[Afghan News] December 15, 2011

[یاسمینه]

Iran demands Afghanistan block US from using its bases for drone flights over Iran
By Associated Press,
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s foreign minister demanded Thursday that Afghanistan stop allowing the U.S. to use bases in the country to launch drone flights over Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran has displayed a pilotless American aircraft it says was forced to land two weeks ago during a mission over Iran. The U.S. says it went down because of a malfunction.
“We have demanded the government of Afghanistan study the case seriously and not allow such an incident to happen anymore, otherwise it will be seen as an unfriendly act,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, according to the report.
He also urged all of Iran’s neighbors not to allow the United States to “misuse” their lands and airspace.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that the U.S. will continue the operations.
Speaking at a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Panetta said the operations were part of U.S. efforts to defend both Afghanistan and the U.S. homeland and involve “important intelligence operations which we will continue to pursue.”
Karzai, meanwhile, said Afghanistan doesn’t want to be involved in any “adversarial relations” between the U.S. and Iran.
Earlier this week, Iran summoned an Afghan envoy to protest the violation of its airspace by the U.S. surveillance drone.
Iran has said the unmanned aircraft was detected over the eastern town of Kashmar, some 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the border with Afghanistan.
The RQ-170 Sentinel drone was lost over Iran two weeks ago. Iranian state television broadcast video of Iranians inspecting the aircraft, which was largely intact.
Iran has called the operation an “invasion and hostile act” and rejected a U.S. demand for returning the drone.

Afghanistan 'does not want role in US-Iran hostilities'
By Mathieu Rabechault | AFP – Wed, Dec 14, 2011
Afghan territory should not be used in a proxy war between the United States and Iran, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday after the Islamic republic captured a US drone.
Karzai was speaking in Kabul after an hour-long meeting with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who nevertheless said the US would continue to pursue "important intelligence operations".
The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, a stealth drone designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was launched from Afghanistan on a CIA spying mission when it went missing, US officials have said.
"Afghanistan should maintain and has maintained a very friendly relationship with Iran so we don't want to be involved in any adversarial relation between Iran and the US," Karzai said.
"Afghanistan wishes that its sovereignty and territorial integrity is not used one against the other."
But Panetta said such intelligence operations would continue.
"Those are operations that I will not discuss publicly, other than to say that part of our efforts to defend this country and to defend our country involves important intelligence operations which will continue to pursue," he said.
Afghanistan has long been used as a pawn in battles between other nations, including the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and suicide attacks on Shiites on December 6 which killed at least 84 people threatened to open up another divide.
The drone episode has handed Iran a propaganda coup and Iranian state television has shown images of a robotic aircraft that experts say resembles the Sentinel.
Kabul is negotiating a strategic partnership deal with Washington which will define the terms of the US military presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of combat troops in 2014.
And Karzai has said a condition of the deal will be that the US does not use its territory against its enemies in the region.
But Iran has voiced its objections to the continued presence of international forces in Afghanistan after NATO combat troops pull out in 2014.
Panetta is in Afghanistan to review the war effort with the United States, which is on track to recall 33,000 troops by the end of the next year and is shifting its focus to an advisory role in training Afghan security forces.
He said the discussions with Karzai included how to work with Pakistan to increase security in Afghanistan and repeated his belief that 2011 has represented a "very important turning point" in Afghanistan.
"As always, we have not won until we have completed the mission, but I do believe we're in the process of making significant progress here," he said.
Earlier Panetta told US troops based in the eastern province of Paktika near the Pakistan border they were winning the 10-year war.
"We're moving in the right direction and we're winning this very tough conflict," he said.
Panetta said it was important to make sure Pakistan could secure its side of the border so that Haqqani militants were not allowed safe havens.
"Bottom line is that it is complicated, it is complex, we have some difficult issues to deal with but at the same time it's important to maintain a relationship with Pakistan because we are confronting a common enemy."
America's alliance with Pakistan is in crisis over NATO strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border on November 26.
Islamabad has shut the US supply line into landlocked Afghanistan and forced Americans to leave a base widely reported to have been a hub for CIA drones.
As the United States draws the curtain on its eight-year venture in Iraq, Washington is determined to bring an end to the Afghan war as soon as possible.
The United States is withdrawing 10,000 troops this year, leaving 91,000 on the ground into 2012. Another 23,000 are to leave by the end of September 2012.
That will mark the end of the "surge" ordered by President Barack Obama in late 2009 in a bid to reverse the Taliban insurgency, defeat Al-Qaeda and speed up an end to the war, and will leave 68,000 US forces on the ground.
Karzai recently announced a second phase of transition which will see Afghans take charge of six provinces, seven provincial capitals and more than 40 districts, including three in the southern province of Helmand, one of the most deadly in the conflict.
Despite the tight timetable, the military and the United Nations disagree over the extent to which violence is really falling in Afghanistan.
The world body said the number of civilians who were killed increased by 15 percent in the first six months of this year.
Karzai said overall stability had improved. But, speaking of ongoing attacks, he added: "What we have not fully done yet is to provide individual security to the Afghan people."

Karzai: Taliban office should be in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia or another Muslim nation
By Associated Press, December 15
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that if security concerns make it impossible to set up a Taliban political office in Afghanistan, then it should be established in another Islamic country, like Saudi Arabia, or in Turkey. If the Taliban opened an office, it would be seen as a willingness to talk peace and signal their intention to try to find a nonviolent solution to an insurgency that has cost the lives of thousands.
Karzai’s comments came one day after an Indian newspaper reported that plans were being finalized for a Taliban office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
The president met with top Afghan leaders at the palace on Thursday to discuss efforts to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political solution to the decade-long war. The leaders agreed that fighting should stop before any negotiations begin, Karzai’s office said in a statement.
The newspaper report, quoting unnamed Indian diplomatic sources, said that Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, was among those being considered to head the office.
Zaeef, an ex-Taliban, told The Associated Press that he had not heard that plans for a Taliban office in Qatar or that he was being considered to head it. “I’m not aware of that,” Zaeef said.
A top member of the Afghanistan peace council, ex-Taliban official Arsala Rahmani, said he was also unaware that such an office was about to open.
Rahmani said the peace council, a group of about 70 influential Afghans and former Taliban appointed by Karzai to try to reconcile with the insurgents, was busy trying to find a new leader.
The former head of the council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated on Sept. 20. Rabbani, a former president of Afghanistan, was killed by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban.
After Rabbani’s death, Karzai said informal peace efforts with unknown insurgents, who claim to want peace and then carry out suicide bombings, would not resume. Instead, he said, the Taliban had to establish an official address. At that time he called on Pakistan, where insurgent leaders are said to be based, to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.
At the same time, Karzai says that any peace talks should be led by Afghanistan and that interference from other nations would not be tolerated.
Karzai’s statement, which did not mention Qatar, said that those attending the palace meeting agreed that any Taliban office should be established inside Afghanistan.
“If, for the time being, the current situation does not make that possible, then it should be set up in an Islamic country, Saudi Arabia or Turkey,” the statement said.
After the report in the newspaper, The Hindu, the Afghan government recalled its ambassador from Qatar for consultations.
An Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, said recalling the ambassador was related to discussions about establishing an address for the Taliban to facilitate a peace process.
The Qataris have not kept Afghan officials engaged in the effort and did not consult with the Afghan government, the official said. He said the Afghan government had been kept appraised through its American and German partners.
The Afghan government would support the establishment of an official address for the Taliban only as a step to facilitate the peace process, not as any kind of a concession, the official said.

