Articles found 22 October 2006
War: Canadian-style
Bringing the war home | A special report
Mar. 20, 2006. 01:32 PM MITCH POTTER STAFF REPORTER
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1142204499098&call_page=TS_Afghanistan&call_pageid=1140433364397&call_pagepath=Special/Afghanistan
SOMEWHERE NEAR GOMBAD, AFGHANISTAN - Eyes are watching tonight as the blackness settles in on the barren mountaintop. Eyes that seek Canadian blood. They have been watching for weeks, from the very first moment Alpha Company of the First Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group made its presence known in the high hills of the Shawali Kot region of northern Kandahar Province.
Everyone can feel the eyes.
"Tonight is different, something weird is going on," a Canadian soldier announces tersely, his face drawn with tension.
He points toward the distant shadows of the western valley below, where telltale car headlights push through the darkness. He points to the eastern valley opposite, and here too the single headlamp of a motorbike can be seen flickering along a goat path. All of this movement is wrong, because nothing in these war-ravaged valleys moves after dark. The night means danger, a time for the ethnic Pashtun villagers to stay indoors and wait for daylight. Those who defy the darkness are the dangerous ones.
The Canadians do not panic. There is no need, for, after a hard day's hump through knee-high rushing rivers and on up the mountainside laden with full combat attire, they have settled upon a campsite from which all can be seen. It is a campsite others have favoured before them, judging by the empty weapons cache discovered nearby.
From here, the Canadians have the strategic advantage. They have a belly full of high-energy MREs — meals, ready-to-eat. They have night-vision equipment. They have clandestine Rules of Engagement more generous than anything their kind has known since the Korean War. And they are ready.
It helps also that they came with friends — a dozen Afghan National Army (ANA) recruits and their special-forces trainers, who work under the flag of a country that can't be named at the request of Canadian Forces.
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Afghanistan's war of words
Rudyard Griffiths thinks self-serving analysis of Canada's mission is poisoning the public debate
Oct. 22, 2006. 01:00 AM RUDYARD GRIFFITHS
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With Canada's combat death toll now heading into the 40s, public discussion — if you can still call it that — of the war in Afghanistan has degenerated into a simplistic grudge match that is doing little to advance understanding at home or define what success looks like on the ground in the dangerous Kandahar region.
To start, politicians and pundits opposed to the war are fixating on the idea that Afghanistan is the "Son of Iraq." Specifically, detractors of the Afghanistan deployment think NATO, like the U.S. Army in Iraq, is incapable of defeating a counter-insurgency that has popular support and unlimited opium dollars.
The thinking is that to stay in Kandahar is to forestall Canada's inevitable descent into an Iraq-like quagmire. Ipso facto, we should bring our troops home and redeploy the military where it is urgently needed, as peacekeepers in Darfur.
But Afghanistan isn't Iraq and we draw this parallel at our peril. Most of Afghanistan is prospering and at peace. The south, where the fighting is taking place, is made up of a single ethnic and religious group, Sunni Pashtuns. There is simply no structural reason for Afghanistan to spiral into the kind of intractable sectarian violence that is fast derailing the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
What is dangerous to Canada and our interests is the "bring home the troops" movement's casual disregard for the terms on which we are in Afghanistan.
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Canada's Afghan aid
Oct. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
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Canada is heavily — and rightly— invested in Afghanistan's struggle to recover from anarchy and rebuild. Keeping 2,500 troops in Kabul and Kandahar will cost $6 billion by 2009, by some estimates, and 42 soldiers and a diplomat have died there.
But Canadians also put a high value on aid. While Ottawa's pledge of $1 billion in aid from 2001 to 2011 is generous, it pales in comparison to our military outlay. And of that $100 million in aid this year, barely $10 million is going to Kandahar, where most of our troops are deployed.
This is an issue Prime Minister Stephen Harper must address or risk further erosion in support for this mission. First, an accounting is needed. Where exactly is Canada's aid going, and is it working? Then Ottawa must decide whether to redirect and increase the aid.
