Now Karzai is standing up to Bush!

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050522-120018-4992r.htm

Karzai takes hard line on U.S. troops
May 22, 2005

By Daniel Cooney
ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, hours before flying to Washington for talks with President Bush, yesterday demanded greater control over U.S. military operations in his country and called for vigorous punishment of any U.S. troops who mistreat prisoners.
He also said he wants the United States to hand over all Afghan prisoners still in U.S. custody.
In a volatile southern province, meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded in the latest in a string of attacks launched by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime.

AP: Records Reveal Guantanamo Stories

Updated 7:28 AM ET May 23, 2005
By PAISLEY DODDS

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8a8rsrg0&src=ap

LONDON (AP) - Some boast they were Taliban fighters. Others _ an invalid, a chicken farmer, a nomad, a nervous name-dropper _ say they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when they were plucked from Afghanistan, Pakistan or other countries and flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Their stories are tucked inside nearly 2,000 pages of documents the U.S. government released to The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Representing a fraction of some 558 tribunals held since July, the testimonies capture frustration on both sides _ judges wrestling with mistaken identity and scattered information from remote corners of the world, prisoners complaining there's no evidence against them......

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/H...36f1313505b.htm

Afghanistan: Violence Surges

23 May 2005 17:00:26 GMT

Source: Human Rights Watch
(New York, May 24, 2005) -- Afghanistan's security situation has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, with a spate of political killings, violent protests, and attacks on humanitarian workers, Human Rights Watch said today. The instability comes as President Hamid Karzai visits the United States this week. The recent violence includes the assassination of a parliamentary candidate in Ghazni two weeks ago, the murder of three female aid workers, the kidnapping of an aid worker in Kabul, and clashes between armed factions in the northern province of Maimana.

"May was a terrible month for Afghanistan," said John Sifton, Afghanistan researcher for Human Rights Watch. "President Karzai needs more than a handshake from Washington. He needs concrete assistance from the United States and its allies to improve security."

Kabul Seeks Historic, Female Appointment For Governor

The Afghan government is preparing the way for the country to get its first female provincial governor.

Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said today that officials have prepared an all-female list for the governorship of central Bamiyan Province. He said one of the women on the list will get the job.

Ludin said that former Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Sarobi is included on the list.

Sarobi has previously said that a female governor has a good chance of gaining acceptance in Bamiyan, where women have been traditionally freer to work and gain education than in other, more conservative parts of the country.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/29/top14.htm

12 die in Afghan ambush


KABUL, May 28: Twelve civilians were killed after unknown assailants opened fire on them in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Friday, the provincial governor said on Saturday. In a separate incident, two soldiers were wounded in a grenade attack in the provincial capital Asad Abad, governor Assadulla Wafa said.

Tribal elder Mohammed Faqir and several relatives and friends were ambushed and killed in Manogay district of Kunar province some 170 kilometers east of the capital Kabul, Wafa said.

“Mohammed Faqir and his 11 friends and relatives were on their way home in Manogay district as their vehicle came under light arms fire by unknown armed men and they were all killed,” Wafa said on Saturday.

“They were civilians and it is not known who was behind the attack, if it was enmity with the family or it was an attack by insurgents,” he added. Meanwhile, on Saturday two Afghan national army soldiers were wounded when a grenade exploded near their vehicle.—AFP

Now let the Afghans share in a little dose of an imperialistic lifestyle.... welcome in the tax man.


http://www.deepikaglobal.com/ENG4_sub.asp?...newscode=105252

Afghans face income tax for first time


KABUL, May 29 (Reuters) Afghans and foreigners working in the country are soon going to have to start paying tax on their incomes as the aid-dependent government strives to increase its revenue.

The wage tax is being imposed on all businesses with two or more employees from Sept. 23, finance ministry officials said at the weekend.

''This involves government employees, those who work for foreign companies and foreigners working in Afghanistan,'' said ministry spokesman Aziz Shams.

The aim is to boost the government budget, half of which is being paid by foreign donors, he said.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are advising Afghanistan how to start a tax regime after a quarter century of conflict and chaos but some business people already say they are facing a tax regime that hinders growth.

The new tax will be set at a rate of 10 per cent on income over 250 dollars a month. Income over 2,000 dollars a month will be taxed 20 per cent, said the ministry's director of revenue, Abdul Malik Rahmani.

Afghanistan gets half of its more than 600 million dollars annual budget from donor nations and they are keen to see the government start developing sustainable revenue streams.

But those business people who do pay tax say the tax base is far too narrow and they are already burdened by a list of taxes including a 20 per cent corporate tax and a 12.5 per cent tax on gross receipts.

The average basic salary of a government employee is 1,250 afghanis 25 dollars a month so the new tax is largely aimed at foreigners and Afghans working for foreign companies and aid groups.

More than 2,000 foreigners are living in the capital, Kabul, many of them working for aid agencies.

Marines Return to Tora Bora for Operation Celtics
Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/6/1 1:39:00


When the U.S. Marine Corps' 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, ventured into the Tora Bora mountains recently to hunt down enemy fighters, they instead found Afghans eager for a brighter future.

The mission, dubbed Operation Celtics, began as an offensive in an enemy sanctuary - the rugged mountains of Nangahar province that stretch along the Pakistan border. It was one of several missions launched last week by coalition troops to locate insurgents. Afghan National Army soldiers took part in the operations. "Lima" Company Marines were prepared for a fight, but found themselves sipping tea with village elders.

In the first few days of the operation, the Marines distributed roughly eight tons of civic aid. And not a shot was fired.

"It's a sign of success that we're not getting shot at," said Capt. Eric Kelly, Company L commander.

Insurgents operating in the area would likely rely upon local villagers for support while transiting through the high-altitude passes, Kelly said. Marines patrolled into remote villages, set up security and talked with local citizens to assess their needs and gain information on enemy activity.

Keying the radio, Kelly called to battalion headquarters at Jalalabad Airfield, where aviation assets from the U.S. Army's Company F, 3rd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment -- known to troops as "Big Windy" -- were on standby to airlift bundles of civic aid.

Within minutes, Marines heard the heavy "thud-a-thud" of the CH-47 Chinook echoing through the valley. A U.S. Air Force controller working with the Marines popped a canister of green smoke to mark the landing zone and talked to the approaching Army pilot. Marines rushed into the blowing dust to pull bundles of supplies off the helicopter's back ramp.

"When fighting an insurgency, the way to win is to get the people on your side," said 1st Lt. J.P. Sienicki, 25, of Long Valley, N.J. "When you're handing out food and blankets to help people in this rugged, austere landscape, you're helping out on the most personal level."

Security during the mission was key, said Sienicki, Lima's weapons platoon commander. The Marines were "set up for success" by having Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II jet fighters overhead during the mission's initial stage, he said. A platoon from the Afghan National Army marched alongside the Marines, contributing to interaction with the Afghan citizens and establishing perimeter security when the troops stopped near villages.

"If our Army works hard with the Americans and gets back on its feet, then we will no longer need the U.S. for support," said Janet Ghul, an Afghan soldier from Chapahar province.

Ghul and his fellow Afghan troops use their knowledge of the local culture to assess progress during the military operations. Ghul recalled how the Russian soldiers stormed his home and killed his father. The coalition forces' approach makes Afghans feel more comfortable, he said.

"Before, they did not like foreigners," Ghul said. "Now they see (the United States) building the country, and they are happy."

On a ridge overlooking the Pachir Agam valley, Marines set up camp outside the Gerakhil Primary School, a 12-room edifice built in 2004 by a U.S.-led provincial reconstruction team. About 700 local boys who once studied out in the open now have furnished classrooms, said Capt. Michael Greer, 35, an Army Reserve officer from the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion.

"You build a school, and you make people choose," Greer said. "It's either help from the Afghan government and its coalition allies or supporting the bad guys."

Nearby, Afghan villagers clustered around the helicopter landing zone. Sgt. Joshua Allison, of Stroudsburg, Pa., spent the afternoon of his 23rd birthday loading the arms of Afghan boys with bundles of blankets, rugs, food and medicine. In the village, Navy Corpsman Daniel Mayberry, 21, of Gaithersburg, Md., began treating ailments and injuries in a makeshift clinic.

"We're trying to better this country's problems and let them know we care," Mayberry said. "The local people are trying to get on with their everyday lives, and there's people - Taliban and al Qaeda - threatening their lives. If we show them that we're here to help, they may tell us where's the bad guys with the weapons."

Gaining the locals' trust is the only way to get their support, said Cpl. Stephen Patterson, 22, of Conyers, Ga.

Patterson often mans a 60 mm mortar on Marine firebases. But when he gets out on patrols, he sees the Afghanistan's future in the droves of children who swarm around Marines.

"There's something about kids," Patterson said. "Their parents saw what other foreign armies did here, but the kids are exposed to the way we are doing things. Maybe they can tell their parents about what we're doing, and remember what we've done for them."

(Army Sgt. 1st Class Rick Scavetta is assigned to the Combined Joint Task Force 76 public affairs office.)

Biography:

Combined Forces Command Afghanistan [http://www.cfc-a.centcom.mil/]

NATO Expands Into Western Afghanistan
Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/6/1 14:33:35

NATO took command of two more provincial reconstruction teams and a forward support base in Afghanistan May 31, expanding the alliance's security and reconstruction mission in the western part of the country.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force assumed command of provincial reconstruction teams in Herat and Farah and a logistics hub in Herat during a formal transfer-of-authority ceremony at Camp Vianini.

Italy took the lead at PRT Herat, and U.S. forces operating under ISAF command are leading the PRT in Farah, according to Canadian Lt. Col. Karen Tissot van Patot, an ISAF spokeswoman. Spain is heading up the forward support base in Herat, which will include a quick reaction force, a surgical-capable hospital and a medical evacuation capability, and which will be staffed with 375 military members and civilians.

