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 32
09 - 15 November 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Brahimi lays out political and security plan
AFGHANISTAN: Six-plus-Two group advocates broad-based government
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban retreat before Northern Alliance advance
AFGHANISTAN: Access to northwest expected to improve
AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers begin return
AFGHANISTAN: Mahkaki camp now under Northern Alliance control
AFGHANISTAN: Detained aid workers freed
PAKISTAN: Increase in war-wounded Afghans
PAKISTAN: Relocation of refugees postponed
PAKISTAN: Saudi envoy announces increased aid for Afghans
PAKISTAN: UAE to continue aiding Afghans
PAKISTAN: Visit by US refugee committee official
IRAN: Minister adamant on  border closure
IRAN: Tehran welcomes increased NGO activity
KYRGYZSTAN:	Last chance for the economy
TAJIKISTAN: Plight of Pyandzh river displaced continues


AFGHANISTAN: Brahimi lays out political and security plan

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar
Brahimi, emphasised on Monday the importance of establishing genuine and
lasting security in the country and outlined plans for political
transition. "The pervasive presence of non-Afghan armed and terrorist
groups with no interest in lasting peace will necessitate the introduction
of a robust security force able to deter and, if necessary, defeat
challenges to its authority," Brahimi told a high-level meeting of the UN
Security Council. Options included an all-Afghan security force, a
multinational force, or a UN peacekeeping operation. Brahimi said the
first option was the best, but since it would take time to constitute,
serious consideration should be given to deploying an international
security presence. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14237]

AFGHANISTAN: Six-plus-Two group advocates broad-based government

Following a high-level meeting chaired by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
representatives of the Six-plus-Two group, comprising the six countries
neighbouring Afghanistan, together with the United States and the Russian
Federation, agreed on Monday on the need to establish a broad-based and
freely chosen Afghan Government. In a joint declaration issued after the
meeting at UN HQ in New York, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the US and Russia "pledged their continued
support to efforts of the Afghan people to find a political solution to
the Afghan crisis, and they agreed that there should be the establishment
in Afghanistan of a broad-based multiethnic, politically balanced, freely
chosen Afghan administration representative of their aspirations and at
peace with its neighbours". [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14037]

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban retreat before Northern Alliance advance

Latest media reports confirm that Northern Alliance forces entered
Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and the western city of Herat on Tuesday.
Fighting was also reported to be in progress in other cities and regions
right across the country, as Taliban forces retreated in the face of a
dramatic Northern Alliance advance. A Human Rights Watch representative
told IRIN on Tuesday that the unconfirmed reports from Mazar-e Sharif of
looting of aid agency offices, abductions and kidnappings for ransom by
armed elements were alarming. "The next few days will be crucial to see
whether the Northern Alliance has improved its human rights behaviour, or
whether we are going to see a repeat of what has happened in the past," he
said. [Full report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14208

AFGHANISTAN: Access to northwest expected to improve

Following unconfirmed reports that swathes of Afghanistan's northwest had
fallen to Northern Alliance control, some aid workers active in the region
were cautiously optimistic that access to over two million vulnerable
Afghans would now dramatically improve. Experts agreed that much depended
on how stable the region remained, bearing in mind that past takeovers by
the warring factions had entailed violence towards civilians and
massacres. However, if security could be guaranteed, then substantial
amounts of humanitarian aid could be routed through to Mazar-e Sharif and
the surrounding provinces. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13966]

AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers begin return

Following the gains made by opposition Northern Alliance forces throughout
Afghanistan, international aid workers for the first time since evacuating
the country show signs of returning. "Over the next few weeks, we will be
sending in a large number of expatriates, depending on the needs of the
operation," International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate for
Afghanistan, Bernard Barrett, told IRIN on Thursday, adding that the
intention was to move as quickly as possible into Herat and Mazar-e
Sharif. Three international ICRC staff members returned to Kabul on
Tuesday and Wednesday, among the first expatriate aid staff to return
since being evacuated from Taliban-held areas of the country on 16
September. [Full report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14515]

AFGHANISTAN: Mahkaki camp now under Northern Alliance control

Officials of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in Tehran told IRIN that the Mahkaki refugee camp, two
kilometres from the Iranian border and formerly in Taliban-held territory,
on Tuesday was under the control of the opposition Northern Alliance.
Although the situation is currently stable, there remains concern over
security inside the camp. "We are worried there might be Taliban forces
still in the area," Mohammad Nouri, the UNHCR spokesman, said on
Wednesday. "Should fighting break out, many of the people at Mahkaki would
be at risk. In such an event, we would call upon the Iranian government to
consider opening its border to those at risk," he said. The majority of
refugees at Mahkaki are ethnic Pashtun, the same group to which most
Taliban members belong. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14322]

AFGHANISTAN: Detained aid workers freed

Eight western aid workers on trial for preaching Christianity in
Afghanistan were released on Wednesday and are now in Pakistan, following
a dramatic turn of events. The eight, who had been working in Kabul for
the Shelter Now International relief agency, were flown to Pakistan in
three US special forces helicopters. Their Pakistani lawyer, Atif Ali
Khan, said the Taliban had moved the aid workers out of Kabul on Monday,
just before it fell to the Northern Alliance, and were supposedly on their
way to the southern province of Kandahar, but only got far as the eastern
province of Ghazni, where they were then put into a local jail. The aid
workers, now safely in Pakistan, had been awaiting their fate from the
Supreme Court in Kabul when the city fell to the Northern Alliance. [Full
report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14525]

