The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (December 2006)
News only - commentary elsewhere, please. Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!
Canadian tanks deployed in Afghanistan combat
Updated Sat. Dec. 2 2006 12:39 PM ET Canadian Press
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PANJWAII, Afghanistan -- It's the reason they're called "rolling thunder.''
The throaty roar of engines announcing the approach of the squadron of Canadian Leopard tanks could be heard from kilometres away as they emerged from the mist and rain Saturday to back up ground troops in the war-torn Panjwaii district.
The 42-tonne monsters left Kandahar Airfield under the cover of darkness early Saturday morning in the first combat deployment of Canadian tanks since the Korean War.
Hours later they rolled down the streets of the village of Panjwaii in an impressive show of force on their way to the nearby forward operating base, or FOB.
Residents of Panjwaii, hearing the rumble of the metal tracks biting into the concrete, rushed from their homes to watch the biggest display of firepower since their war with the Soviets in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It also caused excitement at the FOB. Battle weary troops, who have been fighting the Taliban on a regular basis, couldn't contain their glee.
"Merry Christmas to the Taliban,'' said one soldier.
"It's time to open a can of whuppass,'' said another.
The tank crews, members of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) armoured regiment based in Edmonton, were excited to be finally joining the fight.
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Conflict takes toll on Canadian non-commissioned officers in Afghanistan
Bill Graveland Canadian Press Saturday, December 02, 2006
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Soldiers look up to senior non-commissioned officers as mentors and role models, the backbone of the army. When an "NCO" is killed, the loss is felt across the ranks.
The conflict in Afghanistan is taking a serious toll on senior NCOs in the Canadian Forces. The death of Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard, the regimental sergeant major, in a suicide attack on Monday is just the tip of the iceberg. Two warrant officers, six sergeants and two master corporals are among the Canadians killed in Afghanistan.
"Of course it hurts us - as human beings, as men," said Maj. Todd Scharlach, "when you lose key personnel and professional soldiers like Mr. Girouard and all the other soldiers we've lost as well."
"Senior NCO's are really the backbone of a professional army. Their experience is vast," said Scharlach, 38, an operations officer from Kitchener, Ont.
"They're the ones that have risen from the rank of private right up to - in the case of Chief Warrant Officer Girouard - the regimental sergeant major."
Non-commissioned officers play leadership roles but do not have formal commissions - unlike officers who have documents signed by the Queen commissioning them. Warrant officers are given a warrant, a lesser-grade commission.
Scharlach said even officers initially learn from senior NCOs during officer training.
Commissioned officers move in and out of military units all the time. It is the non-commissioned officers who remain, maintaining continuity, enforcing rules, professionalism and pride.
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Disembowelled and murdered for teaching girls
Thursday November 30, 2006 By Kim Sengupta
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GHAZNI - The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.
The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely.
But his life was over.
He was partly disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes. The remains were put on display as a warning to others against defying Taleban orders to stop educating girls.
Halim is one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taleban and United States and Afghan forces.
The day we arrived an Afghan policeman and eight insurgents died during an ambush in an outlying village. Rockets were found, primed to be fired into Ghazni city during a visit by the American ambassador a few days previously. But, as in the rest of Afghanistan, it is the civilians who are bearing the brunt of this murderous conflict.
At the village of Qara Bagh, Halim's family is distraught and terrified. His cousin, Ahmed Gul, shook his head. "They killed him like an animal. No, no. We do not kill animals like that. They took away a father and a husband, they had no pity. We are all very worried. Please go now, you see those men standing over there? They are watching. It is dangerous for you, and for us."
Fatima Mustaq, the director of education at Ghazni, has had repeated death threats, the notorious 'night letters'. Her gender, as well as her refusal to send girls home from school, has made her a hate figure for Islamist zealots. "I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much? Mohammed Halim and his family were good friends of ours and we are very, very upset by what has happened. He came to me when the threats first began and asked what he should do. I told him to move somewhere safe. I think he was trying to arrange that when they came and took him."
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Helicopter missing in south Afghanistan
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KABUL (Reuters) - A search is under way for a civilian helicopter that went missing in bad weather on Saturday while ferrying supplies for foreign forces in southern Afghanistan.
The chartered helicopter was headed from the capital of Kandahar province, Kandahar city, to the neighbouring province of Uruzgan when it went missing, a NATO spokesman said in Kabul.
There were no NATO personnel on board.
No further details were immediately available, including the type of helicopter or the number of people on board.
Fourteen British defence force personnel died when their plane crashed in Kandahar during an anti-Taliban offensive in September.
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Capps' Afghanistan trip leaves her a believer
Sat, Dec. 02, 2006 By David Whitney dwhitney@thetribunenews.com
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Lois Capps favors U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. But when it comes to involvement in Afghanistan, the Santa Barbara Democrat thinks the U.S. should be sending more troops and money.
Capps recently was in Afghanistan meeting with President Hamid Karzai and members of the year-old parliament as part of a delegation from the obscure House Democracy Assistance Commission.
"My overall impression was just how challenging and difficult and essential our presence is," Capps said in an interview Thursday.
She said she didn’t realize how fragile the situation was in Afghanistan until she was whisked by armored car through the narrow, crowded streets of Kabul.
"There were bombs that went off while we were in the city," she said. "There were explosive devices."
