In this bulletin:
- Islamabad’s talks with militants irks Kabul
- Taliban vow to keep up cross-border attacks
- Bin Laden in northern Pakistan: Afghan official
- Pakistan: New peace deal with militants
- Pact must ensure Pakistan’s writ in Tribal Areas: CIA director
- US should give time for peace agreement to work: Musharraf
- US should rethink Pakistan policy, says US senator
- Gunmen free Afghan health workers in southern Kandahar Province
- Militants set on fire health center in E Afghanistan
- Two suicide blasts strike Afghanistan, one dead
- In the footsteps of Osama ...
- Meeting Pakistan's most feared militant
- Highway blocked in protest against operation by foreign forces in Afghan east
- Canada hailed as role model for assistance to Afghanistan
- Afghan district police chief detained for running illegal prison
- Afghan drugs minister expects opium decrease
- The Business of Opium in Afghanistan: Nangrahar Drug Dealer
- Jiangxi Copper says in $808 mln Afghanistan deal
- ISAF to use local currency
- Northern Afghan province gets first female religious school
- Afghanistan is getting rebuilt
- The forgotten kid of Guantánamo
Islamabad’s talks with militants irks Kabul
Web posted at: 5/28/2008 - Source: REUTERS
KABUL • Afghanistan yesterday voiced concerns over peace talks between Pakistan and Taliban-linked militants active in the rugged tribal areas along its frontier saying such deals could increase violence.
Top Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is based in restive South Waziristan tribal district, vowed last week to continue attacks in Afghanistan while pursuing peace talks with Pakistan.
"We welcome any political efforts by Pakistan to find solutions for internal problems," Homayun Hamidzada, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, told reporters.
"But such agreements should not result in intensified attacks and infiltration of terrorists to Afghanistan," the spokesman said.
He said Kabul had conveyed its concern officially to Islamabad, with whom it is seeking friendly relations.
"Pakistan as a sovereign country has the responsibility not to allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities against its neighbours."If such activities take place, it will undermine its sovereignty," the spokesman said.
Afghan officials have repeatedly blamed Pakistan for turning a blind-eye to alleged Taliban militant training centres and finance networks in its semi-autonomous border regions.
Islamabad has strongly rejected the accusations. Pakistan has already signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, about 99km from Afghanistan, to quell the violence.
Islamabad has repeatedly suggested it could fence its long porous border with Afghanistan to stop crossborder infiltration. Hamidzada said to fence the border was not a solution.
"We must go to the roots of the problem. The problem is the hideouts, the nests of terrorism and Pakistan should neutralise that and not divide families by the fence," he said.
The Taliban regime was ousted from government in Afghanistan by US-led military in 2001 when they refused to hand over Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11 attacks.
The network has allegedly regrouped in Pakistan and a Pentagon report last week said the growth of Al Qaeda safe havens there was "troubling."
Last year was the deadliest of the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, with 8,000 people killed, according to UN figures. Most of the dead were rebels, though 1,500 civilians and several hundred soldiers were also slain.
The Al Qaeda-backed Taliban are mostly active in southern and eastern areas along the border with Pakistan's tribal region where the militants have some bases.
Taliban vow to keep up cross-border attacks
* Commander says Waziristan serving as ‘centre’ for jihad training
By Iqbal Khattak, Daily Times 28 May 2008
KOTKAI: The Taliban will not accept any government condition to stop cross-border movement to finalise a peace deal, a militant commander declared last week.
“First, we will not accept such a ban. But we hope the peace deal will be inked without a clause that puts restrictions on mujahideen to cross the border (into Afghanistan),” Abu Zakwan, Taliban commander in the Kotkai area of South Waziristan, told Daily Times on Saturday. Using the alias of Abu Zakwan, the commander said that government negotiators are asking for a pledge to stop cross-border attacks, but the Taliban were not committing to such an agreement.
Jihad centre: He said Waziristan was serving the region as “centre for jihad” and people from across the country were being trained for holy war “against the United States”.
Meanwhile, Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud broke his silence over differences with commander Maulvi Nazir, who ousted foreign militants from South Waziristan last year. “He (Maulvi Nazir) has committed sin by helping the army (against foreign militants),” Mehsud told Daily Times.
“(Maulvi Nazir) helped army against mujahideen. He is out of the Taliban and Muslims’ rank,” Mehsud said. “We would like him to come on our side and fight along with us against the army. But he likes to be friend of the army,” he added.
Bin Laden in northern Pakistan: Afghan official
KABUL (AFP) - A top Afghan intelligence official said Tuesday his agency received information several months ago that Al-Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden is hiding in northern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that bin Laden was said to be in a mountainous region in Chitral, a Pakistani region facing Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar.
Pakistani officials have in the past said that the world's most wanted man was hiding in Kunar, a claim strongly rejected by Kabul.
"We've received new information that he is hiding in Chitral. We got the information about his presence in that area about four, five months ago," the Afghan intelligence official said.
US authorities have previously also said that the fugitive Al-Qaeda chief had taken refuge in Chitral and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is also in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Thousands of US and NATO soldiers are based in Afghanistan hunting for the pair and fighting back an Al-Qaeda-backed insurgency the Taliban launched after they were ousted from government in 2001.
Al-Arabiya television reported last week that Pakistani sources had said US and Afghan officials had discussed launching military operations in Pakistan's northern areas in light of information that bin Laden was there.
Pakistan: New peace deal with militants
- The Associated Press - Wednesday, May 28, 2008; 1:34 AM
KHAR, Pakistan -- An official says the government has signed a peace deal with a small Taliban militant group in a region near the Afghan border.
The agreement marks the latest in a series of accords sought by Pakistan's new government as it tries to end extremism in the country.
Syed Ahmad, a deputy administrator in Mohmand tribal region, said Wednesday the deal includes a pledge from militants led by Umar Khalid not to target security and government officials. The government in return freed an unspecified number of militants.
The accord was reached Monday. Pakistan's tribal regions are considered havens for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. U.S. officials have warned such deals could give militants time to regroup and intensify attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pact must ensure Pakistan’s writ in Tribal Areas: CIA director
Daily Times 28 May 2008
* Gen Michael Hayden says CIA expects Al Qaeda ‘succession crisis’
WASHINGTON: Any peace agreement that does not move the effective writ of the Pakistani government into the tribal region and push the rule of law there gives the militants the opportunity to continue to train, refit and move across the Afghan border, CIA Director Gen Michael Hayden said in an Associated Press interview on Tuesday.
“It’s something we certainly could not look kindly on,” Hayden said in the telephone interview.
The CIA is believed to have been using armed drones to attack alleged terrorists inside the Tribal Areas, as US military forces are barred from pursuing Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters across the Afghan border. Hayden would not say what else the CIA is doing, if anything, to target terrorist enclaves there.
