Afghanistan Invites Tenders for an Optical Fiber Ring (June 16)
In a new step to modernize telecommunication system in the post-war Afghanistan, the government has invited bids to construct a nationwide optical fiber ring in the country, communication minister Amirzai Sangin said Wednesday. "The ministry of communication invites sealed bids for building a nationwide fiber optic ring telecommunications backbone network in Afghanistan," he told journalists at a press conference. Interested companies, should <a href="http://www.moc.gov.af">submit their applications </a>before 10 am of 10th August 2005. Added by Leila Search-Zalmai June 20, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

PhotoVoice - Afghanistan
"PhotoVoice seeks to encourage the use of documentary photography by enabling those that have traditionally been the subject of such work to become its creator – to have control over how they are perceived by the rest of the world, while simultaneously learning a new skill which can enhance their lives." Added by Nadia Afrin June 17, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

  Business and Economic Journalism Workshop
Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) Afghanistan and Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) Afghanistan are pleased to announce the 2nd Business and Economic Journalism Workshop to be held June 18 – June 30, 2005. Added by Nadia Afrin June 16, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS)
IMPACS Afghanistan works to encourage the development of free and fair media in Afghanistan. It focuses its work on women’s participation in media, and the use of media as a tool to educate women. Since August 2002, IMPACS has established four independent women-managed radio stations and a newspaper. Added by Nadia Afrin June 16, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Asian Development Bank to Help Conserve Ecosystems and Wildlife Resources in Afghanistan
Summary of ADB article: "The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help conserve biodiversity in selected protected areas of Afghanistan while addressing the basic needs of communities in the buffer zones, through a technical assistance (TA) grant package approved for US$1.785 million." (June 10 ,2005) Added by Nadia Afrin June 16, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Oxfam Assisting Afghan Potters
Summary of Oxfam article: "Oxfam America and its partner, ACTED, are helping 30 Afghan potters improve the quality of their ceramics, as well as increase their income." Added by Nadia Afrin June 15, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR)
Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief (ACBAR), is an umbrella organization representing 88 national and international humanitarian organizations working in Afghanistan. It was formed in 1988 in response to a need within the NGO community to coordinate their activities, avoid duplication of work and ensure effective use of resources. Added by Nadia Afrin June 14, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Afghaniscam
This article looks into the disconnect between the fairly high aid spending in Afghanistan and the reltively slow pace of reconstruction. It tries to answer these crucial questions: "Where is all the money going in Afghanistan? And how much of it is actually reaching the people it is intended for?" (Der Spiegel, Mar 30, 2005) Added by Nadia Afrin June 13, 2005 Add your comments! Read comments of others

Tuesday 21.06.2005, CET 09:47


June 21, 2005 6:05 AM

Stable Afghanistan needs to be secured - Australia

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The end of Australian peacekeeping missions to East Timor and the Solomon Islands gave Australia's defense forces more flexibility for a deployment back to Afghanistan, Defense Minister Robert Hill said on Tuesday.

New Zealand on June 2 committed 50 Special Air Services forces for a third deployment to Afghanistan and Hill confirmed the Australian government was also considering sending forces to help stabilize the country.

"I think what's been achieved in Afghanistan is tremendous, but it needs to be consolidated," Hill told reporters. "Whether Australia makes another contribution is something cabinet will have to decide in due course."

Australia sent special forces troops and air support for the initial stages of the war on terror in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but withdrew its forces in 2002 following the fall of the Afghan Taliban regime.

The Australian newspaper has said Australia is considering a force of between 250 and 700 for Afghanistan, along with more civil aid to help Afghanistan's reconstruction. A decision would be made in July.

Australia still has 1,370 defense personnel in and around Iraq, but troop numbers in East Timor have fallen to fewer than 100 from an initial 5,000 in 1999, while only about 40 Australian defense personnel remain in the Solomon Islands.

"So in some ways, there is a little bit more flexibility than there was a year or two ago," Hill said.

An analysis of Australian views on security last week found 58 percent of Australians supported military assistance to the U.S.-led war on terror, while only 14 percent disagreed.

