In this bulletin:

• 8 militants, 1 Afghan soldier killed
• 2 Canadians injured in suicide bombing in Afghanistan
• Taliban man convicted in U.S. for "narco-terrorism"
• Top Taliban leader vows revenge on America
• Pakistan Defies U.S. on Halting Afghanistan Raids
• Afghan death squads 'acting on foreign orders'
• NATO disbands Afghan auxiliary police
• House rejects bill funding Iraq and Afghanistan wars
• Afghanistan's president wants $50bn but must show what he'd do with it
• No short term formula to current Afghan crisis: Samad
• Germany To Send 45 Troops To Western Afghanistan - Ministry
• Dry weather may hit Afghan grain crops-FAO
• Hunger and food prices push Afghanistan to brink
• Afghan aid that works
• Afghanistan: Watchdog Appeals to Kabul over 'Blasphemous' Reporter
• Remittance Program Developed through Public-Private Partnership
• Afghan hijacker 'working as cleaner at Heathrow airport'
• Afghan women still forced to cover up

8 militants, 1 Afghan soldier killed

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) 16 May 2008 — Clashes in eastern and southern Afghanistan left eight militants dead, and a roadside bomb killed an Afghan soldier, officials said Friday.

The bomb hit a group of Afghan soldiers during a foot patrol Friday morning in southern Kandahar province, said Rehmatullah Khan, the Afghan army commander in Zhari district. One soldier was killed and three were wounded, he said.

In neighboring Zabul province, Taliban militants attacked the compound of the Shinkay district chief Thursday night, and the ensuing hour-long gun battle left five Taliban dead and six wounded, said the district chief, Barat Khan. There were no police casualties, he said.

In eastern Khost province, joint Afghan and foreign forces attacked insurgents as they were planting roadside bombs before dawn Friday in Sabari district, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub.

The brief gun battle left two militants dead, he said. Another wounded insurgent later died at a military hospital.

More than 1,200 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press.

2 Canadians injured in suicide bombing in Afghanistan

Last Updated: Friday, May 16, 2008 CBC News

Two Canadian soldiers were slightly wounded Friday in a suicide bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, while two Afghan soldiers were also injured.

The four soldiers were airlifted back to Kandahar Airfield for treatment after the attack, and the Canadians were well enough to walk into the trauma centre themselves.

Both telephoned their families back home to let them know they were OK. The Afghan soldiers were still being assessed and no updates on their conditions were immediately available.

The four soldiers were on a foot patrol at about 10 a.m. local time in the village of Nalgham, in Zhari district, just west of Kandahar City when the bomber struck. The bomber died in the blast.

No further details about the incident were immediately available.

The attack comes less than two weeks after a Canadian soldier was killed while on foot patrol in the Pashmul region, outside Kandahar City.

Cpl. Michael Starker, a Calgary paramedic, was shot and killed on May 6, while another Canadian was injured, but is expected to recover.

Starker will have a full military funeral later Friday in Calgary, before his body is taken by ambulance to city hall for a private internment.

Taliban man convicted in U.S. for "narco-terrorism"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) 16 May 2008 - A member of an Afghan Taliban cell was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday on charges of narco-terrorism and narcotics distribution, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Khan Mohammed, from Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, is the first person to be convicted under a narco-terrorism provision of the USA Patriot Act that went into effect in March 2006, the statement said.

U.S. officials said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with the help of a cooperating witness caught Mohammed in an investigation.

"As an enemy of the United States, Khan Mohammed intended to ship heroin to the United States and use profits from the trade to assist the Taliban," DEA administrator Michele Leonhart said. "A dangerous double threat, Kahn Mohammed purchased rockets to attack American and coalition soldiers," she added.

He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 10.

Mohammed was first indicted in December 2006 on narcotics distribution charges and was brought to the United States in November 2007. A second indictment in January 2008 charged him with engaging in drug trafficking to fund a terrorist organization.

Top Taliban leader vows revenge on America

By HABIBULLAH KHAN – KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A top Taliban leader vowed Thursday to target the U.S. after an alleged missile strike killed several people in northwest Pakistan, a threat that could undermine the new government's efforts to negotiate peace deals with militants.

Blasts destroyed a compound Wednesday in Damadola village, a militant stronghold in the Bajur tribal region near the Afghanistan border. A similar attack in 2006 reportedly missed al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The governor of the turbulent North West Frontier Province condemned the incident as an "attack on the sovereignty of Pakistan" that would hamper the country's efforts against terrorism. He said the dead included an 8-year-old boy.

Residents said they saw a U.S. aircraft flying in the area before two explosions rocked the village. The U.S., which has not commented on the incident, is believed to operate unmanned drones out of Afghanistan.

Faqir Mohammed, a cleric and deputy leader of Pakistan's Taliban movement, vowed revenge after attending a funeral for seven men who were said to have been killed.

"America martyred our people, and the blood of our brothers will not go to waste," Mohammed said. "God willing, we will avenge it by targeting America."

Later Thursday, several thousand protesters attended rallies called by Islamist political parties in Damadola and Khar, Bajur's main town. Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and slogans against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The alleged missile strike could embarrass Pakistan's new government, which is trying to pursue peace deals with militants. The negotiations have stirred alarm in the U.S., which long backed Musharraf's more forceful tactics. Western officials worry that such deals may simply give militants time to regroup and plan attacks in Afghanistan and the West.

Maulvi Umar, a Taliban spokesman, has said the movement will continue fighting in Afghanistan despite any peace deal it might reach in Pakistan. Both countries have suffered from a series of militant attacks.

Responding to the latest incident, Umar said "we will avenge this but will continue talks with the government."

The explosions were thought to be the first such attack since the new government took power six weeks ago. A spate of strikes in March killed at least 25 people in the border region, fueling speculation that Musharraf, whose allies then led the government, gave tacit approval to U.S. forces targeting foreign militants inside Pakistan.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said Thursday he was "not aware" of any such approval. Pakistan insists it does not allow U.S. forces to operate on its territory.

