[Afghan News] November 15, 2012

[یاسمینه]

U.S., Afghanistan to begin talks on post-withdrawal security
The negotiations, expected to be heated, will attempt to balance the U.S. goal of denying terrorists a base of operations and Afghanistan's demands for sovereignty.
Los Angeles Times By David Zucchino November 15, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - In talks that are likely to be confrontational, the United States and Afghanistan are scheduled to begin negotiations Thursday on a new security arrangement after U.S. combat troops withdraw from the war-torn country by the end of 2014.

The talks, which could last up to a year, will attempt to reach agreement on a new joint arrangement to satisfy the U.S. goal of denying terrorists a base of operations and Afghanistan's demands for sovereignty. They'll start amid a climate of suspicion and mistrust between the two countries.

The Afghan government has long complained about the conduct of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, particularly night raids by Special Operations troops and airstrikes and other attacks that kill civilians.

U.S. commanders and troops are incensed over so-called insider attacks, also known as green-on-blue killings. Afghan soldiers and police — or insurgents wearing Afghan security force uniforms — have killed 58 NATO troops this year, including 35 Americans, in at least 42 attacks.

The most divisive issue is immunity from Afghan prosecution for U.S. soldiers accused of crimes, a jurisdictional dispute that wrecked similar talks between the U.S. and Iraq last year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded that U.S. troops answer to Afghan law. The U.S. has insisted that troops accused of crimes in Afghanistan be tried in the American legal system.

Because of disagreements over legal jurisdiction, U.S. and Iraqi negotiators were unable to reach a formal agreement for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq after combat forces withdrew in December. In Afghanistan, the issue has taken on renewed urgency after the killing in March of 16 civilians in Kandahar province, in which U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales has been charged with murder.

Negotiations in Kabul over legal jurisdiction are expected to be pushed back to later in the talks, after less incendiary issues have been discussed.

In public statements, Afghan government officials have insisted that the U.S. guarantee that it will respond to any cross-border incursion or artillery attack on their territory. Afghanistan has long complained about infiltration by insurgents from Pakistan and about cross-border shelling by its eastern neighbor.

The talks will play out against the backdrop of stalled attempts to forge a peace deal with the Taliban, which enjoys a haven in Pakistan's border tribal areas.

The U.S. has made it clear to Afghanistan that the talks are intended to achieve a status-of-forces framework that includes defining the legal position of U.S. forces, not a defense treaty pledging military intervention against aggressors.

"We are not negotiating a security guarantee," said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Afghan officials have also expressed concern that the U.S. might use Afghanistan territory to launch a strike against Iran.

The talks, formally known as negotiations for a bilateral security agreement, will attempt to set conditions for U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014 as part of a "train, advise and assist" mission. President Obama and his national security team will determine the number of troops to be proposed.

The talks are aimed at building a security framework, not a detailed agreement.

Negotiators will attempt to set broad outlines for air rights over Afghanistan and the use and disposition of hundreds of U.S.-built bases — especially the huge air bases in Bagram and Kandahar. They may also discuss potential roles for U.S. Special Operations troops and unmanned drone aircraft, as well as the future of existing U.S. drone ground control stations in Afghanistan — subject to a final White House position on these issues.

The details of these and other issues will be hammered out in "implementing documents" to be negotiated after any security agreement is signed.

When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the U.S. negotiating team last month, she said the talks could well become contentious. "We know that difficult days lie ahead," she said.

Waheed Muzhda, a security analyst in Kabul, said he does not expect Karzai to back down and agree to U.S. jurisdiction for American soldiers accused of crimes, particularly in incidents involving Afghan civilian deaths.

"That is something not acceptable to Afghans," Muzhda said. He added that Karzai remains suspicious of U.S. motives in Afghanistan.

Under a strategic partnership agreement signed by the U.S. and Afghanistan in May, the talks have a deadline of one year. The first session is expected to last just one day. Most, if not all, of the sessions are expected to take place in Kabul.

The U.S. delegation is headed by James B. Warlick, the deputy special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Eklil Hakimi, Afghanistan's ambassador in Washington, leads the Afghan team.

"We hope the [final] document itself, including the negotiations, will provide some reassurance to the people of Afghanistan," the senior U.S. official said.

david.zucchino@latimes.com

Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.


US, Afghanistan Begin Talks on Post-2014 Security Pact
VOA News November 15, 2012
U.S. and Afghan officials have opened talks that will determine how many American military personnel stay in Afghanistan after international combat forces leave at the end of 2014. Representatives from the two countries discussed the bilateral security agreement Thursday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The talks will focus on the main mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014, and the location and number of American bases. Also on the agenda is the sensitive issue of whether American troops can be prosecuted under Afghan law.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has long said any remaining U.S. military personnel should be prosecuted in local courts. Washington stresses that any crimes committed should be tried in the United States.

Failure to strike a similar deal on immunity for U.S. troops in Iraq was a factor in ending the American military presence in that country.

Past actions by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan -- such as the alleged killing earlier this year of 16 civilians by U.S. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, and burnings of the Quran -- have infuriated Afghans.

Earlier this year, the United States signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Afghanistan that could keep a contingent of American troops in the country after 2014 as advisors and trainers.

The US-Afghan talks are expected to continue for months.


Kabul-Washington Security Pact 'A Necessity': MPs
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Lawmakers welcomed the start of talks for a security deal between Kabul and Washington, set to begin Thursday, saying the pact is necessary for the future of Afghanistan because the national forces need help.

"The National Army, police and directorate of security still don't have the ability to act against opposing groups and Al Qaeda [alone], therefore we call the pact a necessity; it must be signed," Sayed Ishaq Gilani, member of the parliamentary international relations committee said Wednesday.

The parliamentarians emphasised that Afghanistan's national Interests should be considered in the agreement which will govern American troop presence and purpose in the country after the Nato-led Isaf mission ends in 2014.

A key challenge in the pact will be the Afghan endorsement of immunity of US troops from prosecution in Afghanistan if they commit a crime.

The Afghan government has previously said it will not accept such a clause in the agreement but lawmakers said compromises will have to be made.

"We are in a deal with the world. We must act consciously and consider our national interests. [But] naturally, having unilateral expectations is not fair in international relations," MP Ahmad Behzad said.

Endorsement of the pact may also incite Afghanistan's neighboring countries given Iran's reaction to the long term strategic agreement in May this year.

Iranian officials have warned that any pact allowing US bases to remain indefinitely in Afghanistan is not acceptable to them.

US President Barack Obama telephoned President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday night but whether the pair discussed the imminent talks is not clear.

A statement from Karzai's office said Obama thanked Karzai for the congratulatory message on his re-election as US President last week and invited Karzai to the US "at his earliest convenience for talks on continued bilateral cooperation and relations between the two countries".

