In this bulletin:

• More provinces poppy-free, but opium production still high
• Senior Afghan generals suspended for Karzai attack
• Taliban deliver silent death threats after midnight
• Taleban dead returned to Pakistan
• Cease-fire has virtually ended, says Taliban
• Kandahar jail inmates end protest
• Australian military clears soldiers over Afghan civilian deaths
• Afghanistan baby died in Aussie gunfight
• F.M. Spanta’s speech on the Principles of the Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• MFA press release on the nomination of Dr. Sima Samar as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• AFGHANISTAN: Ghulam jan, "I sold my daughter to feed the rest of my family"
• 2 Humvees missing from US base in Afghanistan
• At least 427 US military deaths in Afghanistan
• British troops in Afghanistan should fight for 15 months, not six, says Nato chief
• Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to set up joint border centers
• Canadian military, CIDA consider restoration of Afghanistan buildings
• Afghan envoy lauds Iran's role in establishment of regional peace
• Ex-Gitmo Suicide Bomber Fuels Pentagon Propaganda
• UN closes Afghan refugee centre
• Afghanistan hero criticises poor care for troops
• AFGHANISTAN: Can condoms fulfil multiple expectations?

More provinces poppy-free, but opium production still high

KABUL, 12 May 2008 (IRIN) - The government's ongoing battle to eliminate opium production has had partial success in 2008 in that there are now about 20 provinces in the north, east and northeast of the country which are poppy-free, up from 16 in 2007, according to the Afghan Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN).

"Poppy cultivation has reached nearly zero percent in more than 20 provinces," General Khodaidad, the minister of counter-narcotics, told reporters in Kabul on 11 May. He added that many farmers in those areas had switched to growing legal crops, mostly wheat.

However, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in a February report [http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghan-winter-survey-Feb08-short.pdf] that Afghanistan's opium production levels in 2008 could remain similar to last year's record harvest of 8,200 metric tones because of increased output in the main opium producing provinces in the south and southwest of the country.

These provinces accounted for 78 percent of total opium cultivation in Afghanistan last year and have continued to grow opium at an alarming rate, UNODC said in its report.

"This is because in those areas there is the problem of insecurity, lack of coordination among government bodies and presence of terrorists and anti-government elements who profit from narcotics," Khodaidad said. "Anti-government elements exchange heroin and opium with arms," he added.

Armed farmers or gunmen have killed at least 60 counter-narcotics officers – mostly involved in the eradication of poppy fields – in the past two months alone, the counter-narcotics ministry said.

The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, backed by donors, is trying to eliminate opium production in Afghanistan through forced eradication, interdiction and an under-resourced alternative livelihood policy.

Paradoxically, one encouraging sign in the war against opium has been country-wide increased food prices. The price of bread, a staple of the Afghan diet, has doubled in some regions, reportedly leading some farmers in Baghlan, Badakhshan, Balkh and several other northern provinces to turn from growing poppies to wheat.

But government officials said it was too early to say whether or not there were "direct links" between high wheat prices and reduced poppy cultivation in some areas.

In May, Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock told IRIN [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78083] that if farmers in Helmand, Kandahar and other major opium-producing provinces grew wheat instead of poppies, the currently food-insecure nation would become self-sufficient in terms of domestic cereal production.

Afghan farmers cultivated poppies on 193,000 hectares of land in 2007, which produced about 93 percent of the world's heroin last year, according to UNODC.

The illicit drug money earned through poppy cultivation, opium production and the smuggling of narcotics – estimated to total up to US$4 billion – is equal to almost half of the poor nation's overall gross domestic production and employs millions of Afghans, experts say.

Senior Afghan generals suspended for Karzai attack

KABUL (Reuters) 12 May 2008 - Many senior generals from Afghanistan's armed forces have been suspended from duty and are being questioned over last month's botched attack on President Hamid Karzai, an official said on Monday.

Karzai survived the assassination attempt at a military parade near the presidential palace on April 27 when Taliban insurgents used small arms fire and rockets.

But three people, including one parliamentarian, were shot dead before three of the assailants were killed.

The government had arrested a defence ministry officer and an interior ministry doctor for helping the Taliban to carry out the raid on the same day it happened, but said more officials might have been involved in facilitating it.

Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabit, tasked to take over the investigation from a previous commission, on Monday suspended eight officials from the ministries of defence and interior, and the intelligence department, an official said.

The eight included several generals - Kabul's police chief, Salem Ehsas, Abdul Khaliq who is head of defence ministry's intelligence and detection, Abdul Manan Farahi, chief for counter-terrorism of the interior ministry, and Nazar Shah who heads the intelligence department for Kabul.

"Sabit gave the order for the suspensions of the eight people so they can be investigated because they had the responsibility for security at the parade," Hayatullah Hayat, an official in the attorney general's office, told Reuters.

Asked if the eight were suspended as suspects, Hayat said: "Investigations would show."

The attack that sent Karzai, his cabinet and military top brass as well as foreign diplomats diving for cover, was sponsored by al Qaeda, according to Afghanistan's spy chief, Amrullah Saleh.

It was the fourth assassination attempt against Karzai who has been leading Afghanistan since Taliban's removal from power in 2001.

While the Taliban have carried out sporadic suicide bombings in Kabul before, April's attack, together with a guerrilla-style assault on a five-star hotel near the palace in January, indicate a more sophisticated mode of strike, amid fear of infiltration of militants in government's security ranks.

