In this bulletin:

• NATO rejects U.N. report on Afghan civilian killings
• NATO beefs up forces along Afghan-Pakistan border
• Kidnapped Indian, Nepalese free in Afghanistan
• 5 civilians, 1 US coalition member killed in blasts in southern Afghanistan
• Afghan army kills 15 militants in gun battle: official
• Iran's president says foreign interference failing Afghanistan
• Afghans skeptical that security's getting better
• Karzai hopes new govt will fight terrorists
• Afghanistan happy over return of democracy to Pakistan: Karzai
• Afghan journalist appeals death sentence
• Approval of ANDS by the President
• Taliban 'losing momentum'
• Hopeful signs from ex-Taliban hotbed
• Bomb blast rocks Afghan capital, causing no casualties   
• Celebrating art in Afghanistan
• Pakistani militants savor a sweet deal
• Remarks by President Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani after Meeting

NATO rejects U.N. report on Afghan civilian killings

Sun 18 May 2008, 13:43 GMT

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO rejected on Sunday a report by a U.N. rapporteur about the number of civilian killings at the hands of the alliance-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston said on Thursday some 200 Afghan civilians had been killed by foreign and Afghan troops and around 300 by Taliban insurgents since the beginning of 2008.

"In summary, we find much of the substance and the overall tone of his statement inaccurate and unsubstantiated," Mark Laity, a spokesman for NATO, told a news conference.

He did concede that civilians were mistakenly killed by foreign forces while hunting the Taliban militants, but put the number much lower than reported by Alston. "We would say it is in low double figures," he said.

Alston said international troops and Taliban insurgents needed to do more to avoid civilian casualties or many more innocents would be killed in the ongoing conflict.

The U.N. rapporteur called for more accountability from the more than 55,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan, who together with Afghan government troops are engaged in daily battles with a resurgent Taliban mainly in the south and east of the country.

Alston said he had found no evidence of intentional killing by foreign troops and particular cases were investigated to considerable lengths. But he said no international force was able or willing to provide numbers of civilians killed, the results of investigations or whether anyone had been punished.

"We ... acknowledge the accountability issue is complex," Laity said, adding NATO-led nations were accountable to the law of armed conflict and to individual contributing nations and members were investigating alleged or mistaken civilian deaths. (Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Charles Dick)

NATO beefs up forces along Afghan-Pakistan border

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO has reinforced troops along the Afghan border anticipating peace deals between Pakistan and the Taliban will allow the insurgents to launch more attacks into Afghanistan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan said.

Pakistan has begun thinning out troops in parts of its border region and freed Taliban prisoners to try to seal a peace with al Qaeda-linked militants active on both sides of the frontier.

"Our analysis of the previous peace deals ... is that when that dialogue is ongoing or when talks have been consummated in peace deals we see a spike in the untoward events that we experience on our side of the border," said General Dan McNeill, commander of NATO's 47,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

NATO says there has already been a sharp increase in militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan, the area closest to the parts of Pakistan where peace talks are underway. Mostly U.S. troops are responsible for helping Afghan forces patrol mountainous region.

"We are going to have a bit of a plus-up in the U.S. sector," McNeill told Reuters. "Because we expect more activity there, we attune some of our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance processes and systems to focus where we anticipate things."

ISAF, some 12,000 troops in a separate U.S.-led coalition force and more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers and police are fighting to contain a Taliban insurgency relaunched two years ago with a guerrilla campaign, backed by suicide and roadside bombs.

More than 6,000 people were killed in the violence last year, some 2,000 of them civilians, NGOs estimate.

The Taliban are made up of several loosely allied groups which make their own operational plans, but accept guidance from a shura, or council, led by the reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"I don't know that Mullah Omar is alive. I don't know if he's dead either," said McNeill. "But I do believe there is a shura and I do believe it is located outside Afghanistan. It might possibly be in one of several Pakistani cities."

Kidnapped Indian, Nepalese free in Afghanistan

Sun May 18, HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - An Indian and a Nepalese national kidnapped a month ago were set free by their captors and walked for hours to reach their base in western Afghanistan on Sunday, one of them told AFP.

The intelligence chief of the western province of Herat said earlier that the pair, kidnapped April 21, had been freed in an overnight operation, but this was rejected by Indian national Muhammad Naeem.

Naeem told AFP the kidnappers had told him and his Nepalese colleague to leave late Saturday without giving any explanation.

He said they had walked eight hours to reach a police camp in Adraskan district, where they had been based before they were abducted. "Last night we started and came here," he said. "There was no operation."

Naeem said he did not know who the kidnappers were or what their motive was. The Indian said he and Nepali Gurong Karna Bahudur, about 55, had not been treated badly but found the conditions of their captivity difficult, including having to sleep on the floor and survive on only Afghan bread and tea.

The Indian logistics officer said he was in good health but had lost some weight.

Herat provincial intelligence chief Habibullah Habib told AFP earlier that his forces had located the place where the two were held and staged a raid overnight.

He said the pair had briefly been taken to the Shindand, a nearby district that has seen much Taliban activity, before being brought back. "The operation was in Adraskan," he said, refusing to give details.

