In this bulletin:

• Two Afghans, ISAF soldier killed in Koran protest
• Afghan schools closed by threats
• Afghan troops ready for bulk of fight: U.S. general
• Petraeus Agrees Afghanistan Is Central Front, Not Iraq
• Pakistan peace deal depends on Sharia enforcement: Taliban
• Taliban favour peace talks, Afghan ex-president says
• Pakistani army fights militants
• UK seeks reconciliation in Afghanistan, Pakistan
• Canada listening in on Taliban exchanges
• UN officials call for more aid, better coordinated
• Afghanistan: Protest over Koran shooting turns deadly
• Pakistan allows wheat exports to Afghanistan
• Afghans ready for cricketing bow
• Afghanistan's hidden treasures go on display in US
• Afghanistan: Hope rising from the ashes
• Afghan mine victims proudly work as bicycle couriers

Two Afghans, ISAF soldier killed in Koran protest

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) 22 May 2008 - A protest over the shooting of the Koran by a U.S. soldier in Iraq turned violent in Afghanistan on Thursday, killing a Lithuanian soldier and two Afghan civilians.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Afghan police killed the two civilians and wounded seven others after a rock-throwing crowd tried to storm the airfield in the town of Chaghcharan.

Three civilians were killed in the incident, said police spokesman Abdul Mutalib.

The soldier was killed by gunfire, but it was not clear if the shots came from the crowd or from Taliban insurgents, an ISAF spokesman said. There were no indications that it was the result of so-called friendly fire.

The dead soldier was a Lithuanian from the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Chaghcharan, the Lithuanian Defense Ministry said. One other soldier was wounded, ISAF said.

"Protesters set on fire a fuel station opposite the PRT base before trying to storm it," General Ikramuddin Yawar, chief of police in western Afghanistan told reporters.

Twelve protesters and 11 police were wounded by gunfire. Soldiers from the PRT fired into the crowd after some of the protesters fired at police and the base, he said.

Students from a religious school organized the protest, and the situation was now under control, Yawar said.

U.S. President George W. Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki this week and promised to prosecute the U.S. soldier accused of using a copy of the Koran for target practice, Iraq said.

A U.S. soldier was disciplined and sent home after a bullet-riddled copy of the Muslim holy book was found at a shooting range near Baghdad on May 11. No violent backlash has taken place in Iraq.

Protests over perceived insults to Islam have often turned violent in Afghanistan, where a deeply conservative faith is mingled with resentment at the presence of foreign troops.

More than 50,000 international forces are stationed in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban insurgency aimed at toppling the pro-Western Afghan government.

Afghan schools closed by threats

By Pam O'Toole
BBC News / Thursday, 22 May 2008

Suspected Taleban militants have shut more than 50 schools in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni after threats, a local politician says.

Provincial assembly member Habib Ruhman said teachers and pupils were staying away from most schools in five of Ghazni's 19 districts.

He said more than 10,000 students were affected. Ghazni education authorities put the number of schools shut at 16.

The Taleban control swathes of Ghazni and attack schools and kidnap teachers.

Threats to kill

Education has been one of the success stories in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban.

Almost seven million children enrolled in school at the beginning of this academic year - up from less than a million during the days of the Taleban administration, which banned girls from going to school and women from teaching.

But over the past two years, schools have increasingly been in the front line of a war between the Afghan government and Taleban insurgents and their allies, with violence-ridden provinces in the south and east worst affected.

Militants have attacked or burned many schools - hundreds have been closed and teachers and students have been killed.

One young student called Najibullah said in his area of Ghazni, the problem dates back to almost the beginning of the Afghan year, which started in late March.

"Since nearly the beginning of this year, our schools have been shut," he told the BBC. "And teachers get threats from those opposing the government saying 'don't go to school otherwise you will be beheaded'.

"That's why they can't come to school and the school remains closed And our future is unclear. We ask the government to reinstate our schooling."

There is a tremendous thirst for knowledge in Afghanistan - some students are prepared to travel long distances to be educated.

But threats from the Taleban or other insurgent groups and general insecurity in some areas means that fear is taking its toll.

A few months ago President Karzai said the number of Afghan children missing school because of the Taleban insurgency had reached 300,000.

Afghan troops ready for bulk of fight: U.S. general

BRUSSELS (Reuters)22 May 2008 - The Afghan army could by early next year be leading the vast majority of military operations against enemy insurgents in the country, the U.S. soldier in charge of training them said on Thursday.

Major General Robert W. Cone said Afghan authorities aimed to have 80,000 trained personnel ready by early 2009, compared to just over 57,000 now, as part of an effort to share more of the burden of fighting with NATO countries.

