[pyritechips]

Just a refresher on possibly the world's worst infestation of WMD:

INDEPTH: LANDMINES

CBC News Online | October 6, 2003

The United Nations says there are more than 110 million landmines planted in more than 70 countries around the world. The UN estimates that someone is killed by a landmine every 20 minutes.

While efforts are being made to remove about 100,000 mines every year, another two million are planted annually.

Landmines are indiscriminate. Many victims are civilians and they are very often children. Victims who don't die from the blast end up maimed for life.

While landmines are cheap to produce, from $3 to $15 US, they cost at least $1,000 to remove.

Today, most mines are found and deactivated using 50-year-old methods. One person sweeps an area with a magnetic metal detector or a dog trained to sniff explosives. A second person then lies on the ground to probe a possible mined area, using a stick to find the buried object. First, the mine must be carefully exposed. Then, it must either be defused or a charge must be planted on it so it may be detonated from a distance.

The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty was signed in Ottawa by 133 countries. It only refers to mines directed at people; the treaty doesn't disallow mines that are used to blow up vehicles or disable tanks. The world's largest landmine producers — among them the United States, China and Russia — have yet to ratify the treaty.

Here are some other facts and figures about landmines:

It would take $33 billion and 1,100 years to clear all the landmines around the world
There are 700 different models of landmines but two main types are used today: antitank mines used to destroy vehicles, and antipersonnel mines meant to maim or kill people
One in 250 people in Cambodia is an amputee because of landmines
8,000 children in Angola became amputees because of mines
The cost of treating and fitting a victim with an artificial limb is about $3,000
Other countries that didn't sign the Landmine Ban treaty: Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.


Some of the World's Most Heavily Mined Countries by Region

Africa:

Angola
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Mozambique

Americas:

Colombia
Nicaragua

Asia/Pacific:

Afghanistan
Cambodia
Korea, DPR
Korea, RO
Sri Lanka

Europe/Central Asia:

Bosnia & Herzegovina
Croatia
Cyprus
Greece
Serbia & Montenegro
Turkey

Middle East/North Africa:

Egypt
Iran
Iraq
Yemen

Source: ICBL Landmine Monitor Report 2003

Countries that manufacture landmines include: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, U.K., U.S., Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

QUICK FACTS:

Types of Landmines

Directional fragmentation mine: These weapons are mounted above ground and packed with steel balls or metal fragments. They are detonated by trip wire or remote control. The mines can propel the balls 50 metres.

Blast mine: Blast mines are laid on the ground or buried just beneath the surface. They are detonated by pressure of footstep.

Fragmentation mine: These mines are laid above ground, and are often fixed to stakes. They are detonated when a person walks into a trip wire. Fragmentation mines can project fragments over a 20-metre radius.

Bounding mine: These are usually buried. Pressure to trip a wire or fuse atop the mine causes a small explosion and propels the mine one metre upward where it explodes and scatters fragments.

[pyritechips]

If you truly want to help people besides bombing or invading them check out Project Mercury Hope


Canadian soldier supplies Kabul orphanage

Last Updated Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:23:27

KABUL,AFGHANISTAN - A Canadian soldier deployed in Afghanistan has arranged to have toys, clothes and school supplies sent from Canada to an orphanage for 1,200 children in Kabul.

Russell Storring, who writes a column for CBC News Online, has spearheaded a project he and fellow soldiers call Project Mercury Hope.

Storring left Canada for Afghanistan in July to be part of the Canadian peacekeeping mission called Operation Athena. Project Mercury Hope is being co-ordinated in Canada by Storring's mother, Heather Atkins, president of the Royal Canadian Legion in Tamworth, Ont.

Air Canada has agreed to fly supplies free of charge to a drop-off point in Europe, for redistribution to Kabul. Storring and his mother have also received donations from Staples Hardware and are asking for donations from other companies.

So far, 26 boxes of children's supplies have been collected from across Canada.

In one of his first columns for CBC News Online, Storring wrote:

"The children bother me the most. They are dirty, ill-clothed, and hungry – yet they smile. I try to think of what they could possibly have to smile about, and I come up empty. Their lives are a struggle for survival. I think, how much we take for granted, how lucky we are....