A man arrested two days after the kidnapping had confessed to his involvement, Habib said. In Kabul, a spokesman for the national intelligence department also refused to give details of the release. "I can only confirm that they have been freed from the claws of the kidnappers," said Sayed Ansary.

The men had undergone medical check-ups after arriving back at base and preparations were being made to fly them home, said Sayed Ibrar Hashimi, head of security at the camp.

The men were both working for an Afghan company supplying police training camps, he said.

The pair went missing April 21 while travelling in Adraskan, which borders Iran. Their Afghan driver told authorities that gunmen had taken the foreigners but freed him.

The extremist Taliban militia, blamed for scores of such abductions over the past years, never claimed responsibility. There has been a spike in recent months in the number of kidnappings by criminal gangs who want to extort ransoms and sometimes kill or maim their victims, who are most often Afghans, including children of prominent families.

Hashimi said he did not believe any ransom was paid to free the Indian and Nepalese and their release was due to efforts of the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security.

"Both are physically fit and mentally fit... as a whole they are feeling well," he said. Afghanistan is trying to rebuild from the ruins of war that remained after a US-led invasion in late 2001 ended the Taliban's five-year grip on power.

The international community has sent billions of dollars in aid and expertise and thousands of troops, weapons and equipment.

But a Taliban-led insurgency, which also sees "jihadists" from other countries on the battlefield, has been able to grow as other problems have mounted, including an explosion in crime, and in opium and heroin production.

5 civilians, 1 US coalition member killed in blasts in southern Afghanistan

The Associated Press - Sunday, May 18, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police convoy in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing four civilians and wounding eight other people, an official said.

A U.S.-coalition member and another civilian died in a separate roadside blast, also in the south.

The suicide bomber was targeting the district police chief in Musa Qala in Helmand province, but instead killed four civilians, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal. Eight other people, including five policemen were wounded, he said.

The bomber also died. Several shops were damaged in the blast. The police chief was not harmed, Andiwal said.

The attack came a day after insurgents hit a NATO helicopter carrying the Helmand's Gov. Ghulab Mangal into the volatile town. The helicopter was damaged in the rocket-propelled grenade attack, but no one was injured.

U.S., British and Afghan troops pushed Taliban fighters out of Musa Qala late last year after the militants overran the area in early 2007 and held it for 10 months.

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

Last year militants launched over 140 suicide missions on Afghan and foreign troops, but most victims in such attacks have been civilians.

Also Sunday, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military vehicle in the southern Zabul province, killing one coalition service member and an Afghan civilian.

A statement from the U.S.-led coalition said another service member was seriously injured in the attack. It did not give any further details about the casualties, or say if the civilian killed was a bystander or working with the coalition.

In eastern Nangarhar province, suspected Taliban militants shot and killed two police officers Sunday in Khogyani district, said Mohammad Hashim Ghamsharik, spokesman for the provincial governor.

He said the two men had just been dispatched to Nangarhar on Saturday as reinforcements from Kabul. They walked outside their police post and were attacked by insurgents from a nearby village, Ghamsharik said.

In western Herat province, meanwhile, Afghan security forces launched a search-and-rescue operation Sunday in Adraskan district, freeing an Indian and a Nepalese road construction worker who were kidnapped on April 21, said provincial police Chief Juma Adil.

He said the chief hostage-taker was arrested. There have been several attacks on Indian road construction crews in the country.

Afghan army kills 15 militants in gun battle: official

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — Fifteen Taliban rebels were killed in an operation by the Afghan military in a troubled southwestern province, a military commander said here Sunday.

The Islamic rebels were killed in a gunbattle in the southwestern province of Badghis on Saturday, colonel Ghulam Sakhi told AFP.

"We killed 15 Taliban in face-to-face fighting," the colonel, who led the operation in the province's Ghormach district, said. Several other rebels were injured, he added, without giving a figure.

The rebels were killed during an operation launched in several provinces last week, the colonel said.

The Taliban are trying to take back power in an insurgency that has gained pace in the past two years with a string of suicide attacks, some of which Afghan security officials say show signs of Al-Qaeda influence.

Iran's president says foreign interference failing Afghanistan

TEHERAN, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - During a meeting with the UN envoy to Afghanistan on Monday Iran's president said that foreign interference in Afghanistan would not solve the problems in the country.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Kai Eide that Iran would do its best to maintain security and stability in Afghanistan, adding that he was in favour of setting a deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country and the complete handover of authority to the local government.

The Islamic Republic's president said drug production was one of Afghanistan's most serious problems and Iran was ready to assist the UN in tackling the narcotic trade in the country.

Ahmadinejad also said Western countries were responsible for the hardship in Afghanistan with their policy of double standards:

"As long as they [Western countries] carry out a policy of double standards, the difficulties on Afghan land will not disappear. Certain foreign states, present in Afghanistan, cooperate both with the government and their enemies."

Afghan officials said Monday they were stunned by the latest suicide bombings which left eight people dead and nine injured in two separate attacks.

NATO's representative in Kabul, the capital city, had earlier said terrorists have recently stepped up attacks in Afghanistan. In April, terrorist attacks were 50% higher than the same period last year.

Afghans skeptical that security's getting better

By Jonathon Burch

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, May 19 (Reuters) - The Taliban in Afghanistan are getting weaker, the U.S. ambassador tells local councillors in the eastern city of Ghazni, but he is met by a wall of shaking heads and tutting noises; 'no, no', some reply.