Asked what that meant for Afghan forces' ability to lead operations against Taliban and other insurgents, Cone told a news conference at NATO headquarters:

"I would say leadership certainly of most operations and probably, depending on their readiness, tending towards virtually all operations.

"That will lift a significant amount of the burden from ISAF forces," he said of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which commanders currently say numbers around 50,000.

Cone, who leads the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) training effort, said Afghan troops had led around half of 180 joint operations with international forces in the early months of this year.

However, Afghan forces remain short of aircraft, and Cone acknowledged it could be another five years before they could conduct all their own air operations.

"The hardest part is the dropping of bombs from the air. That will require significant training and we are thinking 2013 is when the Afghans will be capable of doing that," he said.

NATO leaders pledged a long-term commitment to Afghanistan at a summit in April while agreeing to give Afghan authorities more control of the peace and reconstruction effort.

Public support for the Afghan mission remains patchy in many of NATO's 26 nations and countries which have borne the brunt of the fighting, including the Netherlands and Canada, have faced tough opposition to their decision to deploy troops.

Petraeus Agrees Afghanistan Is Central Front, Not Iraq

(Newshoggers) 22 May 2008 - It's the beginning of Petraeus' confirmation hearings on the Hill today as the Bush administration nominee to head CENTCOM in the wake of Admiral Fallon's messy departure. Not that you'll be hearing much about it from the War party, I suspect - because their nominee has chosen to appear on Ellen and do some fundraising instead of attending the hearings. I guess they could try to spin that as McCain being just sooooo good and so serious on national security issues that he had no need to attend.

But there's some interesting stuff coming out of the Senate Armed Services Committee session even without McLame's presence - as IIan Goldberg, liveblogging, relates:

Jack Reed finally brings up the gorilla in the room.  He asks Petraeus if he agrees with the intelligence community and Chairman Mullen's assessment that the next terrorist attack on the United States would most likely come from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. 

Petraeus says YES.

And Reed naturally asks, then why does the campaign plan focus on Iraq not Afghanistan and Pakistan?  Reed also asks how Petraeus would plan to actually bring more troops into that area, since they're all in Iraq.

The WaPo notes, too, that Petraeus written statement in advance of the hearings was a reminder of how Iraq was made into such a tarpit.

Petraeus's answers on Iraq reiterated much of his testimony last month. Asked what he thought were the "most significant mistakes the U.S. has made" in Iraq, his lengthy list included: erroneous prewar assumptions; a misplaced emphasis on early elections that resulted in "hardened sectarian positions"; slow adjustment of U.S. strategy to security challenges; failure to recognize the negative impact of the Iraqi government's slow political reconciliation; and U.S. misconduct at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere that "inflamed the insurgency and damaged the credibility of Coalition Forces in Iraq, in the region, and around the world."

And yet McCain decided to skip what is arguably the most important job a committee he's a member of will do this year. That doesn't fill me with confidence that he'll learn from past mistakes of arrogance and incompetence.

Pakistan peace deal depends on Sharia enforcement: Taliban

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) 22 May 2008 — Pakistani Taliban militants said Thursday that the success of a peace deal with the government in a northwestern area depends on the complete enforcement of Islamic law in the region.

The agreement in the scenic Swat Valley ends months of fighting between troops and rebels loyal to a pro-Taliban commander, Maulana Fazlullah, who was campaigning for the introduction of harsh Sharia law.

Under the terms of the deal signed on Wednesday the government agreed to gradually pull out troops, introduce an Islamic justice system, while the rebels said they would halt attacks, and surrender arms.

"We have accepted to give up the armed struggle because the government has agreed to the complete enforcement of the Sharia laws," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP.

"We are happy about the agreement but the success of it depends on the conduct of the government, especially in enforcing the Sharia laws," Khan said by telephone from an unknown location.

Pakistan's new government launched negotiations with militants in Swat and separately in the lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan after routing President Pervez Musharraf's allies in elections in February.

The army launched a major offensive in October to clear Swat of militants loyal to Fazlullah after they drove police and paramilitary forces from their posts and effectively established their own law.

Dozens of people have died in suicide bombings in Swat over the past year.

Residents said they were happy about the prospect of peace finally returning to the picturesque valley.

"Thank God, we will be able to live peacefully and resume our normal lives," a shopkeeper in Mingora, the main town in Swat, told AFP.

A senior government official in North West Frontier Province said secular courts would be assisted by an Islamic scholar to decide disputes according to Islamic laws, but a parallel mainstream judicial system would still function.

