The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (March 2007)
News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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Articles found March 1, 2007
Salesmen for Afghanistan
Embassy, February 28th, 2007 By Lee Berthiaume
Article Link
Talking about an early Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan encourages the insurgency and will only drag out the mission as Afghans wonder which side to support.
That was the message two Canadians, one working for the UN and the other NATO, brought to Ottawa as they testified on Parliament Hill and spoke before a who's-who of Canadian foreign and military policymakers yesterday.
"The major challenge for all of us today is to show resolve, to show will, and to demonstrate unity of effort," Christopher Alexander, deputy representative of UN secretary-general for Afghanistan, told members of the Standing Committee on National Defence.
"If we are rushing for the exit, if we are trying to cut things short, if we are flagging in our commitment to achieving the objectives...we will be giving comfort to the enemies of this transition and we will be undermining the achievements and the effort that is underway today to bring stability to Afghanistan."
Over the past year, Canada's role in Afghanistan has been the subject of heated debate across the country.
Canada has committed $1.2 billion to reconstruction efforts within the Central Asian country through to 2011, including $200 million announced by the government on Monday. At the same time, about 2,500 Canadian soldiers are operating in Afghanistan, with the government committed to staying until at least 2009.
While the Conservative government has stood firm on Canada's commitments to Afghanistan, opposition parties have called for everything from a shift away from combat operations towards reconstruction to outright withdrawal.
With such divisions, there was a perception that Mr. Alexander and NATO spokesman James Appathurai, both of whom will be in Toronto today for more presentations, are in the country to sell the mission's progress.
"Afghanistan will not succeed unless countries like Canada remain committed," Mr. Alexander said when asked whether he was in Canada to shore up support for the mission.
"We hope to continue a debate and show people that the past five years...have yielded a result," he added. "And if we're prepared to make more investments, than we will make more progress."
During their presentation to the defence committee, the two men said the mission will take a long time, with Mr. Alexander citing one study that found insurgencies take on average 14 years to lose and 17 years to win.
More on link
Family of Korean soldier killed in Afghanistan leaves for Kuwait
SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap)
Article Link
South Korea sent a delegation on Thursday to Kuwait to bring back the body of a South Korean soldier killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan, officials said.
The delegation included seven family members of Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho, who was killed in a suicide bombing Tuesday, officials said. Yoon's body will arrive at a Seoul airport Friday morning.
Yoon, 27, was among about two dozen people killed in the suicide bombing Tuesday in Bagram, north of Kabul.
The soldier was the first South Korean serviceman killed in an attack while on an overseas assignment since the country fought on the U.S. side during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.
The U.S. military transferred Yoon's body to Kuwait Wednesday on a C-17 transport plane and handed it over to South Korean defense officials, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
South Korea has deployed around 200 troops to Afghanistan since 2002 as part of a multinational force occupying the country.
More on link
Afghanistan: UN Monitor Cites 'Rapid Deterioration' As Drugs Spread
By Breffni O'Rourke (RFE/RL) March 1, 2007 (RFE/RL)
Article Link
The international body that monitors the implementation of UN antidrug efforts has warned that Afghanistan is failing to make progress on drug control; on the contrary, things are getting worse.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) concludes in its annual report that iIlicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached record levels in 2006.
It adds that, apart from exporting narcotic substances, Afghans are themselves falling victim to drug dependency.
The INCB also says a full one-third of the Afghan economy is based on the production of narcotics, and that this is contributing inexorably to the corruption gripping the country.
Message For Kabul
The Vienna-based board says it is "seriously concerned" at the deterioration in drugs control. It also calls on the government of President Hamid Karzai to urgently address this problem with the help of the international community, particularly donor countries.
The report says that the production of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, has grown by almost half in the past year.
"Illicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has reached record levels -- the highest level in history in 2006 -- and this is a main concern of the board," INCB spokeswoman Liqin Zhu tells RFE/RL.
The opium crop is estimated at a massive 6,100 tons, making Afghanistan by far the largest producer of opium in the world.
Afghanistan is more than just the source of much of the heroin flooding into North America and Europe. It is itself falling victim to drug consumption. The board says a nationwide survey of drug abuse in Afghanistan in early 2006 revealed that the country has 1 million drug users -- 60,000 of whom are children under the age of 15.
