[IS _____N_ew_s-'--S_u--'-mmary for J anuary-2005

Aid and Economic Development

2'"1 January Political Developments j Despi te th e enormous amount of intern ational aid be ing pum ped into Afghani stan. some people in th e coun try ree l th ere arc few visible ~nd January signs of im provement. It is estim ated th at I JS for ces Co mmandcr < icncr:d 111 Afghani stan has reccivcu nea rl y 14 bill io n l!S Afghani stan. Daviu Barn o has sa id talks with dol l ar~ ; in th e past three years. ( APP ) th c mndcratc Tali ba n arc in progrcss.(t\PI' )

7'" January Dr. 7.ec nat Ka rzai. th e wifc nf Pres ident llami d Aid 11·ot-kers in th e capi tal Kabu l ha1-e raise u Ka rza i told 1'a7 h11·ak Nc11s .'\ ge ncy th at she concern about the in crease in violent att acks on pl ans to comt.: more in to suc it.: t) worki ng for aid agencies 01-er the last coupl e of month . Afghan mlmt.: n. (t\ l'l'l

13'" January 4'" January The Afghan educati on mtn tstry is to receive a Di visions have opene d in th e Pent agon m cr fun d of $6il0 n ~ill io n in foreign aid f'or th e role th at th e militar) shoul d pl ay in an developing schools and !minin g teachers. tn aggrcssiYC crackdo11·n on Afghani stan· s nacro­ 2005. min istry of"lic ials sa id. (NN I) cconom) amid rea rs that it could Jestabili ;c th e cuun tr) al1t.: ad of election due in April. 20'" January l St\Nt\ J Th e Asian Dcvclnr mc nl Band sai u on Wednesday it had arproved a 750000-doll ar t\buul llamid Muharc hc linmcr dcput) grant to Jevclop so lar energy techn ology for mini ster of culture and informati on mini str ). use in isolated rural areas in Afghani stan. regards th e censorship-oriented po li cy of th e mini stry's lcadcrshir as thc reason of hi s 21 " January res ignati on. but the mini stcr dt.: ni t.:s thi s claim . P1·es ident Karzai anu Irani an l'res iuc nt (Onlin e) Khatami _j oin tly inaugurated th e 122- km ll erat­ lslam Qa la hi ghway constructed at th e cost of The US-l ed coalition truors arc likely tn $60 mil lion. remain in th e post- wa r Afghanis tan f(,, (INDJ Jccaucs. a seni or liS comm and er hinted ht.: IT Mo nd ay. (NN I) 31 sl January The Karza i auministrati on woul d prefer to sec 7111 January internati onal donors Fund Afghani stan 's Paki stan anu th e !J nitcd Na ti ons lli gh development rath cr th an NGOs. whi ch Commi ssion for l{cfu gccs hav t.: sa id th at th e currentl y receive a lio n's share of the aid . census of th e Afghan rcl'u gccs li Yi ng in Paki stan will start ne :-: t month . (!'!'I J

12'" January Nearl y 4.000 wo men. who arc thc bread 11·inners f( ll- their famili es 11i ll he gil cn _johs according to thc ir skill s in month's tim e. sa id t iN o l"!i cials. (NN il

ACBAR Monthly News Summ aty January. 2005 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post 25' 11 Januar·y Afghan governm ent has claimed Frida) to Afghani stan looks likely to dela y have di sa rm ed 33 .406 members of the parliamentary, prov in cial and di strict elec ti ons Afghanistan Military Forces and entered the schedu led for May. possibl y until fall dipl omat reintegration phase. (IN!') say. 18'" January More than 200 vi ll agers from rural areas in the northern provin ce of Faryab ha1·c llcd their homes and sought refuge in th e cit y (\f Mai'ar­ Security Matters i-Sharif. claiming th ey have been persec uted by a loca l comm ander. (SANA)

4th January Afghan go vernment has confirmed th e killing The Afghan government favors a security of six Afgh

According to Radi o Tehran. Tal iban 27 111 January Spokesman said th at th e US forces based in NATO is to send more troops to Afghani stan Shakar Kala are a of Lo ga r pro vince ,,·crT to reinforce security for thi s ~car· ~ targeted and killing US soldiers. (Online) p ~ 1 r liam c ntar :- elections. the comrnand cr ll!' ~ ~ NA TO-led peacekeeping I(Jrce said 1111 7' 11 January \V cdncsday. ( Rcutt:rs) Tens of th ousand s of irregular militia groups wi ll be di sarmed through a new joint United Nati on and government. Defense Mini str y offi cial told IRI N. (NNI) Other News 12 111 January l '' J An anti-tank mine exploded under a truck nc ar a military base housin g Afghan

ACBAR Monthly News Summary January, 2005 2 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post enhance women's skills and s clf~surlicicn cy by training them in diflcrcnt profess ions. (NNI)

16 111 Januarv The provin cial government in Hcrat has ban ned the pub li ca ti on of weekly "The Paya m­ e-1-! ambas tagi.. that publi shed an articl e ct·iticizin g governm ent officials. (INP) Around 45 female pri soners in Kabul pri son are protesting what they ca ll their unl awfu l detenti on. The burned their blankets and shattered th e window panes durin g th e protests. (NN I)

11 17 ' Januar·y Lighty-onc Al"ghan detainees were released l't·o nl US custody at Bagram air ba se ncar Kabu l and turned over to th e Afghan Supreme Comt Sun day. Government officials said . (AF P)

The UN refugee agency has threatened to suspend aid for Afghan refugees in Iran unless Tehran stopped th ei r forced repatriati on. (A FP )

18' 11 .l:lnuary Recent rains in Afghanistan have some people wo nd erin g i I: the drought th at has bedevi led th e nat ion I(Jr years ending. (O nline)

21" January Taliban leader Mullah Omar has rejected negotiations with US -led forces and the Afghan gove rnm ent.

Chairman of the Supreme Court, at a meeting wi th the UN legal advi sor, stressed th at the US torces should observe human rights in our country. (IND)

27 111 January A new curriculum for grade 1-4 with significant changes in the teaching method has been fina li zed by Afghani stan Education Mini stry is now ready for publication.

31'' January Fi ve civilians died and 10 others we re seriously hurt Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine.

AC BAR Monthly News Summary January, 2005 3 Sources: The News . Th e Nation and Fr ontier Pos t ews Summary for February-2005 .

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~ :. Aid and Economic Development c Hamid Karzai had a telephonic The United States has donated 150 million conversation · with James Wolfen sohn, dollars to be spent on poppy eradication. In president of th e World Bank and called for agreement with the intern ational community, further cooperation by th e Wl1 in fi ghtin g the formers would be economically assisted , narcotics. ( !\ ge ncie s) and the poppy would be replaced by crops that can be marketed inside the country and can 9'" February 2005 help the ·farmers improve their economic IMr in its findings declared Afghanistan's conditions. (INP) overall performance as strong during the third quarter. (APP) 2"d February 2005 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) ha s II'" February 2005 fulfilled its pledge of providing 500 million Mercy International will pay $1,500 to each dollars in sort loans and grants to Afghanistan farmer of the Nangarhar province who have in 2004, the bank announced on Tuesday. eradicated poppy from their forms . The (NNI) Province has eradicated 99% of its poppy according to provincial officials. (NNI) 2"d February 2005 The World Bank has approved a $27 million 12'" February 2005 grant for Afghanistan to strengthen The EU set aside about eight millions crowns government administration, public (about 340.000 dollars) for the joint Czech­ procurement and financial and accountability Afghan project "Breakin g th e Circle", which is systems. (NNI) to modernize the center for drug-addicts and improve their treatment, launched in Kabul. Yd February 2005 (NNI) Higher education in Afghanistan is expected to be revamped with international funding of 12111 February 2005 $250 million after donors meet with the South Korea offered to rebuild Naghlu Ministry to discuss the Ministry's budget. The hyd ro electric clam and the power line linking Ministry plans to review curriculum, launching 1-layratan (on the Uzbek Afghan border) and administrative reforms and reconstruction. the town of Pol-e Khomri in the Baghl an (NNJ) Province. (Agencies)

4111 February 2005 13'" February 2005 The first-ever exhibition of construction Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to double materials of construction materials and power level of bilateral traded exceeding US$ I plant installations and equipment is to be held billion this year. (PPI)) in the Afghanistan capital Kabul. The exhibition is being arranged by the joint collaboration of Iran's Ministry of Energy and 16'" February 2005 Afghanistan's Ministry of Commerce, Energy, Iran plans to construct a railway line linking it Transportation and Industries. (INP) to Pakistan through Afghanistan. (Correspondent)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary December, 2004 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 25th February 2005 government of Pakistan assisted by the UN India has renewed its pledge to help rebuild Refugee Agency (UNHCR) starting 23 war-ravaged Afghanistan and signed two February. (F.P Report) accords to help Kabul strengthen its civil aviation sector and television transmission 13th February 2005 technology. India would provide $400 million The minister of refugee affairs denies having to Afghanistan in form of economic and ~igned an agreement on the forced repatriation technical assistance. (Agencies) of 16,000 Afghan refugees living in Germany. (INP) 25th February 2005 Netherlands based NGO Health Net 14th February 2005 International (HNI) donated a modern NATO urged Afghanistan to fix a date for thermotherapy machine for Leishmania disease parliamentary elections as soon as possible to to the largest treatment center at the general give the alliance time to plan reinforcements to hospital in northern Balkh Province. send to the country for the vote. (Agencies) (Correspondent) 15th February 2005 President Hamid Karzai's attempts to reform and streamline the country's government by weeding out incompetent or unqualified civil c servants have met with mixed response from Political Developments government employees. (SANA) 16th February 2005 The US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay 2"d February 2005 Khalilzad told that many senior Taliban Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman members have agreed to join a reconciliation admitted Tuesday that parliamentary elections process to be announced soon by the Afghan which are scheduled in to be held before the government. (SANA) end of May may be delayed. (APP) 18th February 2005 4th February 2005 UNliCR will resume its voluntary repatriation Government of Afghanistan objects to a recent program from 'March 7 for Afghan refugees statement attributed to Mr. Antonio Maria who wish to go home from Pakistan, stated in Costa, the chief of UNODC, proposing a press release. (SAN A) international aid to Afghanistan to be conditional upon eliminating poppy 18th February 2005 cultivation. (NNI) The world food program has rushed food supplies to the southern province of Zabul which was facing a food shortage after most of 5th February 2005 the district was cut ofT due to heavy snowfall. The governors of four eastern provinces (Correspondent) formed an Economic Coordination Council at a two-day seminar, with five representatives 20th February 2005 from each province. It was also decided that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Afghan these provinces would form a 200-members President Hamiel Karzai discussed the trans­ force to safeguard economic institutions. Afghanistan gas pipeline project at a meeting (NNI) in Jeddah. They agreed on further cooperation to develop the region together with the Central 9th February 2005 Asian States. (APP) Afghanistan has welcomed an agreement on the surrender of a Taliban-linked commander 23"1 February.2005 to the Pakistani authorities, terming it a step A senior American lawmaker Sen. John towards the stability and security of both McCain called for permanent US bases in countries. (Correspondent) Afghanistan to safeguard American security interests in the region. (Agencies) 11th February 2005 A census to record vital information about 27th February 2005 Afghan refugees who arrived in Pakistan after Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his December I, 1979 wi II be conducted by the country wanted to join the South Asian

ACBAR Monthly News Summary December, 2004 2 Sources· The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and become a link between the Other News regional grouping and Central Asia. (AFP)

27'" February 2005 Ms Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's former 1' 1 February 2005 women's minister is set to be appointed Turkish troops took responsibility for governor by President Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's international airport Monday as would make her the country's first female NATO prepares to expand its security mission provincial governor. (PPI) in the still unstable country. (AP)

2"d February 2005 Iran has agreed to extend the date for the return of Afghan refugees as a result of the talks held during the recent visit of President Hamid Security Matters Karzai to Iran. (Correspondent) 2"11 February 2005 1'1 February 2005 Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs Two suspected insurgents were killed when a and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa has bomb they were trying to plant on a key urged Afghanistan to take toi.Jgh measures highway that links the eastern city of Jalalabad against drug traffickers, according to a to Kunar province exploded. (Reuters) statement Tuesday. (Agencies)

1 12 " February 2005 2"d February 2005 A soldier belonging to the French contingent US-backed efforts to eradicate Afghan opium of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan killed poppy fields could backfire, by stirring up himself in Kabul. It was the first know suicide instability and enriching powerful drug lords, by a soldier from the ISAF in Afghanistan. some 30 non-governmental organizations said (AFP) in an open lette'r on Tuesday. ( Reuters)

18 111 February 2005 3rd February 2005 A local United Nation worker was killed by The Voice of Afghan Women, an Afghan radio robbers who then buried the body in an aid station devoted to the interests of women, has agency compound. (INP) been re-launched in Afghanistan. (INP)

1 19 " February 2005 3rd February 2005 Aid workers and officials sounded alarm bells Iran handed over 276 Afghans who were over a looming humanitarian crisis in western released from Iranian jails to Afghan Afghanistan saying they feared up to I ,000 authorities on the joint Iran Afghanistan border children may have died during severe winter in Herat. (PAN) weather. (AFP) 4'" February 2005 22"d February 2005 A week of unseasonably cold weather and an The Kandahar branch of the Pashtany Tejaraty out break of whooping cough have killed 38 bank was looted of 30 million Afs by robbers. people in Afghanistan's rugged and remote Police suspect the involvement of bank guards provinces. (Reuters) who are absconding. (Correspondent) h . 51 February 2005 1 25 " February 2005 An Afghan passenger jet that went missing in a Two Afghan aid workers that belonged to snow storm with I 04 people including at least lbnSina were found shot dead in Maiwand 15 foreigners on board on 3rd February. Later district of Kandahar province in a fresh blow on Saturday, the wreckage of the jet was found to aid and reconstruction efforts. (ONLINE) in mountains east of Kabul with all I 04 people died. (ONLINE)

8'" February 2005 According to a report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) the number of polio cases has dropped by 45 percent in

ACBAR Monthly News Summary December, 2004 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, the three countries on the Asian continent that still have the disease. (ONLINE)

8111 February 2005 After the last year's dramatic increase of opium production in Afghanistan, the government has implemented an aggressive strategy to eradicate poppy cultivation. The new government has labeled the year 2005 as "Poppy Eradication Year''. (SANA)

1 24 h February 2005 A number of people living in the Afghan capital Kabul claim that the process in getting national identity cards is impeded and delayed due to what they term as corrupt officials working in the issuing depaiiments, who demand bribes. (PAN)

23rd February 2005 Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the demise of the Taliban government in late 200 I, but the fragile nation could easily slip into chaos and object poverty. The conclusion was drawn by the United Nations Development Program which released a report on the subject. (ONLINE)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary December, 2004 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post News Summary for March-2005 )

Aid and Economic Development 12~ March Volume of Afghanistan and Iran's transaction 111 March has reached $260 million in a year. (NNI) A meeting was held at Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) to discuss 13~March bilateral economic and commercial relations The US is providing $2.5 million to between Dubai and Afghanistan. (NNI) Afghanistan for projects aimed at developing the social status of Afghan women. (Online) Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai has told India taken up with Islamabad the issue of a 141~ March trade corridor from India passing through The US ambassador to Afghanistan is urging Pakistan. The Afghan President expressed congress to approve $5 billion in additional to interest in getting more Indian teachers and a country that was shattered by wars and doctors to Afghanistan and India promised to terrorism but now is making major progress continue their assistance with Afghanistan. toward peace and democracy. (NNI) (New Delhi NNI) 151~ March 4 1~ March Afghanistan's finance minister Anwar-ul-Haq Germany has earmarked almost 400,000 euros Ahadi said that Iran has pledged to provide the in humanitarian aid to help Afghanistan war ravaged country with financial assistance through one of its worst winters in recent of$50 min in the year to March 2006. (NNI) times. (AFP) The World Food Program (WFP) distributed 5 1 ~ March 45 metric tons of foodstuffs to 822 Afghan United States is contributing $ 100,000 in nomadic Kuchi families in the southern emergency assistance to alleviate suffering Kandahar on Monday. (PAN) caused by unusually heavy snowfall in Afghanistan. (Online) 16~March USAID has announced $2.5 million grant to 6 1~ March the Afghanistan Ministry of women's affair. Japan threw a lifeline to Afghanistan's (APP) disarmament process, giving $29m to a UN-Ied Afghan News Beginning Program that aims I A joint delegation ofthe United Nation disarm and offer new careers to 50,000 Assistance Mission for Afghanistan UNAMA, soldiers. (PPI) UN Children Fund Program and WFP has started distributing foodstuff and other 8~ March materials to over 1000 families affected by The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) has flood. (NNI) pledged US$ 30,000 that it received from the Chinese embassy in Kabul for flood victims in 18~Marcb Afghanistan. (PAN) Afghan government has announced its first budget of thirty-two thousand millions 11~ March Afghanis worth 680 million $ US dollars. Canada will give five million dollars (3.7 (Online) million euros) to a program designed to rebuild a judiciary system in Afghanistan. (Online) 22 ... March The ministry of economy is optimistic about

