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Wednesday, 1 March 2006 Volume 10 Number 38
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Southwestern Asia And The Middle East
PAKISTANI PRESIDENT LASHES OUT AT AFGHAN LEADER...In an interview with U.S. ABC television on 27 February, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf defended his country's efforts in the war on terror and spoke in the strongest terms yet against Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government. Musharraf said a list of former members of the Taliban regime allegedly hiding in Pakistan that Karzai handed over to Musharraf during his 15 February visit to Islamabad contained a "ridiculous" number of names and that two-thirds of them were "a waste of time." Musharraf added that the list included dead telephone numbers (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 and 23 February 2006). Kabul has also alleged that former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is living in Pakistan. Musharraf told ABC that he has ordered his intelligence agencies to take foreign intelligence agents to the addresses supplied by the Afghans "so that their lies are once and for all nailed down." Musharraf called Afghan accusations against the Pakistani authorities "nonsensical." Karzai's main stated grievance is that Musharraf is, at best, unable or, at worst, unwilling to curtail the activities of the neo-Taliban inside Pakistan and to break up the support network created by Pakistani religious and military groups for the militants. AT ...AND REPEATS PROPOSAL TO FENCE BORDER BETWEEN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN... In his 27 February interview with ABC News, Musharraf acknowledged that there are terrorist elements in his country despite Pakistan's best efforts to stop terrorist activities along the Afghan-Pakistani border. Musharraf called on the United States and Afghanistan to "fence" and "mine" the border in order to stop possible infiltrations by terrorists into Afghanistan. The Pakistani leader said it is "not difficult" to fence the border, which is approximately 2,400 kilometers in length, and said that Pakistan will do so. However, during his 15 February visit to Islamabad, Afghan President Karzai proposed that his country and Pakistan adopt an open-border policy as a prelude to other confidence-building measures. That proposal is diplomatically sensitive in part because it is Afghanistan's longstanding policy not to recognize the Durand Line, the disputed boundary between the two countries (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report" 7 August 2003 and "RFE/RL Newsline, 17 February 2006). AT ...AS AFGHAN FOREIGN MINISTER CRITICIZES MUSHARRAF In a 28 February interview with Reuters, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah called the remarks made by Musharraf "extremely disappointing," saying that the Pakistani leader had questioned and "ridiculed in public" the reliability of the "intelligence" provided by Afghanistan. Abdullah said Musharraf's remarks were part of a "PR strategy" to deflect criticism that Islamabad is not doing enough in the war on terror. Abdullah dismissed Pakistan's accusations that Kabul is allowing India to use Afghan territory for anti-Pakistani activities. AT KABUL PRISON STANDOFF CONTINUES, NEO-TALIBAN, AL-QAEDA BLAMED The standoff between rioting prisoners at Pol-e Charkhi Prison and security forces continued for a fifth day on 1 March. Negotiations to end the standoff appeared to have yielded no fruit, as violence flared up on 28 February. Afghan Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasem Hashemzai blamed the prisoners. "It seems that they don't respect what they had agreed during negotiations," AFP quoted him as saying on 28 February. Hashemzai claimed that the new round of violence has been coordinated from outside the prison and that the prisoners acted on orders received via mobile phones. The violence at the high-security prison, which lies on the outskirts of Kabul, broke out on 26 February and has claimed four lives and injured 20 people, international news agencies reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 and 28 February 2006). The commander of the rapid-reaction police force in Kabul, Mahbub Amiri, told AFP that "around" 100 Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, together with "some criminal prisoners," have been identified by police as instigating the riots. Initial reports indicated that seven people were killed in the riots, but the authorities have now reduced that number to four. AT SIX AFGHAN SOLDIERS MISSING FOLLOWING NEO-TALIBAN ATTACK IN SOUTHWESTERN AFGHANISTAN A force of roughly 100 neo-Taliban attacked a battalion of the Afghan National Army (ANA) on 27 February in Nimroz Province, the official National Afghanistan Television reported on 28 February. The attackers engaged the ANA battalion for an hour before