NEW SEAT FOR BALA MORGHAB DISTRICT MANAGER

HERAT, Afghanistan (Mar. 12) – The Commander of Regional Command West, Brigadier General Alessandro VELTRI - came yesterday to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Bala Morghab that houses the italian soldiers of Task Force North, based 151st Infantry Regiment of Brigade "Sassari" under the command of Colonel Sossio ANDREOTTOLA.The General VELTRI’s purpose of the visit, a meeting with the governor of Badghis province, Delbar ARHAM, and with the provincial police chief, General Ekram SAMEH, with whom he has gone to the village of Bala Morghab to attend the concluding ceremony of the renovation work of the district government building, a project worth about forty-five thousand euros funded by the Regional Command West and entirely produced by local companies and workers.

THE COMMANDER OF REGIONAL COMMAND WEST AND THE DEPUTY COMMANDER OF 207TH AFGHAN ARMY CORPS AMONG BERSAGLIERI OF THE TASK FORCE CENTER

HERAT, Afghanistan (Mar. 10) – The Commander of Regional Command West, Brigadier General Alessandro VELTRI - and the Deputy Commander of the 207th Afghan Army Corps - General Alijan SARWAI - went today at the FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Shindand, to visit the soldiers of Task Force Center, based 1st Regiment Bersaglieri, where there was the unit commander, Colonel Francis Mary CERAVOLOThe purpose of the visit was a meeting with military personnel of the Afghan National Army - under the command of Colonel Afzali NADIR - and ISAF forces to which they belong, in addition to the Italians, the U.S. and Albanian soldiers."It was my desire - said General VELTRI - to spend some time with the protagonists of the demand ing and considerable operation done yesterday, to ensure the smooth execution of the opening ceremony of the bridge built by Italian Provincial Team Reconstruction in the Zeerko Valley and that I had the pleasure of living with you.

CELEBRATING INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN IN QAL´EH-YE NOW

Qaléh-ye Now, Afghanistan(Mar 8) -- Was held today in the city of Qaléh-ye Now in Badghis province, under the responsibility of Spanish Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), an event to mark the International Women's Day. At this event Spanish Colonel Sierra Martin attended accompanied of political adviser, Borja Morate, and representatives of the Spanish Agency for Cooperation and Development. The event was chaired by the Provincial Governor and provincial authorities and the General Commander of Afghan National Police (ANP), among others, plus a large representation of the city, where many women attended.

The event consisted of a series of lectures and presentations, by representatives of the Ministry of Women Affairs, and local women to prominent positions as directors of colleges and other institutions. In every speech they communicated the necessity of ending violence against women, ending discrimination and spread the idea that society is good for women to work and develop in the workplace.

The only man who spoke was a religious representative who made references to several quotations from the Koran, which regards women as "the flower of man" and a human being created by God.
The event ended with a word of the provincial governor, in which he recalled that Afghan Constitution calls for equality among all afghans, and that abuse is a crime punishable by law. After finishing the speeches, was served a meal in which all present were invited to the event.

MARCH 8 IN HERAT

HERAT, Afghanistan (Mar. 08) – On the Women’s Day, as part of initiatives to promote its role as an active part of Afghan society, the governor of Herat province, Mr. Yusuf NURISTANI, invited the Commander of Regional Command West - Brigadier General Alessandro VELTRI - to watch the showing of a short film, made entirely by the Department of Women Affairs of Herat province, where the initial moving images on women’s conditions during the Taliban period give way, in order, to the important declarations of Manija SADIQI, of Director of Women Affairs, Maria BASHIR, Director of Attorney General’s Office of Herat, Basir Mohammad, Director of Social Works of the Provincial Council and Wajiya Haidari, Director of Economy Faculty of the University of Herat.
“The day dedicated to women - said the General VELTRI presence, among others, Soraya PAKZAT, member of Afghan Parliament - now coincides with the tender embrace of parents to young Nazifa Noor AHMED", the girl of 8 y.o. come back in Afghanistan after 19 months spent in Italy at of the pediatric oncology and hematology department of the General Hospital "S. Orsola-Malpighi” in Bologna where she was treated for a serious disease.
"The rebirth of the country is mainly in the hands of women - concluded the General VELTRI - and it symbolically passes through these moments that see Italy more lead in promoting with great enthusiasm and heartfelt sympathy such initiatives. The friendliness of the Italians and the support of ISAF to the Afghan people and women in particular will never be less, because the values at the base of our daily operations are based on respect and understanding of local cultures, customs and traditions ."
Subsequently, the General VELTRI went to prison for women in Herat where the presence of Governor NURISTANI, Director of Women Affairs, Manija SADIQI, and several religious leaders and local politicians, was made a donation of personal items that held particularly appreciated as appreciated was been the sincere well wishes expressed by all those authorities for the Women’s day with the hope of a better future and a serene and ever next reintegration in society.