"It will be the choice of the complainant whether to go for settlement according to Sharia or the Pakistan penal code," the official said.

The United States said Wednesday it would "reserve judgment" on the peace deal and would monitor how effective it was in stopping attacks. Pakistan is a key partner in the US-led "war on terror" launched after the 9/11 attacks.

"We'll see. We'll reserve judgment on these things," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno meanwhile said during a visit to Afghanistan that the world body would "watch closely" the peace deal.

"Certainly any cross-border movement is bad, is dangerous," he told reporters. "We will watch closely the situation in the area concerned and make sure that the situation does not deteriorate on the other side of the border."

NATO, Afghan officials and US have criticised previous peace deals in Pakistan, saying that they have led to an increase in suicide attacks on international and Afghan forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Khan said the United States and Britain should "mind their own business and stop interfering in Pakistan's internal affairs."

The 15-point peace deal in Swat also says that the militants had agreed to shut down training camps, but Khan denied there were any training centres to prepare suicide bombers in the district.

Khan said a committee would decide about the release of some 100 men who were arrested by security forces.

"About an amnesty for Maulana Fazlullah's followers, any decision will be taken later. He has thousands of followers," Khan said.

Taliban favour peace talks, Afghan ex-president says

KABUL (22 May 2008) - The Taliban have shown a desire for a political dialogue and serious efforts should be made to establish talks and end the insurgency, a former Afghan president said on Thursday.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, a bearded 65-year-old who now leads the opposition in parliament, said he had established contact with the Taliban several months ago and had received a letter in recent days containing "some encouraging messages" from the Taliban addressed to the alliance of parties he leads.

Rabbani said the militants expressed a desire for a political solution to the conflict in which more than 12,000 people have been killed since 2006 alone.

He did not say who in the Taliban had sent the messages.

U.S. and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 after the hardline Islamist movement refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Since then, the Taliban have repeatedly rejected olive branches offered by President Hamid Karzai, who has led the country since the removal of the hardline Islamist movement.

In their messages, the Taliban said they would accept all international conventions, would not oppose education for girls and would oppose Afghanistan being used as a base to threaten any other country, Rabbani said.

The Taliban also wanted friendly ties and cooperation with Muslim and non-Muslim countries, he added.

"We see some very good points (in the messages). To put an end to the crisis in the country, talks with armed opposition should be sought. We should pay a price for restoring security. Serious talks should take place and deliberate measures should be taken," Rabbani said.

Apart from the Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, another guerrilla leader wanted by the United States, commands a separate but allied force against the government and the 60,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

None of the armed opposition groups could be immediately contacted for comment.

Rabbani was the leader of a mujahideen faction that fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. He became president in the 1990s when mujahideen groups fought each other for control of government in a war which triggered the Taliban's rise to power.

The Taliban ousted Rabbani's government in 1996. Rabbani later led the opposition alliance against the Taliban and his supporters helped U.S.-led forces overthrow the Taliban in 2001.

The insurgency has seriously hampered reconstruction in Afghanistan after three decades of war, a conflict which Western officials have said cannot now be won militarily.

Last month, Taliban gunmen with the help of some in the security forces tried to assassinate Karzai at a parade in Kabul.

Pakistani army fights militants

By Barbara Plett
BBC News, Waziristan

They called it Operation Earthquake. That's just how it looks when soldiers drive us through the heart of this remote village.

They've brought journalists to the tribal area of South Waziristan, along the Afghan border, to back up their claims that they've beaten back pro-Taleban militants.

Mounds of bricks and twisted metal line the road - the mangled remains of a hospital complex, a small oil refinery, and a market place.

Brigadier Ali Abbas takes us through the ruins, an area he describes as a hub of rebel activity and a "bomb factory."

"There were certain buildings inside the hospital compound being used for making improvised explosive devices," he says.

"We found suicide jackets, detonating chords, wires and fuses. If we found anything used by the miscreants we destroyed it."

All these buildings have been demolished to punish locals for collaborating with the militants, according to the terms of harsh colonial laws inherited from the British.

Deeply entrenched

The army launched its campaign after daring attacks on paramilitary forts in the area by Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's Taleban movement.

In the village, soldiers found the Taleban deeply entrenched.

"There was a kind of semi-autonomous state," says the divisional commander, General Tariq Khan, painting a picture of the Taleban's rule, "and if it was not contained last year, it would have spread to the Indus Highway."

The army claims to have dismantled part of the infrastructure feeding a campaign of suicide attacks in the country.