The United States commands an 18,300-strong international force, most of whom are American, fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and hunting their leaders, including al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than 70 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action and more than 400 wounded in Afghanistan since 2001, while U.S. and Afghan government figures show about 150 insurgents have been killed this year.

U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai won a presidential election last October, and parliamentary elections are due to be held in the country on Sept. 18.

Reuters

Got a link?
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Not hard to do. So why would I bother giving you a link when the source is listed?
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Well, for starters, a link has become traditional under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law.  And I myself would be curious about your source for your first piece.  It sounds like PR blurbs from the Afghan Development Fund or something.
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Well, for starters, a link has become traditional under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law.  And I myself would be curious about your source for your first piece.  It sounds like PR blurbs from the Afghan Development Fund or something.
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1 Afghanistan's struggle with urban reconstruction    See details and comment
Cities are expected to play a leading role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, yet financial support for urban development lags behind other strategic sectors. “Most of the projects in the areas of urban planning, management and housing require funding,” said Mr. Yousaf Pashtun, Minister for Urban Development and Housing, while presenting the Government’s urban development budget to the international community during the 13-14 March 2003 Afghanistan Development Forum. Given the current state of Afghanistan’s cities, measured against their potential contribution to political stability and economic growth, this situation calls for urgent action. Simply put, Afghanistan’s cities have collapsed. Twenty-three years of conflict and chronic under-investment have devastated the urban housing stock and the country’s physical infrastructure. UN-HABITAT has been supporting the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (MUDH) in preparation of a comprehensive Urban Reconstruction Plan during the last quarter of 2002 to outline the scope and the scale of the reconstruction challenge. 03 Feb 2005 Urban Age Institute
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2 Shelter for Life/Builders Without Borders Housing in Afghanistan    See details and comment
}Builders Without Borders (BWB) and Shelter for Life (SFL) have recently partnered on a housing project in Afghanistan. They have already completed 9,000 houses, and numerous schools, roads and wells. Now they are in the process of building 30,000 houses in Kabul. BWB is providing the technical assistance to improve the designs and construction processes." 07 Sep 2004 Nadia Afrin
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3 UN-HABITAT Afghanistan    See details and comment
UN-HABITAT in Afghanistan is involved in urban reconstruciton efforts, developing land management strategies, constructing shelters, upgrading neighborhoods, improving waste management etc 07 Sep 2004 Nadia Afrin
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4 Polystyrene Homes Planned for Afghans    See details and comment
Summary: "The Federation of American Scientists (FAS)set a challenge for the scientific community - design a house that is affordable, energy efficient, and earthquake-resistant." FAS is looking into making earthquake resistant houses in Afghanistan 27 Aug 2004 Nadia Afrin
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5 Afghanistan: UNHCR shelter programme helping more than 100,000    See details and comment
Summary: "The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is moving forward with its shelter programme to provide 20,500 housing units for Afghan returnees this year. While over 3.6 million refugees have returned over the past two years, lack of accomodation remains a huge problem for most returnees." 10 Aug 2004 Nadia Afrin
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6  Trading in Power: The Politics of "Free" Markets in Afghanistan    See details and comment
This AREU briefing paper challenges policymakers to better understand how markets operate in Afghanistan and to consider the political implications of economic growth that is neither equitable nor free. Based on World Bank-funded case studies of the raisin, carpet and construction industries, the authors found that a small group of businessmen, with close links to political and military elites, increasingly dominate major trading activities in the country and squeeze out smaller competitors. 22 Jun 2004 Brandy Bauer
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7 Water and Other Concerns Facing a Village    See details and comment
In this article published in Relief Web, on Feb 17 2004, Jessica Barry reports, "the village of Rabat Saheb Zadeh may lie only 30 minutes drive from the city of Herat in western Afghanistan, but as far as the 100 families who live in its sturdy mud-brick houses are concerned, it stands at the end of the world." 18 Feb 2004 Sanya Younossi
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8 Afghan Returnees Step Up House Building As Temperatures Dip (UN Human Rights Committee, 24 Oct 2003)    See details and comment