Meanwhile, the femal component of Regional Command West continues in its operational activities, such as element of the ISAF’s mission on which to make full and safe entrusting, especially in international operational scenarios where sometimes being a woman, although in uniform, can certainly help to approach reality more complex than Western, but no less in need of assistance and understanding.

Punishment of an Iranian Citizen in Herat Province

An Iranian citizen has sentenced to six years imprisonment on charge of cooperation with the government opponents in a public court in Herat Province.

Officials say:” This Iranian citizen has already been arrested by security officials from Gozara District regions.”

It is said this man has had relation with Qulam Yahya Akberi, important commander of government opponents in Herat and has planned attacks on governmental institutions and foreign forces in this province.

The accuser sentenced to penalty on Tuesday after following the legal steps of his dossier according to 23rd article of (Internal and External Security Crimes) Law during public session.

Lawyer Moulavi Mohammad Rahim Karimi Head of Primary Court of First Civic Zone said:” It is agreed that the accusers be sent back to his country after passing imprisonment period.”

During the running solar year this is the first citizen of a foreign country in Herat Province who is punished in a public court on charge of having part in insecure incidents.

According to Mr. Karimi also two others of Herat city residents have been sentenced to 5 to 15 years imprisonment on charge of human abducting.

These men have sentenced to aforementioned jail penalty according to 1st item, 6th article of (Anti Kidnapping and Human Smuggling) Law.

Also crime dossiers of four others have been investigated on charge of cooperation with enemies.

These men have also been sentenced to 5 to 6 year imprisonment by noticing the 23rd article of (Internal and External Security Crimes) Law.

INAUGURATED NEW BRIDGE IN ZEERKO VALLEY. THE MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT CARRIED OUT BY ITALIAN PROVINCIAL RECONSTRUCTION TEAM IN HERAT PROVINCE

HERAT, Afghanistan (Mar. 09) – New Bridge in Zeerko Valley have been inaugurated this morning, a massive work worth one million euros earned on the funds made available by the Italian Ministry of Defense that could, in effect, to be considered the most important project carried out by the Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team of the Regional Command West, the Italian Command NATO, multinational and joint forces, based Brigade "Sassari" running from October 21, has assumed responsibility for the western region of Afghanistan.
Located in the district of Shindand, 115 kilometers south of Herat, bordering the province of Farah, the bridge - 8 meters in width and 160 in length - it is strategic for the movement of goods and freedom of movement in general , in a notorious area where ISAF forces suffer repeated attacks by insurgents, that have par tially slowed the execution of the works carried out by local companies and workers and started in October 2007.
"This project - said the Commander of Regional Command West, Brigadier General Alessandro VELTRI - is a clear demonstration of the effective presence and common synergy of purpose among ISAF and Afghan Institutions. This is an area still extremely sensitive in terms of security, but it is growing rapidly thanks to a widespread presence of ISAF forces in the territory, appreciated by the population and thanks to other works realized recently, like the school opened on last 26 January in Niswan. We are going, together, in the right direction, with an increasingly and concrete commitment in fundamental public works of reconstruction and development, to the benefit of the people, towards whom every effort will continue to be made to ensure the security and the satisfaction of basic needs. A bridge is always a symbol of union - concluded General VELTRI - the strong and durable bond that all of us hope for the future of this Country".
The ceremony was attended by the Governor of the District of Shindand, Lal Mohammad OMARZAI, the consultant for the District Business of the Governorate of Herat, Saooib MASOOMEE, the Commander of the Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team, Colonel Claudio DEI, the Commander of Task Force Center, Colonel Francesco Maria CERAVOLO, many other government authorities and local elders. This last presence, very welcome and widely significant of growing closeness that has developed in the area with the ISAF forces.
Successively the governor of the district of Shindand, Lal Mohammad OMARZAI, has expressed his gratefulness to the General VELTRI and to the Italian people "for the realization of a structure through which it will be possible not only to liaise the villages located on opposite sides of the river, but also allow the transit and roads during the winter season, with beneficial impacts on economic and social development of the area and with benefits on increasing security”.