“It’s hard for me to get into any details. I understand the situation there and I’m comfortable with the authorities we’ve been given,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of senior leadership killed or captured including even in the last several months.”
Succession crisis: There is “a big and continual push” to capture or kill Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, but his demise won’t end the organisation’s menace, he said. The CIA is equally interested in those jockeying to replace Bin Laden in what he predicted will be a “succession crisis”.
“It will be really interesting to see how that plays out. The organisation is a lot more networked than it is ruthlessly hierarchical,” Hayden said. “How do you pick the next overall leader?”
A number of Egyptians are now part of Al Qaeda’s top echelon and may struggle for power amongst themselves. Bin Laden’s current number two, Ayman Al Zawahiri, is an Egyptian.
Despite Al Qaeda’s resilience, taking out Bin Laden would be a psychological blow to the organisation, Hayden said. AP
“If there ever was a sense of invulnerability I think killing or capturing him would shatter it once and for all,” he said. ap
US should give time for peace agreement to work: Musharraf
Daily times 28 May 2008
* President underlines importance of US support to counter terrorism
* US delegates applaud Pakistan’s commitment to combat extremism
RAWALPINDI: Reiterating Pakistan’s commitment to fight terrorism, President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday asked the United States to understand ground realities in Pakistan and give time for the peace agreement made by the NWFP government to work.
Talking to two US Congressional delegations led by Senator Ben Nelson and Congressman Adam Schiff at his Camp Office in Rawalpindi, the president said Pakistan considered US Congress’ support for the broadening of mutual ties very important.
“The president underlined the importance of congressional support for counter-terrorism initiatives of the government, namely the FATA Development Plan, capacity building of the Frontier Corps (FC) and establishment of the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs),” the Foreign Office said.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Musharraf also underlined Pakistan’s contribution to international counter-terrorism efforts and stressed the importance of the government’s strategy that covered political, military and socio-economic dimensions.
Efforts to strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border were also discussed.
Extremism: The visiting delegates applauded Pakistan’s commitment to combating extremism, and reaffirmed their support for Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts and social development goals.
The delegation led by Senator Ben Nelson included Congressman Allen Boyd and Congressman Nick Lampson, and the delegation led by Congressman Adam Schiff consisted of Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and Congressman Wayne Gilchrist.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his meetings with the visiting delegations at Prime Minister’s House, said no system was better suited to combat terrorism than democracy.
He asked the US to support the democratically elected government’s efforts to stabilise its economy and improve the population’s living standards.
“The world community has to develop a collective approach to arrest the trend of terrorism and extremism by addressing its root causes,” he added. He stressed the need for enhanced intelligence sharing between the two countries.
“Pakistan values its strategic relationship with the US and desires to expand co-operation in trade, investment, economic and social sectors,” he told the visiting delegates, who were accompanied by US Ambassador Anne W Patterson. He asked the US for greater market access to Pakistani products.
Gilani said political dialogue with moderate elements that had renounced war and laid down arms, economic uplift and empowerment of the Tribal Areas through establishment of ROZs and a continued campaign against the extremists and terrorists comprised the new government’s three-pronged strategy against terrorism.
“Pakistan believes a varying combination of these elements will eventually help achieve the common objective,” he said, urging the senators to ensure early passage of the legislation pertaining to the ROZs. The delegates said relations with Pakistan and its people were very important for the US and that the US wanted to develop stable and multi-faceted relationship with Pakistan. staff report/online
US should rethink Pakistan policy, says US senator
Daily times 28 May 2008
WASHINGTON: The United States should rethink its approach in Pakistan, including a multimillion dollar programme aimed at training and equipping tribal militants, unless Islamabad does more to keep terrorists from crossing the Afghan border, a top Democrat said on Tuesday.
Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Senator Carl Levin told reporters after a three-day trip to the region that US officials have little confidence that parts of the Pakistan government, particularly its army, are working actively to stop the flow of Taliban fighters and weapons into Afghanistan. In some cases, these groups might even be supporting terrorists, he said. “If that’s our intelligence assessment, then there’s a real question as to whether or not we should be putting money into strengthening the Frontier Corps on the Pakistan side,” Levin said in a conference call from Qatar.
Levin is among a growing chorus of Democrats who question the more than $10 billion in US military and economic aid given to Pakistan to fight terror since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The senior Democrat, overseeing a major policy bill authorising more than $600 billion in annual defence spending, said he is interested in restricting $70 million designated for Pakistan's Frontier Corps. He did not say the United States should conduct anti-terrorism strikes inside Pakistan without Islamabad’s permission, at least for now.
“I don’t think we ought to be focusing on moving our troops into Pakistan; we ought to be insisting that Pakistan remove those threats,” Levin said. “And if they don’t remove those threats, that should change our policy, including our military funding for the Pakistanis, if they’re not going to address the threats that end up hurting and harming our people and endangering Afghanistan.” ap
Gunmen free Afghan health workers in southern Kandahar Province
Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Kandahar, 27 May: The abducted workers of AHDS health NGO have been freed.
Speaking to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP] on the condition of anonymity, a worker of the Afghan Health and Development Services [AHDS] said: "Four workers of our health NGO, who were abducted by unidentified men in Nahr-e Robat area of Daman District of Kandahar Province yesterday, arrived in Kandahar city in good health today."
One of the abducted workers told AIP: "We were abducted by the Taleban yesterday and we were freed in Arghestan District last night after being interrogated."
He said the Taleban told them: "We were given wrong information about you that is why we abducted you, but we are now freeing you as it became clear that you are innocent people."
Officials have not yet given details about this issue.
Militants set on fire health center in E Afghanistan
Xinhua / May 28, 2008
Anti-government militants set ablaze a clinic in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province early Wednesday, a police officer said.
Armed militants set on fire a health clinic in the outskirts of Khost city, the capital of Khost province, at 3 a.m. local time and destroyed it, a senior police officer in the province, Azizullah Paktiawal, told Xinhua.
The police have arrested six suspected persons in this regard, he added. The clinic was providing health service to some 40,000 locals.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility, but officials often blame such attacks on Taliban militants who usually target government institutions, including schools and security personnel.
Taliban militants whose regime was ousted from power by a U.S.-led military invasion in late 2001 have vowed to oust the Afghan government and evict foreign forces from the post-Taliban nation.
Two suicide blasts strike Afghanistan, one dead
May 28, 2008
KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two separate suicide bombs struck Afghanistan Wednesday, one of them against a US-led military base, leaving one person dead and several wounded, officials and a witness said.