Pakistan's military spokesman declined to comment Thursday. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad deferred comments to officials in Washington, who could not be immediately reached.

Sadiq declined to discuss the implications of Wednesday's blast because investigators were still trying to determine if it was caused by a missile, a rocket or an "internal explosion."

But Gov. Ovais Ahmed Ghani described the incident as a missile strike that would undermine public backing for counterterrorism efforts.

Pakistan has previously passed off several similar incidents as accidental detonations of explosives stashed in militant hideouts. Who or exactly how many people were killed in the latest alleged strike remained unclear.

An Associated Press reporter visiting Thursday saw dusty shoes and clothes splattered with blood amid debris at the compound, which was guarded by armed militants. The roofs of three rooms had caved in.

On Wednesday, villager Ibrahim Khan said at least 15 people were killed while local Taliban leaders gathered for a feast at the targeted house. The Taliban's Umar said more than 10 died, including women and children.

In 2006, a missile strike targeted al-Zawahri in Damadola — apparently launched from a Predator drone controlled by the CIA in Afghanistan. At least 13 villagers were killed, but the al-Qaida deputy chief escaped unharmed.

Associated Press writers Ishtiaq Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Bashirullah Khan in Miran Shah and Zarar Khan, Munir Ahmad and Stephen Graham in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Pakistan Defies U.S. on Halting Afghanistan Raids

By JANE PERLEZ, NY Times 5.16.08

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani officials are making it increasingly clear that they have no interest in stopping cross-border attacks by militants into Afghanistan, prompting a new level of frustration from Americans who see the infiltration as a crucial strategic priority in the war in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday night, the United States fired its fourth Predator missile strike since January, the most visible symbol of the American push for a freer hand to pursue militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban who use Pakistan’s tribal areas as a base to attack Afghanistan and plot terrorist attacks abroad. In Afghanistan, cross-border attacks have doubled over the same month last year and present an increasingly lethal challenge to American and NATO efforts to wind down the war and deny the Taliban and Al Qaeda a sanctuary.

In an unusual step during a visit to Pakistan in March, Adm. Eric T. Olson, the commander of United States Special Operations Command, held a round-table discussion with a group of civilian Pakistani leaders to sound them out on the possibility of cross-border raids by American forces. He was told in no uncertain terms that from the Pakistani point of view it was a bad idea, said one of the participants.

Instead, Pakistani officials are trying to restore calm to their country, which was rattled by a record number of suicide attacks last year. Within days, they are expected to strike a peace accord with Pakistan’s own militants that makes no mention of stopping the infiltrations. In fact, Pakistani counterinsurgency operations have stopped during the new government’s negotiations with the militants.

“Pakistan will take care of its own problems, you take care of Afghanistan on your side,” said Owari Ghani, the governor of North-West Frontier Province, who is also President Pervez Musharraf’s representative in charge of the neighboring tribal areas.

Mr. Ghani, a key architect of the pending peace accord, believes along with many other Pakistani leaders that the United States is floundering in the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan, he said, should not be saddled with America’s mistakes, especially if a solution involved breaching Pakistan’s sovereignty, a delicate matter in a nation where sentiment against the Bush administration runs high.

“Pakistan is a sovereign state,” he said. “NATO is in Afghanistan; it’s time they did some soldiering.”

The pending accord, Pakistani officials said, is aimed at stopping suicide attacks in Pakistan, which became a focus of the militants’ wrath last year as the Pakistani government pursued a more assertive policy against them at the urging of the United States.

American officials in Washington said the Predator strike on Wednesday killed a handful of Qaeda militants, including one they described as a “significant leader.” The strike indicated that the C.I.A. retained some freedom to operate in the tribal areas. But as the gap between Pakistani and American policies widens, United States officials are pushing harder for still more latitude.

During his visit to North-West Frontier Province, Admiral Olson was taken to the military headquarters of the 14th Division of the Pakistani Army in Dera Ismail Khan, an area just outside the tribal region, where he was struck by the extent of the anti-Taliban sentiment, Pakistani officials said.

Still, in the talks, which were organized by the United States Consulate here in late March, the civilian leaders said they advised the Americans against fighting in Pakistani territory populated by Pashtuns. Pakistan’s government has long been wary of nationalist and separatist strains among the Pashtuns, whose population straddles the Pakistani-Afghan border.

“I said it would be extremely dangerous,” Khalid Aziz, a former chief secretary of North-West Frontier Province, said he told Admiral Olson. “It would increase the number of militants, it would be a war of liberation for the Pashtuns. They would say: ‘We are being slaughtered. Our enemy is the United States.’ ”

Officials from the Special Operations Command or those at the embassy here would not agree to interviews about the meetings.

Last week John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, used perhaps the strongest language yet against Pakistan, saying that the United States found it “unacceptable” that extremists used the tribal areas to plan attacks against Afghanistan, the rest of the world and Pakistan itself.

“We will not be satisfied until the violent extremism emanating from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas is brought under control,” Mr. Negroponte told the National Endowment for Democracy.

Earlier this month, Afrasiab Khattak and Asfandyar Wali Khan, the leaders of the Awami National Party, which leads the government in the North-West Frontier Province, met with Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and Mr. Negroponte in Washington.

In their meetings, Mr. Khattak said, it was hard to deter the Americans from the notion of launching their own operations into Pakistan. The topic came up “again and again,” he said.

The Americans specifically mentioned their concern that Qaeda operatives in the tribal areas were preparing an attack on the United States, he said.

“We told them physical intervention into the tribal areas by the United States would be a blunder,” Mr. Khattak said. “It would create an atmosphere in which the terrorists would rally” popular support.

NATO and the United States say cross-border attacks aimed at Afghan and NATO troops have risen from 20 a month in March 2007 to 53 last month. The United States is particularly concerned about the attacks because they appear to be aimed at Canadian and Dutch troops, whose governments are under pressure to withdraw from the NATO war effort. A new contingent of United States marines has arrived in southern Afghanistan, increasing the concern about attacks.