"Next time I called home, I talked of how my friends and I have dubbed a project Operation Mercury. It is our mission to supply an orphanage for more than 1,200 children with clothes, toys and school supplies."

Storring and some of his friends are spending their own money on supplies for the orphanage.

Written by CBC News Online staff

[Stoner]

An update:
some good
some bad

The bad...Taleban regaining strength

The good....Kazari appears to be disarming the militia which may reduce the influence of the war lords.(see: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../25/2003073312 )



http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?o...95969961328AB0

UN Official: Taleban Regaining Strength in Afghanistan
VOA News
24 Oct 2003, 23:20 UTC


The United Nations top peacekeeping official says many causes of insecurity in Afghanistan remain unresolved and that the Taleban appears to be regaining strength in the country.
Jean-Marie Guehenno told the U.N. Security Council that terrorist attacks against government and humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan are increasing. He says the Taleban and al-Qaida terrorist network are the main source of insecurity in many Afghan provinces.

He says the lack of security has also stalled reconstruction projects in the most dangerous areas.

Earlier Friday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai launched a campaign to demobilize some 100,000 Afghan militia fighters, calling on them to make reconstruction their new "jihad."

Mr. Karzai told a crowd of newly disarmed militia fighters that a new holy struggle should now be started for peace and disarmament.

The former fighters were part of a parade of some 1,000 Afghans who took to the streets of Kunduz to show their commitment to disarm and return to civilian life. The event was viewed by thousands of local residents and a host of Afghan officials, including Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Afghanistan was flooded with weapons during its ten-year fighting against Soviet occupation troops in the 1980s and a ten-year civil war in the 1990s.



Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

[Stoner]

AP: U.N. May Have to Abandon Afghan Effort
By STEPHEN GRAHAM

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United Nations - already forced out of Iraq by suicide bombers - may have to abandon its two-year effort to stabilize Afghanistan because of rising violence blamed on the Taliban, its top official here warned Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Lakhdar Brahimi said his team could not continue its work in this war-ravaged nation unless security improves. He called for more foreign troops to halt attacks that have killed at least 11 aid workers across the south and east since March.

"Countries that are committed to supporting Afghanistan cannot kid themselves and cannot go on expecting us to work in unacceptable security conditions," Brahimi said.

"They seem to think that our presence is important here. Well, if they do, they have got to make sure that the conditions for us to be here are there," he said. "If not, we will go away."

NATO, which commands a 5,500-member peacekeeping force in the capital, Kabul, has agreed in principle to expand into the provinces. But nations have been slow to come forward with pledges of troops and equipment.

In addition to the peacekeepers, a U.S.-led force of some 11,700 soldiers are still pursuing Taliban remnants, followers of al-Qaida and fighters loyal to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, responding to Brahimi's comments, said the Bush administration hopes the world body remains in Afghanistan.

"Our military and those working with us there as well in the coalition efforts have done an outstanding job to improve the security situation," McClellan said.

"There's more to do and they're continuing to do that," he said. "But the U.N. has an important role to play in the efforts going on there - they have been playing an important role and we hope they will continue to."

German and Canadian troops now make up the bulk of the NATO peacekeeping force.

Brahimi said Turkey was considering sending more soldiers to join up. "We hear that the Turks are thinking about sending more troops and that's very welcome."

But he emerged empty-handed from a meeting Friday with the French defense minister.

The minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, "tells me she is not against the principle of expansion but nobody is coming in with resources, with soldiers and they, France, are committed elsewhere," Brahimi said.

NATO's expansion outside Kabul is shaping into teams that would provide security to humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the provinces. The Germans have agreed to spearhead a team in the north, in Kunduz, and the United States is leading several others around the country, particularly in the troubled south.

But the United Nations views the teams as no substitute for an expanded security force.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld suggested this month that NATO could take over all military operations in the country - including combat missions now run by the U.S.-led force.

The United Nations pulled its foreign staff out of vast areas of the country in October after the death of Bettina Goislard, a 29-year-old French refugee worker slain in the eastern city of Ghazni. It also suspended some operations in regions bordering Pakistan, where Taliban militants and their allies have been most active.

