In this bulletin:

• Senior insurgent leader killed in E Afghanistan
• Nato attack follows Taliban raid
• Kabul to seek $20b at Paris Conference
• AP Interview: NATO general says Pakistani havens can sustain Afghan insurgency for years
• General calls on Pakistan to help with insurgents
• U.S. commander in Afghanistan faults Pakistan for not pressing militants
• Brown: 'It's time to talk to the Taliban'
• Afghans retake town overrun by Taliban; no word on fate of captured official, police
• Taliban militants capture remote Afghan town
• Singer in hiding after threats over Afghan TV appearance
• Canadians fight to figure out who is real enemy in Afghanistan
• Retired general is White House pick to investigate US reconstruction spending in Afghanistan
• Afghan lawmaker: Son-in-law of anti-US Afghan warlord freed from Kabul jail
• Polish troops to redeploy to take control of central province in Afghanistan
• Reporters Without Borders" welcomes release of Afghan journalist in Iran
• FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, May 30
• Afghanistan seeks to revive farming sector
• Mr Market combats the Taliban
• Moscow ranks third for Kabul

Senior insurgent leader killed in E Afghanistan

KABUL, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Maulawi Abdul Malik, a senior insurgent leader, has been killed in eastern Afghan province of Logar during an operation led by Afghan troops, the NATO-led military said here Friday.

    The operation was conducted on May 27 to disrupt bomb-making cells and operations throughout the region, according to a statement of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

    The ISAF said the militant's group is linked to the burning down of two girls' schools and threats to locals attending English and computer courses.

    The killing of Malik will "deal a significant blow to the insurgents' capacity to attack Afghan and ISAF security forces," ISAF Spokesmen Brigadier General Carlos Branco was quoted as saying in the statement.

    Hard-line tribal persons in Afghanistan's some remote regions often prohibited girls from attending schools and in extreme cases even burnt down schools.     

Nato attack follows Taliban raid

(Aljazeera) 29 May 2008 - Nato aircraft have struck a suspected Taliban compound in southwest Afghanistan, reportedly killing 30 of them, amid a deadly suicide attack in the capital Kabul.

The raids in the province of Farah took place on Thursday after clashes that left three Afghan police and soldiers dead, Afghan officials said.

The army commander for western Afghanistan and a regional police chief said the attackers included Pakistani fighters, and that they had moved into Farah from the neighbouring province of Helmand a few days ago.

Jalandar Shah Behnam, the army commander, told the AFP news agency that Afghan soldiers and police and troops from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) surrounded on Wednesday the Taliban's compound in the Bala Buluk district.

In initial fighting two Afghan soldiers and a policeman were killed and several others wounded.
  
"Later, Isaf aircraft bombed the fort and 30 Taliban including their ranking commanders were killed," Behnam said.

"There is no one left inside the fort."
  
Police account

Mohammad Nabi Popal, Farah's deputy police chief, said 30 Taliban members were killed along with one policeman.

"They were mostly Taliban from Helmand and some Pakistani Taliban who infiltrated our province from neighbouring Helmand  province," he said.

Popal said on Thursday that Isaf jets also bombed another area of Farah overnight after the Taliban attacked police, wounding three of them.
  
"Heavy casualties were inflicted to the Taliban but we don't have confirmed figures," he said.

Popal said "up to 15 may have been killed".

Isaf did not immediately comment.

The Nato force has been carrying out intense operations in Helmand over the past weeks, saying it has caused significant losses to the Taliban, particularly in the Garmser district on the border with Pakistan.

Kabul deaths

In Thursday's Kabul attack, a suicide a bomber targeted a vehicle carrying foreigners on Thursday, killing three Afghan civilians, police said.

"There has been a suicide attack against foreigners," Alishah Paktiawal, Kabul's police chief, said, without giving casualty figures.

A policeman at the scene said three Afghans were killed in the blast - two youngsters and a lorry driver.

Kabul to seek $20b at Paris Conference

KABUL (PAN): Afghanistan would ask for $20 billions in aid at the upcoming Paris Conference for implementing the countrys national development strategy, a Presidential spokesman on Tuesday.

Hamayun Hamidzada said the war-devastated nation needed a total of 51 billion dollars over the next five years for translating its uplift plan into action. An amount of $24 billions has already been pledged by international donors and the remaining seven billions will be generated through domestic revenue.

Thus Afghanistan needs another $20 billions in aid to complete the national development strategy, explained Hamidzada, who was sure the international partners would fund the Afghan strategy at next months Paris Conference.

Dozens of countries and international organisations will come together in the Paris Support Conference, scheduled for June 5, to aid Afghanistan --- the impoverished Central Asian country in the throes of an escalating Taliban insurgency.

In response to a query, Hamidzada opined the barbed-wire that Pakistan had announced to erect along its border with Afghanistan would not resolve the problem of terrorist infiltration.

According to media reports, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said last week his government planned to erect barbed wire and install CCTV cameras on the border with Afghanistan in order to prevent the movement of militants.

But a foreign ministry spokesman in Islamabad moved swiftly to repudiate the report as baseless, saying the new government had no such plan.

Hamidzada, who believed that the proposed fence did not offer an effective solution to the problem, observed: The main issue is terrorist sanctuaries and training camps. Pakistan must eradicate the root causes of terror instead of erecting a barbed wire.