The Taliban have vowed to target Kabul this year in a bid to overthrow Karzai's government and drive out the more than 55,000 foreign troops stationed in the country.

Taliban deliver silent death threats after midnight

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) 12 May 2008 - - Afghans call them 'night letters' -- notes scattered or pushed under doorways by Taliban militants in the dead of night, threatening villagers' lives if they cooperate with foreign forces and the government.

The threats have picked up in recent weeks in areas across southeastern Afghanistan, U.S. officers and Afghans say, as the Taliban intensify their activities along the Pakistan border and in mountainous communities inland towards Kabul.

The notes are often poorly written but the message is clear -- have nothing to do with the foreign troops or serve in the government they back, otherwise, your business will be destroyed, your livestock snatched or your throat cut.

At least six people have had either throats slit or were beheaded by the militants for allegedly acting as spies for the foreign forces only in recent weeks in various parts of southeastern Afghanistan, according to officials and the Taliban.

Scores have lost their lives for failing to take notice of the Taliban's verbal threats, or in the form of the 'night letters', since 2006 when the al Qaeda-backed Taliban made a return.

"It's usually the merchants or those with something to lose," says Lieutenant Augie Gonzalez, a platoon commander based at a camp outside Khost, a city in the southeast of the country, 20 km (13 miles) from the Pakistan border.

"The threats are for real and it gets to them, you sense it," he says, explaining how he'll often visit a village to talk to local leaders and deliver food and other aid, only to return three days later and learn the Taliban have been there.

"The villagers don't want the Taliban there, there's no sympathy and they'll tell you that straight, but they can't take them on their own and we can't be there every day."

The night letters form part of a campaign of intimidation and violence that appears to be steadily escalating, although the commander of U.S. forces in the area, Colonel Pete Johnson, dismisses suggestions of a renewed Taliban offensive.

Four U.S. troops and a U.S. civilian were killed in ambushes or roadside bomb attacks last week alone, while Afghan security forces, particularly the less well organized police, have also repeatedly been targeted, with around a dozen killed.

"Yes, there's more fighting right now than there was last month, but that's just the way the context is in eastern Afghanistan," Johnson told Reuters last week, describing the idea of a Taliban offensive as a "myth."

Lieutenant Gonzalez and his men don't see their day-to-day work as countering a Taliban offensive. Instead it's more about trying to get into villages and win the population over before the militants have a chance to do so and impose their will.

"It's a slow process of pushing forwards, providing security so that others can come in and rebuild," says Gonzalez.

Yet, the Taliban threat is very real -- a roadside bomb that killed two U.S. soldiers last week also left two severely wounded: both had their legs amputated and both may lose an arm.

A soldier in the same platoon, traveling three vehicles behind the one that was hit, has survived six roadside bomb attacks already and he's only been in Afghanistan six weeks.

"It's been pretty intense," said the soldier, Private Mullan, clearly shaken and not wanting to give his full name. "Sometimes we've had a series of events that have gradually built up, other times it's been quieter."

For Afghans, the Taliban threat is very real and there is no doubt in their minds it has risen in the past month as the season has shifted and it's become easier for militants to move across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Saif, a translator working with the Americans who lives in a remote district outside Khost, says night letters are commonplace and threats have been carried out. Schools have been burnt down and district centers, the focal point for local rebuilding and development, attacked and destroyed.

He is quick to emphasize, though, how "little" sympathy there is for the Taliban in his area, where most regard them as "poorly educated thugs with little proper religious grounding."

He recounts how some members of the Taliban were recently captured following a botched attack. One was a simple young man who was asked by his captors to show them how to pray. "He didn't know how," the translator said. "He couldn't even start."

Ousted from power in 2001 for sheltering al Qaeda leaders, the Taliban have vowed to drive out the foreign troops from Afghanistan and topple the central government.

In their campaign, the Taliban also target any one working or helping the government or the foreign forces.

Taleban dead returned to Pakistan

By M Ilyas Khan - BBC News, Karachi Monday, 12 May 2008

Pro-Taleban fighters in Pakistan have brought back the bodies of at least nine comrades killed in Afghanistan, officials and witnesses say.

Officials in South Waziristan tribal district quote militants as saying that a total of 12 tribal fighters were killed in an air attack.

The fighters are loyal to a group of Taleban fighters led by a commander called Mullah Nazir. Officials say a deputy of Mullah Nazir is among the dead.

It is not clear when the fighters were killed. Sources in South Waziristan told the BBC Urdu service that the dead men were from a group of about 30 fighters that crossed over into Afghanistan over three weeks ago.

They say the group attacked a convoy of coalition troops in the Orgun area of Paktika province and were then hit by a coalition aircraft. Some fighters from among the group are reported to have been captured.

The surviving Taleban managed to bring nine of the 12 bodies to Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. Mullah Nazir controls the Ahmadzai Wazir tribal territory in South Waziristan.

He was in the limelight in the spring of 2007 when he launched an armed campaign to evict Central Asian fighters linked to al-Qaeda from his area. According to some reports, the campaign was given artillery support by Pakistani troops based in a garrison in Wana.

Another pro-Taleban commander in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, controls the Mehsud tribal territory of the district. Unlike the Wazir tribe, the Mehsud land does not share border with Afghanistan.

While Baitullah Mehsud is often accused of sending militants to fight the coalition forces in Afghanistan, this is the first reported instance in a year in which fighters loyal to Mullah Nazir are reported to have infiltrated Afghanistan.

