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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 20
17 - 23 August 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Diplomats denied access to aid workers
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban make "baseless allegations" - WFP
AFGHANISTAN: Comprehensive approach needed to end conflict - Annan
PAKISTAN: Pre-screening of Afghans ends
PAKISTAN: Teacher appeals against death sentence
PAKISTAN: Religious group condemns arrest of jihad members
PAKISTAN: Afghans forced out of Quetta
IRAN: Afghan repatriations from Khorasan continues
TAJIKISTAN: Authorities admit civilian deaths in military operation
TAJIKISTAN: Four arrested over kidnap of aid workers
UZBEKISTAN: Aid for drought-affected Karakalpakistan


AFGHANISTAN: Diplomats denied access to aid workers

Diplomats seeking access to eight foreign aid workers accused of promoting
Christianity in Afghanistan, returned empty-handed to the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday. The Taliban refused the diplomats consular
access to the four Germans, two Australians and two Americans, currently
being held in two separate detention centres in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"The Taliban authorities made it quite clear that they did not want the
three envoys to stay. We had no success, and our visit has had no impact,"
Howard Brown, the Australian High Commissioner in Islamabad, told IRIN. On
Monday, the Taliban refused new visas for the diplomats, after their
seven-day visas expired.

On Wednesday, however, the diplomats called on the Taliban to allow the
ICRC access to visit the eight foreigners of the German-based relief
agency Shelter Now International, according to AFP. "To us [ICRC] visits
do not satisfy the requirements of consular access, but we would view it
as a positive development," a US embassy spokesperson said.

The aid workers were arrested along with 16 Afghan nationals between 3 and
5 August on charges of proselytising, a charge punishable by death under
the Taliban's strict interpretation of Shari'ah law. Meanwhile, the
parents of the two Americans arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday to try and
obtain visas to see their imprisoned children, an AP report said on
Thursday.  [For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010821.phtml]

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban make "baseless allegations" - WFP

WFP on Wednesday called on the Taliban to refrain from making "further
baseless allegations" against the food agency and its staff in Afghanistan
by linking them with involvement in promoting Christianity by distributing
food through Shelter Now International (SNI). "This is totally
inappropriate and inaccurate," the regional public affairs spokesman for
WFP, Khaled Mansour, told IRIN. He added that WFP had never been involved
in propagating any religious persuasion in Afghanistan or elsewhere. The
allegations against WFP were said to have been made to the media by
Taliban officials in Kabul.

SNI is one of over 150 NGOs helping WFP deliver food aid to three million
people in Afghanistan. The charity, which was registered in Afghanistan in
1993, delivered 2,300 mt of a total of 140,000 mt of food that WFP
supplied to the impoverished nation this year. In a statement, officials
from the food agency said WFP would "bear no responsibility for any
actions of an NGO other than those directly involved in delivering food
aid". It also called on the Taliban to help facilitate its gigantic task
of delivering food aid rather than obstructing it.

AFGHANISTAN: Comprehensive approach needed to end conflict - Annan

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said the Security Council might want
to adopt a comprehensive approach in settling the conflict in Afghanistan,
according to a report released on Wednesday. "I am convinced that a
political solution based on the twin pillars of enabling the Afghan people
to freely determine their own future and securing the legitimate national
interests of Afghanistan's neighbours through mutually binding commitments
offers the best guarantee for a lasting peace in Afghanistan," Annan said.
The Council may wish to consider a strategy, including incentives and
disincentives, aimed at encouraging the parties to enter into serious
negotiations, he said.

An overall plan should also address the international and regional aspects
of the conflict. Referring to Afghanistan's neighbours - China, Iran,
Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as Russia and
the United States, "The Council may wish to encourage all the Governments
concerned, in particular those of the 'six-plus-two' group, to
reinvigorate their efforts to harmonise their legitimate national
interests and find a common approach regarding the future of an Afghan
nation and its system," he said. On the humanitarian front, the report
notes that the combined effects of 22 years of conflict and the worst
drought in living memory have caused the situation to reach "alarming
proportions", with more than 700,000 people internally displaced.

