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 10
8 - 14 June 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: WFP bakeries set to close on Friday
AFGHANISTAN: New reports of rights abuses in Yakaolang 
AFGHANISTAN: IRIN Interview with Under-Secretary-General Kenzo Oshima
AFGHANISTAN: Pakistan holds "fruitful" talks with Taliban 
AFGHANISTAN: Three new funding tranches announced
AFGHANISTAN: Millions of Afghans face starvation as crops fail - WFP/FAO
PAKISTAN: IRC calls for proper screening at Jalozai
PAKISTAN: Water strikes turn deadly 
PAKISTAN: Afghanistan likely to overshadow US talks
KYRGYZSTAN: Mine blasts prompt calls for Uzbekistan to come clean
KYRGYZSTAN: Quarantines set up against foot-and-mouth 
UZBEKISTAN: Uzbeks expected to join Shanghai Five
UZBEKISTAN: Scores jailed for aiding Islamic extremists 


AFGHANISTAN: WFP bakeries set to close on Friday

By late Thursday, the UN had still not received a positive response from
the Taliban, ahead of its Friday deadline for closing the World Food
Programme (WFP) bakeries in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The Taliban's
refusal to allow the UN to use women to survey the people in the capital
most in need of subsidised bread, looks set to force WFP to close the
bakeries feeding 280,000 people by the end of business on Friday, 15 June.
On Tuesday, WFP spokesman Khaled Mansour told IRIN he was "not optimistic"
of a last-minute breakthrough. The current list of approved recipients for
subsidised bread is outdated, and the UN believes many hungry people are
having to do without. The UN says that only women can survey the city, as,
under Islamic Emirate (Taliban) rules, men are not permitted to talk to
women.

Meanwhile, the Taliban on Wednesday said they did not care if all UN
assistance to Afghanistan ended, because Muslim nations would step in to
help, the BBC reported. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul
Salaam Zaeef, speaking in Islamabad, accused the UN of providing
politically motivated aid. He also linked deteriorating relations with UN
humanitarian agencies to the failure of UN sanctions to force the Taliban
to hand over Saudi dissident Usama bin Ladin, for trial. The UN has also
said harassment by Arab militants and the Taliban's religious police is
endangering its wider aid programme. Mullah Zaeef said the Taliban would
not back down from enforcing Islamic Shari'ah law, saying the UN had no
proof that its staff were being harassed. [For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010613.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: New reports of rights abuses in Yakaolang

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday "expressed alarm" at reports that
Taliban forces had destroyed homes and buildings and detained 60 civilians
after retaking central Afghanistan's Yakaolang District on 10 June. Sidney
Jones, executive director for HRW, called on the UN to make a concerted
effort to obtain access to the district and verify the facts, according to
a press release. "The UN must press the Taliban to protect civilians, and
to hold its commanders accountable for abuses," he said. Jones added that
the lack of accountability for past abuses had contributed to massive
civilian displacement and further human rights abuse, the report said.

On June 10, the Taliban's Bakhter Information Agency reported that Taliban
forces, which include a number of foreign nationals affiliated to
extremist Sunni Muslim movements, were engaged in a "mopping-up"
operation. The majority of Yakaolang's 60,000 residents had fled before
the Taliban recaptured the district, said HRW. Since 1998, Yakaolang has
been the scene of intense clashes between Taliban militia and the
Hezb-e-Wahdat, a minority Shi'ah faction allied with the opposition
Northern Alliance. The town has changed hands many times, each occasion
bringing fresh allegations of civilian killings.

AFGHANISTAN: IRIN Interview with Under-Secretary-General Kenzo Oshima

UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima
returned to Islamabad last week to participate in the mid-term review of
the Afghan Support Group (ASG), the donor group engaged in providing
assistance to Afghanistan. Since his visit in February, a string of
high-level UN officials, including the UN Secretary-General himself, have
helped raise international awareness of the Afghan crisis. Following the
ASG meeting, Oshima told IRIN there had been a shift in the international
community's assistance strategy on Afghanistan. He said that at the same
time last year, the UN appeal was about US $78 million funded. So far in
2001 it had been US $102 million funded, which he called "a significant
increase". This level of commitment shows an increased donor concern for
the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. [For full details see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010611.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Pakistan holds "fruitful" talks with Taliban

The Pakistani Interior Secretary, Tasneem Noorani, met Taliban officials
in the capital, Kabul, this week and described the talks as very fruitful,
the BBC reported on Thursday. Noorani said they achieved a breakthrough on
the issue of illegal cross-border trade, which costs Pakistan millions of
dollars in unpaid customs revenue every year. He said it had been agreed
that Pakistan would ban the import of certain goods into Afghanistan. The
Taliban authorities also told Noorani that they would cooperate more
closely to find fugitive Pakistani criminals in Afghanistan. Noorani was
heading a Pakistani delegation to Kabul to attend the first meeting of the
Pakistan-Afghanistan joint committee.

