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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 18
3 - 9 August 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban to close all Shelter Now offices
AFGHANISTAN: Public hangings in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: Japan pledge focuses on water and sanitation
PAKISTAN: Refugee pre-screening begins
PAKISTAN: Last phase of local elections held on Thursday
IRAN: Khatami sworn in for second term
IRAN: Another 327 Afghans repatriated
KYRGYZSTAN: UNDP to enhance operations in the south
KYRGYZSTAN: UN official raises concern over human rights

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban to close all Shelter Now offices

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia will close all offices of the
German-based aid agency Shelter Now (SNI) after eight foreigners,
comprising four Germans, two Australians and two Americans were arrested
over the weekend for preaching Christianity. "The decision [to close the
offices] has been taken after the Taliban received solid evidence that
Shelter Now was engaged in propagating Christianity in Afghanistan,"
Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Zahid was quoted as saying by
the Afghan Islamic Press on Wednesday. "Nobody can deny this fact. What
was the purpose of having literature in the Dari language?," he asked.
"The Muslim state of Afghanistan has no place for such organisation," he
added.

According to AFP, the SNI workers - two men and six women - are in the
custody of the Taliban religious police in the capital, Kabul, pending
further investigations to decide their punishment. Meanwhile, on Thursday,
a US official in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN that visas to
visit Kabul were awaited. "We remain hopeful that our request will be
answered and we will gain consular access to the detainees," he said. US
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday: "Our main
concern is for their welfare, and we want to be able to meet with them to
ensure that they are being properly treated and cared for, and that the
case will, in fact, be resolved swiftly." Meanwhile, a spokesman for the
Australian High Commission told IRIN that the Australian, German and US
embassies had agreed on a fully coordinated approach in dealing with the
matter.

[For more information: see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010806a.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Public hangings in Kabul

Four men found guilty of carrying out a series of bomb attacks last year
for the opposition Northern Alliance, killing one person and injuring
dozens of others, were publicly executed in Kabul's main square on
Wednesday. Taliban soldiers stood guard around the square, redirecting
traffic and keeping spectators at a distance as the bodies dangled from a
crane. According to an AP report on Thursday, public executions are less
frequent now in the capital; before 1999, they were almost a weekly
occurrence.

This is the second time the Taliban have executed opposition supporters
(as opposed to criminals) since 1996. The hangings took place in the same
square where Afghanistan's communist president, Najibullah, was hanged
after Taliban forces took the city in September of that year, the report
said. The Taliban, who impose a harsh brand of Islamic law, have decreed
public executions for crimes against their laws. Murderers are executed,
thieves are subjected to amputation, and those found guilty of minor
offences are often publicly beaten, according to the report.

AFGHANISTAN: Japan pledge focuses on water and sanitation

UNDP on Wednesday welcomed a US $410,000 contribution by the Japanese
government for the poverty eradication and community empowerment
programme, earmarked for improving the basic living conditions of Afghans.
The programme focuses on community empowerment, water and sanitation. "The
water and sanitation sector is in critical condition, and this
contribution will undoubtedly alleviate a great deal of suffering for
those in need," UNDP programme officer Makiko Katsuma told IRIN. Afghans
are suffering from the worst drought in 30 years, compounding the problem
of clean water and sanitation, she added.  According to the UN, less than
a quarter of Afghans have access to clean water - and only 12 percent to
sanitation.

The programme aims to improve the health status and quality of life of
Afghans through access to safe drinking water facilities, and community
awareness of health, hygiene and sanitation. Sustained and equal access to
quality services will support refugee return to Afghanistan. With
community participation in planning, and implementation of appropriate
technology to resolve the drinking-water problem, it is anticipated that
the sense of ownership will increase and create significant progress to
foster civil governance. In addition, safe drinking water was expected to
result in the decline of water-born diseases, such as cholera, typhoid,
dysentery and gastroenteritis, as well as a drop in the morbidity and
infant mortality rates, currently among the highest in the world, Katsuma
said.

PAKISTAN: Refugee pre-screening begins

The first phase of screening Afghan refugees in Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province started on Monday, UNHCR confirmed to IRIN. "Many of the
refugees are excited about the fact that the process has actually
started," the agency's spokesman in Islamabad, Yusuf Hassan, said. The
move follows the signing on 2 August of a landmark screening agreement
between Pakistan and the UN, which means that thousands can be given
temporary protection by Pakistan. The 20-day process of pre-screening will
be carried out in the Nasir Bagh camp in the provincial capital, Peshawar,
and the nearby makeshift Jalozai refugee camp. Hassan explained that the
first phase involved some 30 screening teams interviewing heads of
households and registering them by gathering basic information, such as
names and places of origin. With a total of around 130,000 refugees
residing in the two camps, Hassan said the teams consisted of two people,
one from the Pakistani government and the other from UNHCR, accompanied by
an interpreter. He added that the number of teams would be increased to 55
by the end of August.