Mistrust dogs moves to hold Taliban talks in Qatar
BBC News, Kabul 15 December 2011 By Lyse Doucet
Any talks with the Afghan Taliban are exceedingly difficult, if not dangerous - but the process of forging a coherent approach involving Kabul and its partners is also proving to be tough.
The challenge of pursuing an "Afghan led and Afghan owned" process has again been highlighted by Kabul's sudden decision to pull its ambassador from Qatar.
An official statement from the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the Ambassador in Doha, Khalid Ahmad Zakaria, was being recalled "in light of recent developments in Afghanistan and the region, including the relationship between the two countries".
The move comes at a time when key allies like the United States, Germany and the United Nations had hoped to reach an agreement before the end of this year to establish an office for talks in the Qatari capital.
The office is meant to provide what is called an "address" outside the immediate region to hold any discussions in a protected venue.
A senior Afghan government official told the BBC the "Qataris have been discussing the issue of an office in detail with the Americans and the Germans without keeping the Afghan government fully in the picture".
He insisted the Afghan government supported the idea of an office "as long as it is not seen as a concession to the Taliban".
After months of serious setbacks to a still controversial process of reconciliation with the Taliban and other armed groups, the establishment of an office was being seen as a significant step to help provide some momentum.
Countries most involved in this sensitive and secretive process had spoken for months of a possibility it could be announced at the recent international conference on Afghanistan in the German city of Bonn.
A senior Western diplomat expressed disappointment that it had not been. "It could have been the big headline of the Bonn Conference," he regretted.
Sources say Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some of his key aides still had reservations about the venue and its objectives. Senior Afghan officials say there were never any plans to announce the opening of an office during the Bonn meetings in early December.
Doha may still emerge as the "address" but discussions on an office have brought other differences to a head. Qatar does not even have an embassy in Kabul - a concern that has been raised for months by the Foreign Ministry here. One source said Doha's reply is "we don't have enough diplomats" - an answer that has not satisfied the Afghans.
Afghanistan's allies, including senior US officials, repeatedly insist this process is and will be "Afghan led and owned". But they express frustration with the absence of a consistent and comprehensive approach from Kabul and the many Afghan individuals and institutions involved in this process.
Pakistan role
The assassination in September of Burhannudin Rabbani, who headed the High Peace Council, also raised questions about Taliban commitment to talks and divisions within the Taliban leadership council, often referred to as the Quetta Shura. The Taliban denied they carried out the attack.
The murder in Kabul, which also seriously injured the president's adviser on reconciliation, Masoom Stanakzai, added further strain to tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
The extent of Taliban commitment to talks remains unclear, although some senior figures in the movement are believed to back the establishment of an office. They include Tayyab Agha, an aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, known to have engaged in talks with US officials with German and Qatari mediation.
Former senior Taliban members now living in Kabul have long backed an "address". When it was first given public backing at the Afghan peace jirga in Kabul in June 2010, former Taliban ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef called it the most important decision of the jirga. He is one of three former Taliban figures being mentioned as possibly heading any new office.
Taliban figures like Zaeef have pushed this idea mainly because of concern that Pakistan is blocking access to Taliban leaders living in the country who may want to reach out.
Afghan officials also express frustration that months of trying to engage Pakistan have brought little result. The Afghan government has repeatedly asked for access to senior Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who has been in Pakistan custody for nearly a year.
Pakistan's decision to boycott the Bonn Conference after Nato's accidental killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers at a border checkpoint created additional tension.
Pakistani officials insist they want to work with Afghanistan and other partners. They frequently accuse Kabul of engaging in a "blame game".
Officials in Islamabad often say they are not being kept informed by Washington and Kabul despite repeated assurances that Pakistan will play a role in any negotiating process.
President Karzai has often said the only party really worth talking to is Pakistan, which he has long accused of giving sanctuary to Afghan Taliban leaders plotting attacks against Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad denies.
It's a complex process marked by suspicion and misunderstandings on all sides, even before any significant talks with the Taliban have even begun.
Ex-Taliban officials unaware of plans for insurgents to reportedly set up Qatar office
By Associated Press,
KABUL, Afghanistan — An ex-Taliban envoy says he has no knowledge of insurgent plans to set up a political office in Qatar even though media reports bill him as a potential chief of a possible Taliban mission in the tiny Gulf state.
Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban’s former ambassador to Pakistan, said Thursday he is unaware of such an office being planned. A top member of the Afghanistan peace council, ex-Taliban official Arsala Rahmani, says he is also unaware that such an office is about to open.
Their remarks follow reports in an Indian newspaper, quoting unnamed Indian diplomatic sources, that said work was being finalized on a Taliban office in Qatar that Zaeef may run.
Afghanistan recalled its ambassador to Qatar, but it is unclear if it is related to the report.

