U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 11
15 - 21 June 2001


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Musharraf sworn in as president
PAKISTAN: Sattar says no to nuclear testing
PAKISTAN: Screening of Jalozai refugees awaits green light
PAKISTAN: Number of AIDS patients reaches 207
PAKISTAN: Deadline for voluntary surrender of arms expires
AFGHANISTAN: UN appoints new humanitarian coordinator
AFGHANISTAN: Annan "disturbed" by Yakawalang abuses
AFGHANISTAN: UN and Taliban settle bakery dispute
AFGHANISTAN: Plight of Afghans highlighted on World Refugee Day
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Support Group calls for "sustainable aid"
AFGHANISTAN: Further displacement expected in south
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban makes exception for cricket 
TAJIKISTAN: Hostage drama ends successfully 
TURKMENISTAN: Foreigners must pay US $50,000 to marry 
UZBEKISTAN: Uzbeks join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 


PAKISTAN: Musharraf sworn in as president

General Pervez Musharraf was sworn in as the 10th president of Pakistan at
a ceremony in the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, thereby replacing
former President Rafiq Tarar as the nation's ceremonial head of state.
Approved under a provisional constitutional order, the move was seen by
some observers as an attempt to gain greater political credibility before
his three-day state visit to India starting on 14 July, during which he
will meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The meeting between
the two rival nuclear neighbours will be the first in over two years. "We
have the support of the people and from the masses," the press secretary
to the chief executive, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, told IRIN. "There was a
demand for the ambiguity to be finished," he said.

Musharraf seized power in a bloodless military coup in October 1999,
naming himself chief executive and promising general elections by 2002.
[For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010620a.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Sattar says no to nuclear testing

Pakistan's foreign minister, Abdus Sattar, has assured the United States
that his country will not carry out nuclear tests so long as India shows
similar restraint, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Speaking in Washington
after meeting US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sattar referred to next
month's summit between the leaders of Pakistan and India, calling it a
"moment of hope" in relations between the two countries. A BBC
correspondent at the State Department said Pakistan's main aim during the
US visit was to persuade the Americans to lift sanctions imposed after
Pakistan and India carried out nuclear tests in 1998. While Powell did not
make any offers, he welcomed the moratorium and said he was encouraged by
Pakistan's preparations for restoring democracy next year, the BBC report
said.

PAKISTAN: Screening of Jalozai refugees awaits green light

The screening of refugees at the controversial makeshift camp at Jalozai
in northwestern Pakistan, which authorities said was scheduled to begin on
Thursday, is still awaiting formal approval. UNHCR told IRIN on Thursday
that an agreement on the details of screening had not yet been signed by
the Pakistan government. When endorsed, the agreement will represent the
first step towards the subsequent repatriation of Afghan refugees.
Commissioner for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar Naeem Khan told IRIN on
Wednesday that the necessary preparations for the screening had been
completed, and that a team of 90 people was undergoing intensive training.

Yusuf Hassan, UNHCR regional spokesman for southwestern and Central Asia,
told IRIN this week: "Those who are in need of protection would be moved
to New Shamshatoo [a refugee camp near the western city of Peshawar],
while those screened out would be returned back home."

 
PAKISTAN: Number of AIDS patients reaches 207

An official from Pakistan's National AIDS programme told IRIN on Thursday
that the number of full-blown AIDS cases in the country had reached 207,
with 1,580 cases of HIV infection reported nationwide. The figures were
based on first quarter results taken this year from 46 surveillance
centres all over the country. Pakistan is considered a low-prevalence
high-risk country.  However, the official said: "Based on a WHO
epidemiological forecast, we estimate the true number of cases to be 70 to
80,000." The official added that the main mode of transmission in the
country was sexual, and that the number of cases was spread evenly among
each of the country's four provinces.

In Pakistan, 2.58 million AIDS tests have been conducted since 1986.
Sixty-three percent of Pakistan's population of over 150 million is below
25 years of age, and it is this group - the most economically productive
segment of the society - that runs the highest risk of infection. The
social and economic dimensions of the HIV/AIDS pandemic could be
disastrous in the South Asian country if left unchecked. [For further
details see:
http://www.unaids.org/hivaidsinfo/statistics/june00/fact_sheets/pdfs/pakistan.pdf]

PAKISTAN: Deadline for voluntary surrender of arms expires

A government deadline for the voluntary surrender of illicit arms ended on
Wednesday. The Pakistani government launched an arms recovery drive in the
first week of this month, asking people to surrender their illegal weapons
or face punitive action. However, according to a report by the Pakistani
daily 'The News' on Thursday, the public has shown a lukewarm response to
the drive. Only a few thousand weapons out of millions were either
surrendered or seized by police during the two-week amnesty period. The
paper said on Tuesday that Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider had denied
claims that there would be an extension, and said instead that the
operation against illegal weapons would be conducted without break until
"society is purged of this menace". He added that over 15,000 weapons and
50,000 rounds of ammunition had been deposited at various places, and
"citizens are taking interest in it. However, they need to extend further
support in this regard,"

AFGHANISTAN: UN appoints new humanitarian coordinator

The former regional manager for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in
Islamabad, Mike Sackett, became the United Nations Coordinator for
Afghanistan on Monday, replacing the outgoing coordinator, Erick de Mul.
Sackett has held a number of high-profile roles in his 22-year career with
the UN, including Country Director of the WFP for Afghanistan, following
assignments in Nairobi, Sudan and Somalia. He has also worked in Tanzania,
Bangladesh, and WFP headquarters in Rome, Italy. Sackett said that in his
new role he hoped to work with all the various players committed to
improving the position of the people of Afghanistan.

Coordinator in Islamabad for two and a half years, de Mul departed on 15
June to take up the post of UN Coordinator for Angola.

AFGHANISTAN: Annan "disturbed" by Yakawalang abuses

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has voiced his "disturbance" over reports
from Afghanistan of indiscriminate bombings and attacks on aid agencies
and civilians during the Taliban takeover of Yakawalang in the central
Bamiyan Province on 11 June. Widespread burning of homes and other
property was reported, the UN said. Reports also state that a number of
civilians were detained and removed from the area. The UN terms the
reports as especially alarming in the context of past human rights abuses
in the area by Taliban commanders. The world body said the
Secretary-General was dismayed by the persistent failure of the warring
parties to abide by international humanitarian norms, and to hold those
responsible for gross violations of human rights accountable for their
actions. He urged the international community and human rights
organisations to explore new approaches that would prevent further abuses,
thereby putting an end to the existing climate of impunity.

AFGHANISTAN: UN and Taliban settle bakery dispute

After tense negotiations concerning the use of women to conduct a survey
for WFP's subsidised bread programme, UN and Taliban officials on Sunday
successfully reached an agreement to safeguard the operations of 130 WFP
bakeries in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The programme provides bread to
280,000 impoverished people. The agreement followed what appeared to be a
stalemate between the two sides after Taliban officials refused requests
by WFP to conduct a survey using Afghan women to establish an updated list
of eligible bread recipients. The last such survey was conducted five
years ago and was deemed outdated by the UN food agency. "This was not an
easy agreement for us to meet, but we are satisfied with the results," the
WFP regional public affairs officer for Afghanistan, Khaled Mansour, told
IRIN on Monday. "We are now able to continue to provide food assistance to
the most needy in Kabul." For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010618.phtml

AFGHANISTAN: Plight of Afghans highlighted on World Refugee Day

Wednesday marked World Refugee Day, the first-ever official commemoration
of refugees globally. The UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a
resolution in favour of holding such a day to draw attention to the plight
of the estimated 12 million refugees in the world today.

Of that figure, some 3.6 million are Afghan refugees, representing the
world's largest single refugee population. Yusuf Hassan, UNHCR regional
spokesman for southwestern and Central Asia, told IRIN that Afghanistan
had produced more refugees than any other country for the 22nd year
running. "They have held the unenviable record of being the single largest
refugee population in the world. There are two million Afghans in
Pakistan, another 1.5 million in Iran, and thousands of others scattered
in the other neighbouring Central Asian republics, India, Russia, as well
as many other places in the world," Hassan said, calling it the "largest
refugee caseload anywhere in the world". For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010620a.phtml

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Support Group calls for "sustainable aid"

The Afghan Support Group (ASG), the donor body that provides the bulk of
humanitarian assistance to Afghans, is actively researching ways of
providing more sustainable aid, particularly to farmers hit by last year's
poppy cultivation ban. German Ambassador and current Chairman of the ASG
Hans-Joachim Daerr, in an interview with IRIN this week, said that the
lack of a viable government partner in Afghanistan meant foregoing
longer-term structural projects. In its mid-term review this month, the
donor body had agreed on the need for more sophisticated agricultural and
irrigation projects, in addition to ongoing emergency aid. Daerr added
that the international community was providing assistance to over 4
million Afghans, while the number of people in need this year was
estimated to be almost double that figure. Halting this support would be a
"catastrophe" for Afghans, and Daerr was sceptical as to whether other
initiatives could match the volume of aid provided by the 16 ASG
countries. [For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010615a.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Further displacement expected in south

With 90 percent of farmers in the southern Afghan provinces in "great
debt" as a result of the ongoing drought, a UN official warned this week
that further internal displacement was expected this summer. Further
compounding the problem, continued water scarcity could mean that many of
the 23,000 displaced families, mainly Kuchi nomadic pastoralists, may be
unable to return to their traditional grazing lands in the near future,
the official maintained.

Leslie Oqvist, UN Regional Coordinating Officer based in the southern
Afghan city of Kandahar, told IRIN that drought-affected communities were
taking desperate measures. Families from Nimruz and Helmand provinces had
been registered in displacement camps as far away as Herat, in western
Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban makes exception for cricket

Afghanistan was admitted to the international cricket's governing body
this week after it was nominated to the International Cricket Council
(ICC) by Pakistan on Tuesday, the BBC reported. "Virtually any country
that plays cricket, that has a cricketing organisation will qualify for
affiliate membership," said ICC President Malcolm Gray. "We're not making
judgments on other matters." Afghanistan played its first cricket match, a
one-day game, against Pakistan on 10 May and lost by six wickets. The
ruling Taliban outlaws the playing of most sports in the war-torn country,
but it appears to have made an exception of cricket. The hardline regime
bans women from competing in sports, and strictly forbids most forms of
entertainment, including music, singing and dancing.

TAJIKISTAN: Hostage drama ends successfully

Former Islamic guerrillas in Tajikistan released a total of 20 hostages on
Sunday after Tajik authorities successfully negotiated the end of two
separate kidnaps, AFP reported. But both incidents come amid signs of
discontent with a 1997 peace deal that ended five years of civil war. In
the first incident, 11 employees of a German aid group and four Tajik
soldiers were freed after negotiations led by Tajik Emergency Minister
Mirzo Ziyeev, the interior ministry told AFP. Later, five police officers
held captive since Monday were released following negotiations, said the
country's deputy prime minister. German embassy officials said the
abductors, led by a former Islamic militant, Khassan Saidahmadov, had
demanded the immediate release of four members of their group, who were
arrested last month and charged with the murder of Deputy Interior
Minister General Habib Sanginov.

TURKMENISTAN: Foreigners must pay US $50,000 to marry

Turkmenistan's authoritarian president on 15 June ordered that any
foreigner wishing to marry a citizen of the Central Asian country would
have to pay the equivalent of US $50,000 to the government, according to
AP. The money, which would be deposited in an account of Turkmenistan's
state insurance company, would serve as a "guarantee" for any children of
the marriage should the parents get divorced, according to President
Saparmyrat Niyazov's orders. Government officials have in the past cited
cases of foreigners marrying Turkmens, then abandoning them, leaving them
penniless and unable to support their children.

UZBEKISTAN: Uzbeks join Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The Shanghai Five became the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on 15
June at a meeting in China during which Uzbekistan became a member of the
regional body. Media reports said China and its five northern neighbours
announced the renaming of the body to ensure regional security in Central
Asia as well as create a new political and economic order in the world.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, Tajik
President Emomali Rakhmonov and Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed the
declaration of the SCO. Analysts maintain that Uzbekistan's joining of the
body was prompted by the increasing threat of Muslim militancy. Islamic
extremism has taken its toll on Uzbekistan, which was attacked last August
by Muslim fundamentalists wishing to overthrow the Uzbek regime. The SCO
member states also announced on 15 June their plan to set up an
anti-terrorism center in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Islamabad, 21 June 2001


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