In this bulletin:

• Afghanistan, Chinese company sign multi-billion-dollar copper mine deal
• EU to Double Afghan Trainers; Italy Mulls Combat Role
• Council Conclusions on Afghanistan - 2870th External Relations Council meeting Brussels, 26 and 27 May 2008
• Afghan jihad will continue: Mehsud
• Pakistan defends pacts, says no cross-border attacks
• Taliban vow to fight on, offer talks with Afghans
• Pakistan: Bin Laden is not here, says Taliban leader
• Chertoff urges anti-terror fight in Pakistan
• U.S. urged to target militants in Pakistan
• British defense secretary urges combined efforts along Pak-Afghan border to combat extremism
• NATO soldier, four Afghans, two police killed in attacks
• British soldier killed in Afghanistan
• An Italian oasis in Afghanistan
• Italy set for wider Afghan role
• Italy plans to cut troops in Afghanistan-minister
• Nato convoy targeted in Afghanistan
• Afghan prison nightmare may be coming to an end for Pervez
• Canadians aim to gain loyalty in Afghan 'Shangri-La'
• Hundreds of Afghans protest US Koran shooting
• Prayers in the Afghan sun
• Afghanistan: Flash floods displace 1,200 people in Samangan
• HIV risk in war-torn Afghanistan high - ministry
• Female soldiers at the forefront when dealing with Afghan women

Afghanistan, Chinese company sign multi-billion-dollar copper mine deal

KABUL (Thomson Financial) 25 May 2008 - The Afghan government and a Chinese state company on Sunday signed a multi-billion-dollar deal for the exploration of a copper deposit said to be one of the largest in the world.

Mines Minster Ibrahim Adel signed the agreement -- the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan -- with representatives of the Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), a state-owned metal producer and contractor

'After signing the contract, MCC will start exploring the mine. This was the last step,' ministry spokesman Khoghman Ulumi told Agence France-Presse. He could not say when work on the mine would begin.

Afghanistan in November selected MCC from nine international bidders for a 30-year lease to develop the Aynak mine 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kabul.

MCC was expected to invest around three billion dollars to explore and develop the mine, including building a power plant, a village for the workers and railway line to take the mineral out of the country.

The mine exploration is expected to directly create about 2,400 jobs and indirectly open up 6,000 more.

First discovered in 1974, the mine is estimated to contain 11.3 million tonnes of copper.

EU to Double Afghan Trainers; Italy Mulls Combat Role

By James G. Neuger and Flavia Krause-Jackson

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- European governments sought to bolster the war effort in Afghanistan, with the European Union sending more police trainers and Italy weighing a combat role for the first time.

Responding to criticism from the U.S. and NATO, the EU said it will double the number of police trainers to 400. Italy's new government said it may send some of its 2,300-strong Afghan force to the hard-fought south of the country.

``We are talking about geographic flexibility, not of more men,'' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters in Brussels today. ``This is what is being asked of us, to realign Italy with the other big countries in NATO and we are starting now to talk about it.''

North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders have pressed the EU to do more to train Afghanistan's police, with a top general noting last week that the law-enforcement system has been overhauled in only 12 of the country's 364 districts.

While Afghanistan's 79,000 policemen are close to a goal of 82,000, many are ill-trained and underpaid, U.S. Major General Robert Cone, the western commander in charge of training, said last week.

The dispatch of troops to a combat role in southern Afghanistan would reflect the reorientation of Italian foreign policy under Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who returned to power this month after two years in opposition.

Under Romano Prodi, Italy had joined Germany, Spain and France in refusing to deploy troops in the battlefields of eastern and southern Afghanistan, provoking criticism from countries in a frontline role such as the U.S., Netherlands, Canada and Britain.

Italy has mostly confined its soldiers in the comparatively calm western province of Herat. Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa, also in Brussels today, sought to downplay Frattini's comments by saying Italy's ``overall commitment would be downsized'' and that troops would not necessarily be moved.

France stepped up its commitment when President Nicolas Sarkozy used a NATO summit last month to offer an additional 700 troops for eastern Afghanistan to help fill in for 2,200 U.S. Marines redeploying to the south.

NATO now has 47,000 troops in Afghanistan, led by a 19,000- strong U.S. contingent. Another 16,000 Americans are in a separate U.S.-led counterterrorism force.

Council Conclusions on Afghanistan - 2870th External Relations Council meeting Brussels, 26 and 27 May 2008

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

1. Looking ahead to the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan, to be held in Paris on 12 June 2008, and recalling Conclusions on Afghanistan of the European Council in December 2006 and successive GAERC Conclusions since February 2007, the Council underlines the EU's continued commitment to long-term support for the people and Government of Afghanistan. The central objective of the EU in Afghanistan is to support the Government in establishing a sustainable and functioning state providing security, respecting the rule of law and human rights, and fostering development.

2. The Council welcomes the important progress made through combined efforts by the Government and people of Afghanistan and the international community, most notably in building political institutions, health and education.

3. The Council, nevertheless, notes the remaining challenges, especially in the areas of development and governance, and the underlying factors, notably corruption and a lack of security - with narcotics being linked to both- which continue to undermine the functioning of the Government of Afghanistan. The Government and the international community need to address this through the Afghanistan Compact.

4. The Council, therefore, welcomes the opportunity to assess progress in Afghanistan at the Paris Conference and wishes to focus on the following areas.

5. The Council calls on the Government of Afghanistan to take greater responsibility for reconstruction and development. The Council therefore thinks that as much assistance as possible should be directed in support of the Government through multi-donor trust funds or budgetary support, with due attention to absorption capacity.

6. The Council underlines that increased ownership should be paired with accountability. Urgent progress in meeting the benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact is needed, notably:

a. implementation of a strategy to tackle corruption at all levels, in recruiting competent and credible professionals to public service on the basis of merit, and establishing a more effective, accountable and transparent administration at all levels of Government; this includes ensuring proper functioning of an independent mechanism for senior appointments as agreed in the Compact;

b. strengthening resources and authority of sub-national government structures building upon successful national programmes and through the Independent Directorate for Local Governance;

c. implementation of the National Drug Control Strategy, under the leadership of the Government of Afghanistan, including implementation of an effective rural livelihoods strategy.

7. Furthermore, together with the international community the EU will provide full support to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) and the implementation of priorities set out therein, in line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

8. The Council further underlines the importance of a unified approach by the international community in pursuing common goals, in full coordination with the Government of Afghanistan and with coherence between the military and civilian dimensions. In this context, the Council calls for strengthening UNAMA's capacity, including by lending support to efforts aimed at widening its presence throughout the country, notably in the South and West. The Council supports an enhanced role of the UN Secretary General Special Representative Kai Eide in coordinating efforts of the international community and stresses the synergy in objectives between UNAMA, EU and ISAF.