U.S. aid freeze move against Pakistan "not based on facts": spokesman
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Thursday rejected U.S. notion for freeze of its 700 million U.S. dollars civilian aid and said the move of the Congress is not based on facts and takes a narrow view of the overall situation.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved freezes of 700 million U.S. dollars in aid to Pakistan until the country offers greater assurances to Washington to contain the spread of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
"We believe that the move in the Congress is not based on facts and takes a narrow view of the overall situation," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
"Hence, wrong conclusions are unavoidable," the spokesman told weekly press briefng.
He said Pakistan in the process of reviewing its terms of engagement with the United States, NATO and ISAF in their entirety. "The issue of Pakistan's sovereignty, let me emphasize the issue of Pakistan's sovereignty, is non-negotiable," Abdul Basit said.
The United States says that Pakistan has failed to stop exports of IEDs to Afghanistan, which are used to target American and foreign forces.
Abdul Basit, while commenting on the statement of U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta that Pakistan must stop infiltration of militants into Afghanistan, said Pakistan cannot be blamed for situation in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan cannot be held responsible for the weaknesses and loopholes on the other side of the border. For the policy of hammer and anvil to be effective, it is important that necessary measures are to be taken on the Afghanistan," the Pakistani spokesman said.
He said Pakistan has deployed 160,000 of its troops and established over 900 checkposts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan international border. "I think the real question is as to what is being done on the Afghanistan side of the border," he said.
Asked if Pakistan expects apology from the United States over the last month NATO bombing of two border posts and killing of 24 soldiers, Abdul Basit said Pakistan is reviewing its terms of engagement with the United States and that "is far more important for us rather than a verbal apology".
"The Government and Parliament are working hand in hand to make sure that whatever policy directions are given or established, those would be good for the country as a whole, and ensure that our national interests, both in the immediate term and in the longer term, are fully preserved," he said.
When asked about freeze of U.S. aid and Pakistan's options to meet the challenge, he said the Finance Minister gave a briefing to the envoys on this question. "We are very much cognizant of this aspect. Foreign policy of any country has to cater for economic realities. We are very much conscious of this. But, as I said earlier, Pakistan's sovereignty is non-negotiable," he said.
He agreed with a questioner that the United States has stopped drone attacks after Pakistan gave strong response in the wake of Nov. 26 NATO strikes.
To a question about progress in investigation into the murder of Afghan peace envoy Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, the spokesman said the work is in progress and at the moment there is nothing concrete.
To a question about decision in the recent Envoys Conference called to review relations with the United States, NATO and ISAF, the spokesman said the implementation of decision in the conference will come later and the Parliament first will finalize its policy guidelines.
"All the stakeholders will be involved in their implementation in their entirety", he said.

Panetta says security gains a 'turning point' in Afghanistan war
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, visiting a U.S. base in Afghanistan, voices what American officials generally have avoided: an explicit claim to be winning the decade-long conflict.
Los Angeles Times By David S. Cloud and Laura King December 15, 2011
Forward Operating Base Sharana - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday that security gains seen in parts of Afghanistan over the last year represented a "turning point" in the decade-old conflict.
"We're moving in the right direction and we're winning this very tough conflict in Afghanistan," he told troops of the U.S. Army's 172nd Infantry Brigade at Forward Operating Base Sharana, about 30 miles from the Afghan-Pakistani border.
U.S. officials generally have not explicitly claimed to be winning the conflict, mindful of insurgent attacks that continue to exact a heavy civilian toll, the stubborn resilience of the Taliban and other militant groups, Washington's deteriorating relations with Pakistan and the political woes of the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Instead, over the last year, American commanders have cited significant progress against the insurgency, but with the caveat that the gains are fragile and potentially reversible.
A year ago, former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also asserted on a visit to Kabul, the Afghan capital, that the war was moving in the right direction. But some of the troops listening to Panetta on Wednesday still seemed unconvinced.
One soldier asked whether the Afghan government would collapse once U.S. forces withdrew. Others asked skeptical questions about Karzai, and whether Pakistan would ever crack down on militant groups that use its territory as a springboard for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
Forward Operating Base Sharana is in Paktika province, sitting astride infiltration routes used by militants to move men and weapons into Afghanistan from Pakistan. Panetta pinned Purple Heart medals on a dozen members of the 172nd Infantry Brigade wounded since it arrived last summer.
Panetta sought to reassure the soldiers that troop withdrawals ordered by the White House did not mean the Obama administration was walking away from Afghanistan. "All of the blood we have shed here has not been shed in vain," he said.
Asked later about his assertion that the United States was winning, Panetta said, "We have not won. We have not completed this mission, but I do believe we are making significant progress."
Col. Edward T. Bohnemann, commander of the 172nd, said Paktika had seen an even steeper drop in insurgent attacks than in previous years when winter weather set in.
But he noted that efforts to choke off the flow of militants have been hampered by Pakistan's move to reduce cross-border coordination with his unit since 24 Pakistani troops were killed last month, reportedly by a mistaken U.S. helicopter attack.
"There is not a lot of cross-border coordination," he said. "I would always like to see the lines of operation open up."
Pakistan has also closed two border crossings used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to move supplies into Afghanistan. So far, the alliance's forces have described the cutoff as militarily insignificant, but officials acknowledge that the blockade will cause problems if it drags on.
Coinciding with Panetta's visit were fresh reminders of ongoing violence across the country. A district chief who crusaded against drug trafficking in Afghanistan's poppy heartland was killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing, along with two bodyguards.
The slain official was identified by Afghan authorities as Massoud Khan. His district has traditionally been a major poppy-producing area in the southern province of Helmand, which is itself the epicenter of the country's lucrative drug trade. He was killed as he was returning home from a meeting in a neighboring district to coordinate counter-narcotics strategy with tribal elders.
A provincial spokesman, Daoud Ahmadi, said three people in Khan's entourage were injured, two Afghan policemen and an Afghan intelligence agent.
Although the Taliban movement has suffered military setbacks in Helmand and in neighboring Kandahar province, its fighters have demonstrated the continuing ability to carry out assassinations of local officials and tribal elders who cooperate with the Afghan government. The bulk of such targeted killings have taken place in southern Afghanistan.
Afghan and international counter-narcotics officials have expressed concern that drug trafficking, a major source of income for the insurgency, will rise sharply as the international troop presence diminishes.
NATO forces are looking to wind down their combat mission in 2014, with Afghan troops gradually assuming security responsibilities.
david.cloud@latimes.com
laura.king@latimes.com
Times staff writers Cloud and King reported from Forward Operating Base Sharana and Kabul, respectively.

