together'
• UN: Buddha statue at World Heritage Site in Afghanistan remains OK after blast
• Canada should ease Afghan hunger
• MacKay dismisses reports of Canada-Taliban talks in Afghanistan
• Officer defends outreach program mistakenly linked to Taliban
• Editorial: Talking to the Taliban
• Former Minister: Germany Must Fight in Southern Afghanistan
• Afghan prisoners tell of beatings
• Inside Pakistan’s new war on terror
• An Enemy on the Run
• Key road toward Pakistan to improve trade, security
• Solving Afghanistan's poppy problem
• Kabul conference warns about environmental problems in Afghanistan

Taleban 'killing more civilians'

By Martin Patience – BBC News, Kabul

The rate of Afghan civilians killed in Taleban attacks this year has increased compared to 12 months ago, Nato-led forces and local organisations say.

However, Nato's claim that the number of civilians killed by its forces has reduced has been disputed.

Senior officials in the Nato-led force say that 240 civilians were killed in Taleban attacks from January to mid-April this year. That is a six-fold increase on the same period in 2007.

The officials said most of these deaths were from Taleban suicide bomb attacks aimed at international forces.

They also said that there had been a dramatic reduction in the number of civilians killed by Nato troops, dropping from 31 to four this year.

But these figures were disputed by local organisations. One group which monitors security and advises aid workers said that at least 60 civilians had been killed by international troops this year.

The American-led coalition, which operates outside Nato's remit, says that it does not keep a tally on civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths caused by international forces cause enormous anger across the country and have turned many people against the international community and the Afghan government.

In the past, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said no civilian death is acceptable. He has also been very critical of military operations which have killed or injured local people.

Afghan officials: 3 accidental blasts kill 9 in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Three accidental explosions in the Afghan capital have left nine people dead and more than 20 wounded, including some counternarcotics police, officials said Monday.

A policeman dropped a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded as his unit set off from Kabul on Monday on an opium poppy eradication mission north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.

Three policeman were killed in the blast, an Interior Ministry statement said. At least eight others were wounded, said Dr. Ahmad Zia Aftali, chief of the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment.

However, Khodadad, a policeman who goes by one name and witnessed the blast, said more than 15 were hurt. Also Monday, four children died and one was were wounded when an old artillery shell they were playing with exploded, Bashary said.

Another police official, Sayed Ekramudin, said two civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in an explosion Sunday at a refuse dump in the city's northern outskirts.

Ekramudin said a truck had hit a buried explosive. After decades of war, Afghanistan remains littered with unexploded ordnance.

Separately, insurgents shot at and hit a military-contracted civilian helicopter Monday in eastern Afghanistan, forcing the aircraft to land in Kunar province, a statement from the U.S.-led coalition said.

"The aircrew inspected the aircraft and found one bullet hole that did minor damage to the helicopter," the statement said. No one was injured inside the helicopter, it said.

Initially the coalition said a plane was hit but later revised that information saying it was a helicopter. In the country's south, NATO troops killed two insurgents and arrested four others during a clash Saturday, the alliance said in a statement.

The militants were killed in Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, during a patrol in which NATO troops also discovered a bomb-making factory, the statement said. No alliance troops were injured during the clash.

Police and Army Officers Tied to Attempt on Karzai’s Life

The New York Times, 05/05/2008 carlotta Gall

KABUL — Afghanistan's defense minister confirmed Sunday that a police captain was connected with the group behind the assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai a week earlier and that an army officer supplied the weapons and ammunition used in the attack.

Both men have been arrested and are under investigation for their suspected role in the attack on the military parade, which killed three people, including a member of Parliament, and wounded 11. One of the suspects may have been a sympathizer, and the other was probably motivated by money, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said.

Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, blamed Al Qaeda for the attack. He said three of the men involved were in contact with people outside Afghanistan, including people in Miram Shah, a town in Pakistan’s tribal region of North Waziristan, the main base for Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.

The three, who were killed in a house raid Wednesday, include an Afghan named Homayoun, suspected of directing an attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in January, and two foreigners who were planning suicide bombings in the city.

“That was the angle of Al Qaeda involvement,” the intelligence chief said. “It is very clear to us.”

Western military officials here have said the assassination attempt, coming after the coordinated attack on the Serena Hotel, indicates a growing ambition and sophistication on the part of those planning and carrying out such attacks.

Afghan forces caught a mortar team on the morning of the parade and uncovered a number of suicide vests in the days before the attack, all signs that the plan was for multiple coordinated attacks that could have been far more deadly.

Mr. Saleh called for more pressure on the terrorist bases in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, where, he said, the suspects were receiving training and finance.

“They are equipped financially and they are equipped logistically; they are receiving training, sophisticated training,” he said of the attackers. “And we have always spoken out for pressure to be put on their bases. If at the same time as the intelligence work we are doing pressure is put on their bases, then with these together, we can eliminate them.”

He added: “This is not a war to be ended next week. These are not the problems to be ended this year.”

Mr. Wardak, the defense minister, said that security officials needed to keep investigating how and when the group of three gunmen who fired on the military parade managed to bring weapons into their hotel room and that they still needed to question members of the presidential guard who were responsible for the security of the area for the 24 hours before the parade.

The arrested police captain, named Zalmai, is a trained nurse and was in touch with Mr. Homayoun, the mastermind of the attack, Mr. Wardak said.

He said the arrested army officer, named Jawed, was known by his nickname, Taleb Shah, and worked in the military’s weapons maintenance department, repairing weapons and refurbishing ones surrendered under the national disarmament program.

Two assault rifles used in the attack appeared to be from army stocks, while the machine gun was not, Mr. Wardak said. The arrested army officer admitted that he had provided the machine gun from his personal collection, Mr. Wardak said.

Afghan foreign minister expresses concern over talks between Pakistan, Taleban

Text of report by privately-owned Afghan Aina TV on 4 May

[Presenter] The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Afghanistan has expressed concern over talks between the Pakistani government and the Taleban. Addressing a joint news conference with his Japanese counterpart in Kabul, [Afghan Foreign Minister] Dr Rangin Dadfar-Spanta said that the Afghan government condemned any effort that would escalate unrest in the country and that he hoped the Pakistani government would agree that consequences of talks with the Taleban would not mean directing them towards Afghanistan.

[Correspondent] Mr Dadfar-Spanta welcomed his Japanese counterpart and said that the agenda of their diplomatic talks was continuation of Japan's cooperation with Afghanistan. The Afghan foreign minister said that recent developments aimed at ensuring security in Pakistan were an important step to maintain peace in the region. The Afghan government expressed concern over process of talks between the Pakistani Taleban and Islamabad officials.

Mr Dadfar-Spanta said that the reason behind the Afghan government's concerns was that terrorism will head towards Afghanistan after the end of these talks in order to create unrest here. He said that the war on terror is an international obligation as well as a regional problem. He said that further serious efforts were needed instead of talks and negotiations.

[Dr Rangin Dadfar-Spanta] In view of our own experiences as a victim of terrorism, I would like to say that any effort made to promote terrorism and to guide terrorists to another direction, will not be in the interest of peace and cooperation. The fight against terrorism is a joint struggle. It poses a very serious threat to the region and the world. According to our viewpoint regarding the fight against terrorism, it is not only the Afghans' fight against terrorism, but it is regional and international responsibility. We have this expectation from our friends on other side of the Durand Line. Aggressors and terrorists s! hould not be rewarded, but joint and coordinated fight should be stepp ed up with legal decisiveness.