While Afghan government and international forces point to some success in restricting Taliban guerrilla attacks across the south and east, suicide bombs -- 140 last year -- roadside bombs, kidnappings and threats have created an atmosphere of fear.

"We don't want food, we don't want schools, we want security!" said one woman council member. "Ok, let me ask you," replied U.S. ambassador William Wood. "Are the Taliban weaker now?"

"No," the councillors said, shaking their heads. "But are these Taliban or criminals?" Wood asked. "Taliban," they replied.

On the back of military operations, NATO-led forces in Afghanistan aim to "drain the swamp" of the insurgency by promoting development, constructing roads, schools and hospitals and extending the reach of Afghan authorities to remote areas.

But the process is slow and even Western leaders admit reconstruction and development in Afghanistan has been patchy, poorly coordinated and under-funded.

Ghazni is only a two-hour drive down the country's main highway from the capital, Kabul, and while it is not as dangerous or as unstable as provinces such as Kandahar or Helmand to the south, the villages around the historic city have seen a sharp upsurge of Taliban activity in the past two years.

Residents have received so-called "night letters", notes scattered or pushed under doorways by Taliban militants in the dead of the night, threatening to kill anyone cooperating with foreign forces and the Afghan government.

Taliban gunmen kidnapped 23 South Koreans in Ghazni province last July, killing two of them before releasing the others and securing a major boost from a $20-million ransom.

The U.S.-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Ghazni has built roads, schools and clinics in the province, but construction workers have what U.S. Lieutenant Jeff Annon called security "involvements" every week.

Road construction sites have been mortared at night, and the PRT has been shot at on numerous occasions. A road worker was killed last week and a foreign civilian working with the PRT was killed by a roadside bomb last year, Annon said.

"The shift from the battlefield to terrorism means that the Taliban have given up any chance of winning the loyalty of the people of Afghanistan and instead seek to intimidate them," said Wood. But, he said, the people of Afghanistan have "never been intimidated".

But at least one Afghan reporter in Ghazni begged to disagree. "We are scared of the Taliban," he said, asking not to be named. "We are scared of leaving the city. They are living in the villages." (Editing by Roger Crabb)

Karzai hopes new govt will fight terrorists

Dawn - SHARM-EL-SHEIKH, May 18: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said here on Sunday he was confident that the newly elected Pakistan government would put up a joint fight against terrorists and extremists in the region.

Mr Karzai was talking to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani during a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. He said that democracy in Pakistan was an asset not only for Pakistan but also for Afghanistan.

He invited the prime minister to visit Afghanistan and address the parliament. He thanked Pakistan for its help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, particularly in the education sector.

He recalled his meeting with Ms Benazir Bhutto and said economic empowerment of women of Pakistan and Afghanistan would be a real tribute to Ms Bhutto who had always fought for the rights of women.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan had a vital stake in Afghanistan emerging as a strong and stable neighbour to ensure peace and security not only in Afghanistan but also in the entire region.

He said that Pakistan, as a neighbour and a brotherly Islamic country of Afghanistan, was committed to promoting peace in Afghanistan through increased cooperation and coordination including diplomatic, political, economic, defence and security fields.

Mr Gilani said Pakistan would continue to extend all possible assistance to the brotherly people of Afghanistan as the two countries had common faith, history, geography, culture and heritage.

He said the world needed to do more to speed up the ongoing process of socio-economic development in Afghanistan by addressing the root causes of terrorism at economic, political and social fronts.

He said Pakistan would participate in the forthcoming Paris conference on Afghanistan scheduled to be held on June 12 and also called for an early convening of the third regional economic cooperation conference.

He said that Pakistan like Afghanistan was a victim of terrorism and both countries had a common objective of fighting terrorism.

Mr Gilani said that there was an urgent need for the world community to take steps for elimination of drugs and poppy cultivation which funded terrorism.

Afghanistan happy over return of democracy to Pakistan: Karzai

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Egypt), May 18 (APP): President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said that he has full confidence in the government of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as democracy is an asset not only for Pakistan but also for Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan are happy over restoration of democracy in Pakistan, Afghan President Karzai said in a meeting here with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of World Economic Forum.

He expressed his gratitude for the help and assistance extended by Pakistan for the reconstruction of Afghanistan particularly in education sector and for looking after Afghan refugees.

Karzai recalled his meeting with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and said economic empowerment of women in Pakistan and Afghanistan would be a real tribute to the memory of Pakistani leader who fought for the rights of women.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan has a vital stake in Afghanistan emerging as a strong and stable neighbour to ensure peace and security not only within Afghanistan itself but also in the entire region.

“Stability in Afghanistan is the best guarantee of peace not only in our neighbourhood but also across the world,” he said.

Pakistan as a neighbour and a brotherly Islamic country of Afghanistan is committed to promoting peace in Afghanistan through increased cooperation and coordination including diplomatic, political, economic, defence and security fields, the Prime Minister said.

Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan is not an aid giving country but will continue to extend all possible assistance to the brotherly people of Afghanistan as the two countries are bound by links of faith, history, geography, culture and heritage.