The pullback followed a similar drawdown in Iraq, where an August truck bomb that killed 23 people at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad sparked the withdrawal of international U.N. staff.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that Iraq is still too dangerous. Most U.N. functions in Iraq are to operate from a new regional base in Cyprus, with local staff trying to fill the gap.

U.N. calls for international troops to fan out across Afghanistan's troubled provinces got louder after Goislard became the first international U.N. worker killed here since the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001.

This month, the U.S.-led force launched a big, new operation across the south and east. But the operation, dubbed Avalanche, has been overshadowed by the deaths of 15 children in two U.S. military raids on suspected militants.

Brahimi urged the U.S. military to take more care to avoid such tragedies, and also to drop some of its most questionable allies, a reference to anti-Taliban warlords viewed by many Afghans as corrupt and dangerous.

In a discussion paper sent to diplomats in Kabul this week, Brahimi warned that the unpopularity of such warlords - including some in Cabinet - was playing into the hands of the Taliban.

Brahimi, who plans to give up his post at the end of December, called for a new international conference to shore up the peace process that began in Germany two years ago.

Resurgent Taliban violence is "delaying the creation of a stable peaceful society. That it will derail the process? I don't think so," he said.

[Stoner]

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/stor...982&p=89zxy688

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned member states that “we may lose Afghanistan” unless they pull their weight to improve security there.

Annan strongly backed the concerns of the top UN envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, in an Associated Press interview last Friday.

“He sounded a serious alarm that we need to deal with the security issue, and if we do not deal with that, we may lose Afghanistan,” the secretary-general said.

”I think that it was legitimate that he sounded the alarm, and I urge member states to pay attention to it and help us in improving security in Afghanistan, so that we can get on with our work.”

In the AP interview, Brahimi warned that the United Nations – already forced out of Iraq by suicide bombers – may have to abandon its two-year effort to stabilise Afghanistan because of rising violence blamed on the Taliban.

He said his team could not continue its work in this war-torn nation unless security improved. Brahimi also called for more foreign troops to halt attacks that have killed at least 11 aid workers across the south and east since March.

Annan renewed the UN call for governments to contribute troops to an expanded international force that would operate beyond Kabul, and for countries with influence on Afghanistan’s warlords to use it “to calm them down” so the United Nations and others could work in a relatively ”risk-free environment”.

“Without security, you cannot have reconstruction,” Annan stressed at a year-end news conference.

"Without security, you cannot travel around the country registering people for the elections. Without security, candidates cannot move around and campaign freely.”

The international force in Kabul, now led by Nato, is focusing on sending teams to provide security to humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the provinces, as the Germans are doing in the northern city of Kunduz. But the United Nations says the teams are no substitute for an expanded security force.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested this month that Nato could take over all military operations in the country – including combat missions now run by the US-led force.

[angelize56]

I knew there was an Afghanistan thread somewhere..thanks Jack! All this ridiculous behavior by a bunch of thugs upset over an ACCIDENT!

May 29, 11:01 AM EDT

U.S. Traffic Accident Sparks Afghan Riot

By RAHIM FAIEZ
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A deadly traffic accident Monday involving U.S. troops sparked the worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban regime, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting "Death to America!" At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International. Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings, according to an Associated Press reporter.

The unrest started after three U.S. Humvee vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts rammed into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars, witnesses said.

Afghans often complain about what they call the aggressive driving tactics of the U.S. military. Convoys often pass through crowded areas at high speed and sometimes disregard road rules. The U.S. military says such tactics are necessary to protect the troops from attack.

"Today's demonstration is because Americans killed innocent people. We will not stop until foreigners leave the city. We are looking for foreigners to kill," one protester in his late 20s, Gulam Ghaus, said near where rioters burned a police post.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[linskyjack]

Afghanistan is lost--maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but eventually. Like the Brits and Russians before us, it can't come to a good end. Unfortunately, in this case it might have been avoidable. Unfortunately, there is place called Iraq that is sucking up our men and material.

[angelize56]

Good morning Jack! You're right on all counts there!

[angelize56]

See...it was an accident!