JAPAN PROVIDES US$ 2,396,233 FOR 17 NEW DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS UNDER THE GRANT ASSISTANCE FOR GRASSROOTS PROJECTS (GAGP)

KABUL, Afghanistan (Mar. 07) Mr. Fumio Shimizu, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan, and representatives of 14 NGOs signed for 17 new development projects in 6 provinces under Japan’s assistance scheme, the “Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects (GAGP)” on March 2, 2010, at the Government Media Information Center in Kabul. The new assistance includes improvement of medical equipment and furniture for Indira Gandi Institute of Child Health in Kabul, construction of 2 basic health centres in Kabul and 13 schools in Kunar, Kapisa, Ghowr and Nangarhar, improvement of facilities and furniture for 12 educational and vocational training centres in Kabul, rehabilitation of Karez and 25 tube-wells, construction of 1 micro hydropower station and 2 protection walls in Nangarhar and Takhar and water sanitation and hygiene education awareness in Ghor. The ambassador of the Special Mission of the republic of Lithuania and representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education also participated in the signing ceremony. Health, education and infrastructure are high priority sectors for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The newly approved projects will benefit directly more than 170,000 people in essential aspects of daily life such as better environment for education, access to life line service, wider coverage of health care and increase of agricultural and socio-economic activities.

The Government of Japan has so far contributed around US$ 2 billion in support of Afghanistan’s reconstruction since 2002 and recently announced its new commitment to provide assistance up to US$5 billion in 5 years for the stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan. As many as 738 projects, covering all the 34 provinces in the country, have been implemented under the GAGP scheme in such areas as basic health, basic education, vocational training, agriculture, basic infrastructure, de-mining etc, with a total amount of US$ 80 million. Those projects have been highly appreciated by the Afghan people as they directly respond to their needs at the grassroots level.