KABUL, Afghanistan - The UNHRC reports that, "As temperatures drop in Afghanistan, returnees have intensified efforts to rebuild their homes under a UNHCR-funded initiative that has so far provided shelter to hundreds of thousands of families in their first winter back home. This year, the UN refugee agency is funding the construction of 52,000 basic homes across Afghanistan. So far, 13,000 shelters have been completed, with another 27,000 under construction. These include 1,500 individual units in Kabul, as well as the emergency rehabilitation of 24 public buildings in the capital that could house more than 270,000 needy returnees upon completion." 24 Oct 2003 Sanya Younossi
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9 Final project report (December 2002-May 2003): emergency winter fuel supply in Afghanistan    See details and comment
From the report: "SFL delivered 1,619,316 liters of kerosene (118% of target) and 665 metric tons of coal (100% of target), benefiting a total of 30,615 families (171% of target). This means that, assuming an average family consists of six persons, approximately 183,680 people benefited from this project." Shelter For Life (SFL), August 2003. (PDF, 408 KB) 23 Sep 2003 John Daly
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10 Afghan elite seizes land for mansions as poor lose homes (The Independent (UK), Sep 19, 2003)    See details and comment
According to Phil Reeves in Kabul, "International reconstruction efforts proceed at a snail's pace in much of the countryside, but steady progress is being made on scores of palatial homes in the capital's most prestigious neighbourhood. The affair is an embarrassment for the "transitional" government of Hamid Karzai, and for his chief sponsor, the United States, which is keen to declare Afghanistan a success, particularly after the disaster in Iraq. It has come to the boil just after President George Bush requested $800m (£500m) from Congress for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and as Afghan officials prepare to press the argument for more rebuilding funds to the US Treasury Secretary, John Snow, who arrived in Kabul yesterday. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission says all but four of Mr Karzai's 32 cabinet ministers have been given plots at Shir Pur village in Kabul, some of which the commission estimates are worth up to $170,000 - a reflection of soaring land prices in the post-Taliban capital..." 23 Sep 2003 Oleg Petrov
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11 Afghanistan: "Interview with UN Special Rapporteur on Housing' (IRIN, Sep 12 2003)    See details and comment
In his interview, Mr. Kothari stressed the importance of implementing a long-term strategy by a joint forces between both the international community and most importantly the Afghan government to adress the issue of housing. This lack of housing has contributed to an enviroment of insecurity and instability. 15 Sep 2003 Sanya Younossi
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12 AFGHANISTAN: Attack on road construction team kills six (IRIN, 1 Sep 2003)    See details and comment
The US based construction and engineering company Louis Berger Group (LBG) said that four people were killed and another four kidnapped when unidentified assailants attacked one of the company's guest houses on the Kabul-Kandahar road, about 100 km north of Kandahar on Monday 09 Sep 2003 Oleg Petrov
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13 AFGHANISTAN: Housing for widows (IRIN, 26 May 2003)    See details and comment
Zakiyah found her four-storey house completely burnt down after six years when she, her six orphaned grandchildren and other relatives returned to their destroyed town of Mir Bacheh Kowt, about 25 km north of the capital, Kabul, last month. Hundreds of other houses like Zakiyah's had also been set on fire by Taliban forces when Mir Bacheh Kowt found itself on the front line between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance (NA) in 1998... 27 May 2003 Oleg Petrov
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14 World Vision health centre under construction (20 May 2003)    See details and comment
"A basic health centre is currently under construction in nearby Pada, less than an hour away from Kucha. When it's completed this summer, the centre will give more than 43,000 people in nearby villages access to basic care, something they have little or no access to now. Only one-third of the country's approximately 1,000 health clinics are currently operational. Though its services are basic, the World Vision health centre promises to transform the area's health care. "You don't have to have a highly technical programme to make a huge difference in a rural area like Pada," explains Eleanor Cupit, World Vision Afghanistan Health Program manager. "Diseases and conditions that developed countries easily keep at bay are killers here, especially for children." 27 May 2003 Oleg Petrov
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15 AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Kabul housing shortage (IRIN, 22 May 2003)    See details and comment
Roaming damaged western Kabul, Laldana and her children were asking every passer-by if they had seen an unoccupied ruined building so that the homeless widow could live there with her seven-member family. "It is more than misfortune when you cannot find even vacant ruins to live," the mother of seven told IRIN in Kabul, noting she had come from Pakistan seven months ago and lived in a school building. "I am doing laundry for people and cannot save anything after paying for three meals to pay house rent," she noted. 27 May 2003 Oleg Petrov
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  16 items. Page 1 of 2

NS.