The ceremony also marked the establishment of the first ISAF Regional Command West, under the command of Italian Brig. Gen. Guiseppe Santangelo.

"This expansion will result in significant changes for the ISAF mission," said Turkish Army Lt. Gen. Ethem Erdagi, commander of the International Security Assistance Force since February. "Not only will it expand ISAF's area of operations, but it will establish the first regional area command structure."

Later this summer, two more NATO-led PRTs will become operational, completing the International Security Assistance Force's expansion into western Afghanistan, Tissot van Patot said in a published statement. Lithuania will lead the new PRT in Chagcharan, capital of Ghor province, and Spain will lead the PRT in Qaleh-Now, capital of Baghdis province.

Erdagi called the expansion "ISAF's first critical step into western Afghanistan," which he said "will allow ISAF to more effectively support the upcoming Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council elections."

Once the western expansion is complete, ISAF will provide security assistance in 50 percent of Afghanistan, Tissot van Patot said.

NATO defense ministers agreed to expand the alliance's role in Afghanistan during a February meeting in Nice, France. Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said it "underscores NATO's long-term commitment to helping Afghanistan build a stable, prosperous and democratic future."

The alliance plans to deploy more troops to support Afghanistan's upcoming National Assembly elections scheduled for September, officials said. In addition, NATO is preparing to further expand the International Security Assistance Force into southern Afghanistan later this year.

The alliance took command of the International Security Assistance Force in August 2003, its first mission outside the European-Atlantic area. Currently ISAF numbers about 8,000 troops from both NATO and non-NATO nations.

http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/...602_188011.html

Taliban attacks US supplier convoy in south Afghanistan

UPDATED: 07:52, June 02, 2005


Taliban militants attacked and set fire on a convoy of supplier vehicles Wednesday between Afghan southern province of Kandahar and Uruzgan, a local official said.

"The supplier convoy for Coalition forces was attacked by Taliban on the way between Kandahar and Uruzgan. Taliban set fire on one fuel tank and one small vehicle, and one driver was injured, " Mohammad Ayob Salangi, police chief of Kandahar told Xinhua.

Taliban claimed the responsibility for this attack and said they set fire on four fuel tanks and arrested two Afghan persons from the convoy.

In another accident targeting the United States happened in Afghan eastern province of Khost, three US soldiers were injured in a bomb explosion. "Three American soldiers injured as they patrolling in the car in Khost when suddenly met the blowup," Coalition spokesperson Cindy Moor said.

The unstopped military attacks and suicide bombs since Monday have killed more than 30 persons including Afghan officials, civilians and Taliban insurgents.

A suicide bomb explosion in a mosque killed 19 including a police chief and injured 52 in Afghan southern province of Kandahar Wednesday morning.

A remote-controlled bomb carried by a bicycle exploded and killed two persons, injured five in Afghan south province of Helmand on Wednesday.

Another similar controlled roadside bomb explosion injured at least eight persons in Afghan capital Kabul Monday morning.

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_incl...?storyID=109495


Bomber kills 20 in Afghanistan mosque attack
06/02/2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber walked into a mosque during the funeral of a Muslim cleric and blew himself up Wednesday, killing 20 people, including Kabul's police chief, and wounding 42 others.

The attack was the deadliest in Afghanistan since a surge in violence began in March, casting doubt on U.S. claims that it is stabilizing the country and reinforcing fears that militants here are copying the tactics of those in Iraq.

Hundreds of mourners were crowded inside the mosque for the funeral of Mullah Abdul Fayaz in the main southern city of Kandahar when the bomber struck.

Treasures saved from Taleban vandals
By Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,61-1613871,00.html


MANY of the treasures from the Kabul Museum, thought to have been looted or destroyed during Taleban rule in Afghanistan, have been found unharmed. Museum staff had carefully packed and hidden them before the Taleban takeover in 1996, and remained silent about their fate as speculation and rumour blossomed.

Among the spectacular objects recently displayed to Afghan and foreign officials are the Begram Ivories, a series of delicately carved panels and figures in Indian style, found in an ancient city at the foot of the Hindu Kush by French excavators before the Second World War. The site now lies under Bagram air base, expanded after the American invasion.

The Begram treasure also includes fragile coloured-glass vessels imported from the Mediterranean, and plaster roundels depicting Classical Greek deities: Afghanistan was a crossroads of cultures, and Begram’s strategic position made it the key to trade across the Hindu Kush between the Oxus and Indus drainages. Other miraculous survivals include many of the Buddhist stucco figures from Hadda, a monastery complex near Jalalabad, and the painted clay sculptures of nearby Fondukistan.

Dr Fred Hiebert, a specialist in Central Asian archaeology with the National Geographic Society, was present when the resurrected treasures were unpacked a few weeks ago: in a lecture at Boston University in Massachusetts he explained how the Afghan “keyholders” of the Kabul Museum had packed the objects and hidden them. The most famous collection, the “Golden Hoard of Bactria” from Tillya-tepe in the Oxus valley, dating to the first century AD and one of the largest finds of ancient goldwork ever found, was already known to lie in the vaults of the Presidential Palace in Kabul. It had been hidden when the Russians invaded a quarter of a century ago, and was found safely there last year: the locked vaults had defeated all efforts to open them.

It is the rest of the museum’s display materials that have surprised the scholarly world by reappearing: persistent and credible rumours had placed many important pieces on the Pakistan antiquities market, especially in the bazaars of Peshawar, the city nearest the Khyber Pass and the Afghan frontier. Some were knowledgably stated to be on show in the homes of named Pakistani officials. All the rumours seem to have been wrong.

What was, sadly, destroyed was the museum archive, and the large sculptures that could not be easily moved from the building, which lies in a vulnerable suburb of Kabul. Harrowing tales of how Taleban officials smashed such notable sculptures as the Kushan statue from Surkh Kotal because it represented the human form, albeit only from the waist down and in long trousers, fuelled justifiable fears about the fate of the rest of the collections. There will be great relief at Dr Hiebert’s revelations.

U.S. commander: Afghan insurgency 'significantly' weaker


KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan insurgents are "significantly weaker" than a year ago, a U.S. commander said Monday, despite stepped-up resistance from Taliban-led rebels in recent weeks and clashes that have left dozens dead.
However, Col. Gary Cheek, commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, acknowledged that the military needed better ties with local Islamic leaders to shore up its reputation after deadly riots broke out last week over reported desecration of the Koran at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Newsweek magazine, which reported that investigators found evidence U.S. interrogators had placed copies of Islam's holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet, later acknowledged errors in the story and issued an apology.

Cheek did not address the Newsweek article, but a military spokesman at the same briefing said U.S. commanders were examining "how much truth is to what is being reported" and would take "appropriate action" against anyone found culpable.

"The fact, though, is it does not change our stated position ... that any disrespect to the Quran and any other religion is not tolerated by our culture and our values," spokesman Col. Jim Yonts said.

Cheek claimed militants were tiring in the face of the growing authority of President Hamid Karzai's government and its foreign-trained security forces, and were attracted by an American-backed reconciliation program.

Many of the clashes were now "limited to the border region where insurgents can launch small-scale attacks, then attempt to return to Pakistan," Cheek said at a news conference marking the end of his 11-month deployment in Afghanistan.

"The insurgency in Afghanistan is not over, though certainly by any logic our adversaries should call it quits. I would characterize our enemies as significantly weaker that they were a year ago and their influence continues to wane."

U.S. and Afghan troops have fought a string of battles with Taliban-led insurgents since early April. About 150 militants have been reported killed in the period, along with 30 members of the Afghan security forces, three U.S. troops and a Romanian soldier.

In the latest incident, a land mine packed with additional explosives blew up under a vehicle carrying government troops in southeastern Zabul province, killing two of the soldiers and injuring five others, the U.S. military said.

Cheek acknowledged an increasing number of attacks using homemade bombs. But he said much of the fighting was down because of increased U.S. operations and the presence of four new Afghan battalions in his area alone.

Midlevel commanders from both the Taliban and the militia of fugitive former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were seeking to make peace with the government and U.S. forces under an official reconciliation drive, Cheek said, though he cautioned that the process could be slow.

"Many of them are just plain tired of fighting and constantly being on the run," Cheek said.

Asked about the anti-American protests that left at least 15 people dead, Cheek said the episode showed that the military needed closer links with Islamic leaders to shore up its image among ordinary Afghans.

"There are some religious leaders and their followers that were deeply disturbed by this to where they felt they had to take action," Cheek said. "We should come in and engage those leaders."

In a bid to head off resentment of the dominant U.S. role in Afghanistan, Karzai has since called for his government to have the final say on military operations conducted by the U.S.-led coalition.

Cheek, however, said the military had already acceded to government wishes to reduce nighttime raids and would only inform Afghan officials of operations afterward.

"We're going to make great efforts to keep the governors informed of actions as soon as we can after they occur," he said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley06022005.html

June 2, 2005
Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America Open Mouths and Closed Brains

By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

The recent US commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno, said April 18 that the Pakistan Army was about to begin an operation against al-Qaeda terrorists supposedly being given refuge in the frontier region of Pakistan, along the Afghan border.

Next day the Pakistan army commander in the area, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, a genial and intelligent officer, said "LtGen Barno should not have made that statement. It was a figment of his imagination." Pakistan Army HQ then announced that "no such military operation is being launched, and we decide for ourselves what needs to be done, and where." Barno had put his tongue in motion before engaging his brain. (And even if he had been correct in what he said, it is bizarre that a foreign general should give warning to terrorists that an operation against them by allied security forces was about to begin. -- "Gee, thanks for telling us, Dave; we'll get the hell out of the way. Do the same for you, sometime. All the best from your buddy Osama.")

