U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 8
25 - 31 May 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Breakdown in talks threatens UN humanitarian programmes
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban order female foreign aid workers not to drive
AFGHANISTAN: UN team assesses humanitarian impact of sanctions
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban say bombing verdict "unfair"
PAKISTAN: UN spearheads drug rehabilitation drive 
PAKISTAN: May death toll at Jalozai reaches 33
PAKISTAN: Long-awaited water policy feared too costly
PAKISTAN: Eighty heat-related deaths this year
TAJIKISTAN: WFP resumes aid to refugees on border 
TAJIKISTAN: UN to continue peace-building efforts

AFGHANISTAN: Breakdown in talks threatens UN humanitarian programmes 

Four days of intensive talks between the UN and the Taliban in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, this week broke up without reaching agreement on the
crucial issue of using women to conduct a survey of the capital's most
vulnerable people. The ensuing stalemate could result in the closure of
the UN's bakeries, which feed almost 300,000 people in Kabul, and
ultimately puts the fate of the UN's other humanitarian programmes in the
balance.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Erick de Mul said on
Wednesday: "We are back to square one," referring to an announcement by
the World Food Programme (WFP) on 25 May that it would have to suspend its
bakery programme by 15 June, unless the Taliban agreed to the hiring of
between 20 and 30 Afghan women needed to conduct a survey to identify the
most vulnerable. The current list of approved recipients of the bakery
project is outdated and the UN claims many hungry people are having to go
without. WFP says it needs to hire Afghan women to conduct the survey, but
the Taliban refuse to allow the UN to hire local women. The deadlock comes
amid increased tension between the UN and the Taliban in recent weeks.

[For full details see:

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010530.phtml]


AFGHANISTAN: Taliban order female foreign aid workers not to drive

The ruling Taliban have ordered all female aid workers in Afghanistan to
refrain from driving, saying it is "against Afghan traditions", AP
reported on Thursday. A letter from the Taliban Ministry for the Promotion
of Virtue and Prevention of Vice instructed the foreign ministry to
"inform relevant foreign aid agencies that in the future foreign women do
not drive cars and... abide by the regulations of the Islamic Emirate
[Taliban]". It said female drivers were "against Afghan traditions, and
negatively impact society". The ruling comes amid what the UN this month
termed as "a general narrowing of space available for humanitarian
agencies to operate effectively", at a time when the humanitarian crisis
is rapidly deepening. The Taliban have come under harsh criticism for
their treatment of Afghan women, including barring them from seeking
education and from the workplace.

AFGHANISTAN: UN team assesses humanitarian impact of sanctions

A UN team is preparing a report to submit to the Security Council in June,
following a mission to assess the humanitarian implications of sanctions
on Afghan civilians. The team's brief sets a precedent in that it is the
first time a mandatory humanitarian monitoring mechanism has been included
in sanctions on Afghanistan.

The first assessment report, issued in March, concluded that the
humanitarian situation had not been "noticeably and additionally affected"
by the new sanctions imposed under Resolution 1333 in January. The stated
intention behind the sanctions was to induce compliance from the Taliban
to expel Saudi dissident Usama bin Ladin, and to end alleged Taliban
support for international terrorism, while avoiding at all costs putting
pressure on civilians. "The role of the monitoring mechanism is to find
out if this is happening or not, [and] if [it is found that] there are
adverse effects on civilians, to report what they are, and to come up with
suggestions as to how we can mitigate or remove them," Michael Semple, UN
Regional Coordinating Officer for the Central Highlands and a member of
the assessment team, told IRIN.

[For full details see:

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010529a.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban say bombing verdict "unfair"

The Taliban authorities condemned the conviction of four men on Tuesday
charged with conspiring to kill Americans in the bombing of two US
embassies in Africa in 1998, the BBC reported. The four are allegedly
followers of Saudi dissident Usama bin Ladin, currently in hiding in
Afghanistan. "He is a great holy warrior of Islam, and a great benefactor
of the Afghan people," said Abdul Anan Himat, an official in the Taliban
information ministry. The Taliban renewed their vow not to hand over Bin
Ladin, who has been indicted in the US for masterminding the bombings.
Their repeated refusal, along with continued provision of sanctuary and
training for international terrorists and their organisations, prompted a
second round of sanctions to be imposed by the UN Security Council in
January.

Two of the four accused, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali and Khalfan Khamis
Mohamed, could now face the death penalty, while Wadih el-Hage and Mohamed
Sadeek Odeh face possible life prison sentences. The bombs in Kenya and
Tanzania claimed the lives of over 200 people, including 12 Americans, and
injured thousands. Court proceedings are set to continue, as six other
defendants await trial in custody, while a further 13 are still at large,
including Bin Ladin.