Cease-fire has virtually ended, says Taliban

(STAP) 12 May 2008 - The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced that the unilateral cease-fire announced in April 2008 has virtually ended and therefore the militants have resumed attacks on troops in some parts of the country. "We are not formally announcing that the unilateral ceasefire we have proclaimed few months back has been withdrawn but I feel no hesitation to announce that the truce has virtually ended," said Maulana Umer, a TTP spokesman. In a telephonic interview with The Post, Umer said that peace negotiations were now a bygone tale. "The Government wasted our four months in futile exercise of signing peace accord. The efforts from the government remained largely confined to media statements," Umer alleged.

Umer dismissed the media reports that the Taliban had given two months deadline to men in Taliban-controlled areas to sport beard or face dire consequences. "It is unfortunate that we have been misquoted by some media organisations. We have never given any such deadline to men to grow beards or get ready for consequences," Umer clarified. The spokesman also said that the Taliban had no intention to establish a Government within the Government or run a parallel judicial system. However, he made clear that the Taliban would take action against sins, injustices and malpractices if brought into their notice by the citizens.

The Taliban didn't want to fight with army or police but the militants had to retaliate when they were attacked, he said. "It is regrettable that our army is playing mercenary role for American, which is enemy of Islam and Taliban are fully prepared to continue to fight American forces and their aides till they are wipe-out completely from the surface of earth," Umer stated. The spokesman said that the Taliban were fast spreading in other parts of the country in general and in the tribal areas as well as in most parts of the NWFP in particular, saying that all the Taliban were united under their leader, Baitullah Mehsud.

Kandahar jail inmates end protest

BBC 12 May 2008 - Inmates at Kandahar jail in Afghanistan have ended a week-long hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised to address their demands.

Almost 400 prisoners were involved in the protest. They said they had been denied access to fair trials and some also complained of torture.

One of the visiting MPs said all the cases would be reviewed by new judges.

The government says the prisoners have links to the Taleban, but the inmates and say they are political prisoners.

Australian military clears soldiers over Afghan civilian deaths

SYDNEY (AFP)12 May 2008 - The Australian military on Monday cleared its soldiers over the deaths of two women and a baby during a battle in Afghanistan but said all civilian casualties were "highly regrettable".

An internal inquiry had found no wrongdoing on the part of the Australian soldiers involved in the fighting in southern Uruzgan province last November, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie told a news conference.

The operation cost the life of an Australian soldier who died from a single gunshot to the head in what the inquiry determined was straightforward combat.

"Three civilians, two females and an infant child, were killed during the operation," Gillespie said.

"It has since been revealed that one of the deceased females was positively identified firing an AK-47 assault rifle at our forces during the engagement and was therefore re-categorised as an enemy combatant."

Gillespie said the baby was in one of the rooms from which the woman and two men were firing on Australian troops.

"That said, the death of civilians and non-combatants during any conflict is highly regrettable," he said.

The inquiry said the cause of death of the baby, which was under six months old, could not be determined because it had been buried quickly in keeping with Afghan custom.

The infant had no external injuries and could have died from internal injuries resulting from the concussion of exploding grenades, it said.

The inquiry found the deaths occurred after militants engaged Australian special operations troops from within a compound known to be occupied by civilians.

"It is clear that during this engagement the enemy chose to ignore commands to lie down, including commands in their own language," Gillespie said.

"And that the death of civilians during this action is therefore an unfortunate consequence of the enemies' choice to engage ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops from locations occupied by non-combatants."

The inquiry also cleared Australian troops of any mistreatment of Afghan detainees following the battle.

"What the investigations ... indicate is that our procedures and the conduct of our people is as we would hope as a nation it might be," Gillespie said.

Afghanistan baby died in Aussie gunfight

(AAP) 12 May 2008 - A BABY and a teenage girl died during a gunfight in Afghanistan between Diggers and the Taliban last year in which an Australian soldier was also killed.

No cause of death for the baby was established because it was buried quickly in accordance with Afghan custom, a defence inqiry found.

Australian Private Luke Worsley and a teenage girl were also among those who died in the battle last November.

An inquiry into the deaths said the baby could have been killed by grenade concussion.

"Having regard to the lack of apparent external injuries one could speculate that concussion from grenades may have caused internal injuries that led to death," inquiry head Colonel Peter Short wrote.

"While obviously extremely regrettable that a baby should die in combat I find that the actions of those people engaging the Australian forces ... were deliberate with the almost certain knowledge that the baby was in that area."

Col Short said the use of grenades by Australians was justified.

He did not suggest Australian grenades caused the possible concussion-related death of the baby.

The baby appeared to have been in a room of a mud hut from which a male and a female combatant, firing AK-47s, engaged Australian troops.

Acting defence chief Ken Gillespie said today that the baby was moved out of harm's way by Australian troops but died later.

"Our troops take all reasonable steps to ensure that its engagement with Taliban extremists does not put the lives of civilians or non-combatants in jeopardy," Lieutenant General Gillespie said.

"When soldiers started to clear the village they discovered the baby in one of the rooms where there had been combat.

"At that time the baby was crying, the soldiers who cleared the room picked the child up. There was no evidence of a wound or blood or any of that sort of thing in the clothing that the child was wrapped in.

"The soldiers placed the baby out of the road, in the room, so it was out of harm's way, but when they came back to do the final clearance of the building before they left it was clear the baby had died."