Capps said she was especially awed by the difficulties faced by the 68 female members of parliament as they struggle against the cultural prejudices that permitted the mistreatment and repression of women by the resurging Taliban.
"Women have double or triple the hurdles to overcome," she said.
At a lunch with about half the women members, Capps said, she learned that several had been threatened when campaigning for office.
"One woman was shot and left for dead," Capps said. "She crawled to a place where she could get some help, and she continued to run.
"They don’t want their country to be unruly. They don’t want warlords to take over. They want freedom."
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Afghanistan Opium Crop Sets Record
U.S.-Backed Efforts At Eradication Fail
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 2, 2006; Page A01
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Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.
In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.
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Czech troops take command of Kabul airport in Afghanistan
December 02, 2006
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Czech troops have officially taken the command of Kabul's international airport as responsibility within the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), Jan Pejsek from the Defence Ministry's press department said on Friday.
The NATO command at the Kabul airport is in charge of comprehensive air traffic operation to the benefit of the multinational forces, individual participants in the operation and civilian air traffic.
The four-month task will be performed by 47 members of the Czech Army, who are led by Colonel Bohuslav Dvorak and include specialists on air control, air information service, flight security and logistics.
It is the first command of the Czech military within the ISAF. Under the Czech command, there will be 500 soldiers and specialists from about 20 NATO members and Afghanistan.
The new contingent, which arrived in Afghanistan on Nov. 25, includes four women, and over one-third of its members have experience in foreign missions. It is supposed to stay in Kabul till November 2007.
At the Kabul airport, there are another 20 Czech troops operating in the meteorological and logistics services and as bomb disposal experts.
There are about 32,000 soldiers in Afghanistan within the ISAF at present. The Czech Republic is contributing 150 soldiers.
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Police Training in Afghanistan
Reporter: Alice Barr
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President Bush says our troops will stay in Iraq until the country can stand alone. A local former police officer is working to bring that day a little closer.
Waylon Weber says he'll miss his kids' soccer games, but that's just one thing in a long list. He leaves tomorrow to spend a year training Iraqi police officers in Afghanistan.
"Once we train enough of them to take over and control their nation, then we can start bringing back, well we can come back and then start bringing back the troops," Weber says.
He spent six years in the Marines. He didn't want to re-enlist and separate from his family for a long period. But he wasn't ready to stop serving.
He says, "If I can go over there for one year and give it 110 % and know that I made a difference or contributed to the cause, that's all that matters to me."
Weber had to resign from the South Beloit police to take this trip. He says that was like leaving another family, but nothing like saying goodbye to his kids.
His son Aaron say, "I was like what am I gonna do without my dad he's gonna miss a whole year of my life."
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Afghanistan and Pakistan try to stop polio on border
Saturday, December 02, 2006 Staff Report
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan are to set up five check posts on their common border to screen children for polio and give them vaccine drops in the hope of eliminating one of the world’s last reservoirs of the disease, Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan said on Friday.
The announcement was made following a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Syed Muhammad Amin Fatmi at the Ministry of Health. “We already have two points and the new ones will help monitor all the migrating population,” he told a news conference.
The existing posts are in Chaman and Torkhum. “The World Health Organization will lead the team to help identify the new points,” Nasir said.
At the current points, over 84,000 children were covered by teams in Chaman and 70,000 at Torkhum in the first six months of 2006, officials pointed out.
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Afghan assembly condemns Kasuri assertions for coalition govt in Afghanistan
Saturday December 02, 2006 (0140 PST)
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KABUL: Afghan Parliament strongly condemned the assertions made by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri recently; suggesting the formation of coalition government in Afghanistan joined by Taliban and termed it as direct interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Earlier, the meeting of the Afghan Parliament was held under the chairmanship of its speaker, Mohammad Younis Qanooni in Kabul the other day, reports Radio Kabul.
During the session, Afghan parliament members strongly condemned Pakistan's Foreign Minister statement about coalition government joined by Taliban in Afghanistan
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Bodies of 2 soldiers killed in Afghanistan return home
Last Updated: Friday, December 1, 2006 The Canadian Press
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Two Canadian soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan this week arrived home Friday evening in a solemn ceremony.
Flag-draped caskets containing the bodies of Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, of Bathurst, N.B., and Cpl. Albert Storm, 36, of Fort Erie, Ont., were unloaded from a military plane at CFB Trenton.
Their remains were flown back to Canadian soil following a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield on Thursday.
Girouard and Storm, both members of the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont., were in a Bison armoured personnel carrier when a suicide bomber in a car drove alongside and detonated his explosives. The Bison had left the Kandahar air base just minutes earlier.
It was the first deadly strike against Canadian troops in Afghanistan in six weeks, shattering a period of relative calm.
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Afghanistan: a chance or a trap for NATO?
18:48 | 01/ 12/ 2006
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MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Alexander Bogatyrev) - Afghanistan is one country where Russia is ready to cooperate with NATO, as the latest meeting of the NATO-Russia Council showed. The bloc, however, needed time to mull the offer over.
The first day of the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, which discussed Afghanistan, provided the answer.
Afghanistan is a complicated and painful problem for the organization. Some say the country will decide its future. Five years after the beginning of the operation, NATO is coordinating the international effort in Afghanistan. This removes the ambiguity that prevailed when U.S. and NATO troops acted separately even though the Untied States is a NATO member.
