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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 2
13 - 19 April 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Prime Minister Rabbani dies
AFGHANISTAN: US assessment team in Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban, Northern Alliance hold indirect talks in Tokyo -
             Japanese envoy
AFGHANISTAN: Ceasefire for polio immunisation of Afghan children
AFGHANISTAN: European Union donates US $900,000 for food aid
AFGHANISTAN: Anti-Taliban commanders plan new northern front
PAKISTAN: Karachi water crisis protests turn violent
PAKISTAN: UN experts monitor sanctions implementation
PAKISTAN: UNDP car-jacking ends without incident
KYRGYZSTAN: Government restricts religious education

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Prime Minister Rabbani dies

The death of Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, 45, was announced by the Taliban on
Monday. As prime minister and head of the advisory council, he was second
in power only to the supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in the Taliban
hierarchy. He died in a military hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, of
liver cancer. According to a press release from the Afghan Embassy in
Islamabad, "Mullah Mohammad Rabbani was one of the main founders of the
Movement and greatly contributed to peace and security in our country. His
service to Islam, Afghanistan and the Afghan nation is unforgettable. His
demise is an irreparable loss."

Rabbani's body was repatriated to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on
Monday afternoon by a UN plane, permitted to operate on humanitarian
grounds despite the air embargo. Regarding him as somewhat of a moderate,
members of the opposition have voiced fears that hardliners within the
Taliban would strengthen their hold on power following Rabbani's death.

AFGHANISTAN: US assessment team in Afghanistan

Three American officials paid a rare visit to Afghanistan this week in an
effort to find out how western aid was being used in a country which has
been devastated by war and drought for more than 20 years. It was the
first such visit by a US delegation since 1998. "We needed an eyes-on
assessment of which way the situation was going," the US Ambassador to
Pakistan, William Milam, told IRIN in an interview on Thursday. "Our
preliminary reports say that things are bad and getting worse up there."
Asked to comment on the mission's objectives, he said: "I'm hoping this
will enable not just the US government but the western donor governments
in general to get ahead of the humanitarian curve,"  "Perhaps we need to
do more," he added.  [ AFGHANISTAN: Taliban, Northern Alliance hold
indirect talks in Tokyo - Japanese envoy

Japan's Ambassador to Pakistan, Sadaaki Numata, told IRIN in an interview
that representatives of the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance
had attended indirect discussions in Tokyo last month, and that
invitations had been issued for a follow-up meeting in May. Numata said
Japan was keen to promote peace in Afghanistan, and was keeping channels
of communication open with the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. It was
also in contact with the former king of Afghanistan, Muhammad Zahir Shah,
now based in Rome. Invitations to the talks in Tokyo were extended to
representatives of all three groups.

[For full IRIN interview see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010416b.phtml
]

AFGHANISTAN: Ceasefire for polio immunisation for Afghan children

The second of five rounds of polio immunisations to be held this year
began on Tuesday after Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Islamic Movement and
the Northern Alliance agreed to a week-long ceasefire. "This ongoing
effort demonstrates a serious endeavour on our part to eradicate the
disease from Afghanistan as one of the few countries where the wild virus
is still found," UNICEF Senior Programme Officer Solofo Ramaroson told
IRIN. "Both sides have committed themselves to the ceasefire, and have
called upon their field commanders for full cooperation."

The ceasefire will enable tens of thousands of staff and volunteers to
operate freely to carry out a house-to-house effort to immunise all
children under five years of age. The ambitious suppplementary vaccination
programe, targeting more than 5.7 million children, is part of the UN's
global strategy to eradicate polio worldwide by the year 2005.

[For full story see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010416.phtml
]

AFGHANISTAN:  European Union donates US $900,000 for food aid

The European Union (EU) announced on Wednesday that it had signed a
contract with the World Food Programme (WFP) to contribute humanitarian
aid worth US $900,000 to Afghanistan. The donation was welcomed by the WFP
regional information officer, Khaled Mansour, who told IRIN the aid would
be used for work-for-food projects. WFP focuses these projects in parts of
Afghanistan most affected by the worst drought in 30 years to try and stem
the flow of internally displaced persons (IDPs).The food-for-work projects
reward Afghans for a day's work doing jobs such as cleaning irrigation
channels and building roads with six kilogrammes of flour each.