The second civilian killed was a teenage girl, who was inside a room from which a machine gun had fired on Australian troops.

Lt-Gen Gillespie praised Pte Worsley, saying his actions during the battle prevented further casualties.

"Private Worsley's actions in identifying a significant threat, informing his team mates and engaging the threat are assessed as playing a major role in preventing further Australian casualties during the incident," Lt-Gen Gillespie said.

F.M. Spanta’s speech on the Principles of the Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Wednesday May 7, 2008 - (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

… some of the core policy lines that Afghanistan will continue to pursue:

1. At the core of Afghanistan’s foreign policy lies the principles of non-intervention and be-lief in world peace.  Peace may be defined as the absence of war and armed conflict.  However, in my view, peace is also about removing the threat of war and its underlying causes.  Peace will not be achieved when weapons fall silent; it is a historical progression towards a society where the precondition for a free and just life can be fulfilled.  We are the proponents of just peace, a transition from negative peace to positive peace.

2. In our foreign policy, we want to encourage proactive diplomacy, including where it con-cerns addressing the social, political and economic causes of conflict before the eruption of violence.  Globally, we support justice as a principle of international relations.  We stand with the global South, we support the search for justice and the fight against pov-erty and underdevelopment.

3. In our foreign policy, we want to encourage multilateralism.  We want the strengthening of a global security order that is underpinned by broad multilateral and international cooperation.  We believe there is no institution that has more legitimacy than the United Nations to play a role in building and strengthening peace.  Expediting the reform of the United Nations and its strengthening will benefit international peace and security.

4. Afghanistan believes in the principle of collective security and ensuring it through de-fending it against actual and potential regional and international threats.

5. In promoting peaceful coexistence, Afghanistan is opposed to the proliferation of weap-ons of mass destruction throughout the world, but especially in our own region.  We want a region that is free of weapons of mass destruction.

6. Afghanistan’s foreign policy is based on the principle of promoting regional cooperation.  The emergence of new players and realities at the global level, demand that we use ap-propriate instruments to integrate Afghanistan in the globalisation process.  Our geopo-litical situation, as an unavoidable passage between the Central Asia, South Asia and South East Asia, and our vicinity to the Middle East, is one of our important assets.  Asia is going to be the centre of global rivalries in the twenty-first century.  The existence of vast natural resources, such as oil, gas and clean water, the accumulation of capital and the development of technology, all these will create unprecedented opportunities as well as competitions.  I am confident that Afghanistan’s membership in such regional organisations as SAARC and ECO is the beginning of Afghanistan’s role in the process of regional integration.  A globalised world is indeed a world of united regions.  Removing boundaries and obstacles to interaction between peoples and countries is the stepping stone in elevating our region from the object of globalisation to a subject of this process.

7. Afghanistan pursues a policy that does not favour escalation in all bilateral and multilateral relations.  We will strive, with sensitivity, to keep Afghanistan out of any tensions or confrontations between regional and international powers.

8. Afghanistan’s foreign policy is based on the principle of strengthening relations with Is-lamic countries in the framework of friendly relations in bilateral and multilateral set-tings.  Our active role in the Organisation of Islamic Conference and other Islamic bodies is a recognition of a cultural reality in our policy, a reality that will remain unchanged in the future.  Nurturing our connection with the Islamic civilisation is one of the enduring principles of our policy and will not be affected by the nature of political systems.  In the same way that Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey’s secular regime, despite the wide variations in their political cultures and systems, are all inseparable parts of the Islamic civilisation, so will Afghanistan, despite our cultural and political differences, remain an inseparable part of this civilisation.  This enduring connection will also form the basis of our responsibility to project common values to the outside world and work towards strengthening the coexistence of different civilisations in a multicivilisational world.  In finding common grounds, while appreciating our differences, we will also fight Islamophobia around the world.

9. Afghanistan’s policy towards relations with the United States and democracies of the West is not confined to the parameters of the war against terrorism.  We see our relations with the United States and the West from a strategic perspective, from the perspective of common political, legal and social values.  As a young democracy, Afghanistan is determined to work step by step towards the full realisation of the ideals of human rights and democracy.  In this context, our strategic partnership with the United States is not just based on common political and security values but also our longterm interests.  This relationship is among our core foreign policy pillars.

10. Afghanistan’s policy towards our neighbours is rooted in the principles of peaceful coexistence, non-interference and respect for national sovereignty.  In addition to our interest in regional cooperation, this policy is crucial in view of its direct bearing on the political, security and economic dimensions of our relationship with the neighbouring countries.  With the Islamic Republic of Iran we have cultural and historical commonalities and will pursue a policy of friendship and brotherhood with this country.  We see this relationship from the perspective of unavoidable interests of our present and future generations.  With Pakistan too we have deep cultural and societal ties.  Security and the attainment of prosperity in both countries will depend on security in the region as a whole.  We are hopeful that the recent positive developments in the relationship between the two friendly and brotherly countries will lead to the strengthening of the fight against terrorism.  As for as Afghanistan is concerned, we feel compelled by our national interests to maintain this environment.  Peace is a critical need of our region and the world at large, and terrorism is a serious threat to peace.  We believe any conciliatory approach to terrorism, or any vested interest, whether military or intelligence, in terrorism will pose a serious threat to political stability in the region.

