European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 30, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 30 2007 stars and stripes Page 9 minister enemy targets afghan education system Byrah Faiez the associated press Kabul Afghanistan militant attacks on afghan schools last year killed 85 Stu dents and teachers and destroyed 187 schools the education minister said Sun Day More than half of afghan children do not have facilities to go to school while 60 per cent of those enrolled study under tents in the Shade of Walls and Trees or in some cases under the hot Sun education minis Ter Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in a speech marking education Day the enemy of our nation has targeted our education system through destruction and inhumanity Atmar told thousands of students at a stadium in Kabul he said Mili official says 85 killed at schools last year Tants were killing our innocent teachers and students and burning our schools the number of students attending school has skyrocketed from Taliban times when girls were forbidden from going to school and boys could Only study islam rather than secular subjects about 54 million students were enrolled in school last year of which 35 percent were girls the ministry said it said 187 schools were burned Down last year 85 teachers and students were killed and 350 schools were closed in a sign of Hope Atmar said 1100 schools Are being constructed or Are planned and the ministry expects 800000 new students to enrol in the current school year insurgents say that educating girls is against islam and oppose government fund de schools for boys because they teach subjects other than religion targeting schools is also considered a tactic to shake the authority of the ils backed government during his speech Atmar criticized the videotaped execution of an alleged Taliban traitor by a Young boy who looked barely 12 years old the enemy again committed another of sending a child to school they made him behead a Man Atmar said in school attacks this month the Interior ministry said that militants in Eastern Khost province burned tents used by 600 students insurgents also set fire to a school in North Ern Takhar province destroying 6000 text books human rights watch reported that antigovernment forces carried out at least 190 bombing arson and shooting attacks on teachers school officials students and schools last from 91 such attacks reported in 2005 a report in november from Aid Organiza Tion Oxnam said 5 million afghan children now attend school up from less than a Mil lion during Taliban Rule however 7 million children still do not at tend classes it said with Only one in five girls attending primary school and one in 20 attending secondary school released hostage returns to France the associated press Paris a French Aid worker who was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan returned Home to France on sunday diplomatic officials said the woman identified As Celine Cordelier by the French embassy in Kabul was flown Home Over night after giving a tearful state ment saturday pleading for the re lease of four colleagues still held in Southern Afghanistan the Taliban is demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan Cordelier worked in Southwest Ern Nimrod province and was kid napped april 3 with her col leagues from the Aid organization Terre Den fance the Tali ban said the three afghans and a French Man identified by the embassy As Eric Dambreville would be continue to be held until French troops leave Cordelier and Damre Ville Are both in their 20s the embassy said without providing fur ther details a French foreign ministry spokesman in Paris declined to comment saying it wanted to exer Cise discretion Over the Case no one answered repeated Calls Sun Day by the associated press to a Mobile phone for Terre Denance i thank the Taliban for keeping their Promise and giving me Back my life i will never forget that they gave me something to eat and drink and treated me with re Spect Cordelier said her voice shaking and barely audible at times France pulled 200 French Spe Cial forces out of Afghanistan late last year and still has about 1000 troops stationed in the country Cordelier