I've spent years trying to note how poorly we've manifested ourselves in Afghanistan. Underfunded and little focus on the real prize, ObL.

We really could have transformed Afghan. methinks.

But not by relying on drug lords to maintain rule. Little chance of transformation in that. Just more of the same old same old.
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On the contrary, hunin, you've spent years posting nothing but gloom and doom...eyes buried in some microscope perversely searching for a gnat on some Republican's ass.
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I have a gnat on my ass and I think I feel eyes on my cheeks.
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http://topics.developmentgateway.org/afghanistan

The other articles came from Reuters.
Afghan news is not all that hard to come by.
I just went to AfghanDaily.com and then hit the reconstruction link for some news on upcoming events and things of interest.
You can see news of continued fighting with Taliban elements, captured terrorists, foiled assasination plots, etc.
It's a pretty good picture of what's happening.
Like I said, it's not all bad news.
Some of it is even good news. Hard to see how they stay in business printing any good news about what's happening in their country.
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QALAT, Afghanistan -- When Spec. Nick Conlon and the other members of his infantry battalion learned they would be deployed to the Afghan province of Zabol this spring, many expected their worst enemy to be boredom. In preparation, Conlon stocked up on more than 20 DVDs, such as "Alien vs. Predator," "X-Men" and "Daredevil."

But in the three months since the battalion set up camp in this isolated, mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan, Conlon has not had time to watch a single movie. Instead, the battalion has found itself at the center of a heated though somewhat forgotten war that is still underway 3 1/2 years after the extremist Taliban militia was ousted from power.

The Taliban forces, estimated at anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 fighters, cannot hold territory against U.S. forces. But the battalion in Zabol has been attacked more than 10 times since March. During one bloody seven-hour clash in Zabol in May and in a series of pitched firefights across the south and east since then, the Taliban has revealed itself to be a hardy, resilient foe equipped with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

U.S. and Afghan military leaders contend that most of the battles are products of an aggressive campaign they launched this spring to force Taliban fighters from their hideouts. In Zabol, the fighters appear wary of taking on U.S. troops directly after suffering heavy casualties, but they continue to ambush U.S. patrols with gunfire and improvised explosives -- such as one that claimed the battalion's first fatality, Pfc. Steven C. Tucker, 19, of Grapevine, Tex., on May 21.

Meanwhile, the men of 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, have had to drastically adjust their expectations.

"I thought the Taliban had fallen," Conlon marveled recently. "I thought this was going to be a peacekeeping mission."....

Pakistanis assure Afghans of support on security22 Jun 2005 09:11:49 GMT

Source: Reuters
By David Brunnstrom

KABUL, June 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan has assured Afghanistan of its support and cooperation in the war on terror after angry words between the neighbours over accusations Pakistan is not doing enough to stop Taliban violence.

The assurance comes as fears mount that Taliban fighters launching attacks from Pakistan will disrupt a September parliamentary election in Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday following a 15-minute conversation between the Pakistani leader and President George W. Bush.

"President Musharraf assured President Karzai of Pakistan's continued support and cooperation in the fight against terrorism," the Afghan government said in a release on Wednesday.

"Pakistan condemned the menace in all its forms and manifestations," the Pakistani government said.

The presidents, both important U.S. allies in its war on terror, agreed to strengthen security cooperation, their governments said.

Afghan accusations that Taliban and other militants can launch attacks from the safety of Pakistan have been an irritant in relations since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Insurgents have launched a wave of attacks in Afghanistan in recent months and hundreds of people, including militants, government and U.S. troops and civilians, have been killed in clashes, ambushes and blasts.