May 30, 1:16 PM EDT

U.S. Truck Lost Brakes in Afghan Accident

By DANIEL COONEY
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A road crash that triggered deadly anti-American rioting in Kabul occurred because a military truck lost its brakes coming down a hill and plowed into a line of cars, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[linskyjack]

Good morning Angel.

[angelize56]

Good afternoon Jack!

[angelize56]

Alright Smilin' Jack! Now I don't have to make a "Breaking News/Updates from Afghanistan" thread! We need to follow events there too...as I said....we mustn't forget our troops there...or that 311 Americans have died there....or the violence flaring up in Afghanistan!

Sep 8, 10:57 AM EDT

Afghan Attack Worst Since Taliban's Fall

By PAUL GARWOOD
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of U.S. military vehicles Friday in downtown Kabul, killing at least 16 people, including two American soldiers, and wounding 29 others. It was the Afghan capital's deadliest suicide attack since the Taliban's 2001 ouster.

The blast near the U.S. Embassy came as NATO chiefs appealed for member nations to send reinforcements to combat resurgent Taliban militants fanning the deadliest violence in five years. A top British general said the fighting in volatile southern Afghanistan was now more ferocious than in Iraq.

The Kabul blast went off about 50 yards from the landmark Massood Square, which leads to the main gate of the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy compound. It dug a 6-foot-wide crater and left body parts, Muslim prayer caps, floppy khaki-colored military hats and shoes scattered on the ground.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying, "Today's heinous act of terrorism is against the values of Islam and humanity."

An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of two coalition soldiers lying yards from the Humvee. U.S. troops stood guard around the bodies, one of which was slumped in the gutter, the other covered by a plastic sheet.

Dozens of U.S. and British soldiers cordoned off the scene as investigators sifted through the wreckage of the charred military vehicle.

Afghanistan is facing its deadliest spate of violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime for hosting Osama bin Laden. Hundreds on both sides have been killed each month this year.

"The fighting is extraordinarily intense. The intensity and ferocity of the fighting is far greater than in Iraq on a daily basis," Brig. Ed Butler, the commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, told British ITV news.

He echoed NATO commander Gen. James L. Jones' call Thursday for more troops. Jones, who said the next few weeks would be decisive in the fight against militants, was expected to press officials from the 26 NATO member states for more soldiers and air support at talks being held in Poland on Friday and Saturday.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[angelize56]

Sep 8, 10:48 AM EDT

NATO Seeks 2,000 Troops in Afghanistan

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
Associated Press Writer

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- NATO is seeking an additional 2,000 troops to bolster its force in Afghanistan amid increasing insurgent violence, a spokesman said Friday in Warsaw, where the alliance's defense chiefs were meeting.

NATO's top military commander, Gen. James L. Jones, on Thursday called on the 26 member nations to provide more troops for Afghanistan, which is facing its deadliest spate of violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

NATO spokesman Col. Brett Boudreau told The Associated Press the shortfall was for "2,000-plus" troops.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-08-10-48-31

[angelize56]

NATO offensive 'kills 500 Taliban'

POSTED: 6:26 a.m. EDT, September 11, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- NATO airstrikes and artillery have killed a further 92 suspected Taliban fighters, the alliance reported Monday, pushing its toll of militant dead in a 10-day offensive past 500.

The latest deaths came when insurgents staged a counterattack in Kandahar province on Sunday, a NATO statement said. It added that the casualties in the province's Panjwayi and Zhari districts were in addition to 94 militants it had already reported as dying in a clash earlier that day.

There has been no independent confirmation of the casualty numbers from Operation Medusa, which began Sept. 2. Hostilities have prevented journalists from reaching the battlefield. Taliban spokesmen have disputed the high figures and said the alliance should display bodies as proof.

The fatalities reported Monday bring the toll so far to at least 510. NATO has said that 20 foreign soldiers have died, 14 of them in British reconnaissance plane crash. It says it has yet to confirm any of the several civilian casualties reported by Afghan government and hospital officials.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapc....ap/index.html

[WarC]

Hey, these aren't the stoner afghan updates I thought they'd be.

*walks away with empty bong*