The phonecall also came the same day multiple media outlets reported the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, was embroiled in the scandal that had seen Allen's predecessor in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, resign as head of US Central Intelligence Agency.

Petraeus resigned on Friday citing an extramarital affair.


Kabul Bank Chiefs Name Afghan Leaders in Court
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Former Kabul Bank chairman Sherkhan Farnood on Wednesday accused President Hamid Karzai of using $20 million of the bank's funds for his presidential election bid, contributing to its near collapse in 2010.

Farnood made the accusation at a public court hearing in Kabul, also naming other leading officials including Afghan Minister of Finance Omar Zakhilwal and Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Daoudzai among those who dealt in corrupt practices.

Farnood claimed in his statement to the court that $20 million from the bank was given to Karzai for his electoral campaign in the 2009 presidential election.

He appeared with the former Kabul Bank chief executive Khalilullah Ferozi and about 20 other former employees at the first open court on the bank's crisis.

They are accused of embezzling almost a billion dollars of deposits to pay off personal debts and transfer money abroad.

Farnood objected that the prosecutor and the head of court did not mention Hassan Fahim, the brother of First Vice President Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, in the court accusation of who had key roles in the crisis.

"Four people have a role in the bank's crisis: first Hassan Fahim, second Khalilullah Ferozi, the Attorney General and the president himself," Farnood said.

"I want to say without fear that Hassan Fahim took $178 million from the bank," he added.

Ferozi said in his statement to the court that Farnood had not mentioned Mahmood Karzai, the brother of President Karzai.

"No one including Hassan Fahim, Mahmood Karzai, or I put pressure on Shir Khan to give shares to Mahmmod Karzai. When he gave shares to Mahmood, we disagreed. But he said no, we will use his brother's power," Ferozi claimed.

Ferozi said that he is ready to pay $150 million and more if the court can prove that he took this amount he is accused of misappropriating.

Farnood also accused Ferozi of giving $200,000 to Zakhilwal and $800,000 to Omar Daoudzai, who was then Karzai's chief of staff.

"You gave $200,000 to Zakhilwal and $800,000 to Daoudzai. I am ready to prove it," he said.

But Ferozi rejected the claims.

"Why would I give money to Zakhilwal? I would not give him one rupee," Ferozi said.

Farnood retaliated: "If I cannot prove it, I will cut off my hand."

The court closed without any resolution on the matter with the head of the Kabul Bank special court Shamsul Rahman Shams saying that a second session was needed.

"Until we have clarity on all the issues, we cannot make a ruling," he said.

Kabul Bank was one of Afghanistan's biggest privately-owned banks but almost collapsed after management swindled $900 million from the bank. The crisis was averted only after a massive bailout from Afghanistan's Central Bank.


Survey: Afghans positive about future
CNN By Paavan Mathema and Masoud Popalzai November 14, 2012
Kabul, Afghanistan - Najla Habibi says she is hopeful about the future of her country.

"I know we have got a lot of problems, but still I am happy that I, as a woman, can go to school to teach and hundreds of thousands of girls across the country are able to go to school," the 47-year-old school teacher said. "You know that during the Taliban this was not possible."

More than a decade since the war began, Afghans now say that they feel positive about their country's future, a report released Wednesday by the Asia Foundation said.

The report, "Afghanistan in 2012: A Survey of the Afghan People," found public opinion to be the most optimistic since the annual survey began in 2004. Fifty-two percent of the respondents felt that the country was moving in the right direction, compared to 46% in 2011. Improvements in security and reconstruction were the most cited reasons for the improved outlook.

The Foundation interviewed nearly 6,300 Afghans from all 34 provinces, gauging their perception on security, governance, economy and other issues relating to the country's development.

"This survey helps to give us a sense of citizens' priorities, needs, and views," said Abdullah Ahmadzai, The Asia Foundation deputy country representative in Afghanistan, in a news release. "We hope these findings help bridge the gap in understanding between the international community, the Afghan government, and local communities—dialogue necessary for Afghanistan's long-term prospects."

Over half of the respondents feel that their families are more prosperous today than in the Taliban era and access to schools has increased. Most respondents agreed with the government's national reconciliation and negotiation efforts with the Taliban.

But concerns remain. "It is good that the government is putting efforts on talks with the Taliban, but I am always afraid that if talks become positive and the Taliban come (back) to the government, would we still hold our rights or not?" Habibi said. "But generally I think we are moving towards a right direction."

In the 2012 report, fewer Afghans said they experienced violence or crime over the past year, with a significant decline in violence and crime. "I feel safe in Kabul, especially in my shop because it is not on a main road or near a military compound, " a 29-year-old shopkeeper told CNN, who asked not to be named. "But I don't feel safe once I go to downtown or to any of the high profile areas of Kabul."

Attitudes toward women also appear positive. Nearly nine in 10 respondents agreed that women and men should have equal educational opportunities. Two thirds of Afghans surveyed say they think women should be allowed to work outside the home.

Despite the sense of optimism in the report, insecurity continues to be the biggest worry. Respondents cited security issues (28%), unemployment (27%), and corruption (25%) as the three biggest problems facing Afghanistan. Two-thirds of those interviewed said that local employment opportunities are bad.

"I don't think Taliban threat is worse than corruption in Afghanistan," the Kabul shopkeeper said. "It is the corruption, which is taking Afghanistan towards calamity as we have been seeing in the last decade."

The report comes at a crucial time when the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is in the process of transferring the country's security responsibilities to the Afghan National Forces. Afghanistan is also preparing for its next presidential election, scheduled for April 2014.

Not all are hopeful for the future. Jan Mohammad Parwani, a 35-year-old father of three who sells mobile phone credit cards on the streets in Kabul, said he wants to leave the country.

"I was really hopeful for the future of my country and the direction it was moving to when I returned from Iran with my family seven years ago, but now I regret (it)," Parwani said. "I wish I was still living as a refugee in Iran.

"I know Iranian government doesn't like us Afghans and they don't treat us in a nice way, but at least I was earning enough and also there was no fear of suicide attacks, roadside bombs and rockets."


News Analysis: Afghanistan seeks Pakistani help in bringing Taliban to negotiating table
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The three-day visit to Islamabad of Afghan chief peace negotiator Salahudin Rabbani which ended Wednesday was aimed at seeking Pakistan's support in bringing the Taliban militants to the negotiating table but analysts here are pessimistic about the outcome of the visit.

Analysts said the visit, which came about after months of suspension, would have no impact on the Taliban hardliners who have continued to attack the Karzai government for allowing some 100,000 NATO-led forces, some 68,000 of them Americans, to remain in the country.