ACBAR Monthly News Summary March, 2005 Sources: The News, The Natlon and Frontier Post the rate of growth for Afghanistan in the woman governor in Afghanistan. following fiscal year, predicting II% gro•Nth 11 rate. (PAN) 5 ' MarciA The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 24.. March has appointed four international officials to The education Ministry has sought US$490 JOm the Afghan electoral commission million for its development plans for the year preparing parliamentary and local elections 2005-2006. (NNI) this year. (Online)

1 6 k March 26.. March Afghanistan's delayed parliamentary elections Japan is donating $12m in addition to that are likely to be held on Sep 17th. (PPI) country's previous aid, for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. (NNI) 10.. March Afghan president Hamid Karzai left 27.. March Wednesday to attend a terrorism conference in The US department of agriculture announced Spain and hold talks with the Spanish that it would denote 23000 metric tones of government. (APP) crude seeds of soybean oil to the government of Afghanistan(NNI) 12.. March US president George W. Bush plans to name Zalmai Khalilzad, his ambassador in Ill Afghanistan and long tome national security I Political Developments advisor, as the new US ambassador in Iraq. (Reuters)

23nl March 111 March The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan The US has acquired about more than 36000 agreed at talks Tuesday to boost cooperation in square yards of land in Kabul across the the fight against terrorism and drugs, and present embassy to expand its diplomatic promoting trade and tourism. (AFP) policy in Afghanistan. Envoy and ambassador of Afghanistan Zalmay Khalailzad through The United Nations said the decision to put off year 2056 for 50 years signed the lease and the Afghanistan's long delayed parliamentary US embassy didn't say why it acquired the elections until September had advantages in lands. (NNI) preparing for the polls. (APP)

2 ... March 25.. March President Hamid Karzai has appointed General President Hamid Karzai received a Abdul Rashid Dostum, a feared Afghan parliamentary delegation of NATO countries at warlord who ran against him for the the presidential palace. (NNI) presidency, to head the country's fledgling army. Russia's justice minister Yuri Chaika and Afghanistan's special envoy to the Russian Afghan officials have announced the federation signed an extradition treaty in postponement of the country's first Moscow. (PPI) parliamentary election, which were earlier scheduled to be held by May 20th this year. Registration of candidates for the forthcoming Afghan Independent Election Commission parliamentary elections will start on 26 April didn't give any dates for a new schedule. and continue for three weeks allover Afghanistan. (NNI) 1 4 k March Human Rights groups reacted with dismay to 29.. Marcl1 Afghan president Hamid Karzai's decision to The United States is pending US$83 million to appoint a controversial regional strongman upgrade its two main air bases in Afghanistan, implicated in numerous rights abuses as his an Air Force general said the latest indication personal military chief of staff. (PPI) that the American forces will remain in Afghanistan for years. (APP) Ms Habiba Surabi has been appointed Governor in Afghanistan. She is the first

ACBAR Monthly News Summary March, 2005 2 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 31st March death in the agency's custody. (Online) The US foundation signed a great agreement with the US agency for international 6~ March development to serve as a fiduciary agent for The prosecution department of the general the newly established American University of intelligence directorate in the capital said they Afghanistan in Kabul. (Online) were hoping for the harshest possible sentencing for Shirin Gut a 39 years old woman accused of killing 35 drivers with the help of five other accomplices. (Agencies)

I 11'• March Government officials and human rights ~r--S_e_c_u_r•_·cy__ ~__ a_tt_e_rs __ ~] activists have been alarmed at the increasing number of child kidnapping in southern 1"' March Kandahar. (NNI) A car bomb exploded outside a government building in restive province of southern Troops of the Afghan National Army have Afghanistan on Monday, wounding three arrested 15 suspected terrorists in the troubled policemen. One of them was seriously injured east and southern provinces over the past two weeks. (NNI) An oil tanker carrying fuel to the Bagram Air base exploded on the way to the base in The chief of Arghandab District in the Mahipar area east of Kabul but no one was Southern Zabul province and his two guards hurt in the blast though the explosion spread were injured in a clash in Shahjoy District. the fuel to a distance often meters. (SANA) (NNI)

At least three Afghan policemen were 16'• March wounded as the vehicle they were traveling in An Afghan soldier was killed and another run over a landmine in the troubled Helmand wounded in a mine explosion while searching province. (Online) for bodies from a plane, which crashed in to a mountain peak. (AFP) 3nl March Afghan security forces have arrested four Senior US officials have warned in recent ranking members of the Taliban in the weeks that AI-Qaeda is regrouping of another country's southeast, where remnants of the massive attack, its agent's bent on acquiring ousted regime continued to wage a violent nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. revolt. (AFP) (AFP)

A young boy and his sister were shot and The Tali bans' spokesman said that they killed injured by a local commander who objected to one district policeman and raided government the marriage of the young boy. (INP) compound in eastern Laghman province Monday night. (PAN) Italian soldiers have begun arriving in western Afghanistan under plans for NATO troops to The nomad Kuchi people ofLaghman gradually relieve US forces across the country. province claimed that provincial security (AP) officials have arrested 50 members of the tribe, alleging they assaulted government officials, NATO on Wednesday began a long awaited but security officials denied this claim. (PAN) expansion ofits peacekeeping forces into western of Afghanistan as a part of effort to 11"' March rebuild the remote and rugged region. (AFP) Afghan intelligence officers in the southern province of Kandahar Wednesday claimed s'• March having arrested members of two armed gangs Afghan military intelligence agents arrested a allegedly involved in child abduction. foreign national at Kabul airport this week, and they suspected he was plotting terrorist attack. (AP)

The CIA inspector general is investigating why an afghan prisoner was allowed to freeze to

ACBAR Monthly News Summary March, 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post A US soldier died and four others were wounded in a landmine blast in Afghanistan 251k March (AFP) A Taliban militant was killed in a firefight with US led forces in southeast Afghanistan 18.. March along with another six people including 5 Five people were killed and more than 32 children and one woman. (AFP) injured in a bomb explosion in former Taliban strong hold of Kandahar on Thursday. 27th March Four US soldiers were killed in a mine blast in Two people were sentenced to 20 years in the southeastern Afghan province of Logar on prison for the rape of a 12-year-old girl from Saturday morning. Kunduz six months ago. (PAN) (AFP)

191kMarch 281k March Afghan police have arrested a suspect in a Students against university administration bombing that killed five people and injured injured eight students including two females more than 30 in the southern city of Kandahar. and two policemen during the protest stage. (Agencies) 29.. March US military officials have increased the A roadside explosion hit the Canadian number of suspected homicides of prisoners in Embassy vehicle in the Afghan capital on Iraq and Afghanistan to 26. (Online) Monday, wounding one Canadian passenger. Witness said Afghan civilians were also hurt. Police shot dead a villager in remote (AP) southeastern Afghanistan during a protest over the murder of a local man and his wife who The US military says 27 detainees who died in were working as doctors. (AFP) US custody in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2004 were the victims of homicide or 20 .. March suspected homicide. (Online) Afghan security personnel have defused six bombs in Balkh province other day, which Four suspects will be taken to the court here were planned to get exploded on Nowroz. Tuesday, charged with helping assassinate (Online) Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Masoud. (NNI)

23nl March JOdi March One prisoner has been killed and six people Afghan police have arrested a man in including three policemen injured during a connection with bomb blast in Kabul, which clash at a jail in southern Afghanistan. (AFP) hit a Canadian diplomatic car, injuring four people including one Canadian. (AFP) The interior ministry said police rescued on Sunday an Iranian national who was kidnapped Taliban claimed to have fired rockets at the US in western province of Farah nearly three bases in Afghanistan. (Online) months ago one person has been arrested in this connection. (PAN) Attackers using bombs and guns ambushed US and Afghan government troops Tuesday in 24 .. March region of the country rife with Taliban US, led troops accidentally shot to death an militants, wounding six Afghan and two Afghan boy during a search operation in American soldiers. (Agencies) eastern Afghanistan. (AP) 31 .. Marcb A terror suspect held in Guantanamo Cuba was Taliban's militants attacked a checkpoint in a commander for Osama Bin Laden during the western Afghanistan, fatally wounding five Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Afghan soldiers and killing a car driver. (AP (Online)

US led coalition forces said on Wednesday they had killed five suspected Tali ban insurgents in a bombing while beating back an over night attack on an American military base in Khost province.

ACBAR Monthly News Summary March, 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post I Afghanistan is undertaking an education program to provide schooling this year for ~r---0-th_e_r_N_ew_s--'] 500,000 girls who were prevented from attending schools under the Tali ban regime. (PPI) 1"1 March Afghan National Army has reached 20000. 13"' March They have been trained by the US army to Dutch prosecutors accused Hessamuddin fight in the front line against the Taliban and Hesam and Habibullah Jalalzai of committing more will be trained in coming future. (PPI) war crimes. (Agencies)

1 Yd March 14 • March UN has claimed that Afghanistan is in danger Turkish army Chief Hilmi Ozkok agreed to of becoming a narcotic state after producing its train Afghan soldiers. (NNI) largest annual crops of heroin since the overthrow ofTaliban rule. (Online) 15"' March The bodies of all victims of the Kam airplane 1 4 • March crash have been recovered from then crash site The UN refugee agency on 7111 March will and transferred to Kabul. (PAN) resume its voluntary repatriation program to assist Afghan refugees in returning to their 20"' March homeland. (Online) Severe floods across much of Afghanistan have lcilled at least 88 people and left 6"' March thousands homeless. (AFP) India has supported Afghanistan's membership in South Asian Association for Regional Indian airlines (lA) announced 28 new flights a Cooperation (SAARC). (Online) week as part of expanding its operations to 111 Southeast Asian destination from March 27 • 71•March (Online) The United Nations is to resume repatriations of Afghan refugees from Pakistan on Monday after a winter break, with about 400,000 expected to return this year. (AFP)

8"' March Heavy rains triggered floods in remote western Afghanistan that killed at least three people and destroyed some 300 houses. (AFP)

Shortage of the anti rabies vaccine in Heart province has resulted in the deaths of several persons including three children recently.

Four tones of antique coins and 500 kg of gold jewelry and a number of historical artifacts were smuggled out of Afghanistan to Pakistan between 1992-94 according to leading archeologists. (INP)

u'•March Heavy floods killed several people and left more than a thousand houses destroyed in two districts of the western province of Farah.

ll"'March Wolves descending from the hills to escape hunger in the country's worst winter in 15 years have lcilled at least 6 people in remote Afghan villages. (Online)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary March, 2005 5 Sources: The News, The Natlon and Frontier Post News Summary for April-2005 l

Aid and Economic Development Australia is contributing_& further $12 million to Afghanistan to help with elections and lad APril support services, including health and Australia is providing $9.2 million aid for education. (Online) Afghanistan's reconstruction. (NNI) 9th Aoril The NATO -led international security Afghanistan secured US$ 80 million loan from assistance force (ISAF) is going to help the Asian Development Bank to rebuild a road Afghan government ensure security for the central to effort to revive is war-shattered upcoming legislative polls in the post-Tali ban economy. (PPI) nation. (NNI) 10.. April The ministry of refugees and returnees is to Pakistan has donated 10 ambulances to distribute plots oflands to 10,000 homeless Afghanistan. These vehicles were handed over families who have returned from Iran and to Afghan authorities at a ceremony here on Pakistan in the northern province ofBaghlan. Saturday. (PPI) (NNI) 15.. April The Asian development Bank will help The Asian development bank has approved a improve telecommunication in Afghanistan $50 million assistance package for a power through a 35 million US dollars loan signed supply improvement project in rural Wednesday in Kabul to finance the nationwide Afghanistan. (AFP) expansion and upgrading the country's leading cellular network. (NNI) 16.. April The Asian Development Bank said on The Afghan government on Sunday approved Thursday that it was lending $35 million to spending ofUS$4.75 billion over the next Afghanistan to improve its wireless telephone year, critical funds for the country's slow network. (Agencies) recovery provided almost entirely by foreign ~dl donors. (Agencies) Less than a quarter of the money required for the conduct of the parliamentary election has 3rd Aoril been collected so far, the joint electoral The ministry of finance has announced the management board said. The JEMB said $36 standard budget for 13 84 at a time when, million of the required budget of $148 million according to government officials, most had been collected. (PAN) ministries and other governmental institutions failed to spend last year's development budget. 10th April 35 of the 100 Hino buses Islamabad has 4th April donated to Kabul will reach to Afghanistan The third international conference focused on next week. Afghanistan's economic development city from Monday leading donors announced here 21 111 April on Sunday. Three days event is aimed at The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip winning more aid for the economic Erdogan during a two days visit to the capital development. Kabul signed an agreement with Afghan president Hamid Karzai to build schools and 7th APril hospitals.

ACBAR Monthly News Summary April 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post AI-Qaeda's former finance manager Dr 22• Anril Aminul Haq has ruled out any negotiations Pakistan and Afghanistan will achieve US $1 with the US-backed Afghan government led by billion mark of bilateral trade this year and it is president Hamid Karzai. (NNI) expected to further improve by opening new J7tll April rail and road links between the two states. The exports to Afghanistan via Torkham have risen to over Rs. 6 billion during the first two 251h Anril quarters of the current fiscal, showing an German economy minister Wolfgang Clement increase of 150 percent. (APP) and his visiting Afghan counter part Hedayat Amin Arsalan signed here on Wednesday an 19'h Avril agreement on investment protection in Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum Afghanistan. (Online) officially joined president Hamid Karzai' s administration Monday after stepping down as 21"' April chief of his feared northern militia faction. The Japanese government has provided aid (APP) worth $125,000 to the Afghan government. 22"" Anril 29th AprU The British Prime Minister's special envoy, Chinese vice president has reaffirmed his General John McColl will visit several country's strong support for Afghanistan's provinces in Afghanistan to renew Britain's economic recovery during a meeting with long-term commitments to Afghanistan and visiting Vice President Abdul Karim Khalil. improve bilateral ties. (NNI) · (SANA) • 26111 April _II Selection of candidates for the parliamentary Political Developments elections will be one of the most difficult phases of the election for officials.

28th AprU '3rd April Afghan and UN officials presented the rules A dozen opposition political parties have Monday for candidates in the country's first formed alliance to ensure more seats in the parliamentary elections since the fall of upcoming Parliamentary elections. (NNI) Taliban.