More on link
Bomb blast in western Afghanistan kills 3 civilians, wounds up to 48
Amir Shah Canadian Press Thursday, March 01, 2007
Article Link
KABUL (AP) - A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said Thursday.
The blast targeted a passing police vehicle in the city of Farah, killing the civilians, wounding 10 children and dozens of construction workers, said Mohammad Qasem Bayan, the chief of public health department for Farah province. The attack happened in the city centre, near a school, Bayan said.
The police vehicle was slightly damaged and two officers were also wounded, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the ministry of interior.
"It is the work of enemies of Afghanistan," Bashary said, suggesting that resurgent Taliban militants were behind the attack.
Western Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence rocking the country's south and east, but that area lays on a major route for heroin smuggling into Iran.
Last week, suspected Taliban militants briefly took over one of the districts of Farah province after police fled the posts. That followed a roadside attack last Sunday on the province's police chief on his return from destroying poppy fields. The police chief was unharmed, but four other officers in the vehicle were killed and two wounded.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium poppy. In 2006, production in the country rose 49 per cent to 6,000 tonnes - enough to make about 600 tonnes of heroin.
More on link
"No one is doing enough to curb Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan"
Malaysia Sun Thursday 1st March, 2007 (ANI)
Article Link
Kabul, Mar 1 : British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said that no one was doing enough to tackle a Taliban-led insurgency gripping Afghanistan. He said this in reply to a question if Islamabad was doing enough against rebels on its soil.
"I would say in all sincerity that no one is doing enough to tackle the security problems," the Daily Times quoted her as saying while referring to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Britain.
She added: "If we were doing enough then we would have had a great deal more success than we have had so far. It is very important for us to do more together and to cooperate together to tackle these problems because they cause such harm whether it be in Pakistan itself or in Afghanistan."
Beckett said this while addressing reporters after meeting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.
She had arrived in Kabul on Tuesday after US Vice President Dick Cheney flew out following a visit marred by a suicide attack at Bagram Air Base outside the capital where he had spent the night. At least 20 people, including three foreigners, were killed in the blast
More on link
Pak girds for blowback on Al Qaeda intelligence(Reuters)
1 March 2007
Article Link
ISLAMABAD - It has been an extraordinarily bloody start to 2007 in Pakistan, and analysts, intelligence officials and ordinary Pakistanis fear it is likely to get worse.
US Vice President Dick Cheney this week asked President Pervez Musharraf to stop Al Qaeda rebuilding in Pakistani tribal lands and stem the flow of Taleban fighters going to Afghanistan for a spring offensive against NATO and Afghan troops.
“The Americans will have said: ‘If we find a camp, either you go in and destroy it, or we do it ourselves’,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times.
President George W. Bush is being asked to push Pakistan harder, not just by the American media, the think-tanks, but also by unhappy NATO allies, his own generals, and most recently Democrat lawmakers who want to make aid to Pakistan contingent on counter-terrorism results.
“There’s growing uneasiness, not only among Democrats and not only on Capitol Hill, that things are going in a wrong direction in Pakistan,” Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, said.
Success against Al Qaeda and in Afghanistan depends on Pakistani support.
More on link
Afghanistan: Bomb threat pre-dated Cheney visit
By ASSOCIATED PRESS Mar. 1, 2007 3:03
Article Link
Intelligence reports indicated that the Taliban had the ability to carry out suicide attacks near the main US base in Afghanistan even before a bloody bombing during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney, NATO said.
Col. Tom Collins, the top spokesman for NATO's force in Afghanistan, said suicide bomb cells were present in the capital, Kabul, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Bagram Air Base.
"We know for a fact that there has been recent intelligence to suggest that there was the threat of a bombing in the Bagram area," Collins told reporters Wednesday. "It's clear that there are suicide bomber cells operating in this country. There are some in the city of Kabul."
More on link
Britain sending Warrior missiles to Afghanistan
Article Link
LONDON: Britain is sending its 70km range missiles to Afghanistan for targeting the Taliban, who are reportedly regrouping for launching a spring offensive.
Britain also plans to deploy most of its additional troops near the Pakistani border to fight the Taliban who are reported to be regularly crossing into Afghanistan.