The extremist Taliban movement said it was behind an attack in a district of Khost province on the eastern border with Pakistan but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for one in Helmand province in the south.
Two attackers wearing military uniforms had tried to enter the international military base in Khost's Gurbuz district, said provincial government spokesman Khaiber Pashtun.
"One of them walked out of the car and opened fire on police and the other exploded the car," Pashtun said. Police returned fire and killed the man on foot, he said.
Two people were hurt but it was not immediately clear who they were, he said.
The US and NATO military forces confirmed there had been an incident but said it was too early to say what had happened.
International military helicopters flew overhead soon after the attack and a plume of dust and smoke rose into the air, an AFP reporter said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said one of his group's "friends" had blown up a bomb-filled Russian Jeep outside the base.
In Helmand, a bomber who was on foot blew himself up near a police vehicle in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, killing a civilian passerby, police said.
"One civilian was killed, five civilians and two policemen were wounded," deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Kamal Hakim told AFP. A police vehicle was damaged, he added.
Taliban insurgents are particularly active in Helmand, where Afghanistan's opium and heroin production is its highest and is said to finance militant activity.
In another incident Wednesday, a Taliban-linked militant was killed and four others were captured, one of them wounded, after attacking a military patrol in Wardak, southwest of the capital Kabul, the defence ministry said.
"A five-member terrorist group who were intimidating people along the Kabul-Kandahar road were eliminated after ambushing an army patrol in Wardak province," the ministry said in a statement.
The group was behind a series of attacks on government vehicles in recent weeks, the statement added.
In a separate attack on police Tuesday, four Taliban were killed in a gunfight that erupted after they ambushed a convoy in the western province of Badghis, a police spokesman said.
Three policemen were wounded in the attack, said a police spokesman for western Afghanistan, Abdul Mutalib Rad.
The hardline Islamic militia, which was in government from 1996 to 2001, has stepped up attacks in recent weeks with around a dozen policemen and a dozen civilians killed in violence Tuesday -- one of the bloodiest days in weeks.
Afghan and international military forces have several operations under way against the militants.
In the footsteps of Osama ...
By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times Online / May 28, 2008
KUNAR VALLEY, Afghanistan - Nearly seven years after invading Afghanistan to go after Osama bin Laden, the United States has stepped up its campaign to catch the al-Qaeda leader and his senior associates, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are believed to be in the rugged terrain spanning Bajaur Agency in Pakistan and the neighboring Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nooristan.
The US has increased surveillance operations through newly built bases in the region and additional daily flights of Predator drones scour the area for any suspicious characters who might lead the US to the world's most wanted man.
The recent killing of leading al-Qaeda figures Sheikh Abu Soliman and Sheikh Osman in Damadolah, Bajaur Agency, by US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drones was the result of the spy network's stepped-up surveillance in this vital corridor. (See Ducking and diving under B-52s Asia Times Online, May 22, 2008, in which the news of the death of the two men was first reported.)
According to some reports, in the past few days, US security and military officials held a top-level summit at a military base in the Qatari capital of Doha to plan an operation to hunt for the al-Qaeda leader. General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, and the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Petersen, were reported to have attended the summit.
Last week, Petraeus testified before a US Congressional committee about security in Iraq and warned that members of al-Qaeda based in Pakistan's tribal areas were planning a new September 11-style attack.
Revelations on the road to Pakistan
I have witnessed how the Taliban rule the Pakistani Mohmand and Bajaur tribal agencies and the Kunar Valley without any formal government. The Taliban are undoubtedly the real regional force "which can only be heard but cannot be seen". The Taliban are more a feeling than a physical presence in these tribal areas, yet they are a force that can transform society.
Seven months ago I visited Bajaur and Mohmand agencies. As my taxi driver headed from Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, he was played some Pashtu music on the car's CD. Quickly, though, he changed it for jihadi songs.
"The militants have not only brought guns to the tribal areas, they have also brought a culture which has transformed tribal society," commented a passenger traveling with me.
This set me thinking. Where are people like Nashanas - a legendary singer? His songs are only heard in urban centers such as Kabul, Peshawar, Herat, Quetta and Kandahar. In his place are poetry and songs that talk not of love and lovers but of a mujahid and his gun - his long hair and beard, his wounds of war, his passion for resistance and his preference for the battlefield rather than intimacy with his lover.
This has given rise to a new breed of people who inspire such poetry, such as Mr S, whom I met this month while returning from Kunar province to Pakistan after a stay with the Taliban.
"Mr Saleem, you are extremist. Please be moderate," he bluntly told me. The reasons for calling me an extremist were twofold: my wearing the traditional warm Pakhol cap in the hot weather, and that I had managed to travel to the Kunar Valley and back despite being out of condition.
S is 25 and initially seemed like any other foot soldier who had taken his inspiration from the lectures of a radical cleric. I was very wrong and the Punjabi with a soft face revealed much humility as I got to know him better on our hike through the mountains.
S is the son of a Pakistani military officer and left his home after completing school at the age of 17. Ever since, he has been an active jihadi, and in eight years he has only seen his family once.
He joined al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001 - even serving for bin Laden - but soon after that event he went to the South Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan with Arab-Afghans such as Sheikh Ahmad Saeed Khadr and Sheikh Essa.
S said his association with Arab-Afghan militants turned him from an ordinary jihadi into an astute trainer. "In my early 20s, I was training big names of this region, including young Arabs and Uzbeks who were many years older than me," said S.
S could have earned a monthly stipend to devote himself to being a jihad, but he chose to work as a trader in Pakistani cities to earn extra money. He then returned to the mountain vastness of Afghanistan to join the Taliban's fight against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in Afghanistan.
A turning point in S's life came when, returning from Khost province in Afghanistan where he ran a training camp, Pakistani Frontier Corps arrested him.
"I was passed on from one security agency to another and each time the interrogation methods changed. My pre-9/11 association with bin Laden, Zawahiri, and occasional meetings with Zawahiri after 9/11 boosted me as an 'al-Qaeda associate' in the eyes of my Pakistani examiners. For one-and-half years I did not see a single ray of sunlight. After thorough interrogations, they concluded that I was just a fighter and a trainer against NATO troops who happened to be a 'renegade' son of an army officer," said S.
"They contacted my father and despite that he had abandoned me a long time ago, when he heard about my situation all his fatherly affection returned and he agreed to become my guarantor that I would not take part in any jihadi activities.
"So I was released in front of Peshawar railway station, blindfolded, and when my blinds were removed there was my old father in front of me. I was standing with my hands and feet chained, and when my guards removed these my father hugged me and wept profusely.
"That was the only brief interaction between me and my family as I once again went into my own world of jihad. It was me and my gun, and I never looked back to see if there was any family, a father or a mother, waiting for me ... though I miss them a lot," S related in a sad, soft voice.