[Correspondent] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed as a result of a suicide attack. It is not yet known which people and parties masterminded the attack. After that Pakistan, in particular its border areas faced serious security crisis. [Pakistani President] Pervez Musharraf's government agreed with the Taleban and hold talks with them in order to overcome these crises. The USA is also against these negotiations now and has expressed its concern in this regard.

The Afghan government has called on the Taleban to join the peace and reconciliation programme and resolve problems in Afghanistan through talks. This is the first official of Hamed Karzai's government in the country who expressed concern about the process of Pakistani officials' talks with the Taleban.

[Dr Rangin Dadfar-Spanta] We have the right to express our serious concerns to our friends.

Afghanistan Backs Pakistani Militant Talks

Coalition Government Says It Will Consider Negotiating With Terror Groups Despite Criticism From U.S.

03 May 08 - Written for CBSNews.com by Farhan Bokhari, reporting from Islamabad.

Pakistan’s new coalition government, which came to office in February after defeating supporters of President Pervez Musharraf, publicly said it would consider negotiating with militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, to end more than five years of fighting between government troops and militants in a remote region along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

That statement from the new government was quickly followed by reports of Pakistani officials meeting with representatives of Baitullah Mehsud, the most notorious militant commander, widely believed to be linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.

The new government’s announcement prompted anxieties among some Western officials including those from the U.S., who considered the offer of negotiation with militants as a dangerous concession to hardline groups which could potentially embolden them further.

The criticism of the proposed negotiations was driven by concerns surrounding an earlier peace agreement between the Pakistani government and the militants in 2006 in the remote Waziristan region.

The militants used the space given to them by the 2006 agreement to re-arm and re-organize themselves before returning to fight some of the 120,000 Pakistani military troops deployed along the Pak-Afghan border.

“Afghanistan supports any measure that leads to the restoration of security and stability, provided such a step does not cause the expansion of further terrorism into Afghanistan” said the Afghan foreign ministry in a statement on Saturday, referring to Pakistan’s talks with the militants.

A senior western diplomat in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said on Saturday that the Afghan statement - while highlighting the security interest of Afghanistan - provided what seemed to be a semi-endorsement of Pakistan’s initiative.

“Rather than blindly opposing Pakistan, the Afghans seem to be accepting Pakistan’s position. This is a step forward, maybe even a significant step” he said. The diplomat said the Afghan statement could help Pakistan soften opposition to its negotiations with militants from critics such as the United States.

Pakistani officials said their government’s offer to negotiate with militants in the border area was an important step to improve security conditions which have worsened in the country since last year.

Locations across Pakistan have been targeted in an increasing number of suicide and armed attacks believed by local intelligence officials to have been carried out under orders from Mehsud.

These attacks intensified after Musharraf ordered the military to storm a Taliban-style mosque in the center of Islamabad last summer, after clerics from the mosque began issuing "fatwa" (or religious decrees) proscribing what they considered "improper behavior" that clashed with Islamic norms. Such behavior included running shops selling CDs with music, and a group of Chinese women who ran an Islamabad massage center, which the clerics alleged was a cover-up for prostitution.

Letter: The View From Kabul

NY Times, Published: May 3, 2008

To the Editor:

I am writing to convey our disappointment with “Afghan Leader Criticizes U.S., Calling Arrests and Casualties Too High” (news article, April 26).

President Hamid Karzai sincerely appreciates the role and contribution of the international forces in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in helping Afghan forces rid the country of terrorism. We believe in the importance of political inclusiveness in order to reach peace and stability.

It is absolutely vital that we continue our collective military operations to root out the sworn enemies of Afghanistan and the civilized world. Our partnership with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and coalition forces remains strong and unwavering.

Humayun Hamidzada
Kabul, Afghanistan, April 26, 2008

The writer is presidential spokesman and director of communications in the office of President Hamid Karzai.

No talks or compromises with terrorists: Qureshi

Daily Times 04 May 08 - By Sajjad Malik

ISLAMABAD: The government will not negotiate or make compromises with terrorists, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Saturday.

“The Pakistani nation has reached a consensus that they will not negotiate or make compromises with terrorists, to protect national interests,” the minister told a joint press conference, along with his Japanese counterpart Masahiko Koumura.

Qureshi said talks would only be held with those who wanted peace and were ready to help the government bring stability in the region by ending poverty.

He said, “We will only engage with those people who can be our partners in bringing peace to the region,” he said.

Support: Koumura supported the government’s multi-pronged strategy to end terrorism, and said Japan would assist in the socio-economic aspect of the strategy.

Responding to questions, he said the new government of Pakistan would not tolerate terrorists, adding that Islamabad had informed him that talks would not be initiated with terrorists operating from the Tribal Areas.

Koumura said Japan had helped Pakistan in its democratic transition by providing transparent ballot boxes and sending election observers for the February 18 polls.

He said Japan would try to persuade the G-8 group of nations to help Pakistan in developing the Tribal Areas. Both the ministers also signed the ‘exchange of notes’ under which Japan pledged to give Pakistan $480 million in soft term loans to stabilise economy.

Both sides also agreed to increase bilateral trade from its present $2 billion.
The Japanese FM also visited President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for discussions.

Militant group orders Baitullah’s Taliban to leave Khyber Agency

Daily Times 04 May 08, By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: Conflict has arisen between anti-United States jihadi groups, as Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munker chief Haji Namdar has ordered all Baitullah Mehsud-led militants to leave the Khyber Agency, following claims of responsibility for the suicide attack on him on Thursday.

“All militants belonging to Baitullah Mehsud’s group have been ordered to leave the Khyber Agency following the confirmation that the suicide attack on Namdar was ordered by Baitullah,” a close aide to Namdar told Daily Times on Saturday.

Around 20 people were injured in the attack at Namdar’s headquarters near Bara town in the Khyber Agency. The Hakeemullah Group, which is led by Baitullah’s deputy Hakeemullah Mehsud, claimed the responsibility for the attack. “I have been told by Baitullah’s supporters that four more suicide bombers are on their way to kill me,” Namdar was quoted as saying. “I will not allow Baitullah to set up his own state in the Tribal Areas.”

Sources close to Namdar quoted Hakeemullah as telling him that the attack was ordered following “documentary evidence that you (Namdar) are a government puppet posing as a mujahid”. Hakeemullah was referring to the publication of a picture in a Peshawar-based Urdu-language daily on Wednesday in which Namdar was sitting with Frontier Corps (FC) Colonel Mujahid Hussain.

“We have ordered the attack to kill you because the picture leaves no doubt about your credibility,” Hakeemullah reportedly told Namdar on phone while requesting the remains of the bomber. Security officials said the rivalry between Baitullah and Namdar could lead to more bloodshed in near future.

Relations between the Hakeemullah Group and Namdar’s organisation became tense following Namdar’s orders to release seven FC soldiers kidnapped by Hakeemullah on April 21.

Taliban blame govt for deadlock

Dawn - By Anwarullah Khan

KHAR, May 3: The Taliban have blamed the government’s “inflexibility” for the lack of progress in negotiations.