Iran Again Accused of Trying to Halt Afghan Dam

Police official says he has credible evidence that Taleban chief opposed to Salma Dam is funded by Iranians.Tehran has again been accused of attempting to stop work on an Indian-funded dam project in western Afghanistan, which would reduce the flow of river water into Iran. The fresh allegations, by a police battalion commander protecting the Salma Dam, follow the Taleban killing of a local Afghan district official who was promoting the project. Last October, a member of the Afghan parliament reportedly charged Iran with trying to sabotage it. The dam on the Hari Rud river, funded by a 150 million US dollars grant from the government of India, is located in the district of Chesht-e-Sharif, 180 kilometres east of Herat city and well away from the border with Iran. Once completed, it will provide irrigation for 75,000 hectares of farmland and generate electricity. But Iran will lose the unfettered use of the water now flowing to it from the Hari Rud river. When the governor of Chesht-e-Sharif district, Abdulqudus Qayam, was killed along with five security officials in mid-January, the Afghan media called it an insurgent attack. The Taleban accepted responsibility, but many in Herat saw it as part of a wider problem the province is having with Iran.Qayam had been instrumental in pushing the construction of the Salma Dam, according to Gulbuddin, head of the police battalion guarding the project.Herat has long been hailed as one of the most stable and secure provinces in Afghanistan. It is relatively prosperous, having profited from the long stewardship of Ismail Khan, who ruled the area in the early 1990s and again from 2001-2003. Khan was famous for keeping the bulk of Herat’s customs revenues in the province, refusing to send them to the central coffers. But once Khan was called to Kabul as minister for water and energy in 2004, Herat’s fortunes began to decline. Over the last few years, security has also been deteriorating, with the eastern part of the province becoming increasingly unstable.“Abdulqudus, the late governor of Chesht-e-Sharif district, was a hardworking man who tried his best to construct the Salma Dam,” Gulbuddin said. “But those who wanted to destroy the project killed him.”According to Gulbuddin, a man called Mirza had called government officials to claim responsibility for the attack. Mirza is a fugitive in the mountains around Chesht-e-Sharif, and has been in contact with the Taleban, Gulbuddin said.The police battalion commander said he had evidence that a local Taleban commander opposed to the dam was being funded by Iranians. “A member of the armed opposition called Mullah Mustafa is trying to stop the Salma Dam,” Gulbuddin said. “He has about 200 men in the area.”Gulbuddin insisted that he had credible information that elements in Iran were providing money to this band to stop the construction project.“Mullah Mustafa has promised Iran that he will succeed in halting work on the Salma Dam,” he said.The consulate of Iran in Herat declined to comment on the allegations and the Iranian embassy in Kabul could not be contacted. An Iranian embassy spokesman in London also could not be reached. It is not the first time that Iran has been accused of meddling in Afghanistan’s affairs. Numerous reports have surfaced over the past few years about Iran’s alleged support for insurgents in the border region - claims Iranian officials have strenuously denied.While predominantly Shia Iran would seem to be an unusual partner for the overwhelmingly Sunni Taleban, observers have suggested that Iran may think that by keeping the United States pinned down in Afghanistan it will be unable to direct its full attention to Iran.Last year, parliamentarian Najibullah Kabuli accused Iran of interfering in the construction of the Salma Dam.“We want to stop water from flowing into Iran and Pakistan,” he told a protest meeting in Kabul last October. “Every Iranian is benefiting from the water but not the Afghans who have the right to it.”According to Pajhwok Afghan News, Kabuli alleged that Iran was intent on stopping the construction, which was the reason why construction workers on the project had been repeatedly attacked.Senior security officials are much more cautious in their assessments, however."We cannot say anything unless we have authentic documents about involvement of neighboring countries in such cases,” said General Ekramuddin Yawar, police commander for western Afghanistan.But Ahmad Ghani Khesrawi, a lecturer at Herat University, believes that interference from neighboring countries has been one of the biggest problems Afghanistan has faced over the past three decades of war.“Whenever a big project has been proposed or implemented in Afghanistan, our neighbors have tried to stop it, or put obstacles in front of it, even if it damages them politically or economically,” he said.“The construction of Salma Dam has been a particular focus of Iran’s. If the dam is completed, Afghanistan’s dependence on Iran will be reduced; Iran will also suffer from loss of water. There is no doubt that Iran is against the Salma Dam.”Khesrawi faults the Afghan government for failing to take action.His complaint is echoed by local people. Ibrahim, 26, a resident of Herat, said, “Since the day that construction began on Salma Dam, not only governors but construction workers, engineers, and security police have been killed,” he said.“Iran’s hostility towards Afghanistan is as clear as day, and I do not know why our government is acting deaf and dumb.”

reporter : Shahpor Saber- Herat

Rainfall in Herat Kills Two Children

Due to flowing of flood and collapse of a residential house in Herat, two children were died.Herat Zonal Hospital officials say:” The corpses of these children were carried from Pul Rangina and Darb Malik regions to the hospital last night.”The local residents say:” One of these children was died after collapse of the house ceiling.”
Locals say the residential house has been built of raw materials.According the received reports another child was killed due to flowing of a flood in Darb Malik region of Herat City.According the received reports another child was killed due to flowing of a flood in Darb Malik region of Herat City.According the received reports another child was killed due to flowing of a flood in Darb Malik region of Herat City.In this manner the casualty rate of recent rainfall in Herat Province increased to four.Natural Disaster Dept. officials in west of Afghanistan say:” Also downpour and flowing of flood in Herat Province have sustained loss for thousand residential houses and have demolished more than two thousand acres of agricultural lands.