S then went on to tell of his first showdown with American soldiers in Birmal (near Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area) in Afghanistan. Some Americans were killed, but most of S's colleagues were either killed or wounded. Shattered, S only just managed to make it back to his base.
S has earned a reputation in jihadi circles as a spiritual healer. Whether for headaches, stomach aches or wounds, his recitation of the Koran has a healing effect.
"What worldly gains do we get in these mountains?" S asks rhetorically. "None! We have left everything behind ... even this mass of flesh does not belong to us. Hence we are left with our soul ... which is now very much alive and awakened," said S.
Later, while walking in the forested mountains of Kunar, I shot a question at S: "Where is bin Laden?"
"First, you tell me what your guess is," said S with a smile. So I sat down under a tree, and in the light of the moon I drew a circle in the sand with the dried branch of tree.
"This is the region of Kunar-Nooristan-Bajaur and Chitral [the region that spans the Afghan-Pakistani border]. I suppose this is where Osama is supposed to be ... I have reason to believe he might be in Nooristan, in some deserted place near the Afghan province of Badakshan," I smiled back at S, giving him a challenging stare.
For a moment S did not speak, he just watched my face; he seemed surprised. "You have got a good vision of this region at least," S finally commented, then he stood up and we continued the journey.
"I also have the same region in mind ... though I do not know where exactly he is," S said, adding that the main concern is that the Americans are also attracted by this region and are now focussing their efforts on it in their search for bin Laden.
"If, God forbid, they catch or kill the sheikh [bin Laden] it would cause a huge loss to the mujahideen. Believe you me, it would be like almost winning the war. The morale of the mujahideen would be low and all the money pouring in from the Middle East would stop because it only comes in the sheikh's name," S said.
"This is a guess according to material knowledge. But I will share with you the spiritual experience. As you are aware, people in this region take me into their homes if they suspect someone is haunted by a jinni [supernatural spirit].
"Some time ago in this region I was invited to treat such a person [a man]. The effect of the jinni was removed as I overwhelmed the jinni. It was in my control [and it later, according to S, embraced Islam] so I asked him [the jinni] to tell him [the man] the whereabouts of bin Laden. He [the man] came back after a while and told me he could only travel up as far as the Kunar Valley before he was stopped by Muslim jinnis who had placed a heavy guard in the region," S said.
"So even judging by my spiritual experience, you seem to be correct that the sheikh is somewhere in Nooristan at the crossroads of Kunar and Badakshan," said S.
Switching topics, S said he is against the use of suicide attacks. "I do not know the exact status of such attacks in Islamic law, but certainly in my manuals of war it is prohibited. I have argued with all the top commanders that any target can be hit without the use of suicide attacks," S said.
On strategic matters, S is clear that attacks on Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas can only add up to problems. "I always argued with top ideologues like Sheikh Essa that the more success we get in Afghanistan, the more we will gain support from Pakistan. If NATO remains strong in Afghanistan, it will put pressure on Pakistan. If NATO remains weaker in Afghanistan, it will dare [encourage] Pakistan to support the Taliban, its only real allies in the region," S said.
Our chat was interrupted by our guide Zubair Mujahid, who directed us not to speak as a border crossing was near. "We will cross in half an hour and will reach Pakistani territory at about 3 o'clock in the morning," he said.
"So early ... do you not fear that a group of goons will try to kidnap us for ransom?" I teased Zubair.
"Goons! Who is a bigger goon than us ... we have left the entire world and the entire world has abandoned us. Yet we freely challenge the world powers without any fear ... you think those little robbers who snatch money from people can dare stand in front of us?" Zubair replied.
In an hour we reached a point in Pakistan from where I could take video footage of the whole region of Kunar and Bajaur and the mountain belt going towards Chitral, Nooristan and Tajikistan.
Zubair and S, along with two other fellows, were saying their morning prayers on a wide stone on the edge of a cliff. The sun was showing its first struggling signs of rising in the east. I had the strong feeling that the region is on the threshold of a new culture whose rays are about to spread beyond war games and war theaters.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
Meeting Pakistan's most feared militant
BBC News / Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Baitullah Mehsud, who heads the loose grouping of militants known as the Pakistan Taleban, has given a rare press conference to invited journalists. They included the BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan.
"I hope your trip has been enjoyable so far," our host asks us.
Ordinary garden tea party talk except for two things - the venue and the host.
We are in Pakistan's tribal region of South Waziristan. Our host is the region's top Islamic militant, Baitullah Mehsud.
Commander Mehsud has recently been named in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Newsweek has labelled him "more dangerous than Osama bin Laden".
President Pervez Musharraf accused him last year of being responsible for dozens of suicide attacks which led Pakistan into emergency rule.
The CIA says he was the brains behind the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto.
With such a reputation, it is not surprising that there is a sense of awe as this short, plump, bearded man greets us.
We are part of a group of journalists invited by Mr Mehsud to his stronghold to see for ourselves "the atrocities committed by the Pakistan army in its recent campaign in the area".
Pakistan's army and pro-Taleban militants led by Baitullah Mehsud have recently agreed to a ceasefire after being locked in battle for most of 2007.
The ceasefire is part of attempts to secure a lasting peace in the area.
Earlier this month the army brought in journalists to show their successes against the militants in January.
Now it's the militants' turn to have their say.
Our journey with the Taleban had begun with a long wait for them at a petrol station in the town of Mir Ali, just inside North Waziristan.
A caravan with over half a dozen vehicles took off, travelling at breakneck speed through beautiful valleys and towering mountains.
Our escorts were on their guard, the speed is as much for security as for safety.
We saw very little of the heavy presence of troops in the area that the government talks about.
We did see plenty of abandoned check posts and bunkers destroyed by the Taleban.
In the town of Makeen in South Waziristan we switched to four-wheel drives.
Our destination was the district of Sararogha, very much the heart of Taleban territory.
It was dark when we finally arrived at a madrassa (religious school) high up on the mountains where we stayed in a nearby house for the night.
The next morning we headed down to the valley below to be shown the damage caused by bombing raids carried out by military aircraft.
The villages were a scene of havoc, with almost all the houses having suffered some damage.
Some have been completely destroyed, leaving their owners homeless.
"I have no money left now," says Ali Khan, a local of Golrama village in the Kotkai area.
Jets bombed Mr Khan’s house after he had fled the fighting with his family.
"I worked in the UAE since 1980 to build this... all my life's savings."
"There are no Taleban in my house, why did the government do this?"
Many families who fled during the intense fighting have been coming home to similar scenes.
Our last stop was Spinkai market which is now a mile long stretch of rubble.