General Khan shows videos of training centres for child bombers discovered in the area, some as young as nine. Fifty-two were recovered, he says.

He downplays Western concerns that Arabs and Central Asians linked to al-Qaeda are regrouping under the protection of these tribal militants, saying that only two Uzbeks were killed in the fighting.

He accepts that many of the rebels escaped, but insists that at least in this part of South Waziristan, their military threat has been neutralised.

"What we're saying is that we've dismantled the capacity," he says, "the kind of preparations they've made, the kind of trenches, the kind of defences we've blown up, the kind of weapons systems - they will take time to re-establish it.

"That is where the government comes in - are they going to let this happen again?"

Human cost

The army says the government can now negotiate peace from a position of strength, pursuing a new and controversial policy of dialogue with Islamist militants.

The human cost, though, has been enormous.

The view from the army helicopter is eerie - clusters of mud-brick homes, nestled in pockets of forest at the foot of stark, jagged mountains, with not a soul in sight.

General Tariq says some 200,000 people fled the area before the fighting.

A walk through one of the ghost towns shows evidence that they departed in haste - unmade beds, a hand-painted trunk left in the pathway. Crops and animals have been untended for months.

Some of the houses have also been demolished because they were used by the militants, again part of the colonial-era punishment designed to "get the tribes to take collective responsibility for what happens on their territory," says Brigadier Abbas.

He acknowledges, though, that this might also trigger resentment and a desire for revenge, especially as some - if not most - of the locals were forced to support the Taleban, or face beheading.

Peace talks

The brigadier's men have occupied the towns since the fighting ended in January.

They're preparing to pull back to give space to returning civilians. But they won't withdraw.

The siege on the area will be maintained by controlling the roads around it and all the entry and exit points, he says.

They're waiting for the outcome of the peace talks, and so is Nato, across the border in Afghanistan.

It fears that peace deals here will strengthen the region as a base for the Afghan Taleban and its Pakistani supporters, and increase attacks against coalition forces.

The Americans have publicly opposed the policy of negotiation. And last week they fired missiles at suspected militants in the tribal areas, killing at least 13 people.

Many here saw this as an attempt to sabotage the peace process, and it wasn't only tribesmen who were angry.

"This helps none of the sides," says army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas.

"It is completely counterproductive. It creates pressure on the Pakistan government and army, and makes it very difficult to explain to the locals as to what the government's effort or its orientation is in this regard."

In the tribal areas, bringing peace is painstaking, he says - it has to be won area by area.

But with soldiers threatened in Afghanistan, America and Nato want speed and action - differing approaches that are difficult to bridge.

UK seeks reconciliation in Afghanistan, Pakistan

(IRNA) 22 May 2008Foreign Secretary David Miliband Wednesday was seeking to gain US support for reconciliation between Pakistan's new government and Pashtun leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas ''Fata'' as part of a settlement in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan need effective security forces. They need to take on, with international help where necessary, those committed to violence," Miliband was set to say in a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"But there is no military solution to the problems of the Fata or the Gereshk valley," he argued according to draft extracts obtained by the Guardian newspaper.

His call marks the culmination of a shift in British strategy in its support for the so-called US war on terror and comes after the UK is backing reconciliation between 'moderate' remnants of the Taliban regime with the Afghan government.

"Over 800 members of the Pakistani security forces have lost their lives since 2002 in the struggle to maintain security in the border areas. Yet the extremist threat has grown," Miliband was due to tell his American audience following his visit to Islamabad last month.

"We need to separate those determined to impose their views by force from those willing to accept the freedoms and limits of a constitutional order," he said in his draft.

The foreign secretary was expected to underline Britain's commitment to pursuing parallel military and political strategies in Helmand province's Gereshk valley, where 8,000 British troops are fighting the Taliban.

Pakistan and Afghanistan "top the list of UK foreign policy priorities" and both represent fragile democracies facing huge challenges, he argued in his appeal.

Some US officials reportedly have privately expressed growing alarm at Britain's desire to change strategy, warning that any accompanying drop counter-insurgency operations would give militants breathing space.

His speech comes after Miliband chaired the UN Security Council on Tuesday to launch an international initiative to salvage war-torn states and prevent them lapsing back into conflict, saying the international community was "not doing enough."

His proposal is that the international community should go beyond peacekeeping to help rebuild failed states by eradicating the root causes of conflict.

The initiative is timed to coincide with the UK's one-month presidency of the council and comes at a time of a proliferation of unresolved conflicts simmering in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere.