The Prime Minister said the world needs to do more to accelerate the ongoing process of socio economic development in Afghanistan by addressing the root causes of terrorism at economic, political and social levels, reports APP’s special correspondent Shahid Saleem Khan.

Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan will proactively participate in the forthcoming Paris conference on Afghanistan scheduled for June 12. He also called for early hosting of the 3rd Regional Economic Cooperation Conference.

He said Pakistan like Afghanistan is a victim of terrorism and both countries have a shared objective of fighting terrorism.

He said Pakistan is serious in its commitment to fight terrorism and will never negotiate with militants. However, he said, the doors are open for dialogue with those who have laid down arms and returned to the mainstream political activity.

He said Pakistan is also taking all possible measures to interdict cross border infiltration in both directions.

The Prime Minister said there is an urgent need for the world community to take steps for the elimination of drugs and poppy cultivation which funds terrorism. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said we are committed to security cooperation under the framework of Tripartite Commission.

He said Pakistan wants orderly repatriation of Afghan refugees in honour and safety. He said international community should increase assistance for the return of these refugees.

Pakistan, he said is totally committed to Afghanistan becoming a prosperous and peaceful polity as we have no doubt in our minds that without stability returning to Afghanistan, peace will continue to elude the region and all avenues of economic cooperation between South Asia, Central Asia and South West Asia will stay blocked.

The Prime Minister said the two countries have a tremendous trade potential but at the moment bilateral trade volume is less than one billion dollars which is far below the potential and this need to be addressed.

President Karzai invited Prime Minister Gilani to visit Afghanistan and address the parliament there.

Prime Minister Gilani was assisted by Advisor on Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Shahnaz Wazir Ali.

President Karzai was assisted by his foreign minister and security advisor.

Afghan journalist appeals death sentence

By ALISA TANG – PUL-E CHARKHI, Afghanistan (AP) — The prison uniform Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh wears is emblazoned with crudely painted black scales of justice, but the young journalist insists on the eve of his appeal that he has yet to see justice done.

A court in January found the 24-year-old Kambakhsh guilty of distributing an article that questioned the Muslim practice of polygamy. It handed him the maximum sentence on the charge of insulting Islam — death.

The case highlights the continued virulence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan as well as the difficulties of its justice system.

In an interview Saturday with The Associated Press in his cell at Pul-e Charkhi prison east of Kabul, Kambakhsh denied all the charges.

"I didn't write this article. I didn't print it. I didn't distribute it. I reject these accusations," Kambakhsh said. "I am a scapegoat in some political game."

Afghan media have flourished since the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Newspapers and TV and radio stations have opened across the country.

But journalists face threats and violence for news stories that criticize government leaders, warlords or religious clerics or challenge their often authoritarian views.

Kambakhsh had been studying journalism at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers.

Late last year Afghan intelligence service agents began investigating his activities. The intelligence service called his brother, who is also a journalist, and told him to bring Kambakhsh to their office.

Kambakhsh waited five hours on the afternoon of Oct. 27 to meet the head of the local intelligence service. He never showed up.

When Kambakhsh asked if he could go home, he says he was told, "As of today, you are under arrest. You cannot leave."

Three months later, he was taken for trial. The only people with him in the courtroom in Mazar-i-Sharif were three judges, a court scribe and the prosecutor. Kambakhsh said he had no defense lawyer, and only three or four minutes to defend himself.

"It was not enough time for this complicated matter. I demanded more time, but they said it's very late," he said, recalling that the hearing started at about 4 p.m. — well after most government offices close for the day.

The judges found him guilty of handing out to fellow journalism students a report he printed off the Internet. The article asked why under Islam men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.

Kambakhsh said the article accused Islam of violating women's rights, but he was hesitant to discuss details. He insisted he had no knowledge of it until government officials accused him.

The verdict sparked an international outcry, with a number of organizations demanding that the case be annulled and Kambakhsh set free.

A U.S. State Department spokesman expressed concern that Kambakhsh was sentenced to death for "basically practicing his profession."

Abdul Malik Kamawi, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, said Kambakhsh's case would go before an appeals court in the capital on Sunday.

Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the New York-based rights group Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed the transfer of the case to Kabul and the defendant's access to legal counsel.

He said his organization was concerned that Kambakhsh may have been targeted because his brother, Yaqub Ibrahimi, had written about human rights violations and local politics for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an organization that trains Afghan journalists.

He hopes Kambakhsh will be acquitted in Sunday's appeal, but added, "We fear for his safety in Afghanistan if he is given his freedom."

Ibrahimi said the family approached more than 10 lawyers who were initially willing to take on the case but later changed their minds. He said the lawyer they found had not yet seen the case file.

A week after Kambakhsh was sentenced, lawmakers in the upper house of Parliament lauded the verdict. Conservative clerics and tribal elders have demanded that the government support the court's decision.

Asked about the case in February, President Hamid Karzai gave a guarded response. "I can assure you that at the end of the day ... justice will be done in the right way," he said.

Kambakhsh was transferred in a 14-hour car ride from a prison in Mazar-i-Sharif to Pul-e Charkhi in March. Prison officials said he was placed in a newly built wing for drug offenders — which is not officially open and has only a handful of prisoners — for fear other inmates might harm him.