Angry shopkeepers and irate locals line up to express their anger.
"The place they said was used to train suicide bombers is, in fact, a flour mill," says Haji Khan, whose shop was also destroyed.
"We were all traders here and now our means of earning a living is gone."
As he complains, a line of vehicles passes us on its way back to the nearby hamlets and villages.
The ceasefire, it seems, is already starting to take effect.
But will it last, or go the way other deals have gone before?
In our garden meeting, "Amir Sahib" (honoured leader) - as Baitullah Mehsud is affectionately called by his men - smiles and shakes his head when this query is raised.
Around us, dozens of militants armed to the teeth listen intently to their leader.
"The Taleban are committed to their word," he says.
"The onus is now on the government - whether they hold to their word, or remain in the alliance with the US."
If that persists, Commander Mehsud says, the militants will have no choice but return to their path of resistance.
"We do not want to fight Pakistan or the army. But if they continue to be slaves to US demands, then we our hands will be forced.
"There can be no deal with the US."
Highway blocked in protest against operation by foreign forces in Afghan east
Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Kabul, 27 May: Angry protestors have blocked the Kabul-Pol-e Alam highway for a few hours in protest against an operation by foreign forces [in eastern Logar Province].
According to reports, hundreds of angry protestors this morning blocked the Pol-e Alam-Kabul highway until noon in Pol-e Alam, the capital of Logar Province, in protest against last night's operation by foreign forces in Kamalkhel village that resulted in the death of Abdol Malek in his home and the detention of four others by the foreign forces.
The protestors, who brought the body of Mawlawi Abdol Malek onto the streets, called on the government to find his killers.
The angry protest came to an end this noon when the four persons detained by the foreign forces were released due to efforts of Logar Governor Abdollah Wardag. No violence was reported during the demonstration.
When the security head of Logar Province, Abdol Majid Khan, was asked about the operation! and the protests, he said: "Mawlawi Abdol Malek, who was killed in the operation, was serving as an official in Nangarhar Province during the Taleban rule. At present he was serving as a teacher in a school but had links with the Taleban in secret."
The security chief added: "People of his village brought the body of Mullah Abdol Malek onto the streets as a sign of protest and blocked the highway, but we held talks with them and put an end to the protest."
Canada hailed as role model for assistance to Afghanistan
Lalit K Jha - May 24, 2008 - 17:50
NEW YORK (PAN): The Afghan ambassador has praised Canada as a role-model for all those who want to help his country, devastated by decades of strife.
"Not only is Canada ranked among the top five donors, delivers on its pledges and is a force for stability in Kandahar, it is also becoming a role model for many others ," Omar Samad said in Vancouver.
Addressing the International Development Day Conference, Samad said: "Not only were you among the first countries to adopt the 3-D approach, but you actually turned it into a more comprehensive model, which is sometimes referred to as a "whole of government" approach, putting you in a unique position to work with us to resolve specific issues in a sustainable manner and pass on ownership to the Afghans."
Samad added Afghanistan was fully cognizant of the fact that when a donor played its role to the fullest, it was easy for his country to take responsibility for doing the rest by learning to nurture, reform, manage and take charge of its affairs.
Referring to the challenges faced by Afghanistan, Samad said latest figures showed that only 60 percent of funds were being disbursed because of stringent procurement procedures.
"Only about 20 percent of the total aid has passed through Afghan channels and a staggering 30 percent over the past five years can be categorised as repatriated, tax-free income. For example, international technical assistance is considered to be largely wasted, especially when it lacks residual value," Samad explained.
The goal was to build a strong foundation for peace and prosperity, the ambassador said, explaining: "Not only do we now need to consolidate the gains, but we also need to adjust and re-calibrate our security, political and developmental strategies."
The ambassador warned: "Our collective gains could be jeopardised if we do not reverse the trend of uncoordinated and under-resourced international efforts, and fix the problems of weak Afghan institutions plagued by corruption, low capacity and drug interests."
Afghan district police chief detained for running illegal prison
Text of report by private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Kandahar, 27 May: The police chief of a district in [southern] Helmand Province has been detained and four people freed from a private prison. The Helmand Province military prosecutor, Mohammad Anwar, attended a press conference yesterday evening and said police had detained the police chief of Nawa District, Nafas Khan, for having a private prison.
The military prosecutor added: "Complaints had been made to Helmand Governor Golab Mangal that the Nawa police chief had his own private prison and there were a few prisoners in the prison. Following the complaints, the police carried out an operation as a result of which the police chief was detained and four persons freed from his prison."
Speaking at the press conference, Joma Gul, who was freed from the private prison of the Nawa police chief, said: "I have served in the police in the past, and when I stopped serving in the police, the police chief detained me and put me in his private prison."
Joma Gul said he was harshly beaten by the police chief during the detention.
At the conclusion of the press conference, the military prosecutor said the detained police chief would be prosecuted and may be sentenced from five to 15 years in prison.
Afghan drugs minister expects opium decrease
FAYZABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - The Afghan counternarcotics minister said he expects a sharp fall this year in the amount of opium produced in Afghanistan, the world's leading supplier of the drug.
Around 20 of the country's 34 provinces were also likely this year to be declared "opium free" in a survey due to be completed in the coming months, General Khodaidad told reporters in the northern town of Fayzabad.
This would be up from 13 last year and six in 2006.
"I expect that there will be a sharp decrease this year... in the whole country," Khodaidad said, when asked about production which last year stood at 93 percent of the world total.
The decline was in part because the government was meeting with farmers and local officials to persuade them not to grow the drug with a promise they would be rewarded with development projects, he said.
A process of eradication -- which has cost the lives of about 65 police and soldiers this year -- was also continuing, he said.
There have been several attacks on counternarcotics teams, many claimed by the extremist Taliban rebel movement which profits from Afghanistan's opium and heroin trade, according to officials.
Most of the new opium-free provinces would be in the northern and central areas, Khodaidad said in Fayzabad, capital of Badakhshan which was among the top opium producers for years but is expected to be nearly free in 2008.
A UN and Afghan survey found that last year 69 percent of opium was from the conflict-torn south, most of it from Helmand province.
Khodaidad acknowledged it would take time to beat drugs production in the southern areas where militants are most active and earn money from the trade.
The tactic would remain to eradicate opium fields and "hit the enemy, hit their convoys, punish their officials, arrest the drug dealers and secure the borders," the minister said.
In poppy-free areas it would be to push development to keep farmers from returning to the lucrative opium crop, he said.
The Business of Opium in Afghanistan: Nangrahar Drug Dealer
By Siri Nyrop - Nangahar Province, Afghanistan VOA News 27 May 2008
Afghanistan supplies virtually all of the world's illegal opium. Last year, the country's drug trade was a $4-billion business, half of which alone was produced in the south where the fighting against the Taliban insurgency is the fiercest.