11. Afghanistan’s foreign policy is also based on the principle of friendship and cooperation with regional powers.  In this context, we maintain productive economic and political cooperation with the Republic of India, an extensive economic and political cooperation with the Peoples Republic of China, and Russia, as an important element of our policy.

MFA press release on the nomination of Dr. Sima Samar as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Released on: Apr 10, 2008

The Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan recommends Dr. Sima Samar, the present Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for the post of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Dr. Sima Samar has been serving as the Deputy Head of the Interim Government, the first Minister of Women Affairs, and currently the UN Special Reporter for Human Rights in Darfur, Sudan and the Chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Dr. Samar has been received two honorary degrees from the UN and Canadian universities and also a number of iInternational rewards for her tireless efforts for promoting and protecting human rights and democracy in Afghanistan.

The Government of Afghanistan believes that the nomination of this international distinguished person as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is a very appropriate selection. The Government of Afghanistan calls upon all  friendly nations to support the candidature of Dr. Sima Samar for the post.

AFGHANISTAN: Ghulam jan, "I sold my daughter to feed the rest of my family "

JAWEZJAN, 12 May 2008 (IRIN Radio) - Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has expressed concerns over the increasing number of poor families selling their children. According to the AIHRC surging food prices have led to seven registered cases in the Northern provinces over the last 3 months. Ghulam Jan [not his real name] resident of Jawezjan province, is the father of 10 children. He sold his 11-year-old daughter for $2,000 …

2 Humvees missing from US base in Afghanistan

Associated Press, Mon May 12, 7:12 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two armored Humvees were missing from a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, a military spokesman said Monday.

The military was investigating whether the vehicles were stolen, although officials believed they were likely still in the possession of U.S. personnel but simply unaccounted for, said Lt. Col. Paul Fanning.

The two vehicles were reported missing on May 6 from U.S. Camp Phoenix in the capital, Kabul, Fanning said.

"We have a witness from our own teams here that says he saw them last being operated by U.S. personnel," Fanning said. "We are tying to locate where they are precisely."

The Humvees have electronic equipment designed to thwart homemade bombs.

At least 427 US military deaths in Afghanistan

(AP) 11 May 2008 - As of Sunday, May 11, 2008, at least 427 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures May 3 at 10 a.m. EDT.

Of those, the military reports 294 were killed by hostile action.

Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 64 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.

British troops in Afghanistan should fight for 15 months, not six, says Nato chief

(The Mail) 12 May 2008 - The commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has urged British troops to spend more time on the frontline – and away from their loved ones – in a bid to get better results against the Taliban.

General Dan McNeill insisted longer tours of up to 15 months would lead to a swifter victory against the insurgents, that could see a reduction in the number of international troops as early as 2011.

British soliders currently fight spend six months in the country before returning home.

Gen McNeill, an American who is nearing the end of his 17 month command in Kabul, said longer tours were key to winning the counter-insurgency because they let soldiers develop a better understanding of the country.

British colonial officers in the nineteenth century used to spend years at a time in remote Afghan frontier posts, but Gen McNeill admitted longer tours today would put more strain on families, and could increase pressure on an overstretched force.

Gen McNeill, who revealed he has met the Chief of Britain's defence staff to discuss ways of improving results in Helmand, said: "I would simply point out to the chiefs of the militaries that are part of this alliance, that tour length does matter.

"If you can embrace a tour length that keeps your force on the ground for a longer period of time, but at the same time does not jeopordise the health of your volunteer force, you are likely to see better results in counter insurgency operations."

There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to set up joint border centers

Kabul, May 12, IRNA

Afghan Anti-Narcotics Minister Khodaidad said on Sunday that Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are to set up three joint border centers to fight drug trafficking.

Speaking to reporters, he said the decision to set up such joint border centers was made in Tehran.

Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan are determined to stop shipment of narcotic drugs as well as chemical substances used to produce heroin, he said.

Tehran has been chosen as the headquarter of the joint border centers, he said, adding that the forces of the three countries are not allowed to cross into one another's territory.

The United Nations will cooperate in running the joint centers and the three countries are to exchange information and experiences in the campaign against narcotic drugs, he pointed out.

Afghanistan is the fifth poorest country and the main producer of narcotic drugs in the world.

Canadian military, CIDA consider restoration of Afghanistan buildings

(CBC) 11 May 2008 - Canadian soldiers and engineers on Sunday toured a bomb-damaged complex of six barracks once used by the Russians in southern Afghanistan to determine whether it's worth repairing the buildings.

Bombed by the Americans in 2001, the buildings are adjacent to Kandahar Airfield, where the majority of Canadian troops in Afghanistan are stationed.

Officers of the Afghan National Army and their families currently live in the barracks, which were U.S.-built in the 1960s and used by the occupying Russian military in the 1980s, but engineers say part of the complex is not safe.

The brick walls are crumbling, sections of the roofs are missing and some windows are gone. Running water and electricity are only available for a few hours a day.

However, Canadian engineers say there's no need to tear down the complex; about 60 per cent of the former barracks can be salvaged.

"At first glance, there's at least 40 to 50 per cent of the buildings that are pretty well damaged that will need major reconstruction," Warrant Officer Steve Beaudet of the Engineer Support Team told CBC News outside the barracks.

Before heading inside for a closer inspection, Beaudet waited as a few women in burkas left so they wouldn't be at home while men toured their apartments.

Once the engineers decide what work needs to be done and which parts of the buildings can't be salvaged, Beaudet said the plan is to hire locals to do the repairs.