Some two years ago, Pakistan proposed plant bombs and a barbed-wire fence along the frontier after Kabul frequently complained that Islamabad was not doing enough to prevent terrorists crossing the border.

AP Interview: NATO general says Pakistani havens can sustain Afghan insurgency for years

The Associated Press

Friday, May 30, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan: The outgoing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said Islamic insurgents will pose a challenge to the country for years to come if safe havens continue to exist across the border in Pakistan.

Gen. Dan McNeill, who leaves his post next week after 15 months, also said peace deals on the other side of the border — a reference to Pakistan — were behind a recent spike in violence in Afghanistan.

In an interview with The Associated Press, McNeill was asked if he agrees with a recent forecast by U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, that the Taliban threat in Afghanistan would be "greatly reduced" by 2013.

McNeill responded, "If there are going to be sanctuaries where these terrorists, these extremists, these insurgents can train, can recruit, can regenerate, there's still going to be a challenge there."

McNeill, 61, said a double-digit percentage increase in violent incidents in eastern Afghanistan versus spring 2007 was because of a lack of pressure on insurgents in Pakistan, where a new government is seeking peace deals with militants.

NATO has said there was a 50 percent spike in violence in eastern Afghanistan in April.

"We've also monitored and reported in the past what happens when there are so-called peace negotiations with these terrorists and extremists inside those sanctuaries," McNeill said. "And when there have been (negotiations), there has been a spike in the untoward events on our side of the border."

When McNeill took command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in February 2007, the force had 36,000 troops; today it has 51,000. McNeill said in the interview on Wednesday the increase was proof that the international community is committed to success in Afghanistan.

But violence has also spiked on McNeill's watch. Insurgents last year set off a record number of suicide bombs — more than 140 — and more than 8,000 people died in insurgency-related violence, according to the United Nations. Most of those killed were militants.

McNeill said the effort to strengthen the Afghan army and police forces has put them on a course that would allow NATO to reduce the size of its force in 2011.

General calls on Pakistan to help with insurgents

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer

The American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said Islamic insurgents will pose a challenge to the country for years to come if safe havens continue to exist across the border in Pakistan.

Gen. Dan McNeill, who leaves his post next week after 15 months, also said peace deals on the other side of the border — a reference to Pakistan — were behind a recent spike in violence in Afghanistan.

"If there are going to be sanctuaries where these terrorists, these extremists, these insurgents can train, can recruit, can regenerate, there's still going to be a challenge there," McNeill said in an interview with The Associated Press.

McNeill, 61, said a double-digit percentage increase in violent incidents in eastern Afghanistan versus spring 2007 was because of a lack of pressure on insurgents in Pakistan, where a new government is seeking peace deals with militants.

NATO has said there was a 50 percent spike in violence in eastern Afghanistan in April when compared with 2007.

"We've also monitored and reported in the past what happens when there are so-called peace negotiations with these terrorists and extremists inside those sanctuaries," McNeill said. "And when there have been (negotiations), there has been a spike in the untoward events on our side of the border."

When McNeill took command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in February 2007, the force had 36,000 troops; today it has 51,000. McNeill said in the interview on Wednesday the increase was proof that the international community is committed to success in Afghanistan.

But violence has also spiked on McNeill's watch. Insurgents last year set off a record number of suicide bombs — more than 140 — and more than 8,000 people died in insurgency-related violence, according to the United Nations. Most of those killed were militants.

McNeill said the effort to strengthen the Afghan army and police forces has put them on a course that would allow NATO to reduce the size of its force in 2011.

U.S. commander in Afghanistan faults Pakistan for not pressing militants

By Carlotta Gall

KABUL (International Herald Tribune) 30 May 2008: The departing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill, has raised concerns that Pakistan has not followed through on promises to tackle militancy on its side of the border, and in recent months has even stopped its cooperation with NATO and Afghan counterparts on border issues.

McNeill said Thursday that Pakistan's failure to act against militants in its tribal areas and its decision to hold talks with the militants without putting pressure on them had led to an increase in attacks against U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.

"We have not seen the actions that we had expected late last year; we have seen a different approach," he said before a news briefing in Kabul. "That is different from what most of us thought last year we were going to get."

Militancy rose last year in Pakistan, where officials indicated that tougher measures against the insurgents were planned. Instead, the government has sued for peace, a policy tried in 2005 and 2006 that led directly to a rise in attacks across the border, as is happening now.

"Over time, when there has been dialogue, or peace deals, the incidents have gone up," McNeill told journalists in Kabul and others in Brussels via videoconference. "What you see right now is the effects of no pressure on the extremists and insurgents on the other side of the border."

As if to underscore his point, a suicide car bomb exploded Thursday near a convoy of international forces on the eastern side of Kabul, killing four civilian bystanders and wounding 14 others, police officials said.

McNeill said that Pakistan had stopped the high-level meetings among Pakistani, Afghan and NATO counterparts that were the main conduit for resolving border issues and coordinating operations to combat cross-border infiltration.

The meetings are usually attended by the top generals on all sides, but Pakistan has postponed the last three, he said.

"We have had some difficulty here," he said, adding that he did not expect to conduct another meeting before handing over command in early June. But McNeill expressed hope that his successor, General David McKiernan, also of the United States, would be able to resume the meetings.

