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 13
29 June - 5 July 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Bush extends Taliban sanctions
AFGHANISTAN: Ban on poppy farming reducing opium production: UN
AFGHANISTAN: Adopt-A-Minefield campaign set to accelerate
AFGHANISTAN: Afghans largest group of asylum seekers
PAKISTAN: Repatriation of Afghans from Baluchistan begins
PAKISTAN: ICVA condemns government's refugee repatriation drive
PAKISTAN: Nasir Bagh eviction deadline passes without incident
PAKISTAN: Amnesty condemns harassment of Afghan refugees
TAJIKISTAN: WFP welcomes US food donation
TAJIKISTAN: US issues travel warning for Tajikistan


AFGHANISTAN: Bush extends Taliban sanctions

US President George W Bush announced on Monday he was extending current
sanctions against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban for continuing to harbour
the terrorist and fugitive Saudi millionaire, Usama bin Ladin, wanted in
connection to the twin bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in the
summer of 1998. In a letter to congressional leaders, Bush said: "This
situation continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the
national security and foreign policy interests of the United States."  
Reuters reported on Monday that Bush's order keeps in place a national
declaration issued last June. The order, which must be renewed annually,
freezes all property of the Taliban in the United States and prohibits
trade involving Afghan territory controlled by the Taliban, according to
the report. The Taliban control over 90 percent of Afghanistan, including
its capital, Kabul, and have adamantly refused to extradite Bin Ladin,
whom they refer to as their "guest".

AFGHANISTAN: Ban on poppy farming reducing opium production: UN

The UN announced on Tuesday that opium production had dropped
significantly around the globe, thanks largely to the ban on opium poppy
cultivation in war-torn Afghanistan, the world's leading producer.
According to a new report issued the same day, the Vienna-based United
Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) predicted
that "the current ban on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is likely
to dramatically reduce opium production in 2001". Overall, opium
production dropped by 19 percent worldwide, to about 4,700 mt, while
global cocaine production for 2000 remained more or less stable. In the
absence of reliable data on cannabis cultivation, ODCCP noted a 35 percent
increase in seizures of herbal cannabis, and said this indicated
"continued widespread production and trafficking of the drug".

In an earlier interview with IRIN, the country representative for the
United Nations Office for Drug Control (UNDCP) for Pakistan and
Afghanistan, Bernard Frahi, said: "During the 1990s and up until 2000,
Afghanistan was firmly established as the main source of illicit opium
produced, trafficked and consumed in the world." More specifically, it had
become the source of 79 percent of the global illicit opium production in
1999. Today, opium poppy has been effectively eliminated in those parts of
Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, who imposed the ban on its
cultivation last year. [For a complete copy of the ODCCP report see:
http://www.odccp.org/global_illicit_drug_trends.html ]

AFGHANISTAN: Adopt-A-Minefield campaign set to accelerate

A privately funded effort to remove land mines called Adopt-A-Minefield
has achieved its best results in Afghanistan, the United Nations announced
on Monday. According to the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the campaign by the UN Association of the
USA, has raised over US $620,000 to clear 22 sites in the country. The
campaign seeks national and international sponsors to adopt minefields
that the UN has identified as being in urgent need of clearance. Currently
in Afghanistan as part of an appraisal mission, Oren Schlein, the
programme's executive director told IRIN on Monday: "Afghanistan, has from
the very beginning, been our most popular and successful programme."
Commenting on the programme, Dan Kelly, manager of the Mine Action
Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) in Islamabad, told IRIN: "This is a
unique approach, but it is an approach that is taking the issue of mines
to the people. It's making the people not just in the United States aware,
but all over the world."