Talks between the government and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had stalled early this week after Baitullah Mehsud accused the government of refusing to withdraw troops from tribal areas and Swat.

TTP spokesman Maulvi Umar told Dawn on phone from an unspecified place that his outfit had kept the doors open for a meaningful dialogue with the government.

“Taliban believe only in meaningful dialogue and don’t want to waste time in rhetoric,” he said, adding that a government-sponsored jirga had approached Baitullah Mehsud to resume the talks, but he refused.

“We have informed the jirga that unless our basic demands are met, we will not resume the dialogue,” Maulvi Umar said.

The TTP has demanded withdrawal of army troops from Waziristan, Darra Adamkhel and Swat district. But, according to the Taliban, the government had refused to accept the demand.

The spokesman said the government and Taliban had been negotiating for the past three months. “We don’t want to repeat such things.” He said the coalition government in the NWFP had not yet contacted the TTP for restoration of peace in the province.

Taliban warn people to sport beard or face action

Dawn - By Our Correspondent

KHAR, May 4: Taliban have threatened people in Bajaur tribal region to grow beards within two months or face consequences.

Speaking at a gathering here on Sunday, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Maulvi Umar asked people to abide by the order and grow beards within two months otherwise they would be treated in accordance with Shariat.

It is the first that Taliban have issued such decree in the area.

A large number of people attended the gathering. Maulvi Umar asked people to give inheritance rights to women in accordance with the principles of Islam.

17 shops blown up in Swat

Daily Times 04 May 08 - Staff Report

MINGORA: Unidentified militants blew up a music CD centre, along with 16 other shops, in the Kabal tehsil of Swat late on Friday, while police defused a separate bomb.

The bomb, which went off in the Kala Kilay area and destroyed the music centre, caused millions of rupees worth of lost property. The remote-controlled device detonated at 2am, APP reported.

Separately, police said that a bomb disposal squad had defused a 20-kilogramme bomb and that cases had been registered against unidentified militants and investigations had started. The Online news agency quoted locals as saying that the Taliban had threatened owners of the CD Centre to shut down their business in the past. Following a deadlock in talks between the provincial government and the Taliban, the law and order situation in Swat is worsening. Armed Taliban have started patrolling the areas of Manglor, Kabal and Matta.

On Saturday, Malakand Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Tanvirul Haq Sipra told a cheque-distribution ceremony for the families of policemen killed during the Swat insurgency that a police housing colony and public school would be opened in the region.

Several militants killed in Afghanistan

ABUL, May 4 (KUNA) -- Several militants were killed and 22 more were arrested alive during separate operations by the coalition and ISAF troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the military said on Sunday.
Seven militants were killed as they attack an ISAF convoy in Pech district of Kunar province, said one statement. "The insurgents were defeated with small arms fire, machine guns, artillery and close air support".
In another operation in the southern province of Helmand, the miltary said "several militants" were killed and 22 more were arrested by the US-led coalition troops.
The operation was conducted in Reg district on Saturday. The troops claimed to have seized several Kalashnikovs, ammunition, mines, artillery shells, IED materials and grenades.

Eide meets Canadian Prime Minister

Lalit K Jha - May 2, 2008 - 10:56

NEW YORK (PAN): The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Afghanistan, Kai Eide, concluded his two day trip to Canada with a meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, wherein he discussed with him the current situation in the country and the upcoming Paris in June.

During his meetings, Eide discussed the new sharpened UN mission to Afghanistan and the role of a coordinator that he should play in the country.

Referring to an article in a Canadian daily that Canada is trying to reach out to the Taliban, Eide stressed that any reconciliation program or attempt needs to be done by the Afghan Government and that the international community is in a supportive role.

He also talked about Afghanistan in regional context and how it is important to address the regional issues and how to expand regional cooperation in a constructive manner.

Eide emphasized that any international player in Afghanistan has to have the understanding of the historical and culture context.

In addition to Harper and Bernier, Eide also met David Emerson, Minister of International Trade and Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Afghanistan; Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence; Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety; and Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation.

Eide also met with the members of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Afghanistan, and the Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad. The Special UN Envoy also spoke addressed the members of the diplomatic corps at the Foreign Affairs Department.

"His mission to Canada comes at an important time, not only from Canadian-Afghan perspective, but also from the perspective of post-Bucharest and pre-Paris conferences," Omar Samad, the Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

"He wants to listen and act as the international community's interlocutor on the Afghan side as well as the UN coordinator playing a politically constructive role," Samad said. Lkj/ajr

Singapore sends military engineers to Afghanistan

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore is sending two military construction engineering teams to Afghanistan, the defence ministry said Monday.

In the tiny city-state's latest military contribution to the area, 12 team members will be deployed in two groups over about six months in central Bamiyan province, the ministry said.

They are to supervise construction of a regional health training centre and will be part of the New Zealand Defence Force provincial reconstruction team, it said.

"This deployment is part of Singapore's overall contribution to the international humanitarian assistance and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan," the defence ministry said in a statement.

Singapore last year sent a five-man medical team to Bamiyan, and a Singapore Air Force refuelling aircraft left last month for the Gulf where it will support multi-national forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ministry said earlier.

Singapore, which US President George W. Bush visited in 2006, has been an unwavering US ally.

Hungary plans to boost role in Afghanistan

BUDAPEST, May 4 (Reuters) - Hungary will take over command of Kabul international airport from October and plans to send more troops to Afghanistan in 2009 as part of its commitment to NATO, Defence Minister Imre Szekeres said on Sunday.

Szekeres told Reuters by telephone from Afghanistan that Hungary would send 60 troops to take over command of Kabul airport for a period of six months. "This will be an especially complex military task," Szekeres said, adding that Hungarian troops would be in charge of both military and civil aviation.

Szekeres visited Hungarian troops in Afghanistan and also held talks with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission.

He said Hungary planned in early 2009 to send two teams of around 20 soldiers each -- one to the south and another to the northern Baghlan province -- to train Afghan army units. Szekeres said there was cross-party support in parliament for the mission.

Hungary, a NATO member since 1999, already has 210 troops in Baghlan province helping with reconstruction work. (Reporting by Krisztina Than; Editing by Jon Boyle)

'If we die, we will die together'

www.quqnoos.com - Written by Shakeela Ibramkhil Saturday, 03 May 2008

Mother's plea to husband who sold daughters for food and water. “If we die, we will die together.”

These were the words a Kabul mother used to beg her husband to buy back her two children who he sold to buy food for his starving family.

The mother of six told Quqnoos.com that her husband sold her two daughters, aged four and two, because he could not afford to buy drinking water for his family.

“My husband said, ‘I’m going to sell these children to provide food for our other children’. But I said, ‘if we die we will die together’ I can’t stand to see my children with another family.”

The husband agreed to buy back her two young daughters after she screamed at him for days.

One of the girls’ brothers said: “When my father took my sisters off to sell them I was crying but I know my father did this because he had to.”

One of the sisters said: “We don’t have money to buy food: that is why my father sold my two sisters.”

The husband said Kabul council had bulldozed their previous home and failed to provide his family with a new home, depsite numerous promises.

The family now lives in the capital’s Kai Khana area, where they rent a house close to the Presidential Palace.