"We would supervise them as they go through. We would put them through the paces of what we expect from them," he said.

It's not clear how much the work will cost. An official with the Canadian International Development Agency toured the buildings, but didn't want to talk to the media.

Afghan envoy lauds Iran's role in establishment of regional peace

Tehran, May 12, IRNA

Afghan Ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Yahya Maroufi, here on Monday lauded Iran's key role in establishment of peace and security in his country.

Talking to IRNA, he appreciated the Islamic Republic of Iran's participation in the Afghanistan's reconstruction operation.

Referring to Tehran-Kabul amicable ties, he called for further expansion of all-out relations between the two neighboring states.

He added that Kabul attaches great importance to expansion of ties with Tehran.

Both Iran and Afghanistan are victims of traffic of narcotic drugs and terrorism, he said underscoring the need for closer cooperation between the two states in order to solve the existing problems.

He further outlined great efforts made by the Afghan government to combat smuggle of illicit drugs.

As to the latest developments in the region, the Afghan envoy urged all regional states to help settle the existing crises.

Ex-Gitmo Suicide Bomber Fuels Pentagon Propaganda

by Andy Worthington antiwar.com / May 12, 2008

Rather horribly, it seems, a former Guantánamo prisoner, Abdullah al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti who was repatriated in November 2005 and who later married and had a child, blew himself up as a suicide bomber in Mosul, Iraq, last month. According to the U.S. military, Ajmi was one of three suicide bombers responsible for killing seven members of the Iraqi security forces on April 26.

An article in the Washington Post explained how Ajmi had recorded a martyrdom tape before his mission, which was translated by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist Web sites. On the audiotape, Ajmi apparently condemned conditions at Guantánamo as "deplorable" and stated, "Whoever can join them and execute a suicide operation, let him do so. By God, it will be a mortal blow. The Americans complain much about it. By God, in Guantánamo, all their talk was about explosives and whether you make explosives. It is as if explosives were hell to them."

This is disturbing news, of course, although it does not follow that Ajmi's release, and his subsequent actions, demonstrate that the administration's post-9/11 anti-terror policies – abrogating from the Geneva Conventions and holding men without charge or trial in an offshore prison and interrogation center – are justified.

If Ajmi was a threat to the United States, he should either have been held as a prisoner of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, or prosecuted in a recognized court of law as a criminal. Instead, his imprisonment at Guantánamo involved "evidence" compiled by unnamed interrogators and other military personnel that was so far from the standards demanded by any acceptable judicial process that, on his return to Kuwait, he was acquitted of the charges against him – primarily, that he fought with the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan – and set free.

At his trial, his lawyer, Ayedh al-Azemi, told the court that transcripts of interrogations conducted in Guantánamo by U.S. officers should not be admissible as evidence, because they "do not bear signatures of the U.S. officers nor the defendants and thus should not be admissible as legal evidence by the court." He added that the transcripts were "not a proper investigation" but "simple reports that included neither questions nor answers."

In Guantánamo, Ajmi, a lance corporal in the Kuwaiti army, had specifically denied fighting with the Taliban, saying that he had taken a leave of absence from the army in order to study in Pakistan with Jamaat-al-Tablighi, a conservative but apolitical proselytizing organization that has millions of members worldwide. He insisted that he had only confessed to fighting with the Taliban because of the circumstances in which he was held and interrogated.

"These statements were all said under pressure and threats," he said. "I couldn't take it. I couldn't bear the threats and the suffering so I started saying things. When every detainee is captured they tell him that he is either Taliban or al-Qaeda and that is it. I couldn't bear the suffering and the threatening and the pressure so I had to say I was from [the] Taliban."

The question remains, therefore, whether Ajmi was lying in Guantánamo – which is, of course, a possibility – or whether the abuse he suffered for four years in U.S. custody radicalized him and led to his final manifestation as a suicide bomber. The clues provide mixed messages. In Guantánamo, the authorities certainly regarded him as a threat, noting that his behavior had been so "aggressive and non-compliant" that he had "resided in the disciplinary blocks throughout his detention," but there appears to be no way of knowing if he was "aggressive and non-compliant" because he was a sworn militant or because he was profoundly angered by his experiences in U.S. custody.

Speaking to the Washington Post, U.S. lawyer Thomas Wilner, who represented Ajmi and several other former Kuwaiti prisoners, recalled Ajmi's anger and despair. He explained that his client was "young and not well educated, and that he appeared deeply affected by his incarceration" at Guantánamo. He said that during five meetings in 2005 Ajmi had told him that he had been "badly abused after his capture in Afghanistan and later at Guantánamo, at one point coming to a meeting with a broken arm [he] said he sustained in a scuffle with guards."

Wilner added that over the course of his visits, Ajmi became "more and more distraught … about the way he was treated and the fact that he couldn't do anything about it."

While he too was unable to know for certain what had provoked Ajmi to become a suicide bomber, he maintained that this "horrible tragedy" could have been avoided if the administration had not turned its back on the due process of the law. "All we sought for him was a fair hearing, a process, and he was released by the U.S. government without that process," he said, adding pertinently, "The lack of a process leads to problems. It leads to innocent people being held unfairly and not-so-innocent people going home without any hearing."

Disturbingly, the news of Ajmi's homicidal suicide has prompted Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, to wheel out some long-discredited statistics relating to the number of prisoners released from Guantánamo who have allegedly "returned to the battlefield." As reported by Reuters, Gates declared, "I was told today that the recidivism rate … those who return to the battlefield, is probably somewhere between 5 and 10 percent – maybe 6, 7 percent, something like that," adding, "We don't have a lot of specific cases. We're talking about one, two, three dozen that we have data on."

