2003 in Afghanistan – Sludge Pump EZG – Slurry Pump EMM
by the senate. In the hearing, Karzai gave an optimistic view of the state of Afghanistan, to the dismay of some senators. Karzai disputed beliefs that 100,000 militiamen living in the provinces are beyond the influence of his government. He also turned down offers from senators that they lobby for an expansion of the international force, saying he would prefer to expand the new national Afghan army, which to date had about 3,000 trained troops.
Canada announced that it would be unable to make any substantial deployment of ground troops to Iraq because of its commitment to peacekeeping in Afghanistan.
Afghan forces found a giant cache of weapons including mortars, missiles and anti-tank land mines in an abandoned compound in the Nangarhar region.
February 27: During a meeting at the White House, President Karzai asked President George W. Bush “to do more for us in making the life of the Afghan people better, more stable, more peaceful.” Bush said the U.S. had “a desire for human life to improve” in Afghanistan, but offered no public assurances that a war with Iraq would not hinder the Afghan recovery.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson met with President Karzai and renewed the department’s commitment to promote health in Afghanistan, including training, staffing and working with the U.S. Department of Defense to rebuild a women’s hospital in Kabul.
UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said that the U.N. suspended operations in Gosfandi district of Sar-e Pol Province due to factional skirmishes.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told an audience at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri thatAfghanistan still needs the world’s attention, which has been diverted to a possible U.S. war against Iraq.
February 28: Using a pistol and then a sub-machinegun, an Afghan man killed two policemen guarding the U.S. consulate inKarachi, Pakistan. Five other officers and a passerby were injured.
U.S. troops discovered a “bomb-making facility” near Jalalabad. The troops found the materials after searching five compounds in Shinwar district. Also recovered were three 82 mm mortars, one grenade launcher, five machine-guns, 1,000 mortar rounds, 300 rockets, mines and thousands of ammunition cases.
Antonella Deledda, Central Asia representative for the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, said from Tashkent, Uzbekistan that the steady flow of opium and heroin from Afghanistan was causing rising drug addiction and AIDS infections across the region, especially in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, traveled by road from Kabul to Mazari Sharif and met with warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammed and Ustad Sayeedi. Afghan Refugees Minister Inayatullah Nazerialso attended the talks. Lubbers complained about insecurity and ethnic tensions and urge the warlords to unite to help Afghans return to their homes.
Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim headed to Washington, DC for a six-day trip intended for talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Also traveling with Fahim was Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Hatiqullah Baryalai. Speaking to the press before his flight left Kabul, Fahim urged the U.S. to provide more cooperation and financial assistance to rebuild his Afghanistan’s national army.
March
March 1: Two Afghan government soldiers were wounded in a blast in Kandahar.
Thousands of people gathered outside a police station in the Dasht-e Barchi district of Kabul, Afghanistan after claims that a policeman tried to kidnap a woman there. There were also claims that policemen had raped two women. Surrounding the police station, protesters wanted those responsible for the alleged attack to be punished. Protesters also nominated their own candidates to police the district. Some merchants closed shop in solidarity. Police officers were injured by protesters, who attacked them with stones in western Kabul’s Dashta-e-Barchi district. Two civilians were also reported wounded. Shots were fired by police.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that 395,752 Afghans had voluntarily returned home fromIran since a UNHCR joint program with Tehran to the effect began on April 9, 2002. (see details of the UNHCR Afghan repatriation programs)
U.S. troops raided the compound of Haji Ghalib, the chief of security for Ghanikhel District of Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan, arresting him and two others and seizing heavy weapons. Ghalib’s son, Mohammed Shafiq, said the U.S. forces also seized missiles, mortars and a large quantity of anti-tank mines during the arrest. The two people detained along with Ghalib were not identified.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was arrested in a joint raid by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and Pakistani police in Rawalpindi,