Reg: No 352 Volume No. 3227 Thursday February 18, 2016 Dalwa 29, 1394 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 15/-Afs

Quote of the Day

Email: thedailyafghanistan@yahoo.comPhone: 0093 (799) 005019/777-005019

www.thedailyafghanistan.com

Nations consist of people. And with their effort,

a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Mines Minister

Afghan Taliban Recruits Scores of Child Soldiers: HWR

Govt., EU Agree to Talk on Refugees Issue

UN Condemns Use of Child Soldiers in

Afghanistan

Problematic Old Contracts to

be Scrapped

KABUL - The United Nations on Wednesday con-demned all sides in Afghanistan’s conflict for using child soldiers, noting that while government forces have curbed the practice, insurgent groups continue to train large numbers of fighters under the age of 18.The Afghan government has made progress on the issue, said Leila Zerrougui, the U.N. representative for children and armed conflict. But she said the Af-ghan Local Police - government-allied groups that often operate as independent militias and are wide-ly seen as unprofessional and corrupt - are major perpetrators. ...(More on P4)...(2)

KABUL - An international hu-man rights group has accused Afghanistan’s Taliban of re-cruiting scores of children to its ranks for insurgent activities, including the production and planting of improvised explo-sive devices. The militant group has denied this.In a detailed report, New York-based Human Rights Watch demanded the Taliban imme-diately put an end to the illegal use of child soldiers.International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, pro-hibits the recruitment or use of children under 15 by parties to a conflict, it said.Children thrown into battle

KABUL - Japan signed on Wednesday an agreement to donate $15.6 million to help eradicate polio and prevent the spread of other vaccine-preventable diseases in Af-ghanistan.The funds would support UNICEF efforts to provide live-saving vaccines for polio eradication and for the routine expanded pro-gramme on immunisation. The vaccines will be availa-ble for free at all health facil-ities and through campaigns across the country.Ambassador of Japan Hiro-shi Takahashi and UNICEF Representative Akhil Iyer signed the one-year agree-ment in the presence of Minister of Public Health

KABUL - Local officials in southern Helmand prov-ince on Wednesday said that security forces are moving forward in the bat-tle in Sangin district of the province and have reached the bazaar.Mirza Khan Rahimi, the provincial governor said that the district will soon be cleared of insurgents and that the road to Lashkargah, the capital of the province, will re-open.

KABUL - Afghan government and European Union (EU) have agreed to negotiate the future of Afghan asylum seekers in Europe, the Ministry of Refu-gees and Repatriation (MoRR) said on Wednesday.Refugees Minister Syed Hus-sain Alami Balkhi during a meeting with European Union Ambassador Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin on Tuesday agreed to negotiate the issues faced by the Afghan migrants who arrived in Europe, a state-ment from MoRR said. According to Balkhi a techni-cal team comprised from offi-cials of foreign and work and

KABUL - Kabul Garrison has launched a drive against unregistered vehicles and weapons in Kabul city.Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that the drive started six days before and security personnel have so far removed sun films from 435 vehicles.They have also confiscated 46 vehicles, dozens of different types of weapons including three Kalashnikovs and eight pistols for not having legal documents.19 military coats were also collected from unauthorized people.The confiscated items have been transferred to an as-signed commission of the garrison.Kabul Garrison was created based on a decision by the Council of Ministers to act against illegal activities and enforce law in Kabul.General Abdul Rahman Rah-man is the General Com-mander of the garrison. (KP)

KABUL - Residents of Kabul’s Police District 12 on Wednes-day said two women, four men and a child have all died mysteriously in the past few days.The Ministry of Interior has confirmed the deaths but did not give details. They did say however that forensic special-ists will conduct autopsies on the bodies.Some residents close to where the deceased were found said they died after a combination of drinking alcohol and being poised by gas.Meanwhile sources told TOLOnews that one CID em-ployee and one member of Kabul’s People Council are among the dead.Four days ago Kabul ambu-lance staff reportedly ferried 25-year-old Fatima to a Kabul hospital. She had been in a coma.“They brought a girl in who was in critical condition. She died today at about 9am,” said Abdul Wakil Parwani, head of the city’s Ibne Sina Emergency Hospital.Sources told TOLOnews that a number of bodies had also been taken to the hospital.One resident from PD12, Mo-hammad Khalid, said they had noticed a woman and a child and thought they were new neighbors but said they then saw police arrive and re-move their bodies from their home.“There were alcohol bottles and when the police came and entered inside the building they found that they had died here,” said Shabir another resident.PD 12 officials are not how-ever ready to comment on the incident. “The incident took place in 12 PD and we sent the bodies to the forensic ...(More on P4)...(6)

BRUSSELS - Heads of state or government of the Euro-pean Union (EU) member states are to convene a sum-mit on Feb. 18-19, during which they will seek to agree on a new settlement for Brit-ain within the EU.According to an EU press briefing on the summit, the discussions will held on the basis of the proposal put for-ward by European Council President Donald Tusk and will focus on those issues which remain open after extensive consultations and several meetings of the rep-resentatives of the member states.“The aim is to find mutually satisfactory solutions in the four areas of concern raised by UK Prime Minister David Cameron: economic govern-ance, competitiveness, sov-ereignty and social benefits and free movement,” accord-ing to an EU press release on the summit, noting that the new settlement expected to be agreed on includes a le-gally ...(More on P4)...(4)