Stone foundation of first bussiness market for women with the budget of 200,000 Euro by Italian PRT in Herat province

Today at 00.30 PM took place the laying of foundation stone ceremony of one between the 25 projects that Italian PRT is going to realize in 2010 for Herat’s province. The project, officially started a 15 days ago, concerns the realisation of a Women Business Market in Herat City and will have a cost of €_205.753,97In detail the project, as requested from the Women Affairs Department of Herat and provided by Urban Development Department, is developed on the basement with a wide space to be detained as a warehouse, on the Ground Floor and First Floor Plan with n. 36 shops organized like a outside square market, on the second floor a meeting/conference room and on the third floor a space for several activity, included gym and exercise.The Market will improve the life of women and will support the growth of a women entrepreneurship and women economical initiative, the ideal center dedicated to the commerce for women, answering to the production and management needs of the women that will benefit of the structure. The proposed project in the 2010 Executive Plan: “Commercial area dedicated to women entrepreneurship”, can be a catalyst of a whole system of coordinate initiatives aimed to obtain an evident impact on Herat and its Province economical and social background.
This can happen just with some simple operations that ignite a virtuous process not merely limited to a physical space for commerce of goods.The proposal, actually, consider that marketplace as the central moment of a process that includes the possibility for the women to invent their own enterprise, to develop and implement it and to sell goods and services; then to imagine more issues for their own potentials in the future.
The key elements to set up for this project are:1) a micro-credit program to support financially the start up of the single activities and their natural, expected expansion, thanks to the loan-payback virtuous process; the Micro-credit program should be funded by Italian Cooperation and also the equipments, fornitures for the new infrustructure should be provide by Italian Cooperation. 2) a training and tutoring program to women entrepreneurship management, in cooperation with Italian women-manager and artisan women;3) the physical space of the marketplace, as hypothesized in the 2010 Executive Plan;
4) the permanent, in progress assistance, both financial and technical, for afghan women entrepreneurs and the exchange liaison that is possible to create between the Italian women entrepreneurship and the afghan one, with import-export activities too. It could be only a fate, but the Market will raise near the Mausoleum of the ancient Queen GAUR SHAD, daughter-in-law of the King Tamerlano, who was able to maintain her reign for many years: let’s hope she wish the market and women inside it all the best of luck.At the ceremony the Italian Representation was composed by the RC-W Commander Brigadier General Alessandro VELTRI, the PRT Commander, Col. Claudio Dei, the PRT CIMIC.C Commander, Lt. Col. Fabrizio Zacchè and Dr Marco URAGO Chief of “Cooperazione Italiana”Local Authorities, constituted by H.E. Dr. Ahmad Yusuf NURISTANI the Governor of Herat province, Mr Asiludin JAMI the executive Governor’s Office, Mr Salim TRAKI Mayor of Herat,Mts Maria BASHIR the General Attorney, MRS Monijah SADIQI, Chief of the Women’s Affair Depart and many others, have shown as ever, their appreciation for both Italian Contingent’s and Civil Military Cooperation.From year 2006 up today the Italian PRT has realized a building to use as Social Center in Herat, the renovation of an existing social center in Herat, a building in Herat named “Backstreet boys” used as Social Centre for rehabilitation of street boys, a building in Enjil named “Sharak Shoada” to use as women refugees construction, a war’s disables and martyrs Center at Sharak Mujaheedin village at Enjil and two professional centres in Injil and Koshan for a total amount of about € 368.600For year 2010 the PRT is going to realize, in addition to the Market, also a surrounding wall for the Migration Department for a total amount of € 240.000

LAIYNG OF FOUNDATION STONE OF THE WOMEN BUSINESS CENTER IN HERAT