9. The Council recalls that promotion of respect for human rights, including freedom of the media, and gender equality is a fundamental responsibility of the Afghan Government, which should fully support the functioning of its relevant institutions and the implementation of its international obligations in the field of human rights. Full support should also be given to the abolition of the death penalty in Afghanistan. As a first step a de facto moratorium on the death penalty should be re-established.

10. The Council stresses the importance of the democratic process in Afghanistan, especially in light of the Presidential elections in 2009 and the parliamentary elections in 2010. The EU stands ready to support preparations for the elections. The Council also stresses the importance of welldefined, Afghan-led political outreach.

11. Security and rule of law remain key challenges to progress in Afghanistan. Weak judicial and law enforcement institutions compound a lack of security in parts of the country. The Council stresses the importance of the Community programmes to support Afghanistan in promoting rule of law through support to the reform of the Justice Sector. The EU underscores the need for a coherent approach to the rule of law sector, in particular the interface between Community justice reform programmes and activities in the police sector.

12. The Council reiterates its determination to contribute significantly to police reform through the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL Afghanistan), respecting Afghan ownership and working in close cooperation with other international actors, in particular the USA. EUPOL Afghanistan has made progress in implementing its mandate and is now deployed throughout the country; full deployment is planned for June 2008. In this context, the Council would also like to welcome the contributions of third countries to EUPOL Afghanistan.

13. Given the size of the task, the EU is committed to substantially increase its efforts through EUPOL Afghanistan, with the aim of doubling the original number of experts working in the mission. Such an increase of the mission size would provide an important additional capacity on the key police reform issues. Due to the challenging operational environment, thorough preparation, timely planning, prior full operational capability and continued contribution of high-calibre staff are essential.

14. The Council recognises the importance of the International Police Co-ordination Board's work on a unified, integrated vision of the Afghan police, which should be given the highest priority.

15. The Council considers good relations with neighbouring countries to be key to achieving stability in Afghanistan, especially given the multi-dimensional character of issues such as narcotics. The Council therefore continues to support efforts aimed at improving relations between Afghanistan and its neighbours, and at full integration of the country into regional structures. "

Afghan jihad will continue: Mehsud

KOTKAI (South Waziristan) May 24: Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud on Saturday ruled out the possibility of cooperating with a UN probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, saying the world body was not neutral.

“The United Nations is not a neutral body. It is subservient to the United States. I don’t expect it to conduct an impartial enquiry,” the leader of the Pakistani Taliban said. “We will not work with it.”

Addressing a press conference at the Government High School at Kotkai, the only building intact amid bombed out houses, the short-statured, burly militant commander questioned the UN role in Muslim countries, pointing to the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestine.

Baitullah denied that he was involved in Ms Bhutto’s assassination. “Her father and two brothers had also been killed. Do we know who killed them? Politicians have their own rivalries. They know who their enemies are,” he said.

A court in Rawalpindi has implicated Baitullah Mehsud in Benazir’s murder and declared him a proclaimed offender in the case. The ardous journey took journalists from Bannu to Mirali in North Waziristan and onwards to Kotkai, escorted by heavily armed Taliban.

From North to South Waziristan, security forces were conspicuous by their absence. In South Waziristan, even the personnel of the traditional Khasadar force were nowhere to be seen.

Baitullah vowed to continue the ‘jihad’ against the US and its allies in Afghanistan but said that his fighters constituted just a fraction of an ‘overwhelmingly Afghan Taliban force’. “Ninety-five per cent of them are Afghans”, he said.

When he was asked if the peace agreement would deter cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan, he said: “Islam does not recognise any man-made barriers or boundaries. Jihad in Afghanistan will continue.”

The Taliban leader termed the tapes that purportedly linked him with Ms Bhutto’s murder technical gimmickry. “Science has developed so much that I am sure they (intelligence agencies) can produce the same tape with (President) Musharraf’s voice.”

Inside a classroom, surrounded by more than a hundred heavily armed guards, Baitullah acknowledged that peace talks were under way with the government

But he said that Pakistan government should prove that it was a sovereign state which took its own decisions and was not subservient to the US.

“I am afraid this peace agreement will meet the same fate as that of the previous accords if Pakistan does not prove that it is a sovereign state and takes its own decision.”

Baitullah was referring to the 2005 peace agreement signed in South Waziristan which collapsed in a few months.

He said that the conflict between Pakistani Taliban and the government was ‘harming Islam and Pakistan’. “The sooner it ends the better it will be.”

He described President Musharraf as the ‘root-cause’ of all violence in the country and thought that the situation would straighten out after he stepped down.

Acknowledging his involvement in suicide bombings, he said: “Infidels have nuclear arms which are weapons of mass destruction. We have suicide bombers who are target-oriented.” Baitullah, however, denied the presence of any training camps in his area.

The Taliban commander also denied his involvement in the abduction of Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin. The ambassador, he claimed, had been abducted by another militant group.

“But since the group sympathises with us, they thought it fit to demand the release of our men”, he argued. He insisted that the government had not released any Afghan nationals in exchange for Mr Azizuddin. “The government said that they did not have Maulvi Obaidullah or Mansoor Dadullah in their custody. People who had been released are locals. One of them is my close associate,” he said.

He claimed ‘holding’ between 40 and 50 other government officials. He said that he was proud that the US had listed him as an enemy. “I am glad they have listed me as their enemy because I fight for the supremacy of Islam, jihad and support the oppressed.”

Pakistan defends pacts, says no cross-border attacks

ISLAMABAD, May 26 (Reuters) - Pakistan is determined to stop militants crossing its border to fight Western troops in Afghanistan and is activating tribal leaders to squeeze out the militants, a government official said on Monday.

Pakistan's new civilian government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is pursuing talks with militants to end a wave of violence that has raised concern about prospects for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

But that has raised alarm among Pakistan's allies, especially those with troops in Afghanistan, who fear pacts on the Pakistani side of the border only help militants focus efforts on attacks across in Afghanistan.

NATO's force in Afghanistan said this week the peace talks the new Pakistani government had launched had led to an increase in attacks in Afghanistan.

But a top Pakistani government official overseeing security policy on the Afghan border defended the pacts and said Pakistan was commited to Afghanistan's security.

"Pakistan is fully committed to interdicting cross-border movement of terrorists," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province, told Reuters in an interview.

"In no way can we allow militant forces to use Pakistani terrority as a base to operate in Afghanistan or anywhere."

A re-think was needed in the war against the Taliban, Ghani said.

"This war against these extremists ... has now entered the seventh year and I feel that we need to actively review our strategies," he said. "What we need to do is to reduce the space available to these negative forces."

Many al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to Pakistan's border lands, that have never come under the full control of any government, after U.S-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.

