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 19
10 - 16 August 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: No progress on detained aid workers
AFGHANISTAN: ASG concerned over detention of NGO workers
AFGHANISTAN: Opposition official accuses Taliban of "sexual apartheid"
IRAN: Serious floods hit northeastern and central provinces
IRAN: UNHCR tells media to highlight refugee problems
PAKISTAN: Musharraf announces election
PAKISTAN: Drought and hardship forcing Afghans home
PAKISTAN: Refugee pre-screening going well - UNHCR
PAKISTAN: Agreements signed to improve labour laws
UZBEKISTAN: Courts jail six for recruiting rebels


AFGHANISTAN: No progress on detained aid workers

Efforts to gain access to eight foreign aid workers detained for allegedly
preaching Christianity in Afghanistan have yet to prove successful,
diplomatic sources told IRIN on Thursday. US, Australian and German envoys
travelled to the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday to visit the four
Germans, two Australians and two Americans who were arrested between 3 and
5 August, along with 16 Afghan nationals, on charges of proselytism.
Taliban officials maintain that the foreign nationals are well, but the
envoys will not be allowed to visit before a full investigation has been
completed. "After the completion of investigations, their cases will be
handed over to the court, which will decide their punishment," Taliban
Foreign Minister Mowlawi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil reportedly said.

According to an AFP report on Wednesday, the Taliban have not ruled out
the death penalty, although officials refuse to define the exact charges
against the aid workers. "There is no appointment or arrangement for these
diplomats to meet the detainees, but we will show them evidence and
confession letters," one foreign ministry official said. The Taliban
religious police minister Molla Mohammad Wakil Akhund on Monday dismissed
any hope of pardons for the aid workers, and claimed their arrest as a
victory for the Islamic world, the report said. He said they would be
dealt with according to Shari'ah law, it added.

AFGHANISTAN: ASG concerned over detention of NGO workers

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Afghan Support Group (ASG), the international
donor body which provides Afghans in the region with the greater part of
the humanitarian assistance they receive, raised its concern over the
detention of the eight aid workers currently being held in two detention
centres in Kabul and denied contact with the outside world. In a
statement, the ASG said: "The personal safety and wellbeing of all aid
workers in Afghanistan, as well as the possibility to gain clear
information about the situation of the nationals of donor countries
working in Afghanistan at all times, is a vital prerequisite for the
humanitarian work in Afghanistan."

Contrary to public statements by the Taliban authorities and despite
repeated efforts by the governments of Germany, Australia and the US to
gain consular access to the detainees, contact had so far been denied, it
added. "ASG-members therefore call in the strongest possible terms on the
Taliban authorities to grant the requested consular access, and to resolve
expeditiously the case of the detained aid-workers," the statement
concluded. The arrests come at a crucial time for aid-dependent
Afghanistan, torn by two decades of war and the worst drought in 30 years.

AFGHANISTAN: Opposition official accuses Taliban of "sexual apartheid"

Addressing a UN human rights panel in Geneva, a representative of the
opposition Northern Alliance on Wednesday called for an end to the "sexual
apartheid" the Taliban had imposed on the country. Homayun Tandar told the
UN subcommission on the promotion and protection of human rights that his
country's legitimate government was besieged by insurgencies funded by a
foreign state, which supplied support and fanatical volunteers. These
fanatics were "profoundly" defying women's rights, he said. According to
Tandar, the Taliban-imposed culture did not reflect genuine Afghan
culture, which supported the rights of women.

In the past, Afghanistan had female government ministers and elected
officials, while women also worked as university professors and teachers.
The explanations offered by the Taliban for their current treatment of
women were distorting the true picture of Afghan history and culture,
Tandar said. Calling on the subcommission to consider these conditions in
its draft resolution on Afghanistan, he said his country's people wanted
an end to the sexual apartheid currently inflicted on the country.

IRAN: Serious floods hit northeastern and central provinces

Emergency relief efforts continued on Thursday following last weekend's
floods in northeastern and central Iran. "This was the largest disaster of
its kind in the region," the director-general of international affairs for
the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Mostafa Mohaghegh, told IRIN in the
capital, Tehran. According to Mohaghegh, over 150 people were already
confirmed dead and 180 remained missing, while he expected the death toll
to rise. Although the government had forecast the possibility of floods,
many holiday-makers were caught off guard when torrential rains pounded
the northeastern province of Golestan - a popular summer destination - as
well as Khorasan, and the central province of Semnan. The cities of
Kalaleh and Minudasht, together with 15 nearby villages, are the worst
affected.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
tentatively estimated that 15,000 hectares of agricultural land had been
inundated, resulting in US $6.27 million worth of damage. Army helicopters
have been used to evacuate over 10,000 people from the area, and the
Iranian Red Crescent is providing those affected with shelter, clothing
and food. A team from the Geneva-based International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies arrived in Iran on Wednesday to conduct
an assessment of the situation on the ground. Given the possibility of
further rains next week, the Iranian Red Crescent was on a high state of
alert, Mohaghegh said.  State media are describing the floods the worst in
200 years. [For complete OCHA report: see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/Rwb.nsf/UNID/91176F66950276B9C1256AA90058791E?OpenDocument]

IRAN: UNHCR tells media to highlight refugee problems

Concerned over a recent increase in violence directed against Afghans in
some parts of the country, UNHCR in Tehran has called on Iranian
journalists to work actively towards raising public awareness of the
plight of refugees and the need for their protection. "Afghans in Iran are
often blamed for unemployment, the spread of diseases, and taking part in
unlawful activities," the UNHCR acting chief of mission, Pierre Francois
Pirlot, told IRIN on Monday. "Little is mentioned on their positive
contributions to the economic growth of Iran as well," he said.