The pending peace accord with the militants shows where Pakistan and American interests diverge. The accord, between the Pakistani authorities and the strongest Pakistani militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, makes no mention of banning cross-border raids into Afghanistan.

The agreement with Mr. Mehsud, who is accused by the Pakistani government of having masterminded the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, has also alarmed Washington because it fails to call for the rapid expulsion of foreign fighters from Arab countries, Uzbekistan and Chechnya, which make up the backbone of Al Qaeda and its allies in the region.

Mr. Ghani, the governor, said the accord covering the tribal agency of South Waziristan served Pakistan’s interests because it gave space to restore the relative stability of pre-9/11, and to amicably break down the rule of the militants. But where Pakistan wants time, the United States wants action.

Mr. Ghani suggested that the NATO troops use “daisy cutter bombs when they go over to Afghanistan.”

Although Mr. Aziz and Mr. Khattak criticized sending American forces into the tribal areas, both men also blamed the Pakistani Army, which was first sent to the tribal areas at American insistence in 2002.

Most of the 100,000 soldiers are from the Punjab, the largest and most sophisticated province of Pakistan. They feel like foreigners in the impoverished tribal areas, and are treated as such. Their training in conventional warfare has been a liability against the more limber militants. Under such conditions, Mr. Aziz said, the army had been reduced to a mass of “demoralized, quivering flesh.” They had taken a “bad beating,” and were just waiting to leave.

At the same time, he said, the militants had killed more than 200 tribal leaders, the men who provided the glue to keep the society together, over the last several years. A respected tribal leader known for his antimilitant views, Ahmad Khan Kukikhel, was killed Wednesday after gunmen on the road in the Khyber agency stopped his car. His friends said they were convinced the Taliban had attacked him.

Thus, the militants which until recently had been holed up in the two tribal agencies North Waziristan and South Waziristan are now arrayed across the tribal areas, and had spread into some pockets outside. “The agreement basically means appeasement,” Mr. Aziz said. “It’s a serious problem,” he said.

The militant leader, Mr. Mehsud, who heads an alliance of groups known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, knew that the army would leave him alone to build up his strength, Mr. Aziz said.

A key to isolating the militants, Mr. Khattak said, is to allow Pakistan’s major political parties to operate in the tribal areas. Under the complicated archaic rules of governing over the tribal areas, The parties are forbidden in the region, making it difficult to provide a viable alternative to the standoff between the government and the militants, he said. To ease that difficulty, his party, the Awami National Party, favors combining the North-West Frontier Province and the tribal areas into one entity, he said.

In a sign of how favorably the militants look upon the accord, a spokesman for Mr. Mehsud in Damadola, the town where on Wednesday the Predator drone killed 18 people, said Thursday that the deal should go ahead despite the attack. Government officials said that militants gathered in a house were among the dead. It was not clear whether well-known foreign militants were among those killed.

The town, about 100 miles from Peshawar, is the same place where a similar strike in 2006 was aimed at Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy to Osama bin Laden.

Ismail Kahn contributed reporting from Peshawar, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

Afghan death squads 'acting on foreign orders'

By Jerome Starkey in Kabul, Friday, 16 May 2008

Secret Afghan death squads are acting on the orders of foreign spies and killing civilians inside Afghanistan with impunity, a senior UN envoy has claimed. Professor Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on illegal killings, said "foreign intelligence agencies" had used illegal groups of heavily armed Afghans in raids against suspected insurgents.

He said the attacks were beyond the legitimate military chains of command, and they were "completely unacceptable" and "outside the law".

At the end of a 12-day fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, Professor Alston said: "There have been a large number of raids for which no state or military appears to take responsibility. I have spoken with a large number of people in relation to the operation of foreign intelligence units. I don't want to name them but they are at the most senior level of the relevant places. These forces operate with what appears to be impunity."

Professor Alston said he knew of at least three recent raids. In one, two brothers were killed by troops operating out of an American Special Forces base in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. Afghan government officials admitted neither was linked to the Taliban, but no army has claimed responsibility for the raid.

Another group, known as Shaheen, operates out of Nangahar, in eastern Afghanistan, where US forces are in charge, Professor Alston said. "Essentially, they are companies of Afghans but with a handful, at most, of international people directing them. I'm not aware that they fall under any command."

In Helmand, where most of Britain's 7,800 troops are based, Special Forces were accused of slitting a man's throat in a botched night raid last year. Security sources now claim a secret spy unit mounted the operation.

In a preliminary report, Professor Alston added: "It is absolutely unacceptable for heavily armed internationals accompanied by heavily armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them."

He refused to name the spies behind the secret units, or their nationality, but most of the provinces he identified where these raids have been mounted fall under American command. He also refused to rule out the possibility that raids may have been made in Helmand, where British troops are in command.

A Western official close to the investigation said the secret units are still known as Campaign Forces, from the time when American Special Forces and CIA spies recruited Afghan troops to help overthrow the Taliban during the US-led invasion in 2001. "The brightest, smartest guys in these militias were kept on," the official said. "They were trained and rearmed and they are still being used."

A British embassy spokesman in Kabul said UK officials were "examining the independent expert's report closely". But they refused to comment on whether MI6 was involved.

Professor Alston accused the international community, the Afghan government and the insurgents of "gratuitous civilian killing". He attacked the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force for not keeping better records of civilian casualties, criticising it for the complex and at times deliberately "opaque" processes that stop victims' relatives finding who raided their house or bombed their village.

"The level of complacency in response to these killings is staggeringly high," he said. "They [international military forces] have not taken the steps which are necessary, at the political level, to ensure a degree of transparency and accountability."

He said Nato commanders he met kept records only for the duration of their tour, in some cases just four months. Isaf officials rejected the report's claims, insisting they are as accountable as they can be "in a very complex situation".

Afghan police also faced strong criticism for killing civilians, and Professor Alston criticised the impunity afforded the "wealthy and the powerful" by the endemic corruption in Afghanistan's legal system. His full report is due out by autumn.