Over the last month, the cost of bread has doubled in some parts of the country. America warned last week that the rising cost of wheat, the lack of rain and export bans on flour to Afghanistan will likely increase the risk of serious food shortages in the country.

The US government’s development agency, USAID, also predicts a below-average wheat harvest next month because crops have had about 50-90% less water than last year.

Provinces such as Ghor, Badghis, Daykundi, Badakhshan, Faryab, Urzgan, Zabul, Wardak, and Logar are most at risk from food shortages, the agency said.

The hike in the cost of wheat is most pronounced in Faizabad, Badakhshan, where prices are 157% higher than the five year average, Mazar-e-Sharif (151% above average), and Herat (13% above average). Since January, the cost of bread in Kabul has risen from Afg6 to Afg20 in some parts of the city.

UN: Buddha statue at World Heritage Site in Afghanistan remains OK after blast

Associated Press – 04 May 08

KABUL, Afghanistan : A controlled explosion of old ordnance found near remains of the famed Bamiyan Buddha statues did not cause damage to the 1,500-year old ruins, the United Nations said.

The blast carried out Thursday by NATO-led troops near the smaller of two towering Buddha statues — destroyed by the Taliban seven years ago — had prompted an angry reaction from a provincial official who said it threatened Afghanistan's heritage.

Najibullah Harar, chief of information and culture for Bamiyan, claimed the explosion had caused cracks in what is left of the 34.5-meter (113-foot) -high ancient structure.

But Brendan J. Cassar, chief of UNESCO's cultural program in Afghanistan, which includes conservation of the World Heritage Site at Bamiyan, said a monitoring mechanism inside the niche where the statues once stood showed no change in pre-existing cracks.

"I'm informed by authorities in Kabul there was no visible damage," Cassar said.

The two statues, chiseled about 400 meters (yards) apart into a cliff face also teeming with ancient cave shrines and paintings, were created about 1,500 years ago when Bamiyan was a major center for Buddhism. The Taliban dynamited the Buddhas in March 2001, deeming them idolatrous and anti-Muslim. It was one of the regime's most widely condemned acts.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime in November 2001, international experts have made painstaking efforts to recover and piece together fragments of the Buddhas and stabilize the niches that remain. UNESCO has placed the entire Bamiyan Valley region on its World Heritage in Danger list. Even planes are not allowed to fly over the area.

Cassar said a rocket-propelled grenade had been found near the niche that once housed the statue, and that the explosion only cracked a nearby mud brick wall.

NATO said the troops destroyed the ordnance more than one kilometer (half a mile) from the historical site.

"There was no damage. The provincial governor and local authorities were all informed of the incident and of the plans (for the controlled explosion)," said Maj. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman in Kabul for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Canada should ease Afghan hunger
Calgary Herald Monday, May 05, 2008

Spiking food prices are an acute danger not only to the world's poor, but to the strategic aims of NATO in Afghanistan, making it all the more imperative that the hunger of Afghans be alleviated as soon as possible. While the Canadian government announced an extra

$50 million in aid this week for poor nations affected by rising food costs, none of the money is specifically earmarked for Afghanistan. This omission urgently needs to be corrected as a prolonged food shortage will undermine Afghanistan's fragile multi-ethnic confidence in the national government of President Hamid Karzai and severely imperil NATO's efforts to bring peace to the volatile country.

As the snows of the harsh Afghan winter melt, efforts by the Taliban to disrupt international reconstruction are expected to intensify and starving men with few prospects and no relief in sight are likely to provide the insurgents with a ready supply of recruits. Military forces in Afghanistan -- including Canada's contingent in the violent southern province of Kandahar -- will find themselves facing ever larger numbers of foes sowing ever more chaos. Without money specifically directed at easing local hunger, it will be even harder to win hearts and minds, and maintain bulwarks against the Taliban.

Even in areas unwilling to support the Taliban, food price hikes will force desperate people to sell their possessions in order to survive, further impoverishing them and limiting their options for survival. Desperate times lead to desperate measures and the insurgents will suddenly find a welcome where they previously received the cold shoulder.

The Taliban might not have to try very hard. Famine will be a propaganda gift, further "proof" for their arguments that NATO's presence in the country is part of a nefarious plot to wage war on Islam and exterminate Muslims. Bereft of provisions for food aid, NATO forces would be reduced to merely arguing that rising food prices are the result of a complex combination of factors beyond the control of any one government. In a starving and poorly educated country, it is not hard to imagine how that will go over.

The solution to Afghan hunger will have to come from beyond the country's borders because, while rising food prices are expected to benefit many of the world's farmers, the same cannot be said for those in Afghanistan. Isolated physically and technologically from world markets, and lacking access to seed and equipment, Afghan farmers will find it difficult to expand or switch cultivars and reap the benefits of high prices besides feeding their own people. Many are also in thrall to local warlords involved in the drug trade and have no choice but to grow poppies.

The World Food Program currently administers a $77 million food aid program in Afghanistan, but this will run out by June. Unless NATO is willing to accept no return on all the men, money and equipment it has poured into Afghanistan, member nations will have to assume a large share of the burden of feeding Afghans. If not, starvation and war will undo all the coalition's hard-won gains and could leave Afghanistan truly beyond hope.

MacKay dismisses reports of Canada-Taliban talks in Afghanistan

By Tara Brautigam, THE CANADIAN PRESS – 03 May 08

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Defence Minister Peter MacKay is denying reports from Afghanistan that Canadian soldiers are reaching out to members of the Taliban in order to establish peace in the war-torn country.

Canadian military officials in Afghanistan have been quoted as saying they're trying to engage in a dialogue with insurgents - a move that federal New Democrat Leader Jack Layton has long supported.

"I was pleased to hear that our military on the ground were looking at opening up lines of communication with the insurgents," Layton said Saturday while attending a provincial NDP convention in St. John's.

"Our party has always argued that we've got to carve out a path towards peace, it's got to involve some negotiations and discussions, even with those combatants with whom we're engaged in combat."

Lt.-Col. Gordon Corbould, the new battle group commander, and Sgt. Tim Seeley, a civilian-military co-operation officer for Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, were quoted Thursday by the Globe and Mail as saying that channels were being opened to moderate Taliban.

Other officials in Kandahar, who spoke privately, backed up the military's assessment, calling it creative thinking.

But MacKay, who told The Canadian Press on Friday that those same officials don't speak for the federal government, took pains Saturday to reiterate Ottawa's position.

"We are not talking to the Taliban. We are not having direct discussions with terrorists. We won't, will not, that will not change," MacKay said.

"What we are doing obviously in reconstruction and development and daily contacts that happen is encouraging people to move away from the Taliban's influence, to renounce violence."

The Afghan government has the lead responsibility to draw people away from the Taliban's grip, an effort the Canadian military supports, MacKay said.

The notion that Canadian soldiers would be stepping up with Afghans to encourage insurgents in the ravaged province of Kandahar to lay down their weapons and talk has garnered much praise in Kandahar City.

Influential leaders such as Ahmed Wali Karzai, the younger half brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, say it's just the sort of push needed to quell the bloodshed.

Tribal leaders in the hotly contested Panjwaii district, where many Canadian soldiers have died or been injured, have also supported the approach.