[For full report: see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010806.phtml
]

PAKISTAN: Last phase of local elections held on Thursday

Polls for the fifth and final round of local body elections were held on
Thursday in 306 union councils in Pakistan. A total of 12,941 candidates
ran for six categories of seats in each of the union councils in 11
districts across the country - eight in the North-West Frontier Province
and three in the western province of Baluchistan. "Everything is going
well, and the elections are being conducted in a peaceful manner," the
head of Pakistan's election commission, Kanwar Dilshad, told IRIN.

According to Dilshad, 6,172 men, 1,756 women, 3,858 peasants and workers,
1,110 chiefs of union councils, and 45 representatives of minorities are
standing in the elections. Dilshad said he was expecting a voter turnout
of 50 percent, with results coming in later in the day. Thursday's
election is part of the government's devolution of power plan following
the bloodless coup by the military leader and now president, Pervez
Musharraf, in October 1999. He has publicly pledged to hold national
elections within the next two years as part of his plan to restore
democracy in the country.

IRAN: Khatami sworn in for second term

Calling for democracy and political openness, as well as dialogue with his
conservative rivals, Iran's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, was
sworn in for a second and final four-year term on Wednesday. The ceremony
was delayed for three days after the reformist-led majlis, or parliament,
rejected legal experts submitted by the head of the judiciary as
candidates to the Council of Guardians, the powerful
conservative-dominated body that vets legislation for compliance with
Islamic principles. According to an AFP report on Thursday, 57 year-old
Khatami appealed for an end to hatred and violence in politics. He urged
the "establishment of religious democracy [and] reinforcement of the civil
institutions", saying he was determined to defend "the fundamental rights
of the people, legitimate liberties, a free press and civil institutions".

IRAN: Another 327 Afghans repatriated

Another 327 Afghan nationals left Shiraz in southern Iran for their
homeland on Tuesday. According to the Voice of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, the director-general of the office for foreign residents and
immigrants in Fars Province, Mohammad Musavi, said the Afghans had left
following the completion of a plan to identify foreign residents over the
past two months. He said 978 Afghan citizens had voluntarily left Fars
Province for Afghanistan in the past two months, adding that over 30,000
Afghans had voluntarily left Iran since 21 March. UNHCR has recorded a
total of 47,780 Afghans as having been voluntarily repatriated between 1
January and 25 July.

The programme for the voluntary repatriation of Afghan nationals was
launched jointly by the Iranian government and UNHCR eight months ago.
According to figures released by the Iranian interior ministry on 11 July,
there are 2,355,427 Afghans in the country. This makes Iran, by a small
margin, host to the largest number of Afghan refugees in the world today.
Pakistan hosts another two million.

KYRGYZSTAN: UNDP to enhance operations in the south

UNDP is set to enhance its operations in southern Kyrgyzstan. "We believe
common interests among people diminish the chances for conflict, which is
why we are increasing our efforts in the region," UNDP's permanent
representative in Kyrgyzstan, Ercan Murat, told IRIN on Wednesday.
According to Murat, the programme, entitled "Preventive Development" aims
to ease tensions between the people living in the south and those in the
rest of the country. It is being carried out in conjunction with other
social rehabilitation and decentralisation programmes.

The southern region, and particularly the small town of Batken, has, over
the past years, come to be identified with conflict, instability,
insecurity and population displacement - not only to Kyrgyzstan but in the
whole of the multi-ethnic Ferghana Valley and the Central Asian region at
large. The incursions of armed guerrillas into the Batken area from
neighbouring Tajikistan in August 1999 and 2000 clearly demonstrated the
vulnerability and fragility of the entire region. The UNDP programme was
launched in the Batken area in the spring of 2000. It has been identifying
the causes of conflict, supporting social infrastructure projects and
allocating small capital grants.

KYRGYZSTAN: UN official raises concern over human rights

On 3 August, the UN's special representative for human rights defenders,
Hina Jilani, said she was concerned over human rights in this Central
Asian nation of five million, saying it was now time to put words into
action. Speaking at a news conference in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek,
Jilani said: "The right to freedom of assembly, the right to expression,
and the right to freedom of association are essential columns on which
human rights rest." While praising Kyrgyzstan for recognising
international standards in observing human rights, and introducing them
into legislation, she said it was vital that such laws be implemented.
"This country has been able to create a great deal of goodwill among the
international community because of the measures it had taken at the legal
level for the promotion of human rights," she said.  "Nevertheless,
recognition of a law does not in reality make it possible for every common
person in this country to enjoy human rights," she added.

Regarded as an island of democracy following the fall of the Soviet Union,
Kyrgyzstan's human-rights record has steadily deteriorated, most notably
in terms of press freedom and democratic reform. This decline became more
apparent during October's general elections, which swept incumbent
President Askar Akayev into an unprecedented third term of office,
described by many in the west as a "sham". A recent report by Human Rights
Watch found that Kyrgyzstan was moving "ever further" away from its image
of a new model democracy. "Police abuse, religious persecution,
trafficking of women and violations of the right of free expression made a
mockery of Kyrgyzstan's international reputation," it said.

Islamabad, 9 August 2001


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