US finds some abuses by Afghan village police
By PATRICK QUINN
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — American-trained Afghan village police forces have committed some human rights abuses, a U.S. military investigation has found, adding recommendations on how to eliminate them.
An executive summary, to be released Thursday, also found the program was effective in providing security in areas where the Afghan army and police could not. It called for closer cooperation with human rights and non-governmental groups so the Afghan government can act more quickly when allegations of abuse are reported.
An advance copy of the summary was made available to The Associated Press.
The investigation was ordered by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, after the New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a report last September that alleged that some units of the Afghan Local Police, or ALP, were committing human rights abuses — including rape and murder.
The new inquiry was carried out without involvement of the Afghan government. The full 109-page report, drafted by U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. James Marrs, will be made public later.
"The conclusion is that we found the ALP to be an effective and successful organization, but not one without flaws," said a U.S. forces official on condition of anonymity because the full report has not been released.
U.S. special operations forces have been training the village-level fighting forces in hopes of countering the Taliban insurgency — a concept similar to the one that turned the tide of the Iraq war. The ALP is trained by the U.S. but commanded and run by the Afghan government and police.
The ALP initiative has stirred worries it will legitimize existing private militias or create new ones. Warlord-led militias ravaged Afghanistan in the 1990s, opening the way for the Taliban takeover.
The U.S. inquiry took issue with some of the Human Rights Watch findings.
In its 102-page report, Human Rights Watch alleged serious abuses, including killings, rape and detentions without cause. It called on the Afghan and U.S. governments to "take immediate steps to create properly trained and vetted security forces that are held accountable for their actions."
The new investigation looked into a total of 46 allegations and "assertions" made in the Human Rights Watch Report. It was carried out over a 37-day period by six investigative teams made up of 21 people who visited 45 areas of Afghanistan. The executive summary said it interviewed 219 people at all levels.
"We took the allegations very seriously, investigated comprehensively and recommended changes whenever our finding found it appropriate," the U.S. forces official said.
It found seven of the allegations to be credible, including a case where Afghan police had killed an ALP commander who was trying to release two boys who had been kidnapped by police for ransom. It found 10 not credible, 14 that could not be determined, and 15 that were "credible in part."
Among the recommendations were increased human rights training for ALP's, codifying procedures to discipline its members and a stronger oversight and reporting mechanism.
"HRW's focus in its report is on allegations of misconduct. This investigation first and foremost demonstrates the command's seriousness in responding to widespread allegations such as these," the summary said. It added however, that HRW "ignores the vital service" the ALP are "providing every day to give Afghans a chance to end 30 years of conflict and live peaceful lives."
There are about 9,000 members of the ALP in 57 districts around Afghanistan, and the Afghan government has agreed to have about 30,000 of the ALP forces trained by the end of 2013. They will be located across 99 districts around the country at a cost of about $170 million a year.
The forces are not meant to replace the Afghan army or police, but complement them in some areas.
The new study also found that that there was no evidence that U.S. forces under the Special Operations Command, which trains the Afghan Local Police, were involved in "complicity in alleged misconduct" in any of the cases it investigated.

Over 260 new graduates join Afghan National Police
MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- More than 260 new graduates joined the Afghan National Police (ANP) after completion of training in a police training center in the country's Wardak province, an official said on Thursday.
"A total of 264 newly trained policemen were commissioned to ANP on Thursday in Dasht-i-Toap police training center in Wardak province, some 35 km west of capital city of Kabul, and are ready to be deployed to any province across the country to serve the nation," commander of the training center Jalaluddin Khan told Xinhua.
"These policemen, in eight-week training lessons, have been put through a curriculum, which is practical in nature and covers a police skill which has been very important in law enforcement mission in this critical period of time in Afghanistan," Khan added.
The Afghan government and NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A) have stepped up efforts to train and equip Afghan police and army as Afghan security forces took the lead for securing seven areas of the nation in July this year.
In second phase of the security transition process, the Afghan army and police will take full control of security of six Afghan provinces, seven provincial capitals as well as more than 40 districts in the near future, parts of a process which will run to 2014 when Afghanistan takes over the full leadership of its own security duties from U.S. and NATO forces.

Pakistan blames Afghan refugees for Rabbani murder
AFP – Wed, Dec 14, 2011
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar blamed Afghan refugees for the murder of the Kabul government's peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, officials said Wednesday.
Rabbani's assassination in September by a turban bomber who purported to be a peace envoy for the Taliban derailed efforts to talk peace with the militants and postponed any hopes of a political settlement ending 10 years of war.
Afghan officials lashed out at Islamabad over the killing, saying it was planned in Pakistan and carried out by a Pakistani suicide bomber.
But Khar told the upper house of parliament late Tuesday that Afghan refugees living in Pakistan were responsible.
"We are not responsible if Afghan refugees crossed the border and entered Kabul, stayed in a guest house and attacked Professor Rabbani," officials quoted Khar as telling the Senate.
Pakistan is under huge international pressure to take action against militants based in Pakistan but who carry out attacks in Afghanistan.
A senior Pakistani official told AFP that the presence of Afghan refugees was "an important issue for Pakistan" and "a problem for Afghanistan".
"We don't want to forcibly expel them. We are trying to resolve this issue in a negotiated manner because more than 90 percent of terrorist attacks in Pakistan trace back to Afghan refugees."
Last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari agreed to cooperate with an investigation into Rabbani's murder in a bid to overcome tensions and recriminations.
Millions of Afghans who fled decades of war returned home after Karzai took power, but around 1.7 million still live in Pakistan.

Pakistan to tax supplies for Afghanistan
McClatchy Newspapers By Saeed Shah Thursday, December 15, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is planning to tax supplies for U.S.-led coalition troops that are shipped through its territory to land-locked Afghanistan, officials revealed, in retaliation for the recent deaths of its soldiers in a "friendly fire" incident on the border.
Under the proposal being worked up inside the government, which is set to become policy, a transit tax or fee will be imposed on every shipping container sent through Pakistan, according to senior military and civilian officials.
The move will add tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the cost of the conflict, now a decade old. It follows the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers at a checkpoint shelled by a U.S. helicopter, the latest incident this year to roil the relationship between the anti-terrorism allies.
It is thought that the government will levy around $1,500 per shipping container sent through Pakistan, along with separate charges for each fuel tanker en route to Afghanistan. That is equivalent to adding one-third to the costs of transporting a container through Pakistan.
The international coalition in Afghanistan has benefited from the free transit of goods through Pakistan for nearly a decade, under agreements forged with Islamabad soon after the Taliban regime's overthrow. Although the coalition purposely has reduced its logistical dependence on Pakistan in the past few years, around a third of its supplies are still trucked through the country, the cheapest route to Afghanistan.
The free transit of U.S. and NATO military supplies was allowed under two agreements signed in 2002, when dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf was ruling the country.
"Under the agreement, NATO got to use our transport infrastructure for no cost, but what we got in return, we don't know. It is high time to revisit the agreement," said a senior Pakistani official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, as the new policy hasn't been announced. "The agreement appears to be one-sided."
The official added that details of how the tax would work are still being formulated.
The United States has provided more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid to Pakistan since 2001.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Wednesday that tougher rules of engagement were being worked out with NATO, "with the aim of providing more respect to our sovereignty."
Islamabad suspended the movement of coalition supplies altogether after the soldiers' deaths in November. The tax on NATO supplies would be the most hard-hitting of the punitive measures Islamabad imposed, but it would at least provide Pakistan with a face-saving way of reopening the route. After the deaths at the border, Pakistan also terminated U.S. use of an air base, Shamsi, and boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan.
Anger within the Pakistani military is intense over the deaths, which it believes were a deliberate attempt to see how far the country could be pushed.