Since its launch in March 1999, the campaign has raised US $3.5 million
for de-mining. Individuals, community groups, and businesses have adopted
more than 89 minefields in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia,
Croatia, and Mozambique. [For full details of the programme see:
www.landmines.org]

AFGHANISTAN: Afghans largest group of asylum seekers

Afghans were the largest group of people applying for asylum in the first
five months of this year, with some 19,975 applications in 27 European
countries, according to UNHCR. The ongoing drought and fighting in
Afghanistan, coupled with the situation Afghan refugees were facing in
neighbouring countries, could see a continuing rise in the figure over the
next few months, a UN official in Geneva told IRIN. "There is increasing
hostility towards Afghan refugees in countries such as Pakistan and Iran,"
a spokesman for UNHCR in Geneva, Rupert Colville, said on Wednesday.
Afghan refugees were feeling "less secure" in their host countries, this
being a reason for them to move on and apply for asylum, he added.

Pakistan is home to the largest number of Afghan refugees in the world,
and says it cannot cope. It has already placed an eviction order on an
Afghan refugee camp in the country's North-West Frontier Province, and
called on the UN to facilitate repatriation. Colville explained that even
though the report indicated a nine percent drop in applications from
Afghans in May, the number was more likely to rise in the long term.

PAKISTAN: Repatriation of Afghans from Baluchistan begins

A group of 39 Afghan refugee families living in southwestern Pakistan left
for their homeland on Tuesday, restarting the UN's repatriation programme,
after it was stalled last year due to a lack of funding. "The refugees
were very excited about going back," Peter Kessler, UNHCR spokesman in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN. He added that many refugees had
been waiting anxiously to return since the programme was halted in 2000.
The 158 Afghans had been living in the Saranan and Loralai refugee
settlements in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. Many had
been in Pakistan for more than 15 years, and took most of their belongings
with them. "This is a voluntary operation. The refugees came forward, and
we are happy to take them," Kessler said. Escorted by UNHCR, the refugees
returned to the town of Buldak in the southwestern Afghan province of
Kandahar. They were moved in a 10-truck convoy on a journey which lasted
up to seven hours. Kessler said on arrival in the area, unaffected by war,
each Afghan family was given US $90, shelter material and 150 kg of food
aid from WFP to help them resettle. UN staff in the war-torn nation would
also be monitoring to help stabilise the returnees in their places of
origin.  [For more details see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010704.phtml]

PAKISTAN: ICVA condemns government's refugee repatriation drive

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), a Swiss-based
umbrella organisation of NGOs has criticised Pakistan's drive to
repatriate thousands of Afghans in the country, saying the move would only
worsen their plight. Returning civilians to a conflict situation would
only compound the problem further, and ICVA called upon UNHCR to condemn
the effort, rather than facilitate it. "The humanitarian situation in
Afghanistan is worse than ever, and the international community should
strongly condemn Pakistan against its desire to return them," ICVA
humanitarian officer Manisha Thomas in Geneva told IRIN.  "This is a
quick-fix solution holding no long-term benefit," she added.

In a recent ICVA report entitled "Moving Afghans from Bad to Worse",
following the head of UNHCR's recent trip to Pakistan, Iran and
Afghanistan, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers argued that a new approach was
needed to deal with the Afghan issue, and it appeared the refugee agency
may be taking on IDPs in Afghanistan. Currently the agency and the
Pakistan government are negotiating the final draft of an agreement to
begin screening Afghans at the make-shift refugee camp in Jalozai in the
North-West Frontier Province. The move is an effort to separate those in
need of protection from those who are not considered genuine refugees.
Afghans found not to be in need of protection would be returned to
Afghanistan by Pakistani authorities. While it is necessary to screen
those that Pakistan wants to return to ensure asylum seekers are granted
protection, the ICVA report warned that many Afghans who returned would be
likely to come under UNHCR's mandate once in Afghanistan. [For full
details see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010629.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Nasir Bagh eviction deadline passes without incident