Providing a credible accounting won't be easy. Some aid flows through the Afghan government. Some goes via the United Nations, the World Bank and other agencies. Some is managed by our troops.
Canada has bankrolled microcredit services to 200,000 small business owners. It has helped get tanks, artillery and guns out of the hands of militias. It is also investing in bridges, dams, roads, schools and clinics.
But Ottawa has yet to provide a coherent accounting, much less a cost-benefit analysis. That frustrates Sen. Colin Kenny, whose Senate national security committee champions an activist global role. It is wrong that even Parliament is in the dark.
One thing seems clear.
Scandalously little aid is getting to Kandahar, where Canadian troops are at risk of being seen as occupiers, not helpers. More aid must be made available to Kandahar's local leaders so they can take ownership of projects, defend them against Taliban attack and improve their lives.
Even if all of Ottawa's aid this year were earmarked for Kandahar, it would be but a small fraction of our military investment.
Security and aid must be mutually reinforcing to be fully effective. Canada has not struck that balance yet.
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Barry Burns Live From Afghanistan
http://www.cjob.com/station/blog_barryburns.aspxhttp://www.cjob.com/station/blog_barryburns.aspx
CJOB REPORTER WITH AUDIO FILES ON HIS REPORTS
NATO probes execution allegation
Father of slain Afghan teenager describes killer as `foreign' soldier
Oct. 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1161467439234&call_pageid=1140433364397&col=1140433364286
KANDAHAR—NATO is probing the claims of an Afghan man who says a soldier shot his teenage son dead execution style during a deadly raid on a village just west of Kandahar.
"As soon as I heard about this incident, I ordered an investigation because we want to make sure we find out what happened," said Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian and NATO commander in Afghanistan's volatile south.
"I feel a tremendous amount of remorse and regret over the loss of life and people who get injured," he said in an interview.
"I expressed that to the governor and to the village elders, who I met right after the incident to say I'm deeply sorry that this happened."
"We're working with the Afghans to try to do the right thing."
Nine civilians were killed and several more wounded when a coalition air strike rained bombs and rockets on their mud homes in Ashogha early Wednesday.
The NATO attack to root out suspects blamed for a spate of roadside bombings came as villagers were stirring for their pre-dawn meals.
Food and even water are forbidden during daylight hours during the holy month of Ramadan leading up to Eid ul-Fitr — Afghanistan's major religious holiday feast that begins Monday.
Abdul Karim and his only surviving son, Sakhi Jan, 18, plan to spend the Eid festival nursing their wounds and grieving the loss of most of their family.
Karim says his wife, son and two daughters were killed when a bomb ripped through their mud home after 2 a.m. local time Wednesday. Another son, 16, was wounded.
Karim told Canadian Press that he tried to conceal his son under a blanket as soldiers, whom he could only describe as "foreign" in the darkness and confusion, entered the house to search it.
"When they saw my son in wounded condition, they shot him and killed him in front of my eyes," he said. "Now I and my son, Sakhi Jan, we are admitted in hospital and we want justice."
A NATO spokesman declined to confirm whether any of its troops — Canadian or other — took part in the raid, citing "operational reasons."
Eleven more civilians were killed during a Wednesday firefight in Tajikan village in Helmand province, west of Kandahar.
The two bloody incidents prompted Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to once again call on coalition troops to be more careful when fighting in civilian areas. The deaths are a potential blow to Karzai's already weak standing in some parts of the south.
They also enraged villagers whose help is critical to the long-term success of NATO's war against the resurgent rebel movement
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Canada builds video army
Combat simulator to train soldiers without risking lives
Oct. 21, 2006. 08:34 AM RICK WESTHEAD STAFF REPORTER
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ORLANDO—In a dimly lit shipping container tucked in the corner of a hotel parking lot in this northern Florida city, a Canadian Forces mission to storm through the decrepit streets of Baghdad is taking shape.