Emotions flow as Canadian soldiers return from Afghanistan
By Melanie Karalis, Postmedia News December 15, 2011 9:07 PM canada.com
OTTAWA — The last Canadian soldiers to leave Kandahar arrived at Ottawa International Airport on Thursday, marking the end of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan.
The soldiers, members of Mission Transition Task Force, were greeted by family and friends at the Canadian Reception Centre.
Sylvie Lanthier and her daughter, Cynthia St-Jean, 16, were relieved once they reunited with husband and father Daniel St-Jean, a chief warrant officer.
"It's a done deal now. We know he's not going to go back," Sylvie Lanthier said.
Cynthia took the day off from school to meet her father at the airport. She and her mother hadn't seen St-Jean since August. Sylvie Lanthier said her husband was eager to see their Pekingese dog at their Ottawa home.
As the soldiers filed into the hangar to greet loved ones, children jumped up and down with excitement.
Like St-Jean, most of the soldiers headed home from the airport, but some, such as Cpl. Remington Lacroix, who watched his fellow soldiers' family reunions, were getting back on a plane bound for Edmonton.
"They went through a lot of heartache, so it was nice to see them. . . . I'll be able to get that once I get back to Edmonton."
As the soldiers gathered into a huddle shortly after arriving, Defence Minister Peter MacKay thanked them for their service and wished them a happy holiday season.
"You have taken part in a mission that gives people the greatest gift there is, and that's their freedom, safety and security," he said.
Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of defence staff, also wished the soldiers a Merry Christmas and happy holidays and reminded them to "pace yourself, pace yourself.
"You know what I mean," he added, which was met with laughter from the crowd.
"You had a tough mission to do, and you didn't have a lot of time to do it. And you did an exceptional job at it . . . The achievement that you did despite all the timelines and the challenges that were put in front of you are absolutely astounding," said Natynczyk, referring to the 1,500-member Mission Transition Task Force responsible for closing the combat mission in Kandahar.
Brig.-Gen. Charles Lamarre, commander of the transition mission, arrived at the Ottawa airport with his troops. He said the transition was complete and Canadian Forces would focus on the training mission in Kabul, where Canadian soldiers will remain until 2014.
He said Canadian Forces had left Kandahar in good shape.
"Right now you have a large presence by our American colleagues, British colleagues and a number of allied nations . . . More importantly, you have Afghan National Army units that are conducting operations in all parts of southern Afghanistan."

Canada's quest to turn Afghanistan’s army of phantoms into fighters
Globe and Mail By Graeme Smith Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011
ISTANBUL - The current rate at which Afghan soldiers walk away from their jobs, and other kinds of attrition from the army, will make it difficult to adequately build up the force before international troops leave the country in 2014, a top general says.
“Before the end of the NATO mission we really do need to get a grip on attrition,” said Major-General Michael Day, Canada's senior commander in Afghanistan, speaking by telephone from Kabul.
Military trainers are scrambling to build the Afghan National Army into a force that can stop the Taliban and prevent anarchy after foreign troops hand over responsibility for security.
Canada took on one of the toughest jobs during the fighting stage of the mission, on the front lines in Kandahar. Now Canadian soldiers have become central to the next “mission impossible” – bulking up the army.
For the 950 Canadian trainers deployed to Afghanistan in the coming years, it's not so much a matter of attracting more recruits, but rather a challenge of stemming the number of Afghan soldiers who simply quit.
“Building this army is like pouring water in a sieve,” said Chris Mason, a senior research fellow at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who helped with the establishment of the Afghan army while serving as a U.S. diplomat in the country. “By their own numbers, they are losing almost half the army to attrition every 12 months.”
The man most responsible for solving that problem is Gen. Day, whose experience in Afghanistan spans a decade and who now serves as deputy commanding general of the NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTMA). It's hard to understate the importance of his task; while the police and irregular forces are widely seen as a shambles – or even a detriment to stability – the Afghan army stands as the best hope for the Kabul government's survival.
The force had a listed strength of 173,000 personnel in October and must reach 195,000 deployed soldiers by the end of 2013, according to military plans.
Deaths, injuries and incapacitations account for only a minority of the losses. The much bigger problem is Afghan soldiers giving up the fight. An estimated 30 to 40 per cent of personnel do not re-enlist at the end of their three-year contracts. On top of that, the attrition rate averaged 32 per cent annually over the 12 months that ended in November. The biggest chunk of that figure represents soldiers abandoning their posts.
A briefing document from Gen. Day's headquarters shows that the attrition rate increased 26 per cent compared with the previous year, and the rates in both years were significantly above target levels.
Some observers suggest the real figures could be even worse, since the international staff at NTMA often depend on the local Afghan authorities to count their own ranks. Even if they are honest and avoid the temptation to inflate the payroll, Afghan officers assigned to tabulate personnel figures sometimes lack basic math skills. One educated guess at the true size of the Afghan army puts the force at perhaps 100,000 personnel on duty.
“Everyone worried that there were problems with numbers,” said a former official who served at the training headquarters in Kabul. There was never any sign of fraudulent statistics, he said, but the foreign troops lacked the capacity to audit their Afghan counterparts. “For much of 2010, NTMA was sorely under-strength and lacked the assets to double-check every field report.”
For his part, Gen. Day says he has confidence in the troop numbers and his ability to improve them. “We run those numbers pretty hard,” he said.
The Canadian commander described a list of recent adjustments designed to improve the morale and quality of life of Afghan soldiers. Their salary, vacation, cafeterias and sleeping quarters have all been improved. Leadership methods have been changed, and soldiers now carry more-modern weapons.
But there's a limit to how much money can be spent on such improvements.
The World Bank predicts Afghanistan will develop a mining industry and generate enough of its own revenue to reach a position where its annual budget shortfall is about $7.2-billion, or 25 per cent of gross domestic product, within about a decade. That's a serious gap, but the intervening years could be even more difficult as transition to local responsibility for security pushes the shortfall to more than 40 per cent of GDP in 2014 – with the payroll and maintenance of Afghan forces accounting for more than half of the budget crunch.
With attrition rates running at current levels, the financial picture looks even darker. Based on NTMA averages from November, 2010, to October, 2011, the army gains 4,272 soldiers a month but loses another 3,136, leaving a net increase of just 1,136.
A veteran U.S. intelligence analyst reviewed those figures and calculated that the turnover costs a staggering amount of money. “Each soldier actually added to the number of the ANA force will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and equip,” the analyst said.
Another persistent issue is the Afghan army's ethnic makeup. If the ANA is to serve as the backbone of a government facing potential war between southern Pashtun groups and the other ethnicities from the north, the force needs to dramatically improve recruiting in the south. Less than 4 per cent of recruits were counted as southern Pashtuns until NATO changed its counting methods in June in an effort to label tribes with ancestry in the south as “southern Pashtuns.” But the relabelling effort in some cases counted as “southern” tribes that had migrated north more than a century earlier.
Some analysts say NATO commanders appear to grasp such problems more clearly than they have in previous years, however, and Gen. Day himself says the job will be far from easy.
“There's a lot of water to be carried before we can declare success,” the commander said.