The UK used the ‘Warrior’ missiles in both the Gulf wars (1991 and 2003) against Iraqi army and now these are being introduced in Afghanistan for the first time since the war began in 2001 in a bid to punish Taliban, and might target tribal people living along the long Pak-Afghan border.
The Times has quoted Defence sources as saying that the Warrior is a precision weapon to be used to target Taliban positions. The Warrior, which weighs 37 tonnes, is unlikely to be used for protecting long-range patrols besides troops in combat operations.
The extra firepower will be sent to Afghanistan along with 1,400 more troops. The reinforcements will include heavy armour, rockets and additional ground-attack aircraft. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, told the House of Commons that the extra troops and firepower were needed to support the British force already in the Helmand province, in the south.
Browne said he was forced to take the decision because other Nato partners had failed to offer extra troops. The reinforcements will start arriving in Afghanistan in May for deployment through the early summer. The battle group will consist of the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh Regiment, formerly known as the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The list of extra equipment includes Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicles and multiple-launch rocket systems, which are both being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time. Also included are four more Harrier GR9s, to be used as bombers in a support role for ground troops, and four extra Sea King helicopters. Another C130 Hercules transport aircraft is also being sent.
The extra battle group announced by Browne will increase the size of the British military presence in Afghanistan to 7,700. This level will be maintained, under present planning assumptions, until 2009.
More on link
NATO off course, report concludes
GLORIA GALLOWAY From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Article Link
OTTAWA — A former Canadian ambassador to NATO says the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and it will require negotiation with the Taliban to bring an end to the conflict.
Gordon Smith, who was Canada's NATO ambassador between 1985 and 1990, and a team of experts from across Canada will release a report tomorrow that says the current NATO policies are not on course to achieve the objectives of peace and stability in the country, "even within a period of 10 years."
Dr. Smith, who is also a former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and is now director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, says recent announcements that will bring NATO's troop complement in Afghanistan to 37,000 will have little impact.
"One of the experts that we asked about how many troops would be needed for a military victory said, 'Oh, maybe half a million.' So adding a couple of thousand is wonderful but it doesn't do anything."
More on link
News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!
Articles found March 1, 2007
Salesmen for Afghanistan
Embassy, February 28th, 2007 By Lee Berthiaume
Article Link
Talking about an early Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan encourages the insurgency and will only drag out the mission as Afghans wonder which side to support.
That was the message two Canadians, one working for the UN and the other NATO, brought to Ottawa as they testified on Parliament Hill and spoke before a who's-who of Canadian foreign and military policymakers yesterday.
"The major challenge for all of us today is to show resolve, to show will, and to demonstrate unity of effort," Christopher Alexander, deputy representative of UN secretary-general for Afghanistan, told members of the Standing Committee on National Defence.
"If we are rushing for the exit, if we are trying to cut things short, if we are flagging in our commitment to achieving the objectives...we will be giving comfort to the enemies of this transition and we will be undermining the achievements and the effort that is underway today to bring stability to Afghanistan."
Over the past year, Canada's role in Afghanistan has been the subject of heated debate across the country.
Canada has committed $1.2 billion to reconstruction efforts within the Central Asian country through to 2011, including $200 million announced by the government on Monday. At the same time, about 2,500 Canadian soldiers are operating in Afghanistan, with the government committed to staying until at least 2009.
While the Conservative government has stood firm on Canada's commitments to Afghanistan, opposition parties have called for everything from a shift away from combat operations towards reconstruction to outright withdrawal.
With such divisions, there was a perception that Mr. Alexander and NATO spokesman James Appathurai, both of whom will be in Toronto today for more presentations, are in the country to sell the mission's progress.
"Afghanistan will not succeed unless countries like Canada remain committed," Mr. Alexander said when asked whether he was in Canada to shore up support for the mission.
"We hope to continue a debate and show people that the past five years...have yielded a result," he added. "And if we're prepared to make more investments, than we will make more progress."
During their presentation to the defence committee, the two men said the mission will take a long time, with Mr. Alexander citing one study that found insurgencies take on average 14 years to lose and 17 years to win.
More on link
Family of Korean soldier killed in Afghanistan leaves for Kuwait
SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap)
Article Link
South Korea sent a delegation on Thursday to Kuwait to bring back the body of a South Korean soldier killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan, officials said.