He has tried to keep up his spirits in his lonely cell by singing and reciting Persian poetry. He says he is healthy and well-treated and allowed outside his room for one hour of sunshine each day. For part of the day, enough light enters his room for him to read books about Afghan and world history.

Kambakhsh, a native of northern Saripul province and the third of 10 children, says his father occasionally visits and a brother has come about twice a month.

He hopes to write a book about his experience in Afghan prisons — if he gets out alive.

"Before I was imprisoned, my friends used to tell me that the Afghan justice system is unfair," Kambakhsh said. "I didn't believe them, but now that I'm here, I have seen that it is true."

Approval of ANDS by the President

Office of the Senior Economic Advisor to the President - Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS), Secretariat

Gulkhana - Sunday, May 18, 2008: The Afghanistan National Development Strategy was completed and recently approved by President Hamid Karzai.

To comprehensively address security, governance, poverty reduction and development needs of Afghanistan, the government has prepared the five-year Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). ANDS reflects the government’s vision, principles and goals for Afghanistan which builds on its commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2020 and the implementation of the Afghanistan Compact benchmarks.

The current document of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy is the

outcome of the wide consultations across the country with various groups of people from all walks of life as well as government agencies, ministries, civil society organizations and private sector. The wide sub national consultations process which was the only process of its kind in the history of the country provided an opportunity for the people to identify their needs and prioritize their requirements. More than ten thousand people participated in the consultations of which 46 percent were women.

The strategy comprises of three main goals such as Security, Governance and

Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction, eight sectors such as Education, Justice, Energy, Health and Nutrition, Agriculture and Rural Development, Social Protection and Private Sector Development and six cross cutting issues such as Gender, Counter narcotics, Regional Cooperation, Anti corruption, Environment and Capacity Building led by the ANDS Secretariat under direct supervision of the Oversight Committee of the Council of Ministers.

The strategies of various sectors as well as the provincial development plans were integrated into the national strategy. Afghanistan has moved to a new stage of development, there is a comprehensive development framework that also highlights the set of priorities for Afghanistan that helps the country to further develop.

An international conference is due to be convened in Paris in June 2008 where the government will have the opportunity to set out its political and economic plans for the next five years, as envisaged in final Afghanistan National Development Strategy to build the required political and financial support towards its implementation.

Through the conference, the international community will be able to renew its

commitment to the Government of Afghanistan by offering both political and financial support for implementation of the ANDS, a medium term national development plan for tackling poverty and insecurity in Afghanistan.

Taliban 'losing momentum'

Canadian UN official says most militants are looking for a way out of war they cannot win - May 19, 2008 - Rosie DiManno Columnist for Toronto Star

KABUL – In 2001, when the Taliban was abruptly toppled, there was no armistice. No surrender was ever signed. No declaration of defeat conceded. It seemed not to matter that much, then. It matters now.

The Taliban was ostensibly, and in fact, trashed, its command hierarchy skulking off to the frontier regions of northwest Pakistan to lick their wounds. And, with the passage of time, left largely unmolested in their foreign redoubts, to connive, to regroup.

Six years ago, after the capital's liberation, the routed Taliban held not a single acre of Afghanistan soil.

Today, the roundly accepted estimate – not necessarily accurate but asserted as such by no less than the U.S. director of national intelligence – is that Taliban forces control 10 per cent of the country.

The government led by Western-backed President Hamid Karzai, its authority propped up by NATO and American troops, has purported control over 30 per cent of Afghanistan territory. Warlords, who may or may not align themselves with Kabul – depends on which way the wind is blowing – essentially lay claim to all the rest.

These are rule-of-thumb generalizations, often cited by critics who bemoan Afghanistan's regression to patchwork fiefdom and lawlessness, the Taliban insurgency resurrected like a phoenix from the ashes of a vanquished, deranged regime.

"Those percentages of what the Taliban hold drive me crazy,'' Christopher Alexander counters heatedly. "Because they don't hold anything, really. There are some places where they hold out, where they're holed up. And they're able to do so because there isn't an active challenge to their presence. None of that means that they're in control."

Alexander, a boyish 39, has been on the ground in Afghanistan for 4  years, first as Canada's ambassador and latterly as deputy special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations: The No. 2 guy for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Few outsiders know the Byzantine intricacies of this godforsaken nation better.

At a time of international weariness over any practical resolutions for the chaotic dilemma that Afghanistan remains, Alexander is jarringly optimistic. He might be accused of blue-sky dreaminess, but he's too well-informed to be dismissed as naïve or wilfully blind.

For one thing, he knows the Taliban. Quite a few of its commanders have, if furtively, come to this very office, sat in these comfortable chairs, and broached the subject of an honourable truce, if not necessarily for the entire insurgency, then at least for themselves. "That doesn't mean reconciliation is happening. But it does mean the demand for it has grown," Alexander says.

Such tentative overtures in the past two years – both to UNAMA and the Karzai government – is not being done from a position of strength. If the neo-Taliban were that hardy, none of its members would be seeking reintegration.

"Why are they making these approaches? First and foremost because they're afraid for their life and limb. The commanders, in particular, feel that the Afghan forces, and ISAF, are zeroing in on them, as the command-and-control of the insurgency, much more successfully. The more they get promoted in the hierarchy, the more likely they are not going to survive.