There the conservative Pashtun tribes who, since the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, had given refuge to Islamist fighters battling foreigners in Afghanistan welcomed them. Winning over the tribes was crucial, Ghani said.

The Pakistani government was not talking to the militants but to the Pashtun elders in the border areas in an effort to get them to exert their authority and isolate the militants, he said.

"We are talking to the majority tribes, their leaders, because it is their area and they are citizens of Pakistan and we are activating them so that they take control of their area and they reduce the space available to these militants," he said.

Tribal leaders would be obliged to ensure militants don't launch attacks in Afghanistan and the government would have the right to take action in case of any violation, Ghani said.

He said he expected a deal to be struck soon in the South Waziristan region, where the government has been negotiating with elders of the Mehsud tribe.

A militant chief from the tribe, Baitullah Mehsud, has emerged as Pakistan's most notorious militant commander, accused by the government of a string of attack and suicide blasts, including the one in which Bhutto was killed in December.

Mehsud, who leads an umbrella groups of Pakistani militant groups, said on Saturday fighting with the Pakistani government should end, but he vowed to carry on the jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan.

"Islam does not recognise frontiers and boundaries. Jihad in Afghanistan will continue," Mehsud told reporters in South Waziristan.

Another senior government official reiterated that any pact would aim to ensure an end to cross-border attacks.

"No agreement will be signed without the provision of no cross-border terrorism," the second official said.

Taliban vow to fight on, offer talks with Afghans

Mon May 26, 2008 - y Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, May 26 (Reuters) - The Taliban will fight on till the last foreign soldier is driven out of Afghanistan, but their door is always open to talks with other Afghan opposition groups, the Islamist movement said on Monday.

The offer comes days after Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and mujahideen chief, now opposition leader, said the Taliban had shown a desire for political dialogue and called for serious efforts to establish talks with the Islamist rebels.

The Taliban "will fight till the withdrawal of the last crusading-invader, but the door for talks, understanding and negotiations will always be open for the all the mujahideen," the Taliban said in a statement on its website.

But, the Taliban said, the mujahideen should join the insurgency and help fight to drive out foreign forces.

Rabbani and other former leaders of the mujahideen forces which fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, then each other in the 1990s, now dominate the opposition in parliament.

The Taliban have previously said they would also fight on to depose President Hamid Karzai, but there was no mention of the Western-backed Afghan government in Monday's statement.

The Taliban cited "sacrilege" against Islam since U.S. President George W. Bush spoke of a crusade against terrorism in 2001, up until the recent shooting of a Koran by a U.S. soldier in Iraq. All proof of the "crusaders' hostility towards Islam".

"Now, the Muslims of the world and Afghanistan, and in particular, the leaders of the groups who consider themselves Muslims and mujahideen are under the service of the invaders and crusaders," the Taliban statement said.

The mujahideen, the Taliban said, "may have realised the time has come to begin an armed jihad against the crusading-invaders. This is the only way for rescuing the Islamic nation and dear Afghanistan."

Rabbani, who now leads the opposition block 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.

The Taliban statement did not directly refer to Rabbani's comments.

U.S.-led troops, helped by Afghan mujahideen groups, 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.

But many of the factions that helped topple the Taliban now feel sidelined and some have privately shown dissatisfaction with the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan.

More than 12,000 people have been killed by violence in Afghanistan in the past two years, the bloodiest period since the overthrow of the Taliban government.

More than 62,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military are stationed in Afghanistan. Foreign commanders say the troops will leave the country when Afghan security forces are able to stand on their feet.

Pakistan: Bin Laden is not here, says Taliban leader

Islamabad, 26 May (AKI) – A top Taliban commander in Pakistan Baitullah Mehsud has rejected reports that al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and other leaders are hiding in his region.

"The al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, and the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, are not in our territory," he said in an interview broadcast by the Arabic satellite television network, Al Jazeera.

The pro-Taliban leader who is based in Pakistan's tribal area of South Waziristan denied hosting the Saudi leader in local villages, as US intelligence officials suspect.

"Both are among the great figures of the Mujahadeen who fight for Allah and all Muslims love them for fighting against the Americans.

"We are proud of them and if they came to us to ask our help, we would be available but they are not here now."

Mehsud also rejected claims by the government in Islamabad that he was responsible for the assassination in December of Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto.

"It wasn't us who killed Bhutto," he said. "If she had attacked us, we would have done it but that didn't happen."

The pro-Taliban leader confirmed that he was helping his Afghan colleagues and that a group of his men were fighting with them against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Chertoff urges anti-terror fight in Pakistan

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press / May 26, 2008

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The U.S. homeland security chief called on Pakistan's new government Monday to strike back against terrorism in its regions bordering Afghanistan or face more attacks of the kind that killed ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.

Michael Chertoff's comments come as the Pakistani government is pursuing peace deals with militant groups. The United States and NATO have expressed concern that such deals give extremists space to plan and execute attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan, where American troops have seen a rise in violence in recent weeks.

But Pakistan's new leaders appear determined to set a different course than the previous government led by allies of U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf, which relied heavily on military force to battle extremist fighters.

Militancy in the border areas is a threat to both countries, and Pakistan should "make sure it asserts control and strikes back against terrorism" on its side, Chertoff told journalists after a citizenship ceremony at the U.S. base at Bagram in Afghanistan.

"Otherwise they're going to see more of the kinds of tragedies that we saw with (former Pakistani Prime Minister) Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated, or some of the bombings we've seen over the last few months in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan," he said.

Pakistan's foreign office spokesman declined to comment on Chertoff's remarks late Monday.

Chertoff said the U.S. has made a lot of progress in Afghanistan since 2001, when American-led forces ousted the Taliban militant movement for hosting al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. But the country still requires dedication by U.S. and other allied forces, he said.

Afghanistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in the last year, even as the U.S. and NATO have poured thousands of new troops into the country. The U.S. now has some 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, the most ever.

NATO said this month that attacks in eastern Afghanistan — where U.S. troops primarily operate — have risen sharply in recent weeks. A spokesman said NATO was concerned that the peace deals in Pakistan were allowing militants to increase attacks over the border.

The new Pakistani government, led by Bhutto's party which triumphed over Musharraf allies in February elections, has insisted that it will only negotiate with militants who lay down their arms and not "terrorists."

But militants' adherence to peace deals in Pakistan may not extend across the border.

On Saturday, Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban leader, said he was sending fighters to battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan even as he seeks peace with the Pakistani government.

Mehsud is based in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt regarded as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida linked fighters. The previous government accused Mehsud of being behind Bhutto's assassination in a bomb and gun attack in December. But the new government says he is innocent until proven guilty. Mehsud has denied involvement.

In Islamabad, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday told a gathering of foreign diplomats that his government was not negotiating with terrorists. He also said foreign forces — a reference to American troops — will not be allowed to operate in Pakistan.