Nearly two years ago, the NDP suggested peace talks be initiated with combatants in Afghanistan - prompting federal Conservatives to call Layton "Taliban Jack."

"Two years ago, the military was beginning those kinds of discussions, we supported that, said so very publicly," Layton said.

"People started calling us names and all of a sudden the official government position was that there couldn't ever be any discussions. We think that that's wrong."

Karzai has called for peace talks with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, but hard-liners have demanded the removal of all foreign forces before discussions can begin. They also want a stricter interpretation of Islamic law, political posts and possibly control over some districts and provinces.

Canada and the United States have been the only NATO allies in southern Afghanistan to refuse to speak to militants. The British and the Dutch have both made attempts to either engage in dialogue or establish local ceasefires.

Officer defends outreach program mistakenly linked to Taliban

Published: Saturday, May 03, 2008

Kandahar, Afghanistan -- Recent attempts to talk with disillusioned youth and angry locals in Afghanistan have been misconstrued as interest in negotiating with the Taliban, says the officer in charge of the soldiers who made the inquiries.

Maj. James Allen, the commanding officer of the civilian-military co-operation group in Afghanistan, said Saturday that the intent of his unit was to target youths who consider picking up a gun and fighting for the wrong reasons, or farmers protecting themselves from people they see as infringing on their livelihood.

"We talk to them about their mindsets, their culture, about what we're trying to do here," Allen said. "We're here to facilitate employment so that maybe instead of fighting, picking up weapons or getting involved in things they don't understand - simply for money or because they're disillusioned with certain things or progress - that there are better things to do with their time."

Ideally, the intent was to talk to these people about trying to benefit their community before they resort to violence, Allen said.

Attempts by his soldiers to open these lines of communication were drastically misunderstood because they used words like "Taliban" and "insurgents," he said.

Published reports have described Sgt. Tim Seeley of the Provincial Reconstruction Team asking locals in Kandahar province if it is possible to open lines of communication with the Taliban.

Recently, another member of the civilian-military co-operation team, Capt. John Weingardt, asked locals in the Panjwaii district if "it would be possible to speak with the people we're fighting against."

The inquiries created controversy in Canada, where politicians were openly angry at the idea of talking to the Taliban, particularly ahead of international attempts at diplomacy. Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Canadian Press that the soldiers were out of line and "don't speak for the government of Canada."

Allen cringes at the reaction. He said the intent of the questions was not to open negotiations with insurgents or even speak to them, but to engage frustrated community members before they drop a farmer's shovel in favour of a fighter's rifle.

"Their choice of words was misrepresentative. Under no arrangement or auspices were my soldiers to initiate negotiations or to talk with the enemy. That's not what we are here for. I believe the context may have been misconstrued and some words may have been misspoken."

Besides youth, the people Canadian soldiers had in mind were locals in Afghanistan who consider joining insurgents to feed their family or based on a romantic notion of fighting the good fight.

Anything further is misrepresentation, Weingardt clarified days after his meeting with locals. "We're not trying to initiate peace talks with the Taliban," he stated Saturday.

Allen, in charge of the unit since September 2007, equated his team's efforts with attempts to talk to youth back in Canada about the dangers of gangs and drugs before they become involved with them.

He said that the civilian-military co-operation team will continue such efforts, but with a careful choice of words. 

"The people who are truly 'Taliban' are hard to define and the word should be used with caution in order to avoid what he sees as the matter "being blown out of proportion," Allen said.

Allen talked about the specific inquiries during an interview that covered the scope of the civilian-military co-operation group's mandate in Afghanistan. The unit is the main link between the military and locals and is in charge of building trust in that relationship.

They speak to Afghanistan citizens about their social and security concerns and encourage them to contact the International Security Assistance Force or Afghanistan security groups about any problems in their community.

The team also supports projects like road construction that provide employment to dissuade more violent paths. Allen regrets the words his officers said, but not the intent of what they were trying to do.

"What's done is done and people can make out of the message what they want, but I back them up in what the spirit was - to reach out to people that didn't know any better, who may or may not have ever picked up a weapon. But it was not to reach out to insurgents and sit down for negotiations."

Edmonton Journal - rcormier@thejournal.canwest.com

Editorial: Talking to the Taliban

The Star, May 03, 2008 -

Are Canadian troops in Afghanistan quietly trying to strike up a dialogue with elements of the Taliban whom they have been fighting for years? If so, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government might want to share the news. That would be in line with the recent report by John Manley's panel on Afghanistan that urged more openness from this reflexively secretive government.

But the Conservatives ducked behind a wall of bafflegab when the issue came up in Parliament yesterday. Liberal MP Irwin Cotler wanted to know why Afghan officials are praising us for talking to the Taliban, when people like Defence Minister Peter MacKay insist no such activities have been approved. But Cotler never got the answer he wanted.

Canada "will support the government of Afghanistan in any kind of reconciliation effort that can bring peace to the region and that will renounce the violence," said Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister. That's clear as mud.

Why does this have to be so hard? Of course, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government is responsible for any serious political dialogue with insurgents. It's their country. But the British and Dutch have long tried to forge contacts in the field. They tell tribal elders that they are open to talks with Taliban fighters or other insurgents in the hope of persuading them to give up fighting in exchange for jobs, aid or other benefits. It signals that we aren't the enemy and that we want to help people better their lives. It complements Karzai's approach.

MacKay yesterday insisted Canada's troops are keeping a distance from insurgents. But as they focus more on development between now and 2011, reaching out and touching Afghans with more than a tank barrel makes sense. It's an approach Ottawa ought to consider as it fine-tunes our Afghan policy. Kai Eide, the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, has urged all parties to "engage in outreach." And Karzai has offered amnesty to low-level Taliban fighters who give up the gun.

"There would be so many Taliban willing to come home," Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, told the Canadian Press this past week. "Nobody supports this madness."

If that is so, Canada would be remiss not to reach out.

Former Minister: Germany Must Fight in Southern Afghanistan

dw-world.d - 4 May 2008

Germany's Bundeswehr will have to fight in the more dangerous southern region of Afghanistan in the foreseeable future, according to former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

In an interview with the Tagesspiegel daily, published on Sunday, May 4, Fischer said once a new president in inaugurated in the United States, the German government will no longer be able to refuse NATO allies' requests that it deploy troops to the South, where soldiers from the US and other NATO countries are fighting a fierce Taliban insurgency.

German troops are now stationed in Kabul and the relatively calm northern part of the country.

"With a new American administration, we are going to have to fight in the south sooner or later," Fischer said.

He added that a new US president would put much more pressure on Germany to fulfill what many allies see as its duties in Afghanistan than the Bush administration has.

The former foreign minister called it a "big mistake" that the current German government has refused requests by allies such as the US and Canada to move troops into the South. Even if Berlin does order troops to be deployed eventually, Fischer said, Germany is likely to be seen as the "bad guy" who missed the opportunity to act on its own initiative.

"In Germany, we've forgotten why we're even there," he said in the interview, which was conducted at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.

German public support for the six-year-old mission is slipping with a majority saying they oppose continued deployment.

here are about 40,000 NATO and 20,000 US-led coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. NATO commanders said at the end of January they need about 7,500 more troops to carry out their mission.