As a trio of Black Hawk helicopters flies overhead and a Humvee idles nearby, a pair of camouflage-clad soldiers, a Canadian flag emblazoned on their shoulders, grip machine guns and grenades and prepare to patrol.
There's no real threat of danger on this mission, however.
Like the cityscape and burning buses littered through the streets, these soldiers are computer-generated. They're part of a new military simulation program, based on a video game, the Canadian Forces has agreed to buy.
Each soldier stands in a round "pod" and is given a mock M4 machine gun equipped with wireless receivers and virtual reality headsets that pan left or right and up or down to reflect the wearer's movements.
Soldiers preparing to deploy to Afghanistan may soon begin training on the military simulator, developed by U.S. company Alliance Cyberspace and its Toronto-based partner Nytric.
Nytric's president, Avanindra Utukuri, 32, and his small staff have spearheaded a number of projects in recent months and sales have surpassed the $2 million-a-year mark, Utukuri said.
The Canadian government will pay $1.5 million for the software and the companies are awaiting word from the military to proceed with plans to develop a version of the simulator that would depict the dusty streets of Kandahar. Defence Research and Development Canada, a branch of the Canadian Forces, is expected to operate its simulator from a warehouse in Downsview.
Virtual reality simulation sessions might sound unorthodox for troops about to go to Afghanistan but most modern armed forces are looking at adapting to rapid advances in technology.
Many NATO troops, for instance, are now protected by ceramic body armour instead of traditional metal plates. And in the skies above Kandahar, unmanned electric-powered planes the size of birds search for trouble.
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Britain risks defeat in Afghanistan: former military chief
(AFP) 22 October 2006
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/October/subcontinent_October849.xml§ion=subcontinent
LONDON - The former chief of the British military said the country’s armed forces risked defeat in operations in Afghanistan due to a lack of clear strategy, The Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.
Field Marshal Sir Peter Inge, the former chief of the defence staff, attacked Britain’s military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and come on the back of the present army head saying British troops should leave Iraq “sometime soon” because their presence was exacerbating security problems there.
“I don’t believe we have a clear strategy, either in Afghanistan or Iraq,” Inge said at a meeting sponsored by the Open Europe think tank last week, the newspaper said.
“I sense we’ve lost the ability to think strategically.
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AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Afghan registration starts slowly
22 Oct 2006 07:59:36 GMT Source: IRIN
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/1bdffbfe4c54833b16c116165b9b8e6b.htm
ISLAMABAD, 20 October (IRIN) - Across Pakistan, some 13,000 Afghan refugees have been registered in a drive that started five days ago, officials said on Friday.
The campaign is aimed at providing millions of Afghan exiles in Pakistan with identity cards valid for three years. The cards recognise the bearer as an Afghan citizen temporarily living in Pakistan.
"We anticipated a gradual start because of Ramadan and we expect the pace of registration to pick up after Eid," Indrika Ratwatte, the Assistant Representative of the Pakistan office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The US $6 million registration exercise is a follow-up to a comprehensive Afghan census conducted in Pakistan in February and March 2005, which found more than three million Afghans were still living in the country five years after comprehensive voluntary repatriation campaigns organised from Pakistan and Iran.
Only Afghans counted in the last year's census can take part in registration, which will continue until the end of the year.
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PAKISTAN: Fear of dengue fever spreads
22 Oct 2006 07:37:49 GMT Source: IRIN
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/572c09910dd9cfe493a52909dd35a616.htm
LAHORE, 20 October (IRIN) - Fear of the black and white striped mosquito responsible for spreading dengue fever has been keeping thousands of people indoors across the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and the Punjab.
Levels of concern have risen sharply, since the first cases of dengue virus - causing high fever, severe body aches and sometimes death if left untreated - were reported several weeks ago. There have been at least 20 deaths, almost all in the southern province of Sindh.