McNeill called the problem a "dysfunction" that he attributed to political changes in Pakistan since the election of a new government there in February.

McNeill said last year was "a very difficult year" for Pakistan and cited episodes of militancy including "a huge spike in suicide bombers, the Red Mosque events, some 250 Pakistani soldiers captured by about 20 militants, some forts laid siege to." His reference to the Red Mosque was to a raid last summer by Pakistani forces after militants holed up inside.

"My connection is military to military," the general said, "and I think they know in the Pakistani military this is an issue they have to take on, and they have to do it in a way that is consistent with counterinsurgency doctrine.

"But they have also just gone through some rather huge changes within their government and, I think, are still trying to find their way to get something coalesced, to get it congealed to where there is a forward movement in the business of governance," he said.

Pakistan's government has made clear it wants to break with the tactics President Pervez Musharraf has used against militants and instead try dialogue, political engagement and economic development of the tribal regions.

Yet there has been increasingly urgent criticism from Afghan and NATO officials here since attacks rose 50 percent in April over last year in eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. forces were claiming success against insurgents.

Brown: 'It's time to talk to the Taliban'

By Colin Brown

(Belfast Telegraph) Today, the Prime Minister will announce a major shift in strategy on Afghanistan. Could it mark the beginning of the end of a bloody six-year war? Or is it just spin?

As the deadliest year in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 comes to a close, Gordon Brown is ready to talk to the Taliban in a major shift in strategy that is likely to cause consternation among hardliners in the White House.

Six years after British troops were first deployed to oust the Taliban regime, the Prime Minister believes the time has come to open a dialogue in the hope of moving from military action to consensus-building among the tribal leaders. Since 1 January, more than 6,200 people have been killed in violence related to the insurgency, including 40 British soldiers. In total, 86 British troops have died. The latest casualty was Sergeant Lee Johnson, whose vehicle hit a mine before the fall of Taliban-held town of Musa Qala.

The Cabinet yesterday approved a three-pronged plan that Mr Brown will outline for security to be provided by Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the Afghan national army, followed by economic and political development in Afghanistan.

But the intention to engage Taliban leaders in a constructive dialogue, which Mr Brown will make clear in a parliamentary statement today, will be by far the most controversial element of the plan. A senior Downing Street source confirmed the move last night and one Brown aide who accompanied the Prime Minister on his recent visit to Kabul, said: "We need to ask who are we fighting? Do we need to fight them? Can we be talking to them?"

Senior government officials said it was an error to see the Taliban as a unified organisation rather than as a disparate group of Afghan tribesmen, often farmers recruited at the end of the gun, infiltrated by foreign fighters. The aim is to divide the Taliban's local support from al-Qa'ida and militants from Pakistan.

The shift of strategy will place the onus to deliver on Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, who will take the lead in opening discussions with Taliban leaders through provincial governors.

"Musa Qala was a good example of what we are planning – once the town was stabilised, people were ready to appoint judges, local police chiefs, start laying on services and putting in power lines," said the No 10 source. "But the Afghan government has got to demonstrate they can deliver an alternative strategy."

The dialogue strategy is the latest attempt by Mr Brown to distance himself from the military legacy of the Blair era and the hardline instincts of President George Bush. At the weekend, the Prime Minister made a surprise visit to Basra in southern Iraq and announced that the British handover of control of the region to local Iraqi forces would be completed within two weeks. British soldiers' combat role will then cease, as they move to an " overwatch" role, and retreat to Basra Air Station.

The determination to draw a line under the Bush-Blair years is threatening to heighten tensions between No 10 and the hardline neocons who still dominate the White House. The pace of the Basra handover has already caused dismay in hawkish Washington circles. The administration was also sceptical of the British deal with tribal elders that led to Musa Qala falling into the hands of the Taliban earlier this year and has also been pushing Britain to carry out an opium poppy eradication programme by spraying fields, a policy that Downing Street has said would drive farmers into the arms of the militants. But with Mr Bush in the final year of his presidency, his influence on events on the ground is waning.

There are also hopes that since the departure of hawks such as Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Department is prepared to accept change. " There has been full consultation with the White House, and they have been talked through all of this," a senior source at No 10 said last night.

Inside the heavily fortified walls of the presidential palace in the capital, Kabul, Mr Brown was given a fresh commitment by Mr Karzai to prevent parts of Afghanistan from returning to the control of the militants who led to the country being used as a training camp for terrorism before the attacks on the US in September 2001.

Mr Brown will tell Parliament today that President Karzai is prepared to commit Isaf-trained Afghan forces to build stability in places such as Musa Qala and to reinforce the gains by seeking political agreements with tribal leaders. Mr Brown will promise more taxpayers' money for economic development, including aid to farmers who cease to grow the opium poppies that supply 90 per cent of the world's illegal heroin. President Karzai also will be under pressure to build democratic structures in the formerly lawless regions, such as in Helmand province.

Downing Street aides admit that in the past Isaf forces have failed to secure parts of the country. One said: "We need to get to the position where the whole country has the same standard of security."

Conservatives reacted with scepticism to the idea of talking to the Taliban. Gerald Howarth, a Tory defence spokesman, said: "Sometimes you do have to talk with the enemy, but Gordon Brown has got to be careful he is not placing too much emphasis on doing a deal with people who are unwilling or unable to deliver."