"Pakistan's security forces will remain deployed to meet any threat posed by terrorists, and an effective mechanism will ensure implementation of the agreements reached with tribes," Gilani said, according to his office.

During a visit to Pakistan on Monday, British Defense Secretary Des Browne urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to cooperate in fighting militants. Browne said the threat posed by "violent extremism" cannot be tackled inside Afghanistan alone and requires a committed regional approach.

In Bagram, 44 members of the U.S. military were sworn in as U.S. citizens during a ceremony to mark Memorial Day, a U.S. holiday. President George W. Bush told the new citizens in a video message that the U.S. is a nation of immigrants that has been enriched by generations of people who sought citizenship.

"I feel really great," Diriangen Tellez, a 23-year-old from Nicaragua, said after the ceremony. "I moved to the states when I was 3 and this is something that I have been trying to do for a long time."

Elsewhere, hundreds of Afghans demonstrated Monday in two provinces against a U.S. sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Demonstrators tore apart an effigy of Bush and chanted anti-U.S. slogans.

A Lithuanian soldier and two Afghan civilians were shot and killed last week when about 1,000 Afghans gathered in western Afghanistan to protest the Quran incident. Monday's demonstrations in Balkh and Logar provinces involved several hundred people but were not violent.

The U.S. military has said it disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used the Quran for target practice on May 9. Bush apologized to Iraq's prime minister for the incident.

Britain's Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said a British soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan on Sunday.

U.S. urged to target militants in Pakistan

KABUL (Reuters) 26 May 2008 - The United States should target militant bases in Pakistan, an Afghan state-controlled paper said on Monday, reacting to a threat by a Pakistani Taliban leader to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and Pakistan, while both U.S. allies, have had strained relations, with Kabul accusing Islamabad of harboring Taliban and al Qaeda militants and allowing them to direct and carry out attacks from Pakistani soil.

The Hewad newspaper called on Pakistan's government to review its stance on negotiations with the militants and not allow such deals to threaten Afghanistan.

"Similarly, the United States of America which heads now the international campaign against terrorism, needs to focus all its attention on the terrorists' genuine nests," the state-run daily said in an editorial, referring to militant bases in Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Faced with a wave of suicide attacks over the past year, Pakistan has begun negotiations with Taliban militants who control much of the mountainous region on its side of the border with Afghanistan and many Pakistani troops have left the area.

Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has said he would carry on fighting Afghan and foreign forces in Afghanistan whatever the outcome of the peace talks.

Mehsud's comments were clear testimony to the fact that certain circles in Pakistan did not wish to see a secure and stable Afghanistan, the Hewad said, without elaborating further.

NATO, which leads a 50,000-strong force in Afghanistan, said on Sunday the Pakistan peace talks had already led to an increase in insurgent attacks within Afghanistan.

The newspaper said the tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border were used as training and supply bases for the militants.

Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan, who have historical border disputes, have seen many ups and downs.

Thousands of Afghan Taliban and several hundred al Qaeda members are thought to have fled to Pakistan when U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001.

Some U.S. officials have not ruled out the presence of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leaders in Pakistan.

Suspected U.S. strikes have killed several militants in tribal areas of Pakistan in recent years.

Afghanistan is sending a high-level delegation to Pakistan in the coming days to voice concern about the peace deals, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

Previous peace deals between the Pakistani government and the Taliban all broke down in violence and gave the militants time to regroup, he said.

Afghan forces, backed by more than 60,000 foreign troops, are engaged in daily battles with Taliban militants, mostly in the south and east, the areas closest to the border with Pakistan.

British defense secretary urges combined efforts along Pak-Afghan border to combat extremism

ISLAMABAD, May 26 (Xinhua) -- It will require determined efforts on both sides of the Afghanistan and Pakistan border to tackle the challenges to global security presented by violent extremism, the visiting British Defense Secretary Des Browne said here on Monday.

    Browne made the remarks while holding a series of talks with Pakistan Defense Minister Chaudry Ahmad Muktar, the Chief of the Army Staff General Kayani, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Committee Major General Tariq Majid.

    "Pakistan and Afghanistan share common problems and I am encouraged by the commitment of both countries to work together, with the international community's support, towards tackling them," Browne said.

    Browne discussed a range of bilateral issues and received an update on the political and security situation in the tribal areas, the News Network International news agency reported.

    "The UK is committed to doubling our development spending in Pakistan to almost 1 billion U.S. dollars over the next three years and are prioritizing good governance, growth and the delivery of basic services," said Browne.

    "The people of Afghanistan are starting to seize this opportunity. But the long-term solution to Afghanistan's problems and the threats posed to global security by violent extremism can not be dealt with within Afghanistan's borders alone. These challenges will require a genuine and committed regional approach," he said.

    The Pakistani side conveyed to UK Defense delegation that Pakistan was endeavoring to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan because a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was not only in the interest of Pakistan but the whole region as well.

    Browne arrived here for talks on the regional security challenges following a three-day visit to Afghanistan where he met with NATO and international partners and members of the Afghan government including Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a British High Commission statement said. 

NATO soldier, four Afghans, two police killed in attacks

Kabul (Monster and Critics) 26 May 2008 - A NATO soldier died and two others were wounded in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, while four civilians and two policemen were killed in separate incidents, officials said on Monday.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which provided the information regarding the blast in a statement, did not identify the nationalities of the dead or wounded soldiers, citing the organization's policy.

The statement said that the explosion occurred on Sunday in a southern region, but did not say where exactly in the south the incident took place.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked a NATO-led Canadian military convoy in southern Kandahar province, killing an Afghan child and wounding three NATO soldiers and two Afghan civilians.

The latest death brought the number of foreign forces killed in Afghanistan so far this year to more than 60 soldiers. Most of the soldiers were killed in Taliban-led attacks.

In another incident four civilians were killed in a roadside attack in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province, Qalamuddin Khan, deputy provincial police chief said.

He said that one of the dead civilians was a former police official in the province, who had recently resigned.

In southern Ghazni province, two police men were killed and three wounded in two separate clashes in Andar district of the province on Monday, Mohammad Zaman Zazai, provincial police chief said.

In both attacks the Afghan police came under fire by Taliban militants and the police returned fire, Zazai said, but could not say if there were any casualties on the Taliban side.

Two Afghan security guards for a US security firm were, meanwhile, wounded on Monday morning, when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in western part of Kandahar city, Sayed Agha Saqib, provincial police chief said.

Taliban militants, who lost power in Afghanistan in late 2001 in a US military invasion, have vowed a bloody insurgency to oust the Western-backed Afghan government and to expel some 70,000 international troops from the country.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan

Associated Press, Mon May 26

KABUL, Afghanistan - Britain's Ministry of Defense says a British soldier was killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan.

