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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 7
18-24 May April 2001


CONTENTS: 

AFGHANISTAN: US announces $43 million aid package
AFGHANISTAN: Polio immunisation not affected by Taliban
AFGHANISTAN: Identity labels for non-Muslims dismay Annan
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban close Italian hospital in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: UN project workers arrested by Taliban
AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers call for relief to north
AFGHANISTAN: EU discouraged by talks with warring factions
PAKISTAN: UN addresses plight of Jalozai refugees
PAKISTAN: New US envoy appointed to Pakistan
TAJIKISTAN: Afghan refugees ordered out of Dushanbe
TAJIKISTAN: Deaths from mine explosions increasing
TAJIKISTAN: President appeals for aid for drought


AFGHANISTAN: US announces $43 million aid package

Washington announced an aid package of US $43 million in humanitarian
assistance to Afghanistan on 18 May, which would initially target the
areas of the country worst affected by drought and conflict, Tom Hushek,
US Embassy Refugee Coordinator in Islamabad, told IRIN. The package
included 65,000 mt of wheat, which would be distributed through the World
Food Programme (WFP) and local NGOs, initially in the provinces of
Badghis, Ghor and Herat. Basic food, health-care, shelter and sanitation
programmes would also be provided. This brings the total US humanitarian
assistance to Afghanistan this year to US $124 million.

[For full story see: 
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010518a.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Polio immunisation not affected by Taliban

A polio immunisation programme went ahead this week in Afghanistan,
despite fears that the Taliban would not abide by their earlier agreement
for a ceasefire to conduct the latest round of vaccinations. "The
programme went ahead, there was no disruption at all. We reached all the
places we wanted to go [to]," a UNICEF official told IRIN. Although the
Taliban did not provide written confirmation as it had on previous
National Immunisation Days (NIDs), the vaccinations were carried out
successfully, targeting 5.7 million children from birth up to five years
old. The next round of polio vaccinations in Afghanistan is scheduled for
September.

AFGHANISTAN:  Identity labels for non-Muslims dismay Annan

UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, expressed dismay on Wednesday at the
Taliban's order this week that all non-Muslim Afghans should identify
themselves as such by special tags on their clothing. "Such an order would
constitute a grave violation of human rights, and recalls some of the most
deplorable acts of discrimination in history," said a statement from Kofi
Annan.

According to the head of the Taliban news agency, Abdul Hannan Hemat, the
purpose of the hardline ruling, aimed at Afghanistan's minority Hindu
community, is to protect non-Muslims from harassment by the religious
police. The non-Muslim community in Afghanistan now comprises only an
estimated several thousand Hindus and Sikhs. The latter, already
distinguishable by their turbans, will not have to wear tags. Hindu and
Sikh women will have to veil themselves, like Afghan women, according to
media reports.

The Taliban have recently imposed increasingly hardline orders on Muslims.
Over-zealous officials of the Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Reuters reported, also checked men's beards
to ensure they were at least the length of a fist. Women risk a lashing if
they reveal as much as an ankle under all-enveloping burkas.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban close Italian hospital in Kabul

The Taliban closed an Italian-funded hospital in Kabul treating war
victims, Reuters reported on 18 May. The closure followed a raid by armed
members of the religious police, who attacked staff and detained three
local employees, hospital staff told the news agency. All the patients had
to be discharged. The Taliban took the action because men and women had
been dining in the same area, staff said. The 120-bed hospital, which only
opened this year, has been closed indefinitely. The Italian ambassador to
Pakistan, Gabriele de Ceglie, visited Kabul and asked the Taliban for
security guarantees if and when the hospital was allowed to reopen.

AFGHANISTAN: UN project workers arrested by Taliban

Eight Afghan aid personnel working on UN projects were arrested by Taliban
authorities in Herat this week, and another in Kabul, the UN confirmed.
All have since been released. "The assistance community is facing
increasing obstacles from Taliban authorities in carrying out assistance
work in Afghanistan," said a press release issued by the UN Coordinator
for Afghanistan on 18 May.

The release expressed concern over the harassment and abuse of Afghan
national staff of the UN and NGO community. "We are not prepared to
tolerate abuses against our staff. National staff form the backbone of the
assistance effort in Afghanistan, without whom all assistance would halt,"
said UN coordinator Erick de Mul. "The recent pattern of violations of the
security protocol represents a general narrowing of space available for
humanitarian agencies to operate effectively," de Mul maintained.

AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers call for relief to north

Aid agencies dealing with the northern region of Afghanistan have
advocated increased emergency aid targeted at the areas of outflow of
internally displaced people (IDPs). The move is an attempt to stem the
flow of people flooding into camps, such as those that have been set up
outside the northwestern city of Herat. 

"We are not hearing [of] donors committing money to the north to fund
agencies there," said Andrew Wilder, field office director for Save the
Children-USA. He predicted a "major calamity" in the drought-affected
parts of northern Afghanistan, and said the donor community needed to be
far more active. 