A document circulated by Miliband highlighted that almost a third of conflicts that ended through negotiated settlements restarted within five years "often because the international community has not got its act together in the critical period immediately following." --IRNA

Canada listening in on Taliban exchanges

(National Post) 22 May 2008 - Canada's ultra-secret electronic spy agency revealed yesterday it has been heavily involved in Afghanistan and has deployed a team to the country.

The Communications Security Establishment acknowledged its role in Afghanistan for the first time in testimony to the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence.

CSE chief John Adams gave few details but the agency is believed to have sent officers to Afghanistan to eavesdrop on the Taliban and other militant groups.

Meanwhile, in other testimony, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service named China as the country's top counter-intelligence concern.

An intelligence expert said the CSE officers in Afghanistan had likely set up secret listening posts to pick up the Taliban's walkie-talkie and satellite telephone communications.

The information gleaned from the intercepted calls would be used to alert Canadian troops of Taliban attack plans, or passed to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Canadian International Development Agency.

In a measure of the CSE's involvement in Afghanistan, Mr. Adams said more than a quarter of the intelligence reports produced by the agency in the past year were related to the mission.

"While I cannot discuss details, I can say that CSE information has, for example, helped to advance the interests of Canada and its closest allies and has been directly responsible for protecting Canadian troops in combat."

The CSE is the most secretive branch of Canada's intelligence community. It operates a vast electronic eavesdropping system that gathers "signals intelligence," or SIGINT.

From its headquarters in south Ottawa, the CSE intercepts, decodes, translates and analyzes the phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications of Canada's adversaries.

Professor Martin Rudner, who has written extensively on the CSE, said he was not surprised by the agency's disclosure that it had been busy in Afghanistan.

Of particular interest would be conversations between Taliban commanders and their forces in the field, he said. The CSE would also be monitoring calls between Taliban headquarters in Pakistan, field commanders in Afghanistan and outside actors in such places as Iraq.

"The only way you can communicate with Taliban headquarters in Pakistan, given where they are, is by telecommunication. They're in extremely remote country," said Prof. Rudner, Director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies at Carleton University.

"We would want to intercept those communications. So we could be literally privy to their strategic plans and intentions, sources of supply, manpower recruitment, logistics, operational experience, for example, roadside bombs in Iraq.

"All this has to be communicated electronically by the adversary. We want to be privy to that information so we can take appropriate corrective action."

CSIS Director Jim Judd told the Senate committee earlier in the day that his agency was investigating as many as 15 foreign governments believed to be spying in Canada.

He said China was at the top of the list and that about half of the CSIS counter-intelligence program was focused on Chinese espionage and foreign influence.

"It ebbs and flows but up to a dozen, 15 foreign governments would be of interest to us at any given time," he said, adding another six to 10 were of "active interest" because of their attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction, notably Iran and North Korea.

He also revealed that recent CSIS recruiting efforts had resulted in 14,500 applications and that 100 intelligence officers had been hired. Another 100 were expected to start work this year.

He said described the recruits as "smarter than ever before."

UN officials call for more aid, better coordinated

KABUL, 22 May 2008 (IRIN) - The international community has neither disbursed enough aid to alleviate poverty, nor coordinated closely enough with the Afghan government to ensure its effectiveness over the past six years, two senior UN officials told a news conference in Kabul on 22 May.

"It's obvious that the international community does not spend its resources [in Afghanistan] as well as it should," Kai Eide, special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, told reporters.

Eide called on donors to allocate more resources for Afghanistan's development and spend "much more" on certain sectors of the economy. He called for an "enhanced partnership" with the international community to overcome what he called "mounting challenges". Aid agencies have said that although over US$15 billion worth of aid has been spent in Afghanistan since 2001, this was insufficient, given the years of war and turmoil.

The UN is working hard to achieve a "higher quality" and "enhanced" partnership with Afghanistan and the international community, he said, adding that more work was needed to achieve and maintain a robust partnership for success.

Eide, who heads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), also said the Afghan government must fight corruption and improve governance. "It's obvious that corruption is a much too widespread phenomenon in Afghanistan."

The UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said Afghan expectations of the post-Taliban reconstruction and development drive had not been met.

"All Afghan people have heard of those billions of dollars that were coming to Afghanistan. Many billions have actually been spent but you haven't always seen the concrete translation of that on the ground," Guehenno said.

Weak coordination among multiple actors and poor accountability in aid management are among the reasons for aid ineffectiveness, according to Guehenno.

The two UN officials hoped the existing challenges would be solved through a high-level international conference in Paris in June. "We need to bring coherence... and we need more discipline in the international community," Guehenno said.