The ministry said the blast occurred Sunday near Sangin in Helmand province, one of Afghanistan's most violent regions. Elsewhere around the country, Afghans in two cities demonstrated against a U.S. sniper in Iraq who used a Quran, the Muslim holy book, for target practice.

A Lithuanian soldier and two Afghan civilians were shot and killed last week when about 1,000 Afghans gathered in western Afghanistan to protest the Quran incident. Today's protests involved several hundred people but were not violent.

An Italian oasis in Afghanistan

By Alastair Leithead - BBC News, Sarobi, east of Kabul Monday, 26 May 2008

The mortar bombs and rockets were laid out in a line as evidence for visiting journalists that the 140 Italian soldiers in the small, isolated base up on the hill and out of harm's way are actually winning.

"They were discovered because local people told us where they were hidden," explained Captain Mario Renna. He says this proves the people of Sarobi, east of Kabul, trust their friendly neighbourhood Italians.

They have even been bringing opium poppies in to be burned - but that's perhaps more to do with a zero-tolerance governor cracking down on opium this year.

Forty nations make up Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and each has a slightly different approach to fighting the counter-insurgency.

"In my opinion things are going quite well here because our patrols, our men are spending a lot of time on the ground," Captain Renna said.

"Every day they are engaging the local leaders, chatting with them, exchanging views and opinions - they are assessing villages to see what their needs are."

And if success is measured by attacks on international forces, things are indeed going well - only one Italian soldier has been killed in an ambush this year.

We take a ride into town. The engine of the armoured vehicle roars into life, the gunner poking his head out of the top hatch loaded his large calibre machine gun and the convoy rolls out of its hilltop fort and heads down the valley.

It is a common strategy among international forces - drive to the bazaar, go on a foot patrol, chat to people, meet the elders, find out what they want and then give it to them, whether it be a new road, a clinic, a school, or in this case a $200,000 library.

It's a beautiful two-storey building - the carpenter was planning the new bookshelves in a reading room with a wonderful view over Sarobi's lake.

A local government administration building is already in use and the new road makes travel through the district from Kabul to Jalalabad and on to the Pakistan border so much more palatable.

But it was hard to read the faces of the turbaned locals in the market - staring at the Italian troops with their stylishly designed uniforms.

One young shopkeeper spoke perfect English: "I think security is much better when the Italian soldiers come here and do their patrols on the streets of Sarobi," he said.

Others were more sceptical, saying only the local police and governor had been given any development projects and the security was fine in town, but bad everywhere else.

But with wheat prices going through the roof the Italian food aid appears to have won over a lot of people, for now at least.

Next stop was a mobile medical clinic in one of the villages - represented by a little red cross on the large-scale map of the district which meets visitors to the Italian base.

Scattered across it are icons representing development - little taps for wells, sacks of food, small bridges, and a couple which took some explaining, but represented veterinary clinics.

Stomach pain and arthritis were the main complaints at the improvised clinic and pills were liberally distributed while the military officers headed inside for a small shura, or meeting with the elders.

Over kettles of green tea and plates of nuts and biscuits a white bearded man began with gushing thanks and wound up asking if an awful lot more could be done.

It was all noted in a little book with an apologetic "we are doing an awful lot already".

The Italians say that since they slowly started "engaging" with the locals in the winter they have been making a lot of progress.

But local leader Jamil Fedaye said the problem was the short time the soldiers stay here - as soon as trust is built up they leave and new commanders arrive.

"This is difficult for them because very quickly they change - after five months they go and are replaced by new soldiers. If they come for one year that would be good," he said.

So why is Sarobi perceived as being different to everywhere else and sold as such a success story? It could be the Italian nature and their engagement with local people, but in reality this area is nothing like Helmand or Kandahar.

There are criminals in Sarobi but the insurgency here is not strong - it is a relatively safe area and what Italian forces are doing is keeping the peace rather than trying to create a stable environment from lawlessness and chaos.

Italy set for wider Afghan role

Italy is willing to send its troops based in western Afghanistan to more dangerous areas of the country if requested by Nato, ministers say.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italy was aiming to be able to move its forces faster and to a wider area. However, there are no plans to redeploy them on a more permanent basis.

It was also reported that Italy would actually reduce the size of its contingent later in the year, to about 2,000 troops.

"Our intention is to make a decrease in September of between 250 and 300," Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa told reporters at an EU meeting, according to Reuters news agency.

Italian troops are based in western Afghanistan, which is not as volatile as the south, where Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are engaged in an intense fight against the Taleban.

Nato has urged other members to increase their contribution to the force, and to volunteer for service in the south, but no nations have come forward.

Asked whether Italian troops could now be sent to the south, Mr Frattini said: "That will depend on the demands that are made of us."

The BBC's Alistair Leithead, accompanying Italian troops in Sarobi, east of Kabul, says the Italians believe their approach of engaging with the local community is paying dividends.

But he also says the Italians are operating in a relatively safe area, where they are keeping the peace, rather than trying to create a stable environment from lawlessness and chaos, as others are attempting in Helmand and Kandahar in the south.

Italy plans to cut troops in Afghanistan-minister

BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - Italy plans to cut up to 300 troops from its 2,400-strong contingent in Afghanistan later this year, Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said on Monday.

"Our intention is to make a decrease in September of between 250 and 300," La Russa told reporters at an EU meeting.

La Russa also said Italy planned to make its contingent better able to react quickly to requests from NATO to operate outside its main base in west Afghanistan, but stressed Rome did not plan to move its troops anywhere else permanently.

"We want to deploy in a few hours -- six hours -- our troops in zones where it is useful for logistical or military reasons," he said, adding that current procedures meant it took 76 hours for Italy to launch a deployment.

"We intend to modify this hurdle without modifying our zone of deployment," he said.

Italian officials have in recent days said Rome wanted to make its deployment in Afghanistan more flexible, prompting speculation it would be ready to help bear the brunt of fighting against Taliban insurgents in the south.

Nato convoy targeted in Afghanistan

A suspected suicide car bomb has exploded near a Nato military convoy in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, injuring at least two children, police and witnesses said.

"I can confirm there was a suicide car bomb against Nato troops," police officer Ghulam Mohammad told reporter at the scene on Sunday.

"I know two children were wounded but I don't have more information if there were more casualties," Mohammad said.

An AFP reporter saw two wounded children being rushed to hospital after the blast. It was not immediately clear if there were other casualties.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force could not immediately confirm the blast. Foreign soldiers and their Afghan counterparts sealed off the area, the reporter said.

The explosion was near a Nato-run military outpost that used to be the home of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose movement is blamed for a wave of attacks in Afghanistan.