Any organization other than the Pentagon (CEO [failed]: D Rumsfeld), would have rebuked an oaf who had gravely offended an ally, but orders from Karl Rove are that nobody in the Bush administration is allowed to admit failure. If truth-telling and failure admission were to be accepted as normal in Bush Washington, who knows what horrors would be revealed. It is permissible and indeed essential to vilify and fire only those who are correct in their judgments and honest in their reports. Kick down and kiss up is the order of the day, as exemplified by the boorish Bolton. Stuff up and move up, as we used to say in Vietnam.

Pakistan is in a dangerous position. It wants to rid itself of terrorists and to help the US in its pursuit of them. But very many of its citizens, especially in the region bordering Afghanistan, are vehemently anti-American, and the Pakistan government has a hard time trying to keep the lid

on religious extremism and violence. The last thing it needs is a US general mouthing off about what Pakistan should or should not do, because loony obscurantists in Pakistan will always take advantage of such stupidity to whip up even more anti-American sentiment. The Pakistanis are trying hard to play down US military involvement in their country for the good reason that religious fanatics are capable of bringing mobs into the streets and encouraging violence and murder on a large scale if they can find a reason to do so. And when over 60 per cent of Pakistanis detest George Bush and are convinced he is waging a crusade against Islam, the pitfalls are obvious. Well; you might think they would be obvious to even the meanest intelligence.

Well, no. Barno ignored Pakistan's sensitivities and justifiable annoyance and went on to make an even bigger fool of himself. Ten days later he gave an interview to the New York Times about what (according to him) was going on in Afghanistan. It might be expected he would have been careful in what he said, because he had obviously got up the nose of the Pakistan army; but no. The general swung into mouth-mode and made matters worse by saying his soldiers "had been training Pakistanis in night flying and airborne assault tactics to combat foreign and local fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border."

OK; so anyone who pays close attention to that part of the world knows that US special forces have been involved with Pakistan's Special Services Group and that air assault techniques have been practiced with the new US helicopters. But the point is that Barno should have kept his mouth shut and not spoken of US-Pakistan military cooperation, because that sort of thing is likely to infuriate some very dangerous people.

Hazrat Ali surrenders arms
By Jawed Hamim and Ezatullah Zawab

JALALABAD, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Former jihadi commander Hazral Ali voluntarily surrendered arms under the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process, officials claimed.

Jalalabad Deputy Police Chief Qari Ameer Khan Liwal told Pajhwok Afghan News the commander handed over 87 different light and heavy weapons to officials.

He said the cache of arms also included those seized during the jihad era. "Hazrat Ali has ordered his men to surrender the remaining weapons soon," Liwal added.

Hazrat Ali (45), resident of Kashmond village in Qarghayo district of the eastern Laghman province, was commander of Hezb-i-Islami Yonis Khalis faction. After the ouster of Taliban, he was appointed as Jalalabad police chief. He quit the slot to become contender for the upcoming parliamentary polls.

General Zahir, an official of the Defence Ministry said a total of 1792 heavy and light arms have been surrendered while 21 army units have been dissolved so far.

Former Taliban leaders call on Karzai
By Lailuma Sadid

KABUL, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Some leaders of the splintered group of the ousted Taliban militia Thursday called on President Hamid Karzai and reiterated their support for lasting peace in the war-ravaged country.

Eminent among them were Maulawi Arsalan Rahmani, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, Maulawi Rahmatullah Wahidyar, Dr Abdul Sattar Paktis, Qazi Habibullah Fawzi, Maulawi Peer Mohammad Rohani and Qariullah Karimi.

Talking to the delegation, Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan was home to all Afghans. "We all are sons of the land and every one should play his due role in reconstruction of the motherland."

Regarding the role of Ulema, Karzai said they should work for peace and harmony in the country.

He said the government had decided to increase the number of madressas (religious schools) in Afghanistan so as to bring back those Afghan youths studying in other countries.

Maulawi Abdul Hakim Mujahid, on the occasion, urged the need for collective efforts to restore peace in the country. He assured all out support to the government.

JICA to train disarmed, disabled Afghans
By Makia Monir

KABUL, May 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Japanese organisation will arrange vocational training courses in nine Afghan provinces for people surrendering arms under the DDR plan, the disabled and the jobless.

An agreement on training workshops, which will begin in April 2006 and continue till April 2008, was signed here Tuesday between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Labour Minister Sayed Akram Masumi said the training workshops would be held in Kabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, Mazar-i-Sharif, Bamyan, Gardez, Herat, Nangarhar and Jawzjan provinces. They could be extended to other provinces, if need be, he hinted.

The three-million dollar project will be executed in two phases: In the first, disarmed people will be trained for different vocations while the disabled will get similar instruction in the second.

Defence Ministry estimates say 56,000 militiamen have been disarmed during the past two years and 48,000 of them have already got civilian jobs after undergoing such training.

Narcotics factories destroyed
By Ezatullah Zawab

JALALABAD, June 2: Counter-Narcotics Force Thursday destroyed 15 heroin factories and torched huge quantity of drugs, officials said.

The drugs were seized during a crackdown in Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province.

Sayed Lutfullah Sadaat, an official told Pajhwok Afghan News two alleged smugglers were arrested and two vehicles were taken into custody during the operation launched early in the morning.

The force also claimed hundreds of kilograms of narcotics were destroyed on Thursday. The drugs were seized during a three-day operation in the Helmand province last month.

Narcotics torched in Zabul
By Saeed Zabuli

ZABUL, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Security officials in the southern Zabul province said they torched 261 kilograms of narcotics in Qalat City in the presence of hundreds of citizens on Thursday.


Police recovered the narcotics from a car which was headed to Zabul.


Zabul crime police chief Abdul Matin told Pajhwok Afghan News, "The seized narcotics include 167 kg opium, 23 kg hashish, 40 kg morphine, 6 kg heroin, 56 kg chemicals and 16 bottles of acid.", adding they haven't arrested anybody in connection with the smuggle.


Interior ministry's Special Counter-Narcotics Task Force meanwhile had captured hundreds of narcotics during crackdown operations in Helmand, Nangarhar, Badakhshan and Oruzgan provinces.

Jalali, Sherzai blame blast on unnamed foreigner
By Zubair Babakarkhel & Saeed Zabuli

KABUL, June 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan government Wednesday blamed a huge explosion in Kandahar city on an unnamed foreign militant.

Scores of people including Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Akram Khakrezwal and his two nephews were killed in the suicide bombing that rocked a mosque in the heart of the Taliban bastion.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a news conference here: "According to information I have received from Kandahar, the suicide bomber was a foreigner."

Without naming the alien or the country of his origin, the interior minister obliquely pinned the fatal terrorist attack on Taliban insurgents and their al-Qaeda allies.

Since Afghans did not support the combatants, he added, they had hired foreigners for executing their activities. He confirmed Khakrezwal was among the fatalities resulting from the blast.

Jalali, who put the death toll at 19, said 52 people suffered injuries in the powerful explosion. Twenty people with minor injuries were discharged from hospitals after receiving first aid.

Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, echoing Jalali's views, said he had received reports that five Arab fighters had slunk into the city for carrying out suicide attacks.

"I was the target of the assailant; I survived because I reached the mosque three hours after the blast," he claimed, saying 20 people had perished and 42 sustained wounds. At least three of the injured are in critical condition.

Sherzai told journalists legs of the suicide bomber were severed from his body. "The explosion bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda members who carried out a similar attack in Pakistan the other day; Afghans don’t stage suicide attacks."

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi told the Pajhwok Afghan News correspondent in Kandahar they had no link to the bombing.

"Our men are not involved in the attack because we will never kill innocent civilians just to eliminate Khakrezwal," Hakimi added, belying a BBC report.


Translated and edited by Mudassir

Fine-quality heroin seized
By Ahmad Ehsan Sarwaryar

HERAT CITY, June 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police claimed seizing a huge quantity of fine-quality heroin in the western Herat province bordering Iran.

Colonel Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, spokesman for the Herat police, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday the contraband was destined for China via Iran.

He added police intercepted a truck on the Herat-Islam Qala Highway late Tuesday and recovered 180 kilograms of heroin from it. The driver has been taken into custody.

One kilogram of fine-quality heroin is worth 140,000 afghanis ($2,800). Ahmadi claimed such a quantity of fine-quality heroin was never seized before.

6 Taliban killed in clash with coalition forces
By Najib Khilwatgar

KABUL, May 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): More than six Taliban insurgents were killed on Monday in a clash with coalition forces and the Afghan army in Barmal district of the southern Paktika province, a statement from the coalition said on Tuesday.

The insurgents were killed after they attacked positions of coalition forces with small arms. Coalition aircraft and ground forces pursued the attackers and killed them near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azemi, however, said he was unaware of the Afghan National Army forces participating in the operation.

"Insurgents continue to try to disrupt the Afghan government and coalition forces' efforts to ensure a safe and secure future for the country," said US Army Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, Combined Joint Task Force-76’s deputy commanding general for operations

Heads of women affairs depts reshuffled
By Najib Khilwatgar and Wahid Rahmani

KABUL, June 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Heads of women affairs departments have been reshuffled in 16 provinces in line with recommendations of a high-powered reform commission, the government said on Wednesday.

Shaima Khenjani, secretary to the women affairs ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News all appointees had qualified an examination lasting a month. The exam was conducted by the reform commission.

From now on, new appointees will head these departments in Kabul, Logar, Kapisa, Nangarhar, Parwan, Maidan Wardak, Balkh, Jawzjan, Nuristan, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Zabul, Takhar and Ghazni provinces

http://www.brunet.bn/news/bb/fri/jun3w20.htm

June 3, 2005

Afghan city on high alert

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan police drew a security cordon around the southern city of Kandahar on Thursday as the death toll from the previous day's suicide bombing at a mosque rose to 21.