AFGHANISTAN: Three new funding tranches announced

Funding pledges to Afghanistan were stepped up this week with the
announcement of three new aid packages from the European Union (EU), Japan
and Germany. The EU said on Monday it would send US $11 million in
humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to help those affected by drought and
conflict. The money, which would be channeled through the EU's
humanitarian aid office, ECHO, will be used to continue emergency food
supplies to refugees. Funds will also cover improving health care services
and de-mining operations. On Wednesday the German government announced a
contribution of US $232,000 to go toward the UN Food and Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) to provide drought-resistant wheat and chickpea seeds,
as well as fertiliser and agricultural advice, to 8,000 poor families in
drought-stricken Samangan Province. Also on Wednesday, it was announced
that Japan would donate US $3.8 million to the WFP in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Millions of Afghans face starvation as crops fail - WFP/FAO

A joint WFP/FAO crop and food supply assessment published on 8 June found
that millions of Afghans were facing starvation following a third
consecutive year of drought and deteriorating economic conditions, which
have seriously undermined the food situation in Afghanistan. The drought
has resulted in near total failure of rainfed agriculture and
substantially reduced irrigated farm production. A special alert by UN
agencies has warned that the food situation in Afghanistan will continue
to worsen. "There is mounting evidence of emerging widespread famine
conditions in the country, reflecting substantially reduced food intakes,
collapse of purchasing power, distress sales of livestock, large-scale
depletion of personal assets, soaring grain prices, rapidly increasing
numbers of destitute people, and ever-swelling ranks of refugees and
internally displaced persons [IDPs]," the alert warned. It is estimated
that some five million Afghans have little or no access to food and will
require international humanitarian food aid. [For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/9ca65951ee22658ec125663300408599/6888038c905bdeec85256a65004cd655?OpenDocument]

PAKISTAN: IRC calls for proper screening at Jalozai

A US-based NGO, International Rescue Committee (IRC), has called for
proper screening at Jalozai camp in northwestern Pakistan. The call
follows an IRC survey, which indicates that two-thirds of 328 families
interviewed cited "armed conflict and persecution" as the main reason for
fleeing their homes in Afghanistan. The survey dispels claims that the
majority of Jalozai's 40,000 to 50,000 residents are economic migrants or
illegal immigrants, who would not necessarily be granted asylum status in
Pakistan.

In a press statement issued on Thursday, IRC Programme Country Director
Sigurd Hanson said that "a majority of Jalozai's residents have good
claims to refugee status". While UNHCR and Pakistani authorities are
engaged in discussions on a screening process in Jalozai, IRC remains
concerned that a flawed process could lead to legitimate refugees being
sent back to Afghanistan. Many Jalozai residents expressed dismay at a
possible return. "I'd rather you kill me here than send me back to
Afghanistan," the survey quoted one elderly Afghan at Jalozai as saying.

PAKISTAN: Water strikes turn deadly

Violence over water shortages this week in southern Karachi killed three
people including one policemen, according to media reports. Two people
were shot dead on Wednesday and others injured as buses were torched
during a series of strikes aimed at shutting down the city, police and
emergency workers said. A policeman was killed in a bomb explosion during
the strikes and three other officers were wounded. Police and paramilitary
units were out in force on the streets of the city, supported by army
patrols. Most shops and businesses were shuttered and there was little
public transport.

The strike was called by the Muttahida Quami Movement - mainly composed of
Urdu-speaking immigrants from India - and the Sindhi nationalist group,
Jiye Sindh Quami Mahaz. They were protesting against alleged police
brutality during earlier demonstrations against shortages of irrigation
water in Sindh Province. At a time of severe drought, the groups say
Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, is taking too large a share of
the country's resources. Hundreds of activists are reported to have been
detained in recent months for attending protests highlighting the water
problem. Meanwhile in the northwestern Kohat District, villagers went on a
hunger strike on Wednesday to put pressure the Oil and Gas Development
Corporation [OGDC] officials to supply water to the area, according to
newspaper reports.