The operation in Afghanistan was expected to give NATO a second lease on life after the end of the Cold War. The Taliban seemed to be the answer to the question of the bloc's objectives and adversaries.
But the meeting in Riga showed that Afghanistan is turning out to be an unbearably high price to pay for the preservation and expansion of the bloc.
At present NATO has to ensure security both in the relatively calm northern provinces of the country and in the south and southeast, where the Taliban are the true masters. Their autumn offensive proved that they have reinforced their positions and are gradually changing their tactics, going over from a guerrilla war to well-organized offensive and defensive operations. Moreover, they are now more frequently attacking in large groups of 300-400.
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6 Taliban militants killed in S. Afghanistan
December 01, 2006
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Afghan police killed six Taliban insurgents in Zabul province of southern Afghanistan, a local official told Xinhua on Friday.
The police clashed with some Taliban militants in Share Safa district of the province on Thursday night, said Mohammad Rassoul, the district police chief.
Six insurgents were killed and two others arrested, he said, adding there were no casualties of the police.
Zabul has been a hotbed of Taliban insurgents, who clash with Afghan and NATO troops frequently.
Due to rising Taliban-linked violence this year, Afghanistan has plunged into the worst spate of bloodshed since the Taliban regime was toppled nearly five years ago.
Over 3,800 people, mostly Taliban militants, have been killed in this volatile country this year.
Source: Xinhua
End
Royal Marines in Afghanistan misled by £3,000 rise blunder
01 December 2006
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A Defence Minister accepted yesterday that Royal Marines serving in Afghanistan will have been left "disappointed and upset" after having been led to believe they were getting big increases in their allowances.
More than 4,000 marines were led to believe they were getting a £3,000 bonus. But the Ministry of Defence has since realised the error made by Royal Navy administrators and says the marines will not get the extra money.
Defence Minister Derek Twigg, helping to send off Christmas gift boxes to forces from Regent's Park Barracks in London, said: "A mistake was made but the Navy have done a good job in dealing with it.
"The error was spotted before the money was paid. I can understand that some of the Royal Marines expecting this will be
disappointed and upset about it.
I understand how they might
feel.
"But it doesn't detract from the admiration we hold them in in terms of the job they are doing, which has been recognised by the operational bonuses which will be paid to them.
They are a tremendous professional organisation and I believe they will continue to do a very difficult job in difficult circumstances."
The MoD said earlier that the change in the way the allowance was paid aimed to make it simpler to pay.
It said: "The Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel will be paid under joint Personnel Agency arrangements from this month. Regrettably, the internal Royal Navy instruction was wrong and some personnel are disappointed that they will not receive this substantial uplift."
The marines were told they could receive up to £17 extra a day over six months.
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Ten Taliban killed, two commanders seized in Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR: NATO and Afghan troops killed 10 Taliban rebels and captured two suspected militant leaders in a raid on an alleged suicide bomb cell in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Friday.
One NATO soldier was lightly wounded in the operation carried out early Thursday in the troubled Sangin district of Helmand province, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The identity of the suspected insurgent commanders captured in the raid was not revealed.
An ISAF statement said troops seized two suicide vests, several rocket propelled grenades and a cache of equipment and weapons "that were ready to be used in future attacks".
Warplanes and helicopters backed up the troops in the operation, it said, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
End
Feature: World Bank-UN Report Offers Grim Assessment of Afghanistan Opium Battle, Says Winning Will Take Decades, Not Years
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Printer Friendly Version Email this Articlefrom Drug War Chronicle, Issue #463, 12/1/06
The effort to wipe out opium production has achieved limited success at best, hurt the poorest Afghans, and riddled the government with corruption from top to bottom, according to a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the United Nations and the World Bank.
"Afghanistan's Opium Economy" says the counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan is failing and the presence of opium in the national economy is so great that it infiltrates not only the economy, but the Afghan state, politics, and society. Providing a real alternative will take decades, not years, the study warns.
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Refocusing on Afghanistan
Lance Dickie / Seattle Times editorial columnistFriday, December 1, 2006
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The spoils of victory and the responsibilities of victory. Each is a manifestation of Democratic control of Congress, and Washington Sen. Patty Murray carries the expectations and weight of both.
First, let me say, she looks terrific in a hard hat.
Murray was in Seattle this week and she sported neither a stingy brim nor a stingy attitude. Along with her OSHA chapeau she brought U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and $750 million in glad tidings for Sound Transit's University Link extension.
Portland's light rail, the envy of Seattle, comes to mind. The system was launched and nurtured by Oregon's long-time Republican senator, Mark Hatfield, when he and the GOP ran things in the 1980s and 1990s. This is what it feels like.
The ghosts of Maggie and Scoop are looking over Murray's shoulder, and they are saying, "Good job." Washington's senior senator picked up an Appropriations Subcommittee gavel with the Democrats' big win last month, and she was elevated into Senate leadership, which sets the agenda.
Congress has a daunting to-do list, and I am starting to hate the word refocus, with its echo of costly sins of omission in public policy. Murray used the word in a conversation with The Seattle Times' editorial board. The question was about Afghanistan.