A heavy police presence surrounded the bomb-blackened Abdul Rab Akhundzada mosque, where staff were clearing debris and shattered glass and residents combed through bloodied clothes, searching for clues about missing relatives.

The bomb blast struck the mosque Wednesday as mourners gathered for the funeral of Muslim cleric Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, who was gunned down Sunday after speaking out against the former Taleban regime.

"The death toll has risen to 21," Abdul Razaq, registrar at the city's main Mirwais hospital, told AFP. At least 52 people were wounded.

Among those killed were Kabul police chief General Akram Khakraizwal and his bodyguards. Relatives were taking his body back to his nearby home district of Khakrez, said Kandahar Radio and TV director Mohammed Daud.

The attack in the birthplace of the Islamic Taleban regime was the worst in Afghanistan this year and one of the most serious since the fall of the Taleban, which gave shelter and support to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the first suicide attack on an Afghan mosque as "an act of non-Muslim and defeated terrorists".

The provincial governor, Gul Agha Shirzai, blamed the attack on an Arab al-Qaeda operative.

Kandahar's streets were quiet Thursday and many residents said they were shaken by the attack.

"Carrying out a bomb blast in a mosque and martyring innocents is against all Islamic values," said Mawlawi Ahmad Shah, 29-year-old preacher at the mosque who sustained slight injuries to his head and hand in the blast.

Afghan Humanitarian Reporting and Journalists' Training Project

For general and editorial issues, contact Afghan Country Director Jean MacKenzie



The broad aim of IWPR's programme in Afghanistan is to support the recovery of the print media, improving reporting of humanitarian, social and political issues through journalism training. Ultimately, a healthy print sector will make an essential contribution to conflict resolution and confidence -building among the Afghan population and its different ethnic groups.

IWPR began work in Afghanistan shortly before the fall of the Taliban, expanding its activities in February 2002. Local and international training staff are based in Kabul, with occasional training and reporting activities in other regional centres.

The ultimate purpose of this programme is to strengthen the print media as a central pillar of independent civil society, increasing local understanding of and participation in the political process. The programme is training a new generation of Afghan print journalists to play this crucial role in supporting their country's recovery process. This is achieved through professional training of individuals and publications, debate and discussion, local and international publishing, and active engagement with other media and development organisations.


IWPR places international trainers in Kabul to provide intensive, practical training. Due to the low level of journalism expertise in Afghanistan, classroom training on professional issues and skills prepares journalists with little or no experience to begin writing for IWPR. These workshops have been held in Kandahar, Herat, Mazar, Kunduz, and Badakhshan as well as in Kabul, involving existing journalists and journalism students.

IWPR's trainers then commission stories from selected journalists, taking them through each stage in the reporting and editing process. Occasional reporting projects take groups of journalists from different ethnic groups to cover issues in other regions of Afghanistan, a particularly valuable training tool to encourage objective reporting .

With an office in the Kabul Media Centre, IWPR has become a meeting place and resource centre for the local print media. Editors and reporters consult regularly with the international trainer, and are provided with sources of information and reports for their own publications.

IWPR has a particularly close relationship with the Bakhtar Information Agency, the main disseminator of information in Afghanistan, providing more formalised training to its staff. A joint reporting project to produce daily articles for local and national radio began in the winter of 2002.

Stories written by trainee journalists are published in the Afghan Recovery Report, which appears each week on IWPR's website in English, Dari and Pashto. This bulletin is also distributed free of charge by emai

This international platform means local opinions on the difficult recovery process underway in Afghanistan have a greater chance of reaching and influencing international decision-makers. ARR is also provided free of charge to all local media for republication, which means objective information on the most important issues facing the country can reach the widest possible readership.

To reflect the importance of the Loya Jirga, the traditional tribal assembly held in June 2002 to choose Afghanistan's government, IWPR provided special coverage of the proceedings. The international media which had descended on Kabul in unprecedented numbers were writing for an international audience, and their reports were thus inaccessible to the Afghans who would be most affected by the historic event.

IWPR assembled a team of 8 journalists from different regions of the country, who provided a daily news service, producing 31 stories in 10 days. Whilst providing practical skills development and on the job experience of managing a large reporting project to local Afghan journalists, the initiative also produced balanced and informative reports from the local perspective.

The reports were distributed to 6 leading Dari and Pashto newspapers for republication, and also in English at the Hotel Intercontinental, informing the many international journalists based there.

IWPR has now transcribed all 70 hours of the proceedings in three languages, in order to produce a historical record of the Loya Jirga. To order a copy, click here.

IWPR is keen to encourage the formation of sustainable long-term networks between journalists, media and NGOs. Occasional discussions provide a forum for these civil society actors to meet, while reporting projects encourage mutual trust and help secure relationships.

As well as its partnership with the Bakhtar Information Agency (BIA), IWPR works closely with two local independent newspapers, Farda and Sarahat, and with non governmental organisation, Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan.

IWPR's startup programme began with help from the MacArthur Foundation. Since then, it has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the British Department for International Dvelopment (DFID), the European Union (EU), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Open Society Institute (OSI).

Media Invited to $1.8 million Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital Renovation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan Engineer District
Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, U.S. Commercial: (540) 542-1727
April 3, 2005


AFGHANISTAN, Kabul – Media are invited to the Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital on Tuesday, April 5, to participate in a groundbreaking ceremony and tour the facilities, which are undergoing a $1.8 million renovation.



The hospital, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan are hosting the event to celebrate the start of construction on the electrical, sewer and water systems that are in a state of disrepair.



The deputy minister from the Ministry of Public Health, the director of the Rabia Balkhi Hospital and a senior official from Combined Forces Command will speak at the event.



Refreshments will be served.



Please RSVP no later than 7 p.m. today via e-mail to Maria Or at: maria.or@tac01.usace.army.mil. Access into the hospital facilities will be enforced and limited to a guest list.



Media who wish to attend are asked to meet at the Rabia Balkhi Hospital in Kabul at 9 a.m. Tuesday. Parking will not be available inside the facilities.


Note: Photos are available upon request. Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, US Commercial: 540-542-1727 or aedpublicaffairs@tac01.usace.army.mil for additional information.

$28 million Awarded to Build a Bridge between Nations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan Engineer District
Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, U.S. Commercial: (540) 542-1727
Mar. 24, 2005


AFGHANISTAN , Kabul – A $28 million contract to build a bridge between Afghanistan and Tajikistan was awarded Monday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’-Afghanistan Engineer District. The bridge will enable economic development and integration in the region.


“The Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge is a start in developing a new form of cross-border cooperation between the countries of Afghanistan and Tajikistan which ultimately will enhance the market economy and democracy of both countries,” said Maj. Don Pincus who is the resident engineer for the project.


Expected to carry more than 1,000 vehicles per day between the two countries, the bridge will replace a barge system that can ferry only 50-60 cars per day over the Pyandzh River . The ferry is also not operational several months of the year due to unsafe water conditions.


The proposed bridge will provide a two-lane vehicle bridge with a pedestrian walkway connecting Afghanistan and Tajikistan , spanning the Pyandzh River at Sher Khan, Afghanistan and Niznji Pianj , Tajikistan .


Scheduled to be completed April 2007, the contract was awarded to Rizzani de Eccher S.p.A. of Udine , Italy .


Note: Photos are available upon request. Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, US Commercial: 540-542-1727 or aedpublicaffairs@tac01.usace.army.mil for additional information.

Coalition Press Opening Statement - AED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Afghanistan Engineer District
Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, U.S. Commercial: (540) 542-1727
April 11, 2005

Col. John B. O’Dowd
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan
Afghanistan Engineering District

Good morning. I am Colonel John O’Dowd, the commander of the Afghanistan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I am pleased to be here this morning to share with you the reconstruction progress and announcement we recently made to award a contract for the construction of the Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge spanning the Aamoo River at Sher Khan.



Rizzani de Eccher of Udine, Italy, was awarded the contract for $28 million on March 21. We have already conducted meetings with the contractor and design is proceeding. When completed, this bridge will contribute to the economic development and integration of both nations. This bridge will serve as a vital link connecting the Central Asian Region with outside markets. It will also inevitably contribute to the long-term peace and security of this region.



This project serves as an example of the continued commitment of Coalition forces and the United States Army Corps of Engineers to the people of Afghanistan. The Corps of Engineers continues to construct facilities for Coalition and Afghan forces and provide technical support for the construction of critical infrastructure facilities.



We will remain uncompromising in our goals to provide the necessary facilities to bolster the Afghan security sector in order to provide a safe and secure environment free from terrorism. We continue to support the development of the Afghan construction industry. Our programs provide the opportunity for Afghans to be trained in skilled trades and obtain quality employment. The vital trade skills obtained in the course of our construction will one day allow them to rebuild their own nation. Most of the workers on our construction projects are Afghan craftsmen.



Among our many programs, the construction of the Afghan National Army facilities is the largest. Right now in the field, there are 20,000 Afghan soldiers who were trained in facilities built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Those soldiers have been in operation with Coalition forces for the last year against the terrorists who oppose the government of Afghanistan and oppose freedom and democracy. Recently, Afghan soldiers were recognized for combating the threat of improvised explosive devices and providing for the safety of all Afghan citizens. The Afghan National Army has also participated in relief operations for people affected by the extremely harsh winter and spring floods.



In March we celebrated the grand opening of the new National Military Academy of Afghanistan, which is in its final phase of construction and is currently operational for the school’s first class of cadets. With the assistance of the staff of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Afghan National Military Academy will produce quality leaders for the country.



The Brigade Garrisons in Kabul are scheduled to be completed this summer. The four Regional Command garrisons begun last summer will also be substantially complete by the end of this summer. Even with the challenges the weather presented this past winter, the projects are well on their way and on target. Two contracts are pending award in the near future and more installations are planned to eventually accommodate the full Afghan force.