The delegation included seven family members of Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho, who was killed in a suicide bombing Tuesday, officials said. Yoon's body will arrive at a Seoul airport Friday morning.
Yoon, 27, was among about two dozen people killed in the suicide bombing Tuesday in Bagram, north of Kabul.
The soldier was the first South Korean serviceman killed in an attack while on an overseas assignment since the country fought on the U.S. side during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.
The U.S. military transferred Yoon's body to Kuwait Wednesday on a C-17 transport plane and handed it over to South Korean defense officials, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
South Korea has deployed around 200 troops to Afghanistan since 2002 as part of a multinational force occupying the country.
More on link
Afghanistan: UN Monitor Cites 'Rapid Deterioration' As Drugs Spread
By Breffni O'Rourke (RFE/RL) March 1, 2007 (RFE/RL)
Article Link
The international body that monitors the implementation of UN antidrug efforts has warned that Afghanistan is failing to make progress on drug control; on the contrary, things are getting worse.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) concludes in its annual report that iIlicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached record levels in 2006.
It adds that, apart from exporting narcotic substances, Afghans are themselves falling victim to drug dependency.
The INCB also says a full one-third of the Afghan economy is based on the production of narcotics, and that this is contributing inexorably to the corruption gripping the country.
Message For Kabul
The Vienna-based board says it is "seriously concerned" at the deterioration in drugs control. It also calls on the government of President Hamid Karzai to urgently address this problem with the help of the international community, particularly donor countries.
The report says that the production of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, has grown by almost half in the past year.
"Illicit opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has reached record levels -- the highest level in history in 2006 -- and this is a main concern of the board," INCB spokeswoman Liqin Zhu tells RFE/RL.
The opium crop is estimated at a massive 6,100 tons, making Afghanistan by far the largest producer of opium in the world.
Afghanistan is more than just the source of much of the heroin flooding into North America and Europe. It is itself falling victim to drug consumption. The board says a nationwide survey of drug abuse in Afghanistan in early 2006 revealed that the country has 1 million drug users -- 60,000 of whom are children under the age of 15.
More on link
Bomb blast in western Afghanistan kills 3 civilians, wounds up to 48
Amir Shah Canadian Press Thursday, March 01, 2007
Article Link
KABUL (AP) - A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said Thursday.
The blast targeted a passing police vehicle in the city of Farah, killing the civilians, wounding 10 children and dozens of construction workers, said Mohammad Qasem Bayan, the chief of public health department for Farah province. The attack happened in the city centre, near a school, Bayan said.
The police vehicle was slightly damaged and two officers were also wounded, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the ministry of interior.
"It is the work of enemies of Afghanistan," Bashary said, suggesting that resurgent Taliban militants were behind the attack.
Western Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence rocking the country's south and east, but that area lays on a major route for heroin smuggling into Iran.
Last week, suspected Taliban militants briefly took over one of the districts of Farah province after police fled the posts. That followed a roadside attack last Sunday on the province's police chief on his return from destroying poppy fields. The police chief was unharmed, but four other officers in the vehicle were killed and two wounded.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium poppy. In 2006, production in the country rose 49 per cent to 6,000 tonnes - enough to make about 600 tonnes of heroin.
More on link
"No one is doing enough to curb Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan"
Malaysia Sun Thursday 1st March, 2007 (ANI)
Article Link
Kabul, Mar 1 : British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has said that no one was doing enough to tackle a Taliban-led insurgency gripping Afghanistan. He said this in reply to a question if Islamabad was doing enough against rebels on its soil.
"I would say in all sincerity that no one is doing enough to tackle the security problems," the Daily Times quoted her as saying while referring to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Britain.
She added: "If we were doing enough then we would have had a great deal more success than we have had so far. It is very important for us to do more together and to cooperate together to tackle these problems because they cause such harm whether it be in Pakistan itself or in Afghanistan."
Beckett said this while addressing reporters after meeting Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta.
She had arrived in Kabul on Tuesday after US Vice President Dick Cheney flew out following a visit marred by a suicide attack at Bagram Air Base outside the capital where he had spent the night. At least 20 people, including three foreigners, were killed in the blast
More on link
Pak girds for blowback on Al Qaeda intelligence(Reuters)
1 March 2007
Article Link
ISLAMABAD - It has been an extraordinarily bloody start to 2007 in Pakistan, and analysts, intelligence officials and ordinary Pakistanis fear it is likely to get worse.