Pakistan supported the Taliban until the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The telephone call between the leaders followed accusations by Afghanistan and the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, that Pakistan was failing to act against Taliban leaders responsible for the violance.

Compounding the suspicion in Afghanistan, the Afghan government said this week it had foiled a plot by three Pakistanis to kill Khalilzad.

ELECTION FEARS

The violence has raised fears about security for the Sept. 18 parliamentary election, Afghanistan's next big step on a trying road to stability. The leaders also discussed the election, the governments said.

Pakistan's help is seen as crucial for the vote. Before successful presidential polls last October that were also threatened by the Taliban, Pakistan sealed the border, preventing militants crossing.

On Tuesday, Afghan presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin sharply criticised Pakistan for failing to arrest Taliban leaders he said were hiding in Pakistan.

He said among them were the group's spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, and Mullah Akhtar Usmani, who gave an interview to a Pakistani TV channel last week.

Pakistan said it was "surprised" by the comments and reiterated that it does not allow its territory to be used for terrorism against others.

Khalilzad, who has since left the country to become ambassador to Iraq, had been outspoken in his criticism of Pakistan before leaving.

Last week he said there was a good chance Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was hiding in Pakistan and accused Islamabad of failing to act against Taliban leaders, charges Pakistan called "irresponsible".

Khalilzad also said he did not believe al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- who U.S. officials have long believed to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border -- was in Afghanistan.

The exasperation of Porter Goss, the director of the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with Pakistan's role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members is evident from his remarks on bin Laden during an interview with Time magazine, which was carried this week.

The interview comes in the wake of the arrest of one Hamid Hayat, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, his father and some others by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) earlier this month. They belonged to a 2,500-strong Pakistani community living in Lodi, near Sacramento in California. Hamid and his father have been charged by the FBI with covering up from the law enforcement agency the fact that he attended a six-month jihadi training course at a camp near Rawalpindi during a visit to Pakistan in 2003-04.

Hamid was reported to have told the FBI that the camp was being run by al-Qaeda, but the indications are that it was actually run by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM - which now calls itself the Jamiat-ul-Ansar), a virulently anti-US Pakistani jihadi organization that is a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish People formed in 1998. Its then amir, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who was released by Pakistani authorities after being detained for some months last year without being prosecuted, was a co-signatory of bin Laden's first fatwa of 1998 against the US....

Coincidentally, Yasin Malik, the head of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), one of the jihadi organizations in India's Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state, during a recent visit to Pakistan, revealed that hundreds of members of his organization had been trained in the late 1980s in a camp at the very same place, which was then run by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a Kashmiri, who used to be a member of the government of Nawaz Sharif and is now the minister for information in the cabinet headed by Shaukat Aziz.

Among the members of the present cabinet, Malik is considered very close to President General Pervez Musharraf. He has a long history of association with the HuM and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and obtained for the HuM a large plot of land near Rawalpindi for starting a jihadi training camp.

Embarrassed by the disclosure of Malik, Sheikh Rashid strongly denied running any such camp and maintained that he was only running a humanitarian camp for refugees from J&K. Malik also subsequently retracted his statement and accused the media of misreporting him. He asserted that what he had said was that Sheikh Rashid was looking after the refugees. He denied having said anything about jihadi training organized by Sheikh Rashid....

American army officers have been particularly outspoken in giving expression to their dissatisfaction over the effectiveness of the combing operations conducted by the Pakistani security forces in the Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The Pakistan army's claim that the security forces had fought vigorously against foreign terrorists who had taken shelter in this area, losing during their operations nearly 230 officers, has not been satisfactorily corroborated. There are grounds to suspect the casualty figures given by the Pakistan army.

During the past few months, the Pakistan army has practically suspended its combing operations in the area, claiming that most of the foreign terrorists operating from this area have been killed or captured or driven into Afghanistan. This claim is not accepted by US army officers, who demand that the combing operations be resumed.