The Washington Post, however, hinted at how vague this analysis was by describing how the Defense Intelligence Agency has "estimated that as many as three dozen former Guantánamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of having returned to terrorist activities" (emphasis added). The Post also took note of legitimate concerns by international human rights groups and lawyers for the Guantánamo prisoners, who have "disputed that estimate, saying only a handful of former detainees have left U.S. custody and gone on to fight U.S. forces."

As I have explained before, and will, no doubt, continue to explain until I'm blue in the face, those who have studied the stories in any detail (myself included) not only dispute the Pentagon's figures, but also, crucially, point out that the U.S. administration has refused to acknowledge the shocking truth about its own responsibility for releasing the half-dozen men whom all parties agree were released by mistake.

When Abdullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander released from Guantánamo in March 2004, killed himself with a hand grenade after being cornered by security forces in Pakistan last July, I pointed out that, had the U.S. administration not behaved with arrogant unilateralism, neither Mehsud nor the handful of other released Afghan and Pakistani prisoners who returned to the battlefield would have been freed from Guantánamo in the first place.

Mehsud came to prominence in October 2004 after two Chinese engineers working on a dam project in Waziristan were kidnapped, when he spoke to reporters on a satellite phone and said that his followers were responsible for the abductions. He went on to explain that he had spent two years in Guantánamo after being captured in Kunduz in November 2001 while fighting with the Taliban. At the time of his capture he was carrying a false Afghan ID card, and throughout his detention he maintained that he was an innocent Afghan tribesman. He added that U.S. officials never realized that he was a Pakistani with deep ties to militants in both countries, and also told Gulf News, "I managed to keep my Pakistani identity hidden all these years."

Another Taliban commander, Mullah Shahzada, who was released from Guantánamo in May 2003, gave the Americans a false name and claimed that he was an innocent rug merchant. "He stuck to his story and was fairly calm about the whole thing," a military intelligence official told the New York Times. "He maintained over a period time that he was nothing but an innocent rug merchant who just got snatched up." After his release, Shahzada seized control of Taliban operations in southern Afghanistan, recruiting fighters by "telling harrowing tales of his supposed ill-treatment in the cages of Guantánamo," and masterminded a jailbreak in Kandahar in October 2003, in which he bribed the guards to allow 41 Taliban fighters to escape through a tunnel. His post-Guantánamo notoriety came to an end in May 2004, when he was killed in an ambush by U.S. Special Forces.

Another Afghan Taliban commander, Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, who was released in March 2004, was killed six months later in Uruzgan by Afghan soldiers, who believed that he was leading the Taliban forces in the province.

However, while right-wing commentators seized on the release of Mehsud, Shahzada, and Ghaffar as evidence that no one should ever be released from Guantánamo, a rather different interpretation was offered by Gul Agha Sherzai, the post-Taliban governor of Kandahar, who pointed out that Shahzada would never have been freed if Afghan officials had been allowed to vet the Afghans in Guantánamo. "We know all these Taliban faces," he said, adding that repeated requests for access to the Afghan prisoners had been turned down. Sherzai's opinion was reinforced by security officials in Hamid Karzai's government, who blamed the U.S. for the return of Taliban commanders to the battlefield, explaining that "neither the American military officials, nor the Kabul police, who briefly process the detainees when they are sent home, consult them about the detainees they free."

So there you have it. Abdullah Mehsud, Mullah Shahzada, Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, and at least three other Taliban commanders – Mullah Shakur and two men known only as Sabitullah and Rahmatullah – were released, and returned to the battlefield, because the U.S. authorities refused to allow their allies in Afghanistan to have any involvement in screening the prisoners to ascertain who was actually dangerous.

In conclusion, then, while the story of Abdullah al-Ajmi's post-Guantánamo militancy is horrific in and of itself, it should not give the Pentagon free rein to indulge in dubious propaganda that whitewashes its own culpability for the release of Taliban fighters from Guantánamo, nor should it deflect from the failures of the Guantánamo regime to provide an adequate method of screening, assessing, and prosecuting those who are a genuine threat to the United States. The rules laid down by the Geneva Conventions – and the U.S. courts – remain fit for this purpose.

The alternative, as the right-wing bloggers are currently explaining, is to continue to allow the president to capture anyone he regards as a terrorist anywhere in the world and hold them forever without charge or trial. By this rationale, none of the 501 prisoners released from Guantánamo would ever have been released, not even the 92 or 93 percent of them – that's around 460 men – who, according to the Pentagon's own estimates, are not alleged to have returned to the battlefield.

UN closes Afghan refugee centre

(BBC) 12 May 2008 - The UN has closed its repatriation centre in eastern Afghanistan because of unrest in the city of Jalalabad.

The temporary closure comes as aid agencies say it is becoming more difficult to operate in parts of the country as security worsens.

More than 60,000 Afghan refugees from neighbouring Pakistan have passed through the UN centre this year.

The UN says it decided to close the centre after protests closed the main road from Kabul to the Pakistan border.

In one demonstration, locals claimed that US forces had killed three civilians in a military operation.

The other protest, Jalalabad, was connected to the killing of a local MP's father and the kidnapping of seven members of his family.

The UN High Commission for Refugees is keen to stress that the closure is only a temporary measure.