Rutte calls for more Dutch police training in Afghanistan after surprise visit
THE HAGUE, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday after a surprise visit to Kunduz that he wants the Dutch to provide more police training in Afghanistan.
Rutte visited Afghanistan on Tuesday and Wednesday to see for himself how the Dutch police training in Kunduz was working. He hoped to persuade the parliament to extend the mission.
"There are two possibilities to expand," he told Dutch TV station NOS. "We could do more here in the north at the borders or outside Kunduz. In both cases, we should be aware that the mission remains civil and will not become military. I will try to convince the parliament in the forthcoming weeks."
Rutte got a tour at the training base and he also visited the Dutch delegation in Mazar-i-Sharif, where four Dutch F-16 fighter planes are supporting the mission.
The government's decision to start the mission earlier this year was controversial, but got a small majority support by the parliament. "You have to know that the Netherlands are behind you for hundred percent," he told the Dutch soldiers.
The visit was kept secret for security reasons. It was the first time Rutte visited Kunduz.

Iran, Afghanistan ink agreement on defense cooperation: report
TEHRAN, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on expansion of defense cooperation, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.
According to the Defense Ministry, the MoU was inked by the two countries at the end of the first meeting of Iran-Afghanistan joint defense cooperation commission here on Wednesday.
The two sides expressed hope that the agreement would help promote peace, stability and security in Afghanistan as well as in the entire region, said the report.
The MoU calls for promotion of training programs in the fields of logistics, techniques and engineering, according to IRNA.
Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Tuesday his country is ready to offer assistance to Afghanistan in its efforts to establish a more sophisticated military force, the local satellite Press TV reported.
Vahidi made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Afghan Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Homayoun Fawzi in Tehran on Tuesday. It was the first meeting of Iran-Afghanistan joint defense cooperation commission.
Vahidi said the commission should assume an effective role in expanding mutual defense ties and reinforce the capabilities of Afghan defense forces, according to the report.
Fawzi, for his part, pointed to the numerous common interests of the two nations and voiced Kabul's willingness to bolster mutual ties.
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that the Islamic republic is against any treaty that would enable the U.S. forces to remain in Afghanistan.
Referring to the existence of foreign military as the cause of instability in the region, Salehi said Iran believes in the competence of Afghan forces in providing security for their own country.

Journey with Pakistan Taliban shows militants' resilience
Ishtiaq Mahsud, an Associated Press reporter, spent six days with fighters from the Pakistan Taliban close to the Afghanistan border. He reports from South Waziristan
By Ishtiaq Mahsud, The Associated Press via The Telegraph (UK) 15 Dec 2011
For 15 hours, we walked with Taliban fighters through territory supposedly controlled by the Pakistani army and frequently pounded by US drone strikes. Avoiding roads and towns, we easily evaded soldiers and were shown recruits drilling with weapons, militant positions and – from a distance – a compound used by foreign fighters.
The rare trip to South Waziristan revealed the resilience of militants in the northwestern tribal areas, some of whom are also battling American soldiers across the frontier in Afghanistan. It also demonstrated that the insurgents, who once ruled much of South Waziristan from permanent bases with many hundreds of fighters, are now largely a guerrilla force there.
The Pakistani Taliban had invited three Pakistani journalists to meet its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, at a time when splits have appeared in the movement. But Mehsud cancelled, with his aides saying he was called into urgent meetings with a delegation of Afghan Taliban elders who had arrived from across the border.
The trip began in the capital of North Waziristan, Miran Shah, where the Pakistan army has yet to launch an offensive despite requests from Washington. Militants, including al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban factions, are in firmer control in this region than in South Waziristan. Extremists from other countries and other areas of Pakistan were visible on the streets of the town.
We then drove to the boundary with the south, and began our journey on foot, accompanied by four fighters.
South Waziristan was once home to about 500,000 people but its towns and villages are now mostly empty. The population was told to flee ahead of a major Pakistani army offensive in 2009. The army has declared victory, but most locals haven't returned. They do not believe official statements that their homeland is safe.
In one abandoned village, three men were living in a single room in a ruined house. They said they couldn't leave because they had no money and two of them were blind from birth. Their sole possessions were a dirty mat and some blackened cooking pots. One, 30-year-old Mafiq, said the Taliban gave them monthly rations and sometimes cooked food.
At night, we slept in empty houses. Once, we feasted on goat with about 40 fighters in a forest encampment.
The Pakistani military remains in South Waziristan in force but its men are often targeted in ambushes.
On the main roads there were army posts, vital for supplying the roughly 30,000 soldiers in the region. But it was easy to travel without being spotted or pursued so long as our group stayed off them.
"The army is confined to the roads," said Shameem Mehsud, the operational commander of the Pakistani Taliban. "All the surrounding areas are in Taliban control."
After 15 hours hiking, our group came to a semi-permanent forward position used to attack troops travelling on a main road below. About 30 fighters were armed with rocket launchers, sniper rifles and artillery. Through binoculars, Mehsud pointed out what appeared to be an anti-aircraft gun on a nearby ridge he said belonged to the Taliban.
As we chatted, the army fired mortars at the position, one round landing about 50 yards away.
On the return journey to the north, again on foot but using a different route, one of the fighters pointed to a collection of buildings that he said was used by fighters from Turkmenistan. He said fighters from other countries stayed at different places in the region.
The tribal regions, particularly North Waziristan, have become a magnet for Muslims wanting to fight jihad or "holy war." The area is also used by Afghan militants to stage attacks inside their homeland, knowing that U.S. and Nato troops cannot enter Pakistani territory.
The Pakistani army, which has several times flown reporters to South Waziristan and other Afghan border areas to show off its achievements against militants, was not available for comment on what we observed on our trip.
The army offensive in South Waziristan was launched after heavy American pressure, and was followed by operations in six of the seven tribal regions along the border. But as US-led forces have found in Afghanistan, holding exposed and remote territory against insurgents who know the area and can count on local support is fiendishly difficult.
Eager to wipe out a safe haven for al-Qaida and protect American troops in Afghanistan, the United States has supplied Pakistan with money, weapons and expert assistance for its campaign against the militants. That co-operation has faltered badly this year amid a series of crises between the two nations, whose divergent interests in Afghanistan have proven hard to reconcile.
There is no love lost between the Pakistani military and the Pakistani Taliban, which is allied to al-Qaida and has carried out scores of suicide bombings around the country since 2007.
Some insurgent commanders in the northwest have said recently they were in peace negotiations with the Pakistani government. Militant attacks in major cities outside the northwest have been down sharply this year, a drop some have attributed to the success of army operations and the drone strikes.
The commanders in South Waziristan rejected any talk of peace. They said they would negotiate with the government only if Islamic law were implemented throughout the country, the army withdraws from the region and all Taliban prisoners are released.
"Despite all their resources and atomic power, America, Nato and Pakistan cannot defeat the Taliban as our suicide bombers will use their bones as bullets, their flesh as gunpowder and their blood as fuel," Mehsud said. "They have no way to counter to this spirit."
Pakistan's spy agency has been accused of aiding other militants, such as the Haqqanis and other factions in the Afghan Taliban who carry out attacks on U.S. troops across the border.
CIA drones, in turn, have targeted militants with missile strikes in the Pakistani tribal regions.
Although Mehsud said the militants often changed their training grounds because of fear of attack by American drones, he and his fighters didn't appear overly concerned about the missiles. There have been more than 60 such attacks this year, the vast majority in the Waziristans.
At one point on the trip, the militants showed us young recruits – they called them trainee suicide bombers – exercising on a flat piece of land in a deserted village surrounded by mountains. Wearing masks, they staged the mock capture of a man wearing the uniform of a Pakistani soldier.
"We will jump in the fire without any hesitation on the orders of our commander," they shouted in unison at the end.