withdrawing. The militants also set fire to around 20 vehicles belonging to an Indian road-building company working in the area. Six ANA soldiers remain missing after the attack. In November, neo-Taliban abducted and later killed an Indian driver working for the Indian government-owned Border Roads Organization in Nimroz (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 and 23 November 2005). AT TEHRAN ASSESSES IAEA REPORT POSITIVELY Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on 28 February in Tokyo that the most recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report emphasizes the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 February 2006), AFP reported. About half the report, Mottaki continued, calls for Iranian assurances that the peaceful nature of the program will not change. The IAEA report, which was distributed to members of the IAEA's governing board on 27 February, notes the agency's desire for more information on the nuclear program and for greater cooperation from Tehran. It also calls for Iran to resume its suspension of enrichment and reprocessing activities, to halt plans to build a heavy-water reactor, and to immediately ratify the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which is intended to strengthen safeguards against the development of nuclear weapons. BS TOP IRANIAN OFFICIALS HEAD FOR MOSCOW TALKS The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, his deputy Ali Husseinitash, and Atomic Energy Organization head Gholamreza Aqazadeh-Khoi are scheduled to arrive in Moscow on 1 March, an anonymous source told Interfax the previous day. The talks should expand on meetings held on 26 February, when the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, visited Iran to discuss Moscow's proposal that Russia would on Russian soil enrich uranium for use in Iran ("RFE/RL Newsline," 27 February 2006). BS IRAN TO PRESS AHEAD WITH URANIUM ENRICHMENT Foreign Minister Mottaki said in Tokyo on 28 February that, regardless of the outcome of negotiations in Moscow, Iran will not stop its current uranium-enrichment activities, Kyodo World Service reported. Moreover, he said, Iran intends to commence full-scale enrichment activities eventually. In the short term, he continued, Iran could settle on a compromise that might result in the enrichment of Iranian uranium on Russian territory. The country's "final target," he said, is uranium enrichment in Iran. Mottaki said the Russian deal must be specific about where and how long it will take. The suggestion that Iran suspend enrichment activities for 10 years is "too long," he said. Mottaki insisted in a speech to Iranians living in Japan that Iranians see enrichment as a right, IRNA reported, and that the country's officials will not compromise on this issue. BS IRANIAN SUPREME COURT CONFIRMS BOMBERS' DEATH SENTENCES Amir Hayat Moqaddam, the governor-general of the southwestern city of Ahvaz, said on 28 February that two people involved in January bombings in the city will be executed in the next few days, Fars News Agency reported. Judiciary official Hojatoleslam Raisi announced the same day that the Supreme Court has confirmed the bombers will be hanged, ISNA reported. Mehran Rafii, a provincial public affairs official, said on 20 February that state television will show all seven bombers by the end of the week, Mehr News Agency reported, but that has yet to happen. The Ahvaz public prosecutor, Iraj Amirkhani, said investigations into bombings carried out in the city in June and October 2005 are continuing, ISNA reported on 28 February. BS TRAVEL BAN FOR IRANIAN KURDISH ACTIVISTS A Revolutionary Court in the northwestern Iranian city of Sanandaj has imposed travel bans on three Kurdish activists, Radio Farda reported on 28 February. The three are the journalist Jalal Qavami and two civil rights activists, Said Saedi and Roya Tolui. The authorities had previously held Qavami for 65 days for his alleged involvement in unrest in July 2005 that followed the shooting by security forces of a young Kurd named Shavaneh Qaderi ("RFE/RL Iran Report," 23 August 2005). Qavami's attorney, Nemat Ahmadi, told Radio Farda that he objects to the travel ban. BS VIOLENCE CONTINUES ACROSS IRAQ Violence continued across Iraq on 1 March with two car bombs exploding in Baghdad, international media reported. A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi police checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, killing 20 and wounding 40 others, Reuters reported. A second car bomb detonated near the central bus station in the capital, killing at least two. Some 60 Iraqis were killed in violence across the country on 28 February, following a week of violence that erupted after the 22 February bombing of Samarra's Golden Mosque (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 February 2006). Sunni and Shi'ite leaders continue to trade accusations over responsibility for the