But the disease has now reached the Punjab. One woman suspected of having the disease in the town of Chakwal, about 80 km south of the federal capital Islamabad, died three days ago.
The deadly virus, carried by the Aedes mosquito, is not normally a hazard in Pakistan. Indeed little is known about the disease in the country, with some doctors in Lahore confessing they were forced to look up text books to confirm causes and symptoms, after first reports of the disease came in.
Dengue is more commonly found in South East Asia – but this year, it has rampaged across India with scores hospitalised. There have been at least 93 confirmed dengue deaths in India over the past six weeks.
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Afghanistan 'in absolute chaos'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6074342.stm
The papers focus on the ongoing difficulties faced by UK troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Corporal Trevor Coult is reported in the Sunday Mirror as saying that, compared with Afghanistan, Iraq is "like a walk in the park".
The Observer reports on comments made by the former head of Britain's armed forces, Sir Peter Inge, that he fears "operational failure" in Afghanistan.
He cites a lack of joined-up thinking across Whitehall.
Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, writes in the Sunday Times that the UK is becoming polarised by race and faith.
'Political correctness'
Several papers report on an internal e-mail sent to police in Manchester, telling them to avoid arresting Muslims at prayer times during Ramadan.
The News of the World argues that this is an example of political correctness running out of control.
The Sunday Times questions the need for an established church in England.
The Observer says Home Secretary John Reid could abandon the open-door policy to Romanians and Bulgarians before their countries join the EU next year.
Only limited numbers of immigrants from the two countries will be able to work in Britain, it adds.
Labour promise
The Sunday Times says such a decision will be a dramatic shift in policy.
It contrasts this with Labour's election manifesto, saying anyone who worked hard was welcome in the UK.
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Canadians in Afghanistan: What's the real cost?
By KATHLEEN HARRIS, FREE PRESS PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2006/10/22/2095729-sun.html
OTTAWA -- As controversy rages over Canada's role in Afghanistan, some observers believe defence officials are lowballing the numbers of war-wounded and downplaying the severity of injuries in the battle zone.
Military brass don't officially track numbers of enemy casualties, but the Canadian death toll stands at 43 and the injured count at about 211, though the Defence Department concedes the tally is not exactly current. There are no statistics available from the department on how many wounds were serious enough to leave permanent injury.
But an article to be published this week in Esprit de Corps magazine chronicles the incidents of death and injury to Canadian troops based on internal "serious-incident reports" obtained through access to information. It suggests Canadians are getting a "sanitized" version of events. The authors count 274 casualties -- 43 killed, including Trooper Mark Wilson, a Londoner, and 231 wounded -- and insist the official reports of "non-life-threatening injuries" don't tell the real story about the human cost of war in Afghanistan.
"We hear that phrase and we go back to sleep," said magazine editor Scott Taylor, a former soldier. "We don't realize in some cases it's a bullet to the throat and the guy is paralysed from the chest down, or he's lost an arm. They realize when they stabilize these guys they're not going to die, but 'non-life-threatening injury' doesn't reflect the actual severity."
Taylor said Ottawa has a vested interest in keeping the spotlight away from soldiers who lose limbs or mobility as it works to sell the Afghanistan mission to the public and to recruit new soldiers.
"The worst aspect for recruiting is seeing people who have been dismembered," he said. "It's easier to glorify a flag-draped coffin than a guy with no legs."
But better protective gear, such as helmets and flak jackets, means more soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving blasts and gunshot wounds, but suffering more damage to their extremities. That means more spinal damage and amputations and Taylor believes Canadians should know about it.
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Situation on borders of CIS and Afghanistan remains stably tense
22.10.2006, 12.16
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10910900&PageNum=0
BISHKEK, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - The situation at outside borders between CIS countries and Afghanistan remains constantly tense. This conclusion was drawn by members of the 56th meeting of the Council of Borderguards’ Commanders (SKPV) of Commonwealth countries, which concluded its deliberations in the Kyrgyz capital on Saturday.
