NATO unit launches radio station for rural Afghans

[unhappycamper]

NATO unit launches radio station for rural Afghans
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU
Associated Press Writer
Jan 8, 3:21 AM EST

TORA, Afghanistan (AP) -- Working underground in an old Soviet bunker, a group of Afghan civilians and French Foreign Legion officers busy themselves with a couple of laptop computers and microphones until someone shouts for silence.

"We're on air!" a sergeant chief warns, as a sweet tune of flutes and chirping birds rises from a sound box.

"Welcome to Surowbi Radio, your radio, by and for the people of Surowbi," a voice says in Pashto, the language of the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group.

Launched in December by a French NATO regiment, the station is the first-ever FM broadcast in Surowbi district, a poor region of steep valleys east of Kabul that is home to 130,000 people, most without electricity or television.

Surowbi Radio differs from the several other military-run stations in Afghanistan, including the nationwide ISAF Radio operated by NATO command in Kabul.


Rest of Stripes article at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHAN_COMMUNITY_RADIO?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-01-08-03-21-05

[NJmaverick]

1. This is a good idea

although it's sort of odd that it's being run by the French Foreign Legion. That's not really what I picture when I think of this legandary unit.