Afghanistan: Protest over Koran shooting turns deadly

Kabul, 22 May (AKI) - Two Afghan civilians and a NATO soldier were killed in Afghanistan on Thursday during a protest over a US soldier who used a Koran for shooting practice in Iraq.

According to Shah Jahan Noori, chief of police in the western Afghan province of Ghor, the protest involved more than a thousand people who tried to storm a NATO base in Chaghcharan, the provincial capital.

They were shouting slogans against Americans and the West.

"After the police prevented some of the protestors from entering the base, they starting throwing rocks and some of them started shooting at the police and injured 10 officers," said Noori.

Reports say that the protestors were from a religious school.

Earlier this week US President George W. Bush apologised to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for the incident.

The US soldier, who has not been identified, was said to be a staff sergeant in a sniper section in Iraq. He was disciplined and sent home after the Koran was found by Iraqi police earlier this month riddled with bullet holes at a Baghdad shooting range.

The US military had describe the shooting as "both serious and deeply troubling", but stressed it was an "isolated incident and a result of one soldier's actions."

Pakistan allows wheat exports to Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, May 22 (KUNA) Amid wheat shortage crisis at home and after days of raids on trucks smuggling wheat to the neighboring war-ravaged country, Pakistan Thursday allowed wheat exports to Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in a telephone conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to allow the export of 50,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister approved export of wheat to Afghanistan as a special gesture to the country which is facing problems of wheat supply, said a press statement. Prime Minister Gilani, who recently met Karzai on the sidelines of World Economic Forum in Egypt, expressed the confidence that relations between the two countries would continue to grow stronger, said the statement. The government had launched a crackdown on trucks smuggling wheat to Afghanistan in an effort to overcome an artificial shortage created by hoarders and mills earning double profits through smuggling to neighboring countries.

Afghans ready for cricketing bow

BBC News / Thursday, 22 May 2008

Afghanistan is set to take to a new sporting stage in Jersey on Friday when they compete in their first-ever international cricket championship.

The Afghans are due to play Japan in their opening game of the ICC's World League Division Five tournament.

And, from a country with few facilities after being ravaged by war, coach Taj Malik insists: "In Afghanistan we are taking cricket very seriously.

"We play with passion and are aggressive," he told BBC Radio Jersey.

Most of the Afghans learnt the game while in refugee camps over the border in Pakistan during the war with Russia in the 1980s.

They have only been playing the sport in their own country for about 20 years and for much of that time it was heavily restricted by the Taliban regime.

But, if they do well, they could then find themselves on course for an eye-catching meeting with the United States in the semi-finals or the final.

"If we face America in a semi-final or the final I think all the world will be waiting for this match," said Malik.

"People see this game in a political view, but we see this as positive for sport.

"If we beat America everybody we will be very happy. I'm sure if we play America we will win."

The Afghans have brought publicity to what would otherwise be a very low-key tournament.

"They've certainly generated a lot of interest," said Andrew Faichney, the Development Event Manager for the ICC. "It's great for cricket and it's great for cricket within the associate and affiliate countries that this is being able to be a catalyst for interest in the tournament."

"This is the first global competition that the Afghan cricket team have played in and it's one of the only competitions they stand any chance of winning," said Tim Albone, a former Times journalist who is making a documentary about the side's time in Jersey.

"The Afghan football team are terrible. They've got five Olympians going to Beijing and only one stands any chance at all, so the Afghans are pinning their hopes on cricket.

"They see this as something after so many years of war that they can stand behind and be proud of and show the world that they are recovering."

The Afghan team contains hard hitters of the ball and fast bowlers, one of whom, Hamed Hassan, is reputed to be able to bowl at up to 90mph.

"They don't have many spin bowlers because they see that as unmanly," said Albone, "so fast bowling is really their forte."

For now, Hassan is concentrating only on Japan, the first of five group games which also sees them take on the hosts Jersey, Singapore, the Bahamas and Botswana.

"Every time we play we are just talking about Jersey," he said. "We have only one opportunity in this competition and everybody is working very hard."

And for Afghan coach Malik, it's also a chance to promote his country as something other than a war-ravaged place.

"They have very big hearts, they like to bowl fast and hit hard. I'm sure people will like our cricketing playing style and will think positively about my country."

Afghanistan's hidden treasures go on display in US

WASHINGTON (AFP) 21 May 2008 - More than 200 ancient artifacts from Afghanistan, many of which were believed lost to posterity as the country was rocked by decades of war, this week begin a tour of US museums with an exhibition at Washington's National Gallery.

"The artifacts that we have gathered for this exhibition bear witness to the thousands of years of history of Afghanistan," Afghan culture minister, Abdul Kaim Khuram, said at the launch of the Washington exhibition.