Getting Afghanistan to rid itself of poppy is a pillar of U.S. policy there, because the Taliban use profits from opium as a source of revenue. For Afghans themselves, however, feelings about poppy are conflicted: It's harmful to their country and to their people, but it is also a livelihood for many where instability offers few alternatives.
In the first of a four part series, VOA's Afghan service examines the drug trade in Afghanistan. VOA's Siri Nyrop narrates.
Under cover of darkness, a farmer delivers his crop to market. The building is in Nangahar province, somewhere in the mountains near the border with Pakistan. The man inside is expecting him.
DEALER: "Have you brought the opium?
FARMER: "Yes."
DEALER: "Is it the right amount?"
FARMER: "I didn't weigh it."
DEALER: "Then let's do that."
Large caliber ammo serves as weights as the dealer measures how many grams of opium the farmer has delivered. It's just a drop in the bucket that is Afghanistan's most lucrative export, worth around $4 billion last year.
Nangahar was the poster province for poppy eradication. But it surged back from de facto eradication in 2005 to a 273 percent increase in cultivation last year.
Nangahar farmer and elder, Dour Jan, supported the government ban on poppy, convincing fellow farmers not to grow it. They were promised government assistance with alternative livelihoods. But the farmers found the rewards no match for the sacrifice of the crop that was their livelihood. There is also the drought.
Jan explains, "Afghanistan is ill right now. We don't have just one disease - we have all diseases. We have hunger, there are not enough jobs, not enough clinics, and schools are empty."
Doug Wankel, former director, office of drug control, U.S. Embassy Kabul says, "Unfortunately, the farmer, unless he sees that assistance come directly to his farm, he doesn't notice it. But you see better roads now in Nangahar province. You have improved free seeds coming to Nangahar province. They have received free seeds. There's work being done on canals and some dams, things like this. They are slowly, slowly coming. The farmer has to understand that it takes some time."
Even displays of poppy eradication zeal by Nangahar's governor, Gul Sherzai, is not turning the tide away from the poppies again.
TRAFFICKER: "Look, you're under the amount we agreed on."
FARMER: "By how much?"
TRAFFICKER: "How are you going to make up the difference?"
FARMER: "I've spent the advance money you gave me. I'll make it up next year."
The dealers advance the poppy seeds to the growers. The harvest has to pay enough for the farmer to live on and to reimburse the dealer for the seeds. This man is now in debt even before he plants the next crop, which will also be advanced to him. For the dealer, it's not personal or even political. Just business.
The drug trafficker explains, "We are small drug dealers and we are not against the government. Frankly we think that the drug problem will linger for a long time and as long as there's a demand for drugs then we'll be in business."
Government leaders continue to debate how to get a handle on the vast illegal trade that makes relatively few Afghans rich and helps fund the insurgency. The farmer helps the dealer pack the opium for transit to Pakistan. He says that if he cannot plant poppy again, he will not have the money to pay off his poppy debt and keep his family fed.
Jiangxi Copper says in $808 mln Afghanistan deal
HONG KONG, May 28 (Reuters) - Jiangxi Copper Co (0358.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), China's top integrated copper producer, and China Metallurgical Group Corp will pay $808 million for the right to explore and exploit minerals in a copper mine field in Afghanistan.
Jiangxi Copper (600362.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) said the pair had won the contract for the vast Aynak Copper Mine, as the Chinese companies accelerate a search for minerals abroad to feed the world's fastest-growing major economy.
The contract with the Afghan government grants mining rights in the Central and Western mineralised zones for 30 years, in a move set to boost copper concentrate supplies to the Chinese copper producer.
The mining area has total resources reserves of 705 million tonnes of ores and an average copper content of 1.56 percent, comprising 11 million tonnes of copper metal deposits.
China's largest integrated copper producer said it would buy at least 50 percent of the copper concentrate products generated upon operation of the mine. It gave no further details.
In November, Jiangxi Copper said it would form a consortium with China Metallurgical Group Corp to participate in a tender for development of mineral resources in the Aynak Copper Mine.
Shares of Jiangxi Copper have fallen 8.7 percent so far this year to close at HK$17.48 on Tuesday. (US$1=HK$7.8) (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)
ISAF to use local currency
Allied force says it will improve economy by using afghanis
THE FINANCE department of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has said it will perform all its future financial transactions in local currency instead of the US dollar.
ISAF’s chief financial officer, Major Noch Cloud, told the Pajhwok news agency today (Monday) that he wanted to promote Afghan nationalism and stabilise the Afghan economy by converting all transactions into local currency.
Cloud said the decision was taken following requests from the Afghan government.
"We have been paying our Afghan contractors in local currency for the last eight months and all our officials have been directed to use local currency instead of dollars," Cloud added.
He said 50 to 70 millions afghanis are paid to Afghan contractors in Bagram every month.
"Now we are in the process of launching the second phase of the programme to completely divert all our transactions from dollars into local currency," he said. H
e said Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) had supported the plan and were considering paying their local staff in local currency.
He said the move would improve the security situation as many businessmen are killed when insurgents catch them carrying US dollars in their pockets.
ISAF has established currency exchanges for Afghan businessmen in Bagram so that whenever leave the base they can change their foreign currency into afghanis.
He said this project would be extended to foreign forces based in Kabul, Nangarhar, Kandahar and Khost. Bagram airbase is one of the most important airbases of foreign forces, hone to 15,000 soldiers from seven countries.
Northern Afghan province gets first female religious school
Text of report by state-run Iranian radio external service from Mashhad on 27 May
[Presenter] The first religious school for women in northern Jowzjan Province has been established. According to Yar Nazar Nazari, head of the Jowzajan education department, the school was established as part of Khadija Jowzajani High School in the provincial capital. He said the school was established on the recommendations of the Ministry of Education. He added that currently around 60 students had been enrolled.
The students in this school study from the fourth grade to the 12th. They learn religious subjects and on graduation they can work as religious teachers in various schools.
It is said that this is the second school for female students in Afghanistan. The first religious school was established in western Badghis Province and the ministry has vowed to build at least one school in each province.
Afghanistan is getting rebuilt
- By JAMES EMERY (Middle East Times)
- May 27, 2008
"Reconstruction is the key to moving forward beyond the insurgency," said Joshua Gross, media relations director for the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. "We are starting from scratch. The task that awaited the Afghan government in 2001 and 2002 was very daunting."
One of the reasons why insurgents disrupt the reconstruction of Afghanistan is because humanitarian projects increase the prestige and power of President Hamid Karzai.
Instability and security concerns are the greatest obstacles to reconstruction.