The Pakistan army has also not taken any action to arrest Mullah Omar, the amir of the Taliban, and other Taliban leaders who are suspected of operating from the Pashtun areas of Balochistan province in Pakistan. Since the end of winter, these remnants, with the help of the survivors of al-Qaeda operating from the Waziristan area, have stepped up their acts of violence in Afghanistan. There have also been one or two acts of suicide terrorism, involving Arabs, suspected to be al-Qaeda.

The differences between the US officials in Afghanistan and their Pakistani counterparts came to a head last week when Geo TV, a private TV channel of Pakistan, interviewed a leader of the Taliban, who assured viewers that both Mullah Omar and bin Laden were alive and well. In an interview to an Afghan TV station, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Afghanistan who is under orders of transfer to Iraq, asserted that Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders were operating from Pakistan. He asked: "If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" The Pakistan Foreign Office strongly protested against Khalilzad's TV interview and described his remarks as irresponsible....

PADKHWAI RAGHANI, Afghanistan (AP) -- Armed men broke into a girls' school south of the Afghan capital and set it on fire, the latest attack on education for girls in the conservative country, officials said Thursday.

The children burst into tears when they saw their school destroyed, principal Zaher Din said.

''The children are desperate for their classes to resume,'' he said.

The assailants tied up two school guards Tuesday night, beat them and then doused the small building and two classroom tents with gasoline, said Khan Mohammed, police chief in Logar province.

Three men from the local village, 35 miles south of the capital, Kabul, were being questioned, he said.

Workers were stringing up plastic tarpaulins across the school's compound Thursday, and the principal said he plans to resume classes for his 665 students, ages 7 to 15, by Saturday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal blamed Taliban militants, saying the ''burning of schools and education institutions is an agenda of the terrorists.''

There has been a spate of attacks on girls' schools across Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. The former regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a ''pure'' Islamic state.

Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since the Taliban's ouster, but opposition remains in conservative areas of rural Afghanistan.

''Why did they only burn the girls' school? Why not the boys' school next door?'' asked a 12-year-old student who only gave her first name, Farida. ''The police must protect us. We want to be able to study.''

The Taliban have recently stepped up attacks against government targets, particularly in the south and east of the country, where a joint Afghan government-U.S. coalition operation this past week to hunt down the Islamic militants has triggered some of the heaviest fighting since the hard-line movement was ousted.

Outrageous.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/internatio...ool-Attack.html
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Afghan girls' school torched


Yes,  Hunin,  why do you and Little Bee keep supporting these guys?
Begin anew and support the USA, for a change!
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Take a pill or something.

I've despised the Taliban way before 9/11.
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Mugabe tightens his grip on Zimbabwe - Dave Carr, Socialist Party, England and Wales

Following Zimbabwe's 31 March general election in which the ruling Zanu-PF party won a "landslide victory," President Robert Mugabe has unleashed armed police against street traders and shanty town dwellers.

Using sledgehammers and bulldozers they demolished thousands of "illegal" homes and kiosks in an Operation Restore Order to "clean-up" Zimbabwe's cities.

In reality, this was another wave of state repression designed to weaken Mugabe's political opponents. By forcing hundreds of thousands of potential opposition supporters into the rural areas, where the government controls the food supply, the regime can strengthen its grip on society.

At least 22,000 residents were arrested and the homes and businesses of 200,000 were demolished according to the UN. The "clean-up" also destroyed a school in Hatfield Extension and a drop-in home for disadvantaged children, Batsirai Children's Centre, which was looking after 100 orphans mainly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Even 'war veterans' who acted as Mugabe's shock troops invading the white-owned commercial farms in 2000 weren't spared the destruction. At the former Zimbabwe Leaf Tobacco farm in Kambuzma two housing co-operatives were demolished.

A two-day stay-away protest strike called in response to the governments attacks by a 'broad alliance' of churches and civic groups has proved largely inneffective. Partly because of mass unemployment and police harrassment but also due to the weak, right-wing leadership of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Many Zimbabweans opposed to Mugabe regard these poorly organised protests as token gestures.

Mugabe's repression is increasing in direct proportion to the deepening economic and social crisis afflicting Zimbabwe....