General Rashid Dostum would stand down as 29th AprU Junbish-e-Milli chief in a couple of months, a UN secretary Kofi Anan has backed an close confident of warlord revealed on Sunday. extension of The United Nations mandate in Afghanistan beyond next March. (Online) 7thAprU US ambassador of Afghanistan Zalmay 30th Anril Khalilzad has been chosen to become the US The upcoming Afghan parliament would take envoy to Iraq as US forces grapple with a decision on the proposed plan of long-term bloody insurgency and Iraqi politicians security partnership with the United States, struggle to form a government. (Reuters) president Hamid Karzai announced. (NNI)

I 9thAprU Afghan Defence Minister Abdur Rahim Wardak has reiterated Kabul's desire to reach ~r----S_e_cu_r_i_ty_M_a_tt_e_r_s---J] long-term military and political arrangements with the United States. 111 April US military officials in Afghanistan have said 14th Aoril that two of their troops have been wounded in Afghanistan's top election official said Afghan attack in Uruzgan. (Online) refugees living in neighboring Iran and Pakistan would have no chance to vote in the 2ndAnril upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections. A search and recovery operation is underway (NNI) Thursday to find bodies of two missing US American military helicopter crash in 15th AprU Afghanistan left at least 16 people dead. (AFP)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary April 2005 2 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Gunmen have killed five policemen in Coalition forces with the help Afghan soldiers southern Afghanistan, the least in a spate of raided a suspected Taliban hideout in southern attacks linked to ousted Tali ban militants, Afghanistan and arrested three original rebel residents and a foreign security source said on commanders after they surrendered without Thursday. (Reuters) fighting. (AP) 9th Anril Jrd April Gunmen have killed five policemen in Suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed a southern Afghanistan, the latest in a spate of convoy of civilian trucks carrying vehicles to attacks linked to ousted Tali ban militants. the US military in southern Afghanistan, (Online) killing three of the drivers. (Online) 10111 April Four Afghans included two children were Tali ban claimed on Saturday they killed killed and five other people were injured in several policemen in an attack on their cars in two separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan. the Shah Agha neighborhood of Kandahar. (Online) The body of 18 Americans killed in the worst Seven people have been killed and five injured helicopter crash in the US-led operation in in two explosions and an ambush of truck Afghanistan has been recovered and will be supplying fuel to US forces in Afghanistan, repatriated for identification. (APP) marking a surge in a suspected Taliban spring offensive. (Agencies) 11 111 April An American man narrowly escaped from 4th April kidnappers who had attacked him and bundled Taliban militia stormed a government building him into the back of a car Sunday in the heart in southern Afghanistan and killed up to nine of Afghan capital's embassy district. (AFP) Afghan policemen in a two-hour gun battle before fleeing. (AFP) 12111 April Twelve suspected Tali ban were killed Monday 5th April in air strikes by US helicopter gun ships and A vehicle belonged to an Indian NGO was tank buster jets in southeastern Afghanistan. damaged in a mine explosion in Zherai district (AFP) of Kandahar on Monday no causalities were found there. (APP) 13 111 April The Tali ban vowed Tuesday to assassinate a 6th April former Afghan commander after a failed bid to Troops of Afghan National Army have kill him sparked a US air strike, which officials apprehended three Tali ban operatives said killed up to 12 militants. (AFP) including a group commander in the troubled southern Uruzgan province. (NNI) 14111 Anril Afghan forces in the war torn country's restive 7th April south have arrested nine members of the At least 16 US servicemen were killed ousted Taliban regime armed with assault Wednesday afternoon, when a Chinook rifles and explosive. (AFP) helicopter crashed near the south Afghan province of Ghami. 15111 April Afghan police have arrested three members of Security officials in northern Balkh district a criminal gang wanted for the attempted have arrested fourteen people in connection kidnapping of an American man from Kabul. with a mine explosion on the 111 April. (PNA) (Reuters)

An Afghan gunman wanted for the murder of a 17111 April British development worker and the abduction Several police officers and militia troops were of three UN staff, was captured today after a injured in a serious armed encounter in gunfight outside the home of Kabul's police Lashkargha. (PPI) chief. (INP) 18111 April 8111 April At least five people were killed and three others received injuries in an attack of Tali ban

ACBAR Monthly News Summary April 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post I fighters on Pakistani on Pakistani oil tankers at Kandahar province in Afghanistan on Sunday. __e_w_s __ (Online) ~~--O_t_h_er_N ~] 1'1 April 1 19 • April The body of a 25 years old man who was Taliban claimed on Sunday they had killed drowned on 27th of March in Kabul River has nine Afghan troops in an attack on their still not been recovered. vehicle in Shinkai district ofZabul. Four suspected radicals went on trail in France Three drivers suffered bum injuries while five for allegedly providing logistical support to the oil tankers were torched in an explosion close killers of Ahmad Shah Masood. {NNI) to the Kandahar airport on Sunday. Sth April 20th April More than 1000 acres of fannland has been Taliban have claimed killing four Afghan flooded in Zabul province, whose residents soldiers in Uruzgan province. (Online) have urged the provincial government to provide them recompense. (PAF) The ousted Tali ban claim they have killed one Afghan soldier and kidnapped another 8, last 7th April night from Shah Wali Kot of southern Afghanistan's·defence minister gave one of the Kandahar province after heavy fighting. clearest signs yet that Kabul is open to permanent basing of US forces in the country. 22acl APril (Online) American forces have resumed aerial bombardment, shelling the frontier regions of 9th April the southeastern province ofKhost on the Afghanistan is facing health disaster worse Afghan Pakistan borer with five hundred than Tsunami. Around 700 children under the pound bombs. age of five die everyday in Afghanistan due to preventable disease. (SANA) 1 25 • April Four militants and Afghan soldier were killed The United Kingdom has offered to host a in a gunfight near Gayan City in Paktika meeting of the Afghan Donors in London in province in the latest burst of violence along order to enhance donors' policies as well as the Afghan Pakistan border. (AFP) finn up and increase commitments to the government of Afghanistan trust funds, 1 26 • April according to the ADF UK statement. (SANA) Three Afghan soldiers were killed and another injured in southern Kandahar province on the 11'• April eve of April 24th when the officers came under Re-constructed power station no.3 was attack by unknown gunmen. officially inaugurated at a special ceremony in the Chowk-e- Dehmazang area of Kabul city 1 28 • April on Sunday. (NNI) Three civilians were injured when US troops fired at their mini-bus after being attacked by a 12.. April home made bomb in eastern Afghanistan. Unusually late cold weather and snow at the (APP) end of the worst winter in years have killed 21 children in Afghanistan. (Reuters) 1 29 • April 1 Two Afghan policemen and four Tali ban were 14 • April killed in a rebel attack on a district head The US energy association Monday urged quarters in the southern province of Kandahar. Afghanistan to hand over power generation (Online) and supply to the private sector to ensure a prompt provision of the facility. {NNI) 30 .. April 1 Afghan military forces have killed a key 17 • April commander of the ousted Taliban militia and Afghan president Hamid Karzai has agreed to captured another important militant in south­ send troops of his country to Iraq. According central Afghanistan. (AFP) to Mashad Radio, it has been announced

ACBAR Monthly News Summary April 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 1 18 k Anrll Russia on Saturday began pulling out guards from the most dangerous section of the Tajik­ Afghan border as part of a plan to fully withdraw Russian border troops from the ex­ Soviet republic by 2006. (AP)

20thAprU The US has released 17 Afghan detainees from custody at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and they will be handed to Afghan authorities. (APP)

21• April Afghanistan's perilous human rights situation demands ongoing monitoring by the United Nations. (Online)

22• April Afghan independent Human Rights Commission confirms the existence of private jails and forced marriages and says that the practice has been decreased due to their efforts. (PAN)

2S .. April The government has approved Rs. 491.54 million for the establishment of Allama Iqbal Faculty of Arts at Kabul University, Afghanistan. (APP)

1 Z6 • Anrll UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch has said that some ofthe refugees' camps in Balochistan and NWFP will be closed down.

28 .. AprU UNICEF is planning to hold 18 workshops on children's rights in the forth-coming year to educate government officials about children's rights. (NNI)

29.. April Iran's airline flagship reopened office in Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, after a 26- year hiatus.

ACBAR Monthly News Summary April 2005 5 Sources: 1lle News, 1lle Nation and Frontier Post News Summary for May-2005 l

• I Aid and Economic Development Afghanistan has sought an agreement on investment protection with the UAE in an 2nd May effort to boost investment in both countries. Norway government has donated a large (PPI) donation of tents to the Afghan National 1 Anny. The donation, valued at $450,000. (PPI) 17 • May Britain will hold a donor conference next In order to develop its economic influence in month to raise funds to help rebuild Afghanistan Pakistan has announced opening Afghanistan, foreign secretary Jack Straw said twelve trade routes with Afghanistan for on Monday. (Reuters) enhancing trade and economic cooperation. 1 (Online) 19 • May The Turkish government had donated $1 1 9 • May million dollars to the defense ministry in the The construction of the 78 kilometers long capital Kabul for reinforcing the Afghan Kandahar-Arghistan road costing more than National Army. $1million started on Sunday, funds for the project will be completed in three months and The provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in will be provided from the development budget. the western city of Heart has delivered medical (PAN) equipment to the Regional General Hospital in the capital city of Heart. (PAN) 1 10 h May 1 About thirteen trucks carrying food items and 20 • May school stationary as aid from government of Japan said Wednesday it would grant Pakistan for Afghanistan were dispatched here Afghanistan 28$ million to help build a new on Monday. international terminal at Kabul's airport which remains dilapidated after more two decades of 12111 May war. (AFP) The Saudi Arabian government will construct a hospital, a nursing school and playgrounds 22 ... May near the Kabul airport, according to Saudi 5 billion rupees are commanded for Pul-e­ Ambassador visiting the capital. (NNI) Khumri to Kabul power transmission project that will bring the much-needed Uzbek power 13th May for the capital. (Online) The European Union is one of Afghanistan's largest donors, announced the aid package of 1 The Afghan government considers consenting billion Euros to the poor state Thursday and foreign telecommunication companies for their pledged more help future. (AP) network. According to sources two foreign companies who are presently working in the ts•• May telecom sector of Pakistan have contacted the Belgian prime minister promised to provide $1 Afghan authorities for their operations in million for the presidential election and Afghanistan. (Online) another $600,000 for the drug enforcement program. (NNI) 23nl May The Afghan government plans to use the Tagab Sarobi Road running trough the Kapisa

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post i'•.,

province for fruit exports to Pakistan from An Afghanistan minister Sunday urged women northern province. (PAN) in her country to participate in this year's national election in big numbers. (AP) l4111 May The American contingent in the Italian led One of president Hamid Karzai's strong critics, Provincial Reconstruction Team and US based Afghanistan National Congress Party (ANCP), aid agency Catholic Relief Services on has strongly opposed the proposal of Monday donated $30, 000 for staving off establishing US pennanent military bases in looming threat posed by locusts western Heart. Afghanistan, a Kabul based weekly reported. (PAN) (NNI)

l5111 May 131.,May According to presidential press office, US Afghan president Hamid Karzai has retracted a promised a mass grant of$2 million to statement in which he said that aJI willing rehabilitate and renovate the destroyed and Afghan members of the Taliban are eligible for feeble electricity station in Afghanistan. (PAN) an amnesty offer. (Online)

l71.,May 14111 May The Customs and income tax department Javier Solana, European Union high Thursday announced a tax on private and representative for the common foreign and commercial income would be levied from security policy, met with Hamid Karzai, September 23. president of Afghanistan, in Brussels and discussed the EU's support for Afghanistan An Afghan businessman has donated more said Solana. (Online) than 19 million Afghanis about ($400,000) for 1 a water supply project in a village of Guzra 18 .. May district in the western Heart province, President Hamid Karzai, scheduled to pay an provincial officials said Thursday. (PAN) official visit to the United States next week, is expected to confer with George W. Bush on l9111 May long- tenn strategic relations between the two Finance minister Anwar -ul-Haq Ahadi hoped countries. on Saturday Afghanistan would receive up to 200 million doJiars for the ongoing 2l.. May reconstruction effort. Afghan president Hamid Karzai left Kabul Saturday for an official four-day visit to the 301.,May United States to discuss the US military's role Afghans and foreigners working in the country amid fresh allegations of prisoner abuse, as are soon going to have start paying tax on their well as reconstruction in the war-torn country. incomes as the aid dependent government (AFP strives to increase its revenue. • US pr~sident George W. Bush and .. Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai signed a I Political Developments strategic partnership Monday enabling long tenn American involvement in Afghanistan's security as well as reconstruction. (AFP) 3,...May I Afghan President Hamid Karzai would embark on an important journey from next week to ~ Electoral News 1 Europe and the United States, a presidential spokesman said Tuesday. (NNI) 10111 May Tribal elders in the southeastern province of 8111 May Paktia complain that their aJiocated number of President Hamid Karzai begins a 3-day official five seats for the forthcoming parliamentary visit to Brussels and Strasbourg next week for elections does not accurately represent the talks with European Union, Belgian and population size of the region. (NNI) NATO officials. (NNI) Afghan parliamentary candidates will get training to compete for the Wolesi Jirga and the provincial council elections to be held on Sept. 18, officials said Monday. (NNl)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 2 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Nearly 3,000 Afghans have registered to stand 11 .. May in a historic September 18 parliamentary Political parties suggest parliament should elections, the country's election commission decide on the long-term stay of foreign forces said Monday. (Online) and United Nation's role in Afghanistan. 7 l2.. May Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged the ~--s_e_cu_r_ity_M_a_tt_e_r_s---'] NATO and the international community Wednesday to maintain their presence in 1"1 May Afghanistan after parliamentary elections in A dispute between Afghan soldiers and police September in order to reinforce democracy and degenerated in to a battle in the western city of security in the country. (AFP) Heart and six people were killed, a military official and hospital staff said on Saturday. ts•• May (Reuters) The Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) has appointed a special commission to Three officials of the interior ministry were investigate the alleged threats made on killed and two injured in a mine explosion in potential candidates nominated for the Mangoi district of the Kunar province on September parliamentary elections in northern Sunday. Jowzjan Province. (PAN) 2nd May 2o•• May A bomb tore through a jeep carrying Afghan Registration of candidates for the September anti drug police in eastern Afghanistan, killing Afghan parliamentary elections has been three officers and injuring two more, an extended due to recent civil unrest caused by official said Sunday. (AP) the violent riots across the country, officials said on Wednesday. (PAN) Two days of violence triggered between a soldier and a policeman in a western city left 21 11 May three civilians dead and 11 wounded, the More than 4000 Afghans including over 300 defense ministry said on Sunday. (APP) women have registered their names to run for the upcoming parliamentary polls slated for 3rd May September 18. (NNI) Six national army soldiers and two mine clearing workers were wounded in different A five-day challenging period for Afghan explosions in Pakitia province on Monday. parliamentary candidates has been set to decide if the candidates are qualified for the Suspected Islamic militants beat to death a elections, an official said. (NNI) mother with her two daughters in northern Afghanistan because they worked for a foreign 23rdMav reconstruction group, officials and western Two political parties, including the grand security source said on Monday. (AFP) opposition alliance led by Younus Qanooni, 1 have officially registered with the justice 4 • May ministry for the upcoming parliamentary Investigators searched Tuesday for the cause elections. (NNI) of a huge explosion at a warlord's secret underground arms cache in northern 1 24 • May Afghanistan as officials said the death toll had Final applicants hoping to be national or risen to 29 and more than 70 people were provincial lawmakers in Afghanistan enrolled injured by the blast on Monday. (APP) Monday to be candidates in September elections, in what was the last day of ~ registration for most parts of the country. (AP) A firelight in Afghanistan left about 20 Tali ban and one Afghan police officer while 3o'•May six US servicemen and five policemen were More than 6,000 candidates have registered for injured in Zabul province. (AFP) parliamentary and provincial council elections to be held on September 18. ~ Fierce battles in Afghanistan have left about 64 31"1 May rebels, nine Afghan soldiers and a policeman

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Fror~ler Post dead over that past three days, the US military Bay prison, VoA and Doordarshan reported on said on Tuesday. (AP) Sunday.