"This is why the southern provinces are so unstable," explained Gross. "The lack of security and the lack of reconstruction fuel each other. The Taliban are burning down schools, burning down mosques, and attacking imams. The Taliban have no charismatic leadership. They operate by trying to establish a sense of fear and insecurity."
In spite of Taliban and al-Qaeda efforts to disrupt progress in Afghanistan, much has been done by a host of international agencies committed to rebuilding the country and improving the lives of over twenty million Afghans. Even without the continued conflict, the reconstruction of Afghanistan is a monumental task.
Afghanistan is a remote, rugged country consisting of steep mountain ranges and vast desert-like areas. Only 12 percent of the land is arable. The country lacks roads, bridges, electricity, and essential raw materials and equipment. Virtually everything, from bulldozers and cranes to basic tools and trained personnel, has to be brought in from another country. The logistical considerations are staggering. Once the equipment is in Afghanistan, it can be even more problematic to get it to the respective province and community where it is needed.
Over 75 percent of the Afghan population lives in isolated rural areas, cut off from the capital and the outside world. Electricity, indoor plumbing, clean drinking water, public services, and the capacity for rapid communication and media coverage with Kabul are generally nonexistent. Less than 10 percent of the population has electricity. Telephones, radios, and television sets are few in number and generally limited to the larger cities.
Three decades of warfare have left Afghanistan in ruin. Most irrigation systems, orchards, buildings, bridges, and roads have been destroyed. Nothing significant was built during the last 29 years. Medical services were primitive to nonexistent and vaccinations largely unknown.
The average life expectancy in Afghanistan is only 43 years and only 2.4 percent of the population lives to reach age 65. Infant mortality rate is 160.2 per 1000 births, fifty times higher than that of Japan.
The education for most Afghan men living in rural areas is three to four years of grade school, mostly spent studying the Koran; for women, it's even less. Seventy-two percent of Afghans are illiterate. This makes it easy to find unskilled laborers, but nearly impossible to find engineers, mechanics, machine operators, or anyone who can adequately read, comprehend, or follow blueprints, surveys, or instruction manuals.
Under Karzai, there have been significant strides made in providing education, a key to the future of Afghanistan. During the Taliban reign, about 900,000 boys attended school. That number has swelled to over 6 million children, including boys and girls, in spite the Taliban's relentless campaign against education that has destroyed or closed hundreds of schools and killed or wounded countless teachers and students.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other relief organizations are also providing vocational training to adults. This training has been especially helpful for thousands of war widows, enabling them to support themselves and their children.
A recent survey of Afghan women indicated they feel far better off under the current administration and have greater economic opportunities. There are still numerous women's issues to deal with, from forced marriages to equal rights, but the momentum is moving in the right direction.
USAID built the ring road connecting Kabul to Kandahar and Kandahar to Herat. It will complete the circle by connecting Herat to Kabul. It is also building secondary roads to connect villages and outlying provinces to the ring road. Better roads will enable crops, goods, livestock, and people to get to markets.
"We are also doing cobblestone roads built by the local people," said Sepideh Keyvanshad, the USAID officer in charge of the Afghanistan desk. "It's very labor intensive so you are providing employment. We also provide seed, fertilizer, livestock, loans, and other employment opportunities."
These programs have the potential of offering work and hope to thousands of young men, instead of chronic idleness, which leaves them vulnerable targets for Taliban recruiters.
USAID splits its Afghan programs into three different sectors: economic growth and development, social sector restructuring, democracy and governance.
"We want Afghanistan to be a country that can take care of itself," said Keyvanshad.
USAID's biggest obstacles are security, terrain, and lack of equipment and materials.
"The terrain of the country is incredibly harsh," continued Keyvanshad. "We are also aware of the rapid pace in which we are expected to rebuild the country."
The Taliban have tried to disrupt or destroy every program designed to help poverty-stricken Afghans.
"There are schools being burned, there are clinics being burned," said Keyvanshad. "It [Taliban] destroys what has already been built and creates fear in people who might want to send their children to school. It also undermines the governance in the area."
The Afghan Ministry of Health, in conjunction with USAID, the European Union, the World Bank and a number of international aid organizations, have made significant strides in improving medical care for Afghans.
Only 8 percent of the population had access to medical care under the Taliban. The quality was substandard, especially for women who were relegated to primitive facilities that lacked electricity and basic equipment. Currently, 80 percent of the population has access to medical care, in spite of the efforts of the Taliban to destroy clinics and kill or threaten medical practitioners and their assistants.
USAID has built or refurbished clinics and hospitals and helped bring in electrical power. It has done a lot of vaccinations and child mortality has actually dropped. USAID is also training community health workers, usually couples who are related or married, to provide basic health care.
The needs of Afghanistan are overwhelming. Nevertheless, a contingent of international relief agencies has made tremendous strides, especially in light of the magnitude of the needs, difficult terrain, and growing insurgency.
Realistically, it is going to take at least 10 years to build up the infrastructure of Afghanistan and repair the devastation of 30 years of warfare, neglect, and decay.
As for the provinces under Taliban control, nothing meaningful will be accomplished until the Taliban are eradicated and security is restored, and that is going to require a sizeable increase in Western troops.
--
Professor James Emery is an anthropologist and journalist who has reported on regional conflicts and the drug trade for over 20 years, including five years overseas.
The forgotten kid of Guantánamo
A teenager captured in Afghanistan and shipped to the U.S. prison remained unknown to the world for five years. Now he's being tried as an adult.
Editor's note: Read Salon's full coverage of U.S. judicial proceedings at Guantánamo Bay.
- Salon, By Stacy Sullivan May 27, 2008 GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba
When Mohammed Jawad, a 23-year-old Afghan detainee, was summoned to appear before the military commissions at Guantánamo Bay for his arraignment in March, he told his military handlers that he would not go. After being held for more than five years here, he didn't believe he could get a fair hearing from the U.S. military.
But appearing at arraignments at Guantánamo is mandatory, so as has been done with others, military personnel forcefully extracted Jawad from his cell and brought him to court in shackles. Sitting before the judge in his orange jumpsuit, the color reserved for uncooperative detainees, Jawad buried his face into his hands and announced that he would boycott future proceedings -- a right the commissions allow.
So this month, when Jawad was scheduled to appear at the courthouse for another pre-trial hearing, nobody expected him to show up. But as a cluster of journalists, observers from nongovernmental organizations (including me, as a representative of Human Rights Watch) and military personnel gathered in the courtroom, Jawad, now dressed in khaki, a color reserved for more cooperative detainees, was escorted inside by two guards and quietly took a seat beside his defense counsel and an interpreter. Although he appeared uneasy and nervous, he was markedly calmer than at his arraignment.