NATO disbands Afghan auxiliary police

By Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO has quietly disbanded the Afghan auxiliary police force, a ragtag bunch of part-time cops believed by some to have contributed more to the insurgency and tribal tensions than they took away.

"They have simply been replaced and we are working with the Afghan police," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, who has just completed a 10-month tour as commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

Born out of frustration in the aftermath of Operation Medusa, the 2006 Canadian-led offensive, the auxiliary police were meant to provide security in remote villages and districts, much like a neighbourhood watch.

They were supposed to serve as a backup to full-time Afghan National Police officers in major centres such as Kandahar.

NATO didn't have enough troops to hold the ground it had captured from Taliban militants. British Gen. Sir David Richard, the alliance commander in Afghanistan at the time, ordered the auxiliary units created to prevent territory from falling back into insurgent hands.

Some of the 11,000 auxiliary police - who receive $70 US per month in the six southern provinces of Uruzgan, Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Zabul and Ghazni - will be absorbed into the slightly better trained and equipped national police force. The rest will be told to go home.

Laroche said Afghan National Police training in general has been stepped up with the introduction of a program called Focused District Development. But it is widely recognized that the police are about three years behind the Afghan army "as a minimum" when it comes to development.

"Everybody in Afghanistan understands that and I think we have to focus more on the police," Laroche said in a recent interview.

Afghan federal officials in Kandahar said that the auxiliary police units have been disbanded within the city but a few may still exist in rural areas. They will be phased out throughout the six southern provinces by October.

Canadian commanders initially heralded the auxiliary police, modeled on the traditional community defence initiative called arbakai, as way to instill confidence in isolated communities where villagers are suspicious of foreigners and the federal police.

Young men were given just a few weeks' basic weapons training, a uniform and sent to guard static positions such as road checkpoints. The concept was the source of friction among allies.

The Americans, which took charge of police training, saw the British-backed plan as akin to arming local militias who could potentially turn their guns on the Kabul-based government.

Maj-Gen. Robert Cone, the U.S. general in charge of police training, was quoted earlier this spring as saying the auxiliary police detracted from the development of a professional, well-trained, well-led police force. Corruption among some of the part-time cops further sealed their fate.

Canadian troops have often expressed frustration with the auxiliary police, particularly after some units abandoned their checkpoints in the face of Taliban attacks, notably in the volatile Panjwaii district.

Richards said he had no choice but to create the auxiliary units because there weren't enough NATO troops on the ground to consolidate the gains made during the Canadian offensive.

"The troops were exhausted and the Taliban, although they fled - some south but mostly to the west - started to trickle back in and I had very little left to deal with it with, hence we came up with the Afghan National Auxiliary Police because I got so fed up with not having anything," the general told the British House of Commons defence committee recently.

The program had the full support of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, but interior ministry officials say the auxiliary police were meant to be a stopgap for three or four years until more full-time police could be trained.

House rejects bill funding Iraq and Afghanistan wars

CAPITOL HILL (AP) 16 May 2008 - A $163 billion measure covering President Bush's funding request for the Iraq war has suffered a surprising defeat in the House.

Anti-war Democrats voted against the measure and 132 House Republicans didn't weigh in at all. The House GOP is upset at domestic spending provisions linked to the bill and most Republicans simply voted present and stayed on the sidelines.

President Bush had threatened to veto the plan over the add-on spending. Minority Leader John Boehner claims Democrats are playing "political games" on the backs of the troops.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi counters that the vote shows Republicans "are confused and are in disarray."

The Senate is expected to revive the funding measure next week.

One of the add-on measures would provide full college scholarships to enlistees.

Afghanistan's president wants $50bn but must show what he'd do with it

Bronwen Maddox: The Times, May 16, 2008 - This week Afghanistan's President has asked the world for $50 billion. It has not yet given its answer, beyond a sharp, sceptical yelp that the country could actually absorb funds on that scale.

But the subtext to Hamid Karzai's demand should really be: if you want me re-elected as President in next year's elections, then the price is $50 billion. For want of better alternatives, the West's choice is indeed going to be Karzai.

While other governments might accept that he needs some flashy achievements to brandish at home, they have no need to agree to this total and should demand that he gives a much better account of how he plans to spend any cash. Karzai, an embattled figure whose willingness to work with other governments has been patchy in the past year, has two justified complaints. First, donors have not delivered their pledges in full. Since 2001 countries have pledged $25 billion in help but delivered only $15 billion, according to a report by the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an alliance of 94 international aid agencies. Of the aid which did arrive, 40 per cent, or $6 billion, benefited donor countries through corporate profits and consultant salaries.

It is also impossible to argue with Karzai's point that the aid is desperately needed, both to lift one of the world's poorest countries a little farther from deep poverty, and to make any progress in defeating militants and eradicating opium poppies. More than a third of Afghans live below the poverty line; some estimates say 42 per cent. Healthcare has been one of the main targets of aid in the six years since the fall of the Taleban, but Afghanistan still has the world's second-highest maternal mortality rate, equal to Niger's, and better only than Sierra Leone's.

An energetic “hearts and minds” campaign to build the roads and water plants that people in the south particularly want is now at the centre of the British and American drive to bring the region under control. Military officers have been saying for two years that even though they can meet any military objective, real progress depends on politics, and that is going to need more local support. Hence the new focus (in theory) on building things, although measureable progress has been slight.

But Karzai still has to explain what he wants to do with the money. Here, he falls short, although the document that his officials will present to the donors' conference in Paris on June 12 is an incoherent 500 pages long: an exercise both myopic and grandiose that gives nation-building an even worse name than it has already. At least $14 billion is to be spent on improving security. Unfortunately, this is all too plausible. As Iraq has shown, security can absorb almost limitless amounts of cash. Getting real development projects started would take far more security than now, to protect the people working on them, and to protect the construction from attack once it is complete.

But what does Karzai mean by security? International forces have reached their limit. More Afghan ones? Karzai intends to keep expanding the Afghan Army and police, but surely this should be stated as a goal in itself.