...Inflation has topped 70 per cent and is set to rise further as the economy collapses. The price of basic commodities has rocketed. The cost of milk and dairy products has doubled over the past year, bread prices have doubled since January and the cost of drugs has increased by 127 percent. The unemployment rate is around 60 percent. In June, the Zanu-PF government announced a 74 percent increase in petrol prices. Fuel for cooking and transport is in short supply, as Zimbabwe has little foreign currency to buy it from abroad.

However, the lack of foreign currency has not prevented the government from purchasing anti-riot gear. This month it made a down payment of $105 million to the Beit Alfa Trailer Company, which makes equipment for the Israeli security forces. Beit Alfa will supply the Zimbabwean government with 30 specially designed riot vehicles and water cannon.

The government’s security preparations indicate that it sees urban workers as the main threat to its continued hold on power. President Robert Mugabe employs socialist rhetoric and presents himself as an opponent of imperialism, but the violent repression of striking workers shows the reactionary nature of his policies....

"President Robert Mugabe employs socialist rhetoric and presents himself as an opponent of imperialism, but the violent repression of striking workers shows the reactionary nature of his policies...."

WASHINGTON, June 29 - An American military helicopter transporting troops that crashed in a rugged area of eastern Afghanistan was hit by hostile fire, the military said today, but it was not known if that is what brought it down.


The craft came under fire as it approached its landing zone, and crashed about a half-mile to a mile away, said Col. Jim Yonts, a spokesman in Kabul.

"Whether or not that caused it to crash we do not know yet," he said, adding that the fate of the 17 service members aboard was also uncertain. No further details will be available until American forces reach the crash site.

Colonel Yonts declined to provide more details on the grounds that fighting was continuing in the area against "a very determined enemy."

Earlier, in an Internet posting, Central Command described the incident as "a tragic event." The service members aboard included Special Operations troops, military officials said Tuesday.

The troops were on a mission against Al Qaeda fighters, the military said, when the MH-47 helicopter went down Tuesday west of the city of Asadabad in Kunar Province.

Recent enemy activity in the area has been described "as a series of harassing attacks and intelligence-gathering activities against Afghan and U.S. forces," said the statement posted on Central Command's Web site.

Those aboard the helicopter included a team of Navy Seal commandos, military officials said....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/internat...artner=homepage


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boy thats one hell of a lucky shot for an RPG. Unless our flyers have become completely predictable.
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There are a lot of soviet 51 mm machine guns in Afaganistan if a chopper flys too close to one of those hidden on its path it can get chopped up in one hell of a hurry.
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There are a lot of soviet 51 mm machine guns in Afaganistan if a chopper flys too close to one of those hidden on its path it can get chopped up in one hell of a hurry.
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The brass was saying today they thought it was an RPG

Yeah but we learned that in Nam and these guys really arent any more sophisticated than the NVA or cong were. As far as weapons are concerned its pretty much the same ol sh!t.

Of course these pilots dont have a whole lot of experience maybe but still the lessons learned from Nam on how to insert a fast reaction team into mountainous terrain are SOP these days I'm sure. Besides I think those Chinooks have crew served mini guns on both sides dont they?

One lucky bastard if it was an RPG. Got a helicopter and a bunch of SEALs.
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A Chinook doesn’t go into or out of anywhere in a big hurry, such teams are usually inserted by smaller faster and quieter helicopters its more likely that these folks were being transported to a base camp to work from, The pilot like most of us was a creature of habit and probaably took the same rout in one too many times.
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No, I heard there was a unit in contact and that this MH 47 was flying Navy SEALs in as a fast reaction force.
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KABUL (Reuters) - Thirteen bodies have been recovered from the crash site of a U.S. military helicopter in eastern Afghanistan, but another seven U.S. soldiers are unaccounted for, the British Broadcasting Corp said on Thursday.
A report on the BBC Web Site quoted unnamed U.S. military officials on the recovery of the bodies from the site of Tuesday's crash in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.