“This conclusion was made by examining the situation in the Afghan direction and sharing opinions on this question,” chairman of the SKPV coordination service Alexander Manilov said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
According to the general, the special operation Marzbon-2006 on the Tajik-Afghan border was aimed at cutting short the drug trafficking from Afghanistan and illicit arms supplies as well as channels of illegal immigration. Its participants included Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Borderguards “seized over 240 kilos of drugs, most of which is heroin, 38 border transgressors and 41 breakers of the border regime. Guards “killed one drug courier who offered resistance and wounded five”, Manilov noted.
However, joint efforts and measures to cut short drug trafficking from Afghanistan “do not yield complete results. Afghanistan increases areas, sown to opiate poppies”. Production of drugs and their smuggling have become a well-neigh economic sector for many Afghan northern provinces, the general continued.
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NATO soldiers kill 15 insurgents in Afghanistan
http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=11690
KABUL: NATO-led troops killed 15 insurgents in southern Afghanistan after the rebels attacked their convoy with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the force said Sunday.
The rebels attacked an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrol in the southern province of Zabul on Saturday, an ISAF statement said.
"ISAF forces returned fire killing 15 insurgents. Two ISAF vehicles were damaged and no ISAF personnel were injured," it said
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15 suspected insurgents killed by NATO in southern Afghanistan, alliance says
The Associated Press Published: October 22, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/22/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Insurgents_Killed.php
KABUL, Afghanistan Insurgents attacked a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, sparking a gunbattle that left 15 suspected militants dead and two NATO troops wounded, the alliance said Sunday.
The clash occurred in Daychopan district of Zabul province on Saturday, after militants ambushed a NATO convoy with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, a NATO statement said.
Two NATO vehicles were also damaged, it said. NATO did not disclose the nationalities of the wounded soldiers.
It was impossible to independently verify the claim.
KABUL, Afghanistan Insurgents attacked a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, sparking a gunbattle that left 15 suspected militants dead and two NATO troops wounded, the alliance said Sunday.
The clash occurred in Daychopan district of Zabul province on Saturday, after militants ambushed a NATO convoy with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, a NATO statement said.
Two NATO vehicles were also damaged, it said. NATO did not disclose the nationalities of the wounded soldiers.
It was impossible to independently verify the claim.
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Senior officer, five Taliban killed in southeastern Afghanistan
MIL-AFGHANISTAN-TALIBAN
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=914877
Senior officer, five Taliban killed in southeastern Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct 21 (KUNA) -- A senior Afghan security official was killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack while the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) claimed killing five Taliban fighters in "precision" bombing of their hideouts in southeastern Afghanistan, police reported on Saturday.
Chief of the intelligence department of Afghanistan's southeastern Khost province was on way home when his vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb in the Ismailkhel area of the province. Police chief of the province Mohammad Ayub said the intelligence chief's vehicle was destroyed with a remote-controlled bomb. He said "enemies of the country, a euphemism for Taliban, were involved in the attack." Separately, NATO forces claimed killing five Taliban in an air raid in the same region. The strike, the third against Taliban insurgents in the previous four days, was carried out in Giyan district of the Paktika province. Two days back, Governor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province Asadullah Khalid admitted the killing of nine civilians in such an attack.
The ISAF statement said the operation was conducted as part of the "Operation Mountain Fury", which is underway in the southeastern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan.
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C
anada Sends Reinforcements To Afghanistan
October 21, 2006 2:46 p.m. EST
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005253786
Mort Karman - All Headline News Staff Writer
Ottawa, Canada (AHN) - At least 125 more Canadian troops, this time from the Royal 22nd Regiment, based in Valcartier, Quebec, will be sent to Afghanistan early next month, reports Radio Canada International.