In January, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly sent an "unusually stern" letter to German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung demanding combat troops, helicopters and paratroopers for Afghanistan and charging that some NATO states were not pulling their weight. Southern Afghanistan has seen the worst violence since the Taliban was ousted in the US-led invasion in 2001.

 But Germany has rejected the call for troops in battle-ravaged southern Afghanistan, insisting Berlin's focus on reconstruction efforts in the relatively calm north was justified. Germany has insisted German troops are making headway in stabilizing the north.

Fischer, in the newspaper interview, said is needed to be made clear that the Afghanistan mission is a reaction to the terrorist attacks in the US on Sept. 11, 2001, and warned that if similar attacks could follow if the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda is not successful.

Afghan prisoners tell of beatings

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, Tom Hyland May 4, 2008

PRISONERS captured by Australian and Dutch troops in Afghanistan allege they have been beaten after being handed over to the notorious Afghan secret police.

While the Australian Defence Force says there is no evidence of mistreatment, official documents show three have complained they were beaten by secret police after being captured by the Dutch-Australian taskforce.

The Dutch documents allege prisoners are routinely handed over to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. International law prohibits returning prisoners to a nation where they are at risk of torture.

The documents do not specify the nationality of the troops who captured the men but they include references to prisoners taken by Australians in Oruzgan province.

Also, the files said prisoners captured last year complained to Dutch diplomats they were beaten by the NDS. One said he was beaten several times, another said he was beaten on the head three times and pointed to a scar.

Australian sources said: "Australia remains satisfied that our detainee arrangements, including assurances and arrangements with the Dutch Government, sufficiently address our international and domestic legal obligations regarding detainees."

Inside Pakistan’s new war on terror

The News International 04 May 08

NEW YORK: Some people in the Bush administration can't quite let go of Pervez Musharraf even though Musharraf himself is letting go of Pakistan. The Pakistani president, already marginalized by a hostile newly elected government, has so little to do he's been playing a lot of bridge lately, according to a source inside the government. Expectations are that he'll quietly step down around the same time his greatest champion, George W. Bush, leaves office in early 2009. (At which time his likely replacement could be his erstwhile mortal enemy, Asif Ali Zardari, the controversial husband of the murdered Benazir Bhutto, who leads the now-dominant Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). But some hard-line U.S. officials inside the White House (interestingly enough, not including Dick Cheney) are still clinging to Musharraf's failed anti-Al Qaeda policiesówhich depended almost entirely on sporadic military strikes and CIA-Pakistani cooperation on intelóafter nearly seven years of overwhelming evidence that they don't work. What's the evidence, you ask? Osama bin Laden and his operational commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are still alive and at large.

So what will work? The new government of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani†is betting on what U.S. officials would identify as a classic counterinsurgency strategy: deploying the military while winning hearts and minds by pouring aid into the tribal regions where extremists hide out. The Bush administration adopted such a policy for the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, but for some reason it's not entirely ready to do so in Pakistan. Asked last week about a draft peace deal between the new government and the tribal hard-liners, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "We are concerned about it Ö what we encourage them to do is to continue to fight against the terrorists." Some officials in the National Security Council fear a repeat of the deal that Musharraf struck with Islamist militants in 2006, which was promptly ignored by them.

But others in the administration, especially Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director Michael Hayden, agree with the new government in Pakistan that a sophisticated counterinsurgency strategyóincluding a "vigorous reconstruction program" in the tribal areasóis the way to go. These officials have sought to moderate Perino's remarks. And one U.S. official remarks, rather astonished: "Cheney has been an ally for us on this." Indeed, with a new PPP-friendly military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Asif, the Pakistanis have something entirely different in mind than Musharraf's strategy, according to Pakistani officials. Since the PPP won the parliamentary election in February, the government has begun negotiating with civilian tribal leaders with the intent of isolating and undercutting the power of the militant Mehsud Baitullah, the faceless jihadi leader who has transformed his Mehsud tribe's mountainous badlands in the northwest corner of Pakistan into a safe haven for Al Qaeda.

Contrary to some reports that it is backing down from military pressure, however, Islamabad has refused to withdraw the 120,000 troops it has arrayed in the lawless region before any deal is struck, causing a stalemate in the negotiations. In talks with Washington, the new government is also conceding that the CIAówhich has conducted at least three dozen Predator strikes inside Pakistanówill be permitted to operate there as long as it is completely confident about the accuracy of its intelligence.

One irony of the U.S. reluctance to adopt the new government's approach is that after six years of declaring that democracy is the solution to extremism, Bush can't let go of his fellowship feelings for Musharraf enough to apply his administration's own principle to Pakistan. Indeed, there is perhaps nowhere on earth where this tenet is truer than in Pakistan. As Husain Haqqani, who is soon to be Pakistan's new ambassador to the United States, described it in his 2005 book, "Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military," as long as military strongmen run Islamabad, radical Islamists will always have a safe haven inside Pakistan. Why? Because Pakistan's military and intelligence leaders and its Islamists have long shared the same ideological bed. Haqqani argued then that Pakistani generals, in order to justify their place atop the government, have constantly used the unifying principle of Islam and the perceived threat from Hindu India. This helps explain everything from the military's decades-old effort to build up an Islamist insurgency in disputed Kashmir to Islamabad's successful strategy of aiding and building up the Taliban in neighboring Pakistan during the '90s. Only democracy, Haqqani wrote, "can gradually wean the country from Islamic extremism. Musharraf cannot. Unless Islamabad's objectives are redefined to focus on economic prosperity and popular participation in governanceówhich the military as an institution remains reluctant to doóthe state will continue to turn to Islam as a national unifier." Haqqani's views are believed to be shared by Gilani, Zardari and other PPP leaders. As Gilani wrote Wednesday in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post: "We will reform our tribal areas economically, politically and socially."

There is simply no other way. Pakistani democracy has always been troubled, even in the pre-Musharraf days. But the nation's saving grace has always been that Islamists have typically polled poorly against secular parties. Indeed, extremist religious parties never did better than they performed under Musharraf, when he barred the parties of his main democratic rivals, Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. If there is any place in the Muslim world where extremist Islam can be politically marginalizedóif not eliminatedóit is there. The Bush administration's resistance to the new approach is likely to die away quickly. In a little noted comment on April 14, Rice noted that a "new strategic opportunity" had arisen with Pakistan's democratic transition and that "Pakistan now will need to find a way to have very solid civilian control of the armed forces." The new Islamabad government's hopes lie with her, Hayden and other savvy players such as Defense Secretary Bob Gates and incoming CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus. Courtesy Newsweek

An Enemy on the Run

In Afghanistan, the Challenge Beyond al-Qaeda

Washington Post- By David Ignatius Sunday, May 4, 2008

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- The most interesting discovery during a visit to this city where Osama bin Laden planted his flag in 1996 is that al-Qaeda seems to have all but disappeared. The group is on the run, too, in Iraq, and that raises some interesting questions about how to pursue this terrorist enemy.

"Al-Qaeda is not a topic of conversation here," says Col. Mark Johnstone, the deputy commander of Task Force Bayonet, which oversees four provinces surrounding Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Pete Benchoff agrees: "We're not seeing a lot of al-Qaeda fighters. They've shifted here to facilitation and support."