The United States has been focused on Iraq to our peril in Afghanistan, the senator said, and time has come to refocus on that volatile region.
NATO thinks the same thing. The topic dominated a summit meeting this week in Riga, Latvia. An informed observer, a retired American general and former supreme allied commander in Europe, described events in Afghanistan as "reaching a critical juncture." Read that to mean things are about to fall apart.
NATO has 32,000 troops in the country. Five years after the U.S.-led effort to subdue the Taliban and destroy safe havens for terrorists, the mission and enthusiasm have gotten fuzzy. So has the sense of shared burden.
Only the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have combat troops in the south, where the attacks by resurgent Taliban are the most severe. Germany, France and other NATO elements are ensconced in the north and largely refuse to budge. Canada is making a righteous noise about the lopsided share of its troops killed in action, including 36 this year.
Why is there any civilian tolerance for the murder of the peacemakers — the peacekeepers, the bearers of humanitarian aid and advocates for a civil society — by a revived Taliban? These oppressive religious extremists were shoved aside by a relieved nation in 2001.
On one level, the U.S. cannot be matched for military might or good intentions. We can rally the most powerful forces on Earth, and they are organized and overseen by skilled, effective people.
Our leaders — and the indictment is broader than those now in the White House — have two problems overseas: They are culturally clueless and they are easily distracted. They have the attention span of a gnat. The Bush administration gave up on talking to parts of the world for years.
Sainted Tony Blair talks about political solutions, but the U.S. and kindred spirits have a knack for backing the wrong horse. The Taliban enjoy renewed authority because what passes for a central government is inept, corrupt and worse. A U.N. report talks about enabling the opium trade.
Why would Afghanis with a stake in a better future countenance the loathsome Taliban attacking NATO forces? Well, the Taliban might be SOBs, but they are not the foreign infidels who came to visit and never left. Cultural and religious sensibilities exist that we do not get.
I supported the charge into Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, something of a first for me. Usually, diplomacy is not allowed to work, but a hard military punch can have salutary effects; look at the NATO bombing in Kosovo. Punishing, liberating and rebuilding Afghanistan made sense. Five years later, we are still dying there.
I do not expect much out of those who control foreign policy — the Bush White House — but I want those refocused Democrats to explain why Afghanistan remains important to U.S. interests.
It falls to Sen. Murray to ask the questions and return with the answers. Along, of course, with those fat checks.
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Czech army to send field hospital to Afghanistan - press
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Prague- The Defence Ministry wants to send its 6th field hospital with up to 80 military doctors to Afghanistan next year, the daily Pravo writes citing Defence Minister Jiri Sedivy.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus promised at the NATO summit in Riga on Wednesday that the Czech participation in the military mission in Afghanistan would be strengthened.
The army's present plan did not include sending a field hospital. Sedivy said that the army reacted to the request of the British commanders of NATO.
"The hospital is likely to be deployed within the international airport in Kabul," the minister told Pravo.
Sedivy said that the army is able to send the hospital already in February. The step has yet to be approved by the government and parliament.
The Czech field hospital was deployed within missions in Albania, Iraq, and Turkey, and in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. It can daily carry out 10 serious operations, treat 160 patients, and hospitalise 40 injured.
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A voice for Afghanistan
First female Afghan camerawoman speaks up for silenced women
Emily Senger News Editor November 30, 2006
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The images of Afghan women presented in western media paint a picture of silent, ghostly beings, floating in shrouds of blue burqas, eyes hidden and faces closed to the world. But one brave woman's documentary is challenging these Western misconceptions to provide a face and a voice for the silent struggles of millions of Afghan women.
Twenty-four year-old filmmaker Mehria Azizi and Afganh radio-journalist Najeeba Ayubi came to the University of Calgary Thur., Nov. 23 to screen Azizi's documentary Afghanistan Unveiled. The film is the first made by Afghan camerawomen, and the pair used it as an opportunity to speak out about the importance of free press in a nation marred by five years of oppressive Taliban rule.
"From my side, it's more important that Afghan women should come to other countries," said Azizi. "If you see this movie you will find that Afghan people, still they have difficulties in the world. They are under the pressure of the culture, under the pressure of economic problems, under the pressure of educational problems. The men and women, both of them, but especially women. I do this for the poor people in hopes the international community, the media, they should help Afghanistan because, still, we need them."
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EU completes 1 billion euro aid pledge to Afghanistan
December 01, 2006
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The European Commission committed 20.6 million euros' aid to Afghanistan on Thursday, completing its 1 billion pledge over five years to support the central Asian country.
Among the final commitments, 10.6 million euros will be used to support Afghanistan's provincial governance and improve service delivery to the local population under the framework of Provincial Reconstruction Teams, while another 10 million euros will be spent on the Afghanistan Variety and Seed Industry Development Project.
With these two decisions, the European Commission has fulfilled its pledge made in 2002 to provide 1 billion euros over five years to support the reconstruction and development process in Afghanistan.
"In 2002 the European Commission promised to be a steadfast partner for Afghanistan. Today we have kept our promise in full, and ahead of schedule," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy.
As of today, around 80 percent of the money committed is already paid out.
The largest part worth 265 million euros is used to support public administration and security sector reform in Afghanistan, covering salaries of 266 thousand civil servants and 66 thousand police personnel.
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News only - commentary elsewhere, please. Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!