Just as important, we are continuing construction on sustainment facilities for the Afghan Army. We are renovating the Afghan Army soldier’s hospital, the Logistics Command facilities, the Central Movement Agency facilities, and constructing a military entrance processing center.



Another program that directly supports the security sector is the Corps’ role in building facilities for the police. The program currently includes the construction and refurbishment of 18 facilities with more than $140 million of additional police facilities construction planned in the future. Planning continues for the construction of border, highway and provincial police facilities.


The Corps is also constructing facilities to sustain U.S. forces operations, most significantly the construction of new runways at Kandahar and Bagram air bases, which is where our combat aircrafts fly from that support our troops out in the field seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.



Other current projects include renovations at the Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital to install heating, electrical, water supply and sewer systems. We are also working together with several partner agencies, organizations and ministries on the Chele Daktharan Housing Project that will provide shelter for thousands of displaced citizens in Kabul. In addition, the Corps is providing technical expertise in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development that provides critical infrastructure in the areas of roads, schools, clinics, power and water resources.



In Fiscal Year 2004, we awarded nearly $600 million worth of work to many companies that employ and train local Afghan laborers. We have requested nearly $800 million for Fiscal Year 2005 and are pleased to show progress in effectively and efficiently awarding new projects to continue to improve the stability and living conditions in Afghanistan.



In the end, we have been successful because of the industrious nature of the Afghan people and their commitment to move towards progress as well as the hard work and coordination of all the agencies involved in this enormous effort, including the Ministry of Defense, CFC-A and OMC-A.



Thank you.


With that, I am now open to questions regarding Corps reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.



Note: Photos are available upon request. Contact: Maria Or, Afghanistan : 070-18-8397, US Commercial: 540-542-1727 or aedpublicaffairs@tac01.usace.army.mil for additional information.

Walt Wiley: Parish joins local man's effort to get shoes for kids in Afghanistan

By Walt Wiley -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, April 21, 2005







Walkin' shoes: Scott Hicks doesn't live in Sacramento anymore. He's in Afghanistan these days. But he's still a member of the parish at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Capitol Avenue , and he's been e-mailing his friends about his adventures.


Scott is a cartographer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, making maps fo r the people building roads and waterworks and other items necessary for a civilized country.



Visit Sacramento Bee website for full story http://www.sacbee.com/content/community_ne...-13613263c.html.

http://www.texaspanhandleplains.com/newspa...rticle&sid=1864


UN Suspends Mine Clearing Operation In Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD - The United Nations has suspended its mine-clearing operations in southern Afghanistan after a roadside bomb killed two deminers and injured five others.

The decision to halt demining is the latest setback for the United Nations as it tries to expand its development projects in the restive south of Afghanistan.

The bomb blast this week was the third attack on Afghan deminers in the past two weeks, and brought the death toll to five.

Attacks on aid workers and U.N. staff have increased recently as insurgents expand their campaign against the U.S.-backed central government.

The U.N. Mine Action Center says the violence has forced the suspension of projects in three southern provinces.

U.N. spokeswoman Ariane Quentier told reporters the demining work will only resume when Afghan security officials improve protection for U.N. staff. "I am quoting John Kelly, the program manager at the United Nation's Mine Action Center in Afghanistan, and he is saying, 'We condemn these targeted attacks against deminers and call on the Afghan authorities to bring justice to the perpetrators of these crimes.'"

Mines and unexploded ordinance in Afghanistan kill or wound up to 100 people a month. Nearly half the victims are children.

Most of the landmines were planted during the 1980's by Soviet and pro-Soviet Afghan forces.

The mines restrict access to agricultural land and are a major obstacle to U.N.-backed refugee resettlement programs.

Since March, U.S.-led coalition forces have intensified their campaign against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing or capturing more than 200 suspected militants.

Testimony of Andrew S. Natsios
Administrator, USAID
Fiscal Year 2006 Budget

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
April 20, 2005

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Chairman Kolbe, members of the subcommittee: It is an honor to be here today to discuss the President's budget for the U.S. Agency for International Development for fiscal year 2006. Before beginning our presentation, I want to thank the Chairman and the other members of the committee and their staff for the support you have shown for our programs and the help you have provided us to increase our staff resources that is allowing USAID to play the critical role it does in our national security.

A New Era of Development Assistance
The President's National Security Strategy (2002) was written at a year's distance from 9/11 and is the first comprehensive response to the events of that day. The morning of that day we were a nation at work and at peace. That afternoon we were a world at war, facing a new era of deadly challenges to our security and way of life.

Our challenges in the new era require new ways of thinking and operating, the document asserted. To meet them, the whole spectrum of our foreign policy establishment had to be engaged and many of its programs redesigned. This included "defense" and "diplomacy," but also "development," the success of whose mission is now viewed as a matter of great urgency and importance. Indeed, "development" today has received a level of commitment not seen since the Kennedy or Truman Administration.

Part of the intention of the National Security Strategy was to disabuse anyone of the opinion that "development" was something peripheral to our own nation's well being. The promotion of freedom and development around the world is, of course, an expression of the highest ideals of this country. But it is also more than that. Post-9/11, the success of the cause of freedom and development is absolutely vital to making this a safer as well as a better world. As the President stated in his Second Inaugural, the present moment sees our highest ideals and our national security concerns conjoined. The task before us is great. But we are energized both by harsh necessity and our noblest aspirations.

In the last four years, we have been witness to the most extensive government reorganization since the Truman Administration created the National Security Council and the Department of Defense. We have created a new department to guarantee the security of our homeland. We have revamped the nation's intelligence apparatus. We are modernizing, reequipping, and redeploying our armed forces. We are adapting strategies that were designed to meet the dangers of a former era so that they can better meet the tests of a new world of global terrorism. We have engaged our allies to meet the common threat. And we have taken the war to places that provide aid and refuge for our enemies. In short, we find ourselves once again "present at the creation" and are erecting the new foreign policy architecture we need to address the challenges in the era that stands before us.

When I came back to USAID as Administrator, I was called to lead an Agency that came into being a half century earlier in a very different world. I was assuming office at a moment when the nation was trying to redefine its foreign policy in light of the realities of globalization and the end of the Cold War. The Agency was subjected to doubts about its relevancy in the new era. It was dislocated by cuts in both budget and manpower. All of this took its toll on morale within the Agency.

Early on, I called for an Agency-wide assessment to sort out the core missions of the Agency and to better align them with the foreign policy needs of the new era. This exercise in "stocktaking" was undertaken to refocus the Agency, in order to better define and prioritize its tasks. The result was the FANI (Foreign Aid in the National Interest) Report and the Agency's White Paper (2004), which identified five core missions of the Agency.

It has been one of my chief priorities as Administrator at USAID to strengthen the Agency's response to the key objectives the White Paper identified. These tasks have not changed because of 9/11. They have only been made more urgent by the events of that day and more central to this nation's foreign policy. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 budget reflects this commitment.

Core Missions of USAID
The five core missions of the Agency follow:

Promote transformational development through far-reaching, fundamental changes conducive to democratic governance and economic growth. The Agency also seeks to build human capacity by supporting essential human services in the fields of health and education. Such endeavors are key to helping countries sustain economic and social progress without continued dependence on foreign aid.
Strengthen fragile states to improve security, enhance stability, and advance reform and to build institutional capacity and modernize infrastructure.
Provide humanitarian relief to meet immediate human needs in countries afflicted by natural disaster, violent conflict, political crisis, or persistent dire poverty.
Support geo-political interests through development work in countries of high strategic importance.
Address global issues and special concerns where progress depends on collective effort and cooperation among countries. These include combating HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, forging international trade agreements, and combating criminal activities such as money laundering and trafficking in persons and narcotics.
To make progress on these goals, USAID is requesting $4.1 billion for its FY 2006 programs. We anticipate working with the Departments of State and Agriculture on joint programs that total $5 billion in ESF, FSA, SEED, ACI and P.L. 480 accounts. We will also manage a portion of the nearly $2 billion requested for the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative by the Department of State's Global AIDS Coordinator and a portion of the $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation. USAID is requesting $802.4 million in Operating Expenses (OE), the Capital Investment Fund, the Development Credit administrative funds and the Office of the Inspector General to fund the administrative costs of managing the $8.3 billion in program funds.

We are introducing in the request two strategic reforms to increase the effectiveness of bilateral foreign aid and advance the national security interests of the country. The first is to reward low-income countries that have achieved progress through a demonstrated commitment to reform. As President Bush stated in 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico, "When nations respect their people, open markets, invest in better health and education, every dollar of aid, every dollar of trade revenue and domestic capital is used more effectively…. We must tie greater aid to political and legal and economic reforms."

In this budget we propose tying Development Assistance to countries' own development efforts, allocating the greater share to needy countries that are not yet eligible for the Millennium Challenge Account, but that are demonstrating through sustained good performance that they are striving for the conditions that the President set forth. A performance-based approach will be adopted to allocate a share of the Development Assistance account. This will compare need and performance across regions, based on standard criteria.

We must also recognize that some countries need help to overcome instability and weak governance before they are able to grow and prosper. Many of these societies are vulnerable to crisis or recovering from it. And many are managing fragile political and economic transitions. The second strategy that USAID has launched in this year's budget aims at promoting security, stability, and reform in these countries and building the basic institutional capacity that can carry development forward.

Our approach emphasizes better monitoring, more focused strategies and programs, and greater programmatic flexibility to respond to changing conditions. An important component of this approach is USAID's request that funding be reallocated from the Development Assistance (DA) account to the Transition Initiatives (TI) account to address fragility in key states. This will increase our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the special economic and governance needs in these states. Due to this proposed reallocation, the DA account request for FY 2006 is slightly decreased over the request in the FY 2005 President's Budget.