A long and bloody struggle

October 2001

The US and Britain begin air strikes when Taliban refuses to give up Osama bin Laden after 11 September. Taliban leader Mullah Omar flees.

December 2001

Interim government created under US-backed President Hamid Karzai.

January 2002

Peacekeepers arrive in the form of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf). Britain leads force's first mission.

September 2002

Assassination attempt made against President Karzai.

April 2004

Britain accused by US of bungling its command of international campaign to rid Afghanistan of opium poppy in southern Helmand province amid unprecedented increase in heroin production.

January 2006

3,300 UK forces sent to Helmand as Isaf takes over military operations in the south. In May, UK takes charge of Isaf, which is kept separate from US hunt for Taliban leaders and Bin Laden.

August 2006

Fighting in Afghanistan described as "worse than the Korean war" by Isaf commander.

December 2007

British soldier killed in fight to recapture Musa Qala, an opium bazaar town in Helmand, bringing total British death toll to 86 since 2001. Britain currently has more than 6,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Afghans retake town overrun by Taliban; no word on fate of captured official, police

The Associated Press

Friday, May 30, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan security forces recaptured a remote town Friday that the Taliban had overtaken the previous day, officials said.

Taliban militants attacked and captured Rashidan in Ghazni province late Thursday, taking captive the district's government leader and eight police, militants and officials said.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said Afghan security forces regained control of the town Friday evening. Radmanish, who goes by one name, said the fate of the nine captured men wasn't immediately clear.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, said reports indicated the Afghan forces encountered no resistance in Rashidan on Friday.

Taliban militants have in the past briefly overrun remote district centers before Afghan or NATO forces again push the militants out. But insurgents also control several areas in southern Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand province.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said militants attacked Rashidan on Thursday night and captured eight police and the local government leader, whom he named as Ghulam Shah.

A Taliban commander who spoke to AP Television News in Rashidan said the militants would ambush Afghan troops who tried to retake the town. The commander did not give his name, and he and other fighters wore scarves around their faces. The Taliban burned two police vehicles and part of the government center, the AP video showed.

Rashidan is a district far off the main highway that circles Afghanistan. It lies roughly 65 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the capital.

Elsewhere, the U.S.-led coalition said several militants were killed and 16 detained on Thursday during an operation in Ghazni's Andar district. The coalition said the forces targeted a militant leader who facilitated "foreign fighters" and roadside bomb attacks. The coalition did not say how many militants were killed during the raid.

A coalition service member was killed near the southwestern town of Farah on Thursday, the coalition said Friday. No additional details, including the service member's nationality, were released.

Taliban militants capture remote Afghan town

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) 30 May 2008 -- Taliban militants attacked and captured a remote town from the Afghan government overnight, taking captive the district's government leader and eight police, militants and officials said Friday.

Afghan troops were heading to the district of Roshidan in Ghazni province, but as of midday Friday it was still under Taliban control, said Kazim Allayer, the deputy governor of Ghazni province.

Taliban militants have in the past briefly overrun remote district centers before Afghan or NATO forces again pushed the militants out. But insurgents also control several areas in southern Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand province.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said militants attacked Rashidan on Thursday night and captured eight police and the local government leader, whom he identified as Ghulam Shah.

A Taliban commander who spoke to AP Television News in Rashidan said the militants would ambush Afghan troops who tried to retake the town. The commander did not give his name, and he and other fighters wore scarves around their faces. The Taliban burned two police vehicles and part of the government center, the AP video showed.

Rashidan is a district far off the main highway that circles Afghanistan and is about 65 miles southwest of Kabul, the capital.

Elsewhere, the U.S.-led coalition said several militants were killed and 16 detained on Thursday during an operation in Ghazni's Andar district. The coalition said the forces targeted a militant leader who facilitated "foreign fighters" and roadside bomb attacks. The coalition did not say how many militants were killed during the raid.

A coalition service member was killed near the southwestern town of Farah on Thursday, the coalition said Friday. No additional details, including the service member's nationality, were released

Singer in hiding after threats over Afghan TV appearance

(CBC) 30 May 2008 - A 19-year-old contestant who placed third in the popular Afghan Star talent contest says her family is now living in secret because of death threats.

Lima Sahar loves to sing and her passion took her to third place in Afghan Star, an Afghani version of American Idol.

She was the first young woman to achieve such a high standing in the talent show, a popular TV series now in its third year.

She performed Pashtun oldies in the contest, with her head covered and her mother at her side, but wore makeup for the cameras.

And while she received unprecedented attention during the competition, she has faced unwelcome attention in its aftermath.

"We have received some night letters, phone calls and now it's getting even worse than when I was in the process, and I'm sure in the future it will get even worse than it is right now," Sahar told CBC News, speaking through a translator.

Members of the Taliban are believed to be sending death threats to the family. Some conservative Muslims believe it is inappropriate for women to sing or appear in public.

Sahar's family members have moved out of their home in Kandahar and are living at a secret location. Some relatives won't contact them, for fear of being threatened.

Now if she wants to sing, she sings only for the family, in a place the neighbours cannot hear.

"I didn't know I would face this problem," Sahar said. "Had I known, I wouldn't have taken part in this competition. Before it was said, by the government and the people, that there is democracy, rights are equal, men and women can do everything. That's why I took part."