"Secondly, a lot of these men, even though they're still fighting, even though they're still pretty angry with the government, can see that their cause is not leading anywhere."

For all that the media focuses on ostensible Taliban achievements, they have not, in fact, taken or maintained control of any territory where forces – national and international – have been deployed to push back. Even in Helmand province, the insurgency's heart, the Taliban are on their back foot with the recent arrival of aggressively on-the-offence U.S. Marines, driving insurgents downwards to the Pakistan border, whence most came.

A keyhole view is often favourable to the Taliban as the shadow-government in this district or that region. They get big splashes with increasing IED attacks and suicide bombings, especially now aimed at Kabul. That ratchets up the terror and discourages foreign investment but has not brought the Taliban any closer to regaining power. That, remember, is their objective – to drive out NATO, usurp or assassinate Karzai, shred the Constitution, dissolve Parliament and reimpose their puritanical dominion. They are not remotely close to doing so.

If the situation often looks to the world as if Afghanistan is sliding back toward the insurgency's clutches – it could happen but is hugely unlikely – that's not a view shared by Taliban realists, who do not believe their own propaganda.

"They know what success looks like," Alexander reminds. This is a crucial point often forgotten in fretfulness over Afghanistan.

"Many of them were around the block in '94, '95, '96, when they marched triumphantly to Herat and then to Kabul, when they cruised to victory, in a sense. This is very different. They are challenged from the moment they cross the border, let alone in the environs of Kabul or downtown Kandahar.

"Publicly, the Taliban set all these objectives: In 2006, Kandahar was going to fall. In 2007, Kabul would fall. None of that happened.

"The smarter ones, who are more realistic, see the writing on the wall. And the ideologues, the ones who want to die fighting, are a pretty small minority. They make the videos but they're not setting foot in Afghanistan because it's too dangerous for them. They're back in Peshawar and Quetta."

What Taliban commanders learned last year – when several key leaders were killed – is that NATO, the Afghan forces, and in particular the National Directorate of Security (the Afghan intelligence agency) has penetrated their communication network, the lifeline of command-and-control, and infiltrated their ranks, just as the Taliban and their sympathizers had successfully co-opted the Ministry of the Interior at a senior level and some vectors of the military.

"Even their high-profile guys can't trust their own entourages, can't use a cellphone or any other kind of communication . . . it's too risky. And they have to communicate."

From where Alexander sits – a perspective admittedly not shared by many outside the country, and assuredly not by most civilians in the volatile south – the insurgency has plateaued. It's particularly reckless and a sign of desperation to turn that insurgency on Kabul.

"I'm not saying that this conflict is ending. Nor am I predicting that the going will be easy in Kandahar and Helmand. But within the borders of Afghanistan, the Taliban are losing momentum because they're being challenged in more places, both politically and militarily.''

Also, crucially, there is just no stomach among the overwhelming majority of Afghans to be plunged back into that dark past. "People are remarkably un-nostalgic about the Taliban days."

Hopeful signs from ex-Taliban hotbed

An amazing event – citizens rallying in support of honest governor – augurs well for Afghan mission - May 18, 2008 - Rosie DiManno – Toronot STar Columnist

MAIDAN SHAHR–A strange thing happened in Afghanistan over the weekend – keeping in mind that ordinary and extraordinary are relative concepts here.

Still, in what may have been an unprecedented occurrence, hundreds of tribal elders and ordinary citizens, took to the streets of Maidan Shahr, capital of Wardak province, a cab ride west of Kabul, in peaceful protest to support a governor who last week submitted his resignation to President Hamid Karzai.

Governors are appointed directly by the president, not elected. Many are seen as corrupt, or as quasi-warlords or as being disastrously weak and incompetent, securing their position through personal and tribal ties with the president. But Abdul Jabbar Naeemi, who has family ties in Canada, made a singularly good impression for honesty and expediting redevelopment projects. Naeemi hasn't revealed his reasons for wishing to step down, and Karzai has yet to accept the resignation.

While silhouetting Naeemi as that rare creature – a trusted political official – the remarkable weekend incident of direct "people action" via political protest also suggests at least some faith in responsive governance; that voices will be heard.

Wardak is an intriguing province, in many ways a microcosm of what's going right and what's going wrong in Afghanistan. A year ago, six of its eight districts were nominally controlled by the encroaching Taliban.

The insurgents' presence discouraged aid agencies and contractors from functioning in those districts, so most of Wardak had little in the way of reconstruction efforts.

Then, Karzai dispatched a personal agent to the province, Jalani Popal, head of the newly created Independent Directorate of Local Governance.

Exasperated by mismanagement at the governor and district level, Karzai took administrative authority away from the Ministry of the Interior – widely suspect for top-to-bottom corruption – and gave it to the Directorate, which reports directly to him.

"Popal went to Wardak over the winter for weeks at a time, forcing the governor to sit with the police chief, to sit with the district managers, and together to solve a lot of the province's problems," explains Christopher Alexander, Canada's former ambassador to Afghanistan and now deputy special representative at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"It turns out what they needed in Wardak wasn't so much to fight the Taliban .... What they needed was better co-ordination, with everyone in the province agreeing on priorities and how to deliver them."

And the police chief was fired. The result, with the populace on side, is that the stranglehold on Wardak has loosened, just two districts now under Taliban control.