Jawad put on the headset that would allow him to listen to a translation of court proceedings (something he refused to do during his March hearing) and politely asked the military judge, Col. Peter Brownback, if he could turn around to look at the audience in the courtroom. The judge agreed, and Jawad turned around to face us, revealing a wispy beard that only partly covers his post-adolescent acne.
The U.S. government claims that Mohammed Jawad is an unlawful enemy combatant who tried to murder two U.S. soldiers and their translator in Afghanistan by tossing a grenade into their vehicle in December 2002.
But Maj. David Frakt, his military-appointed attorney, argues that Jawad -- who was a teenager of 16 or 17 at the time of his alleged offense (Jawad doesn't know his birth date) -- is a victim. He says Jawad was a homeless teenager who was drugged and forced to fight with Afghan militia, then abused by the United States, which transported him halfway around the world and imprisoned him at Guantánamo for five years without charge and is now using him as a guinea pig to test a new system of military justice with no regard to his initial status as a juvenile.
When Frakt arrived at Guantánamo to meet Jawad, he said he found a profoundly disturbed young man who was reluctant to talk. "Jawad is in an extremely fragile mental state," Frakt said in an interview following the hearing. "He has been here for so long -- he has essentially grown up in Guantánamo. He has lost track of time, lost touch with reality, and suffers from severe depression. And he doesn't believe he can get justice from the military commissions."
Both U.S. and international law requires governments to provide children with special safeguards and care that take into account their vulnerability and culpability as children. They are supposed to be housed separately from adults, allowed to contact family members, provided with educational opportunities, and given prompt legal assistance.
The United States has acknowledged holding eight teenagers at Guantánamo, but although some of them were given special housing and educational opportunities and were eventually released, the U.S. has ignored Jawad's status as a juvenile.
Jawad's decision to attend commission hearings this month appears to owe much to his newly appointed military defense counsel, Maj. Frakt, a law professor in the Navy Reserves who was called up from Western State University in California to represent the young detainee (now 22 or 23) just a few days earlier. (Jawad's previous defense counsel left after his reserve duty ended in late March.) With the help of an Afghan interpreter -- an elderly man from the same tribe as Jawad who managed to establish a rapport with the detainee -- Frakt was able to persuade Jawad to appear before the court so that he can "challenge the legality and legitimacy of the military commissions" and possibly argue for an improvement in the conditions in which Jawad is being held.
Jawad is not the only detainee at Guantánamo to be charged before the military commissions for an offense allegedly committed as a juvenile. Omar Khadr, a Canadian charged with throwing a hand grenade that killed a U.S. soldier, was 15 at the time of his alleged crime. Khadr's story has made headlines in newspapers and magazines around the world. He is even the subject of a new book, "Guantanamo's Child: The Untold Story of Omar Khadr," by Michelle Shephard. Lawyers in Canada have sued the Canadian government for access to documents on his case, and child rights groups have embraced his cause.
But Jawad is an illiterate Afghan from a poor Pashtun family with no ties to the Afghan government. According to Frakt, Jawad's father died during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. His mother remarried, and the family fled to Pakistan. Jawad spent his childhood years in a refugee camp and was educated at a local madrassa where all the teaching is conducted orally. He never learned to read or write.
Frakt says that when Jawad was 13, his family kicked him out and told him he needed to find a job. He spent much of those years hanging around a mosque looking for work. Sometime in 2002, Jawad was told he could have a job helping eradicate land mines in Afghanistan, so he returned to his native country. Once he arrived, however, Frakt says he was recruited by the local militia, drugged and forced into combat. Soon after, he was arrested by the Afghan police and handed over to the Americans.
Unlike most of the detainees at Guantánamo, Jawad was never provided a "habeas counsel," that is, a civilian lawyer to file a petition of habeas corpus on his behalf. Until he was charged this year, he was virtually unknown to the world.
Frakt said that his meetings with Jawad have been difficult, in part because Jawad doesn't understand the legal process, and in part because Jawad doesn't trust anyone in a U.S. military uniform, which Frakt is obligated to wear when he visits his client. "It is difficult to establish a trusting relationship with a detainee who has suffered so much and been detained by the U.S. military for five years," Frakt said. "He has a natural distrust of me, and he is not sure that I am here to help him."
For now, Jawad has agreed to allow Frakt to represent him in a limited capacity -- to challenge the legality and legitimacy of the commissions. Frakt hopes he will be able to persuade his client to allow him to give Jawad a more complete representation in a case that points to crucial questions about American justice in the war on terror.
From the government's point of view, Jawad's is a seemingly straightforward case. The prosecution has located eyewitnesses who claim to have seen the Afghan teenager throw the grenade. In addition, it says it has a signed confession from Jawad.
But Frakt says the case isn't nearly as straightforward as the government alleges. He says that the prosecution chose to prosecute Jawad because it viewed his as a "sexy" case -- Jawad is a defendant with "blood on his hands," in the government's view, which is something the American public understands better than something more abstract, like charges of material support for terrorism.
While Frakt acknowledges that the prosecution has witnesses who saw his client throw the grenade, he says the defense has also located witnesses who say the teenager appeared to be drugged at the time. As for the confession, Frakt says it is in Farsi -- a language Jawad does not speak. And the "signature" on it is in the form of a thumbprint, because Jawad does not read or write.
Frakt hopes to be able to make these arguments on Jawad's behalf if or when the case goes to trial. In the meantime, Frakt says has serious reservations about Jawad's ability to aid in his defense because of his fragile mental state -- something that was evident when Jawad himself addressed the court this month.
When the judge asked Jawad if he would like to make a statement, the young man spoke for about 20 minutes, saying that he didn't understand why he was at Guantánamo and why he was being punished. As he described his ordeal -- of being flown from Afghanistan to Guantánamo, locked in a steel cage, moved from cell to cell in the middle of the night, and sometimes being kept in a cell that had bright lights on 24 hours a day -- he said he had lost track of time and couldn't remember when or for how long he was held in each camp. Sometimes he stopped to rub his head and seemed to forget what he was saying in mid-sentence.
When Jawad finished his statement, Frakt requested that his client be taken out of the maximum security facility where he is currently housed -- where he is confined to a windowless cell at least 22 hours a day -- and moved to a "quiet, restful place where he can rehabilitate." He also requested that Jawad be examined by a mental health professional.
The judge told Frakt to put the request in writing and said that he would consider it. But it remains unclear whether the judge at the military commissions has the authority to order military officials at the detention facility at Guantánamo to do anything.
The next hearings in Jawad's case are scheduled for June 24-25. Frakt is hoping Jawad will participate.
[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.] |