"The gap between Taliban and the government is too wide to narrow,"Faizullah Jalal, Kabul University professor and political analyst, told Xinhua in an interview.

Jalal said that the fundamentalist Taliban do not accept the new constitution of Afghanistan and branded the government in Kabul as a puppet regime. "That's why the prospects of peace with the Taliban seem bleak," he said.

The Afghan peace delegation's visit to Pakistan coincided with President Hamid Karzai's tour to India, the arch-rival of Pakistan.

There were reports that Karzai reportedly accused Pakistan of backing the Taliban terrorists which understandably had upset Islamabad.

"President Karzai, during his stay in India, said that the sanctuaries of terrorists are in Pakistan. These remarks have displeased Islamabad, "Jalal said.

In order to keep Afghanistan's relations with both Islamabad and New Delhi on an equal footing, Karzai dispatched the peace delegation to Pakistan.

Afghan officials are of the view that Taliban leadership is based in Quetta city of Pakistan and enjoying the support of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), a claim which has been strongly denied by Islamabad.

Trading accusations between Kabul and Islamabad have strained the relations between the two neighboring states. The Afghan government has said that cross-border terrorism is the main cause of instability in Afghanistan, while Islamabad has claimed that Taliban militants have been using Afghan soil to create law and order problems in Pakistan.

Before his departure for Pakistan, Rabbani told newsmen that he hoped his visit to Islamabad would help bring about change in Islamabad's stance vis--vis peace efforts in Afghanistan.

Just a day later of Rabbani's departure, four rockets reportedly fired by Taliban militants slammed into Kabul city leaving one dead and three others injured.

"Firing rockets into Kabul on Tuesday morning is in fact the reaction of Taliban to peace efforts and I think Pakistan will not encourage Taliban to hold direct dialogue with the peace delegation," Jalal said.

Karzai has repeatedly offered peace talks with the Taliban militants over the past couple of years but the Taliban has categorically rejected the peace overtures, saying that there will be no talks in the presence of foreign troops in the country, a condition unacceptable to both Kabul and Washington at the moment.

In spite of desperate efforts by Afghan government to approach the Taliban and mounting military pressure by Afghan and NATO-led troops over the past couple of years, no key commander or top political leader of Taliban, except some few foot soldiers, has switched side to join the government in Kabul.

Public opinion leaders in Afghanistan are also pessimistic about the outcome of the peace feelers by the Afghan delegation in Islamabad.

"Unilateral efforts for peace will not deliver unless and until the Taliban accept the Afghan constitution and begin negotiation with the government," legislator Mohammad Yunus Qanooni has stressed.


Police Test Afghanistan's Fragile Ethnic Balance
Associated Press By KATHY GANNON November 14, 2012
MARJAH, Afghanistan - Patrolling in all-terrain vehicles that whip up clouds of dust, members of Afghanistan's elite Civil Order Police might be viewed as outsiders here in southern Helmand province, an ethnic Pashtun heartland where residents talk wistfully of the Taliban's rule, call NATO troops invaders and refer to Afghan government officials as thieves.

Col. Khalil Rahman and the 441 police under his command in the 3rd Battalion are almost all from northern Afghanistan and belong to minority ethnic groups. Many don't even speak Pashto, the language of most southerners. That could be a recipe for conflict in this majority Pashtun country that descended into a bloody civil war over ethnic lines in the 1990s.

Yet Rahman said he asked for each of his three deployments to Helmand and is planning to settle his bride of two months in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

"This is my country, all of it. I asked to come here," said Rahman, 30, whose clean-shaven face and tightly cropped hair contrasts with most local men, who wear unkempt bushy beards and the traditional turban. Still, when they met in the villages, he embraced them in the traditional hug and Pashtu greeting of "May you not get weary."

As the U.S. and NATO close out their mission in Afghanistan preparing for the final withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2014, the worry looms large that fresh outbursts of ethnically motivated fighting would send the country into a spiral of chaos and violence that could give al-Qaida the toehold it needs to re-establish camps to plot attacks on Western targets and train wannabe jihadis.

But an Associated Press reporter and photographer who accompanied the 3rd Battalion for a week did not observe any hostility among local residents to the Civil Order Police, known as ANCOP. Instead, they channeled much of their anger toward government officials, an international community they said reneged on promises of development and the U.S- financed Afghan Local Police.

"No one helps us," said Abdul Qayyum, who was up to his elbows in mud after stepping away from repairing his sun-baked mud home. "The situation was good before the fighting," he said.

Qayyum was referring to the joint NATO, U.S. and Afghan assault on Taliban bases in Marjah, a sprawling region of dozens of small mud villages with a total population of less than 50,000. The idea behind the February 2010 counterinsurgency operation — the largest in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion — was to kick out the Taliban and make Marjah a model of development and good governance, a shining example of how an area can prosper if it spurns the Taliban and embraces the Afghan government.

It hasn't quite worked out that way, however.

Instead, the Taliban routinely lay mines on the road, and Marjah residents complain bitterly that the development they were promised hasn't materialized and that international money went into the hands of a few corrupt government and tribal leaders.

The residents particularly resent the establishment of the U.S-financed Afghan Local Police, who they say routinely set up random road blocks, charge tolls and threaten to turn over villagers to the Americans as Taliban if they don't pay bribes.

International and Afghan human rights groups have also criticized the Afghan Local Police for various abuses.

Anatol Lieven, chair of international relations at the War Studies Department at the U.K-based King College, said "the local police as a force . . . absent U.S. funding and backup will inevitably turn into drug dealing militias."

Yet Seth Jones, a senior analyst at the U.S.-based Rand Corporation, said the reputation is undeserved.

"The program appears to be effective in undermining Taliban and other insurgent control of parts of the south, east, north, and west ... (and) is contributing to improved security and governance," Jones said. "As with any program, it does have its challenges."

But in Marjah, the criticism was loud and clear.

In a tiny general store in Marjah, Mullah Daoud scoffed when he recalled the 2010 operation, saying they were told prosperity would follow. He said corrupt government officials instead set up shop, along with the local police.

"ANCOP does not bother us. The local police are the problem," said Daoud, an elderly man with a gray beard who was lying on a bright red cushion.

A half-dozen other men — some sitting nearby on the floor, some peering through the curtained door — then launched into a chorus of complaints about the police. One man said the police seized his motorcycle, another said he was forced to pay $20 to get his cotton crop past a checkpoint.

Among the Afghan security forces, the 16,500-strong ANCOP stands out as an exception. They are better educated than the average national policeman or soldier, most of whom can neither read nor write. An ANCOP recruit needs a Grade 9 education, and some among Rahman's battalion are college graduates. They study human rights and behavioral science.