You hear the same story farther north from the officers who oversee the provinces along the Pakistan border. A survey conducted last November and December in Nuristan, once an al-Qaeda stronghold, found that the group barely registered as a security concern among the population.

The enemy in these eastern provinces is a loose amalgam of insurgent groups, mostly linked to traditional warlords. It's not the Taliban, much less al-Qaeda. "I don't use the word 'Taliban,' " says Alison Blosser, a State Department political adviser to the military commanders here in the sector known as Regional Command East. "In RC East we have a number of disparate groups. Command and control are not linked up. The young men will fight for whoever is paying the highest rate."

The picture appears much the same in RC South, where British and Canadian troops have faced some of the toughest battles of the war. Members of the British-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand province describe an insurgency that is tied to the opium mafia -- hardly a bastion of Islamic fundamentalism.

Traveling to the British headquarters in Lashkar Gah in a low-flying Lynx helicopter, you fly over mile after mile of poppy fields -- and hundreds of Afghan men in turbans and baggy trousers out harvesting the resin that will be turned into opium. British military officers and diplomats describe the core problems in their sector as bad governance, corruption and lack of economic development, not a resurgent al-Qaeda or Taliban.

Terrorist attacks such as last week's assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai demonstrate that insurgents are still able to create havoc. Indeed, the statistics gathered by the NATO-led coalition show that civilian and military casualties are up this year. That instability undermines the good work of the development projects. But commanders say it's spasmodic violence, rather than a sustained and coordinated campaign by a tightly knit al-Qaeda.

Traveling in Iraq this year, I've heard similar accounts of al-Qaeda's demise there. That stems from two factors: the revolt by Sunni tribal leaders against al-Qaeda's brutal intimidation and the relentless hunt for its operatives by U.S. Special Forces. As the flow of human and technical intelligence improves and the United States learns to fuse it for quick use by soldiers on the ground, the anti-terrorist rollback accelerates.

The al-Qaeda menace hasn't disappeared, but it has moved -- to Pakistan. The latest State Department terrorism report, issued last week, says the group "has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities through the exploitation of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas."

This evidence from the field suggests two conclusions:

First, al-Qaeda isn't a permanent boogeyman; it's losing ground in Iraq and Afghanistan because of U.S. counterinsurgency tactics, especially the alliances we have built with tribal leaders and the aggressive use of Special Forces to capture or kill its operatives. These anti-terrorist operations require special skills -- but they shouldn't require a big, semi-permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq or Afghanistan. Local security forces can handle a growing share of responsibility -- perhaps ineptly, as in Basra a few weeks ago or in Kabul last weekend, but that's their problem.

Second, the essential mission in combating al-Qaeda now is to adopt in Pakistan the tactics that are working in Iraq and Afghanistan. This means alliances with tribal warlords to bring economic development to the isolated mountain valleys of the FATA region in exchange for their help in security. And it means joint operations involving U.S. and Pakistani special forces to chase al-Qaeda militants as they retreat deeper into the mountains.

The solution isn't to send a large number of U.S. soldiers into Pakistan -- indeed, that could actually make the situation worse -- but to send the right ones, with the right skills.

The writer is co-host of PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues.

Key road toward Pakistan to improve trade, security

Ron Synovitz 5/03/08 - EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL

A contract has been signed for a $100 million highway project in Afghanistan intended to dramatically reduce travel time from Kabul to border areas near Pakistan’s volatile tribal region of North Waziristan.

The 100-kilometer stretch of road will link the provinces of Khost and Paktia to Afghanistan’s "ring road," which will circle the country. The contract was signed on April 26 by the Afghan and U.S. governments. The project is being funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The new asphalt road is seen by Kabul as one of the most important reconstruction projects in southeastern Afghanistan. One reason is its economic impact. The road is intended to reduce travel time between Kabul and the Khost by four hours, making it much easier for agricultural produce from the border areas to be transported elsewhere in the country.

Loren Stoddard, the director of USAID’s Agriculture and Alternative Development program in Afghanistan, explains that the primitive condition of roads on the Afghan side of the border has kept economic activity in Khost tied more to Pakistan’s tribal regions than Kabul.

"The Khost area has long been isolated from the rest of Afghanistan," Stoddard says. "Khost has a fairly vibrant economy because of its closeness and interaction with the Pakistan economy, but it has always been somewhat of a regional economy that has been tied more to Pakistan than to the rest of Afghanistan. What we expect with this road is that Khost’s economy will then begin to be somewhat more oriented toward the rest of Afghanistan, which is new."

Kabul also considers the road development as vital to the goal of improving security along Afghanistan’s southeastern border with Pakistan. Khost lies at a strategic position across from Pakistan’s tribal region of North Waziristan, an area that serves as a base for Al-Qaeda-linked militants as well as pro-Taliban fighters, who are negotiating a draft peace deal with Pakistan’s new government. Despite the peace talks, militants continue to use Pakistan’s tribal regions as a staging area for crossborder attacks.

Security officials say road improvements to Khost would make it easier for Afghan and international security forces to rapidly send ground troops and equipment into blocking positions along the border just a few kilometers from the Pakistani tribal town of Miram Shah.

Indeed, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have told RFE/RL that completion of Afghanistan’s ring road -- as well as secondary roads to connect that main highway to Afghanistan’s provincial administrative centers -- is central to their strategy of deploying "rapid-reaction forces" overland for counterinsurgency operations.

That is why the regional and national highway system meant to link Afghanistan’s major cities and economic centers has been a focus of the U.S. military and reconstruction aid groups since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Work began in 2002 to rebuild and improve the ring road’s southernmost section, much of which had been destroyed by the Taliban in late 2001 as the regime fled Kabul.

Reconnecting Kabul with the western Afghan city of Herat required some 700 kilometers of USAID-funded construction work through the cities of Ghazni and Kandahar, and through volatile provinces like Helmand and Zabul where the Taliban remains active.

In October 2007, the Asia Development Bank approved a loan of more than $170 million to make the ring road a complete circle within the country by building a northwestern spur between Herat and the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif. Work on that final segment of the ring road continues and is expected to be completed by December 2009.

USAID says the latest road improvements certainly will make it easier for surplus food production to be sent from Khost to parts of Afghanistan where there are food shortages. It also is expected to increase international trade through access to Pakistan’s nearby rail head, providing a shorter, alternative route for freight to Kabul and relieving the heavily congested freight-traffic route from Jalalabad through the Khyber Pass and on to the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Stoddard agrees that the new road will help Afghanistan benefit from legitimate trade by increasing its exports to international agriculture markets.

"Afghanistan is famous for some big export products like pomegranates," Stoddard says. "Some of the best pomegranates in the world actually come from Afghanistan. And even in this area, in the area of Paktika, Paktia, and the Khost area, we see a solid [base of] pomegranate [production]. Also dried apricots, almonds, and walnuts. So there [are] a number of tree fruits -- that’s probably the way you would identify them -- that come out of these three provinces. And by having this piece of road between Khost and Gardez and being able to get into the ring road, we expect that those products would be able to be consolidated with other similar products from around the country so we could get higher volume exports."

But as with any development project in Afghanistan’s isolated provincial regions, meeting the time schedule for the Paktia-Khost road also depends upon maintained security along the proposed route. Work on the ring road’s southern segments often was delayed by kidnappings and killings of foreign engineers in provinces like Zabul and Ghazni.