Canadian tanks deployed in Afghanistan combat
Updated Sat. Dec. 2 2006 12:39 PM ET Canadian Press
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PANJWAII, Afghanistan -- It's the reason they're called "rolling thunder.''
The throaty roar of engines announcing the approach of the squadron of Canadian Leopard tanks could be heard from kilometres away as they emerged from the mist and rain Saturday to back up ground troops in the war-torn Panjwaii district.
The 42-tonne monsters left Kandahar Airfield under the cover of darkness early Saturday morning in the first combat deployment of Canadian tanks since the Korean War.
Hours later they rolled down the streets of the village of Panjwaii in an impressive show of force on their way to the nearby forward operating base, or FOB.
Residents of Panjwaii, hearing the rumble of the metal tracks biting into the concrete, rushed from their homes to watch the biggest display of firepower since their war with the Soviets in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It also caused excitement at the FOB. Battle weary troops, who have been fighting the Taliban on a regular basis, couldn't contain their glee.
"Merry Christmas to the Taliban,'' said one soldier.
"It's time to open a can of whuppass,'' said another.
The tank crews, members of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) armoured regiment based in Edmonton, were excited to be finally joining the fight.
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Conflict takes toll on Canadian non-commissioned officers in Afghanistan
Bill Graveland Canadian Press Saturday, December 02, 2006
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Soldiers look up to senior non-commissioned officers as mentors and role models, the backbone of the army. When an "NCO" is killed, the loss is felt across the ranks.
The conflict in Afghanistan is taking a serious toll on senior NCOs in the Canadian Forces. The death of Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard, the regimental sergeant major, in a suicide attack on Monday is just the tip of the iceberg. Two warrant officers, six sergeants and two master corporals are among the Canadians killed in Afghanistan.
"Of course it hurts us - as human beings, as men," said Maj. Todd Scharlach, "when you lose key personnel and professional soldiers like Mr. Girouard and all the other soldiers we've lost as well."
"Senior NCO's are really the backbone of a professional army. Their experience is vast," said Scharlach, 38, an operations officer from Kitchener, Ont.
"They're the ones that have risen from the rank of private right up to - in the case of Chief Warrant Officer Girouard - the regimental sergeant major."
Non-commissioned officers play leadership roles but do not have formal commissions - unlike officers who have documents signed by the Queen commissioning them. Warrant officers are given a warrant, a lesser-grade commission.
Scharlach said even officers initially learn from senior NCOs during officer training.
Commissioned officers move in and out of military units all the time. It is the non-commissioned officers who remain, maintaining continuity, enforcing rules, professionalism and pride.
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Disembowelled and murdered for teaching girls
Thursday November 30, 2006 By Kim Sengupta
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GHAZNI - The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.
The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely.
But his life was over.
He was partly disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes. The remains were put on display as a warning to others against defying Taleban orders to stop educating girls.
Halim is one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taleban and United States and Afghan forces.
The day we arrived an Afghan policeman and eight insurgents died during an ambush in an outlying village. Rockets were found, primed to be fired into Ghazni city during a visit by the American ambassador a few days previously. But, as in the rest of Afghanistan, it is the civilians who are bearing the brunt of this murderous conflict.
At the village of Qara Bagh, Halim's family is distraught and terrified. His cousin, Ahmed Gul, shook his head. "They killed him like an animal. No, no. We do not kill animals like that. They took away a father and a husband, they had no pity. We are all very worried. Please go now, you see those men standing over there? They are watching. It is dangerous for you, and for us."
Fatima Mustaq, the director of education at Ghazni, has had repeated death threats, the notorious 'night letters'. Her gender, as well as her refusal to send girls home from school, has made her a hate figure for Islamist zealots. "I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much? Mohammed Halim and his family were good friends of ours and we are very, very upset by what has happened. He came to me when the threats first began and asked what he should do. I told him to move somewhere safe. I think he was trying to arrange that when they came and took him."
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Helicopter missing in south Afghanistan
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KABUL (Reuters) - A search is under way for a civilian helicopter that went missing in bad weather on Saturday while ferrying supplies for foreign forces in southern Afghanistan.
The chartered helicopter was headed from the capital of Kandahar province, Kandahar city, to the neighbouring province of Uruzgan when it went missing, a NATO spokesman said in Kabul.
There were no NATO personnel on board.
No further details were immediately available, including the type of helicopter or the number of people on board.
Fourteen British defence force personnel died when their plane crashed in Kandahar during an anti-Taliban offensive in September.
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Capps' Afghanistan trip leaves her a believer
Sat, Dec. 02, 2006 By David Whitney dwhitney@thetribunenews.com
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Lois Capps favors U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. But when it comes to involvement in Afghanistan, the Santa Barbara Democrat thinks the U.S. should be sending more troops and money.
Capps recently was in Afghanistan meeting with President Hamid Karzai and members of the year-old parliament as part of a delegation from the obscure House Democracy Assistance Commission.
"My overall impression was just how challenging and difficult and essential our presence is," Capps said in an interview Thursday.
She said she didn’t realize how fragile the situation was in Afghanistan until she was whisked by armored car through the narrow, crowded streets of Kabul.
"There were bombs that went off while we were in the city," she said. "There were explosive devices."