In Helmand, Rahman's men run patrols between Lashkar Gah and Marjah along dirt roads and through mud villages, where they create small outposts and swarm areas where Taliban fighters have been sighted. Occasionally they team up with the Afghan Army and National Police for assaults on Taliban hideouts. They also set up road blocks, stop vehicles and search the occupants — though not women.

Daoud said ANCOP conducts patrols but does not search homes. "They are good. We don't mind them," he said.

He and others in Marjah say the biggest problems with law enforcement in the area are bad training, poor discipline and corruption — not ethnicity.

Some analysts agree that Afghanistan's ethnic divisions have been oversimplified, and even misunderstood.

"There is a tendency among observers to overestimate the animosity between the north and the south, or rather to see it something fixed and static. As if people hate each other just because they are from different areas. It's not like that," said Martine van Bijlert, co-director of Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent research group based in Afghanistan.

She said animosity arises when one ethnic group forcibly tries to subdue another, not when a group like ANCOP enters an ethnic majority Pashtun area with the intention of working with the population.

"It would probably be quite difficult to rile up people against a contingent that is largely from the north but that behaves well, you would need some pretty strong propaganda and even then it would probably be an uphill struggle," she said. "Many people in the south, and all over the country, are really on the lookout for representatives of the government that behave well. They still hold out the hope that this can supersede factionalism and other dividing lines."

Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan. She can be followed on www.twitter.com/kathygannon


Key Taliban commander killed in S. Afghan province
QALAT, Afghanistan, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Security forces raided and killed a Taliban key commander Mullah Nabi Akhundzada in the southern Zabul province, 340 km south of Kabul in the wee hours of Thursday, provincial administration spokesman Sharifullah Nasiri said.

"Acting upon intelligence report, the security forces raided a house in Shajoi district very early Thursday morning, killing Taliban key commander Mullah Nabi Akhundzada along with two of his bodyguards on the spot," Nasiri told Xinhua.

Akhundzada, according to the official, was a notorious Taliban commander in Zabul and adjoining areas and his dead is a major blow to the Taliban fighters in the province.

Taliban militants who have been fighting the government and NATO-led troops are yet to comment.


Will use all means to make Pakistan quit terror: Hamid Karzai
Times of India By Indrani Bagchi Nov 15, 2012
Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, is fighting several fires, not the least of which is the fact that Pakistan continues to want to support terrorist groups that are targeting Afghanistan and threatening it's future stability. But in an exclusive conversation with TOI during his state visit to India, Karzai shows he is ready to do battle -- to deter Pakistan from exporting terrorism, try to attract a reluctant Indian industry into investing in Afghanistan, but above all, keep his country from falling into the hands of the Taliban again.

What happens to Afghanistan after the Nato withdraws in 2014?

The prime minister and I had a detailed discussion on the entire Afghan situation, its future and transition. The transition is good for Afghanistan, very, very good. The withdrawal of these forces is good. The partnerships we have with US that have provided certain conditions is also good for Afghanistan.

The elections will take place in time, a new president will come. Nobody should be worried about that. The Afghan people have taken democracy to heart. Just like India proved itself as a democratic country, when there were predictions of doom and gloom in the western media - that a poor country cannot be democratic. The same way they were proved wrong about South Korea. Afghanistan will prove it again. I have no concerns.

Your primary concern has been with safe havens for terrorists, the Taliban in neighbouring Pakistan. That concern remains. What do you propose to do about it?

The question of sanctuaries and extremism and terrorism - now is causing Pakistan a lot more danger than it is causing Afghanistan or India. It is from this fact, from this new situation, that I have changed my approach to Pakistan. I have not been critical. I have been a lot more conciliatory than one can be under the circumstances. My effort today is to convey to Pakistan that terrorism and extremism cannot be a tool for any purpose. It will not serve any foreign policy objective, or any other objective. It can only cause us suffering.

I will continue this with Pakistan. Very soon there should be a realisation in Pakistan that this is hurting them. I hope there will be very soon some activity in curbing this terrorism, removing it. We would like them to work together with us in Afghanistan and the region. Terrorism is a dreadful menace. We will require Pakistani assistance to get rid of it.

Pakistan has not yet found it in its interest to curb terrorism against Afghanistan or India. Why will they change now?

Not yet. We have only seen good words. We must see action.

How do you get Pakistan to take such action?

By all the means we have available. Persuasion, talking, by conveying the truth as it is.. by not shying away from calling a spade a spade and by making sure we are sincere and well-intentioned. Afghanistan has turned out to be one of the most resource rich countries. Are you satisfied with the level of Indian interest in Afghanistan's economy?

I am not happy at all with the level of Indian investment in Afghanistan, no. That is what I told Indian businesses in Mumbai. India should have been the first to come and invest in Afghanistan. India was not even the second or third! India should now, having arrived late in the investment scene in Afghanistan, be the pioneer of being the best.

Everything in Afghanistan is ready for you. You look at the polls __ Afghans consider India to be the most friendly country. This is a great foundation for a stable and long-term relationship. Our proximity and ties can be best utilised by attracting Indian investment, giving them all the protection we can provide and by having the right laws and regulations to make these investments profitable to the investor. We have all of that and we want Indian business to come to Afghanistan and make the best of it.

What was the feedback?

Much better than before. Indian oil and gas are coming in, we have coal investment, and we signed a mining agreement. More should come. We have a deal on iron ore. But there is plenty more __ its the tip of the iceberg. We must keep Afghan government strong.

What do you make of western commentary about a de facto partition of Afghanistan where the south and east are ruled by the Taliban?

Absolutely not. Don't believe it for a minute, and even if the Americans try to do that they will fail. Its been all over the western press, which we know very well has its own intentions. Its a regulated press. We have seen that in the past 10 years. Even if they intend to do that - the Americans, Europeans and some of our neighbours, they will fail.

What did you think of the US ambassador endorsing the Durand Line? Afghan people have never accepted the Durand Line. No Afghan government has authority to do a deal on it. We know the US government had recognized Durand Line long ago, and it was nothing new. It will not change anything in Afghanistan. But it did not serve America well in Afghanistan.

What will be US presence post 2014?

They have asked for certain bases. We have a strategic partnership between us as two sovereign countries, with the US recognizing that intervening in Afghanistan, in our social, economic and political life, in a manner other than prescribed by a partnership, is not good for them. It will not help partnership. They must work for unitiy of Afghanistan. They must not try to have us disunited and governed.

We want an Afghan government with less corruption, specially the corruption that emanates from American system into ours. Corruption is their money, their contracts.

What about your relations with Iran?

Iran and Afghanistan worked very well in the past. We will continue to work for smooth relations between US and Iran and we will make sure our relationship with US does not affect our ties with Iran.

What role do you envisage for India in Afghanistan?

India has a massive role in Afghanistan and region in bringing education, services to afgh, institutionalising state structures, training afghan forces, police, playing a role of a country whose presence in Afghanistan is a great factor of stabilization and prosperity.

Do you see any role of India in security too?

Yes. In training us better. Coordinating on all security issues. By fighting together against extremism and terrorism.

Answer: Yes. In training us better. Coordinating on all security issues. By fighting together against extremism and terrorism.


Taliban Kill Two Afghans Working For NATO
RFE/RL November 14, 2012
Afghan police say Taliban militants have shot dead two young Afghan men working as translators for NATO troops.

The two were killed November 14 as they drove from Kabul to work at Camp Shank, a NATO outpost in Logar Province, about 80 kilometers south of Kabul.

Officials said the militants left the men's bodies next to their car on the side of the road.

Thousands of Afghans, mostly young men, are hired by NATO's International Security Assistance Force in various capacities to assist soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents.

These locals are frequently targeted by militants.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP


Pakistan Frees Taliban Prisoners, Renewing Hopes for Peace Talks
New York Times By DECLAN WALSH November 14, 2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan said it had released at least seven senior Afghan Taliban prisoners on Wednesday, rekindling fragile hopes that Islamabad may be ready to help broker peace talks with the militants as the Western military withdrawal from Afghanistan looms.

A senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “seven to eight” Taliban prisoners had been set free but refused to name them. A Western official said the figure could be as high as 14 prisoners. News reports citing Afghan officials said the freed prisoners included Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a former Taliban justice minister and religious hard-liner.

It was unclear whether the men were to be transferred to Afghan custody or released in Pakistan. But the announcement was mostly seen as an initial sign of good faith by the Pakistanis — perhaps to Afghan Taliban leaders in exile in Pakistan, perhaps to Afghan or American officials who seek to open talks, most likely all of the above — in a slow-moving negotiations process that has been blighted by deep mistrust on all sides.

“Things are starting to move,” said Najam Sethi, a veteran Pakistani commentator. “This is definitely an attempt by Pakistan to change tack and show both sides that they are serious about a settlement and an endgame.”

For years, the ability of the Pakistani Army’s intelligence agency to limit the movement of Afghan Taliban leaders has been seen as a political trump card — an insurance policy that any deal between the insurgents and the Americans or Afghan government would have to go through Pakistan first. Both countries have lobbied the Pakistanis to at least agree in principle to allow more freedom for Taliban leaders to travel in order to make any attempt at peace talks possible.

The release on Wednesday came at the end of a three-day visit to Islamabad by a delegation of Afghan officials from the High Peace Council, which is spearheading the effort by the government of President Hamid Karzai to draw the Taliban into peace talks.

Prisoner releases have been a core demand of the delegation, which had canceled two trips to Pakistan over disagreements with the Pakistanis. “Our demand was that they should hand over some of those Taliban prisoners to us,” Maulavi Shafiullah Nuristani, a member of the High Peace Council, said in Kabul.

In return, the members of the Afghan delegation presented Pakistani officials with a document outlining their intentions for the faltering peace process, known in Afghanistan as “reconciliation,” for the idea that Taliban representatives could perhaps be brought into the national government in return for ending their campaign of violence.

A joint statement issued by Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday evening noted that Pakistan “supports Afghanistan’s vision and road map for achieving durable and lasting peace” and that all sides would “facilitate safe passage to potential negotiators to advance the reconciliation process.”

The two countries agreed to hold a conference of religious scholars, possibly in Saudi Arabia, to discuss Islamist militancy. And they reiterated calls for the Taliban to cut its ties to Al Qaeda — a major American demand.

It was unclear how many of the freed prisoners were high-level Taliban officials. If his release is confirmed, Mullah Turabi would certainly fall in that category: He was the Taliban’s justice minister, and he had legal responsibility for the brutal public executions during Taliban rule in the 1990s and for the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamian Province in 2001. He was set free by the Afghan government in 2002 in controversial circumstances, only to be later detained in Pakistan.

The Pakistanis made a point, however, of noting that another influential name was not on the release list: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a former deputy Taliban leader who was captured with American help in February 2010. Afghan officials say he may hold the key to unlocking a tentative negotiation process with the Taliban.

That process is seen by American officials as a crucial part of their military withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 — even as they continue to try to weaken the Taliban’s military footing within Afghanistan. But there are many hurdles to opening talks, with distrust running deep among all four potential parties — the Taliban, the Americans, the Afghans and the Pakistanis.

Hopes of starting a negotiating process seemed to collapse in March, when the Taliban publicly rejected American efforts to set up a back channel in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar amid the Americans’ refusal to release Taliban figures held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

American officials believe that an intense debate is under way inside the Taliban leadership over whether to engage in any peace talks or to continue fighting until the bulk of Western forces are gone.

On the Afghan side, even as Mr. Karzai has repeatedly reached out to the Taliban to reconcile with his government, they have rejected the overtures, with some senior figures vowing they will never relent as long as Mr. Karzai or his allies hold power in Kabul. Further complicating matters, Mr. Karzai is suspicious of American overtures toward the Taliban that he views as attempts to go behind his back.

The Pakistani position is also mired in complexity. The United States and Afghanistan have long accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency of providing shelter to Taliban leaders and fighters in the western province of Baluchistan and the sprawling port city of Karachi, where Mullah Baradar was captured. The ISI admits to some contact with insurgents, but insists it has no influence over militant operations.

The most contentious issue is the ISI’s hold over the Taliban ruling council, known as the Quetta Shura, named after the capital of Baluchistan, although experts believe meetings now take place in districts around the province.

In recent years, however, that grip has loosened, according to some Western officials and Pakistani analysts.

The new ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Zaheer ul-Islam, is said by some officials to be seeking to mend fences in order to strengthen his hand at any future negotiating table.

Jawad Sukhanyar contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.


Literacy Lessons Launched on Mobile Phones
AFP By Mushtaq Mojaddidi Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Afghanistan has launched a new literacy programme that enables Afghan women deprived of a basic education during decades of war to learn to read and write using a mobile phone.

The phone is called Ustad Mobile (Mobile Teacher) and provides national curriculum courses in both national languages, Dari and Pashto, as well as mathematics.

All the lessons are audio-video, with writing, pronunciation and phrases installed in Ustad Mobile phones -- and they are distributed free to students.

Sitting on a carpet in a small Kabul classroom with a handful of women learning to read and write, 18-year-old Muzhgan Nazari said the Taliban, who banned schooling for girls during their rule, were in power when she should have started her education.

"I could not go to school because the Taliban took control of Kabul city", she told AFP, adding that her father had also opposed his daughters attending school.

"Since I heard about this literacy training centre for women, I convinced my father and he allowed me to attend on a daily basis," she said.

Nazari is delighted with the programme, which is being rolled out by a commercial provider and the ministry of education with financial backing from the United States.

The Mobile Teacher software was developed by Paiwastoon, an Afghan IT company, with $80,000 dollars in US aid and is designed to tackle one of the worst illiteracy rates in the world by riding the growing wave of mobile phone use.

Despite millions of girls now attending school, Afghanistan's literacy rate among women remains at just 12.5 percent, compared to 39.3 percent for Afghan men, according to United Nations figures.

"This is the first time audio-visual literacy learners have the chance to receive lessons on their cellphones," Mike Dawson, CEO of Paiwastoon, told AFP.

The company has experience in the field, having previously managed the "One Laptop Per Child" programme that handed out 3,000 computers to women and children in Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Baghlan and Jalalabad.

"We can make the job of the teachers easier by using the video and the audio and the questions and exercises," Dawson said.

"Cellphones are cheaper than any computer and people are familiar with it. And also, the maintenance is much easier."

The free app can be installed on all mobile phones with a memory card slot and a camera. Individual lessons, which will also be made available on the ministry of education website, will teach new words and phrases.

"We try to get to as many people as possible. The other thing, we can add more subjects like English, Arabic, Pashtu, health, agriculture," Dawson added.

"For rolling out Ustad Mobile -- we are looking to talk with the phone companies and the media to make people aware of the programme.

"We interviewed phone shop owners about the software and they are willing to install it for people like they install other software on mobiles," Dawson said.

"People don't realise how powerful these phones are, they work like computers."

At the moment, some 100 students are using the Mobile Teacher in a pilot project in Kabul, 65 percent of them women, with plans to roll the project out across the country, the education ministry said.

"Our focus and target is mostly on uneducated women," said director of programmes, Allah Baz Jam.

The ministry would do everything it could to promote the Ustad Mobile for women and would also distribute the software on CDs and DVDs, he told AFP.

At the pilot project class in Kabul, Samira Ahmadzai, a 24 year-old mother of two, wearing an all-enveloping burqa also said she had been unable to attend school because of the Taliban.

"And later, I got married. Now with the permission of my husband, I've come to the literacy centre to learn to read and write."

The Taliban were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001, and have since waged an insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Karzai.

Today, of Afghanistan's 8.4 million schoolchildren, 39 percent are girls, the education ministry says.

But US-led NATO troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and rights activists fear that some of the gains made by women in the past decade could be lost as Taliban pressure on the government increases.

For now, though, the Mobile Teacher is bringing new hope to those who missed their chance of an education in the past.


As Taliban regroup, victims battle for 'free' Afghanistan
NBC News By Tazeen Ahmad 14/11/2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban were driven from power in Afghanistan 11 years ago this week but remain a threat. NBC News spoke to Afghans who have suffered at their hands and looked at what people believe the country's future will hold after NATO troops withdraw in 2014.

Zalmai Faizi's two children were playing in his police car when the Taliban assassins pulled up on motorcycles.

After having a few words with Faizi's son, the gunmen peppered the vehicle leaving the teenager and his five-year-old sister dead. Faizi rushed out of his house to find his kids in a pool of blood.

As a police officer in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province, the 40-year-old carries out one of the world's most dangerous jobs. He paid an unimaginable price for his convictions. "I have been getting threats since last year by the Taliban, but I decided not to give it any attention," he told NBC News. "I was not the target because I came home 10 minutes before. They had a chat with my son and then they started firing."

Faizi believes the Taliban wanted to teach him a lesson and send a message to others: Quit your job or pay a heavy price. He says he ignored the warnings simply because he had no other choice. He needed his monthly salary of $224 and had long-accepted that the job came with some risks.

'My only hope'

Like many of his countrymen, Faizi believes in a secure and safe Afghanistan. Without people like him, Afghanistan could fall into chaos or back into the hands of the Taliban and warlords after NATO troops leave.

He and his wife and their remaining kids are now in a desperate state, in fear for their own lives and catatonic with grief.

"I have lost my young son and daughter who were my only hope and for whom I had great aspirations," he said through tears.

Threats from the Taliban are a regular occurrence for all security officials in Afghanistan. The Taliban have sworn to kill anyone who colludes with "evil" Western forces. Faizi's kids were the latest in a long line of victims but such attacks are neither rare nor isolated.

Analysts believe such incidents -- as well as insider attacks by Afghan security personnel targeting NATO troops -- are part of a Taliban plan to weaken government forces ahead of a comeback when foreign troops leave.

In the lead-up to the planned withdrawal in 2014, Taliban strategies have become both smarter and more sinister. Just last month, six Afghan policemen were poisoned by their cook. As they lay unconscious they were shot dead by another colleague. The Taliban's fight for survival has become increasingly dirty, driven by a determination that the group will rise again.

Notorious Taliban leader Mullah Omar remains elusive. Rumors of whether he is dead, alive or insane have gone into overdrive but his 10-year absence from the public stage has not lessened his influence.

"He remains an important leader and figure for the Taliban, but the Taliban is successful because of middle-level commanders," NBC News terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said. "It's like a franchise; it's decentralized enough so that the Taliban are going to be around whether or not there is a Mullah Omar."

He describes the Taliban today as a patchwork of groups spread across large regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan borders, held together by common religious beliefs, social objectives and an opposition to foreign "occupation."

"At this point, they've put their differences aside in order to unite and fight the Western presence," Kohlmann added.

Just over a decade ago, the world watched in horror as the Taliban blew up Buddhas in Bamiyan province and shot women at close range in a stadium in Kabul. Kohlmann says they have since, publicly at least, moderated and attempted to change their image so they can engage in the world of diplomacy.

However, many ordinary people in Afghanistan believe the same medieval attitudes to women and justice are simmering below the surface, along with the Taliban's long-established appetite for unpalatable brutality.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Kabul, where countless cemeteries sprawl across the city with no boundaries, some graves no more than a piece of rock in the ground.

Within these cemeteries, lie the bodies of thousands of ordinary Afghans killed by the Taliban. It's a stark reminder of the city's dreadful history.

At a hilltop above one graveyard is an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It was once the scene of heinous acts of cruelty when during the 1990s the Taliban forced people to climb to the top diving board and pushed them into the empty pool to meet a terrible death below.

Today's Taliban now defend their record on human rights. Whether the people of Afghanistan have forgotten is another story. However, a decade is a long time out of power.