Hustle, bustle in Kabul's "Flower Street" raises hope among Afghans
by Farid Behbud, Zhang Jianhua
KABUL, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Crowded narrow street and shops packed with the shoppers including foreigners in Afghan capital Kabul's popular Flower Street illustrates Afghans' hope for better future amid increasing insurgency.
"This is 'Flower Street' in Kabul and we are kindly providing natural and non-natural sweet-smelling flowers to our customers in order to help them have enjoying moment and happiness," flower seller Ajmal said to Xinhua in an interview inside his shop in December.
Famous for servicing customers with precious flowers and built some half century ago, the famous small bazaar -- the Flower Street -- matches its name as bunches of variety of flowers are seen placed in front or inside the shops attracting the flower loving people particularly the youths.
"I love this occupation, it is enjoyable to work and spend time here among flowers, even most of the flowers here are the fake ones, but the street certainly looked nice and beautiful," Ajmal, 32, went on to say.
Likewise other Afghan national assets, the popular flower bazaar has also been suffered due to the past three decades of war.
Recalling his sweet and sour memories as flower seller, the bearded shopkeeper Ajmal said that business in Flower Street had been badly damaged during the civil strife, factional fighting and Taliban rule collapsed in late 2001.
Several flower shops had been shut down by Taliban, he said, adding many Taliban fighters did not like shopkeepers to sell flowers.
"Before 1980s, the Flower Street was a source of reasonable income to each shopkeeper," he said.
However, the old flower bazaar has recovered over the past ten years and nowadays is among the busiest shopping centers in the war-torn Kabul.
Even though, the militants occasionally organize subversive attacks in the capital city Kabul, the Flower Street's shops are full of shoppers.
Most of those frequented the Flower Street are young people who celebrate their marriage anniversary and present flower to their spouses, fianc and fiancs.
"I come to buy flower for my fianc. I like to buy rose," a shy lady who declined to give her name said to Xinhua.
Flower business has also experienced ups and downs in the continued Afghan turmoil.
"I have been working in this street for over 15 years and business here has had a lot of up and downs. In Taliban era, only three to four flower shops were open in this street because religious police of Taliban did not allow us to sell flowers and decorate the car used for carrying groom and bride," the hopeful Ajmal whispered.
With the collapse of Taliban regime, flower business, like other economic activities have gotten impetus.
"Business has juiced up here and selling flowers has increased after Taliban government collapsed ever since many people celebrate wedding parties in luxurious manners and we use artificial flowers to decorate the bride and groom's car and to beautify the new couple's room as well," Ajmal said, adding, "Many Kabulis also come to buy flower in special days like Mother Day, Teacher Day and New Year Day as well as Valentine Day and Women Day."
"I have been working in this flower shop as a salesman for five years. I do not come here to earn money. I like flowers and when I come to shop every morning I really feel fine, enjoy aromatic smell of flowers sweet scented in this street," said Shafiqullah who works in a shop as a slaesman.
"As soon as I get here I forget war and crudity, but enjoy flowers in this shop," Shafiqullah murmured.
There are a number of contractors who transport fresh flowers to shop owners in this street. They bring flowers from some districts surrounding Kabul city and neighboring provinces of Parwan and Kapisa, according to Shafiqullah.
"Likewise flourishing flower business in the Flower Street, I hope hustle bustle to cover all social fields in a peaceful environment," shopper Ahmadi prayed.