Capps said she was especially awed by the difficulties faced by the 68 female members of parliament as they struggle against the cultural prejudices that permitted the mistreatment and repression of women by the resurging Taliban.
"Women have double or triple the hurdles to overcome," she said.
At a lunch with about half the women members, Capps said, she learned that several had been threatened when campaigning for office.
"One woman was shot and left for dead," Capps said. "She crawled to a place where she could get some help, and she continued to run.
"They don’t want their country to be unruly. They don’t want warlords to take over. They want freedom."
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Afghanistan Opium Crop Sets Record
U.S.-Backed Efforts At Eradication Fail
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 2, 2006; Page A01
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Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.
In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.
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Czech troops take command of Kabul airport in Afghanistan
December 02, 2006
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Czech troops have officially taken the command of Kabul's international airport as responsibility within the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), Jan Pejsek from the Defence Ministry's press department said on Friday.
The NATO command at the Kabul airport is in charge of comprehensive air traffic operation to the benefit of the multinational forces, individual participants in the operation and civilian air traffic.
The four-month task will be performed by 47 members of the Czech Army, who are led by Colonel Bohuslav Dvorak and include specialists on air control, air information service, flight security and logistics.
It is the first command of the Czech military within the ISAF. Under the Czech command, there will be 500 soldiers and specialists from about 20 NATO members and Afghanistan.
The new contingent, which arrived in Afghanistan on Nov. 25, includes four women, and over one-third of its members have experience in foreign missions. It is supposed to stay in Kabul till November 2007.
At the Kabul airport, there are another 20 Czech troops operating in the meteorological and logistics services and as bomb disposal experts.
There are about 32,000 soldiers in Afghanistan within the ISAF at present. The Czech Republic is contributing 150 soldiers.
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Police Training in Afghanistan
Reporter: Alice Barr
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President Bush says our troops will stay in Iraq until the country can stand alone. A local former police officer is working to bring that day a little closer.
Waylon Weber says he'll miss his kids' soccer games, but that's just one thing in a long list. He leaves tomorrow to spend a year training Iraqi police officers in Afghanistan.
"Once we train enough of them to take over and control their nation, then we can start bringing back, well we can come back and then start bringing back the troops," Weber says.
He spent six years in the Marines. He didn't want to re-enlist and separate from his family for a long period. But he wasn't ready to stop serving.
He says, "If I can go over there for one year and give it 110 % and know that I made a difference or contributed to the cause, that's all that matters to me."
Weber had to resign from the South Beloit police to take this trip. He says that was like leaving another family, but nothing like saying goodbye to his kids.
His son Aaron say, "I was like what am I gonna do without my dad he's gonna miss a whole year of my life."
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Afghanistan and Pakistan try to stop polio on border
Saturday, December 02, 2006 Staff Report
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan are to set up five check posts on their common border to screen children for polio and give them vaccine drops in the hope of eliminating one of the world’s last reservoirs of the disease, Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan said on Friday.
The announcement was made following a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Syed Muhammad Amin Fatmi at the Ministry of Health. “We already have two points and the new ones will help monitor all the migrating population,” he told a news conference.
The existing posts are in Chaman and Torkhum. “The World Health Organization will lead the team to help identify the new points,” Nasir said.
At the current points, over 84,000 children were covered by teams in Chaman and 70,000 at Torkhum in the first six months of 2006, officials pointed out.
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Afghan assembly condemns Kasuri assertions for coalition govt in Afghanistan
Saturday December 02, 2006 (0140 PST)
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KABUL: Afghan Parliament strongly condemned the assertions made by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri recently; suggesting the formation of coalition government in Afghanistan joined by Taliban and termed it as direct interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs.
Earlier, the meeting of the Afghan Parliament was held under the chairmanship of its speaker, Mohammad Younis Qanooni in Kabul the other day, reports Radio Kabul.
During the session, Afghan parliament members strongly condemned Pakistan's Foreign Minister statement about coalition government joined by Taliban in Afghanistan
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Bodies of 2 soldiers killed in Afghanistan return home
Last Updated: Friday, December 1, 2006 The Canadian Press
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Two Canadian soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan this week arrived home Friday evening in a solemn ceremony.
Flag-draped caskets containing the bodies of Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard, 46, of Bathurst, N.B., and Cpl. Albert Storm, 36, of Fort Erie, Ont., were unloaded from a military plane at CFB Trenton.
Their remains were flown back to Canadian soil following a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield on Thursday.
Girouard and Storm, both members of the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont., were in a Bison armoured personnel carrier when a suicide bomber in a car drove alongside and detonated his explosives. The Bison had left the Kandahar air base just minutes earlier.
It was the first deadly strike against Canadian troops in Afghanistan in six weeks, shattering a period of relative calm.
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Afghanistan: a chance or a trap for NATO?
18:48 | 01/ 12/ 2006
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MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Alexander Bogatyrev) - Afghanistan is one country where Russia is ready to cooperate with NATO, as the latest meeting of the NATO-Russia Council showed. The bloc, however, needed time to mull the offer over.
The first day of the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, which discussed Afghanistan, provided the answer.
Afghanistan is a complicated and painful problem for the organization. Some say the country will decide its future. Five years after the beginning of the operation, NATO is coordinating the international effort in Afghanistan. This removes the ambiguity that prevailed when U.S. and NATO troops acted separately even though the Untied States is a NATO member.