This is how the grand scheme for reconstruction and redevelopment was supposed to work. But it has taken years in the figuring out. Too many agencies are at cross-purposes, too much donor money siphoned sideways and too few boots on the ground to provide security.

This is the snapshot of Afghanistan with which a souring international community is most familiar: dysfunctional, hopeless, seized by a broadening insurgency.

Patience has worn thin, goodwill shrivelled, both ways. Yet there have been benchmark successes, if often eclipsed by the insurgency. Alexander reeled off some of them:

• The National Solidarity Program, heavily funded by Canada, provides grants to communities to identify, plan and manage their own development projects. Even in volatile Kandahar, the program is functioning in every district.
• 9,000 schools open in the country, where there were only 1,000 in 2001; an enrolled school population of 6 million compared with 1.5 million six years ago. (Yet upward of 500 schools closed or burned down by insurgents in the south.)
• 85 per cent of the population with access to a medical clinic within two kilometres of where they live.
• 2,000 kilometres of new paved roads connecting at least some of the provincial capitals.
• More than 20,000 heavy weapons placed in cantonments as part of the disarmament and demobilization program; 70,000 members of official militias disarmed; 200 illegal armed groups disbanded.
• About 60 per cent of the country cleared of land mines.
• A vast telecommunications network, with 4.5 million cellphone subscribers.
• A well-trained and highly respected army of 69,000 troops, growing to nearly 77,000 by year's end.
• The return of 4.5 million refugees since 2002.

Says Christopher: "It's hard to be romantic and starry-eyed about the Afghanistan of the last two years because the insurgency has come back with a vengeance .... But it doesn't make the cause that everyone embraced in 2001, 2002, any less compelling. On the contrary, the achievements of those years and the longer-term objectives we all have command us to persevere, even in these difficult times."

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

Bomb blast rocks Afghan capital, causing no casualties    

 KABUL, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A bomb blast rocked the Afghan capital on Saturday night, but causing no casualties, deputy Kabul police chief Alishah Paktiawal said.

    Paktiawal told Xinhua two bombs exploded, giving no more information.     An unnamed local police official while reached by Xinhua said the explosion occurred near a local police department in northwest part of the capital city.

    "There were two bombs planted by unknown persons in front of the gate of the police compound," he said, "One bomb exploded but caused no casualties while the other bomb was successfully defused by the police."

    There has been no immediate responsibility claim but anti-government insurgents usually carry out such bomb attacks.

    Six and half years since the Taliban regime collapse in 2001, Afghanistan has still been in the grip of spiraling violence as the Taliban-led militants continue to deepen insurgency against the Afghan government and Afghan-based international forces.

Celebrating art in Afghanistan

By Martin Patience - BBC News, Kabul Sunday, 18 May 2008

Sara Nabil is not your typical 14-year-old artist in Afghanistan. Her gold-painted, glass sugar bowl with strips of material sprouting from the top symbolises the corrupt nature of marriage, she says.

When you lift the sugar bowl's lid, you see that the ends of the material are burnt and there are pieces of a broken mirror and bangles. "Why should the life of an Afghan woman be like this?" asked Miss Nabil.

"When a woman gets married and moves into her husband's home, her life is ruined, her heart broken and she slowly wastes away." Welcome to just one of the entries for Afghanistan's first contemporary art prize.

Sponsored by the Turquoise Mountain - a foundation dedicated to supporting local Afghan arts and crafts - and a local businessman, the prize aims to support the small contemporary art scene in the country.

More than 70 people from across Afghanistan submitted entries for the $2,000 prize and 10 artists - including Miss Nabil - were shortlisted. "Art is an important communicator and reflects what's going on in society," said Jemima Montagu, one of the organisers of the prize.

"I think it's important that Afghanistan isn't just a place of trauma but that it's a place where a cultural life can begin to develop like another city."

Other successful entries by Afghan artists include a beaded snake in a glass jar; a pink rose whose stem is pierced by pins; and a wooden lampshade in the shape of Afghanistan and painted in the colours of the national flag.

Mohammad Ismael Zadran, 33, was so excited when he heard the radio advertisement for the prize that he hired a taxi and packed it full of 200 pieces of art.

From his small, conservative village in the north-eastern province of Khost - where he is the only artist - he made the eight-hour bumpy journey. "Three of my wood sculptures were destroyed during the journey," said Mr Zadran. "But it was a chance I had to take."

Contemporary art in Afghanistan is far removed from the world of contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

It has roots in the period when the former Soviet Union occupied the country. "Contemporary art is difficult for most Afghans to understand," said Timor Hakimyar, a former president of the Artists Union of Afghanistan. "But it is a good thing to start, to encourage people to learn about the arts."

All art forms suffered heavily during the Afghan civil war and then during the Taleban takeover. The Taleban movement regarded most art as "haram" - forbidden in Islam - particularly work that showed any depiction of the human form.

As part of the prize, the 10 nominees are participating in a two-week workshop that aims to explore the concepts of contemporary art. Local and international artists have been invited to speak to Afghan artists to help them develop new ideas.

Afghanistan has been wracked by 20 years of war and there is currently an insurgency in many parts of the country. Organisers believe that contemporary art offers the Afghans a way of channelling their trauma and discussing topics that are still largely taboo in society.

During one of the workshops, the artists were asked to buy items from the local market and make a piece of contemporary art.

One participant's exhibit had twigs sticking out of a doorway, and the debris of a small two-person figurine, a statue of a dog, a smashed light bulb, a cigarette butt and vegetables strewn on the ground.

He said it symbolised the scene of when his house was hit by a rocket in Kabul in the early 1990s. Organisers say that an exhibition of this new artwork will be held next month followed by an announcement of the first winner of the contemporary art prize. 

Pakistani militants savor a sweet deal
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Pakistani authorities claim that no deal was made regarding the release at the weekend of the country's envoy to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who had been in the captivity of the Pakistani Taliban for three months.

But this is pure fantasy. There certainly was a deal, orchestrated by pro-al-Qaeda Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, and far from indicating any move on the part of the militants to negotiate, they are expected to launch more and more attacks on Pakistan to build up pressure and minimize Islamabad's role in the United States-led "war on terror".

To underscore this, a suicide bomber on Sunday killed 11 people and wounded 22 at a market in Mardan close to a Pakistani military camp in North-West Frontier Province.

On Saturday, Islamabad freed 55 Taliban militants ranging in importance and also paid a sum of 20 million Pakistani rupees (US$287,000) to the militants. In turn, Azizuddin, who had been abducted in Khyber Agency, and dozens of Pakistani security officials were released by the militants.

The freed Taliban included the top commander from eastern Afghanistan, Mufti Yousuf, who had been arrested in Peshawar in Pakistan by a team of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and who was being held in detention at the IB's Karachi's office. Muslim Dost, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was in the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence, was also handed over to militants in Razmak, North Waziristan.

Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad is expected to be released soon. Aziz was apprehended during the military operation against the radical mosque last year.

The militants had demanded the release of Mullah Obaidullah, a top Taliban commander, but he had already been handed over to coalition forces in Afghanistan. This resulted in a deadlock in negotiations, but the impasse was resolved with the sweetener of the 20 million rupees.

The prisoner negotiations took several weeks, with Mehsud playing from a strong hand in an attempt to rub the the nose of Pakistan establishment into the ground. Mehsud used his captives to insist on the release of captives of similar worth. For instance, he freed two army captains in exchange for some middle-ranking cadre in Pakistani detention centers. These included some suspected of involvement in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto last December. Non-commissioned security officers were swapped for ordinary jailed militants, while Azizuddin equated to the group of high-profile Taliban militants.

Mehsud has had Pakistan dancing to his tune over the past few months. At the beginning of the year, militants ravaged Pakistan with numerous suicide attacks and then suddenly proposed a peace agreement. Under immense pressure from its vulnerable domestic political and economic situation, Pakistan accepted the peace deal and then also accepted the militants' demand for the swapping of prisoners.

It appears now that Pakistan has very little to play with and the militants will continue to set the rules of the game. The Mardan attack on Sunday is a good example of how quickly they can raise the stakes.

In this case, though, the attack was more likely a response to the missile attack last Wednesday launched by a US drone aircraft in the village of Damadolah in Bajaur Agency. Fourteen people were killed, including some al-Qaeda and Taliban figures.

All the same, for now the militants appear to have the government just where they want it.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

Remarks by President Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani after Meeting

2008-05-18 09:26:44 - - Hyatt Regency Sharm el Sheikh Resort

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for coming. It's the first time we've had a chance to visit, and I appreciate the very candid discussion we had. I appreciate the fact that you're committed to working to make sure that relations between the United States and Pakistan are strong and vibrant and productive.

And one area where our relations can be productive is we cooperate on economic matters, because the truth of the matter is, in a population that has got hope as a result of being able to find work, is a population that is going to make it harder for extremists and terrorists to find safe haven.

And so I appreciate very much our candid discussion about the economy. I fully understand that you're dealing with serious food prices. I appreciate the compassion you showed for the people of Pakistan. I told the President -- the Prime Minister that one thing we can do, having talked to the President of Afghanistan, is help Afghanistan grow wheat, help Afghanistan become self-sufficient, which will take the pressure off of the people of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister and I talked, of course, about our common desire to protect ourselves and others from those who would do harm. And I want to thank your steadfast support and your strength of character and your understanding of the problems we face. Relations are good between our two countries and they will continue to be good. And I want to thank you for coming and to -- and advancing those relations. Welcome.

PRIME MINISTER GILANI: Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for this opportunity. I want to take your call to confidence that, with the change of the new government in Pakistan, with a new democratic government in this country, there's a change for the system. And I've been unanimously elected as the Prime Minister of Pakistan; that's the first time in the history of Pakistan. And we have discussed in detail on a few issues like economics, like the food problems, like the energy problems.

And the common problem, and that is the biggest threat to the world, is terrorism and extremism. And our government is committed to fight for terrorism and extremism; it is against the humanity, it's against the world, and I have lost my own great leader, Benazir Bhutto, because of terrorism.

Therefore I pledge and I stand by the world to fight against extremism and terrorism. I appreciate the support of Mr. President for our concerns on both social sectors, economic sectors, energy sectors, and we want to work together on all these issues. And I once again thank Mr. President for extending this opportunity.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, sir, Mr. Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.

[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.]