Gordon O'Connor, Canada's defense minister, told the House of Commons Friday the additional manpower is needed to assist in fighting the Taliban. Canada now has 2,300 troops in Afghanistan.
Canada has lost 43 dead and at least 160 wounded in the violent fighting. It is the largest loss Canada has suffered since the Korean War in the early 1950's.
Meanwhile several Canadian NGO's have said they will not assist in reconstruction efforts in that war torn country because, they claim, it is impossible to keep their people safe when Canada's military is also involved in humanitarian projects. The NGO's say that when Canadian soldiers are nearby, reconstruction projects in the dangerously violent Kandahar region are on hold because of a lack of funding from the Canadian International Development Agency.
CIDA may not have many funding options because few Canadian relief groups are willing to bid for Reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan's perilous southern provinces, where more then a dozen Canadian troops have been killed or injured in the past few weeks.
CARE and World-Vision say they have not and will not, pursue contracts with CIDA for work in Kandahar until the Canadian military focuses its efforts exclusively on security and policing efforts
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Voter Turnout of Bulgarian Troops in Afghanistan is 100%
22 October 2006 | 15:41 | FOCUS News Agency
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n98094
The voter turnout of the Bulgarian servicemen in Afghanistan is 100%, the Ministry of Defense told FOCUS News Agency. A total of 141 servicemen and 9 civil citizens have cast a ballot in the polling station at the international airport in Kabul.
50% of the total of 145 Bulgarian servicemen in Bosnia and Herzegovina have voted, as well as one-third of the team of the Bulgarian “Drazki” frigate, which takes part in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The Bulgarian sailors vote in Limassol, Cyprus.
Nikola LALOV
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Mullah Omar promises more sttacks in Afghanistan
Mullah Omar's message, on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, was reportedly sent via electronic mail to Pakistan's NNI news agency.
Sunday, October 22, 2006 by RFE/RL
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=122&id=6239&t=Mullah+Omar+promises+more+sttacks+in+Afghanistan
Afghanistan's fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, says his men will increase their attacks against foreign forces and oust them from the country.
Mullah Omar's message, on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, was reportedly sent via electronic mail to Pakistan's NNI news agency. Mullah Omar's message also said he was confident the U.S.-led coaltion would be defeated just like the Soviets.
Meanwhile, NATO reported today its troops killed at least 15 insurgents in southern Afghanistan after the rebels attacked their convoy.
The NATO-led international Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the attack came in the southern province of Zabul on October 21. No ISAF personnel were injured.
The ISAF soldiers in Afghanistan are trying to help the government establish stability against a resurgent Taliban militia.
In Kabul, the Afghan government and the United Nations appealed today for $43 million in international aid to respond to a severe drought and help families displaced by fighting in the country's south.
A UN statement said 1.9 million people will need food assistance, because of a shortfall in the wheat harvest. The appeal includes help for some 20,000 families displaced by fighting in Oruzgan, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces
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Josee Verner visits Afghanistan amid violence
Updated Sun. Oct. 22 2006 11:14 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061022/verner_afghanistan_061022/20061022?hub=TopStories
Fifteen insurgents were killed in a gun battle between NATO forces and insurgents in southern Afghanistan Saturday -- one day before the international cooperation minister paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan.
Two NATO soldiers were wounded in the firefight which took place in the Daychopan district of Zabul province. The militant fighters ambushed a NATO convoy, firing on them with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, NATO announced.
The nationalities of the two wounded soldiers have not been released.
Meanwhile, International Cooperation Minister Josee Verner arrived in Kandahar Sunday before flying onto Kabul, the capital city, where she announced money for two new projects.
Verner said the government is spending $14.5 million on a girls' education project.
The initiative will be established by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. It will involve the building of up to 4,000 community-based schools and the training of an equal number of female teachers, The Canadian Press reports.
Another $5 million will go towards micro-credit initiatives to help women establish their own fruit and vegetable gardens.
Verner also announced $10 million for other construction projects in Afghanistan.
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