The operation in Afghanistan was expected to give NATO a second lease on life after the end of the Cold War. The Taliban seemed to be the answer to the question of the bloc's objectives and adversaries.
But the meeting in Riga showed that Afghanistan is turning out to be an unbearably high price to pay for the preservation and expansion of the bloc.
At present NATO has to ensure security both in the relatively calm northern provinces of the country and in the south and southeast, where the Taliban are the true masters. Their autumn offensive proved that they have reinforced their positions and are gradually changing their tactics, going over from a guerrilla war to well-organized offensive and defensive operations. Moreover, they are now more frequently attacking in large groups of 300-400.
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6 Taliban militants killed in S. Afghanistan
December 01, 2006
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Afghan police killed six Taliban insurgents in Zabul province of southern Afghanistan, a local official told Xinhua on Friday.
The police clashed with some Taliban militants in Share Safa district of the province on Thursday night, said Mohammad Rassoul, the district police chief.
Six insurgents were killed and two others arrested, he said, adding there were no casualties of the police.
Zabul has been a hotbed of Taliban insurgents, who clash with Afghan and NATO troops frequently.
Due to rising Taliban-linked violence this year, Afghanistan has plunged into the worst spate of bloodshed since the Taliban regime was toppled nearly five years ago.
Over 3,800 people, mostly Taliban militants, have been killed in this volatile country this year.
Source: Xinhua
End
Royal Marines in Afghanistan misled by £3,000 rise blunder
01 December 2006
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A Defence Minister accepted yesterday that Royal Marines serving in Afghanistan will have been left "disappointed and upset" after having been led to believe they were getting big increases in their allowances.
More than 4,000 marines were led to believe they were getting a £3,000 bonus. But the Ministry of Defence has since realised the error made by Royal Navy administrators and says the marines will not get the extra money.
Defence Minister Derek Twigg, helping to send off Christmas gift boxes to forces from Regent's Park Barracks in London, said: "A mistake was made but the Navy have done a good job in dealing with it.
"The error was spotted before the money was paid. I can understand that some of the Royal Marines expecting this will be
disappointed and upset about it.
I understand how they might
feel.
"But it doesn't detract from the admiration we hold them in in terms of the job they are doing, which has been recognised by the operational bonuses which will be paid to them.
They are a tremendous professional organisation and I believe they will continue to do a very difficult job in difficult circumstances."
The MoD said earlier that the change in the way the allowance was paid aimed to make it simpler to pay.
It said: "The Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel will be paid under joint Personnel Agency arrangements from this month. Regrettably, the internal Royal Navy instruction was wrong and some personnel are disappointed that they will not receive this substantial uplift."
The marines were told they could receive up to £17 extra a day over six months.
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Ten Taliban killed, two commanders seized in Afghanistan
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KANDAHAR: NATO and Afghan troops killed 10 Taliban rebels and captured two suspected militant leaders in a raid on an alleged suicide bomb cell in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Friday.
One NATO soldier was lightly wounded in the operation carried out early Thursday in the troubled Sangin district of Helmand province, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The identity of the suspected insurgent commanders captured in the raid was not revealed.
An ISAF statement said troops seized two suicide vests, several rocket propelled grenades and a cache of equipment and weapons "that were ready to be used in future attacks".
Warplanes and helicopters backed up the troops in the operation, it said, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
End
Feature: World Bank-UN Report Offers Grim Assessment of Afghanistan Opium Battle, Says Winning Will Take Decades, Not Years
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Printer Friendly Version Email this Articlefrom Drug War Chronicle, Issue #463, 12/1/06
The effort to wipe out opium production has achieved limited success at best, hurt the poorest Afghans, and riddled the government with corruption from top to bottom, according to a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the United Nations and the World Bank.
"Afghanistan's Opium Economy" says the counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan is failing and the presence of opium in the national economy is so great that it infiltrates not only the economy, but the Afghan state, politics, and society. Providing a real alternative will take decades, not years, the study warns.
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Refocusing on Afghanistan
Lance Dickie / Seattle Times editorial columnistFriday, December 1, 2006
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The spoils of victory and the responsibilities of victory. Each is a manifestation of Democratic control of Congress, and Washington Sen. Patty Murray carries the expectations and weight of both.
First, let me say, she looks terrific in a hard hat.
Murray was in Seattle this week and she sported neither a stingy brim nor a stingy attitude. Along with her OSHA chapeau she brought U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and $750 million in glad tidings for Sound Transit's University Link extension.
Portland's light rail, the envy of Seattle, comes to mind. The system was launched and nurtured by Oregon's long-time Republican senator, Mark Hatfield, when he and the GOP ran things in the 1980s and 1990s. This is what it feels like.
The ghosts of Maggie and Scoop are looking over Murray's shoulder, and they are saying, "Good job." Washington's senior senator picked up an Appropriations Subcommittee gavel with the Democrats' big win last month, and she was elevated into Senate leadership, which sets the agenda.
Congress has a daunting to-do list, and I am starting to hate the word refocus, with its echo of costly sins of omission in public policy. Murray used the word in a conversation with The Seattle Times' editorial board. The question was about Afghanistan.