US Vice President Dick Cheney this week asked President Pervez Musharraf to stop Al Qaeda rebuilding in Pakistani tribal lands and stem the flow of Taleban fighters going to Afghanistan for a spring offensive against NATO and Afghan troops.
“The Americans will have said: ‘If we find a camp, either you go in and destroy it, or we do it ourselves’,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times.
President George W. Bush is being asked to push Pakistan harder, not just by the American media, the think-tanks, but also by unhappy NATO allies, his own generals, and most recently Democrat lawmakers who want to make aid to Pakistan contingent on counter-terrorism results.
“There’s growing uneasiness, not only among Democrats and not only on Capitol Hill, that things are going in a wrong direction in Pakistan,” Robert Hathaway, director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, said.
Success against Al Qaeda and in Afghanistan depends on Pakistani support.
More on link
Afghanistan: Bomb threat pre-dated Cheney visit
By ASSOCIATED PRESS Mar. 1, 2007 3:03
Article Link
Intelligence reports indicated that the Taliban had the ability to carry out suicide attacks near the main US base in Afghanistan even before a bloody bombing during a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney, NATO said.
Col. Tom Collins, the top spokesman for NATO's force in Afghanistan, said suicide bomb cells were present in the capital, Kabul, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Bagram Air Base.
"We know for a fact that there has been recent intelligence to suggest that there was the threat of a bombing in the Bagram area," Collins told reporters Wednesday. "It's clear that there are suicide bomber cells operating in this country. There are some in the city of Kabul."
More on link
Britain sending Warrior missiles to Afghanistan
Article Link
LONDON: Britain is sending its 70km range missiles to Afghanistan for targeting the Taliban, who are reportedly regrouping for launching a spring offensive.
Britain also plans to deploy most of its additional troops near the Pakistani border to fight the Taliban who are reported to be regularly crossing into Afghanistan.
The UK used the ‘Warrior’ missiles in both the Gulf wars (1991 and 2003) against Iraqi army and now these are being introduced in Afghanistan for the first time since the war began in 2001 in a bid to punish Taliban, and might target tribal people living along the long Pak-Afghan border.
The Times has quoted Defence sources as saying that the Warrior is a precision weapon to be used to target Taliban positions. The Warrior, which weighs 37 tonnes, is unlikely to be used for protecting long-range patrols besides troops in combat operations.
The extra firepower will be sent to Afghanistan along with 1,400 more troops. The reinforcements will include heavy armour, rockets and additional ground-attack aircraft. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, told the House of Commons that the extra troops and firepower were needed to support the British force already in the Helmand province, in the south.
Browne said he was forced to take the decision because other Nato partners had failed to offer extra troops. The reinforcements will start arriving in Afghanistan in May for deployment through the early summer. The battle group will consist of the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh Regiment, formerly known as the Royal Welch Fusiliers.
The list of extra equipment includes Warrior armoured infantry fighting vehicles and multiple-launch rocket systems, which are both being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time. Also included are four more Harrier GR9s, to be used as bombers in a support role for ground troops, and four extra Sea King helicopters. Another C130 Hercules transport aircraft is also being sent.
The extra battle group announced by Browne will increase the size of the British military presence in Afghanistan to 7,700. This level will be maintained, under present planning assumptions, until 2009.
More on link
NATO off course, report concludes
GLORIA GALLOWAY From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Article Link
OTTAWA — A former Canadian ambassador to NATO says the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and it will require negotiation with the Taliban to bring an end to the conflict.
Gordon Smith, who was Canada's NATO ambassador between 1985 and 1990, and a team of experts from across Canada will release a report tomorrow that says the current NATO policies are not on course to achieve the objectives of peace and stability in the country, "even within a period of 10 years."
Dr. Smith, who is also a former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and is now director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, says recent announcements that will bring NATO's troop complement in Afghanistan to 37,000 will have little impact.
"One of the experts that we asked about how many troops would be needed for a military victory said, 'Oh, maybe half a million.' So adding a couple of thousand is wonderful but it doesn't do anything."
More on link