The 228 artifacts on display in the exhibition -- entitled "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum Kabul" -- date from 2200 BC to the second century AD.

Indian ivories, Hellenistic bronzes and Greco-Roman glass found at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Kabul, show Afghanistan's position at the crossroads of the Silk Road, where ancient Indian, Chinese and Greek civilisations intersected.

But the highlight is perhaps the famed 2000-year-old Bactrian gold, consisting of exquisite jewellery and burial decorations discovered in 1st century tombs in 1978 near the northern Afghan border at Tillia-Tepe.

The pieces, ranging from a gold crown worn by a high-ranking nomadic woman in around the first century before the birth of Christ, to the fragment of a gold bowl, dating from around 2200 BC, were recovered from four sites, where archaeological digs were conducted in the 1930s, 1960s and late '70s.

The treasures were thought to have been lost during the 1978-1989 war between Afghanistan and the then Soviet Union, the civil war that followed and the rule of the hardline Taliban in the late 1990s.

"In Afghanistan, the imposed wars could have easily destroyed these artefacts," Khuram said.

But the treasure trove had been preserved by the bravery of a handful of museum staff, who squirreled away parts of the historical collection in the vaults of the central bank, where the artefacts resurfaced in 2003.

Situated at the heart of the Silk Road, Afghanistan evolved over the centuries as a mosaic of cultures and civilizations, all reflected in its artistic heritage.

"Although this mosaic was shattered by war and terror, both the spirit of the Afghan people and our cultural heritage survived," Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, said at the launch of the exhibition.

From Washington, the exhibit will travel on to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Houston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York over the course of the next 16 months.

"This exhibition is a celebration of Afghanistan", Jawad said.

Around 40 percent of the proceeds of the exhibition, which held pride of place last year at Paris's Guimet Museum, will go towards restoring Afghanistan's National Museum, Jawad told AFP.

The National Museum of Afghanistan was bombed in 1988 at the tail-end of the decade-long Soviet occupation.

When Afghanistan plunged into civil war in the 1990s, around two-thirds of the museum's priceless collection vanished, and many feared it had been plundered and melted down.

From 1996 until 2001, the museum was systematically pillaged by the hardline Taliban regime, which regarded any non-Islamic art as idolatry.

Afghanistan: Hope rising from the ashes

Injuries from landmines over the last 25 years have left an estimated 100,000 or more Afghan people handicapped. Scattered throughout the country, landmines bring sudden and unexpected tragedy to many families. This is the story of Saddiq Ali, whose shattered life the ICRC is helping to rebuild.

Saddiq Ali was born almost 15 years ago in Follady Valley, in the province of Bamyan. The region is crossed by the Follady river, flowing down from the Baba Mountains which branch out from the Hindu Kush. Water from the river irrigates the valley’s farmland and in spring and summer the lush green fields and surrounding trees add to the richness of the natural landscape.

Several small villages are scattered about the valley and most of the villagers raise crops and livestock to feed their families. During winter, when temperatures can plummet to minus 35°C, people mostly stay within the walls of their clay houses waiting for the return of spring.

On a spring day in 2005, Saddiq was walking from his home to the village of Dragon Valley – a 90-minute trek – to visit his aunt. Approaching the village, he saw some of his friends playing outside. Rushing down the hillside to join them, he was unaware that he was running into a field of landmines, planted during the 1980s. Without warning, a deafening explosion tore his breath away and, after several moments of intense pain, Saddiq lost consciousness.

The villagers rushed to help him and he was eventually transported to Bamyan central hospital. The explosion had blown away both of Saddiq’s legs. At first he could not understand what it meant for him, but as realization gradually took hold, he was overwhelmed with sadness and fear for the future. How would he walk to school now? How would he get around outside the house? How would he one day work to help his family? Would he be forgotten by everybody?

After a few months, during which Saddiq and his family heard of the ICRC’s help for amputees, Saddiq met with Habib Hussaini, head of the ICRC office in Bamyan. Traveling in an ICRC vehicle, Saddiq was taken to the Ali Abad Orthopedic Centre in Kabul, one of six ICRC physical rehabilitation centres in Afghanistan largely devoted to helping landmine victims. Here he received two artificial legs and, over the next three months, treatment and training on how to walk with his new limbs.

Returning to Follady Valley, he felt like a new kid. He was so happy that he could walk to school again. Like other patients at ICRC orthopedic centres in Afghanistan, Saddiq receives regular check-ups, going back every so often to the Ali Abad clinic to renew his artificial legs. Each time, he comes back home with a smile and the strength to continue fighting for his education and future.