bombing. Meanwhile, militant groups have accused Shi'a of bombing their own shrine in order to spark sectarian violence. In a 28 February joint statement signed by the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mujahedin Army, the 1920 Revolutionary Brigades, and the Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance, the groups said they were not responsible for the bombing, but suggested that the real perpetrators were the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'fari or the Iranian government. The groups pledged to protect Sunnis from further attacks. KR IRAQI PROSECUTORS REVEAL DEATH ORDERS SIGNED BY HUSSEIN Prosecutors at the Al-Dujayl trial presented documentary evidence on 28 February showing Saddam Hussein signed execution orders for 143 Al-Dujayl residents following a failed assassination attempt on him there in 1982, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reported. Ninety-six of those sentenced to death by Hussein co-defendant and Judge Awad al-Bandar were hanged in Abu Ghurayb Prison, while 46 died under torture. Ten youths sentenced to death were later executed in 1989, according to a document which suggested they be executed secretly in coordination with the Mukhabarat intelligence agency because of their age. Prosecutor Ja'far al-Musawi claimed a handwritten note on the document approving the measure was written by Hussein. The prosecutor also presented a 1982 Revolutionary Command Council document ordering the confiscation of orchards in Al-Dujayl. Prosecutors on 1 March entered into evidence a 1991 audiotaped recording in which Hussein discusses with a commander what to do with land in Al-Basrah following the Shi'ite uprising there, in an attempt to show a pattern practiced by the regime for the destruction and confiscation of land. KR IRAQI PRIME MINISTER VISITS TURKEY... Prime Minister al-Ja'fari met with Turkish officials in Ankara during a one-day visit to the Turkish capital on 28 February, international media reported. Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan both called on al-Ja'fari to uphold political unity, drive terrorists from Iraq, and preserve the demographic composition of Kirkuk. Erdogan called on Iraq to grant the city special status in the constitution. Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city of Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomans; the latter two groups have accused the Kurds of trying to change the demographic nature of the city by moving in thousands of Kurds. Kurds claim the city is historically Kurdish, and they want to incorporate it into the Kurdistan region. Al-Ja'fari pledged to implement the articles of the constitution "meticulously," Anatolia news agency reported on 1 March. Al-Ja'fari was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, Transport Minister Salam al-Maliki, and Electricity Minister Muhsin al-Shalash. KR ...AS IRAQI PRESIDENT CRITICIZES TRIP Jalal Talabani issued a statement on 28 February criticizing al-Ja'fari for not informing his office of the trip, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reported. The statement contended that al-Ja'fari is obliged under the Transitional Administrative Law, "which is still in effect," to inform the Presidential Council, the Council of Ministers, the chairman of the National Assembly, and the Judicial Council before he travels abroad. The statement also claimed that the current government is a caretaker government that is not authorized to conclude agreements with foreign governments that the incoming government might not be able to fulfill. "In view of this, the Iraqi government will not adhere to any agreement that could be reached between the prime minister and Turkey," the statement said. The statement further criticized al-Ja'fari's "unilateral approach and [for] ignoring others" even though his appointment to retain his post has not been approved by parliament. It added that al-Ja'fari's behavior is not representative of the various national components. Al-Ja'fari responded to the criticism, telling Turkey's "Milliyet" newspaper: "What he says is of no concern to me. My visit to Ankara is entirely legal," the daily reported on 1 March. KR IRAQI SHI'ITE LEADERS PROPOSE UNITY MEASURES Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), called on Kurdish leaders to help form a national-unity government in a statement posted to the SCIRI website on 28 February. The statement was issued following a 27 February meeting with President Talabani and Kurdistan Regional Government President Mas'ud Barzani. Meanwhile, Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the unification of the Sunni and Shi'ite Waqf (Endowment) offices during a 28 February speech in Karbala, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq reported. Al-Sadr called on the heads of both foundations to hold consultations on his proposal. KR
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