General Aminullah Patyani, the Afghan army commander for the east of the country, told Reuters "a few bodies" had been found at the site in the Dar-e-Paich area about 30 km (19 miles) northwest of Asadabad, but he did not know how many.

Patyani said the search operation was still going on but he did not have any information about any U.S. troops being captured by insurgents.

The BBC report said officials had said there was still hope that some of those unaccounted for were alive, but it also quoted correspondent Andrew North as saying that they may also have been captured by insurgents....

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=8942276

Sweet Jesus, I hope not.
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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The apparent downing of a military helicopter with 17 Americans aboard in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday comes at a time of growing insecurity in the country. For the first time since the United States overthrew the Taliban government 3½ years ago, Afghans say they are feeling uneasy about the future.

Violence has increased sharply in recent months, with a resurgent Taliban movement mounting daily attacks in southern Afghanistan, gangs kidnapping foreigners in the capital of Kabul and radical Islamists orchestrating violent demonstrations against the government and foreign-financed organizations.

The stream of violence, culminating in the crash of the helicopter, which was apparently brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade, has dealt a new blow to this still traumatized nation of 25 million.

In dozens of interviews conducted in recent weeks around the country, Afghans voiced concern that the situation was not improving and that the Taliban and other dangerous elements were gaining strength.

They also expressed increased dissatisfaction with their own government and the way the U.S. military is conducting its operations and said they were suspicious of the Americans' long-term intentions.

"Three years on, the people are still hoping that things are going to work out, but they have become suspicious about why the Americans came and why the Americans are treating the local people badly," said Jandad Spinghar, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Nangarhar Province in the east, just across the Khyber Pass from Pakistan.

Poverty, joblessness, frustrated expectations and the culture of 25 years of war make for a volatile mix in which U.S. military raids, shootings and detention of Afghans can inflame public opinion, many say.

"Generally people are not against the Americans," Spinghar said. "But in areas where there are no human rights, where they do not have good relations and where there is bad treatment of villagers or prisoners, this will hand a free area to the Taliban. It's very important that the Americans understand how the Afghan people feel."

Reflecting the shifting popular mood, President Hamid Karzai has publicly criticized the behavior of U.S. troops.

The Taliban's spring offensive has jolted both the U.S. military and the Karzai government, which had been saying that the Taliban forces were largely defeated and that Afghanistan was consolidating behind its first elected national leader.

"We were wrong," a senior government official acknowledged, saying of the Taliban, "It seems they were spending the time preparing." He insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject within the government....

Sayed Asadullah Hashimi, an assistant professor at Kabul University's School of Islamic Law, said, "Outside Kabul, two-thirds of the people think that the Americans came only to invade and occupy Afghanistan, and that is why day by day the tension is growing. The mood is worsening."

An unemployed man sitting in a corner shop in Jalalabad with a group of friends said of the Americans, "They should go." But others demurred.

Abdul Zaher, 26, the owner of the shop, said, "They should not leave our country until they have rebuilt it."

With parliamentary elections approaching in September, the issue of the U.S. military presence is already emerging at the forefront of political debate. Foreign diplomats are forecasting that the election will deliver a parliament divided on ethnic lines and largely anti-Karzai, with a strong Islamist element.

Karzai will have to change his Cabinet, now largely made up of technocrats, to reflect the makeup of a new parliament, said one diplomat, who asked not to be identified because of the political nature of his comments.

The current instability does not yet add up to a national uprising. The Taliban movement remains restricted to a core of believers, supported by a larger number who are motivated by money more than anything else, Afghan and foreign officials said. But they warned that it would be dangerous to ignore the signs of unrest....

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that all 16 servicemembers aboard a special forces helicopter that was shot down died when it crashed into a mountain ravine earlier this week.

The remains of those killed were being recovered at the site in eastern Afghanistan where the MH-47 chopper went down Tuesday. The helicopter crashed while ferrying reinforcements to a battle against the insurgents, the military said in a statement.

The military reported earlier that 17 people were on board but revised that figure to 16 later Thursday.

''At this point, we have recovered all 16 bodies of those service men who were onboard the MH-47 helicopter that crashed on Tuesday,'' Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday....