90 percent Afghans dont know about 9/11

Helmand is the province which has been hit hard by the war between US troops and insurgents.

When the pictures of 9/11 were shown to the youth, none of them knew about it.

When the same pictures were shown to some tribal leaders, they wondered and showed ignorance about the incident. They said Afghanistan even didn’t possess even donkeys, how could they attack US buildings.

They complained that US said it came to help us, but it destroyed the whole country. They hold US responsible for their plight. According to a survey 92 percent Afghans don’t know why the US invaded Afghanistan.

Fear fuels refugees Australia dreams

Now he dreams of a better future in Australia under a controversial refugee swap deal.

If that doesn t happen, he says, he is willing to risk death to sneak into Australia by boat.

Akhbar, 35, is among thousands of migrants here hoping they will be part of a scheme that would see Australia send 800 illegally arrived boatpeople to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 registered refugees.

The plan was put on hold by the High Court in Canberra after human rights groups protested. But Akhbar, who is a registered refugee, is determined to make it to a developed country like Australia even if it means entering illegally via a dangerous sea voyage.

“If we die, no problem. If we arrive in Australia, it s so good. No more torture,” he said, referring to the precariousness of living illegally in exile.

Akhbar s dreams underline the desperation that motivates refugees from countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Myanmar to attempt perilous journeys and live like fugitives in the distant hope of making it to Australia.

Speaking in the two-bedroom flat he shares with seven relatives in Malaysia s bustling capital Kuala Lumpur, Akhbar — who asked that a pseudonym be used because he feared discovery by authorities — said his family s difficult journey began four years ago.

Farmers from the Hazara minority, they fled their central Afghan town to escape harassment by armed nomads of the Pashtun majority who would graze their livestock in Akbhar s fields of wheat and vegetables.

“Every year when the land is growing, they bring their animals… They eat everything, then we have nothing,” said Akhbar, seated on a colourful Persian carpet.

“If we stay there, maybe we will be killed today or tomorrow,” he said, adding that many of his friends had died at the hands of brigands.

With the hired help of human-smugglers, he and his family snuck across the border to Pakistan and then Iran.

A friend there told them of work opportunities in fellow Muslim country Malaysia, which at the time offered a visa exemption — later scrapped due to abuse — to Afghans and other Asian tourists.

The family, including his parents, wife and daughter, soon arrived in Malaysia, after spending more than $6,500 — the bulk of the family savings — on smugglers and air tickets.

But to Akhbar, the odyssey is unfinished.

They were registered as bona fide refugees by a UN agency in Kuala Lumpur, but that is unrecognised by Malaysia, leaving them vulnerable to harassment and deprived of access to legal employment, education and health care.

Several jobs later, Akhbar now works illegally 12 hours a day as a chef s assistant in an Iranian restaurant, earning 1,200 ringgit ($400) per month, half of which is spent on rent. He has about two days off per month.

He and his brother were once detained for 17 days after they were caught working in a shop. His wife and two-year-old daughter rarely leave the flat, fearing harassment from authorities and thugs.

Malaysia has an estimated two million illegal migrants from around Asia. More than 94,000 are considered refugees — mostly from Myanmar — including about 500 Afghans.

Many of the Afghans spent years in exile in Iran before coming to Malaysia.

They suffer from a lack of support networks, said Sharuna Verghis of Health Equity Initiatives, which counsels refugees with mental health problems.

“It s generations being born and growing in exile without a legal identity… You can t live a whole life like that without identity, without meaning, without purpose,” she said.

“The sense of hopelessness is so deep and so pervasive.”

Activists in Australia and Malaysia have heavily criticised the swap agreement, citing Malaysia s track record of detaining refugees.

Under the deal, those transferred to Malaysia cannot be detained. The UN refugee agency will assess their situations and they will receive help with finding housing and other basic needs.

Those not deemed to be fleeing persecution face deportation.

Australian and Malaysian officials say the plan will deter boatpeople — but they have continued to arrive.

Akhbar knows many who have attempted the voyage to Australia, exasperated by a resettlement wait which can take years. Last year, just 8,000 of Malaysia s registered refugees were resettled elsewhere.

Some of Akhbar s acquaintances obtained asylum, but others — including several families — never made it as their rickety boats sank.

Akhbar stands ready to take that risk if his family is not resettled and if they can scrape up enough money for the illicit passage.

“I wish to go to a place with respect for humans. Then I will be there forever,” he said.

NATO pins hopes on Afghan security forces

WASHINGTON: The training of Afghan soldiers is designed to pave the way for the exit of NATO-led troops in 2014 but the effort faces difficulties over the quality of security forces and a high attrition rate, a Pentagon report said.

The United States and its allies see building up the Afghan army and police as pivotal to the war effort, and serious setbacks could jeopardize plans to hand over security to the Afghans.

Afghan security forces’ “growth and development are among Afghanistan’s most promising areas of progress, though numerous challenges persist,” said the Pentagon update on the war delivered to Congress.

The number of soldiers and police has grown by a third since November 2009. The Afghan army, with 134,000 troops, and the police, with a force of 116,000, met their recruitment goals three months ahead of schedule, hitting the targets in July

Four Afghans killed in suicide attacks, three by NATO

KABUL: Suicide bombers killed four Afghans on Saturday and NATO admitted that its troops mistakenly killed three others, as the alliance pledged to start pulling its troops from the battlefield next year.

As NATO leaders vowed to pass on responsibility for ensuring security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, a man, woman and child were killed when a bomber on a bicycle blew himself up in Mihtarlam, in eastern Laghman province.

A second attack in the city just a few minutes later killed one man, the interior ministry said. Twenty-five were wounded in the first attack and eight in the second, it added.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) described the attacks — both claimed by the Taliban — as “reprehensible” while President Hamid Karzai’s office called the perpetrators “the enemies of Islam and Afghanistan”.

“Afghanistan cannot

Gruesome find told at US hearing into Afghan killings

KABUL: An investigator told how he found dismembered fingers near the quarters of an alleged rogue US army unit accused of killing Afghans for sport and taking trophies from the bodies.

The gruesome testimony came as a third US soldier faced a pre-trial hearing over the alleged killings — after which the rogue soldiers allegedly posed for photos with their victims — in southern Afghanistan earlier this year.

If proved in a full court martial, the crimes would be among the worst committed by US forces in Afghanistan, and could deal a blow to efforts to win over the support of ordinary Afghans in the war-torn country.

Private Andrew Holmes, one of five soldiers accused of going rogue, listened quietly as Special Agent Benjamin Stevenson described finding severed fingers near where members of the unit lived.

Army prosecutors allege Holmes participated

Iran bankrolling Karzai govt: NYT

Afghan President Hamid Karzais chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, has been receiving regular cash payment from Iran, which is trying to expand its interests in the Afghan presidential palace, The New York Times reported.
Citing unnamed Afghan and Western officials in Kabul, the newspaper said Iran had been using its influence to help drive a wedge between the Afghans and their US and NATO allies. The payments, which officials say total millions of dollars, go into a secret fund that Daudzai and Karzai have used to pay Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty, the report said. The Times cites unnamed officials as saying that the Iranian payments are intended to secure the allegiance of Daudzai, a former ambassador to Iran who consistently advocates an anti-Western line to Karzai and briefs Karzai every morning. Last August, when President Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, Maliki brought to the presidential plane a large plastic bag filled with wads of euro bills and handed it to Daudzai, according to the report.

US support Afghan peace effort: Gates

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates says the United States has a say in talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, even if US officials aren’t sitting at the peace table.
Gates says any reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgents has to be led by Afghans. But he told a NATO press conference in Brussels Thursday that the US is offering advice and kept an ear on the initial talks. Gates says reconciliation efforts may not bear fruit anytime soon, but he says the effort is worth making. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added that the US supports what the Afghans are doing, but is not ready to make any judgment about how far the talks should go.

More than 60 percent of Afghans suffer from mental problems

KABUL: Scarred by decades of war, social problems and poverty, more than 60 percent of Afghans suffer from stress disorders and mental health problems, officials warned Sunday.

“This is a major problem,” Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan’s acting public health minister, told a ceremony in Kabul on World Mental Health Day. “More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems.”

The picture is particularly grim in parts of the country where government healthcare workers are unable to provide basic services because of Taliban insurgency, she said.

“Extreme poverty, insecurity, violence and gender disparities are the major factors contributing to worsening mental health in Afghanistan.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that more than 60 percent of Afghans, mostly women, suffered from psychosocial problems or mental

Eight foreign medical workers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL: Eight foreign medical workers, including “several” Americans, were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan”s remote northeast, police and officials said on Saturday, with the attack claimed by the Taliban.

A Christian aid group said it appeared those killed were members of one of its mobile eye clinics which had been travelling in northeastern Nuristan province and was headed back for Kabul after providing eye care for local Afghans.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killings and accused the medical workers of proselytising Christianity.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said from an undisclosed location that bibles translated into Dari had been found with the foreigners.

Dirk Frans, executive director of the International Assistance Mission (IAM), said it had been told the bodies of eight foreigners — five men and three women — and two Afghans had been recovered.

“This actually sounds very similar to our Nuristan eye camp team,” Frans said, adding that IAM had last had contact with the team”s leader on Wednesday.

“This means it might have happened on Thursday,” he said.

Frans said the 12-member team had consisted of 6 US nationals, one British national, a German and four Afghans. Two Afghan staff members had escaped alive, he said.

Afghan police officials had earlier said six Germans were among the dead. US officials in Kabul said it appeared Americans were involved.

“We have reason to believe that several American citizens are among the deceased. We cannot confirm any details at this point,” US Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-led and Afghan armed groups overthrew the Taliban in 2001. June was the bloodiest month for foreign forces in Afghanistan since then, with more than 100 killed.

Hundreds of Afghan civilians have also been killed this year as they become caught up in the crossfire.

“WE WARNED THEM”

Aqa Noor Kentuz, the police chief for Badakshan province, said the “bullet-riddled” bodies were found early on Saturday.

Kentuz said the foreigners had identified themselves as doctors, but some early reports said they were tourists.

He said they had been camping near jungle on a tour of Nuristan and neighbouring Badakshan when they were attacked.

Travel documents were found near their bodies, he said.

“Before their travel we warned them not to tour near jungles in Nuristan but they said they were doctors and no one was going to hurt them,” Kentuz said.

Jamaluddin Badr, governor of nearby Nuristan province, also said the group was made up of doctors who had visited several districts in Nuristan and Badakshan, helping local Afghans.

The IAM describes itself as an “international charitable, non-profit, Christian organisation” which has been helping Afghans with health and economic development since 1966.

“At this stage we do not have many details but our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who are presumed killed,” it said in an earlier statement issued on its website (www.iam-afghanistan.org/).

“This tragedy negatively impacts our ability to continue serving the Afghan people … We hope it will not stop our work that benefits over a quarter of a million Afghans each year.”

A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it was checking reports through its embassy in Kabul and could not comment until more information became available.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said it had no involvement in the incident and had no information.

Despite a record number of foreign forces in Afghanistan, standing at some 140,000 backed by tens of thousands of Afghan forces, the Taliban have extended their campaign out of traditional power bases in the south and east into the north and elsewhere in recent years.

Shakira now a football fanatic after WCup

JOHANNESBURG: Colombian superstar Shakira said on Saturday that keeping track of the World Cup in South Africa has made her a football fanatic.

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Shakira now a football fanatic after WCup

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