And the rest of the budget? The key target is reviving the decrepit agricultural sector, Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to Karzai, said on Tuesday. Again, this is a plan on which the Afghan Government and outside advisers entirely agree. Persuading farmers that they can make a livelihood from farming, in a country that used to be renowned for its fruit, is one of the few good plans for trying to undermine the opium business. This is a rare case of a problem that is made easier by the rise in food prices.

But here, Karzai's demands ring hollow. It is not credible that Afghanistan's farming can absorb these sums so quickly. More likely, pouring cash into areas under the control of opium barons will give them another stream of income.

Karzai deserves support for what is a blunt political threat: he needs help, in the form of visible trophies, to get re-elected, and for all his huge faults as the West's partner, he is the best choice going. That doesn't mean he deserves $50 billion.

No short term formula to current Afghan crisis: Samad

Pajhwok Correspondent - May 14, 2008 - 18:32

NEW YORK (PAN): Observing that there is no magical formula to the current crisis, the Afghan Ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, emphasized Tuesday a lot needs to be done to build upon the gains Afghanistan has achieved in post-Taliban era .

There are no magical formulas or straight forward answers to some of the challenges we face," Samad said in his address to the prestigious Canadian Club of Ottawa, which is more than a century old .

Building upon the gains made so far, Samad said is in the "need of re-calibrated strategies, adequate resources and human capital if we are to make a difference ."

It cannot be a quick and on the cheap proposition, he argued .

Observing that one should learn lessons from the past, Samad said: history of post-conflict reconstruction has shown that such exercises "will need time and may not succeed if we do not seek realistic and sustainable solutions" backed by political determination .

The insurgents, who use terror tactics, not only are a threat to international community, but also every Afghan who seeks a normal and peaceful life, he argued .

Their goal is to re-impose Taliban-style totalitarian rule over Afghans by turning the clock backward, shutting down schools and re-incarcerating women, and recreating a launch-pad for terrorist adventurism," he said .

" Those who want to subvert Afghan people's wish to rebuild their country, or our desire to build a functioning democracy and civil society, or those who are intent on terrorizing the population from their trans-border bases and safe havens, or bent on exporting their brand of violence to other nations, cannot be part of a solution," Samad said .

However, those who are willing to give up on violence and accept the constitutional order, or those with a grievance or economic need that can be addressed, know that the doors for contacts are open. This has been demonstrated by the willingness of more than 5,000 such individuals, who have already chosen peace over violence and destruction, he said .

" The reconciliation programme needs to be expanded, but let it be clear that such efforts are led by Afghan authorities that will seek outside support whenever necessary through a UN-NATO-Afghan government coordinated process," Samad said .

Referring to the impressive growth of the Afghan Army, Samad was confident that by end of this year they would be able to take responsibility for the security of Kabul. However, NATO troops, without exception, should continue to peacefully engage local communities alongside Afghan authorities to provide them with immediate needs and listen to their views to better understand the local conditions, which may defer from one district to the other .

Germany To Send 45 Troops To Western Afghanistan - Ministry

BERLIN (AFP) 16 May 2008--German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has approved a short- term deployment of 45 German soldiers from their base in northern Afghanistan to the west of the country, a ministry spokesman said Friday.

According to German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the troops will be deployed to stop Afghan insurgents using one of the country's main road to travel from the volatile south to carry out attacks in the west and north.

Jung approved the request from the International Security Assistance Force Thursday, the spokesman said. A further 20 German troops will be on standby to work as part of the MedEvac medical evacuation unit.

This isn't the first time German soldiers have taken part in an operation, he said, the last time being in December 2007.

Under the terms of the mandate approved by German lawmakers, the country's 3, 200 troops based in the comparatively safe north of Afghanistan can take part in operations elsewhere in the country as long as they are of a limited nature.

Germany has resisted pressure from North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies to deploy troops on a permanent basis to the south of the country where U.S., U.K. and Canadian soldiers are bearing the brunt of a Taliban insurgency.

Dry weather may hit Afghan grain crops-FAO

MILAN, May 16 (Reuters) - Dry and hot weather in central Afghanistan may hit grain crops and worsen tight food supplies in the impoverished country, the United Nations' food agency FAO said on Friday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said it feared Afghanistan would not have enough water for pasture or the May-August rain-fed grain crop and the later irrigated wheat crop after a shortage of rain during the winter.

"The threat of a poor harvest comes in the midst of an already very tight food security situation," the Rome-based FAO said in a statement.

The aftermath of war, two severe droughts in 2001/02 and 2006 and an ongoing insurgency have increased food supply problems and poverty in Afghanistan.

Half the population live below the poverty line and about 2.55 million people receive food aid, the agency said.

Afghanistan's central areas which normally receive 400-800 mm of rainfall annually have developed a rainfall deficit of 200 mm from October 2007 to March 2008. Rapid and early snow melt has complicated the situation further, the FAO said.

A poor harvest would reduce available food supplies in the country and increase the need for imported wheat and food aid. Afghanistan needs to import more than 0.5 million tonnes of wheat to meet basic food needs, it said.

Hunger and food prices push Afghanistan to brink

By Carlotta Gall - Friday, May 16, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (International Herald Tribune): Thieves raided the city flour market in broad daylight a few weeks ago, shooting and wounding two people before escaping with their loot.

"We are not feeling safe," said Hajji Hayatullah, one of the flour merchants, sitting on the floor of his shop with sacks of flour stacked around him. "We don't have security and we don't trust the government to provide it." The merchants got together and hired eight private security guards.

Yet their fears remain, not only about gunmen, but because they sense a growing hunger and desperation in the general population. While there have been no riots yet in Afghanistan over spiraling food prices, the economic pain and hunger are hitting the poor and unemployed, aid agency officials are warning. Teachers have threatened to strike and there have been some angry demonstrations.

"Prices are a big problem for our people. People do not grow enough and so we rely on imports from Pakistan, and the prices are going up daily," Hajji Hayatullah said. "It is very hard for the people, unemployment is the biggest problem, people are very poor.

"I fear if this continues, people will loot the market," he said.

Afghanistan is in a particularly unforgiving situation, Anthony Banbury, director for Asia with the United Nations World Food Program, said during a recent visit to Kandahar. It is not only one of the poorest countries, but it is grappling with a prolonged conflict, and all the attendant problems of lawlessness, displacement, poorly developed markets and destroyed infrastructure, which leave the population especially vulnerable to price shocks, he said.

"For millions of Afghans, the poorer segments of society, who spend up to 70 percent of their meager income on food, these food price rises put the basic necessities simply out of their reach," Banbury said.

Six million people in Afghanistan, out of a population of about 32 million, are already receiving food aid, and the World Food Program is gearing up to help more.

It has agreed with the government to reopen an assistance plan through bakeries for the urban poor, a program that it ran during the years of the Taliban government but discontinued after the American-led invasion in late 2001. The government is also asking for help in providing food aid to 172,000 teachers countrywide, some of whom are not coming to work because they cannot make ends meet. That alone is an indication that things are getting harder, he said.

"Every school we went to, in every classroom, the teachers were saying we need more salary or food," Banbury said.

"The people are dying of hunger," said a beggar, Sardar Muhammad, 80, squatting in a Kandahar flour shop. His two sons worked as day laborers in the market and they did not earn enough to feed the family, he said.

Flour and bread prices suddenly doubled in the space of two weeks in May, after neighboring Pakistan blocked wheat and flour exports. The traders said they smuggled in the flour via mountain roads. Government distribution of flour in Kandahar city and outlying districts has since eased fears slightly and the price of flour has dropped a bit.

Yet with inflation at 22 percent prices remain too high for many.

Hajji Hayatullah described how one customer came to his shop and asked the shopkeeper to load a sack of flour onto his bicycle. "Then he said: 'Don't ask me to pay. All my life I did not take bribes, I did not take anything from anyone, and now I am forced to take it without paying. My children have not eaten,' " the shopkeeper recalled the man saying.

"He said, 'I will return it if God gives me money,' " he continued.

The episode was unusual because the man was a respectable, educated person and it is deeply shameful in Afghan culture to take something like that, the shopkeeper said. "I realized he had a real problem," he said.

"Things like this will get worse and worse, because what do you do if you have no money and have a wife and children?" he said.

The Afghan government was among the first to see the looming food crisis, and in January appealed for help from the World Food Program, which raised $75 million for six months of supplementary assistance, Banbury said. The government is spending $50 million on general distribution of flour. Planning is under way to increase World Food Program assistance for the next six months.

World Food Program officials said food aid was not a long-term answer to Afghanistan's hunger.

Despite the billions spent in Afghanistan over the last six years, international donors have failed to invest substantially in agriculture, the sector on which the majority of the population survives, Banbury said.

He called for a large-scale, countrywide program to distribute improved seeds and tools to farmers to help increase food production. "Farmers are the most rational people in the world," he said. "If you give them the seeds, they'll do it."

Afghan aid that works

By Mohammad Ehsan Zia

(Christian Science Monitor) 16 May 2008 - In Afghan areas where the international aid groups fear to tread, the National Solidarity Program (NSP) is one of the country's most successful development initiatives. The community-led approach to reconstruction and to rural infrastructure has made achievements in empowering local people, strengthening democracy, and increasing faith in the Afghan government. Yet it risks being under funded.

Whether we believe that security comes before development or vice versa, one cannot survive without the other. In any post conflict environment, trust must be established between state and society. For the first time in Afghanistan's history, the government is linked to the community through a framework for decision-making. Thanks to the NSP, even illiterate farmers in a remote village hold the keys to their own future.

After three decades of conflict, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries. The average rural household has 7.5 people. Access to safe drinking water, sanitation, electricity, and social services are among the lowest in the world. Literacy is under 30 percent. The way out of this poverty, – primary education – is a prospect for only one quarter of rural children.

In this precarious environment, the NSP has been revolutionary. Since its inception in 2003, the NSP has reached over 15.4 million Afghans. These communities have democratically elected community development councils in 352 of Afghanistan's 364 districts. It's helped finance more than 35,000 projects.

Communities are experiencing development for the first time. Projects are dictated from below, avoiding any disconnect between donors and the communities they serve. Some have opted to take advantage of nearby rivers to build small hydropower facilities. Others have built new roads that connect to markets, and district centers. More than 500,000 households have benefited from small-scale irrigation projects.

Since the community development councils give Afghans a sense of local ownership, villagers are volunteering their own labor, doing away with expensive security details. Human Rights Watch has observed that the communities that participated in their construction have defended schools built by the NSP. In addition, NSP projects are on average 30 percent cheaper than those built by foreign nongovernmental organizations.

NSP projects advance the international community's development goals: good governance, strengthened women's rights, and improved security.

The direct election of community development councils strengthens Afghanistan's democratic tradition of jirgas and consensus building. Local accountability is improved since corrupt officials are not able to dip into the small disbursements (the average grant is $30,121) without the councils noticing.

Women – 35 percent of council representatives – are involved in all levels of the NSP, debating the merits of various aid projects alongside men.

All of this has been achieved for a relatively small investment of $452 million, a fraction of the money already spent in Afghanistan and other international development efforts.

Compare that to Boston's $14 billion "Big Dig." And that was just to build a tunnel. Although the World Bank has provided much of the funding for the NSP, a major pledge by the US at the Paris Donors' Conference in June would symbolize US commitment and encourage others to rally. Distinguished institutions, such as the US Institute of Peace, and Oxfam have called for the program's expansion and full funding.

Across Afghanistan, there are millions of hardworking people who have invested time and energy into making their community development succeed. They have thrown their chips in with the Afghan government and the NSP. We cannot abandon them when the job is half done. NSP's second phase is facing a budget shortfall of $160 million.

An investment in Afghanistan's successful reconstruction is a down payment against terrorism. Without adequate resources, we will be forced to downsize development projects just as they are beginning to build trust between rural communities and the government. The goodwill of the Afghan people remains our most important asset in the struggle against global terrorism, an asset that we can maintain with a relatively modest investment in the National Solidarity Program.

• Mohammad Ehsan Zia is the minister of rural rehabilitation and development for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: Watchdog Appeals to Kabul over 'Blasphemous' Reporter

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - May 16, 2008

There's renewed international concern for Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, a young Afghan journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy. The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders is urging the Afghan government to cooperate with the lawyer of Kambakhsh, who remains jailed in Kabul awaiting an appeal hearing.

Nearly two months have passed since Kambakhsh was transferred to the Afghan capital from a jail in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. Yet the young journalism student -- who was sentenced to death at a summary trial in October for allegedly distributing information insulting to Islam -- is still languishing in a Kabul prison with no fixed date for his appeals hearing.

This week, Reporters Without Borders, the international press-freedom watchdog, once again raised its voice, appealing to the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cooperate with Kambakhsh's lawyer.

Kevin Olivier, who works on Asian issues for the organization in Paris, says the lawyer still has not received the file for the case from the Afghan authorities, which is preventing him from preparing the appeal.

"The case has not progressed since it was transferred to the Kabul court of justice," Olivier says. "We urge the authorities to speed up the procedure so that Kambakhsh's appeal can receive a fair hearing, far from the influence of religious fundamentalists."

A journalism student who wrote for the newspaper "Jahan-e Naw" (New World), Kambakhsh was arrested in October on what rights activists say were trumped up charges of distributing information insulting to Islam. Kambakhsh was said to have distributed printouts of an article by an Iranian blogger about Koranic passages that the author said discriminated against women.

On January 22, Kambakhsh was sentenced to death in a trial that relatives say was held behind closed doors. The case highlights the tension between international human-rights law -- which the Afghan Constitution pledges to uphold -- and some interpretations of Islam.

Reporters Without Borders says his lawyer did not dare attend the trial for fear of reprisals. The watchdog is now urging the Afghan government to ensure the appeals hearing, which has still not been scheduled, will be fair and open.

"This was not the case when he was tried and sentenced to death for blasphemy in Mazar-e Sharif," Olivier says. "We call on foreign governments to continue to intercede on Kambakhsh's behalf."

However, just when his appeal will be heard remains unclear. "They have not given us an exact time for hearing the appeal, but we hope it will be next month," Kambakhsh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, who is also a journalist, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan.

In the wake of an international uproar over the case, Afghan President Hamid Karzai reportedly told a delegation of Afghan journalists in February not to worry about Kambakhsh, to trust the legal system, and that he would be freed soon.

Kambakhsh was finally transferred to Kabul on March 27. He is being held in Pul-e Charkhi prison, in the eastern part of the capital.

Remittance Program Developed through Public-Private Partnership

Online business connects Afghan disapora to Afghanistan.

Kabul, Afghanistan  | Saturday, March 15, 2008

A public-private partnership has resulted in the launch of a unique online business that connects Afghan diaspora to Afghanistan via the Internet and facilitates electronic funds transfer with personal and trustworthy deliveries all around the country.  

By logging into the TOFA.AF website, a relative living in the United States can select items ranging from school supplies to livestock as a gift for someone in Afghanistan. The TOFA.AF team then procures the item in Afghanistan and delivers the gift directly to the family member.  As a final step, TOFA.AF takes a video of the delivery and sends it back to the relative living abroad.  

Named TOFA.AF, (tofa in Dari means gift) this project is part of a public-private partnership program in which each partner makes a unique contribution. Digistan, an Afghan IT service provider, developed the portal and launched marketing activities in the diaspora communities in the U.S. and Europe.  Afghanistan Demain, a French NGO that provides shelter and vocational training for homeless youth, established and supports a training facility for youth to learn e-mail, digital photography and customer service skills. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through its small and medium enterprise development efforts, provided initial funding for the website and continues to provide assistance towards the training initiative.

Digistan was created precisely to develop unique ways to directly contribute to the development of Afghanistan through meaningful private sector participation, according to Tamim Samee, Chairman of TOFA.AF and President of Digistan.  “TOFA.AF is innovative in recreating a real connection between Afghans around the globe with their friends and families living in Afghanistan.   It is our privilege to carry their sentiments and to visually connect them via video clips,” he said. 

Bryan Rhodes, Chief of Party for USAID’s Afghan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) program, noted that, ”We are proud to partner with TOFA.AF in this Global Development Alliance. TOFA.AF offers a multitude of ways Afghans the world over can connect with families and friends throughout Afghanistan. From moments of celebration to basic issues of necessity, TOFA.AF will make a significant contribution to the lives of millions of Afghans.”

TOFA will be publicly launched Sat 15 March. A press conference will be held at 11 am at Heetal Hotel Plaza followed by a lunch buffet.

Commerce Minister Amin Farhang will give a keynote speech. Also speaking will be Daoud Sultanzoy, chairman of the Parliament's Economics Commission.

Afghan hijacker 'working as cleaner at Heathrow airport'

LONDON (AFP) — An Afghan man involved in a hijacking eight years ago was arrested after being found working as a cleaner for British Airways near Heathrow Airport, officials and a press report said Friday.

Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 34, was among nine Afghans who threatened to blow up a Boeing 727 during a four-day stand-off with police at London Stansted Airport in 2000.

This week he appeared in court after police pulled his car over, on suspicion of being a bogus taxi driver, only to discover his identity and that he had a security pass as a cleaner for British Airways, said The Sun newspaper.

"He had a British Airways pass on him. It was discovered he was in breach of bail and he was arrested. Then it emerged he was one of the Stansted hijackers," a source told the daily.

"There's got to be something seriously wrong with a country that lets a hijacker work at an airport. It's shocking."

According to the tabloid, Mohammidy lives near Heathrow in west London and has spent months employed by a local company which has a contract to clean a British Airways training centre.

A British Airways spokesman said Mohammidy did not work inside the airport and did not have an airside pass.

"We have been helping the police with their inquiries into a man who is employed by our cleaning contractors. He does not work at the airport and does not hold an airside pass. "He works at one of our properties about a mile away," he said.

London's Metropolitan Police confirmed the man was to appear in court again next Monday.

"A man has been arrested at Heathrow and is going to appear in court. he has been charged with bodily assault and was in breach of bail," a spokesman told AFP.

Mohammidy is accused of beating up his former landlord, according to The Sun tabloid, which quoting him as saying: "I have nothing to say."

The 2000 hijacking made headlines around the world, when the nine Afghans forced the aicraft's pilot to land at Stansted, threatening to blow up its 173 passengers and crew unless granted political asylum.

They eventually surrendered to police and crack special forces troops after a tense 70-hour siege.

The hijackers were convicted at London's Old Bailey central criminal court, but their convictions were controversially quashed in 2003, citing the "duress" of fleeing the Taliban, and they were granted the right to stay in Britain.

Afghan women still forced to cover up

May 16, 2008, Rosie DiManno Columnist

KABUL–Shrouds are meant for burial. But not in Afghanistan, where public life for women is still all about the covering up, the obscuring of femaleness.

Six years after the fall of the Taliban, the cocooning burqa hangs on, even in a liberated capital rushing headlong into modernity, as if leaping millennia in one breathless hurdle.

Tradition, family pressures, shyness and a sense of personal security without violation – all are given as reasons for clutching still to the metres of billowing fabric that cascade from scalp to ankle.

The burqa remains stubbornly ubiquitous, if now worn by a smaller minority of women, at least in the capital. Beyond Kabul, and especially in the ultrafundamentalist Pashtun south, most adult females dare not venture outside without it, wouldn't dream of doing so.

In truth, the burqa doesn't make women one bit less provocative – if that's the fear – because what's forbidden is always tantalizing, in the way of human nature. There's a kind of peek-a-boo coquetry just beneath the concealed surface, a flash of skin below the hemline, painted toenails in strappy sandals, bangles jangling at the naked wrist.

Even the most conservative women, elderly ladies who wear old-fashioned pantaloons under the dress under the burqa, reveal a fancy frill beneath the voluminous swathing.

Emancipation is an incremental thing in Afghanistan, literally measured in centimetres.

Those women who tossed off their burqas after the Taliban were routed now wear skirts that cover nearly as much leg and long-sleeved tops no matter how hot the weather. And they always wrap scarves around their heads and shoulders, often lifting an edge to hide the bottom half of their faces. It's a gesture learned in girlhood.

But at least they can see and breathe more easily. The burqa – so uncomfortable with all that weight of fabric affixed to the tight skullcap – muffles sensory perceptions, causing women to stumble and fall, never being able to see their own feet, the world dimly viewed through an embroidered slit.

There is no religious justification for the burqa. It is entirely a product of paternalism and patriarchy, males asserting their ownership of females – what only they are entitled to see in the privacy of the family home.

But the burqa, more than the chador or the veil, is infantilizing as well, like a newborn's swaddling. By wearing it, women are constricted and controlled, and this hindrance is not just symbolic. It's evoked in every burdened step a female takes.

Mass production of burqas has caused further discomfort since the cheaper version – what's available at bazaars for as little as $5 – is actually manufactured in China and made of polyester rather than more breathable cotton.

Known as the "Herat Burqa," probably because the polyester newcomer first became widely available in that western province, it never loses its pleats or colouring in the wash.

The traditional cotton model – most are blue, but they also come in white, mustard and green – has to be dyed regularly, because it fades, and then needs to be laboriously re-pleated.

More expensive burqas – running about $20 – contain upward of 400 knife pleats. Producing these by hand is a rapidly shrinking cottage industry in Kabul because of the expense and tedious labour involved. Since most of this work is done by women in their homes, it's difficult for an outsider to get a gander.

But the Star obtained permission to watch the burqa-making process in a private household, though forbidden to photograph the females, two teenage sisters who spend hours at their pleating chores after coming home from school.

It is a primitive operation.

Long swaths of material are laid out on what looks like a medieval torture apparatus, held down by bricks and weather-beaten planks, while ancient irons are heated on a propane flame. A sponge is used to wet the garment, or what will become the garment, with a mixture of water, egg whites and starch.

Working methodically, using their toes to help keep things straight, the girls fold and pleat, a few centimetres at a time, rotating hot irons against the fabric as they move along. The small room is stifling.

The girls earn about $2 per garment. Older brother Masjidi, who does agree to be photographed, is helping out with the order today.

He explains that his sisters are not yet required to wear the burqas they create because of their age – both under 16. But their time is rapidly approaching.

"The burqa will never disappear from Afghanistan," Masjidi says. "That is a complete impossibility."

In other homes around the city – because even traditional burqa-making has become an assembly-line process – men and women both do the detailed embroidery stitching, usually using specially fitted sewing machines; fine-point embroidery by hand can take weeks to complete just one garment. That's for royalty and the wives of warlords.

The pieces are assembled at another stage of production, at another specialist's house.

This is where someone like Mohammed Yaqub comes in. The 50-year-old father of eight spends all day hunkered over a hand-cranked Chinese sewing machine. He cuts the burqa's pleated fabric, quickly fashions the skullcap part, then sews the pieces together.

Yaqub turns out about 140 of these a week and gets 20 cents per completed garment.

After the Taliban fell, Yaqub thought the burqa might soon disappear, at least from Kabul. But that didn't happen.

"Women feel more secure in the streets wearing it. And most men still want their women to hide their faces. It shames the family if they don't."

But Yaqub admits he wouldn't be sorry should the burqa some distant day become a relic.

"I am tired of this work," he says. "And I am going blind doing it."

Columnist Rosie DiManno is on assignment in Afghanistan, where she covered the Taliban's fall in 2001.

[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.]