Upcoming EU Summit to

Focus on Britain, Migration Issues

Kabul Garrison Confiscates

46 Unregistered Vehicles

Seven People Die Mysteriously

in KabulEtisalat Afghanistan

Celebrates 5 Million Subscribers

Japan, UNICEF to Give Afghan Kids Life-Saving

Vaccines

Afghan Forces Advancingin Sangin Battle

KABUL - Afghanistan con-nects to the world with Etis-alat. Thank You 5 million for the trust you place in our val-ues. This family of 5 million will keep on growing and the smiles will continue spread-ing, a press release from Eti-salat Afghanistan stated on Wednesday.Etisalat Afghanistan`s cus-tomer base soared to 5 million active subscribers as the com-pany continues to be the lead-ing network of choice by voice and data users in the country. In the event that was organ-ized to celebrate 5 million milestone, Etisalat thanked its customers for their loyalty and promised that the company will strive to live up to their expectations. ‘We are thrilled to announce that our customer base has grown to 5 million. This means we have been able to build mutual trust with our valued customers.’ said Dr. Salah Zerguerras, CEO of Eti-salat Afghanistan, ‘On behalf of Etisalat Afghanistan family, I would like to thank our val-ued customers for their trust and loyalty. At Etisalat, we have always been committed to serve, support and provide our customers with innovative products and services. We are humbled by our customers`

Afghan government forces.It asserted that the Islamist in-surgency has increasingly used madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, in the northern prov-ince of Kunduz to provide military training to children between the ages of 13 and 17, many of whom have been de-ployed in combat.“The Taliban’s increasing use of children as soldiers only adds to the horrors of Afghanistan’s long conflict both for the chil-dren and their families. The Tal-iban should immediately stop recruiting children and release all children in their ranks, even those who claim to have joined willingly,” ...(More on P4)...(3)

HRW senior Afghanistan re-searcher Patricia Gossman says the Taliban’s apparent strategy to throw increasing numbers of children into battle is “as cyni-cal and cruel as it is unlawful.”“Afghan children should be at school and at home with their

KABUL - Mines and Petrole-um Minister Daud Shah Saba on Tuesday said the lack of technical expertise, account-ability and transparency in monitoring mining contracts could be overcome over the next four years though tangi-ble reforms.The minister told a press con-ference in Kabul that the lack of experience to manage na-tional and international min-ing projects was one of the major problems delaying the ministry’s work.“We don’t have the capacity to implement international con-tracts and fulfill the needs of foreign firms, something that poses a big challenge to man-

Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz. The accord will be implemented in coordination with the Ja-pan International Coopera-tion Agency (JICA).Ambassador Takahashi said: “We believe that growth of children in good health forms a foundation for the development of any country. Based on this belief, the government of

“The security forces are mobilized in Helmand and have equipment and now they are fighting very well against the insurgents. The forces are moving forward in Sangin and the Taliban has suffered heavy casual-ties,” Rahimi said.The forces have been de-ployed to military bases in the district and have ad-vanced about 6km forward, military officials said.“In this war we have moved

social affairs ministries led by the Abdul Wali Hukmi, head of the

parents, not exploited as can-non fodder for the Taliban in-surgency,” she added.The report says Taliban forces have been training and deploy-ing child soldiers since the mid-dle of 2015 due to expanded insurgent operations against

aging international contracts,” he said, expressing his concern over the lack of policymaking at his ministry.“In this sector (policymaking), there is a complete anarchy. In job descriptions, there are no clear guidelines and strategy, but we are trying to resolve these issues,” the minister said, adding regulations on miners’ safety and health and use of explosives in mineral extrac-tion were being reviewed and nearly 90 percent work in this regard had been completed.He also informed that work on framing financial regulations of his ministry was 90 percent complete. “Currently we have no rules ...(More on P4)...(1)

Japan has been the only donor in Afghanistan to support this project.”Dr. Feroz said: “Preventing epidemic diseases through vaccination is a cost-ef-fective way to protect our children against prevent-able illnesses. By vaccinat-ing children regularly, we can significantly reduce child ...(More on P4)...(5)

forward a few kilometers in Sangin and soon we will clear Sangin of insur-gents. We are asking the people to cooperate with us,” Shingai, a military sol-dier said. Concerns were raised recently over the activity of insurgents and a number of local officials warned government that if they do not eliminate the insurgents they will take control of a number of dis-tricts. (Tolonews)

MoRR financial matters would ne-gotiate different matters concern-

ing to refugees with EU.Balkhi said in the statement that the Afghan delegation would work hard to complete prepara-tions for negotiation a head of the month of April.He said that Afghan government was committed to reach to an agreement with the EU over the issue of refugees a head of grand meeting which will be held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium in October.According to the statistics of MoRR as many as 250,000 afghan migrants in 44 countries of the world especially in Germany ar-rived and asked for asylum in 2015. (Pajhwok)

trust. It fuels us to push fur-ther to help our customers reach the next level of com-munication through technol-ogy.’ Etisalat started its operation in Afghanistan back in 2007 with the objective of partner-ing the country in the process of rehabilitation and provid-ing its people with world class telecom services. Enter-ing the challenging market of Afghanistan as number four and in the short duration of their stay in the country, Eti-salat has not only achieved quite a lot in telecom sector but has also earned the trust of Afghan people which they believe is the most important accomplishment. ‘A whopping 5 million cus-tomers and a noteworthy presence in 34 provinces in a span of 8 years are numbers that speak for themselves. We are a company that un-derstands where it fits in the markets and in society and appreciates its responsibility to both.’ added Dr. Salah.Introduction of state of the art technology and up to date telecom services, providing the people of Afghanistan with life changing opportu-nities and customer services culture that`s devoted from top to ...(More on P4)...(7)