[For full story see: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010523.phtml]


AFGHANISTAN: EU discouraged by talks with warring factions

A European Union (EU) mission to Afghanistan has concluded that the ruling
Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance have "no interest in alleviating
the suffering of Afghan people". Returning from a visit to opposition-held
areas this week and to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in early May,
the EU on Thursday said it was clearly "discouraged". 

The two missions were engaged in a bid to present the EU's position on
Afghanistan and to call on both warring sides to stop fighting. But Peter
Tejler, Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan, representing the presidency of the
EU, told IRIN on Thursday: "We were very disappointed with the response we
have had from both sides", with neither willing to engage in a peace
process. 


PAKISTAN: UN addresses plight of Jalozai refugees

The UN system in Pakistan this week began a programme of emergency aid for
the 70,000 Afghan refugees at the makeshift Jalozai camp, near the
North-West Frontier District capital of Peshawar. The move effectively
breaks a stalemate that has existed between Pakistani authorities and
UNHCR over the status of the refugees. 

For the first time, the Pakistani authorities, who already host some two
million Afghan refugees, allowed the WFP access to the camp to begin
distributing 600 mt of wheat flour and 50 mt of cooking oil. The refugees
were to be provided with increased water, as well as improved health care
and sanitation. "Regardless of their ultimate fate, we cannot let this
helpless population live without the basic support they need and deserve,"
said Onder Yucer, UN Resident Coordinator for Pakistan. 

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Pakistan government briefed UNHCR on its plans
for the camps of Jalozai and Nasir Bagh. The proposals, not yet made
public, were sent to the UN in Geneva. UNHCR said it welcomed in principle
the decision by the authorities to consider screening the refugees to
determine those in need of international protection. UNHCR added that it
would be fully prepared, in cooperation with its humanitarian partners, to
increase aid activities inside Afghanistan, and to assist those refugees
to return who could do so in safety. 

PAKISTAN: New US envoy appointed to Pakistan

Washington named Wendy Chamberlain the new US ambassador to Pakistan on
Tuesday. The career diplomat most recently served as the principal deputy
assistant secretary of state, in the Bureau of International Narcotics and
Law Enforcement Affairs. Chamberlain, who served as ambassador to Laos
from 1996 to 1999, was also director of counter-terrorism affairs in the
National Security Council from 1989 to 1991. 

TAJIKISTAN: Afghan refugees ordered out of Dushanbe

Tajik authorities have ordered Afghan refugees living in the capital,
Dushanbe, to move to outlying districts, where they will be given
temporary residency. The Tajik authorities claim there are up to 16,000
refugees in the city, and that most fail to satisfy legal entry
requirements. The authorities have also voiced concern that members of the
refugee community are involved in drug smuggling and illegal business. 

The move has been condemned by the Committee of Afghan Refugees (CAR), who
say only 4,000 Afghans are living in Dushanbe, and that many of them are
long-term residents and respected members of the Afghan intelligentsia.
UNHCR head in Tajikistan Taslimur Rahman told IRIN that the order
represented a direct violation of the refugees' rights. The move follows a
resolution adopted by the mayor of Dushanbe on 26 July last year. 

[For IRIN story see: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/tajikistan/20010523.phtml]

TAJIKISTAN: Deaths from mine explosions increasing

Since August 2000, approximately 36 Tajik citizens have been killed in
mine explosions, the result of Uzbekistan's unilateral decision to
indiscriminately mine rural areas along the border with the two
neighbouring republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. A further 32 people
have sustained serious injuries. The latest mine victim was a 17 year-old
Tajik, who was foraging for mushrooms in the northern Asht district on 10
May. Four days earlier, three people, were killed in similar incidents.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov, speaking at a recent press conference, said
Uzbekistan was laying land mines only in mountain areas, at the height of
4,000 metres, where there were no residential settlements. The Uzbek
president stressed that they were mining only those gorges which were
traditionally used as corridors for drug smuggling. In early May,
Uzbekistan notified the Tajik border guards that new sections of the
border were being mined.

TAJIKISTAN: President appeals for aid for drought

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov appealed to leaders of Western nations
on Tuesday to send aid to his drought-stricken country. The appeal, which
was addressed to leaders of the US, Canada, Germany and the EU, said half
his country's agricultural production had been ruined by the drought.
"According to our estimations for normalising the food supply situation,
it is necessary to deliver an additional 500,000 mt of wheat, 10,000 mt of
vegetable oil, 15,000 mt of dairy products, 10,000 mt of meat products and
15,000 mt of sugar," said Rakhmonov.

Tajikistan's annual cereal production is estimated at 1 million mt, and
last year domestic production barely met 25 percent of the nation's needs.
Cotton has also been adversely affected. Matthew Kahane, UN resident
representative in Tajikistan, told IRIN on Thursday that the situation was
expected to be as bad, if not slightly worse, than last year. 

Islamabad, 24 May 2001


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