~ 17.. May Three children were killed and one injured Two Afghan soldiers were killed and five more when a mine exploded in Qarabagh district of injured when their vehicle ran over a landmine the southern Ghazni province. A local health in southern Afghanistan, the US military said official said on Saturday. Monday, blaming insurgency for the attack. (AFP) 81 ~ May At least two people were killed and five ts•• May injured in a suicide bomb explosion in an Armed men kidnapped an Italian woman upscale Kabul neighborhood Saturday evening. working for an international relief agency by pulling her from a car in the center of Kabul 1 9 • May Monday; officials said an Italian news report The toll from a weekend bombing at an said the woman worked for CARE internet cafe in the Afghan capital Kabul rose International. (Agencies) Sunday to three dead including the suspected suicide bomber and six wounded, a spokesman 19 .. May for NATO led troops said. (AFP) Danish aid organization Mission OEST's office in northeastern Afghanistan has been to'• May looted and jeeps were set on fire during violent Two US Marines and up to 23 militants were anti- American demonstration. (NNI) killed in a clash in Afghanistan amid an upsurge in violence by Tali ban fighters. (AFP) lO.. May Suspected Taliban militants ambushed and 1 l2 h May killed six Afghans Thursday as they were Hundreds of students rampaged through an transporting the body of government engineer eastern Afghan city Wednesday to protest killed a day earlier in another deadly rebel desecration of the Holy Quran by US military attack, officials said. (AP) interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. Police opened fire to control the rioters, and four l111 May people were reported killed and 71 wounded. Gunmen shot and killed six Afghans in an (AP) ambush on a major highway in the country's troubled south Thursday, the second fatal 1 13 • May attack in two days on employees of a US­ At least three Afghans were killed and as many funded anti-drugs project, officials said. injured in the troubled southern Zabul province (Agencies) in a bombing attack blamed on Tali ban insurgents. (PAN) 23,..May Four people were killed on the spot and eight 1 14 • May wounded on when a van carrying wedding Anger spread in Afghanistan on Friday over a guests hit in landmine in the southern Ghazni report that US interrogators as Guantanarno province. (Online) Bay had desecrated the holy Quran as nine more people were killed and about 30 24.. Mav wounded in protests, police and residents said. One US soldier has been killed and three more were wounded in a bomb attack in the southern lS.. May Afghan province ofZabul. (Online) Afghan and foreign forces were on high alert Saturday after 14 people died in violent 25.. May protests over alleged desecration of the Quran Afghan and coalition forces killed two by US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. (PPI) insurgents in a firefight in central Afghanistan, while US aircraft bombed and destroyed a cave 16.. May where about six other bodies were believed A group of Afghan Ulema has threatened to hiding, the US military said Tuesday. (AP) call for Jehad (Holy War) against the US if Washington fails to tum over in three days to a 27.. May Muslim country interrogators reported to have desecrated the Holy Quran at its Guantanamo

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post An Afghan de-miner was killed while clearing Director ofKhorasan for foreign residence old explosives at the airport in the country's affair said there that over 7,286 Afghan capital, a UN spokesman said Thursday. (AP) refugees have returned home from Dogharoun Border checkpoint since the beginning of the 291•May current Iranian year. (INP) Twelve civilians were killed after unknown assailants opened fire on them in eastern IO .. Mav Afghanistan's Kunar province Friday, Over 50,000 Afghan refugees have returned provincial governor said Saturday. (AFP) home from Pakistan since the resumption of UN assisted repatriation program in March. 3o'•May (PPI) The Taliban have claimed responsibility for I the assassination of prominent Kandahar cleric Mullah Abdullah Fayyaz and have warned _ _J] other clergymen supporting Afghan president ~~----0-th_e_r_N_ew_s Hamid Karzai and the US that they would meet the same fate. 2 ... May Six people included four children have been Eleven civilians were killed Saturday in a missing for three days after heavy snowfall in landmine explosion in Mangoi district of the Jurm district in the northeastern Badakhshan eastern Kunar province, the Interior Ministry province. (NNI) confirmed on Saturday. Based on a decree by president Hamid Karzai, 31 11 May and in accordance with article 20 of the law on Twelve civilians were killed after unknown mass media, a temporary commission for assailants opened fire on them in eastern Afghan national radio and television Afghanistan's Kunar province, the provincial broadcasting has been established. (NNI) governor said. In a separate incident, two soldiers were wounded in a grenade. 3nl May UNICEF welcomed the adoption of a new 1 Juvenile Code by Afghan government, declaring the new legislation a fundamental ~ Refugees ] building block for the protection of Afghan children. (Online) ~ The government of Pakistan and UNHCR has ~ compiled and analyzed the finding of the first A team oflndian cardiologists started three- ever census of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, day free treatment of heart patients, examining the survey team includes some 2,000 Pakistani around 300 people here. (NN1) employees. ~ 4'• May More than 300 women took to the streets of Some 16,000 Afghan refugees have been so far Kabul to protest growing violence against then repatriated to their homeland from Iran and demand that the Karzai government take voluntarily a provincial official said. (INP) action against those responsible for the recent deaths of five women. (NNI) ~ Some 500 Afghans have been repatriated ~ during the current year from Pakistan under the Four people were killed and cropped land UN Refugee Agency program, a UNHCR washed away by severe floods in the northern official said on Thursday. (APP) Takhar province during the last two days, officials says. (NN1) ~ The ambassador for the UN refugee Agency IO .. Mav Angelina Jolie on Saturday disagreed President Afghanistan's apex court vehemently General Parvez Musharars idea to relocate denounced the reported desecration of the holy Afghan refugee camps out of Pakistan saying it Quran by American investigators at their naval is a wrong idea. base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. (SANA)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 5 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Heavy rain falls over the last few days in the central and southwestern parts of Afghanistan, has led to extensive flooding of agriculture land leading to loss of life and the killing of hundreds of animals, aid bodies said. (SANA) tt-May The United States should apologize for any desecration of the Muslim Holy book, the Quran and punish those responsible, a top Afghan official said on Saturday as sporadic anti US protests flared for a fifth day. (Agencies) t'fkMay President Hamid Karzai will be talking to US authorities during his visit to the United States at the end May, about the release of Afghan prisoners held at the US detention centers within Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba, the president's spokesman Jawed Ludin said. (NNI)

1 19 • May A group of Afghan Islamic clerics have deferred a call for holy war against the United States over a magazine report that US interrogators desecrated the holy Quran after the report was retracted. (Agencies)

1 24 k May A diabetic center opened at Kabul's Maiwand Hospital as part of a bid to treat for free patients suffering from the disease. (SANA)

27'k May Afghan health workers battling polio will set off in to remote mountains next week hoping to reach about two million children who missed an immunization drive because they were cut off by heavy snow. (PPI)

301kMay The Afghan National Army, in conjunction with the office of military cooperation Afghanistan, initiated the program to improve the health of the soldiers and enhance mission readiness. (PPI)

31st May Children injured by land mines will be among those to benefit from a new pediatric hospital built run by Germans in Kabul. (NNI)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary May 2005 6 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post News Summary for June-2005

Aid and Economic Development Amu River (Oxus) bridge linking the 7"d June neighboring countries. (PAN) SMEDA would provide expertise to the 1 Afghan traders and businessmen in the 20 h June development of small and medium entities in Extra funds for fighting the Afghan drug trade Afghanistan. (APP) have been pledged by the most industrialized nations, the UK home secretary has said. Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NNI) and Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce and Industry have agreed to form a 21" June joint commission for the promotion of bilateral Sayed Tayeb Jawad, ambassador of trade between two neighboring countries. Afghanistan to the United States signed two (APP) major grant agreements totaling $85 million with the international Development s•• .I.!!ne Association. (IDA) at World Bank. (NNI) 50 Iranian trade and service companies arc currently active in Afghanistan. The 22~~<~ June companies are involved in production of A federation of the Afghan businesswomen potr:ble water, medicine, polyethylene pipe, will be established in a month with a start up electrical switches etc ... (NNI) fund from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an IO'h June official said Sunday. (PAN) Cement prices in Afghan capital city have been on the rise following the closure ofthe under­ The United Nations' food aid agency said it construction Mahipar Road linking Kabul with will provide 88 tones of food to the people in Torkham. (Online) north-eastern areas of Badakhshan province that were hit by heavy flooding last week. 12111 June (SANA) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will grantS 1.785 million to con~erve wildlife 24th June resources in the buffer zones through a The World Bank will consider a project to technical assistance. (NNI) provide help to Afghanistan to reduce the drug prod4ction. (NNI) 17th J!!n! Kazakhstan is ready to invest in the Afghan 25111 June economy, Kazak's foreign minister said in at Pakistan Red Crescent Society handed over a the international business conference in relief consignment worth Rs. 1.5 million to Almaty. (NNI) Afghan ambassador Dr Nangyalai Tarzi fro the needy and flood affectees of Jalal A bad. The US President has announced military aid (Online) of$161.5 million to Afghanistan for defense purchases and training. (Online) Foreign Minister from the 08 group of leading industrialized nations has pledged support for 1 19 • June Afghanistan beyond parliamentary elections in Afghan President Hamid Karzaiand his Tajik September. (Agencies) counterpart Emamali Rahmanov Saturday jointly inaugurated construction work on the 27111 June

ACBAR Monthly News Summary June 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post World Barlk has agreed to release a grant of AI-Qaeda chief Osama-bin Laden and Tali ban $265 million for uplift projects in Afghanistan leader Mullah Mohd Omar are not in during the current year. (PAN) Afghanistan, the US ambassador said Thursday, a day after a top Taliban commander said the pair were alive and welL I Political Developments (AP) 18.. June 1 5 h June Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network is Afghan president Hamid Karzai returned from regrouping and repairing to bring Iraq style Washington with a strategic partnership with bloodshed to Afghanistan, the defense ministry the United States neatly sewn up. It has said Friday. (Agencies) committed successive US governments to stay for a long term in Afghanistan. (Online) 19.. June Pakistan foreign office spokesman Saturday 1 8 .. June rejected as irresponsible a statement by former Afghanistan government and the UNAMA US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmai Khalilzad, in have initiated discussions regarding future which he claimed that Taliban leader Mullah cooperation between Afghanistan and the Orner was in Pakistan. (APP/NNI) international community after holding in September of the parliamentary election, 2Jnl June which will mark the formal completion of the Latest accusations against Pakistan by the US Bonn process. (NNI) Administration and Afghan government regarding presence of terrorists on its soil show 1 9 • June the US finally became impatience in hunt of President Hamid Karzai met British foreign Osama Bin Laden. (PPI} minister Dr Kim Howells in his office. They discussed the aid programs provided by the Pakistan may feel somewhat relieved over the British government, drug-enforcement increased engagement in Iraq of the outgoing program and ways ofincreasing the aggressive US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay government's income. (NNI) Khlailzad.

1 l3 b June Interior Minister of Pakistan has said that Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has President Musharafhas lodged a strong protest authorized a ministerial task force obliged to with the US and Afghan leaders regarding the eliminate violence against women, a UN statement of Zalmay Khalilzad. (Online) spokesman said Thursday. (NNI) 26.. June President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to leave The Afghan government has reshuffled the for neighboring Tajikistan on a daylong governors of four key provinces Kabul, official visit on Monday to inaugurate Kandahar, Ghazni, and Nangarhar for construction work on a bridge on the Ammo administrative reasons, the Afghan Islamic River. (Online) Press reported. (NNI}

Afghanistan has rejected allegations regarding 27 .. June its involvement in the uprising in Uzbekistan, President Karzai here Sunday congratulated saying it was an internal affair of the · .... Mahmood Ahmedinejad over his victory in the neighboring country. (NNI) June 24 run off the presidential election, media reported. (INP) Pakistan President General Parvez Musharaf Sunday telephoned his Afghan counterpart 28.. June Hamis Karzai and discussed with him matters Senipr military officials from Pakistan, pertaining to mutual cooperation. Afghanistan and the United States are meeting today (Tuesday) in Kabul under the tripartite Interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan SherpaQ commission formed to discuss border issues has termed his recent visit to Kabul, capital of and review progress on war against Tali ban Afghanistan, as very successful and fruitful. hiding on soil. (NNI) • I Electoral News

ACBAR Monthly News Summary June 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Pos' '>. US forces in the southern Ghazni province 1"1 June have arrested candidate for the upcoming A total of 6,085 Afghans have registered to Afghan's parliamentary elections, officials stand in the historic I8 September legislature said. (SANA) and provincial council elections. The Swedish government has decided to send 2•d June four election observers, three long terms arrd Canada contributed $8 million to support one short-term observer to Afghanistan for the Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary and parliamentary and provincial elections on IS provincial elections. (NNI) September. (NNI)

3'd June 24111 June A JEBM statement issued said here the Names of I6 parliamentary election candidates registration of voters, having been listed for have temporarily been removed from the presidential ballot, would get under way candidates list for allegedly possessing from June 25th. Every Afghan citizen I8 years weapons UNAMA election officials said. of age or above is eligible to vote in elections. (NNI) (NNI) 1 27 • June 1 6 • June :About 255 former Jehadi commanders have so The election commission Sunday announced far voluntarily disarmed to join the upcoming July I Deadline for all the prospective parliamentary polls, JEBM spokesman said. candidates to disarm their private militias and '(NNI) armed bands before contesting for a seat. 28 111 June 12111 June Kochis in the southern Ghami province Several candidates in the southern Ghami complained against what they called less province have withdrawn their candidature number of polling stations allotted to them in following complaints regarding their the province. (NNI) I relationship with electoral office staffers. (NNI) ~f---S_e_cu_r_ity_M_a_tt_e_r_s-....~1 13 111 June In the build up to the September polls, a five­ ~ week technical training course for I20 newly More than six Taliban were killed on Monday appointed administrative officers of the in a clash with coalition forces and the Afghan: Parliament Secretariat began here on Saturday. army in Barmal district of the southern Paktika (Online) province, a statement from the coalition said on Tuesday. Afghanistan on Saturday launched a new drive to disarm militiamen ordering more than I,OOO Suspected Taliban attacked police illegal armed groups to hand over their guns as headquarters in unruly southern Afghanistan the country pressured for a parliamentary leaving four police officers and seven fighters election. dead in the ensuring gunfight, a senior official said Tuesday. 1 16 • June The NATO led international peacekeeping ••· ·· ·-·"' 1... June force announced on Wednesday that 2,000 A suicide attack on the funeral of key anti­ more troops would be deployed in different Taliban cleric on Wednesday killed at least 20 cities of Afghanistan to secure upcoming people including one of Afghanistan's top parliamentary polls. policeman and wounded 42 in the southern city of Kandahar. 1 19 • June Afghanistan's UN-backed electoral 4 111 June commission will launch a new voter . A bomb explosion in Bolan killed a former registration drive next week for country's first police official and injured his two men, an post conflict parliamentary elections, the official said Friday. (PAN) organization said Sunday. (AFP) 5111 June

ACBAR Monthly News Summary June 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Two people were reported dead and I 50 others a firefight in southern Afghanistan, the US affected as whooping cough broke out in the military said Tuesday. (AP) Adraskan district of the western Heart Province. (NNI) 16111 June . . Afghan authorities have detained a police chief 8111 June for questioning over killing of five Medicines Suspected Taliban killed two Pakistani truck Sans Frontiers (MSF) aid workers one year drivers supplying fuel to US troops in ago, the goveroment said Wednesday. (APP) Afghanistan on Tuesday, Police said. (Reuters) 17111 June Taliban Tuesday claimed killing a senior A policeman, a teacher and two boys were security official of Khak-I-Afghan district killed in the latest spate of violence to hit along with two guards in the troubled southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. (AP) province overnight, but government officials 1 denied the claim. (PAN) 18 k June A tribal elder and kin of a central minister Haji 1 9 h June Abdul Wahid was gunned down in the Tali ban have claimed killing of six US troops Maiwand district of Kandahar province. (NNI) in Afghanistan by exploding a bomb at 1 Jalalabad Torkham highway. (Online)· 19 k June Taliban took hostage Mia Nashin district 10 ... June police chief, his deputy and II soldiers in an One US soldier was killed and eight others overnight ambush in the southern Kandahar were injured as they came under mortar attack province. in Afghanistan's southeast Paktia province 111 Wednesday, a US ~y statement said. (NNI) 20 June Six Afghan gov.enu:nent employees including a lltlt June strict chief were wounded as a mine blew in One US soldier and seven-suspected Taliban the troubled southern Helmand province were killed Friday after an ambush on a joint Friday. (PPI) US-Afghan patrol near Lawara in southeastern Afghanistan, the US military said. (AFP) United States warplanes killed IS-20 suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan in 1 l2 k June the latest attack, The US military said on At least I2 Afghan passengers were killed Sunday. (AFP) when a minibus and a US military vehicle were in collision Saturday in southern 21" June Afghanistan, officials said. (APP) Three Pakistani Nationals who plotted to assassinate outgoing US ambassador Zalmay 13111 June Khalilzad, were arrested Sunday in the western An Afghan army truck collided with a bus Laghman province. Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing three villagers and wounding seven, the interior Twenty-one people including an Afghan minister said. (Online) district governor, two policemen and many militants died in new attacks linked to the war­ 14... June battered country's ousted Taliban regime, At least six people perished and I9 suffered officials said Monday. (APP) injuries when a truck fell into a ditch on the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway, eyewitnesses said 22... June on Monday. (PAN) Some 32 suspected Tali ban were killed Tuesday when Afghan troops backed by US 1 15 k June warplanes launched an operation against Four US soldiers were wounded Monday when militants in southern Kandahar province. a suspected Taliban suicide bomber drove a car (NNI) packed with explosive in to an American military convoy in southern Afghanistan, Afghanistan urged Pakistan Tuesday to clamp officials said. (AFP) down on militants allegedly hiding on its side of the border. (AFP/AP) Afghan and US led coalition forces killed two suspected insurgents and captured 13 others in

ACBAR Monthly News Summary June 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and FrontiEir Post Afghan and US troops backed by •,,varplanes blasted Ta!iban hideouts in southwestern 2nd June Afghanistan for second day, killing scores of The UN High Commissioner for Refugees militants in the bloodiest fighting in months. (UNHCR) on Wednesday said the agency is looking to repatriate 400,000 Afghan refugees ;?4th June during the current year. Afghan and US forces have killed 132 Taliban militants and surrounded four of the ousted 3rd June regime's top commanders afler a three-day The UNHCR Thursday a:::10unced the camps battle in the south of the country. closure in Pakistan would not force refugees to ( AFP /Reuters) leave the country. A dozen of refugee camps will be close down in North Waziristan 1 25 h June Agency by the end of June. Afghan and US forces surrounded a..1 area in southwestern Afghanistan where Taliba.'1's ~~·June leader Mullah Omar could be hiding. (PPI) Afghan Commissioner ate NWFP has decided Taliban guerrH!as killed a ca..1didate and two of to close dov.n all schools for Afghan refugees his bodyguards !n an ainbush in the central working in various camps under the province of Uruzgan, the provincial governor supervision of Education Cell before June 30. said. (PPI) (PPI)

26th June 7 1 ~ Jun~ Afghan forces scouring mountains in the The UN Refugee Agency will begin on country's south have found t.~e bodies of Wednesday to register Afghans in North another 78 suspected fighters, bringing to 178 Waziristan who wish to repatriate from the insurgent death toll. (AP) Pakistan because of the government decision to close all refugee camps in this troubled 27 111 June region along border with Afghanistan. (NNI) Eight people including two German soldiers 1 and six Afghan workers were killed and seven S h June others \YOtmded in ar. explosion n !he Rostaq A number of Afghans who are not only district of the northern Takhar province. running established business in Pakistan but even have already got the National Identity 1 28 h June Card are also contesting the schedule US troops shot dead a suspected militant on parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. motorcycle that sped up to a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan. (Reuters) J0 111 June The office ofthe United Nations High 1 l9 h June Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has A grenade attack em the home of an Afghan launched a special drive to help repatriate refugee killed two of his daughters injured his Afghans living in refugee camps in the North wife, son and another daughter in Jalozay Waziristan Agency of Pakistan's western tribal Camp in Peshawar. (At') belt (~'NI)

Bomb killed a top policeman and four other It' June people in Afghanistan on Tuesday and rockets A new tripartite agreement between Iran, struck near a UN election office. (Reuters) Afghanistan and the office of the United Nations Hig..'-1 Commissioner for Refugees 30 111 Jun~ (UNHCR) has been signed in principle Unidentified men have killed three policemen regarding repatriation of Afghan refugees. and wounded two others in Laghman province, (NN!) VOA radio said. (INP) 16"' June President Hamid Karzai inaugurated a militarJ A two-day seminar on Refugee Women and compound costing $70 millions in the Children, The Courage to Survive" was held southeastern city ofGardez. ai a local hotel in Peshawar Wednesday. (APP)

1 18 h June Refugees The lJN Refugee Agency has begun issuing 11 '] repatriation documents to Afghans from North ~------'

ACBAR Monthly News Summa!)' June 2005 5 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Waziristan on Wednesday following a registration process that showed 83 percent of ts•• June the residents of refugee camps wish to return The Public Health Ministry Department, in to Afghanistan. (Online) collaboration with an NGO called Health Net, launched an AIDS awareness campaign in the The UN Refugee Agency announced it would astern Nangarhar province on Monday. end assistance in two troubled afghan camps in (SANA) Balochistan Province, supporting a government decision to close them this Three people were killed after flooding washed summer and offer residents a choice of away three villagers in central Bamyan repatriation or relocation in another camp. province, officials said on Tuesday. (Online) 1 16 • June 1 24 h June A five members boxing team is scheduled to Dozens of houses in Azakhel refugees' camp leave for Pakistan to participate in an Asian have been damaged as the floodwater surged in boxing event to be held in the port city of to populated area. (Agencies) Karachi. (PAN)

1 1 26 h June 17 • June Over 10 percent of the existing Afghan The only center for rehabilitation of drug refugees in Karachi are set to voluntarily addicts in Heart city was closed down for luck repatriate to Afghanistan by the end of2005, of funds, leaving 23 patients under treatment in according to the United Nations High a quandary. (NNI) Commission for Refugees. ts•• June 1 27 h June Sever flooding caused by stonns and torrential About 15,000 Afghan refugees will return to rains in parts of Afghanistan left up to 48 their homeland till July 6. (PAN) people dead and washed away more than 1,000 homes, a minister said Friday. (AFP) 1 29 • June 1 Minister Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind has said 20 • June that more that four million Afghan refugees Afghan authorities are rushing to chlorinate settled in Pakistan would be not allowed hundreds of drinking water wells across Kabul business after year 2006 in any part of the amid fears that the city could b eon the verge country including Send~ (Online) of a cholera epidemic. (NNI)

21• June ~ Other News] Despite of preventing measures taken by government, diarrhea, which has so far s•• June claimed five lives, is spreading in Kabul City, The government of Turkey is taking charge of health ministry said on Sunday. (PAN) training Afghan National Defense Ministry doctors. (NNI) 23rd June Sacked health staffers of the UNHCR and 1 6 • June Afghan Commissionarate continued their Rain-induced floods washed away a village in hunger strike even after lapse of one month, as Nasi locality of the northern Badakhshan there was no government official to give any province killing four people, official said on assurance to the aggrieved. Sunday. (PAN) 24• June 11th June Floods have played havoc with human life and An Italian aid worker freed after three weeks property in parts ofNangarhar, Laghman and as a hostage in Afghanistan left for home Takhar provinces. (NNI) Friday, even as security forces continued to hunt for her kidnappers, official said. (AP) 28111 June 14111 June The recent overflow in Kabul and Kunar rivers Archeologists have discovered an ancient town have damaged 281 houses and inundated in the Nirk district of the central Wardak thousands acres of cultivated land destroying province. (Online) crops in the eastern Nangarhar province. (NNI)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary June 2005 6 Sources: The Nev.'S, The Nation and Frontier Post ( News Summary for July-2005 }

Aid and Economic Development 1 17 • July· 1"1 July A Dubai based adventure tour company plans The ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and to take adventurous holidaymakers from the ' Development will complete thousands of small Gulf to Afghanistan to aid in reconstruction of reconstruction projects across the country the country. (Agencies) under the National Solidarity Program. (PAN) ts•• Julv zac! July Minister for mines and minerals Mir United Nations (WFP) is delivering emergency Muhammad Siddiq Sunday suggested increase aid to the people stricken by heavy floods. in the ratio of taxes on imported goods to (NNI) improve the country's tattering economy.

6'• July zo•• July Rural Rehabilitation and Development The road, linking provincial capital with the Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar Tuesday Harat Kandahar Highway, is being constructed announced 10 million Afghanis in aid for flood with$30 million assistance from the United hit areas in the northeastern Badakhshan States. (Online) province. (PAN) 21 1101 July 9th July Unicef, in collaboration with the provincial Japan will give Afghanistan 3.75 billion Yen education department, is planning to open 100 in grant to help improve infrastructure, build makeshift primary schools in the central new schools and buy vaccines for infants. Bamiyan province. (NNI) (NNI) 23,... July to•• July Pakistan will ask the Karzai-led administration Afghanistan has proposed to Pakistan an to impose zero rating duty on its exportable agreement on fruit exports via air-conditioned products in response to Afghanistan's demand containers. (PAN) for reducing items from the negative list under Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) agreement. 13 .. July ADB has approved a US$55 million grant to 24.. July help rehabilitate Afghanistan's primary road The United Kingdom has pledged $350 million network damaged during two decades of in aid for reconstruction in the war-ravaged conflict and neglect. (APP) Afghanistan. (SANA)

1s•• July 2s•• July Health Minster Dr. Amin Fatimi has said 214 Pakistan and Afghanistan signed an investment Basic Health Units (BHUs) will be operative in protection treaty, as Islamabad announced a different parts of the capital in the next two grant of $100 million for Kabul as a gesture of months. (PAN) goodwill and friendship between the neighbors. (PAN) 1 16 • July 1 Gold trade in the western Harat province has 27 • July reduced by 50% in the wake of crack down on Pakistan has provided 42 truckloads of food drug smuggling to Iran. (INP) items worth Rs. 25 million to Afghan authorities in Quetta. (PAN)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary July 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post '·

28tlt July 25111 July Afghanistan has been the single largest Afghan President Hamid Karzai believes recipient of Canadian bilateral aid with pledges progress in the Middle East peace process and of more than $616 million in reconstruction Palestinian statehood augur possible and development assistance. (NNI} diplomatic relations between Israel and Afghanistan. (AP) 29th July The 300 telephone booths established by t~e 31't July communication ministry at different spots in US President George W. Bush has discussed the capital would start functioning. (NNI) · · on phone with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the coming legislative elections in t:i Afghanistan. (INP) ' Political Developments

l't July Electoral News Interior minister Ali Jalali will continue to stay on his position. ' . ' 1~ Sixteen percent of candidates for the upcoming 6tlt July parliamentary elections are gunmen or Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar arc not in . affiliated with armed groups, Afghanistan's Afghanistan, according to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah. (Online) '· Alleged. (NNI) ' 19tlt July 3rd July British Prime Minister Tony Blair will host ' Kochi voters and candidates alike say the small talks with President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday number of seats allotted to them in the new 12 days after the London bombings. (AFP} '· legislature represents just the latest action in a long history of government oppression. (NNI) 20t11 July Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will pay 4th July an official visit to Afghanistan on July 24th for . The ECC of the JEMB has temporarily talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. · , , . dropped the names of233 parliamentary and (Online) provincial council nominees. (SANA)

1 21't July 6 1t July An Afghan envoy Wednesday repudiated The JEBM has begun the education campaign NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Duranni's using a network of 1,600 advisors who will accusation that Afghanistan was meddling in reach potential voters through schools, Pakistan's internal affairs. (PAN) universities, mosque and other public places. (SANA) 221111 July France remains committed to help Afghanistan, 7111 July in its transition process, as part of a broader .: . The United Nations Said Wednesday that European defense policy to. stem international. parliamentary and provincial election can be terrorism, French Defense Minister Michele ·· held throughoutAfghanistan in Sep,temt>et: Alliot-Marie wrote Thursday in the Wall S ttee,n ~~r, despite difficult security environment." Journal. (AFP) · ; 1,()~~. (Online)

2Jrd July 14111 Julv Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due tq :· The UN sponsored Joint Electoral hold talks with Italian Premier Silvio Management Body has confirmed over 5,000 Berlusconi Friday during the second day of a aspirant candidates to contest the first visit to Italy. (AP) parliamentary election in the post-war Afghanistan. (NNI) 24tlt July Prime minister Shaukat Aziz will visit Kabul' :· · 16111 July amid growing Afghan irritation over Taliban ,, , Candidates and residents of the eastern infiltration across its southern border. . \~ ':' Nangarhar province have asked the (Agencies) ' ·· government to extend dateline for registration

ACBAR Monthly News Summary July 2005 2 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post as a large number of people are yet to get listed. (NNI) §"'July Three Afghan journalists, arrested by 1 20 k July intelligence officials in the eastern Kunar Afghanistan's election body has finally province at the weekend, were shifted to approved a list of 5,805 candidates to stand in Kabul. (NNl) parliamentary and provincial elections on September 18. (NNI) 1"' July Two Special Forces soldiers missing for Japan has announced $8 million in assistance several days in the rugged mountains of for the keenly awaited Afghan parliamentary eastern Afghanistan were found dead, but one elections. (NNI) member of the team remained unaccounted for. (Online) 1 28 k July Upon the invitation of Afghanistan, the 8th July European Union has established an election Two suspected Taliban militants were killed observation mission to Afghanistan to observe and three others captured after they ambushed the parliamentary election on September 18. a police check-post in southern Afghanistan. (NNI) (AFP)

1 The UN sponsored (JEBM) is preparing 40 l0 k July million ballot papers for Afghans in the Taliban claimed on Saturday they had coming first post Taliban parliamentary executed a US commando captured late last election. (NNI) month, but the US military expressed • unawareness about the navy official's killing.

I Security Matters NATO's top military officer met with Karzai at the presidential palace. The discussion ~ touched on NATO's expansion within the The governor of the insurgency plagued country, Afghanistan's security and other southern Uruzgan province said that he aspects. narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. (NNI) u"' July The US military on Saturday set free from the ~ Bagram airbase another 76 Afghans held on President Hamid Karzai inaugurated military suspicion of having links with the Taliban compound costing $70 millions in the movement. (NNI) southeastern city of Gardez. (Online) 1 12 k July ~ Four suspected militants escaped from a Team of soldiers missing after fierce fighting heavily fortified jail at the main American base that included the shooting down of a Special in Afghanistan on Monday. (APP) Forces helicopter with 16 soldiers abroad earlier this week. (Online) Taliban claimed on Monday they had killed a dozen Afghan anny soldiers in the troubled US planes have bombed a suspected Taliban provinces of Kandahar and Zabul. (PAN) hideout the same area of eastern Afghanistan 1 where US servicemen are missing, reportedly l4 k July killing 25. Seventeen Taliban fighters were killed and six captured in fierce fighting in the troubled 1 4 k July southern province of Zabul. India and Afghanistan today discussed the security situation in the war-ravaged country. 16"'Juiv (Agencies) Two bombs exploded in quick succession at an election commission office in restive ~ southeastern Afghanistan, injuring two Four Afghan journalists covering an ongoing policemen. (AFP) US-led operation in eastern Afghanistan have been detained by local security agencies. The United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan (AFP) need to improve their cooperation to crush

ACBAR Monthly News Summary July 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Pot.t suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters 28 111 July staging raids in Afghan territory. (Agencies) Three suspected Taliban fighters were killed and two wounded in a gun fight which also left Twenty-four suspected Taliban fighters were five policemen injured in southern killed in a missile attacked by US planes near Afghanistan. (AFP) the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan Agency the Pakistan army troops have 29 111 July recovered bodies of the killed persons. A fire that broke out as it made a hard landing with six-coalition crew and 25 Afghan troops 17'11 July on board destroyed a US-led coalition The US military Saturday released another helicopter. (AP) batch of 20 Afghan prisoners from its main detention center where four Al-Qaeda linked 31 11 July Arab militants escaped last week. (AFP) Four US servicemen and an Afghan interpreter were wounded in two different incidents as 1s•• July officials claimed killing I 0 Tali ban and Afghan army And US-led forces killed 20 capturing 15 others in southern parts of Taliban southeast of the country. (Reuters) Afghanistan.

19111 July Parliamentary candidate engineer Fidai killed A tribal leader and ally of President Hamid along with his six bodyguards in Gizab district Kanai has been kidnapped and hanged by the of Uruzgan. ( ) Taliban as violence in Afghanistan continues to intensify in the approach to elections Refugees planned for September. (Agencies) ~ 20111 Julv The government of Iran has agreed to allow A district governor escaped unhurt Tuesday Afghan refugees to stay in the Gulf country for when targeted in western Afghanistan. The another year. (Online) incident happened in the Injil district of Harat province. (APP) 4111 July The Pakistani government wants to close down 21" July several more Afghan refugee camps in South The Afghan police have thwarted a rocket Waziristan Agency, in the NWFP and attack against a major hydropower dam near Balochistan. (PAN) Kabul the latest threat to stability in Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary elections. 6111 July (Online) Former Chairman Human Rights of Pakistan Afrasyab Khattak has alleged that Pakistan 22nd July was forcibly expelling Afghan Refugees. (PPI} Fighting across Afghanistan left 14 people dead, including nine tribesmen killed by 9th July suspected Taliban. (AP) Two hundred and thirty Afghan families went back to their homes from Pakistan. (AP} 24111 July Kidnappers have abducted three Afghan 14111 July electoral workers in an area of eastern The United Nations, apparently contradicting Afghanistan where a female colleague was the statement of a Pakistani minister, has ruled wounded in an attack days earlier. (AFP) out the repatriation of all refugees by the end of the current year. (PAN) 26111 Julv An Afghan electoral worker educating voters 24 111 July on upcoming parliamentary elections was shot Afghans living in a refugee camp scheduled dead in southeastern Afghanistan. (AFP} for closure by August, have asked Pakistani authorities to extend the life of the facility for 2tll July at least one year, to give residents a chance to Parliamentary candidate Dr Ezatullah from make proper arrangements to leave. (SANA) southeastern Paktika province was killed in a bomb attack on Monday. (PAN} 26 111 July

ACBAR Monthly News Summary July 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier POst More than 2.5 million Afghans have France and Britain sent home a plane hold of repatriated from Pakistan as the UN refugee Afghan nationals as part of new European agency's largest voluntary repatriation crackdown on illegal immigration, the French program continues to assist refugees to return Interior Ministry said. to Afghanistan. (Online) 31 11 July 28 .. July The United Nations backed special counter Afghan refugees will face legal action if they narcotics Criminal Justice Task Force (CJTF), do not return home voluntarily by the end of created to fast track major drug cases within current year. (APP) Afghanistan. (NNI)

31'1 July Under a UNHCR sponsored repatriation plan, 22 Afghan refugee families left Punjab province for their homeland. (PAN) I ~ Other News J

1'1 July Flood killed six people and destroyed dozens of homes in mountains in eastern Afghanistan.

~ The Health Department of Baghlan province of Afghanistan has said that about 750 women and children die daily due to lack of medicines and hospitals in Afghanistan. (APP)

~ The Afghan badminton team will leave for Jakarta Thursday to take part in an international tournament scheduled to get under way net week. (Online)

11 .. July A new independent cultural and intellectual organization was founded in Ghazni province, writers, intellectuals and journalists from other provinces attended the opening ceremony. (NNI)

13 .. Julv A large gold mine, also containing precious stones, has been discovered in the western province of Harat. (NNI)

20.. July Provincial officials Monday set ablaze II metric tones drugs in the Dash Hawz area of Harat province. (PAN)

23,.. July Japanese researchers say they have found ancient murals in a cave near Afghanistan's giant Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban. (SANA)

1 28 • July

ACBAR Monthly News Summary July 2005 5 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post News Summary f or August-2005

AEJ and Economic Dev_clo!nncn;-J srace under a new law approved by the K8 rza i l'' August Cabinet. The 20 percent tax levied on registered companies wi ll prove a crushing blo v for the The Wo rl d Bank has prov ided $25 mi llion of country's nascent economy. (PAN ) intercst-l'rcc loan to th e govemment lor The Afgh anistan-Korea Vocational Trai ning bri nging improvements in the basic urban Center opened in a ceremony in the Afghan services in the most vu ln erable areas of the capital of Kabul, the Korea International capital. Coopera1ion Agency said. (NN ! H'" Al!gust ~~.i!: The Asi an Development Rank Friday said that The /\sian Development Bank and the Afghan it has approved a technical assistance grant of governn'o"'t signed a $50 million agreement on I million dollars to help Afghanistan' s air devclopmg an effici ent power distribution transport system by boosting management of sys ·em in Afghanistan. (Onl ine) th e country's civil aviation administration .

5'" Auvust JI'_~ Afghan far mers have returned to cotton Stat~ - run Power Grid Corporation today cultivation. sowing th e crop over 6.000 entered into an agreement with Ministry or hectares of lan d in the northern Kunduz E~terna l AlTa irs of India for e~ec uti ng $1 I 0 province alter decades of stri fe . (PAN) million transmission prqject in A lghan istan.

11 11 8 ' AUz.t.! St 20' August The Japanese government has given US$ 2 Pl edging all possible cooperation in the million to support th e UN Refugee Agency reconstruction of Afghan istan. China has operations in Pakistan. The contributi on was suggested a tr il ateral trade agreement among received at the agency's head quarter orti cc in Kabu l, Beijing and Dushanbe on transit of yeneva. goods. (PAN)

Pakistan is going to expand the Afghan transi t 21" A!!~ trade li st by adding three more items to boost Th e Federal Government of Australia will give trade tics between the two nei ghbors . (PAN) A l'ghanistan can extra $7 million to help with its reconstruction and nc~t month's elections . .!0' 11 August (NN!) Afghanistan ex pects to earn $ 1. 8 million annually in taxes on use of its airports and 8ir 22"'1 1_ugust space under a new law approved last week by The Finance Ministry agreed to consider a the Karzai cabi net. possibility of the ful l write-off of 70'Yo of Afghanistan's debts and significantly reduce Hamid Karzai has called for further improving the debt on economic loans restructuring th e rel ations with Pakistan so that the economic debt remainder on easy terms. (NNI) ti es between the two countries can be give n a boost. 24'" August New Zealand wil l contribute I million NZ Afghanistan e~pects to earn$ i .8 million dollars (700.000 US dollars) to the Un ited annually in taxes on use of its airports and ai r Nations to assist in the ru nning of elections in Afghanistan on September I:;, (NNI)

ACBAR Monthly News Swnmary August 2005 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post Pak istan i, Afghan and US ofTicial s wou ld 26' 11 August gather in Islamabad to consider Pak-A fghan The (PRT) stationed in th e Parwan Provi n<.:c. border security. (Onli ne! launched four construction projects in the neighboring Kapisa Province. (I' AN) Afghan President i lamiJ K:1rzai called upon the countrymen to move towards self-reliance 111 28 Aue,ust and stand on their feet in rebui lding the war To get a strong f(Joting and minimize shattered country. (NN I) Pakistan's inOuence in Afghanistan. India is exrccted to offer an aid ofUSD 50 million for 25'" August Afghanistan. (INP) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wil l pay a two-day official visit to Afghanistan to The Afghan government in coilaboration with hold ofticiallevel-talks with President Hamid the United Nation Ortice for Project Services Ka1ni. (A PP) (UNOPS) wili soon launch recons\ ruction of 260-kilometer roads leading to villages in 26111 August seven provinces. (PAN) The arri va l in Kabul of Afghanistan's former defense minister General (Rtrd) Shah Na waz 30111 August Tanai. has fueled anti -Pakistan and anti­ The World Bank will give the Afghan <.: omm unism sentiment in section of th e government $135 million in aid to tackle Afghan capital's political and media circles. problems the landlocked country faces in harsh wintry condition. (PAN) 27 111 August India said that its efforts to help rebuild "' c Afghan istan are being hampered by Pakista:1. Political News which lies between the two countries and refuses to allow Indian aid to be shipped through its territory. (AP) 2'"1 August Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected 28'" August to visit Kabul in August to lay the f(.)undation Moscow's call for the repayment of$ 10 billion stone for the new Afghani stan parli amentary debt by Kabul has drawn ire from Afghan building. (Agencies) officials and analysts. who in turn asked Russia to pay their country's war reparati ons. The Defense Ministry said Thursday (PAN) Afghanistan was at an advanced stage of preparations for taking control of Afghan 29'" August pri soners being held in various US detention Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sin gh who facilities. (PAN) arrived to Kabul on his two-day trip. held talks with President Hamid Karzai on bi lateraL 19'" Augus~ regional and international issues. Pakistani leaders have greeted President Hamid Karzai on Afghanistan's Independence 30'" August Day fal ling on August 19. (NNI) Visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sin gh voiced his country's willingness to help ~2"' 1 August 1\ fghanistan stamp out terrorism. saying a Afghan President Hamid Ka rzai Sunday menace posed a serious threat to all societies. defended a recent agreement on st1ategic partnership with the US, saying his conflict­ crippled country could not progress without Electoral News support frnrn the international community. 5' 11 August 23n1 August A del egation of European Union has arrived in Afghanistan's foreign minister said hi s strife­ Kabul to monitor forth coming Arghan torn country needs a long-term commitment parliamentary elections being held on I !l'h from the international community to support September this year. (/\PP) its deve lopment and to strengthen peace in the 11 region. (AP) 5 ' August

24111 August

ACBAR Monthly News Summary August 2005 2 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post A del egation of European Union has aJTi\'C d in prcw incial council elections com plained they Kabul to monitor forth coming Afghan we re fac ing host or problems in carrying out parliamentary electi ons being held on 1R 'h their electio n drive. (SANA ) September thi s year. (A PP) 9th August r~:~ws] Afg hanistan still faces a fundi ng shortfall of 19 milli on dol lars for next month's key l 't August par li amentary elections, but the pol ls will go President Hamid Ka17.a i welcomed a decision ahead as planned. (AFP) by /\ustra lia to send 150 eli te troops to !\ fghanistan by September to fight a growing 10th August tide of insurge nt-led ' ;"l ienee by remnants of The United States has pledged an additional $S th e Tal iban and Al -Qaeda. million to supplement $32 mill ion in US funds already provided to authorities admin istrati ng · 2'"1 August the landmark parli amentary elections in 1\ fghan secur ity forces have seized thousands Afghanistan. (Online) of missiles m011ar rounds and artill ery shells in thei r biggest weapons haul in month:;. The 12th August ammunitions cache was ft)lmd in the Transportation of ba l! ot papers and other pol l­ Khogyanai district of central Ghazni p ·ovincc. related materials to polling stations across (NN I) Afghanistan has been lau nched, announced the .I EMB Germany sa id it had no indi cat ions th at its use or an airport in Uzb ki stan to supply its fo rces _14th A...m:: us t in !\ fghanistan woul d be a!Tcctcd by a deci sion The afghan ciectoral body has started on stop US using a base in the country. transporting ball ot materials th roughout the (Reu ters) country for the forthcoming parliament al)' elections scheduled for 18 September. 3"1 Aug u.t~: llnidenti:!ed gu nm en have kidna pped two ~Augu s t 1vo rkcrs u f an NGO cailcd Coordinati on of The one-month formal campaign of the l lum :::.nita;· ian Assistan ce in the western Farah candidates for the upcoming Afghan Province. ( P !\ N) parl iamentary elections begins, sai d .I EMB. (NNl ) 4th August ll nmid Ka rzai had a meeting with Gcn Etham 20th August Erdagi the outgoing commander in chief of Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged his International Security 1\ :sistanc c Force (IS/\F) countrymen on Fr iday to vote for cand!datc:> in Kabul. (NN I) who were honest and would uphold the la w in the war-torn country's parli amentary ckctioll S !\ fghan in surgents have ki ll ed !(Jur governm ent • next month. (AFP) troops and j()ur poli ce ofliecrs in an attack on a checkpoi nt in the cou ntry's east. (AFP) 24'1! August /\mcrican and Afghan commanders have ~~ A ugust prepared detailed security pl a 1s fo r the Italy on Thursdny took command oi the N/\TO September nati onal electi ons here that ca ll lor led peacekeeping JoJ-ce in !\ fghun ista n for a local forces to provide two inner ri ngs or nin e mon th period which wi ll see an expansion protection at 6,000 polling stations wh ile of securi ty for next month's historic fo re ign troops stand by, out of si ght. a s parliamentary polls. (AFP) reinforcement in case of serious attacks. ( NN !) ~Au g ust lSt~ugus.! rh..: US Embassy have announced on Thursdny The .IEMB announced they were striving to Washington would soon start transferring ensure full fledges tran sparency duri ng the /\fghan detainees to the Karzai lcd­ polls . (P /\N) gm·ern ment, whi ch has assured it can take care of the pri soners. 30th August Several female constants for the upcoming 7' " A.ug;u st legi slative parliamentary elections and

ACBAR Monthly News Summary August 2005 3 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post At least six people including n woman were ?,2"d August killed in an armed clash between two families Four US soldiers were killed and three in the southern Helmand Province. (PAN) wounded in an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan while two 8'" August American orticials received injuries when an A candidate in next month's parliamentary embassy convoy came under bomb attack in election has escaped unharmed after an attempt Kabul. (AFP/ AP) on his life in northern Afghanistan. (AFI') 23"1 August 111 9 August Tali ban lighters will not attack polling stations A NATO led international Ioree will be during next month's election in Afghanistan. a expanded and ready to assume responsibility spokesman for the guerrillas said. but he for security across all over Afghanistan by the vowed that the war against the government and end of next year. (PPI) US forces would go on. (Reuters) 24'" August to'" Au2:ust A US military base near the capital city came One US soldier and at least 16 militants died under missile attack. which caused no damage. when insurgents attacked a patrol of Afghan (NNI) and US troops in the latest clash to rock Afghanistan ahead of key elections. (AFP) 25'" August The US-led Coalition and Afghan soldiers in It'" August Zabul Province killed six Taliban lighters in a At least tour civilians were killed and six joint operation. (PAN) others wounded as the US-led Coalition forces' jets pounded an area in the Dai Chopan 26'" August district of the southern Zabul Province. US and Afghan troops backed by helicopter gunship and warplanes killed live-suspected Tali ban. the military said bringing to 16 the 13'" August number of rebels who have reportedly died in In one of the rare cases of its kind. Taliban two days of clashes. (AFP) executed a woman Wednesday after accusing 1 her of spying for the US and afghan militaries 27 " A~ust in the restive southwestern Zabul Province. On 31 '1 August the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces will complete the 16'" August deployment of additional forces in support of Defense Ministry Monday claimed killing 21 the National Assembly and Provincir.l Council Taliban following a crackdown in Zabul nnd Elections in Afghanistan. (PPI) Uruzgan provinces. 28 111 August 17111 August Eight people were killed and six oti"crs injured Suspected Taliban abducted a Lebanese following ahead on collision betwe{n a speedy engineer in the southern Zabul province. truck and a passenger coach. (PAN/ (Online) 29'" August 19111 August Another candidate was gunned down in restive Canada took over from the US the command Uruzgan Province on Saturday mounting the of a local civil-military reconstruction team toll to four since the beginning of the electoral (PRT) in the southern province of Kandahar. fray in the war ravaged country. (PAN) (NNI) 30'" August 20'" Auguj! NATO-led peacekeepers have deployed 2,000 Armed men in the western Harat stabbed a extra troops across northern and western senior official of the JEMB after ransacking Afghanistan to secure the war-battered his house. (NNI) country's parliamentary elections on September 18. (AFP) 21'1 August At least 20 people were killed and 28 others 31 '' August injured when two buses collided on a highway NATO's top commander began a two day visit in southern Afghanistan. (AFP) to Afghanistan to prepare for a planned expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping

ACBI\R Monthly News Summary August 2005 4 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post mission anJ assess moves to hccr up the li>ITc decision, saying they haJ not been consulted ahead of next month's election. (Agencies) on the issue. (PAN)

12' 11 August 2005 Refugees Thousands of Afghan refugees arc defying orders to leave camps in Pakistan's tribal 3'd August region. which arc being closed because of The government Tuesday decided to shill securit) Afghan refugees living in Rawalpindi/Islamabad to their homeland 14'" A ~~_gust through voluntary repatriation or to he Thousands of A lghan refugees in Islamabad relocated existing camps in Pakistan. (NNI) and Rawalpindi refused to comply with September 15 deJncerned authorities. Thousands of Afghan nationals stationed at refugee camps i,l Islamabad and two tribal 29'" Au oust agencies will be asked to repatriate before The Commissioner Afghan Refugees September 1. Sahihzada i\nces has said August 31_would complete the repatriation process from Kurram _LO'., August Agency. Afghanistan has described the expulsion of refugees fl·om the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad as Pakistan's unilateral

ACBAR Monthly News Summary August 2005 5 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post The Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN Refugees Agency have agreed to extend the Tripartite Agreement, which regulates the repatriation of Afghans. (Agencies)

Other News The UNESCO plans to introduce a literacy program for women aged between 15-45 in southern city Kandahar. (PAN)

4'" August At least 7 m~jor reproductive health care centers have been reactivated in hospitals of Kabul alter the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) made funding available. (APP)

5'" August A cholera epidemic has broken out in New Bahar district of the southern Zabul province. with orticials warning of large-scale deaths if medicines do not reach the victims in time. (NNI)

12'" August The To!o Teievision, a private TV channel in Afghanistan, has expanded its transmissions to Kandahar City.

13'" August Afghanistan's famous Bamiyan Buddhas are due to be recreated by multicolored laser images projected onto the cliffs where they once stood.

21'' August A huge Stupa dating the sixth century AD and another small stupa. which supposed to be from the third century, have been discovered in the Bamiyan province. (NNI)

26'" August University students in the central Bamiyan Pmvince have staged a demonstration to protest against the loss of teaching staff at Bamiyan University. (NNI)

30111 August As many as 700 doctors from different medical centers of 14 provinces would be trained to cu1·e mental patients by using modern medical techniques. (NNI)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary August 2005 6 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post News Summary for September -2005 )

Aid and Economic Development world's heroin, and tum it to the productior, of medicine. (AFP) 4th September Nineteen thousand tons of melons have been 30th September exported to India via Pakistan from the Contributed supports for Afghanistan southern Afghan province of Kandahar. reconstruction is the focus of a $ 484,020 US (Online) Trade and Development Agency (USTADA) grant awarded to Kabul University for 5th September development of a training program on The Afghan government has embarked on internationally standardized accounting countrywide distribution of chemical fertilizers practices. (NNI) and improved seeds to fanners a $25 million initiative funded by the USAID and Britain. (PAN) Political News

14111 September Twenty tones of grapes were exported this 6th Seotember week from the southern Afghan city to India Two provincial governors have been replaced and the United Arab Emirates. (Online) in northern Afghanistan after a spate of demonstration against one of them. (NNI) 16111 September 1 Canada plans to award Afghanistan with $4.2 7 h September million to hold Afghan parliamentary election Pakistan rejects a claim by an Afghan governor scheduled for Sunday. (PPI) that the two Japanese nationals whose bodies found in Spin Boldak of Kandahar were killed 18th September on the other side of the border. (NNI) Asia Pulse Afghanistan's telecom sector is set tv attract a record US$80.2 million investment 9th September for two companies, Invest come Consortium The head of Afghanistan's opposition said and Watan Mobile, who emerged as the President Hamid Karzai was a weak leader and successful bidders. (NNI) a new parliament, to be elected on September 18, would have to improve government policy 11 20 ' September across the board. (Reuters) Pakistan has exported goods worth Rs 115 million to Afghanistan over the last two l2'h September months. (PAN) Taliban were not involved in 9/11 attacks a·1d the united States of America made is a pret,~xt 26th September to invade Afghanistan, Tali ban Supreme The Afghan government has extended the Council (AlP) facility of digital telephones to the western 1 Ghor Province. (PAN) 13 h September Former Taliban Ambassador in Islamabad 28th September Abdul Salaam Zaecfhas been released from Afghanistan's government rejected the the infamous Guantanamo. recommendation that it legalize its massive opium crop, which supplies most of the

ACBAR Monthly News Summary September 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 13th September .~~h September Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the The JEMB said that 21 candidates for the international community to rethink its anti­ !i)rth-coming legislative elections have been terror strategy in the country. (AFP) b:.wned to run for election. (Online)

1 15th September 9 b September Analysts and political leaders in Pakistan Japan will give Afghanistan an additional $5 rejected the fencing of Pak-Afghan border million to help the country hold elections I 8 saying the step would create rifts between September for a national assembly and Pakhtuns living on both sides of the Durand provincial assembly and provincial councils. Line. (PAN) (NNI)

18th September .1 0~ 11 September US President George W. Bush Thursday rung The JEMB announced that 239 polling officers up President Hamid Karzai and thanked for had been trained in the southern Kandahar to Afghanistan's assistance for the hurricane manage the upcoming parliamentary polls in Katrina. (NNI). that Province. (NNI)

70th September European Union has allocated 9 million Euros World leaders including Americo, Britain, 1~11" holding of afghan polls. (APP) Australia, EU and UN security General Kufi Anan praised the Afghanistan elections. t 5 1::~utember Organizer8 of Afghanistan's elections said they 28th September. were confident extensive preparations to Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali who has ensure the transparency and integrity of expressed frustration over the alleged Sunday's voting would produce a result involvement of officials in Afghanistan's evei)'One could trust. (Reuters) burgeoning drug trade, said Tuesday he is resigning to his academic career. (AFP) 17th September Afghanistan's landmark election campaign 1 29 h Septembel" of!idal!y ended Friday. (AFP) Afghai1istan once again poured scorn on Pakistan's idea of fencing the Durand I ine, :::'h September saying the border had been imposed on the Early estimates showed a turnout of just over Afghan nation, which would decide its fate. 50 percent in Afghanistan's first parliamentary (Online) polls in more than three decades, below that of last year's presidential vote. The election chief said Monday. (AFP) Elet::toral News 21 '1 September 1'' September Afghanistan Tuesday began counting votes • The European Commission has pledged to cast in the weekend's landmark parliamentary provide 9 million Euros to finance the budget elections. (AFP) for the September 18 polls, which faces a funding shortfall. 22"d September Women made up 41 perecnt of the six million The JEMB has accredited around 2200 Afghans who voted in landmark legislative independent observers and more than 30,000 elections at the weekend, around the same as in political party and candidates to scrutinize the last year's presidential poll. (AFP) 2005 Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council election. A number of candidates complained against banning their representatives to observe vote 1n' September counting at the Kandahar regional center. Hundreds offake voter registration cards have (PAN) been seized in southern provinces of Kandahar and Zabul, a local election commission oftidal 25th Sw.tember said. (PAN) Following allegations of rigging from a number of candidates, election officials quarantined several ballot boxes received from

ACBAR Monthly News Summary September 2005 2 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontler Post different polling stations in the southern Province. 12th September 27th September The Defense Ministry of Afghanistan has A former Taliban stalwart and candidate for completed deployment of troops in the the Wolisi Jirga Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi provinces to secure the landmark is leading the vote in the southern Zabul parliamentary election to be held on September Province. (NNI) 18. (AlP)

G 15th September I Security News Taliban militant shot dead seven civilians afler finding a registration document for the weekend's milestone elections in their car. t•t September (AFP) A US aircraft bombed a Taliban position in central Afghanistan killing eight militants in NATO chiefs tried to overcome disagreements the latest violence in the run-up to September over the alliance's future in Afghanistan. 18 election. (Reuters) including plans for it to take operations fi·om the US Led Coalition there. (Reuters) 3rd September Taliban fighters kidnapped five persons 16th September including an election candidate and district Three Taliban fighters have been killed and incharge. (AlP) one captured alive in a fresh anti-insurgency operation in the southern Uruzgan Province. 4th September (PAN) A former Taliban minister was among 15 commanders who pledged support to the 1ih September government in Paktia Province. (PAN) Suspected Taliban militants shot dead a candidate in Afghanistan's weekend elections. Nineteen Taliban rebels were killed in the as the guerillas warned voters they could he troubled provinces of Uruzgan and Zabul, the hurt unless they boycotted the polls. (Reuters) Defense Ministry claimed. (PAN) 18th SePtember 5th September Afghan forces claimed killing seven Taliban in A candidate in Afghanistan's September 18 the Shahr-1-Safa district of the southern Zabul elections was killed on Sunday when he Province overnight. (PAN) stepped on a landmine outside his home. (Reuters) 19th September Two policemen and four suspected Taliban 6th September rebels were killed in clashes hours before key Thirteen Taliban combatants have been killed afghan elections Sunday, while a UN worker in fighting with US . and Afghan forces in a was injured by a rocket strike. (APP) southern province, and more than 40 other suspected militants have been arrested. (AP) 20th September A vehicle carrying ballot boxes hit a landmine 7th September in the Garbavee village of the Khogyanai Afghan and US led Coalition Forces have district in Nangarhar Province. (NNI) killed 12 suspected militants in raids on their hideouts in southern Afghanistan. (AP) 21 •t September Seven people were killed Tuesday in two 9th September separate ambushes in southern Afghanistan in Taliban claimed to have blown up an the wake of parliamentary polls. (AFP) American military tank by remote control landmine leaving four American troops dead in President Hamid Karzai called for US-led Zabul. (AlP) troops to scale back operations. including air strikes and house searches, saying 11th September Afghanistan's military could take a bigger Gunman opened fire on a vehicle belonging to · security role. (AFP) Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

ACBAR Monthly News Summary September 2005 3 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post 22"d Sentember The Taliban vowed on Wednesday to step up their holy war against foreign troops in Afghanistan and dismissed legislative polls 19'" September held at the weekend as an American drama Hundreds of Afghan families, ousted from rejected by the Afghan people. (PPI) refugee Kachi Abadi from Islamabad were tortured and baton charged by security 24'" September personnel and shilled to unknown places from Seven members of a singer group were shot Jalo7.ai camp Saturday. dead on the border of Jo:z:jan and Balkh 1 Province. (AlP) 24 " September The number of Afghan exiles returning home 1 25 " September from neighboring Pakistan and Iran since the Unknown attackers fired four rockets on a fall of the Tali ban has topped j4.2 million. The rural suburb of the afghan capital Kabul but UN refugee agency said. (APP) there were no casualties. (AFP)

1 26 " September ~ Other News~ Five inmates were killed in a US military helicopter crash in the southern Zabul Province 3rd September Sunday morning. Some 4000 vaccinators and monitors will fan out across Afghanistan next week in a three­ 28'" September day United Nations supported campaign to Human skulls, bones and worn out clothes immunize 7 million children under the age of signifying mass graves have been found in a five against polio. (PPI) dry ditch in Sra Qila areas, 10 kilometers of 1 Paktika Provincial capital Sharan. (PAN) 7 " September A tuberculosis epidemic has Jell 12 people 29'" Sentember dead in a remote district of the western llarat A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew Province. himself up outside an army-training center in 1 the Afghan capital on Wednesday, killing 9 11 " September people and injuring 29. During a heavy rain and hailstone. a fierce flood washed away areas of the Spin Ghar and 30'" September its slopes. Four persons were killed and I 0 5 people including an Afghan soldier were others injured in the Pacherogaham District of killed and 17 more were wounded in two Nangarhar Province. (NNI) separate accidents in Khost and Paktia 1 Provinces. (PAN) 15 " September • AI-Qaeda Chief Osama Bin Laden is ill and seeking medical care. according to a US Refugees military commander in Afghanistan quoted by an Arabic newspaper. (AFP) · 1"1 September The governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and 24'" September the UN refugee agency have agreed to extend Massive increases in drug production have the Tripartite Agreemen. been recorded in regions of Afghanistan where NATO in operating, just as the country counts 3rd September votes from its first parliamentary elections. The number of Afghans who have returned to (PPI) Afghanistan from refugee camps in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FA TA) At least fourteen children and a woman has risen to 46,339. A total of 103,070 reportedly died as a famine is spreading in individuals have registered with UNHCR to remote villages in the Zebak district of the repatriate. (NNI) northeastern Badakhshan Province. (PAN)

1 9 " September At least 2070 families of Afghans have returned to Kunar Province via Nawa Pass from Afghanistan. (AlP)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary September 2005 4 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post ~------N=e~w-s~S~u-n~z=m~a~r-y~fi~o_r_o_c_t_ob_e_r_-2_o_o_s______~}

Aid and Economic Development

2"d Octolier _C. China will back political peace and economic Political News reconstruction process in Afghanistan, said Chinese State Councilor. (SANA) l't October 3rd October British Defense Secretary John Ried arrived Pakistan government will build A llama Iqbal Friday morning in Kabul for talks with Afghan Arts Faculty in Kabul University and a hospital President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister named Jinnah Hospital. (PPI) Abdul Rahim Wardak. (PAN

4th October Afghan President Hamid Karzai is scheduled Two thousand containers of transit trade goods to head to France on Sunday on a four-day of Afghanistan are stranded at Karachi port visit as part of his campaign to muster foreign due to unavailability of adequate train facility. support llx Afghanistan. (PAN) (PAN) 6' 11 October 11 10 ' October Senior Taliban officials Wednesday conf1rm~d KEC International Ltd has said it has bugged their spokesman Hakimi's arrest by Pakistani two new others worth US$36 million ti·om the security forc<~s. saying his capture would not Ministry for Energy and water to the Afghan weaken the movement in any significant way. government. (NNI) (PAN)

1ih October 17th October The third conference of (ECO) would be held Al"ghun President Hamid Karzai would in Kabul next month. (PAN) recognize Israel just after an independent Palestinian state is cstabHshed. (Agencies) 1 18 h October Afghanistan's food and agriculture department 20th October plans to set up a juice and jam-manufacturing President Hamid Karz.ai has invited Nt;rsultan factory in collaboration with the Provincial Nazarbayev president of Kazakhstan to vi> it Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the southern Afghanistan in 2006. (INP) province ofGhazni. (SANA)

1 19th October 25 h October The Afghanistan Inte1·national Chamber of Afghan President Hamid Karzai met President Commence (AICC) Monday signed an Pervez Musharar on Monday and condoled agreement with Japan and Malaysia for over the loss of precious iives in October 8 exporting 7,500 tons of pomegranates. deadly earthquake. (Online) (Agencies) 27th October 26th October Pakistan has announced the appointment of The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency Tariq AzizUddin as Ambassador ofl'akistan has registered more than l ,400 private to the Islamic republic of Afghanistan. investment companies during the current y•:ar. (Online) (NNI)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary October 2005 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post 28111 October Afghanistan is set to join the South Asian 17111 October Association for Regional Cooperation A UN backed Election Commission has (SAARC) bouquet. (SANA) dismissed about 50 of its staff for suspected fraud in last month's legislative elections. 1 29 h October (PI'!) The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Afghanistan may create in the nearest future a 19th October contract group in order to cooperate with each Former anti-Soviet Mujahiddin commanders, other. (NNI) or Islamic warlords apparently dominate the first parliament in the post war Afghanistan as 1 30 h October several dozens of them have been emerged Four Afghan cabinet ministers have given up victorious in the polls provisional results have their foreign citizenship in the face of possible indicated. (NNI) opposition from the future par! iament. (Reuters) 24 111 October President Hamid Karzai has rejl~cted Electoral News candidates' allegation that the government has in1crfcred in the elections. (NNI)

l't October Election organizers said Sunday the expect to European Union raised concerns Friday over finalize the results of landmark legislative vote fraud in Afghanistan and called on the polls by the end of the month. (AP) authorities to take measures to stop it. (AFP) 2i11 October 3rd October .IEMB has announced that the entire provincial Afghanistan's Election Commission vowed results from the country's 18 September strong action against vote fraud on Sunday legislative elections have been published and after international observers highlighted certified by the electoral commission. (NNI) worrying cases of cheating in last month's landmark legislative elections. (Reuters) 28 111 October A top political opposition figure in 5th October Afghanistan on Thursday demanded a recount Vote cnunting in Afghanistan's lirst of last month's legislative elections and parliamentary elections in more that 30ycars claimed the legitimacy of the polls had been was nearing completion Tuesday. an ofticial marred by widespread fraud. said with warlords a former Tali ban commander and women activist arc among the 31 '1 October front-runners to win the seats. (AP) Final results from Afghanistan's parliamentary elections in September 18 are being delayed ~ 9th October because of complaints of fraud. (Agencies) More than a hundred candidates and around .. ~A -"' 500 of their supporters seeking a recount or Security l\'latters votes in the northern city ofKunduz. (SANA) ~

11th October l't October Four election workers including the head of the Five people including an Afghan National joint UN Afghan poll panel's regional office in Army soldier were killed and 17 others this Paktika ca:_)ital city have been sacked on sustained injuries in two separate traffic charges of fraud in vote count. (Online) accidents in Khost and Paktia provinces. (NNI)

1 11 l3 h October 3• October The JEMB Wednesday announced unofficial As many as II people have died in four results from Logar, Wardak, Laghman and separate road accidents in different provinces Panjsher provinces. (PAN) of Afghanistan over the last 24 hours. (PP!)