To meet the unprecedented challenges of the post-9/11 era, USAID is aggressively pursuing management reform through a number of initiatives. By strengthening our workforce, improving program accountability, and increasing the security of our operatives, we are building the foundation of sound management and organizational excellence. We are also reaching out to new, non-traditional partners, often using the Global Development Alliance model of public-private partnerships.

Program Priorities
Priorities within the major programming initiatives of the Agency follow:

Transformational Development. USAID's priorities for the use of Development Assistance include promoting human rights and democracy as well as stimulating the economic growth that can move countries into the global trading system. We have allocated assistance on a priority basis to needy countries that are manifesting strong commitment to reform and making good development progress.

The FY 2006 request reflects a substantial increase of support for Africa when compared to a FY 2001 baseline. Particular emphasis is placed on expanding access to quality basic education, growth in agricultural productivity, and increasing trade capacity. USAID will help the countries in the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the financial and economic reforms that will allow them to take full advantage of trade liberalization. Funding for South Asia reflects the end of the relief phase for tsunami victims and the move to the recovery and reconstruction of this region. Worldwide, we will continue to work closely with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and will support Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) countries on the threshold of eligibility overcome constraints affecting their particular performances.

Stability, Reform and Recovery. USAID is vigorously pursuing policies that aim at peace and stability in Africa - with a particular focus on the Sudan. We will continue the effort begun in 2004 as a Group of Eight (G8) initiative to end famine and increase agricultural productivity and rural development in Ethiopia, the most populous country in the region, and one of the most famine-prone countries in the world. In Latin America, USAID is laying the foundations for the recovery of Haiti through various economic, social, environmental, and political initiatives. In the Near East, USAID will continue its support of Afghanistan and its encouraging progress toward democracy and economic growth after suffering from generations of war, occupation, and political fanaticism. Some of our efforts are listed in the box below.

Ten Major Achievements - USAID in Afghanistan
Coverage of health services exceeds some 4.8 million people. In USAID-sponsored provinces, 63% of the population has access to health services. Over 2,000 Community Health Workers have been trained and are active in health facilities. 4.26 million children have been vaccinated against preventable childhood illnesses.
Civic education, political party training and observer support provided in run-up to recent elections. 1.3 million Afghans were reached through voter education activities; registered 41% of all women; monitored over 1,673 polling centers - a third of all centers - on Election Day; supported 10,000 observers.
$101.7 million was collected through Customs Operations in 2004.
Over 320 kilometers of canals de-silted and 233 irrigation structures repaired, improving irrigation for 310,000 hectares of farmland.
Primary education provided to nearly 170,000 over-aged students, over half of them girls. Some 6,778 teachers have been trained to lead accelerated learning classes that allow students to complete two grades per year.
To date, 42 million textbooks have been provided. 27 million of the textbooks are in both Dari and Pashto. The textbooks are for Grades 1 through 12 in all secular subjects.
Radio-based teacher training (RTT) reaches 95% of the country in daily broadcasts in Dari and Pashto, reaching approximately 54,000 teachers. Of these, 9,582 teachers - 35% women - have enrolled in the RTT course.
National Women's Dormitory in Kabul rehabilitated. Enables over 1000 girls from rural areas to attend the medical school, the Afghan Education University, the Polytechnic Institute and Kabul University.
Thirty-two independent FM radio stations, including three Arman FM commercial stations, have been established.
The USAID-sponsored sections of the Kabul-Kandahar Highway are complete and operational, with 389 km of roadway paved, 7 bridges totally reconstructed and 39 bridges repaired.
Geo-strategic priorities. USAID's Economic Support Fund (ESF) for U.S. foreign policy goals places special emphasis on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan, as well as other front-line states in the War on Terror in the Asia, Near East and Africa regions. The Agency's Iraq programs will be funded from the ESF and other appropriations. USAID will also target resources to the Muslim World Initiative to support countries' own efforts at social transformation. Some of our efforts in Iraq are listed in the box below.

Afghanistan Reborn

“The Afghan people want to live in peace, they want to live in freedom, they want to live in a democracy. They are demonstrating that in so many ways, by the rebuilding that is taking place in Kabul, by their willingness to participate in the process of electing a new government… You see it in the mere fact that some three million refugees have returned to their homes, voting with their feet for the future of their country.”
- Secretary of State Colin Powell
March 31, 2004

“Afghans have already made huge advances from life under a cruel, medieval theocracy that barred girls from school, kept women from public life and amputated limbs as a punishment. Today Afghanistan is a land of bustling markets, schools filled with eager students and people enjoying a new birth of freedom. We can be proud of what we have helped this unique and courageous people to achieve and we will remain at their side as they work to build a better future for their children.”
- USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios

“Today, clean water is being provided throughout the country, hospitals and clinics have been rehabilitated, and millions of children have been vaccinated against measles and polio.

Three years ago, women were viciously oppressed and forbidden to work outside the home, and even denied what little medical treatment was available. Today, women are going to school, and their rights are protected in Afghanistan's constitution.”

Today at the Afghanistan Development Forum, we Afghans look to the future with renewed confidence, and commit ourselves once again to building, with our international partners, a prosperous and peaceful future for all.
H.E. President Hamid Karzai April 4, 2005

Government and Donors Discuss Development Priorities and Key Challenges at Afghanistan Development Forum


Also available in: Dari , Pushto

News Release No:2005/SAR/424

Media Contact:

In Kabul:
Abdul Raouf Zia (93) 702 80800

Azia@worldbank.org

In Washington:
Karina Manasseh (202) 473-1729

kmanasseh@worldbank.org

KABUL, April 6, 2005 – The first Afghanistan Development Forum conducted by the new government concluded today in Kabul. The theme for this years meeting was Accelerating Afghanistan’s Development.

Afghanistan’s economy has performed very strongly in the past three years with non-drug GDP increasing by more than 50 percent. The country’s GDP is US$4.6 billion in 2003/04 (excluding income from opium of US$2.3 billion). This reflects a revival of economic activity after the end of major conflict, the initiation of reconstruction, and the recovery of agricultural sector from a protracted drought in the late 1990s. The recent Human Development Report suggests that social indicators and income per capita of Afghanistan ranks, with approximately US$200 per year, among the lowest in the world.

The report Accelerating Afghanistan's Development - A Call for Dialogue prepared by the Government of Afghanistan provided the basis for an open, frank, and lively discussion between the government and the international community. The report focuses on how the government, with the support from the international community, can accelerate infrastructure development, ensure the implementation of an integrated social policy, create an enabling environment for private sector development, improve fiscal systems, maintain public administration reforms, strengthen regional cooperation, enforce the rule of law, and create alternative livelihoods to the drug trade.

“Over the last three years, Afghanistan has launched a daunting reconstruction and development program and convinced the international community – itself not an easy feat – of its needs going forward,” said Praful Patel, World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region. “The Government’s strategic vision and plan has encouraged the international community to provide what can only be described as an extraordinary level of support. The World Bank remains committed to Afghanistan for the long-haul, and we will continue to support the country’s priorities, outlined in its own National Development Strategy.”


Mr. Patel emphasized that economic growth is essential if Afghanistan is to achieve its reconstruction and development objectives. However, it is important that this growth is widespread and lifts the poorest out of poverty, and addresses the needs of both rural and urban populations. Afghanistan’s economy remains largely agriculture-based, and the international community must pay more attention to this area. Clear advances have already been made through world class rural development programs being implemented in the country, such as the National Solidarity Program and micro-finance programs. Furthermore, it is essential that Afghanistan’s development be seen in the broader regional context – harmonized approaches with mutually beneficial agreements with neighboring countries on issues such as customs, transit trade, energy, water resources, labor migration and security. These are important factors for Afghanistan to achieve its growth potential.



The challenges of capacity building were also discussed. While achievements in this area are crucial, it is a long term and difficult issue which effects both public and private organizations. The World Bank is at present, supporting civil service and public administration reform in Afghanistan, and is keen to assist the government in determininge appropriate roles for ministries and service delivery providers. Valuable lessons have been learnt regarding efficient and cost-effective service provision by NGOs under Government oversight in the health sector. These lessons need to be drawn out more broadly to assist in the development of an accountable and transparent NGO sector so that appropriate regulations and oversight over private sector contractors comes into existence.

During the three-day meeting, the Government of Afghanistan also hosted a review of the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, to which over US$1.18 billion has been pledged to date by 24 donor countries to support the government’s budget and priority investments. The ARTF is administered by the World Bank under the supervision of a Management Committee which also includes the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Program.

“This multi-donor trust fund has played an important role in providing harmonization among donors and alignment of donor support with government programs,” Mr. Patel told the ADF. “It has also provided a vital mechanism for alignment with government priorities as articulated in its own strategies.”

Mr. Patel reiterated that the World Bank remains committed to Afghanistan for the long haul, as the government remains dedicated to poverty reduction and to the strategic coherence of programs. To date the World Bank has provided over US$780 million in areas that include health, education, rural roads, and community development.



###



For more information about the World Bank activities in Afghanistan, visit

www.worldbank.org/af

Marines Return to Tora Bora for Operation Celtics

Navy Corpsman David Stanfield watches a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter descend into a landing zone to drop off aid supplies for Marines to distribute during Operation Celtics in Afghanistan's rugged Torah Bora mountains. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Rick Scavetta, USA

Afghan Children Locate Weapons Cache
The children reported the location of a cache to New Zealand soldiers
working at a Provisional Reconstruction Team site near Bamian.

By Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 25, 2005 — Afghan children and local police led Coalition forces to three rockets and a missile May 24 near the town of Bamian.