The United States has been focused on Iraq to our peril in Afghanistan, the senator said, and time has come to refocus on that volatile region.
NATO thinks the same thing. The topic dominated a summit meeting this week in Riga, Latvia. An informed observer, a retired American general and former supreme allied commander in Europe, described events in Afghanistan as "reaching a critical juncture." Read that to mean things are about to fall apart.
NATO has 32,000 troops in the country. Five years after the U.S.-led effort to subdue the Taliban and destroy safe havens for terrorists, the mission and enthusiasm have gotten fuzzy. So has the sense of shared burden.
Only the U.S., Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have combat troops in the south, where the attacks by resurgent Taliban are the most severe. Germany, France and other NATO elements are ensconced in the north and largely refuse to budge. Canada is making a righteous noise about the lopsided share of its troops killed in action, including 36 this year.
Why is there any civilian tolerance for the murder of the peacemakers — the peacekeepers, the bearers of humanitarian aid and advocates for a civil society — by a revived Taliban? These oppressive religious extremists were shoved aside by a relieved nation in 2001.
On one level, the U.S. cannot be matched for military might or good intentions. We can rally the most powerful forces on Earth, and they are organized and overseen by skilled, effective people.
Our leaders — and the indictment is broader than those now in the White House — have two problems overseas: They are culturally clueless and they are easily distracted. They have the attention span of a gnat. The Bush administration gave up on talking to parts of the world for years.
Sainted Tony Blair talks about political solutions, but the U.S. and kindred spirits have a knack for backing the wrong horse. The Taliban enjoy renewed authority because what passes for a central government is inept, corrupt and worse. A U.N. report talks about enabling the opium trade.
Why would Afghanis with a stake in a better future countenance the loathsome Taliban attacking NATO forces? Well, the Taliban might be SOBs, but they are not the foreign infidels who came to visit and never left. Cultural and religious sensibilities exist that we do not get.
I supported the charge into Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, something of a first for me. Usually, diplomacy is not allowed to work, but a hard military punch can have salutary effects; look at the NATO bombing in Kosovo. Punishing, liberating and rebuilding Afghanistan made sense. Five years later, we are still dying there.
I do not expect much out of those who control foreign policy — the Bush White House — but I want those refocused Democrats to explain why Afghanistan remains important to U.S. interests.
It falls to Sen. Murray to ask the questions and return with the answers. Along, of course, with those fat checks.
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Czech army to send field hospital to Afghanistan - press
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Prague- The Defence Ministry wants to send its 6th field hospital with up to 80 military doctors to Afghanistan next year, the daily Pravo writes citing Defence Minister Jiri Sedivy.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus promised at the NATO summit in Riga on Wednesday that the Czech participation in the military mission in Afghanistan would be strengthened.
The army's present plan did not include sending a field hospital. Sedivy said that the army reacted to the request of the British commanders of NATO.
"The hospital is likely to be deployed within the international airport in Kabul," the minister told Pravo.
Sedivy said that the army is able to send the hospital already in February. The step has yet to be approved by the government and parliament.
The Czech field hospital was deployed within missions in Albania, Iraq, and Turkey, and in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003. It can daily carry out 10 serious operations, treat 160 patients, and hospitalise 40 injured.
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A voice for Afghanistan
First female Afghan camerawoman speaks up for silenced women
Emily Senger News Editor November 30, 2006
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The images of Afghan women presented in western media paint a picture of silent, ghostly beings, floating in shrouds of blue burqas, eyes hidden and faces closed to the world. But one brave woman's documentary is challenging these Western misconceptions to provide a face and a voice for the silent struggles of millions of Afghan women.
Twenty-four year-old filmmaker Mehria Azizi and Afganh radio-journalist Najeeba Ayubi came to the University of Calgary Thur., Nov. 23 to screen Azizi's documentary Afghanistan Unveiled. The film is the first made by Afghan camerawomen, and the pair used it as an opportunity to speak out about the importance of free press in a nation marred by five years of oppressive Taliban rule.
"From my side, it's more important that Afghan women should come to other countries," said Azizi. "If you see this movie you will find that Afghan people, still they have difficulties in the world. They are under the pressure of the culture, under the pressure of economic problems, under the pressure of educational problems. The men and women, both of them, but especially women. I do this for the poor people in hopes the international community, the media, they should help Afghanistan because, still, we need them."
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EU completes 1 billion euro aid pledge to Afghanistan
December 01, 2006
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The European Commission committed 20.6 million euros' aid to Afghanistan on Thursday, completing its 1 billion pledge over five years to support the central Asian country.
Among the final commitments, 10.6 million euros will be used to support Afghanistan's provincial governance and improve service delivery to the local population under the framework of Provincial Reconstruction Teams, while another 10 million euros will be spent on the Afghanistan Variety and Seed Industry Development Project.
With these two decisions, the European Commission has fulfilled its pledge made in 2002 to provide 1 billion euros over five years to support the reconstruction and development process in Afghanistan.
"In 2002 the European Commission promised to be a steadfast partner for Afghanistan. Today we have kept our promise in full, and ahead of schedule," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy.
As of today, around 80 percent of the money committed is already paid out.
The largest part worth 265 million euros is used to support public administration and security sector reform in Afghanistan, covering salaries of 266 thousand civil servants and 66 thousand police personnel.
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