AFGHANISTAN:  Anti-Taliban commanders plan new northern front

A meeting took place on Monday between two key commanders of opposition
forces, the BBC reported. General Abdur Rashid Dostum, returning to
northern Afghanistan after a three-year absence, met with his former
enemy, the senior commander of anti-Taliban forces, Ahmad Shah Masud, to
discuss plans for a new northern front. Morale among opposition forces was
reported to have been boosted by the return of General Dostum from exile.
In the past, the two commanders were bitter enemies in Mujahidin
inter-factional fighting, but are now united by a wish to oust the ruling
Taliban, who control an estimated 95 per cent of Afghanistan.

The meeting was reported to have taken place in the Panjshir valley in the
northeastern province of Badakhshan, the only part of Afghanistan under
full opposition control. The meeting between the two leaders marked a
significant new alliance as both sides prepare for new offensives
traditionally launched each spring.

PAKISTAN:  Karachi water crisis protests turn violent

Protests against water shortages turned violent in the southern Pakistani
city of Karachi and a person was killed in one of two bomb blasts on
Wednesday. The blasts coincided with a one-day strike all over Pakistan's
southeastern Sindh Province called jointly by two opposition political
parties - the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Jiye Sindh Qaumi
Mahaz (JSQM). The Sindh police were on high alert following widespread
violence across Karachi on Tuesday night when dozens of vehicles were
torched. According to a Pakistani newspaper editorial, it was the worst
violence that Karachi had seen since the military takeover in 1999.

The parties claimed that an artificial water shortage was being created in
Sindh Province because the government was not releasing the province's
share of the water. A senior MQM leader, Nasreen Jalil, condemned the bomb
attacks. She told IRIN that the authorities had responded to peaceful
protests with excessive force. On Monday, a peaceful demonstration was
broken up by tear gas and baton-wielding police.

PAKISTAN: UN experts monitor sanctions implementation

A special delegation of experts commissioned by the UN was in Pakistan
this week to examine the enforcement of UN sanctions and an arms embargo
against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, UN sources confirmed to IRIN on
Wednesday. The team's arrival comes amid allegations by Afghanistan's
opposition Northern Alliance that Pakistan is defying the sanctions,
something Islamabad vehemently denies. But despite strong assurances from
government officials that sanctions were being fully implemented, it
remains clear that the long and porous border between Pakistan and
Afghanistan is almost impossible to monitor effectively.

After meeting senior government officials in Islamabad, the monitoring
team travelled to Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier
Province, for further discussions. They were also taken up the Khyber
Pass, passing through the tribal areas, which are notorious for harbouring
armed smugglers.

[For full story see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010418.phtml]

PAKISTAN: UNDP car-jacking ends without incident

UN officials confirmed to IRIN on Thursday that a hijacking of a UN
vehicle carrying five UNDP workers in Pakistan's western Punjab Province
on Monday had ended peacefully after a group of men seized the vehicle and
its occupants on its way to the village of Budhoowana near the city of
Jhang. While unable to provide precise details of the incident, the UN
field security officer for Pakistan, Lars Greiff, said in the capital,
Islamabad, that after a brief period of time, the UN workers were released
unharmed, but the vehicle had yet to be recovered. "This is not the first
time such things have happened, but it is unusual in this particular
region."  He added: "We have had more of these types of incidents in
Quetta in Baluchistan and in the city of Karachi."  UN officials and the
police are currently investigating the incident.

KYRGYZSTAN: Government restricts religious education

In its latest effort to curb religious extremism, the Kyrgyz government on
Wednesday banned the teaching of religion in regular schools, while
requiring specialised religious schools to obtain licences from the
government, AP reported. Kyrgyzstan has battled Islamic guerillas and
cracked down on Hizb ut-Tahrir, an underground political group that
advocates the creation of an independent Islamic state in the mountains
and valleys where the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
and Tajikistan come together, the report said. Marat Imankulov, a
spokesman for the National Security Service in Kyrgyzstan's Osh region,
said 37 people were convicted of inciting religious strife after
distributing Hizb ut-Tahir leaflets in the region.  All 37 received two-
to four-year suspended sentences, he added.

Islamabad, 19 April 2001


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