Afghan prison nightmare may be coming to an end for Pervez

By Kim Sengupta in Kabul, Monday, 26 May 2008

His surroundings are grim and forbidding, a Kabul prison thronged with desperate humanity. But Sayed Pervez Kambaksh believes his long nightmare is almost over.

The 24-year-old student, sentenced to death for downloading internet reports on women's rights, is allowing himself to be hopeful for the first time since he was condemned.

"I really did not believe that I would survive for this long, I thought that they would make sure I would disappear, I would be killed. I was abused and beaten after being arrested," he said yesterday. "But now I think they will overturn this wrong verdict and I can get out of this place and start again."

Mr Kambaksh had hoped he might walk free yesterday after his second appearance before an appeal court in the Afghan capital.

In the event, the hearing was adjourned. The Independent has learnt, however, that the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has privately assured Mr Kambaksh's campaign team that he will be freed. Senior government figures have also indicated that they believe his sentence, by a court in Mazar-e-Sharif, was based on a mistaken interpretation of the country's constitutional law. Mr Kambaksh has already discreetly been issued with a passport which will enable him to start a new life abroad if and when he is freed.

The case of Pervez Kambaksh has become an international cause célèbre, with David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, raising the young student's fate with the Afghan government.

A petition by readers of The Independent to secure justice for him has attracted more than 100,000 signatures. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said on a visit to Afghanistan yesterday that he would be raising the matter with Mr Karzai.

Mr Kambaksh said from his cell yesterday that he was aware that the Afghan President may save his life. "This is very, very important for me. It was a court which said I must die without even hearing my side of the story. There are many judges who are very conservative and say I have insulted Islam without really considering the evidence.

"They themselves are also afraid of extremists and this could influence their decision. That worries me. But I am very grateful to the international media, especially The Independent, for taking an interest in my case. I think that makes it difficult for them to just get rid of me."

Mr Kambaksh was convicted after a four-minute hearing during which he was not allowed a lawyer nor, he says, to speak in his own defence. His fate appeared sealed when the Afghan Senate passed a motion, proposed by Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a key ally of President Karzai, confirming the death sentence, although this was later withdrawn after domestic and international pressure.

Mr Kambaksh was arrested and charged in October after downloading a document from an Iranian website about Islam and women's rights. He told the first appeal hearing last week that he had been tortured into confessing to adding three paragraphs to the text. He represented himself at the court because fundamentalist groups were threatening to kill any lawyer who took on his case.

According to Samay Hamed, the co-ordinator of Mr Kambaksh's campaign team, President Karzai first agreed to pardon the student in March this year. "I ... have been told repeatedly by government ministers that [they] want the matter resolved quickly."

Canadians aim to gain loyalty in Afghan 'Shangri-La'

ARGHANDAB VALLEY, Afghanistan (CTV) 26 May 2008 — So let's take a drive. We come out of the Kandahar Air Field, turn left onto a madly busy highway and head west towards Kandahar City. We've done this many times, but instead of going into the town centre, we skip a turn and drive north.

I'd forgotten I was here before, because there on the right is Mullah Omar's compound, which I first saw in 2002 when it was little more than a bombed-out ruin. Today it's held by American Special Forces behind high walls and rolls of razor wire.

But this time, we're going even farther, up a long winding hill and as we reach the crest, the landscape suddenly blooms into a green fertile valley. After weeks and weeks of seeing nothing but brown, brown, brown, the view makes you gape.

Mountain runoff has been channelled into canals and spillways that sparkle blue in the sunlight; a little girl is washing her hair; the sound of the rushing water makes you forget where you are. My colleague Murray was right when he described it as an Afghan Shangri-La.

This is the Arghandab, named after the river that runs through the valley. Famous for its pomegranates. Fertile, prosperous and above all, strategic. If the Taliban take this prize, Kandahar City is just over the hill.

That's why the Canadians have set up a new operating base here and why they're working with tribal leaders to build roads and bridges and schools, to dig wells, and put up retaining walls, and widen canals. There's money -- lots of money for development -- and it's fair to say the Canadians are trying to buy loyalty with every dollar they spend, every job they create.

Inside the district centre, there's a shura going on, a meeting between tribal leaders and Canadian soldiers, who are part of a team that plans and approves local projects. First they talk about security, and then they talk about development. It's all very friendly and polite. And things seem to be moving.

"I've seen some changes since I've been here, in small chunks," says Sgt. Ron Leblanc, who's in charge of the Canadian unit. He's an Ojibway from Manitoba, and by nature of his birthright, knows something about cultural sensitivity.

"I have a good understanding of the tribalism here," he tells me, "and how it can impact on what you're trying to achieve."

Twenty-five projects have already been approved for the Arghandab, and another 50 have been proposed. Leblanc has a favorite, and it's a good story.

There's a park near the district centre, and every Wednesday thousands of Afghan women spend the day there. But for a long time, there were no doors on the women's washroom, so in order to use the toilets, the women had to hold up a blanket for each other.

When Leblanc heard this, he made some enquiries. "Within a week," he says, "we had a contractor down there installing doors on the washroom. "It was a quick fix, and they're very appreciative."

That was small, whereas the bridge outside the village is big, a $900,000 project funded by Canada that will connect communities during the worst of the Arghandab's winter flooding. And yes, there's a good side and bad side of the river.

The Taliban are on the other side, the bad side, and even before this project was started, community leaders went to see them.

The contractor, Abdul Razak Durrani, picks up the story. Incidentally this is the biggest construction job he's ever undertaken, all of it under the watchful eyes of an Afghan army guard post.

"Community leaders talked to the Taliban," he says, "and they told them this bridge is for the people. It's our bridge." He says there's been no trouble. The machine gun at the guard post might help.

The bridge will service 15,000 families on both sides of the river, and tribal leaders hope it will lead to peace and greater prosperity. All of that Canadian aid money will certainly help, but that will be gone if the Taliban get a strong foothold here.

I ask Haji Ras Mohammed, a prominent member of the shura, if he's afraid of the Taliban. "If I were afraid of them," he says, "I wouldn't be here."

So is progress being made? Are the Canadians really making a difference? In other more hostile areas, the answer seems to be, "No, not a lot." But here, Leblanc thinks they're doing OK.

"If we're lucky," he says they get some intelligence from the locals. Tips on roadside bombs and Taliban hideouts. But he's still doesn't sound all that confident. Is their loyalty only as deep as the Canadians' pockets?

"They're on the fence about who they're going to choose and side with," he says. "My job is to persuade them to be pro-ISAF, and not allow the Taliban in here."

And that's how it works. In theory. You make people believe their lives will be more "desirable" -- in Leblanc's words -- without the Taliban. "That's why I came here."

I also wanted to ask him about corruption, because many believe that's a bigger problem for Afghanistan than the Taliban. Nobody doubts that millions and millions of redevelopment dollars have gone missing.

Even for his little projects, Leblanc says he needs at least three bids, but accepts that corruption is a part of life in Afghanistan, and sometimes you just have to overlook it.

"In order to get things done," he says, "sometimes you have to deal with people who are shady."

Hundreds of Afghans protest US Koran shooting

Mon May 26- MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) - Hundreds of university and school students demonstrated in Afghanistan Monday in a new protest over a US soldier's shooting of a Koran in Iraq and other alleged affronts to Islam.

About 800 students marched from Balkh university in Mazar-i-Sharif to the main mosque in the city centre chanting slogans against the "enemies of Islam" including the United States and President George W. Bush, an AFP reporter said.

"We strongly condemn the shooting of our holy book by an American soldier in Iraq. He must be hanged for that," said one of the protesters, Ahmad Nasir, a religious student.

The students tore an effigy of Bush to pieces and read out a resolution that demanded the execution of fellow student Parwiz Kambakhsh, a reporter sentenced to death in Balkh in January for alleged blasphemy.

Addressing the crowd, religious cleric Mawlawi Abdul Qahar said Westerners were insulting Islam. "Muslims have never insulted or dishonored the Torah or the Bible. Why do they insult our book?" he asked.

The US soldier who riddled a copy of the Koran with bullets in Iraq in March was sent home for disciplinary action. Bush and the US military have apologised.

In addition around 200 high school students in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province south of Kabul, protested against the Koran desecration and chanted death to "enemies of Islam," said the provincial police chief.

"There was a protest by Porak high school students which ended peacefully," Ghulam Mostafa told AFP. About 2,000 Afghans demonstrated against the incident in Afghanistan's remote central town of Chaghcharan on Thursday.

The protest turned violent and a Lithuanian soldier with NATO's International Security Assistance Force and two Afghan civilians were killed. Taliban insurgents said in a statement the desecration of the Koran proved "crusaders' fanaticism and enmity towards Muslims".

The statement said US forces had desecrated the Korana at their prisons in Guantanamo Bay and at their Bagram and Kandahar bases in Afghanistan. "The crusaders committed crimes in Guantanamo, Bagram and Kandahar after the US-led attack on the Islamic system of Afghanistan.

"The Holy Koran was insulted in different places. The firing on the Koran and Bush's announcement of a Crusade shows the Crusaders' prejudice and enmity towards the Islamic system."

Kambakhsh, a 23-year-old Balkh university student and reporter, is appealing against his conviction for blasphemy, which came after he was accused of downloading from the Internet and distributing articles said to question aspects of Islam.

His long-delayed appeal trial was on Sunday again adjourned for a week.

The Balkh demonstrators also referred to Abdul Rahman, an Afghan who was sentenced to death in 2006 for converting to Christianity. He was spirited out of Afghanistan and given asylum in Italy.

And they again condemned Danish cartoons first published two years ago that Muslims worldwide said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Eleven Afghans were killed in demonstrations against the cartoons in 2006.

Prayers in the Afghan sun

Shiites' revered shrine underscores relative calm of northern region compared to tension of Kabul

The Toronto Star, May 26, 2008 Rosie DiManno Columnist

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN–The gatekeeper, an ancient man with an Old Testament face, pushes a two-pronged staff among a vast assortment of shoes, rearranging them to his satisfaction.

He will remember, by means known only to him, what pair belongs to which owner.In stocking feet, we pass under the archway, sun-soaked marble flagstones burning our soles.

The muezzin's call to prayers, amplified by loudspeakers, echoes throughout the sweeping courtyard and into the neighbourhoods beyond. In the multi-domed mosque, flanked by minarets, the worshipful touch their foreheads to the ground in whispered genuflections. At the centre of the complex, the Shrine of Hazrat Ali shimmers in the noonday heat, every inch of surface covered by tessellated mosaic in turquoise, jade and yellow glaze.

Women kiss the tiles as men cup their hands in the supplicant gesture. Inside – beyond the threshold that non-Muslims can't cross – is the venerated burial spot from which this city takes its name: The Tomb of the Exalted.

Hazrat Ali was the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, the fourth and final orthodox Caliph of Islam.

While there is another shrine in Najaf, Iraq, that makes the same claim, many Shiite Muslims – certainly Afghans – believe this is the sacred site where Hazrat Ali's remains are buried in a glass enclosure, sarcophagus covered in a green shroud. Assassinated in Iraq in 661 A.D., local legend has it that Ali's followers, fearing enemies would take revenge on the body, placed the Caliph's corpse on the back of a white she-camel that wandered through the desert until she fell, exhausted, on this spot.

A succession of shrines were erected here and destroyed over the years, the contemporary building a faithful restoration of the 15th century version – the most beautiful construct in all of Afghanistan, surviving even the past three decades of war and civil unrest.

One of the shrine's custodians warmly greets a visitor to the attached museum, proudly pointing out a giant 600-year-old Qur'an under glass and other relics recovered from this site. On parting, he gives the visitor a silk head scarf. "You are our guest."

Thousands of white pigeons take to the wing overhead, as if on cue. There is an aura of majesty and serenity to the place.

Kabul, and the volatile regions south of the capital, feels long ago and far away, as distant geographically – on the other side of the Hindu Kush – as metaphysically. The north is a different country.

Of course, there is no such thing as tranquility anywhere in Afghanistan, no region totally immune to the violence of the neo-Taliban insurgency.

Just last week, Afghan forces reportedly thwarted a car-bomb attack against German troops at their base just outside Mazar. Germany – with 3,200 troops, part NATO's International Security Assistance Force – is in charge of Regional Command North, encompassing nine provinces, although several other nations operate Provincial Reconstruction Teams within that domain. The Mazar PRT is actually run by the Swedes.

Berlin has adamantly refused to deploy any of its troops to the south, claiming they've already got their hands full up here with a spreading insurgency. But these things are relative and the north, especially around Mazar, feels relatively calm.

Mazar, in Balkh province, was one of the last cities to fall to the Taliban in the mid-1990s and the first major city taken back by the Northern Alliance after the U.S.-led coalition launched bombing sorties in response to the 9/11 attacks. While there was much retaliatory bloodletting in the streets – the mostly Tajik, Uzbek and Turkoman resident population avenging themselves against the detested Pashtun Taliban – the city itself came through that horrible era largely unscathed, its infrastructure intact, industry and commerce humming, its culture a bit more liberal.

In pre-Taliban days, under control of the notorious warlord Gen. Rashid Dostum, Mazar had a reputation as a less culturally rigid environment, where girls were allowed to be educated – though women, then as now, still wear the burqa, white rather than blue. Politically, Dostum has been quite marginalized, his power base – and a faithful militia – curtailed to the area around Shibarghan. The governor of Balkh – one of Afghanistan's richest provinces, sitting on abundant natural resources – is now Dostum's arch-enemy, Atta Mohammad Nur, an ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

There is an esprit in Mazar that doesn't exist in tension-wound Kabul, its broad avenues lined with leafy trees, families picnicking in the park that faces the shrine, ribbon-festooned pony-traps taking visitors around the city. Smiles come more easily. A snake charmer shows off his reptiles and scorpions.