PAKISTAN: Increase in war-wounded Afghans

As the war in Afghanistan continues, the number of wounded being brought
to government hospitals in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
is increasing week by week, a Pakistani health official told IRIN on
Thursday. Some 180 seriously wounded people and at least 150 with minor
injuries have been registered in the province, which borders eastern
Afghanistan. "As the fighting has intensified, we have seen a steady rise
in casualties," the secretary for health and emergency coordination at
Hayatabad Medical College in the NWFP, Dr Jamil Bangash, said. He added
that many patients said they did not want to return to Afghanistan under
the current situation. As US led-air strikes enter their sixth week, human
rights bodies and aid agencies have continued to express concern over
civilian casualties. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14512]

PAKISTAN: Relocation of refugees postponed

UNHCR on Wednesday postponed the relocation of refugees from the makeshift
Jalozai camp to a new camp in the tribal area of the Bajaur Agency, both
camps being in Pakistan's NWFP. The announcement came after the Pakistani
authorities called for a suspension. "The relocation has been suspended
indefinitely," the UNHCR spokesman in Islamabad, Yusuf Hassan, told IRIN.
"But we would like them to be moved as quickly as possible, as [the holy
Muslim month of] Ramadan and the winter are approaching, and they need to
be in a place where they can be fully assisted," he added. There are about
50,000 Afghans in Jalozai, with more fleeing the fighting and bombing in
their homeland arriving almost every day. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14303]

PAKISTAN: Saudi envoy announces increased aid for Afghans

As conditions inside Afghanistan deteriorate, Saudi Arabia is stepping up
humanitarian assistance to the country. Saudi representatives are in place
on border areas in neighbouring Pakistan, identifying the needs of the
vulnerable, and purchasing food from local markets to be transported in.
One of only three countries which once recognised the Taliban regime,
Saudi Arabia, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), severed diplomatic ties
with the group shortly after the 11 September attacks. In an interview
with IRIN on Monday, the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Awadh Asseri,
said the Taliban had betrayed the people of Afghanistan, only adding to
their misery and suffering. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13937]

PAKISTAN: UAE to continue aiding Afghans

The UAE along with Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with the Taliban
following the events of 11 September. Along with Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia, the UAE had been one of only three countries worldwide to
recognise the regime. The UAE has said it will continue to commit itself
to helping to ease the suffering of innocent Afghans as the humanitarian
crisis in their country looks set to worsen in the winter months. In an
interview with IRIN, the UAE ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Mohammed Al
Shamsi, urged the international community to step up and speed up aid for
those trapped inside. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13586]

PAKISTAN: Visit by US refugee committee official

The US Committee for Refugees has issued recommendations regarding the
Afghan refugees and displaced, following a nine-day visit to Pakistan by
Hiram Ruiz, its communications director. In an interview with IRIN, Ruiz
said that the closure of the Pakistan border had certainly helped trap
people seeking asylum. The coalition bombing campaign was a major reason
for civilian flight from Afghanistan's urban centres, he said.  Ruiz
believed that more needed to be done, institutionally, by the
international community to ensure that internally displaced persons did
not continue to fall between two stools. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=13770]

IRAN: Minister adamant on border closure

Iran maintains it has the largest Afghan refugee population in the world,
and yet receives only a fraction of what Pakistan receives in terms of
international humanitarian assistance. As the crisis continues to unfold
in Afghanistan, the UN has repeatedly called on neighbouring countries to
open their borders should a major exodus occur. Instead, Tehran has
proposed establishing a series of camps inside Afghan territory to which
assistance could be transported. In an interview with IRIN, Iranian
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari defended that position, saying
Iran could no longer shoulder the burden alone. Citing the considerable
impact the presence of the refugees has brought to bear on the country, as
well as the considerable financial implications of that presence, he
called for greater international burden-sharing. [Full report at
www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14138]

IRAN: Tehran welcomes increased NGO activity

As the humanitarian crisis deepens in neighbouring Afghanistan, Tehran has
been warming to the idea of allowing in more international relief
agencies. Gholam-Reza Mashhadi, head of international section of the
bureau of aliens and foreign immigrants affairs office, said Iran welcomed
the presence of more NGOs, and was working to facilitate their presence in
the country. Mashhadi, who has called for greater international
burden-sharing in the crisis in Afghanistan, said NGOs could play a
pivotal role in Iran in providing assistance to thousands of displaced
Afghans both inside their country and along the common border. [Full
report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14276]

KYRGYZSTAN: Last chance for the economy

Since the September attacks, Central Asia has been benefiting from
increased attention by the international community. But given the
experience of the past 10 years, there is concern that the resulting new
influx of money could fail to bring about shared economic development. In
an effort to attract investors from abroad, the creation of a Coordination
Council for Attracting Foreign Investment has been ordered. It focuses on
removing barriers in priority sectors, such as energy and tourism, seen as
Kyrgyzstan’s main economic assets. Dzhoomart Otorbaev, head of the
council, explained that foreign companies could bring funds, technologies
and human resources not yet available in-country. Critics have said that
investment by itself is not enough: transparency is essential to guarantee
that civil society benefits from this renewed attention from the West.
[Full report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14198]

TAJIKISTAN: Plight of Pyandzh river displaced continues

Reports that thousands of Afghan displaced on the border with Tajikistan
since last year had left the islands in the Pyandzh river where they had
been stranded had proved to be false, an UNHCR official in Tajikistan told
IRIN on Wednesday. "There remain some 12,000 people on the two islands,"
Aurvasi Patel, the refugee agency's protection officer, said in the Tajik
capital, Dushanbe. "It's a very fluid situation, but some 1,500 combatants
have left the area." The remaining displaced comprised of vulnerable
women, children and the elderly.
[Full report at www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=14296]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


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