Sahar says she feels she has no choice but to leave Afghanistan for a few years.

Perhaps, by the time she returns, the Taliban will have forgotten she ever entered the contest in the first place, she says.

Canadians fight to figure out who is real enemy in Afghanistan

(Ottawa Citizen) 30 May 2008 - Openly vowing to destroy the Taliban is probably not the diplomatically correct route to take to win over the people of Dand, a rural collection of mud-walled villages south of Kandahar City where even the district police chief complains that some police road checkpoints are populated by "criminals."

Be careful who you label the bad guys, a group of Canadian visitors was advised during a visit with district elders this week.

"The Taliban are our local people. We speak their language, we can work with them," said one village leader during a meeting between elders and a delegation from the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) that Canada operates from a base inside Kandahar City.

Dand is considered by coalition forces to be a gateway for armed insurgents into Kandahar. Roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs) employed to target soldiers are a big problem here -- three were discovered along roadways in the days leading up to the visit.

"The problem is not the Taliban, the problem is the terrorists," said the elder. Muttering quietly into his beard in the Pashto language, but overheard by our interpreter, another member of the weekly district shura -- a community gathering where decisions are made -- names those he considers the real sources of the problem: troublemakers from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.

"Slowly, slowly the situation has got worse. How come the security situation is getting worse?" another elder asks.

The day before this shura, four Canadian soldiers were injured and an Afghan boy was killed in Kandahar City when a suicide bomber drove into a military convoy. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

"Am I surprised to hear that there are Taliban here? No," Lt.-Col. Dana Woodworth, who commands the Kandahar PRT, said when told of the we-are-Taliban confession. "It's tough to nail down who is the enemy in Afghanistan," he said.

The Canadian Forces' counter-insurgency tactics are subtly shifting in the area at a time when attacks and contacts with the enemy are on the rise.

"Has there been a transition in mindset? I'd say so," said Capt. Chris Quinlan, an operations staff officer with Joint Task Force Afghanistan headquarters. "The job here is not to be terrorist-killers .... it's about fighting all the lawlessness."

In response, the Canadian-led PRT inside Kandahar City is injecting reconstruction dollars into a growing number of small-scale projects in Dand -- wells, irrigation ditches, culverts, road resurfacing.

The district leader and his shura decide on priorities, announce the projects and take the political credit from the villagers who are expected to learn from this that supporting the government means more stability and more projects. The hoped-for result is to dampen the enthusiasm for insurgency.

"We're not doing development, we're doing stabilization," Lt.-Col. Woodworth said of military-led reconstruction. "We do basic needs assessments ... to get a foothold -- again, it's tied to security," he said.

Retired general is White House pick to investigate US reconstruction spending in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

Friday, May 30, 2008

WASHINGTON: Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Fields is the White House's choice to lead a new office that will investigate U.S. reconstruction spending in Afghanistan.

Congress mandated the office as a way to oversee the billions of dollars being spent to rebuild Afghanistan. A separate office that focuses on Iraq spending has uncovered numerous accounts of waste, fraud and abuse by contractors.

According to a White House announcement Thursday, Fields retired from the military as deputy commander of Marine Forces Europe after a 34-year career. More recently, he served as chief of staff of the Iraq reconstruction and management office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and now is deputy director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at National Defense University.

Fields once was inspector general for U.S. Central Command, which oversees troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He received his bachelor's degree from South Carolina State University and his master's from Pepperdine University in California.

The post does not require Senate confirmation.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who pushed for the spending watchdog, said the inspector general would help Americans get "the accountability they deserve." The Democrat said there is "too little oversight of the money we spend there and whether there is any waste, fraud or abuse."

Afghan lawmaker: Son-in-law of anti-US Afghan warlord freed from Kabul jail

The Associated Press

Friday, May 30, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan: A lawmaker says authorities have freed the son-in-law of an anti-U.S. Afghan warlord from a prison in Kabul.

Khalid Farooqi said Ghairat Baheer was released from Pul-e Charkhi jail on Thursday.

Baheer was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 while he was a spokesman for the Hezb-e-Islami militant group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Farooqi said Friday tribal elders and President Hamid Karzai were instrumental in securing Baheer's release.

Hekmatyar fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, Hekmatyar has battled U.S.-led forces here.

Some of Hekmatyar supporters have reconciled with Karzai, but Hekmatyar has resisted an offer of peace talks.

Polish troops to redeploy to take control of central province in Afghanistan

The Associated Press

Friday, May 30, 2008

WARSAW, Poland: Poland's deputy defense minister says the nation's troops in Afghanistan will redeploy to assume control over a central province from U.S. forces in November.

Poland is also increasing its troop numbers in Afghanistan from about 1,200 to 1,600.

Stanislaw Komorowski told a news conference Friday that in addition to taking control of Ghazni province, Polish troops will continue to train Afghan armed forces. They will also be charged with security along an 180-mile (300-kilometer) stretch of road between the capital of Kabul and Kandahar.

Poland sent troops to Afghanistan as part of a U.N. mission in 2002. They are scattered across central and southern Afghanistan.

Reporters Without Borders" welcomes release of Afghan journalist in Iran

PARIS, May 30 (KUNA) -- An international press freedom organization welcomed here Friday the release of an Afghan journalist after being held over two months in a prison in southwest of Tehran.

Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that the journalist Ali Mohaqiq Nazab, the editor of the monthly "Haqoq-e-Zan" (Womens Rights), "was held arbitrarily for three months." "The conditions were difficult and he was in solitary confinement for most of the time," the Organization added.

It indicated that he has been released "conditionally and is not allowed to leave the country," calling on the authorities to drop the charges against him.
A refugee in Iran for the past 24 years, Nazab was arrested in March in Qom, where he lives. Copies of re-settlement requests Nazab had sent to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees were found during a search of his home, which were used to accuse him of "publicity against the government" and "publication of false information," according to the Organization.

Nazab spent 81 of the 86 days in solitary confinement, and suffered kidney and chest pains that were not treated. According to the Organization, nine journalists are currently detained in Iran, which makes it the "Middle Easts biggest prison for the media" and over 150 newspapers have been closed in that country since 2000.

FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, May 30

May 30 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0800 GMT on Friday:

KHOST - A suicide car bomber blew himself up alongside a convoy of military engineers in the eastern province of Khost on Friday, the U.S. military said. No soldiers were wounded and no equipment was damaged in the incident, it said.

FARAH - A soldier from U.S.-led coalition forces was killed in the western province of Farah on Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday.

FARAH - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants with small arms fire and air strikes after coming under fire from a house in the western province of Farah on Wednesday, the U.S. military said on Friday.

GHAZNI - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants and detained 16 during search operations in Ghazni province, south of Kabul on Thursday, the U.S. military said on Friday.

HELMAND - Afghan security forces and U.S.-led coalition troops killed several militants near Sangin in the southern province of Helmand on Thursday after coming under fire, the U.S. military said on Friday.

Afghanistan seeks to revive farming sector

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) 30 May 2008 -- Afghanistan will ask international donors next month for $4 billion to revive its agricultural sector, but it could be a hard sell with another massive crop of opium expected this year.

Despite the sharply rising price of grain, foreign-funded efforts to promote legal alternatives to the narcotic have largely failed.

Farmers still make much more from growing poppy, the raw material for heroin, which flourishes amid Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency and rampant lawlessness. Half of the country's production comes from Helmand province, a stronghold of insurgents.

Roughly one out of every seven farmers in this predominantly rural nation of 32 million people grow opium. Giving them alternatives is part of Afghanistan's plan to invest $4 billion over the next five years in its outdated agricultural sector.

It will present the plan at a conference of international donors in Paris on June 12 - a key plank of its $50 billion appeal to fund development in the war-ravaged country.

"I think the food crisis we have been experiencing here and in many other countries illustrates clearly the need to devote more attention to that sector," said Kai Eide, the top U.N. envoy in the country.

The rising cost of food worldwide would appear to be an attractive incentive for farmers to abandon drug production. Wheat prices rose by some 75 percent in Afghanistan between January and April because of shortages, after another spike in 2007.

Abdul Qadus, an opium farmer from Kandahar, said he would consider switching to wheat after about half of his poppy fields failed this year because of a harsh winter and lack of rain.

Also, the price of the best quality opium paste has dropped to $85 per kilogram compared to $110 last year.

"As the price of (opium) goes down day by day and that of flour goes up, we are thinking that maybe in the future we will decide to sow wheat," said Qadus, who completed his harvest earlier this month. "At least we might be able to feed our children that way."

But there is still a huge price difference. In 2007, the gross income from a hectare of opium was nearly 10 times what it was for wheat.

The challenges of weaning farmers off poppy and growing legal crops are most acute in Helmand, which remains too dangerous for most foreign aid groups to operate.

Matt Waldman, a policy adviser for the aid group Oxfam, said efforts so far have been "fragmented and seriously underfunded."

Barnett Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan at New York University, said too much focus has been put on military action and not enough on investing in job creation and rural development after the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban nearly seven years ago.

"If (the Bush administration) had started in 2001, we would have gotten somewhere by now, but they started only in 2004 and with poorly designed and implemented programs that are still inadequate, despite some improvement," he said.

The United States has spent $878 million in alternative livelihood and agriculture programs since 2001, and trained 1.5 million farmers in modern farming practices, the U.S. embassy says. Other Western nations, particularly Britain, have also contributed millions.

Loren Owen Stoddard, the director of USAID's Alternative Development and Agriculture office, said it wants to establish supply chains to encourage Afghan farmers to grow fruit for export and to rear livestock and produce vegetable oil for the domestic market.

But many remain skeptical that the infusion of aid money will translate into benefits for farmers - overcoming chronic problems of poor infrastructure, insecurity and official corruption.

"If they (farmers) grow pomegranates, who will finance the cost of irrigation and labor before the harvest? Who will prevent them from getting robbed on the way to market? Who will export the pomegranates in proper packaging to a market where they can make money?" said Rubin. "The opium industry solves all these problems for the farmers. Giving them a bunch of seeds does not solve these problems."

Authorities have fought the opium harvest by sending police eradication teams and even paying farmers to destroy their own poppy crops. Clerics have been urged to tell villagers that growing the narcotic is un-Islamic.

But even as anti-drug aid has soared, so has opium production.

In 2003, 197,680 acres of land was used to cultivate poppy. By 2007, that number had jumped to 476,900 acres. Opium production topped 9,000 tons, enough to make over 880 tons of heroin. The country now accounts for 93 percent of world production, the U.N. says.