PAKISTAN: Pre-screening of Afghans ends

A total of 18,415 families have participated so far in UNHCR's
pre-screening programme in the North-West Frontier Province, which ends
this week, team leader for UNHCR's screening programme, Vicky Tennant,
confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. The process, which started on 6 August, is
taking place in the Jalozai makeshift camp and the Nasir Bagh camp both in
and around Peshawar. A full screening programme is to take place soon,
whereby final decisions will be made on asylum cases. Some 180,000 Afghans
arrived in Pakistan last year and will be screened to determine their
refugee status. Since UNHCR's repatriation programme started in July,
5,383 families have gone home voluntarily from Nasir Bagh and Jalozai,
receiving US $90, a plastic sheet and 150 kg of wheat from the UN once
inside their homeland.

PAKISTAN: Teacher appeals against death sentence

Lawyers for a Pakistani teacher sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy
earlier this week have lodged an appeal. The case has drawn harsh
criticism from international and local observers alike. Human rights
organisations said the verdict highlighted a dangerous trend, and have
called on the government to curb what they describe as a misuse of the
legal system by certain groups within the country. "Dr Mohammad Younus is
a prisoner of conscience, and was imprisoned for expressing his peaceful
beliefs," a spokeswoman for Amnesty International in London, Maya
Catsaniss, told IRIN on Monday.

Younus was accused of making derogatory remarks last year in front of his
students about the Prophet Mohammad by suggesting he had not become a
Muslim until he was 40 years old, and that his parents were not Muslim
either. Calling for his immediate release, the watchdog group expressed
serious concern to the government of President General Pervez Musharraf
regarding the application of the death penalty, as well as the blasphemy
laws currently on Pakistan's legal books. [For more details go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010820.phtml]


PAKISTAN: Religious group condemns arrest of jihad members

An official from the main fundamentalist Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami on
Thursday condemned the arrest this week of some 200 jihad (militants
supporting an end to the Indian administration of Kashmir) members in the
southern Sindh Province. "This was an unjust decision by the government,
and will only turn the people against them," the deputy party head, Liaqat
Bloch, told IRIN. "We believe the youth of Pakistan, especially the jihad
organisations, are supporting their oppressed Kashmiri brothers and
sisters, and it is their legal, Islamic and moral duty to do so," he
asserted. The jihad members were detained after raids on militant Islamic
groups that had failed to comply with a recent government ban on
fund-raising for the Kashmiri war, police in Pakistan's largest city,
Karachi, said.

According to a Reuters report, the Sindh provincial government on Tuesday
banned Islamic militant groups from displaying signboards and publicly
raising jihad funds. The order warned militant groups that "any deviation
from this order will be seriously viewed by the government, and
appropriate action shall be initiated against the offenders", the report
said.  The Pakistani government announced in February that it was banning
public collections by groups fighting in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Wednesday's crackdown, however, appears to be the first by a provincial
government.

PAKISTAN: Afghans forced out of Quetta

Conditions in refugee camps outside the southwestern Pakistani city of
Quetta are set to worsen, as a government policy continues to force many
Afghans out of the city into camps in search of assistance, a UN official
told IRIN. "Our hands are tied, as the Pakistani government does not allow
us to give aid to those in the city," said Zahida Shahidi, UNHCR's
repatriation assistant for the Quetta sub-office. Some 800 families have
moved out of the city so far this year. "Many Afghans can't find work once
they move out, and it is a very difficult decision for them to make," she
added. Shahidi explained that although UNHCR was unhappy about the
Pakistani authorities' policy, it was obliged to abide by the rule.
Introduced in 1999, the policy was intended to stop the city from being
overwhelmed by Afghans.