The children reported the location of a cache consisting of a rocket-propelled grenade, three mortars and approximately 40 small-arms rounds to New Zealand soldiers working at a Provisional Reconstruction Team site near Bamian.

"These children were doing the right thing by reporting these munitions to Coalition forces," U.S. Army Maj. Michael Hicks,

As the children took Coalition forces to the cache, local police also led the soldiers to another area where three serviceable rockets and a surface-to-surface Russian-built missile were discovered.

"These children were doing the right thing by reporting these munitions to Coalition forces," said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Hicks, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-76's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team.

"We cannot do enough to remind parents and children that unexploded ordnance is dangerous and deadly. These items explode every day, killing and maiming Afghans."

"The most important thing children should remember if they discover unexploded ordnance is to not touch it and tell a grown-up," Hicks said. "Adults should immediately notify local police or Afghan and Coalition forces."

The cache, missile and rockets were transported to a nearby base where they will be destroyed.

Meanwhile, at a border-control point along the Pakistan border, an artillery round was discovered hidden inside a tree trunk after an Afghan child reported its location to forces there. Afghan forces safely destroyed the round.

More confusion... more stories... needing clearified. Same same ole USA propaganda for the BushCons to hide behind and deny! Think of how many innocents and villagers are killed in all of the Middle East and Central Asia that are thot of as 'the enemy' !!


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jun2005/sas-j03.shtml

New evidence confirms killing of Afghan villagers by Australian soldiers
By Peter Symonds
3 June 2005

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

An article in the latest issue of Time magazine detailing an armed clash between Australian Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers and Afghan villagers in May 2002 has exposed as lies the previous accounts of the incident provided by military spokesmen.

At the time, US and Australian officials repeatedly insisted that Afghans killed in the gunfight were “enemy fighters”, “Al Qaeda” or “Taliban”, dismissing news reports that the dead were innocent villagers. The Time article, which is based accounts provided by the soldiers involved and largely uncritical of their actions, confirms, as the World Socialist Web Site wrote at the time, that the SAS reconnaissance team blundered into a tribal dispute, provoking a confrontation that resulted in the deaths of at least 12 ordinary Afghan villagers.

US and Australian officials repeatedly claimed that the dead were hostile fighters in “a known Al Qaeda stronghold.” Even after local tribesmen and Afghan officials explained what had taken place and demanded an explanation, Australian military spokesmen continued to stonewall. Asked in Canberra on May 21 if the clash had involved “some tribal minority”, Lieutenant Colonel David Tyler simply repeated that the SAS had come “under heavy and sustained fire in a known Al Qaeda stronghold.” The obvious implication was that anyone in the area was a legitimate target.

The whole incident would probably have remained buried had it not been for recriminations within the SAS unit itself. The squad leader called for one of the soldiers to be disciplined for taking a turban and a rifle from a dead villager as trophies. The soldiers in turn accused the squad leader of making poor decisions. Following an internal investigation, several soldiers received what amounted to a reprimand and the matter was hushed up. But the bitterness continued and the squad leader applied for a discharge insisting there had been “a cover-up”. Some of those directly involved blurted out their side of the story to Time.

The rules of engagement for the SAS soldiers allowed for “incidental collateral damage”—including death and injury to civilians—as long as it was not “excessive in relation to direct military advantage anticipated to be gained”. But in an area declared to be “a known Al Qaeda stronghold” where there was no way of distinguishing between villagers and “Al Qaeda” or “Taliban”, the SAS treated everyone as an enemy. The slaughter of Afghan villagers was the inevitable consequence, legitimised in advance by the rules of engagement.

While defence officials in Canberra were insisting that the dead Afghans were “Al Qaeda”, the military in Afghanistan attempted to patch up relations. Sabari villagers told Time that the morning after the bombs fell US and Australian officers drove to neighbouring Zambar to apologise. “They promised compensation, says Haji Khannamuddin, but three years on, not a penny has been paid. He and other village elders say most of the men killed on the mountainside that night were fathers. They leave behind almost 50 children, with no means of support other than handouts from fellow villagers. It’s a terrible price to pay for somebody else’s mistake,” the magazine concluded.

Sanzali Gul Mela concludes in Lugar
By Habib Rahman Ibrahimi

PUL-I-ALAM, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The first-ever Sanzali Gul Mela (fare) and poetry competition has concluded in the Mohammad Agha district of the southern Logar province on Saturday.

The festival attracted a large number of poets, writers, researchers and youths from different parts of the province. Besides, a vast majority of common people from different areas also joined the festivities.

Eminent scholar Mohammad Asif Samim, on this occasion, laid foundation of the Logar Literary Society comprising youth from all over the province.

Speaking on the occasion, Samim appreciated the participants' love for poetry and literature and termed the holding of the contest a momentous event.

Organiser of the function, Lieutinent General Ateequllah Lodin praised the youth for their wholehearted participation in the celebrities and assured his full support in holding such functions in future.

Such festivities and poetry contests have also been concluded in a number of provinces including Nangarhar, Wardak, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Kabul.

The organisers named the festival after the fruits and flowers abundantly produced in the respective provinces signifying the people's love for participating such events and the rich culture of Afghanistan.

Translated by Daud

Four suspected Taliban arrested in Kandahar
By Saeed Zabuli

KANDAHAR CITY, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police claimed arresting four suspected Taliban in connection with the last week suicide bombing in Kandahar city that killed 20 people including Kabul police chief.

Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, police chief of the Kandahar Panjwayee district told Pajhwok Afghan News three suspects were detained from Mashaam village while the fourth was arrested from Taluqan refugees' camp on Friday night. He added arms had also been recovered from the fourth suspect.

During another crackdown, Sarhadi informed, police opened fire on three suspected motorcyclists in the same district. As a result, one died on the spot while the two were taken into custody.

He said police signaled the motorcyclists to stop but they tried to run away which led to the shootings.

Meanwhile, a senior military officer General Muslim Hamid, when contacted, showed ignorance about the arrests.

The massive suicide bombing in Abdul Rab Akhunzada Mosque last week had killed 20 people including Kabul police Chief Mohammad Akram Khakrezwal.

The people had gathered to perform qul for Kandahar Ulema Council leader Mulla Abdullah Fayyaz who was assassinated by the Taliban two days earlier.

Translated by Daud

Candidate questions JEMB's impartiality
By Abdul Majid Arif
KHOST CITY, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A provincial council candidate from the southern Khost province has thrown into question impartiality of the electoral commission's office in that province.

Saliha Sharif, a female contender from Khost city told Pajhwok Afghan News the commission's officials were violating the law by employing kin of the candidates.

"Sahib Shah, who is in charge of the complaint cell, is active member of the Milli Wahdat Tehrik," she claimed, adding the man was running election campaign for the party.

She went on alleging the locals appointed to monitor the mid-September polls were relatives and family members of the candidates. "A sister and brother of Sima Wali-a hopeful-are employees of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB)."

Saliha explained the law prohibited officials, having blood relation with the candidates, from performing duty in the latter's constituency during the election.

Asked if he was affiliated with a political party, Sahib Shah, in charge of the complaint cell informed this scribe he had already resigned its membership. He added: "As for as the question of candidates' relatives in JEMB is concerned, we are investigating and the body will be purged of such people."

A JEMB senior official said no such complaints had been received so far; however, he did not reject the possibility. "The electoral workers were appointed long before the initiation of the registration process and there may be some relatives of the candidates, explained Mohammad Qayum Khan.

Jh/by/dk

Prices of food items recede
By Zainab Mohaqiq

KABUL, June 2: Rates of food items recorded decline as afghani went up this week.

Traders believed prices of daily commodities especially food items imported from Pakistan had reduced to some extent as the value of afghani had increased from 0.828 to 0.826 against rupee.

On Thursday, exchange rate was 50.10 afghanis per US dollar.

Mohammad Nasim, a shopkeeper said the price of a 100 kg sack of flour had fallen from 1500 afghanis to 1400 this week; price of 50 kg sugar had come down from 1150 to 1120 afghanis while rate of five kg cooking oil shoot up from 185 to 190 afghanis.

However, prices of some food items including rice and green tea remained intact while those of liquid gas and diesel reduced by three and two afghanis respectively.

Bahayee Wardak, a jeweler in the Kabul Metropolitan Market said gold prices had declined over the week.


Zm/aqm/by/asn/dk

http://www.bakutoday.net/afps/english/shar...0.noznlmzm.html

Two US soldiers killed in Afghanistan blast

June 04, 2005, 13:15 gmt

KABUL (AFP) - Two US soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, the military said, capping a bloody week in which more than 60 people died in a wave of violence, including a mosque bombing that was the country's worst attack in two years.

Two US soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, the military said, capping a bloody week in which more than 60 people died in a wave of violence, including a mosque bombing that was the country's worst attack in two years.

Weeklong trade fair in Kabul from today
By Zainab Mohaqiq

KABUL, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Food items, construction material and industrial and technical products from 19 countries would go on display at an exhibition here from today, officials said Monday.

Bacu Company, a member of the six-firm Gohar Group, will organise the international trade event, which will conclude on June 13. The group is currently operating in Dubai and the United Kingdom.

Siywash Abbasi, an official of the Gohar Group in Tehran, told Pajhwok Afghan News 75 companies would display their products including cake and cookies, motorcycles, computers, construction cables, etc.

The US, the UK, Australia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan and other southern countries will be taking part in the trade fair.

Abbasi added the willingness of so many companies to take part in the fair showed they felt secure in Afghanistan, "which is steadily marching on the road to progress and development."

Afghan economist Hamidullah Farooqi said such trade events played an important role in boosting a country's economy. He expected technological information as well as potential business agreements could also be concluded with foreign companies during the fair.