PAKISTAN: Afghanistan likely to overshadow US talks

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar held talks with new British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in London on Tuesday, at the start of a trip
that will also take him to the United States and Canada. Talks between the
two foreign ministers were expected to centre on a proposed summit between
the Indian and Pakistani heads of state on the disputed northern region of
Kashmir. In Washington during meetings with US Secretary of State Colin
Powell, Sattar would be keen to play down Pakistan's image as the
strongest supporter of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime, AFP reported.

US lawmakers remain convinced that Pakistan is feeding the Taliban's war
machine with weapons, fuel, technical assistance and even young recruits
from religious schools, despite a UN Security Council arms embargo imposed
on the militia in January. They were also upset by Pakistan's inability to
help arrange the extradition from Afghanistan of indicted terrorist Usama
bin Ladin, fuelling complaints that Islamabad was soft on terrorism, AFP
reported. Pakistan is one of only three countries to officially recognise
the Taliban regime.

KYRGYZSTAN: Mine blasts prompt calls for Uzbekistan to come clean
     
The Kyrgyz government called on Uzbekistan on Tuesday to reveal the
location of anti-personnel mines planted along its border with Kyrgyzstan
after an explosion seriously injured two people, according to AFP.
Following the incident on 10 June, the Kyrgyz government issued an order
calling on Uzbekistan to hand over information about where the mines had
been planted. The order also detailed a range of measures that the
emergency services should take to prevent any further loss of life and
property to Kyrgyz citizens. One person has been killed and six injured in
anti-personnel mine explosions in the ill-defined border region since
autumn last year, according to press reports. Uzbekistan triggered a
serious strain in relations with Central Asian states following its
decision to unilaterally mine its frontiers with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
fearing more raids from Islamic fundamentalists.

KYRGYZSTAN: Quarantines set up against foot-and-mouth

Livestock markets were closed on Monday and quarantine checkpoints set up
in a bid to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease among livestock
in Kyrgyzstan, AP reported. Sultan Kozhekov, a veterinary official, said
some 20 cows and 200 sheep had been discovered with the disease in the
remote At-Bashinsky region. While in Europe, widespread slaughter of
animals has been imposed, Kyrgyz officials have permitted farmers to adopt
a new strategy. Infected animals have been allowed to get over the disease
and to be slaughtered later after regaining lost weight, Kozhekov said.
Officials were also vaccinating animals in the region. 

UZBEKISTAN: Uzbeks expected to join Shanghai Five

Uzbekistan is expected to join the Shanghai Five organisation when it
meets in China for a two-day summit on Friday. Analysts maintain that the
move by Uzbekistan to join China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan in the collective body, has been 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 process of Tashkent's integration into the Shanghai Five was initiated
by Uzbek President Islam Karimov's participation in the Shanghai Five
summit in the capital, Dushanbe, last year. At the time, Karimov told the
press: "The [Shanghai Five] group regards the resolution of regional
security problems as of paramount importance, and it is not possible to
decide these issues without Uzbekistan, the key state in the region."
According to analysts, summit participants are expected to announce the
transformation of the Shanghai Five into a Shanghai organisation of
cooperation, a regional forum of partnership. 

UZBEKISTAN: Scores jailed for aiding Islamic extremists

Uzbek courts have jailed 73 people for up to 18 years for aiding Islamic
extremist incursions into the Central Asian state last year, a judicial
official told Reuters on Tuesday. They were charged with terrorism,
complicity in murder and infringement of the constitutional order, and
were jailed for between three and 18 years, according to a court official.
About 20 Uzbek army servicemen were killed last year fighting off an
incursion by up to 100 gunmen from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
[IMU], dubbed "Islamic extremists and terrorists" by Uzbek authorities.

Officials say the IMU are trying to topple Uzbekistan's constitutional
order and turn the country into an Islamic state. The latest trials in
secretive Uzbekistan appeared designed to stress official determination to
fight growing dissent in the impoverished nation of 25 million, Reuters
reported. Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Uzbek President
Islam Karimov has supported a religious revival, and hundreds of new
mosques have mushroomed across the country as more Uzbeks facing poverty
seek consolation in Islam. 

Islamabad, 14 June 2001


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