In one girlie pinup-decorated tuk-tuk – the three-wheeled vehicles that compete with taxis for business – a group of young men sing along to Western music on their ghetto blaster. And, in the Mazar version of drag-racing, youngsters stand upright in the open trunks of speeding cars, as if they were charioteers, an alarming sight.

Back at the shrine, a visitor comes to reclaim her boots from a jumble of black footwear. The guardian picks them out immediately. "They're dusty," he admonishes. "You should get them polished."

Afghanistan: Flash floods displace 1,200 people in Samangan

KABUL, 26 May 2008 (IRIN) - Flash floods have displaced about 200 families (roughly 1,200 individuals) in the Hazrat Sultan district of Samangan Province in northern Afghanistan. The families urgently need food and shelter, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).

"Heavy summer rainfall caused two separate floods in Hazrat Sultan district on Sunday afternoon, which completely destroyed 26 houses, partly damaged more than 100 houses and killed dozens of animals. No human casualties were reported," Mohammad Zahir Hamidi, provincial head of ARCS, told IRIN from Samangan on 26 May.

"We will provide the displaced families with tents and kitchen kits. We asked the World Food Programme [WFP] to send food items," added Hamidi.

WFP said it will send a team from Kabul to assess the needs of the displaced families on 27 May. "After we get the result of the assessment, we will send food items to the affected families," Ebadullah Ebadi, a WFP spokesman, told IRIN in Kabul.

The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) in Kabul said that 190 families had fled their houses to a hill near their village where some stayed overnight. Others were accommodated by nearby villagers or went back to their partly damaged houses after the flood waters receded.

Meanwhile, the ARCS office in Samangan has warned of the possibility of more rain in the area. "We need urgent assistance because the displaced families are so vulnerable now and more floods would cause further damage [and suffering]," Hamidi said.

In February, a national emergency commission - made up of several government bodies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - warned that 21 out of the country's 34 provinces, including Samangan, were "vulnerable" to spring floods, which usually start in March and last until May.

A spell of floods and landslides caused by heavy rains killed dozens of people and damaged thousands of homes across Afghanistan in 2007, according to Afghanistan's National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA).

HIV risk in war-torn Afghanistan high - ministry

Mon May 26, 2008 7:26am EDT

KABUL, May 26 (Reuters) - The prevalence of HIV is low in Afghanistan, but the potential risk factors for the spread of the disease remain high, the Public Health Ministry said on Monday.

So far 435 HIV positive cases have been reported in Afghanistan, the ministry said in a statement, but it is estimated there are 2,000-2,500 cases in a population of some 26 million, still a relatively low infection rate.

"But ... war, poverty, illiteracy, massive international and external displacement, the high level of poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and usage, the existence of commercial and unsafe sex, unsafe injection practices and blood transfusion are potential risk factors for its spread," the ministry said.

Afghanistan is a deeply Islamic country and many of those affected with HIV do not want to speak about it and some are not aware they have it.

The World Bank has granted $10 million to the ministry for identifying and creating public awareness among those groups most at risk of HIV and AIDS, the government said.

Female soldiers at the forefront when dealing with Afghan women

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Dose.ca) 25 May 2008 - Female soldiers are finding an unwritten - but not unwanted - responsibility waiting for them in Afghanistan.

In many rural villages in Kandahar province, the only females who can meet local women wear the Canadian flag on their uniform. Large areas are too dangerous for anyone but a soldier to walk into.

Many Afghan women aren't allowed to speak with, or even see, men they aren't related to. The punishment for bringing such dishonour to their family can be death.

That leaves few options to directly contact women whose growth and freedom has been largely stunted for years.

"I didn't come here looking for this," said Master Cpl. Sheri Lynn Andrews. "I suppose my views were naive, I was coming to help Afghanistan as a whole. We're not a group of bra-burning woman activists, that's not why we're here. But the security situation is not conducive to civilians walking around. There's just nobody else."

Sgt. Connie Uetz accepts the same position. "These women have to be helped and if we're the only ones who can do it, then that's just the way it is," Uetz said.

Last week, outgoing Brig.-Gen Guy Laroche said a key success for the mission in Afghanistan would be when civilian groups could go into places such as the Zhari and Panjwaii districts to address social issues.

"It's still a dangerous place," he said. "Even though we have made huge process on the security side, it's not fully secure." In rural districts, that leaves the soldiers.

Almost all Afghan interpreters are men and the ensuing conversations take place on the other side of walls, both figurative and literal.

"The male interpreter will sit behind a door, a wall or sit with his back to the women in the room or even covering himself with a cloth and interpret that way," Uetz said. "It makes things very awkward."

Sometimes the male interpreter won't talk to women, said Master Bombardier Jennifer Mason, who works in the Panjwaii district.

When they do, the cliche of 'lost in translation' applies. Afghan women will be guarded for fear of crossing cultural lines.

More female interpreters are needed. In Kandahar City, Uetz has worked with the lone female resource available to Canadian Forces.

"Women are a lot more willing to express themselves emotionally and talk about more intimate aspects of their lives, their families, their concerns for their children, their issues with their husbands," Uetz said.

Uetz, Mason and Andrews are members of the civil-military co-operation team, which travels directly to Afghans to hear their concerns.

However, civilians in Canada are also working to advance women's rights in tandem with the Canadian military. The Canadian International Development Agency works in the more secure areas with partners such as UNICEF.

Their reach, however, can only go so far, said Elissa Golberg, Canada's top civilian representative in Kandahar.

"However, that doesn't mean we're not trying to reach those women through other means," she said.

Canada's civilian contingent has made obstetrics a top priority. Afghanistan has the second-highest rate of maternal-mortality in the world.

The agency has also helped with the construction of 51 new schools in the province, of which 23 are mixed-gender facilities or only teach females.

A Canadian-funded literacy centre recently opened in Kandahar City in hopes of raising female literacy rates beyond the current five per cent in that province.

Golberg said that such programs don't only help women, but have an impact on the stability, health and economic fortunes of Afghan society.

"We're optimistic," she said. "I see progress being made every day."

Despite Afghan women's eagerness to take steps forward, it will be a long road.

The tentative contacts Canadian soldiers and civilians are able to make are only the first step of progress that will happen over years, perhaps generations.

"They do want to see change, but it has to happen in baby steps," Uetz said. "We can't force our values and the progress that we've made in the last 100 years on them overnight. It takes time."

[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.]