Major anti-drug operations in Nangarhar, Helmand
By Pajhwok Afghan News

KABUL, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a massive operation lasting five days, Afghanistan's Special Narcotics Force (ASNF) has recovered a huge quantity of drugs in Nangarhar and Helmand provinces.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal claimed on Monday the ASNF had seized and destroyed 21 tons of opium, 180 kilograms of heroin and a significant amount of precursor chemicals.

In a press release issued here, the spokesman said the drug-trafficking trade in the two provinces had suffered a huge blow as a result of a series of raids conducted by the ASNF.

There were no casualties, Mashal explained, recalling Nangarhar and Helmand were the two major poppy-growing provinces in Afghanistan last year. The operation focused on Musa Qala and Sangin districts in Helmand.

It was followed by raids on drug-processing laboratories in Nangarhar’s Achin district and narcotics bazaars and stores in Lashkargah, Kajaki and Marjah. The swoop ended with another strike deep into Afghanistan’s largest drugs bazaar in Bahram Chah in southern Helmand.

“The ASNF continues to target drug traffickers and not ordinary farmers. It receives a positive response from local people during operations,” the press release quoted Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali as saying.

“The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is determined to tackle the drugs networks at every opportunity. It is important that drug traffickers realize we will continue to curb their activities,” Jalali added.

Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Daud Daud asserted: “The raids have been highly successful and drugs traffickers in the areas are in total disarray. They did not expect ASNF operations so soon after the last raids and they were taken by surprise."

Since it became operational in January 2004, the ASNF has carried out a series of operations across Afghanistan, destroying over 130 tons of opium, more than 35 tons of precursor chemicals and over 120 drug-processing laboratories.


Edited by Mudassir

Pakistanis detained on kidnap charges
By Aziz Zahid

KABUL, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police in the

southwestern Farah province said on Monday they had detained three Pakistanis while trying to kidnap an Afghan child.

The Interior Ministry confirmed the alleged kidnappers were arrested on Sunday in Askarabad, near the provincial capital.

They were reportedly trying to abduct Nisar Ahmad when security officials held them, the press office of the ministry said.

Incidents of child kidnaps have sharply increased in many parts of the country. Residents of Kandahar and Herat provinces recently staged a string of demonstrations to seek an end to the crime.

Vaccination drive to control infant mortality rate
By Zarghona Salehi

KABUL, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Public Health Ministry said on Monday it would vaccinate babies and mothers as part of a national campaign to control mortality rate among them.

Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi said they would immunize kids under nine months and mothers (15-45) against whooping cough, measles, tetanus (DPT) throughout the country.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News about 700 children died daily and one mother perished ever 20 minutes because of delivery-related complications. "Vaccination immunizes children and mothers against many diseases."

Fatemi said they planned to expand the vaccination campaign to 80 percent by the end of current year and to 100 percent by the end of 2009.

Dr. Ahmad Arif Stanekzai, chief of the vaccination campaign, said they had been discussing ways at a three-day workshop, which started on Sunday, to better implement the drive.

About 85 representatives from the capital, provinces NGOs, WHO and UNICIF are participating in the workshop.

Stanekzai believed mass awareness was central to a drastic cut in mortality rates, asking ministries of information and culture, hajj, education and rural rehabilitation and development to cooperate with them in this regard.

Three Taliban captured in Uruzgan
By Aziz Zahid

KABUL, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Interior Ministry officials claimed on Monday Highway Police had arrested three Taliban in Tirin Kot, capital of the central Uruzgan province.

An official of the ministry confided to Pajhwok Afghan News the arrested Taliban were Mullah Ghausuddin, Mullah Roohullah and Mullah Nasim.

However, he would not explain whether the detainees were key Taliban figures or ordinary members of the ousted militia.

On Sunday, the Defence Ministry said the Afghan National Army had arrested two senior Taliban commanders in the western Farah province.

Another car-lifter arrested in Khost
By Majeed Arif

KHOST CITY, June 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police claimed arresting an alleged car-lifter in the provincial capital of the southern Khost province.

The accused was identified as Raees Khan, who was wanted to police in car theft cases.

Giving details, Khost police chief Brigadier General Mohammad Ayub told Pajhwok Afghan News the man was detained while trying to lift a car parked on roadside.

He added security officials in plainclothes chased and nabbed him red-handed. Earlier, police had arrested another car-lifter on May 24 in the same area. With a shaven head, he was made to walk through the bazaar.



Translated by Daud

In a bind, a Mullah Omar look-alike seeks security
By Munsef, Janullah and Zarghona

Mullah Omar's look-alike Syed Gul Agha
By Munsef, Janullah and Zarghona

KABUL, June 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Mullah Omar look-alike, whose pictures were prominently published in Pakistan-based newspapers and provided to American authorities, has called for punitive action against whom he branded as 'fraudsters.'

Photographs of Syed Gul Agha from the Dand district of Kandahar, a mirror image of the Taliban supremo, were carried by the Nawasht magazine 30 months back and the Urdu-language Express newspaper in April last.

The publications - flashing the phonies as rare snapshots of the reclusive Taliban leader - created a stir in the international media, leaving the unsuspecting man in a tight spot.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday, Gul Agha recalled Kandahar residents Khalid Ahmed and Naqibullah had taken his photos two years back. "They wanted to have my pictures as a keepsake; they also photographed Haji Shahzada and then misused them without any qualms."

Gul Agha insisted he had no links with Khalid Ahmed, who was granted political asylum by the United States in return for the mock pics. "I don't know who he is and what his motive was. Right now he is in the United States," he said, identifying Naqibullah as Haji Shahzada's son-in-law.

Haji Shahzada - captured by US forces from his house a month after his pictures appeared in the media - was freed after spending 26 months in captivity at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay.

Approached for comments, US military spokesman in Kabul Cindy Moore declined to give any information about the arrest and release of the Kandahar resident. She argued they could not provide details about every individual held at an American detention facility.

For his part, Gul Agha said he was forced to leave his residence after the photos were published. Although presently he is back in Kandahar city with his family, security fears continue to haunt him.

"Our farmland remained barren for two years in the wake of our shifting from the village. I couldn’t even take my son to hospital when he was wounded in an explosion," he continued.

Calling for stern action against Khalid and Naqibullah for misusing the snapshots they had promised to keep as a memento, he also demanded the arrest of those who published them in the name of Mullah Omar. "Obviously, the whole sordid affair was driven by ulterior motives," he alleged.

Despite several attempts, Pajhwok failed to obtain the newspapers' views. However, a senior Pakistani journalist, known as an expert of Afghan affairs, claimed the pictures published by Daily Express were of Mullah Omar.

Rahimullah Yousufzai maintained the photo of Mullah Omar was taken in 1979 when he was engaged in anti-government operations in Sangisar area of Kandahar. Nonetheless, he hastened to acknowledge Gul Agha might closely resemble Mullah Omar.

Mullah Mohammad Salim, Kandahar Ulema Council's member from Dand district, revealed he recently accompanied Gul Agha to Kabul for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, who assured to tackle the issue.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal, who learnt of the episode from the media, promising legal action against the miscreants if named by Gul Agha.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1386220.htm

Last Updated 07/06/2005, 12:58:54

Authorities in Afghanistan say a massive haul of drugs and drug-making chemicals has been destroyed and an army officer has been arrested for heroin smuggling.


Afghan authorities have acknowledged that some government officials were involved in the drug trade, but a lack of evidence has prevented their arrests.

The United Nations says Afghanistan produced 87 per cent of the world's illegal opium used to make heroin in 2004.

al-Qaida, Taliban May Launch Afghan Plot

Updated 5:56 PM ET June 7, 2005
By DANIEL COONEY

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8aj1g102&src=ap

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A mosque suicide bombing and an attempt to down a U.S. aircraft signaled the start of attempts by al-Qaida and the Taliban to destabilize legislative elections, the presidential spokesman said Tuesday.

The warning by President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin, of efforts to derail the Sept. 18 elections follows a surge in violence, with more than 200 suspected rebels killed in three months, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

Ludin said a June 1 suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 20 people, and the attempt to shoot down an American aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile on the same day were aimed "to create maximum effect ... maximum shock among the people."

"The remnants of the Taliban, al-Qaida elements ... have chosen this time to obviously set a plot in motion," he said. "They may have gathered all their resources."

The governor of Kandahar said the suicide attacker was an Arab al-Qaida member and cited an intelligence report indicating teams from the terror network had entered Afghanistan to launch attacks.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara confirmed that a shoulder-launched, surface-to-air missile was fired at U.S. aircraft on June 1 but missed. He said such attacks were infrequent and described it as an "isolated incident."

Also Tuesday, suspected Taliban rebels attacked a fuel tanker that delivered gasoline to a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan, killing the Pakistani driver and his assistant, said Gen. Raziq Khan, the border security for the Spin Boldak district.

Ludin said Afghan security forces were working with coalition and NATO-led international forces to safeguard the elections. But he called for cooperation from Afghanistan's neighbors _ a remark apparently aimed at Pakistan to encourage it to secure its side of the remote frontier the two nations share.

Militants based in tribal regions on the Pakistani side often cross into Afghanistan to launch attacks, according to Afghan officials. Seventeen suspected Taliban rebels were captured on the Afghan side of the border on Monday, the U.S. military said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military confirmed that senior al-Qaida suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was arrested in Pakistan a month ago, has been flown to the United States _ amid expectation he'll be questioned on the whereabouts of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who is assumed to be hiding in rugged mountains along the border.

Col. James Yonts said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that al-Libbi was flown directly to the United States. He gave no other details.

Pakistan said Monday that al-Libbi, who is accused of masterminding three failed assassination attempts against Pakistan's leader, had been handed over to U.S. officials.

Some officials have described al-Libbi as al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, after bin Laden and Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri. However, he does not appear on the FBI list of the world's most-wanted terrorists and his exact role in al-Qaida is murky.