His comments follow a statement marking Journalist's Day in Iran last
week, which called on local journalists to be more active on
refugee-related issues. "Dissemination of information on refugees living
in Iran will be important both to raise people's awareness of the problems
of refugees and to inform the donor community of the problems Iran has
faced in hosting millions of refugees," the statement said. It added that
for over two decades, the country had sheltered millions of Iraqi and
Afghan refugees, and was host to the largest refugee population in the
world. [For complete report: see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/iran/20010813.phtml ]

PAKISTAN: Musharraf announces election

President General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday announced in a televised
speech that provincial and federal elections would be held beginning on 1
October 2002. Speaking on the occasion of country's independence day, the
military leader did not explain what role he himself would play in the new
democracy to emerge following the elections. Nor did he mention whether
national political parties would be permitted to participate in the
elections, although previously, he said they would.

Asked to comment on Musharraf's announcement, the presidential spokesman,
Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, told IRIN on Thursday: "The people are enthused
and excited about the news of the elections." He added that this was
nothing new, and the goal of complete democracy would be fulfilled. "So
far everything General Pervez Musharraf [has] outlined has been fulfilled.
Every date has been honoured," he said. Qureshi said announcements for the
actual election dates would be made on 10 July 2001, the election schedule
would be given on 1 August and the entire process would be completed by 31
October 2002. Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup on 12 October
1999 and subsequently pledged to hold national elections within two years.

PAKISTAN: Drought and hardship forcing Afghans home

Pakistan's ongoing severe drought and poor living conditions have forced
thousands of Afghans in the southern city of Quetta to go home over the
last couple of months, a UN official told IRIN. "There has been panic
among the refugees since the drought started, and we are doing our best to
facilitate them," William Sakataka, the head of the UNHCR sub-office in
Quetta, said. He added that Afghans would only be sent to areas unaffected
by the ongoing civil war and severe drought, and that most were returning
to southern provinces such as Kandahar. UNHCR resumed its repatriation
programme this July, assisting more than 500 families. Under the scheme,
those leaving voluntarily receive US $90 and 150 kg of wheat donated by
WFP on arrival in Afghanistan. Further assistance inside their homeland
comprises materials for building shelter, and a further 250 kg of wheat on
completion of the building. However, the refugees have to pay for their
own transport home, costing around US $80 per truck, shared between five
and six families travelling together. [For full report see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010815a.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Refugee pre-screening going well - UNHCR

The pre-screening of thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan's North-West
Frontier Province is proceeding well, a UNHCR official told IRIN on
Tuesday. "Our information campaign has had a definite impact," Yusuf
Hassan, the agency's spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said.
"We are seeing an increase in the number of people registering who are
well informed and understand the benefit of registering as well," he
added. The first phase of screening, which began on 6 August, follows a
landmark agreement between Pakistan and the UN on 2 August, which meant
that thousands of Afghans could be given temporary protection by Pakistan.
The 20-day pre-screening process is being implemented at the Nasir Bagh
camp in the provincial capital, Peshawar, and the nearby makeshift Jalozai
refugee camp. It involves some 30 screening teams, assisted by Pashto- and
Dari-speaking interpreters, interviewing heads of household, and
registering them by gathering basic information, such as names and places
of origin. [For complete report: see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010815.phtml]

PAKISTAN: Agreements signed to improve labour laws

Pakistan has signed two core conventions to improve labour laws for
children and women, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) official
confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. Under the conventions, women would be paid
the same rates as men, and children would be protected from working in the
worst forms of labour, the ILO director in Islamabad, Johannes Lokollo,
said. Currently, women were paid between 50 and 75 percent less than men
in most skilled and semiskilled jobs, he noted. According to a recent
government survey, 3.3 million of the country's 40 million children aged
between five and 14 are working. Lokollo said the signing of conventions
would protect children from being involved in illicit trades such as
bonded labour, trafficking and prostitution.

Pakistan is the only country in southern Asia today to have agreed to
seven out of the eight conventions on human rights. Critics, however,
maintain that implementation of the labour laws has been slow. Although
Islamabad signed the ILO-IPEC Memorandum of Understanding, thereby joining
the international programme to eliminate child labour, many argue that
very little has been done since then to combat the problem. Asked why it
had taken Pakistan so long to sign the conventions, Lokollo said: "I think
this government has been more active in bringing equality into the
country." He added:  "It's up to Pakistan now to implement the conventions
as soon as possible." Shabeel Jamal, a spokesman for Pakistan's labour and
manpower ministry, told IRIN his ministry would now act on the
conventions. "The implementation is the next step for us," he said.
"Hopefully it will run smoothly," he added.

UZBEKISTAN: Court sentences six for recruiting rebels

An Uzbek court has sentenced six men to prison terms of up to 18 years for
recruiting Islamic rebels among the country's youth, a Reuters report said
on Wednesday. Quoting the official Uzbek news agency UzA, the report said
the "organised criminal group", also charged with undermining the
constitutional order, had recruited 15 young men in the densely populated
Ferghana Valley in northeastern Uzbekistan. The foreign-based radical
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is reported to have paid the group
between US $100 and US $200 for each of the youths.

Over the past two years, Uzbekistan and its neighbour, Kyrgyzstan, have
fought off attacks by Islamic extremists aiming to destabilise the region
with a view to establishing a purist Islamic state there. Uzbek President
Islam Karimov keeps a tight lid on dissent, and has repeatedly accused
Tajikistan of having camps at which terrorists are trained - a charge
Dushanbe vehemently denies.

Islamabad, 10 August 2001


[IRIN-Asia: Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 480-4 Fax: +92-51-2211450 or
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