New tricks

The Taliban have regrouped, modernized, learned new tricks and taken their battle to many fronts – including the Internet. They use Facebook to gather information and Twitter to spread their propaganda. Every attack is tweeted about immediately with over-inflated claims of how many "invaders" were killed. They've even got an ongoing online spat with ISAF – with each side equally determined to win the war of words.

Away from cyberspace, some of the most notorious aspects of Taliban ideology have seeped into everyday life.

In recent months, violence against women has increased dramatically. Afghanistan's Independent Human Right Commission on Tuesday said it has registered more than 3,000 cases of violence against women this year. More than 700 cases have been reported in Herat alone. Others say the numbers are far higher in more remote regions. Women have been burnt, mutilated, decapitated, had acid thrown in their faces, sold, prostituted, raped and used as currency. Not all of this is because of the Taliban, but women's groups say this increase in violence is part and parcel of the Taliban's legacy.

Despite public declarations to the contrary, the Taliban have not relinquished attempts to derail education for Afghan girls. During the summer, 160 schoolgirls were admitted to hospital in northern Afghanistan after they were poisoned; the police say the Taliban were responsible.

Razia Jan, a strong-minded and charismatic Afghan-American, runs a girls school about 30 miles from Kabul called the Zubili Education Center. Remarkably, men in the surrounding seven villages have overcome their initial resistance and have now joined forces to become its biggest protectors. But the threat from the Taliban is never far away. Jan speaks cautiously, conscious of drawing too much unnecessary attention.

"There are now millions of girls that go to school but education has been and is going to be hurt by the Taliban," she told NBC News. "They are supposed to be students of religion but they are thugs; they are terrorists."

This hasn't stopped Jan. Her school provides free education to more than 350 young girls daily. "It's such a blessing for them to learn something and go back home. The fathers are so proud," she says.

These small signs of hope and bravery can be found across Afghanistan. Gul Jan, a 55-year-old woman from northwest Afghanistan's Shebarghan city is more courageous than most.

Her husband was murdered by the Taliban -- flogged, whipped and beaten for hours until he collapsed in front of their house.

Shortly after his death, they forced her out of her home. Determined to survive for her five young children, Gul Jan rebuilt her life and now works as a tailor. That's no mean feat for a single mother in Afghanistan. She does not mince her words about the Taliban.

"They are very bad people," she says. "People should go and ask them why they are doing this. This is not our religion."

In recent months, there have also been reports of 10 separate anti-Taliban insurgencies occurring in remote regions of Afghanistan. However, analysts say these small steps are not indicative of a wider trend, at least not yet.

But in Kabul, there are other signs of change. The blue burqa, one of the most potent images of Taliban times, is not as ubiquitous as it once was.

Women across the capital wander around with full faces of make-up -- heads always draped with a shawl as is customary -- but also the flash of a killer heel beneath a long local robe, or the jangle of bracelets as they shop alone or in pairs. The tradition of a male companion has been long-deemed unnecessary.

But as women wander through stores in central Kabul with names like "Life's Good," the shadow of the Taliban is never far away.

"For years the Taliban have destroyed Afghanistan. They destroyed lives for girls," Razia Jan added. "But I think they are just cowards hiding in places where nobody can get to them and they come out like a snake and they bite you and then they slither back."

She then adds with a smile, "I can imagine an Afghanistan that is someday free of the Taliban. It will take awhile, but I think it's possible." NBC News' Jamieson Lesko contributed to this report.


Kam Air Suspends Flights to UAE
TOLOnews.com By Zabihullah Jhanmal Wednesday, 14 November 2012
Afghan private airline Kam Air has suspended flights to the United Arab Emirates saying competition from foreign airlines has made the route unviable for the carrier.

Kam Air officials blamed the Afghan government for allowing foreign competitors to unfairly undercut prices, or price dump, and said that local companies face bankruptcy because they cannot compete with the foreign companies.

"We have informed the Ministry of Transport and Aviation about the price dumping strategy of the foreign airlines, but no one there is chasing our problem, so we have temporarily suspended our flights to Dubai," Head of Kam Air Zmrai Kamgar told TOLOnews in a phone conversation, adding that other, newer Afghan companies will collapse if this continues.

Kam Air suspended the flights last week, officials said. Its website still has notices promoting trips to Dubai and offering assistance with UAE visas.

Price dumping refers to the practice of foreign companies selling products or services at prices below the local providers, forcing local prices to drop.

Aviation minister Daoud Ali Najafi told TOLOnews at the end of September that five foreign airlines, different to the eight already operating in Afghanistan, had shown interest in opening routes to the country.

Najafi said that he believed the introduction of the airlines will be good for local industry, forcing them to compete with the international standards and prices.

"The investment of the airlines will have a good impact on the local airline services and we will ensure there are no violations through price dumping ," Najafi said.

Calls to the Ministry of Transport and Aviation for comment were not responded to by the time of publication.


Lawmakers Call for Special Law to Prevent Child Rape
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 14 November 2012
A number of Afghan lawmakers have put together a draft law for punishing those found guilty of child rape.
The MPs said parliament has the responsibility to wipe out such crimes and that having a specific law to punish these incidents is a serious necessity.

"Raping children is truly a crime. The parliament has the responsibility to track down the matter and act to prevent these crimes," Faryab MP Naqibullah Faiq said in Wednesday's parliamentary session.

Ghazni MP Ali Akbar Qasemi said the crime deserved its own law.

"I think the parliament should make a special draft law for stopping children rape. There should be a fundamental resolution to stop the crime, so that it wouldn't be a matter only reflected by media and not tracked down," he said.

The lawmakers called on justice institutions to apply the full Sharia law punishment to those who are convicted of raping children, adding that the only solution to bring down the climbing rate of reported child rapes is to enforce the law and harsh penalties.

Pointing to a recent rape of a 5-year-old girl in northern Balkh province, they called on the law enforcement bodies to take more seriously investigations into those accused of such deeds.

"Why don't the courts put into practice Sharia (law) for those accused of raping children? This matter should be pursued by the Supreme Court," said Speaker of the House Abdurraouf Ibrahimi.

Over the past few years, increasing reports of children rape have been released.

Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has said that the incidence in the northern areas of the country is up 20 percent this year, the most recent being a 5-year-old girl raped by a 22-year-old boy in Balkh province.


Afghanistan: Unchecked Opium Production in Uruzgan
Authorities say they are powerless to act even though they know opium poppy is being grown on large tracts of land.
IWPR By Ezatullah Latifi 14 Nov 12
Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan is fast becoming a major source of opium, and local informal powerbrokers are making millions of dollars from the trade.

The authorities appear powerless to act against major figures in the trade, who have occupied large swathes of land that in theory belongs to the state and are reaping huge rewards from the poppy trade, backed by small private armies.

Hajji Abdul Habib is a farmer from Shah Zafar village in the Darafshan Valley, northeast of the main provincial town Tarin Kowt, and has been growing poppy for years.

"I collect 12 kilograms of opium from one acre of land annually, and I sell it at 20,000 Pakistani rupees [200 US dollars] per kilogram," he said.

With his ten-acre plot, that suggests Abdul Habib is making 24,000 dollars a year. By the standards of the average Afghan, that is a lot of money. But compared with the bigger operators in Uruzgan, it is nothing.

Much of the production is taking place in Chora district, just 30 km northeast of Tarin Kowt, particularly in the Darafshan Valley, and in the nearby Mehrabad area.

IWPR looked into the activities of just one major landholder, who maintains an armed retinue and, according to locals interviewed for this article, pays off the Taleban so that he can operate unhindered.

A former militia commander, he says he serves neither the Kabul government nor the Taleban.

"I am a jihadi commander and a tribal elder of the Barakzai," he told IWPR, naming a Pashtun tribe strongly represented in his district.

The foundation of the “commander’s” business is 14 square kilometres of land in the Darafshan area of Chora. He says he uses about a fifth of the area to grow almond and apricot trees for himself, and leases the remaining 11 sq km out to local farmers, who grow opium poppy. He admits to growing some poppy on his own land as well

The “commander” goes around with a bodyguard of six armed men, and says that apart from them, "I only have 100 guards to protect my 3,500 acres of land, all of them equipped with Kalashnikovs or rifles."

An elder from a different tribe who has known him for years says the “commander’s” armed force really numbers around 300.

IWPR interviewed ten of these men and learned that the armed force was made up of roughly one son each from 300 families of the Barakzai tribe. In return, each families received housing and a lease of farmland.

Ahmad Shah from the village has joined the armed retinue, as has his 22-year-old son, while his two younger boys aged 14 and 16 years are growing opium on their plot .

Ahmad Shah takes his Kalashnikov even when he goes out to dig his land, saying of his patron, "I protect [his] land with my weapon, because he has given me both house and land."

Golab Khan, head of criminal investigation for the Afghan National Police in Uruzgan province, told IWPR "I am aware that [this individual] has armed men. The police have not given him weapons."

Asked why the police did not act to halt this unconcealed poppy cultivation, which is illegal in Afghanistan, he said that until 2011, government officials had been unable even to travel into Chora district because of the risk of Taleban attack.

The Taleban have a strong presence in Chora, as in much of the rest of Uruzgan.

Both the “commander” and the Taleban deny any financial transactions between them, but local people say the former is paying off the latter, calling it “zakat”, the tithe that Muslims are supposed to pay as part of their religious observance.

Hajji Abdulbari Khan Tokhi, a Ghilzai tribal elder from Chora district, alleged that this “zakat” was paid once a year, and together with other opium-derived funding was the only income source the insurgents had.

Tokhi said three Taleban commanders – Ghafur Mullah Wali Jan, Niazi Mullah Wali Jan and Mullah Taher – were operating in this part of Uruzgan, which comprised the Mohmand area of Chora district and the Darafshan, Roshan and Mehrabad valleys. Their men regularly collected “tax” from opium farmers, he added.

"Opium is grown over dozens of square kilometres in these three valleys. Everyone pays taxes to the Taleban, and the money may run into the millions of dollars in a year," Tokhi said.

Eyewitnesses say the “commander” pays his taxes in what one farmer described as sacks full of cash, but individual farmers pay in kind.

"The Taleban collect 4.5 kilograms of opium from each [4,000 sq m] plot, and good-quality opium costs 30,000 Pakistani rupees [400 dollars] a kilo," Tokhi said.

Criminal investigations chief Golab Khan appeared unconcerned at allegations that the “commander” was offering financial support to the government’s enemies.

"It’s his personal affair to decide whether to pay his zakat to the Taleban or somebody else," the police officer said.

Ownership of large tracts of land in Uruzgan, including many poppy-growing areas, is disputed, although the authorities have taken no action to reclaim belonging to the state.

In the case IWPR looked at, the owner acknowledged that his 14 sq km did belong to the Afghan state at one time, but insisted he was given the area by a local council set up when the mujahedin – the factions that had fought Soviet rule in the 1980s – captured Kabul in 1992. He says he has a certificate of transfer signed by members of the Uruzgan mujahedin council of the time.

Sardar Mohammad Aloko, the head of the provincial agriculture department, said documentation held in his office showed that the land was still technically state-owned and was therefore being illegally occupied.

Aloko showed IWPR documentary evidence he had cited when he raised the matter with President Hamed Karzai and the then agriculture minister back in 2003. But although he had written repeatedly to the presidential office, the ministry of agriculture, the Uruzgan governor's office and the provincial police, nothing had been done, he said.

Aloko said that if President Karzai could not exert his authority, “I cannot do anything, because [the individual] has weapons and I am afraid that he might kill me."

The misappropriation of land by strongmen in Uruzgan is a continuing issue dating back to the ungoverned chaos of the early 1990s civil war.

The head of the provincial department for state property in Uruzgan, Raz Mohammad, has held that job for the last decade, so he is well aware of the problem. He showed IWPR copies of 54 letters his office had sent to the police, the governor's office and the national agriculture ministry from 2004 through 2012 on the subject of illegal land seizures.

In 2010, for example, he passed the agriculture ministry a list of all the alleged offenders, including a provincial councillor and a member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. Central government never pursued the matter.

Asked about the one landholder whom IWPR was looking at, Raz Mohammad said this man might well be “pocketing millions of dollars a year”.

“But if we calculate the total value of the state-owned land that’s been occupied in Uruzgan, we will be talking tens of millions of dollars," he added.

When IWPR took these concerns to Uruzgan’s provincial governor, Amir Mohammad Akhundzadah, he said he was new in the job – he was appointed in April 2012 – and there was thus no practical action he could take, even though he was aware of the case in Chora district.

Apart from contributing to the heroin trade and underlining the weakness of government, the use of armed clout to appropriate and use farmlands has other destabilising effects.

Farmers downstream of the “commander’s” landholdings say he has blocked the flow of the Sarab canal, which runs from a natural spring in the mountains to the north and should provide irrigation for the whole area.

Tokhi said the canal used to deliver water to 21,000 farmers, but now these people, from his own Ghilzai tribe, were left sitting on arid land, while the irrigation flow was diverted to the “commander’s” followers.

Ezatullah Latifi is an IWPR-trained investigative reporter in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.

This report was produced as part of the Afghan Critical Mass Media Reporting in Uruzgan and Nangarhar project.

www.afghanistannewscenter.com