‘Now I can walk again to school. My school is about 30 minutes away from my home and I manage to do it slower than before, but I do not mind,’ he says, adding, ‘It even gives me more strength to continue with my studies. I want to become a doctor to offer my services to others like me.’

He also talks about his new ideas: ‘I think that for people like me, we should have donkeys to transport us, so we can arrive on time at school.’

Saddiq is sad that he can no longer play football. ‘It is bothering to me that I cannot play,’ he says, ‘but on the other hand, after the rehabilitation, I have learnt to do a few things and I am proud that I can still help my family.’

On how the problem of disability is perceived by those around him, Saddiq reflects, ‘At times people look at me in a strange way, and there are some unpleasant moments. At school, some boys throw insults at me and use unfriendly names about my disability. But I will help change that.’

Afghan mine victims proudly work as bicycle couriers

KABUL (Reuters) 22 May 2008- Abdul Saboor rides his bicycle as far as 18 miles a day through the dusty streets of Kabul delivering packages. Most people might be daunted by such distances but not Saboor who peddles through the hilly streets using his only leg.

Thirteen years ago Saboor had to have his right leg amputated after stepping on a landmine near his house in western Kabul. It happened during the civil war when the city was subjected to regular rocket attacks, shortly before the Taliban took control in 1996. Many of the roads were riddled with landmines.

Saboor, now aged 35, had already moved his family to the relatively safer northern part of the city but from time to time he would check on his old home, and it was on one such trip that he lost his leg.

According to the United Nations an average of 60 people every month are killed or wounded by landmines or explosives left over from war in Afghanistan and an estimated 270 square miles are still contaminated with explosive devices.

But that has not stopped Saboor from earning a living, albeit a hard one. He and his fourteen colleagues work for Afghanistan's first and only bicycle messenger service, the Disabled Cycle Messenger Services (DCMS). They deliver letters and packages between offices in the city.

"Of course it's hard work, even for an able bodied person," says Saboor, leaning on his crutches.

"But the fact that I can work and I don't have to sit on the side of the road and beg for money and can provide food for my family gives me a big sense of pride."

The concept is simple and has been employed in large cities such as London and New York for many years, as cycle couriers can often guarantee a faster delivery time than other vehicles as they are not held up by traffic.

Kabul's roads often come to a standstill due to the sheer amount of cars but also because of the numerous security barriers that have sprung up in the city which restrict the flow of traffic and are a great cause of complaint from residents.

DETERMINED

Saboor is different from the rest of his colleagues in that he chooses not to use a prosthetic leg, opting for crutches instead. His leg was amputated high above the knee making it more difficult to use a prosthesis, he says.

"I used to use a prosthetic limb but it caused me a lot of discomfort," he says, as one of his colleagues massages his own stump.

Asked if he uses an artificial limb when he cycles, Saboor quickly rejects any doubt over his abilities.

"No, I use my one leg! If you want, I can carry you all the way to north Kabul. I'll show you!" he says strapping his crutches to the bicycle frame and using his only leg to pedal effortlessly around the mud courtyard of the DCMS office.

He and his colleagues use heavy Chinese manufactured bicycles costing around $50 used by Afghans all over the country.

DCMS was set up by an Afghan NGO in 2002 but two years ago disagreements over pay caused them to break away and go it alone. With the move went the donor funding and much of their client base. They have been struggling ever since.

"We're taking our last breath," says Mohammad Amin Zaki, the director of DCMS who is also a mine victim and messenger.

"We have 20 days until the rent is due and after that we don't know what will happen."

The company's struggle reflects the wider economic instability of a country ravaged by almost three decades of war. Unemployment is at least 40 percent.

"The financial situation is bad throughout the country so people usually prefer to deliver things themselves," says Zaki referring to the lack of business.

Each of the messengers earns a meager $10-16 a month depending on the amount of work; well below the national average. On top of this they receive around $10 from the government in the form of disability allowance. All the men work other jobs.

Zaki works in the evenings as a laborer, mixing concrete while Saboor helps his son sell rubbish bags by the side of the road. Another makes bricks.

"We don't have breakfast or lunch. Usually we wait and have dinner together with the family because we don't have enough money for food," says Saboor.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with half of its 25 million people living below the poverty line. The country has also been hit hard by the rising global food prices.

But despite the odds, Saboor remains pragmatic about his future. Asked what he will do if the business shuts down, he says: "I will definitely get another job. I don't like not working. If I lose this job I will find another one somewhere else."

[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.]