Deteriorating security is partly because of the Taleban insurgency.

But as the incident in Jalalabad demonstrates, the violence is often rooted in local disputes.

Many Afghans believe that the government in Kabul is weak and has failed to impose law and order in much of the country.

Afghanistan hero criticises poor care for troops

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

(Telegraph) 12 May 2008 - A decorated paratrooper who was wounded as he led a bayonet charge against the Taliban has criticised the hospital treatment he received in Britain.

Despite assurances from ministers and hospital managers that the care for servicemen at Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham, was now excellent, Capt Martin Hewitt said the "truth" about the continued poor care for troops had to be exposed as it was "unacceptable".

The officer, who was decorated twice for bravery in Afghanistan, said soldiers traumatised by battlefield injuries had to share "understaffed and overstretched" wards with elderly civilian patients.

Selly Oak was criticised two years ago after troops complained of dirty, mixed wards and of abusive treatment from staff.

The Ministry of Defence held an investigation and diverted extra resources to the hospital. It said all the problems had been resolved.

But Capt Hewitt's experience suggests otherwise. "Young lads suffered because they had experienced a traumatic incident and then they were waking up in a hospital with an old woman screaming all night for her husband," he said. The officer's experience also discredits a Commons defence committee report this year, which praised the hospital. "That ward situation is simply unacceptable," said Capt Hewitt, 27, of 3rd Bn, The Parachute Regiment. "Severely injured soldiers are coming back and not having the level of care required."

The nurses were "unsung heroes trying to do their best" and management did not have enough resources. "They were obviously undermanned," he said.

Capt Hewitt, who was mentioned in dispatches for bravery in Afghanistan in 2006, was wounded last July during a daylight attack on a Taliban base in Helmand. He had destroyed an enemy bunker with his SA80 rifle and bayonet when another hidden Taliban position opened fire with a PKM machine gun. A 7.62mm round pierced his shoulder, severing an artery and shattering the scapula bone. He instantly thought the arm was lost. "I reached to pick it up thinking the surgeons might be able to sew it back on but it was still attached," he said. Fellow Paras braved heavy fire to drag him to cover.

Capt Hewitt described his efforts to stem the flow of blood from the gaping wound. "I could not get the first field dressing on it so I just took a deep breath and punched the entrance wound to put pressure on it," he said. The wound was so large, "it sucked my fist in".

The officer refused morphine because it would "slow down my thinking pattern" and he had to organise his evacuation and a fighting withdrawal.

His life was again saved by a RAF Chinook pilot who landed under fire inside a compound with only 2ft clearance. Capt Hewitt underwent surgery in Camp Bastion and within 17 hours was back in Britain and had five more operations during a six-week stay at Selly Oak.

He has some movement to his shoulder but the rest of the arm remains lifeless. He received a Joint Commander's Commendation.

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said soldiers recovering from war injuries need "exclusive military" wards. "Anything less is an insult to the Armed Forces." Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, said: "We constantly monitor the care injured soldiers receive and if there is any cause for concern, we address the issue promptly."

Derek Twigg, the veterans' minister, said: "Selly Oak continues to deliver first-class treatment to our personnel, saving lives and helping troops recover."

With all three Para battalions deployed on operations last month, a charity event has been organised to raise funds for casualties and their families. Capt Hewitt has already received £1,600 to adapt his car.

Support Our Paras will be launched at Old Sarum, Wilts, on May 25 during a day of ground and air displays.

AFGHANISTAN: Can condoms fulfil multiple expectations?

KABUL (IRIN) - Millions of condoms will be distributed across Afghanistan in 2008 in a new drive to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, reduce maternal mortality and improve family planning, aid agencies and the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said.

Millions of condoms have been purchased and imported into Afghanistan by international aid organisations and will be offered either free or at an affordable price (around 2 US cents) to Afghan couples through thousands of health facilities, private pharmacies and general stores.

The MoPH said it had received about three million condoms from donor organisations, including the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), all of which will be distributed for free in 2008.

Marie Stopes International (MSI), a UK-based organisation dealing with family planning, said it would offer 2.5 million condoms at subsidised prices in local markets.

“The attitude of many Afghans is changing,” Farhad Javid, the MSI programme director in Kabul, told IRIN. “And condom usage has been increasing,” he said, adding that there was still a need to boost public awareness in order to increase condom demand.

“We are promoting condom usage to achieve a number of public health targets,” said Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman of the MoPH.

The condom has found its way into conservative Afghanistan over the past six years. The number of users has risen sharply in urban areas, say officials. During Taliban rule, and indeed before that, the subject of condoms and sex was widely considered taboo and rarely discussed in public.

“There are several positive points about a condom; it controls sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, it can be used as a contraceptive, and it is safe,” said Fahim.

The exact number of Afghans living with HIV/AIDS is unknown, but MoPH estimates at least 3,000 people might have been infected by the virus. Most are undiagnosed and lack adequate awareness about the risks of HIV/AIDS.

Health specialists said Afghanistan could have an effective HIV/AIDS control policy if it effectively promoted the use of condoms.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least two women die every hour in Afghanistan due to obstetric-and-pregnancy-related complications – 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births – which places the war-torn country second to Sierra Leone in terms of its maternal mortality rate.

Lack of access to health services, malnourishment, early marriages and multiple pregnancies are the main reasons for Afghanistan’s high maternal mortality rate, according to MoPH.

[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.]