Solving Afghanistan's poppy problem

The drug war yields the wrong kinds of casualties

DOUG SAUNDERS - Globe and Mail May 3, 2008

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — The pilot of the British army helicopter was taking me on an exceedingly fast, wildly pitching, zigzag trajectory across the sun-baked fields of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Even at 20 metres above the ground, the pungent aroma was impossible to ignore, a cloying tang resembling a huge pot of badly wilted geraniums.

The smell was being generated by the hundreds and hundreds of people in the patchwork fields below me, a dozen or so in each tiny half-hectare field. They were leaning over the pink, white, yellow and red flowers of the endless poppy plants, painstakingly slashing their bulbs with knives, waiting an hour as the thick syrup dripped out, scraping the dried syrup off, and repeating the task, day after day.

I had found myself in the midst of the largest opium harvest in the history of Afghanistan, possibly the largest in the history of the world. Some of it would be exported directly through Iran and Pakistan to the globe's drug dealers, some of it processed into heroin in laboratories located right beside these fields. American officials told me that between 20 and 40 per cent of the Taliban's financing comes from these opiate exports.

Last year, Afghanistan produced more than 92 per cent of the world's opium and heroin, a record crop. This year, experts say it will produce 40 per cent more than the world demand — which means that huge quantities will be stockpiled somewhere. As we passed over the harvest, the helicopter's side gunner pointed out the various drug-processing activities below me. But he didn't fire a shot or do anything to disrupt the harvest.

There are many people who wish he would. Presidential candidate John McCain has made a campaign promise to order aerial-herbicide spraying of the entire poppy crop. General Dan McNeill, the American who heads the North Atlantic Treaty Organization coalition fighting in Afghanistan, told me that he personally wants this to happen, too, but he respects the Afghan government's refusal to allow it. Instead, he pushes U.S.-controlled provinces to practise aggressive eradication, taking out the fields one by one with Western or Afghan soldiers.

Later in the week, I visited Nangarhar, one of the U.S.-controlled provinces that has all but eliminated its poppy crop. It's being held up as a model province, and Canadian commanders are being pressured by their American counterparts to adopt their tough poppy-ending strategy.

I attended a press briefing by Colonel Abdullah Talwar of the Afghan National Police, whom the Americans have placed in charge of stopping the poppy harvest. Midway through, he offered a little anecdote: "Last week, I saw a man sitting next to his poppy crop and crying," he said. "He told me that he'd been paid in advance for his poppy, and how can he possibly pay it back now that it's been eradicated? He told me, 'I have no choice, but I have a 14-year-old daughter who I have to give to a smuggler as payment.' "

Mr. Talwar then continued talking of quotas and goals. Finally, someone stopped him and asked what had happened to the poor farmer and his daughter. He shrugged: No idea. Like countless other failed farmers, the guy presumably had given up his daughter for chattel slavery or prostitution.

"I did my job, I fulfilled my duties and responsibilities," the big, bearded cop explained. Those duties involved only eliminating the poppy crop. "There's no place for growing poppy in our province," he said. "It is my job to stop it."

But killing a poor farmer's crop can have nasty consequences. In Nangarhar, insurgent attacks have increased sharply despite a doubling in the number of U.S. soldiers. Some people blame the drug strategy, noting that it seems to be driving desperate people into the hands of the enemy.

The problem with simply killing the poppy crop is that the farmers themselves want nothing more than to be growing something else. But it's virtually impossible.

"Farmers made more money growing improved wheat and onions last year than they did growing opium," said a senior official with intimate knowledge of the poppy economy. Like crack dealers who are forced to live with their mothers, poppy farmers soon discover that this supposedly lucrative crop doesn't leave them with much money.

First, they must buy poppy seeds, usually from a trafficker. Then they have to promise 10 per cent to the village landlord (this is, at best, a feudal system), and 5 per cent to the arbab, a local tribal official who provides irrigation, and then a 10-per-cent tax known as an usha, paid to whoever holds power in the region — a government-appointed warlord, or, more frequently these days, the Taliban. Then they must pay for the lancing of the flowers and gathering of the opium, typically at a princely $20 a day. Not much is left.

Most of these costs apply only to poppy crops. So why don't farmers grow wheat and onions? First, because their fields are unsustainably tiny, and subsistence-level farming doesn't leave any money for moving into new crops. You're stuck with what you're given, and if the Taliban are doing the giving, then it's opium.

But more important is the lack of any market for non-opium crops. Farmers need to get their crops to market. If the roads are impassable and dangerous — or if warlords or Taliban are charging you $50 to drive down them without being killed — then suddenly the cost of transporting your grain to market is unaffordably high. Poppy may not pay, but it does have a buyer.

Neither the American spray-it-now approach nor the idealist switch-to-wheat-and-watermelons approach will work now — nor will the Senlis Council's idea of switching to a pharmaceutical opium crop. The farmers first need to be connected to new buyers, without heavy guys with guns in between.

That's why these British soldiers are ignoring the poppy harvest beneath them this month. It makes sense to wipe out some fields — those belonging to warlords and corrupt government officials.

But if a spiral of violence and misery is to be avoided, it's better to trust the economics: Get the warlords out of power and open the roads, and poppy fields will disappear on their own.

Opium isn't a root problem; it's a tragic side effect.

Kabul conference warns about environmental problems in Afghanistan

Text of report by privately-owned Afghan Ariana TV on 3 May

[Presenter] Addressing a conference on protection of the environment in Kabul, officials of the environment protection department have warned against an outbreak of various diseases, including bone cancer, in Afghanistan unless strict measures are taken to protect the environment. Meanwhile, the head of the environment protection department said some practical measures had been taken to address the environmental crisis in the country. Please listen to a report on this.

[Reporter] Parliament’s Speaker, some MPs, provincial governors, the heads of provincial councils and some religious scholars, attended the environmental conference, which opened in Kabul today. Addressing the conference, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Yunos Qanuni said Afghanistan had struggled with environment related problems over the past few decades. In another part of the conference, an advisor to the president, Eshaq Naderi, said that trees and forests were being brutally demolished in the country and the failure to prevent this would affect people and the environment that may not be remedied in short term.

[Eshaq Naderi in Dari] More than 80 per cent of our people live in villages. They have not access to sufficient water, grass and agricultural lands. They cut trees and use it for firewood and the consecutive years of drought have badly affected green areas all over the country.

[Parliament Speaker in Dari] Afghanistan has been a victim of pollution at both national and international level. Factors such as poverty, the low level of education, long years of war, a dramatic increase in the population and the lack of a culture to protect the environment have contributed to this catastrophe. Today, we do not have a sound and safe environment in Afghanistan and this is a great threat to our health and life in the future.

[Head of the Environment Protection Department] Kabul is an example of poor environment. It does not have a sound environment. Pollution, water and the entire environment as a whole cause deep concern.

[Reporter] The head of the Environment Protection Department, Mustafa Zaher, has said overpopulation, the lack of a good culture to protect environment and the use of substandard fuel in vehicles have greatly contributed to the lack of a safe and sound environment in Afghanistan. He said that a resolution would be issued on specific measures to protect the environment at the end of the conference.

Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi said improvement in environmental affairs would help a 90 per cent decrease in rates of various diseases.

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