15th October 4111 October Hundreds of losing candidates for the Afghan· US troops in Afghanistan and NATO -led parliamentary elections termed the polls as ISAF forces will eventually work for one unfair and called for recounting here. (NNI) command under NATO, Afghan President

ACBAR Monthly News Summary October 2005 2 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post Hamid Karzai said in a Newspaper interview. (Agencies) 18th October Tali ban militants gunned down a member of a 5th October provincial religious council and two security At least six people including two Afghan officers in separate attacks in insurgency hit soldiers were killed while 14 others received southern Afghanistan. (AFP) injuries in a powerful bomb explosion inside Afghanistan at Pak-Afghan border, some 90km 19th October north of Quetta. In a separate attack in Helmand Taliban fighters attacked a group of security officers 6th October killing an intelligence officer and a policeman A suicide bomber blew himself up in his pick­ while other police officers suffered injuries. up truck and killed a child while missing the (Online) target of Canadian troops. (PAN) 20th October gth October Suspected Tali ban insurgents shot dead a President Hamid Karzai and the chief diplomat district chiefin a mosque in Afghanistan's ofNATO Thursday expressed optimism that troubled south, a governor said Wednesday, in the alliance could iron out problems over its the forth killing linked to religion in less than a planned expansion next year into the volatile week. (AFP) south of country. 21't October 10th October Unknown gunmen kidnapped and killed a Six government officials were killed and tive school principle and janitor in separate attacks others sustained injuries in a traffic accident in in insurgency hit southern Afghanistan. (AFP) the remote Nooristan Province. (Online) 22"d October 11th October President Hamid Karzai condemned the A bomb exploded Monday at the clinic of a alleged desecration ofTaliban bodies by US doctor standing for a seat in Afghanistan's first troops but he said mistakes happen in war and parliament in decades, wounded at least 13 Afghans shouldn't let it mar their impression people though the candidate escaped unhurt. of the United States. (Agencies) (AFP) 26th October 12th October Millitants attacked security forces on two sides As many as 20 policemen, including provincial of Kabul killing seven people in some of the security chief and three militants have been deadliest assaults near the Afghan capital in killed i1i an overnight clash in the restive Months. (AP) Helmand Province. (NNI) 27'h October 13th October Foutteen Taliban prisoners were extradited At least 10 Taliban combatants were killed as from Pakistan to Afghanistan overnight, US fighter jets pounded suspected militant including two leaders of the hard-line militia positions in the southern Uruzgan Province. removed from government four years ago. (Agencies) 15th October 1 ·Eight fuel tankers were destroyed in an 28 h October explosion outside a base for US-led coalition A bomb fixed on a bicycle exploded in and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan. Kandahar on Thursday, killing a policeman (Agencies) and wounding two civilians. (AFP)

16th October 30'11 October A pro-government religious leader and 15 Taliban fighters have killed a man who others were killed when a bomb went off in a contested Afghanistan's provincial elections mosque in the eastern Afghan Province of last month. (APP) Khost. (Online) 31'1 October 1ih October Three US and four Afghan soldiers killed Tali ban guerillas killed three Afghan men for when their convey was ambushed by Taliban spying for US troops. (INP) in east of A(ghanistan. (Online)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary October 2005 3 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 1 2'" _Octobe r tv! iliions of Afghan currency notes were l't October di :,;apreared from loaded trucks near Afghan The number of Afghans repatriating from border on Saturday, which were printed in Pakistan has passed the 2.7 million mark as the France and being shifted to Kabul from UN Refugee Agency's largest voluntary Karachi. (INP) repatriation program in the world continues to assist refugees to return Afghanistan. (AI P) 7th October Afghan custom officials in Kabul airport hel d 1 6 h October three Nigerians after seizing more than 28 Sajid Hussain Chattha, secretary Safran. who pounds of h'eroin believed headed for Europe. 1 is leading Pakistan delegation to the 56 h (PP!) session of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR in Geneva, called on Antonio !S111 October Guterres. UN high commissioner for refugees A ten-member team ofKashmiris asylum and held meeting with the Afghan minister for seekers n Afghanistan held a peaceful refugees and repatriation and leaders of th e demonstration here to mark their rights. (NNl) delegation of the UK and Japan. (APP) 1! 111 October lOt~Oct ober f . two-day seminar started here would find One million and 300,0000 Afghan refugees sol ution to the problems faced by the prisoners have been repatriated to their homeland in the in country jails. (PAN) past three years. (NNl) _16th October J4th OctQ!>er Tents, plastic sheeting and oth er aid was piled Returnees to Afghanistan from both Pakistan Saturday into 40 UN trucks in Afghanistan to and lrsn will only get land for shelters in their be hauled in to neighboring Pakistan where province of origin, the government announced those made homeless by the earthquake. (AP) in the Afghan capital Kabul. (NNI) 20th Octob~ 2l't October Afghanistan's independent Tolo TV arranged a Senior Advisor to UNHCR in Geneva said that program to discuss the role of the media in 50,000 refugees have returned to their educating and informing the public and homeland from Iran through UN sponsored commented on the expansion of the Afghan support programs since the beginning of the media scene following th<: fall of the Taliban. current Ira nian year. (Online) tNNI)

• 29th October 24' 11 Octouer The Japanese government has donated US$ An earthquake destroyed homes and killed five 1.5 million to the oflice of the United Nations people near Afghanistan's eastern border vvith High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan on Sunday. (AP) Iran to help Afghan refugees. (NN:) 30'11 Octobe.r The US has invited three UN human rights investigators to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in a bid to show there is nothing to hide. (Agencies)

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liovernor Alta Mohd Noor and the 2ito November commnndcr of the Gcrmnn forces in the north !\ fghanistnn' s Ica di ng Tclc<.:om Development of Afghani stan have signed an agreement Company !\ fghanistan ( Roshan). claims that worth 50m Euros for the building of Mazar-c­ its GSM subscriber base reached 650,000 thi s Sharif Airport. (NNI) month. (INP)

·9th November 30'h November Afghanistan has join ed the Central Asian Iran and Afghanistan are ready to boost joint Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) investment by cooperati on of their respective program. following a decision by the CA REC pri vate sectors in mineral, steel, pro fil e, 4' 11 ministerial conference in Bishkik, Kyrgyz construction. ru g. food and other indus·:ries. Republic. (NNl) (Agencies)

lOth November President Karzai will open the third business ~ Political News and investment conference of Economic cooperation organi zation (ECO) in which participants wi ll decide on the use of the 2"ot November US$5.4 million donated by this organi zation President Karzai was under growing pressure for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. (Online) on Tuesday to intervene in the case of an editor j::1iled for two years for blasphemy after cleri cs 18th November a<.:c used him o f question ing Islamic law. A fghanistan la unched its bid to join the World (Online) T rade Organization ( WTO), seni or advisor to Presid ent Hamid Karzai and minister of s'" November commerce Hedayat Amin Arsalan announced. Iranian President Ahmndi Nezhad and hi s (SAN/\) i\ l'ghan counterpart llamid Karzai discussed mutual as well as regiona l developments over 21 '1 November phone. (NN I) Afghanistan' s southern Kandahar province is 1 all poised to export more th an 1.260 tons of 13 h November fresh and dry fmit to a number o f countri es in President Hamid Karzai Saturday urged the next few days. (Online) Taliban fi ghters and other militants to abandon their insurgency against his government and 22" 11 November~ US-l ed forces in Afghanistan and join a The fo reign exchange reserve of Afghanistan nr~tiona l reconcili::1tion process. (Reuters) has reached $ 1.5 billi on, a tigure unregistered in the past. (NNI) 14th November The head of Afghanistan's reconcili ation 26th November commis~ion accused forces -in Pakistan Sunday Reconstruction of the main airport of Ciardez or propping up a deadly insurgency being has been completed and its capacity enhanced. "~'ged in the name of loyalists o f the Taliban government ousted fo ur years ago. (AFP)

ACBAR Monthly News Summary November, 2005 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post 11 Afghanistan is to join the Sou~h Asian 8' November Association for Regional Cooperation Atghanistan ·s former President Burhanuddin (SAAR C). India Prime Minister Manmohan Rahbani. hinted to run for the post of' he~td of Singh told the closing session of the I :;'h Wolusi .lirga. or Speaker of the National SAARC summit. (Agencies) Assembly. (NNI)

1 15 " November IO'h November President Hamid Kar

11 16'" November 13 ' November Taliban fighters n~jected overtures fi·om The results of parliamentary elections were Afghan President Hamid Karzai to abandon finalized Saturday alier eight weeks of their insurgency and ,ioin a reconciliation counting showed by allegations of fraud and process. (Reuters) observers said supporters of President I !amid Karzai appeared to be in the m~jority. (AP) 19'" November The European Union and Afghanistan on 21'' November Wednesday signed a joint declaration on a new .IEMB has announced that Ghazni provincial partnership between the two sides. which aims Shura has h1ilcd to nominate representatives to deepen bilateral ties. (NNI) for parliament at time when it has been summoned to meet. (Online) The United Nations and the UK will co-chair and international conference in late January to 17'" November give global support to Afghanistan as its lirst The United Nations Assistance Mission in rL'prcscntati ve government starts tackling a Afghanistan has announced that the new \\ide range of political. economic. and security Afghan Parliament's first session is to be held issues. (Agencies) in December 2006. (Online)

1 1 11' November 30 h November President Hamid Karzai led administration The UN Security Council congratulated formally began a week long accountability. In Afghanistan on the formal acceptance of line with president's order the accountability election results that will seat a new parliament. week Saturday and would continue till (!'PI) Nmember 24 1 ~>. (Online) Security Matters 29111 November The post-war Afghanistan would present its National Development Strategy at the next I ' 1 November donor's conference in LQndon. Afghan foreign A civilian was killed in a bomb blast probably Minister said. (SANA) targeted a US convoy in eastern Afghanistan .. on Monday, while security forces toiled a c suicide attack on foreign troops. (AFP) Elccto.-al News 2'"1 November 1'1 November Two Afghan men clearing hundreds of mines ' Latif Pedram the leader of the Afghan National littering runways around Afghanistan's main Congress Party says the government was airport were killed when one of the devices involved in fi·aud during the parliamentary exploded. (Af-'P) election. (NNI) 3"1 November 11 5 ' November Taliban killed live Afghan policemen in an The linal results from Alghanistan's lirst ambush in the restive southern province of legislative election tor more than three decades llclmand. (Reuters) w~ll arc announced this Wednesday alter delays due to fraud complaints. (AFP) 5'" November

ACBAR Monthly News Summary November, 2005 2 Sources: The News, The Nation and Frontier Post Taliban militants in Afghanistan on Friuay attacked a police station in Abband Jistrict, 21'1 November Ghazni Province and killed a policeman. (NNI) Taliban insurgents have kidnappeJ an Indian road engineer in southern Afghanistan in 8111 November Nimrozc Province. (Agencies) A woman poet well known in literary circles in 1 Afghanistan's western city of'Harat has died 25 h November after being severely beaten by her husband, Afghan police yesterday found the body of an who has been arrested. (AFP) Indian construction worker M.R Kutty, dumped by the roadside with his throat slashes 10111 November after he was kidnapped by suspected Taliban. Afghan and US-led forces have arrested a (PPI) suspected would be suicide bomber who is allegedly from a Pakistan tribal region. (AFP) 26'" November A Swedish soldier serving with NATO-led 11'" November International Security Assistance Force has Taliban militants killed seven policemen and died ti·om his injuries after being evacuated beheaded two civilians, while an Afghan from an incident where he and three other soldier was shot dead after he opened fire on occupants of an ISAF vehicle were caught in US troops. (AFP) an explosion in Mazar-e-Sharifycstcrday.

13'" November 27111 November Suspected Taliban killed three policemen and Afghan troops toileJ a bomb attack in the former district chief in a mosque in fresh capital Kabul on Saturday with the arrest of six attacks in troubled Afghanistan. (AFP) suspected militants and their explosives packed vehicle. (AFP) 14'h November Taliban militants killed three policemen and At least twenty rockets were tired last night at stole their vehicle in an attack in Afghanistan's Sharana, capital of Paktika Province, killing volatile south. (AFP) personnel of intelligence department and damaging governor house. (Agencies) IS'" November Four people including a German soldier and 29111 November three Afghan civilians were killed when twin At least two people were killed anJ ten others suicide bombs exploded Monday on the capital were injured in clashes between two armed Kabul an Interior Ministry said. groups in Faryab Province. (Agencies)

c 11'" November Three civilians were killed and tour other ~ Refugees people wounded when an explosive packed car rammed a US-Afghan military convoy in a 9'11 November • suicide attack Wednesday. (AFP) Political administration here Tuesday launched a crackdown against Afghan nationalists ts'h November residing illegally in different villages and Security forces killed three Al-Qaeda suspects. towns of North Waziristan Agency. a provincial governor said Thursday, while the 11 country's defense minister warned that 11 ' November militants have smuggled explosives, weapons In a crackdown against Afghan refugees, the and cash into Afghanistan tor a resurgent terror political administration Thursday deported 45 campaign. (Agencies) more Afghan nationals, who were residing in diflcrcnt towns ofNWA. 11 19' November I A Portuguese soldier was killed Friday and 12 111 November three others were wounded when an explosion Pakistan hosting 3 million Afghan refugees, struck their vehicles outside Kabul. (Agencies) the 17 percent of the world's refugees 20111 November population. told the United Nations. (AI'P) 28 Taliban and Islamic lighters surrendered to authorities in insurgency hit Afghanistan and 18'" November renounced any anti government activities. Political administration of Kurram Agency has ~ (AFP) restarted repatriation of Afghan refugees living

ACBAR Monthly News Summary November, 2005 3 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post in the area and dozens of famitics have been trucked to their homeland via Rabbani Ghund.

24th November High Commissioner of UN Ag~:n~y 1()1" Refugees UNHCR Antonio Gutcrrc:c; has arrived in Afghanistan to discuss with t\fghan president the life of returnees. (Online)

26th Novembe.r In the continuation (Jf the repatri,niPn of Afghan retugees, some 750,000 have rctumcd home so far in the current year. ( NN!)

27th November The UN High Commissioner for l<(:tilg,:cs (UNHCR) Antonio Gutcrres Friday night assured the Afghan refugees that they would not be forcefully repatriated to their counlr) unless they themselves opt for it. (APP) Otb::;;:ws-1

2"d November Afghan authorities say the.y have destroyed 30 opium processing laboratories as wdl as tonc.s of drugs and chemicals used to make hcruin. (Online)

3•·u Novcmbef· A h;pancsc ~tist ;s to recreate Afghani~tan's destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas using dozens of laser beam image. (Online)

11 10 ' November Russia's federal drug control service will Ppcn offices in several countries including Afghanistan, next year. (SANA)

Il'h November Afghanistan has banned duck hunting and imports of live poultry to prevent the spr~ad of the deadly bird flu virus, Public llealth Ministry Sayed Mohd /\min Fatillli said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

1 26 h November A narcotics surwy has revealed that almost one million people in Afghanistan take drugs; seven percent of them are children. (INP)

ACBAR Montt·dy News Summary November. 2005 4 Sources: The News. The Nation and Frontier Post