Taliban's bloodsoaked stadium re-opens as 'peaceful place'
By Reuters via MSNBC - Thu Dec 15, 11:01 am ET
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Its pitch, they said, was so bloodsoaked that grass would not grow. For years, the only spectacles on offer at the Ghazi Stadium in the Afghan capital were executions, stonings and mutilations by the Taliban, rulers of the country from 1996 to 2001.
On Thursday, thousands of young Afghan athletes wearing soccer uniforms, boxing and running warmup gear, and the belted white suits of martial artists, came to the stadium to celebrate its official re-opening.
This time, the grass has been ripped up and replaced with bright green artificial turf, part of a U.S.-funded stadium refurbishment.
"Of all the international projects implemented in Afghanistan, this is one of the most popular, it enjoys the support of all Afghans," said Lieutenant General Mohammad Zaher Aghbar, president of Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee, and a goalkeeper with the army's soccer team for five years.
The place that once was used to execute people during the Taliban, and then football played on their blood, is now turned into a peaceful place," he said.
"Sport helps societies get together, it will strengthen our national solidarity," Aghbar said, adding that he was trying to line up foreign boxing and soccer teams to come to Ghazi Stadium in early 2012.
Ghazi, a title normally used to describe Muslim warriors who slay non-believers in battle, is a title also bestowed by many Afghans on those who fought the British army to win independence for Afghanistan in the early 20th century.
During the opening ceremony, the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, and other military officials were presented with medals.
'Terrible things'
The new artificial pitch will be certified by world soccer governing body FIFA, allowing matches in the Kabul stadium to be internationally recognised.
"It's very important because the stadium has been renovated, it's now ready for use by athletes. During the Taliban days it was used for terrible things, and today its renaissance has begun. It's a really positive day for Afghanistan," said a U.S. embassy spokesperson.
As athletes began to parade around the stadium, Zabiullah, a 58-year old Afghan journalist who witnessed the Taliban executions, pointed at what is now the corner of a penalty area, marked by neat white lines.
"There was thief who stole something from his village ... they cut his hand, right here," he said. "A man and a woman were having illegal sexual relations. They were caught, brought here, given 100 lashes each and told to marry each other ... I also saw people beheaded and shot. Afghans will never forget these bad memories.
"Now, men and women, girls and boys, can watch a peaceful match together."

Afghan Rape Victim Released From Jail, Lawyer Says
December 14, 2011 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The lawyer for an Afghan woman who was jailed for adultery after being raped says his client has been released from prison after a pardon by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The woman, named Gulnaz, was released on December 13, two years after she was jailed for a so-called "moral crime" when a relative raped her.
Her U.S. lawyer, Kimberley Motley, told the BBC that her client was released without precondition, dispelling fears that she may have to marry the rapist.
Gulnaz was pardoned on December 1 after Karzai met judicial officials following an international outcry over her situation.
The case highlighted the poor state of women's rights in Afghanistan.
compiled from agency reports

A Dam Shame: What a Stalled Hydropower Project Says About Failures in Afghanistan
By Aryn Baker | @arynebaker | December 15, 2011 time.com
To be filed under: You have got to be kidding me.
One of US Aid’s biggest projects in Afghanistan, the $128 million rehabilitation of a key hydroelectric power plant launched in 2002, might never reach its potential wattage. Because, well, nine years on folks are starting to wonder if it might not be cost effective to build in a war zone.
The Guardian’s Jon Boon writes this week about the fate of Helmand Province’s Kajaki Dam Hydroelectric project after USAid budget cuts put the project in peril. As it stands, a $3million turbine, hauled by British troops 100 miles through enemy territory in one of “the most daring operation of its kind since the second world war,” sits moldering in its original crates a couple hundred meters from where it could be pumping out much needed electricity for the region.
Back in the summer of 2008 I spent nearly a month with British Paratroopers tasked with guarding that power plant in northern Helmand. I was there to write about the continuation of a 60-year-old American project to bring electricity to Afghanistan’s southern provinces. What had been started in the 1950s as part of a program to expand American influence in Central Asia had taken on a new urgency after the U.S. war in Afghanistan, when “winning hearts and minds” became the new mantra.
In the story I wrote about how the U.S. government had initially dammed the upper reaches of the Helmand River and embarked on a massive reservoir and irrigation project. Then, in 1975 they installed two turbines that generated enough power to light up the country’s southern provinces, but they left room for a third turbine, and laid the groundwork for an even larger power station nearby that could bring the total energy capacity of the Kajaki Dam project up to 150 MW—nearly 20% of Afghanistan’s current energy demand. But in 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and the American project came to a halt.
Decades of war and neglect ensued, and the power plant fell into disrepair. By the time U.S. engineers returned to the powerhouse in 2002, it was squeezing out just 3 megawatts, and even that only because of the efforts of the head Afghan engineer, Rasul Baqi. He and the few remaining engineers improvised, hammering crude approximations of broken parts out of scrap metal and piecing together electrical lines with barbed wire. He never missed a day of work, he says, not even during the worst of the fighting, when the mujahedin stood off against the Soviets in the soaring cliffs just above the powerhouse. “The village still needed electricity,” he says simply.
What better way to prove that the Americans were in Afghanistan to help than to resuscitate the failing power generators? So in 2002, USAid returned to Kajaki with a $128 million project that would repair the damage, install the third turbine and provide enough power to light 1.7 million Afghan homes – about a quarter of the population. The lack of electricity throughout Afghanistan has been a source of constant frustration. Industries are forced to generate their own power, cutting into payrolls; this means they can’t pay the kinds of salaries that could keep young men away from the Taliban or the opium trade. “Without the Kajaki power station,” I wrote, “southern Afghanistan cannot escape the quicksand of a drug-funded insurgency.” USAid’s Mark Ward told me then that the dam was a “critical element in our support for Afghanistan because it will provide the electricity to drive private-sector growth in Helmand and Kandahar.” The Kajaki Dam was the US’s star project in Afghanistan.
A few months after I left Kajaki, the British troops finally got the turbine through one of the most hostile swaths of Afghanistan, leaving 100 insurgents dead, but no British casualties. It was a risky undertaking and a phenomenal success. It was only a matter of months, we all thought, before Kandahar and the rest of southern Afghanistan would be enjoying 24-hour power.
There was only one hitch, writes Boone: “although the turbine was safely delivered, there was no plan to bring the 700 tonnes of cement required to install the turbine.” It’s a mistake that U.S. Marines and now trying to rectify, but even then it’s not entirely certain that the project could and would go forward. US Aid’s 2011 budget was halved from $4 billion to $2, and could be halved again next year if US Congress gets its way. Ken Yama****a, the USAid mission director in Kabul, told the Guardian that a “cost analysis and best-case scenario for implementation of work at Kajaki dam given funding and time restrictions” was currently being discussed. In other words, the project might be scrapped because no one really thought the whole thing through back when it seemed a grand idea to bring electricity to the people of Afghanistan.
It always amuses me to hear the convoluted conspiracy theories spun about the “real” U.S. intentions in Afghanistan and the region. If only the U.S. were capable of that kind of long term planning. Nope. All those dollars, all those men, we still can’t get Kajaki back together again

www.afghanistannewscenter.com