PAKISTAN: UN spearheads drug rehabilitation drive

Drug rehabilitation efforts in Pakistan received a boost on Tuesday with
the launching of a US $547,000 project by the United Nations Drug Control
Programme [UNDCP]. The project will see the establishment of 17 new drug
treatment and rehabilitation centres in the country. More than 30,000 of
Pakistan's estimated four million drug addicts will benefit from what the
UNDCP representative in the capital, Islamabad, Bernard Frahi, described
as "international-standard" treatment over the next three years. Five of
the new clinics will have "women-friendly" programmes, in a bid to attract
female addicts. Frahi stressed the importance of addressing female
addiction, and said women were often reluctant to come forward due to the
social stigma associated with the habit.

[For full details see: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010529.phtml]

PAKISTAN: May death toll at Jalozai reaches 33

A total of 33 deaths have been confirmed at the Jalozai refugee camp in
northwestern Pakistan since 1 May. They included 21 children, victims of
heatstroke and diarrhoea, Dr Javed Pervez, the camp's health director,
told IRIN on Monday. Since January, 81 refugees have died as a result of
extreme heat and poor sanitation.

Meanwhile, last week, the UN made a breakthrough in a deadlock with
regional Pakistani authorities, and announced temporary emergency
assistance for the refugees, including 650 mt of food aid, and more water,
latrines and medical supplies. Despite this, Pervez predicted more deaths.
"These people need to be moved to a location with better sanitation and a
cleaner environment or there will be an outbreak of diseases," he said.
Agreement between United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and the Pakistani government has still not been reached on screening the
more than 70,000 Afghans at Jalozai, to identify genuine refugees.
According to Pervez, 90 new families have arrived over the past two weeks.

[For full details: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010528a.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Long-awaited water policy feared too costly

Pakistan will not be able to afford its long-awaited water policy, due to
be announced in June, a water ministry official told IRIN on Tuesday.
Ibrahim Sha, additional secretary of the Ministry of Water and Power, put
the cost of the much-needed water policy at "US $4-5 billion", and said it
would take "another six months to put into shape", and years to implement.
The combined effects of prolonged drought and unchecked population growth
have brought about a severe water crisis in the country. Hopes that the
water policy would alleviate the situation are now set to fade. Experts
predict that in the future, one out of every three people in Pakistan will
face critical shortages of water. With reservoir levels seriously
depleted, hopes are pinned on a short-term respite with the annual monsoon
rains due to start on 15 July, according to Pakistan's meteorological
office. 

[For full details: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010530.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Eighty heat-related deaths this year

Eighty people have died in the first five months of this year in central
and northwestern Pakistan due to dehydration in the current prevailing
drought conditions. Temperatures in May reached 50 degrees Celsius in the
worst-affected area of central Sindh Province, according to a drought
report released on Tuesday by the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The drought has been disastrous for hundreds
of thousands of farmers, with the loss of livestock worth US $247 million,
and many acres of crops wiped out. A UN mission has been in Sindh to
assess the drought situation, and will report its findings in July, a
United Nations Development Programmme (UNDP) spokesman in Islamabad told
IRIN on Wednesday. Emergency assistance may then be provided, pending a
request by the provincial government. 

[For full details see: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010530a.phtml]


TAJIKISTAN: WFP resumes aid to refugees on border

The WFP on Monday announced the resumption of food aid to 1,500 of an
estimated 12,000 Afghan refugees stranded on flood plains along the
Tajik-Afghan border. UN operations, including its feeding programme, were
suspended on 13 March after a UNHCR investigation found that food and
other relief aid intended solely for vulnerable civilians was also
reaching soldiers. "I have visited the island myself five times, and I can
confirm that the food aid is now going only to civilians," said the WFP
director for Tajikistan, Bouchan Hadj-Chikh. "We are not giving aid to
combatants. "Food aid resumed after the Tajik government complied with
conditions laid down by the UN that included the separation of civilians
and soldiers into separate camps. 

[For full details see: 

http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/tajikistan/20010528.phtml]

TAJIKISTAN: UN to continue peace-building efforts

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to extend the activities of
the United Nations Tajikistan Office of Peace-Building (UNTOP) until June
2002, Ivo Petrov, representative of the secretary-general, told a press
conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Tuesday.

Petrov said that although progress had been made in the peace process in
Tajikistan, the causes of the civil war had not been entirely removed. The
UN hopes to consolidate reconciliation with the country, which still bears
the scars of the 1992-1997 civil conflict following the collapse of
communist rule. Petrov noted that during the past year the security
situation had improved, and reintegration of the militants of the former
Tajik opposition into government power structures had been completed.
However, he expressed concern over the volatility of neighbouring
Afghanistan: "The unstable situation in the region, especially in
Afghanistan, also poses a threat to the country's stability." 

Islamabad, 31 May 2001
[ENDS]

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