The eviction deadline for some 120,000 Afghans to leave Nasir Bagh, a
refugee camp in Peshawar in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province,
passed without incident on 30 June. Government officials appeared
satisfied with a promise by camp representatives and elders that the
12,000 families resident in the community would begin to move out shortly.
"They are willing to return home and have agreed to move," head of
Pakistan's Commission for Afghan refugees told IRIN on Monday. The
Pakistan government wants to build a new housing project in Nasir Bagh
called Regi Lama, and maintains that work on the site has already been
postponed due to eviction delays. The refugee camp is one of the oldest in
Pakistan, emerging in the 1980s following the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. Nasir Bagh has since become a self-sufficient Afghan
community. It remains unclear what compensation, if any, these people will
receive to vacate their homes. [For full report see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010702a.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Amnesty condemns harassment of Afghan refugees

Amnesty International on 1 July called on Pakistani authorities to take
decisive action over the continued persecution of Afghan refugees by
police.  The human rights watchdog said despite repeated warnings -
including a letter to President General Pervez Musharraf - regarding the
deteriorating situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the government had
failed to ensure their safety and security. In recent months, thousands of
Afghan male refugees in Pakistan have become the subject of arbitrary
arrest, intimidation, beatings and deportations by the Pakistani police.
According to reports, police stop Afghans in the streets, demanding
bribes. Those who could pay were released, while others were taken to
police stations and either released when their families paid a bribe, or
beaten or deported, the statement said. 

Amnesty's condemnation comes in the wake of the alleged beating to death
of 40 year-old Salahuddin Samadi at the hands of police in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad. According to reports, the father of six, who had been
living in Pakistan since 1996 and held legal refugee status in the
country, was beaten and thrown from a moving vehicle on 15 June after he
allegedly failed to pay police officers a bribe. He died in hospital from
his injuries on 27 June, resulting in a strong outcry from the country's
Afghan community.  Amnesty has called for an "independent, impartial and
competent" inquiry to his death. 

TAJIKISTAN: WFP welcomes US food donation

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday welcomed a US donation of 26,500
mt of food to help more than one million people in Tajikistan, following
the worst crop failure to affect the country in decades. In a statement to
the press, WFP's country director, Bouchan Hadj-Chikh, said: "This
generous US contribution comes at a critical time for the hungry poor of
Tajikistan."  Valued at US $16 million, the US contribution, which
includes 25,000 mt of wheat flour and 1,500 mt of edible oil, will arrive
in the country in three shipments between September and December this
year. To date, the US has contributed a total of 39,000 mt of food worth
nearly US $23.5 million to WFP's ongoing emergency operation in the
country. The food agency is working to bring about 127,000 mt of food aid
costing US $62 million into Tajikistan for 2001. Since the start of WFP's
emergency operation late last year, donors have provided some 80,000 mt
food, leaving a deficit of 47,000 mt urgently needed to cover the basic
food requirements of the poorest people in Tajikistan this year. Zouhair
Elaouni, WFP officer in charge in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, told IRIN
on Thursday: "There is a deficit of food in the country, and the situation
could get worse as people are going hungry." 

TAJIKISTAN: US issues travel warning for Tajikistan

The US State Department on 29 June warned American citizens against
travelling to Tajikistan following continuing political unrest in the
country. "The security situation in Tajikistan remains unstable, and the
political situation remains fluid," the State Department said, citing
outbreaks of clashes between government troops and gunmen loyal to former
rebel chiefs. According to the 29 June Reuters report, the travel warning
said Americans should particularly avoid areas along the borders with
Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, the Karategin Valley and Tavildara District. 
Recently, Tajikistan launched a military operation near the capital,
Dushanbe, against forces loyal to Rakhmon Sanginov and Mansur Muakalov,
two rebel commanders in the country's 1992-97 civil war. A fragile peace
ended the five-year civil war, but the country remained plagued by
violence, drug smuggling and occasional political unrest, the report said.
Tajikistan has been chronically unstable since the country gained
independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

Islamabad, 5 July 2001


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