According to government statistics, there are 300,000 Afghan refugees in
Quetta alone, and Pakistan maintains it cannot cope with the burden.
Defending the government's decision, Commissioner for Afghan Refugees
Mohammad Jalal Modokhail told IRIN: "Quetta city is not a camp." He said
that Afghans could not be treated as refugees if they stayed in the city.
[For full report got to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010816.phtml]

IRAN: Afghan repatriations from Khorasan continue

Some 200 Afghan refugees a day are being repatriated from Iran's
northeastern Khorasan province to their homeland, a report by the official
Iranian news agency IRNA said on Tuesday. According to Mohammad Olama,
director-general of foreign nationals and immigrants, almost 22,000
Afghans, mostly men, have left Iranian territory via the Dogharun border,
since 29 March. The scheme to help Afghan refugees go home was drawn up
between Tehran and UNHCR and ended in November, but has been carried out
voluntarily since then. Commenting on the figures, the UNHCR deputy chief
of mission in Tehran, Bo Schak, told IRIN there were significant numbers
of people returning under the spontaneous return programme. The report
maintained that over 30,000 Afghans had also been repatriated from other
parts of the country up until the end of July. According to the UN, Iran
is host to the largest number of Afghan refugees, with over 2.3 million
registered today.

TAJIKISTAN:  Authorities admit civilian deaths in military operation

In a press conference in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Wednesday,
authorities admitted for the first time that six civilians had been killed
during the shelling of a former opposition commander's base last month. A
senior official of the interior ministry, Abdurahim Qahorov, told
reporters the civilians had been killed when government forces shelled the
villages of Rohati, Maghmurud and Tappe-i Samarqandi, 10 km east of the
capital. Officials also reported that 26 militants and nine servicemen had
been killed in "Operation Lightning" - an attempt to neutralise the armed
group under the command of Rahmon Sanginov and Mansur Muakkalov. However,
independent Tajik lawyers claim the civilian casualties were far higher.
Ramatillo Zoirov told IRIN that his estimates, based on visits to the
villages affected and local mortuaries, place the death toll at 81.
Qahorov said 94 supporters of Sanginov and 15 servicemen had been
detained, the latter for allegedly selling weapons to the Sanginov's
group. The remainder of the armed group had managed to retreat through
mountain areas into neighbouring countries, he added.

TAJIKISTAN: Four arrested over kidnap of aid workers

Four Tajik soldiers were arrested, accused of the abduction in June of 15
people, including 11 members of a German NGO, an AFP report said on 19
August. The four were detained last month and charged with "kidnapping,
abandoning their military unit without leave, and insubordination",
according to the public prosecutor in Dushanbe. The hostages were
eventually released unharmed. The soldiers were allegedly former Islamic
militants who had joined the country's army after the deal in 1997 which
ended a five-year civil war. The 15 kidnapped included two Germans and an
American, but were released within two days of their abduction east of the
capital, after negotiations with armed Islamic abductors.

UZBEKISTAN: Aid for drought-affected Karakalpakistan

In response to the two-year drought which has exacerbated existing water
shortages in Uzbekistan's autonomous Karakalpakistan Republic, the IFRC
launched an appeal on Tuesday to feed 20,000 of the most vulnerable over
the coming winter. According to a press statement, the food aid is
intended for the isolated districts of northwestern Karakalpakistan. The
UN estimates that cereal production in Karakalpakistan dropped last year
by 54 percent, a catastrophe for a region already marginalised by the
severe depletion of the Aral Sea, and where 80 percent of the population
is dependent on agriculture for a living.

A UN assessment to the region in July concluded that there was an
inadequate supply of clean water, and coping mechanisms had become
severely constrained for many families. A member of the UN assessment
team, Ivo Freijsen, told IRIN that although emergency water supplies were
to be provided to vulnerable groups, the decision had been taken not to
launch a short-term emergency appeal, but to draw attention to the
longer-term problems of the region. According to experts, over-irrigation
upstream has lead to salinisation of 95 percent of the arable land, while
dust storms have deposited contaminated salts and contributed to poor
health in the region.

Islamabad, 23 August 2001


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