Figures for 2008 are not yet available, but counter-narcotics officials expect only a slight drop in land being cultivated for opium compared with 2007. Poor weather, however, will mean a lower yield per hectare so the total quantity of opium produced should fall.

The Ministry of Counter Narcotics says that 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces will be poppy-free this year - compared with 13 provinces in 2007. But in the south where most of the opium is grown, cultivation remains rampant - particularly in Helmand.

There, opium traffickers and traders appear to be doing a better job of supporting farmers than development agencies. They provide the farmers with credit, seeds and fertilizer ahead of planting season, said Sarah Chayes, who runs a small private company in Kandahar that buys ingredients from farmers to make natural skin-care products.

After the harvest, the drug traders collect the opium paste directly so the farmer does not have to find a market for it, she said.

Aid groups need to "mimic what traffickers offer to farmers," Chayes said.

Mr Market combats the Taliban
By Chan Akya

In one of the most important developments since the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001, opium production has declined in the country. Over 20 of the country's 34 provinces will be opium-free this year according to a report by the United Nations that has now been corroborated by Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister, General Khodaidad.

Among the provinces with remaining opium cultivation, the Taliban-dominated Helmand province ranks high, but even here it is being seen that the humble wheat crop has replaced poppy. Some newspapers that sent reporters to Helmand province, over the course of April and May this year, have independently verified

this assertion. A European television program on the subject was among the most-forwarded news items on the Internet last week.

Interestingly, it is not the efforts of the Afghan government alone that have caused the reduction in opium production but something much more mundane, namely the increased price of wheat, that has pushed up production of the grain in many parts of the country. Therein lies a tale of so-called market manipulation that actually goes back to one of the central points about rural poverty alleviation in the region, namely the strength of economics.

Regular readers of this column will recall my frequent diatribes against the socialist-communist caucus of Asian politicians and media that tend to heap the blame of society's ills on the vagaries of market forces. In their line of thinking, market forces intent on making a quick profit too often subvert the actions of farsighted and perspicacious socialist leaders. Ah the poor, misunderstood old souls, having to grapple with these selfish traders instead of quietly enjoying a cup of jasmine tea.

Well, here then is an example in the opposite direction, namely one of many governments trying and failing repeatedly to cut opium production in Afghanistan, only to step back and see market forces doing the job for it. The invisible hand of the markets has proved itself to be more powerful than all the carpet-bombing that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could think of to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan.

High food prices, a result of increased consumption in emerging Asian superpowers and other countries around the world, have helped to divert the energies of Afghan farmers from poppy to wheat. A ban on wheat exports by Pakistan this year only exacerbated the supply and price situation in Afghanistan, in turn prompting farmers to focus on increased wheat cultivation. That is exactly as it should be, when prices go up in the absence of any change in marginal input costs; production (ie supply) should increase.

It is as yet unclear to me how much the Taliban have been hurt by the increased wheat production in place of opium. At the very least though, they would need to have vastly different infrastructure in place to make the same kind of money by selling wheat as compared with opium from the provinces they control because wheat is more bulky. Secondly, because farmers can eat their own produce, they do not depend on the Taliban for money secured from delivering poppies cultivated, in effect changing the power dynamic for the warlords. Over the next few weeks and months, we will see how the changed economic dynamic of Afghanistan affects the recruitment and military success of the Taliban.

My guess is that the effect of reduced opium production will be quite heavy on the Taliban, seeing as it is their primary source of income. Religious war or not, the Taliban need to pay their soldiers princely sums of money (by local standards) to fight the war against NATO in the country. With their coffers depleted and their own expenses on fuel and food going up, it is likely that the Taliban would face greater pressure. In thinking about all the causes for their troubles, it is possible that the Taliban wouldn't pay much attention to the price of wheat but it very much here that their problems started.

I have argued in these pages before that the anti-market operations of the European Union in defending and expanding its Common Agricultural Policy had the pernicious effect of pushing down food production in various parts of Africa and Asia. Over the past few years, as these countries started growing richer on increased trade, the resulting increase in food consumption could not be met with higher production thereby driving prices up sharply.

Even here, the actions of various socialist governments - for example Vietnam banning the export of rice earlier this year - only served to exacerbate the problem. Once the price of rice increased above a certain level, various farmers in the US and elsewhere switched their summer crops to rice from corn, ensuring that future supply would increase. This is how markets operate an almost seamless self-correcting mechanism that governments are simply ill-equipped to duplicate. Often enough, they produce the kind of jarring change that the Taliban are witnessing, the same one that other nasty regimes from North Korea to Myanmar are also facing.

From Taliban to tigers
The lessons of fighting the Taliban from the pits of commodity exchanges around the world though can be expanded to other aspects of development. A key debate across Asia focuses on how to preserve the varied fauna of the region from extinction. Perhaps the most iconic of these would be the tiger, which now faces extinction in the country of its most recent resurgence, India.

The main factor contributing to the tiger's potential extinction is the rampant demand for its sexual organs (of the male) in Chinese medicine. One of the more significant failures of the Chinese government in recent years has been its inability to modernize the country's knowledge base when it comes to ancient cures. Far from condemning the practice of using exotic animal parts for unproved medicinal remedies, the Chinese government instead has sought permission from wildlife bodies to slaughter its zoo population of tigers for the purpose.

The potential impact of a tiger's sexual organs on one's libido is almost surely mythical, which makes the extinction of the majestic animal a tragedy of farcical proportions. Here though is a simple market problem, namely that a dead tiger is worth more than a living one. That price disparity seems strange when you consider that tourists are more likely to spend a few thousand dollars on an Indian safari experience if there was a chance of actually seeing a tiger in the wild.

Why then have locals in these wildlife reserves not helped to preserve the tiger, instead of joining with the poachers? Simply put, it goes back to their lack of ownership in the well-being of tigers. Their meager wages as waiters and drum beaters proves insufficient, compared to the offer for killing a whole tiger for the poachers.

India can certainly learn much from the successful experience of tourism in various communities ranging from the Masai tribe in Kenya to the pristine havens of Southeast Asia. In all these cases, it is not the addition of hundreds of gun-toting rangers that has helped to preserve wildlife, but the economic well-being of the local population that ensures that the wildlife survives so that tourist dollars continue to flow.

It is not just in poor countries that such economic dynamics work. Australia and New Zealand depend on tourists to supplement agrarian incomes in many communities. As a result, they have spent enormous efforts in ensuring the well-being of natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef and various whale species that dominate the waters around New Zealand. It is no accident that these two countries have taken up the cudgels against Asian poachers who use unsustainable fishing practices such as cyanide fishing that is common in the Indonesian archipelago but seldom seen in the waters around Australia, or indeed that they have helped set the pace in protests against Japanese whaling ships.

In the latter case, the use of diplomatic and cultural protests against the Japanese does mask the underlying economic conflict between high prices for whale meat in Tokyo and tourist tickets for whale watching off the northern coast of New Zealand. Therein lies a tale for resolving other environmental issues across the region.

Moscow ranks third for Kabul

(RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) 30 May 2008- Having arrived in Moscow on May 25 for a two-day visit, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that his country would like to further expand cooperation with Russia.

Undeservedly, his visit went virtually unnoticed by Moscow's media, but it was significant in terms of Russian-Afghan relations.

First, he contradicted everything that Russian experts are saying and thinking about the situation in Afghanistan. He said it is absolutely wrong to think that Kabul controls only a small part of Afghanistan, that NATO is losing its influence, or that it cannot save the situation without the help of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Mr. Spanta said that Kabul has problems only in two of its 34 provinces - Helmand, which borders on Pakistan, and Uruzgan. Now the government regularly holds its meetings in the provinces, which alone shows that it controls the situation. It has met in Nangarhar, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kandahar. The next meetings will be held in Herat and Bamian.

Herat played host to the regional foreign minister summit, and Islamic foreign ministers will meet in Jelalabad in the fall.

Second, Mr. Spanta emphasized that Kabul intends to develop bilateral relations with Russia, ruling out participation in any alliances. He made it clear that Kabul does not want to cooperate with either the CSTO or the SCO despite Moscow's persistent efforts in this direction. As for prospects of Afghanistan joining the SCO, which have been extensively discussed recently by the media, Kabul is not going to participate in its activities even as an observer.

Third, Mr. Spanta made his second trip to Moscow in the context of Afghanistan's new foreign policy doctrine, which the Afghan Foreign Ministry officially presented on the eve of his visit. This is a typical document for such an occasion, but some of its provisions would never have passed unnoticed in Moscow.

First, the doctrine described Afghan relations with the United States and the rest of "the democratic world" as "strategic." Moreover, they are based not only on the struggle against terrorism, but also on political orientation.

Second, Afghanistan will pursue a friendly policy of cooperation with major regional powers, in particular with India, China, and Russia. For the first time in the history of bilateral relations, Kabul has allotted Russia a modest third place. When asked whether this ranking of regional powers was determined by their participation in the country's restoration, Mr. Spanta said no. He carefully chose his words to avoid offending Russia.

Indicatively, on the eve of his visit, Mr. Spanta met with Russian Ambassador Zamir Kabulov in Kabul. The press quoted Mr. Kabulov as saying that this visit was a chance for Afghanistan, and it appears that Mr. Spanta graciously brought this chance to Moscow.

There is another important point. Out of all CSTO countries, only Moscow is trying to raise the organization's prestige in Afghanistan. Central Asian republics are only concerned about their own national interests in this context. Russia's role in the CSTO implies a special responsibility for the organization, but maybe its national interests should come first. A strong country deserves different treatment. If Russia loses its positions in Afghanistan, it is unlikely to keep its Central Asian allies in its orbit of influence.

The doctrine's words about Kabul's cooperation with neighboring countries on a bilateral basis, without participation in any blocs, betray its link with the American project Greater Central Asia Partnership for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries. The project's aim is to involve these countries in the process of Afghanistan's economic, political and social recovery.

Contrary to predictions by Russian experts, this project has been supported by all Central Asian countries, and Afghanistan is increasingly playing a key role in it. When signing a declaration on strategic partnership with Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted with good reason that the United States will not repeat the past mistakes and leave Afghanistan on its own like Russia did in 1992. She meant the collapse of the Najibullah regime, and the advent of the U.S.-trained Mujaheddin to power. Obviously, the United States has been more serious in assessing Afghanistan's importance in the region.

[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.]