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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 21
24 - 30 August 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Diplomats and relatives allowed access to detainees
AFGHANISTAN: Swedish committee to increase drought relief
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban calls on UN to help stranded Afghans
PAKISTAN: Islamists vow to block UN monitors
PAKISTAN: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador visits Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Second screening of Afghans in NWFP begins
TAJIKISTAN: One million people face starvation
TAJIKISTAN: Anniversary amnesty to release 19,000 prisoners
TAJIKISTAN: Rat population explosion in Dushanbe


AFGHANISTAN: Diplomats and relatives allowed access to detainees

Diplomats and relatives of the eight foreign aid workers detained by the
Taliban for allegedly trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan were
allowed to visit them for the first time on Monday. A spokesperson from
the German embassy in Islamabad told IRIN that the fact that access to the
prisoners had been given and a meeting with the Taliban to see how things
could develop further had taken place was "a constructive step forward".
The visit, made by a team from the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) on 26 August, was the first contact with the outside world
for the two Americans, two Australians and four Germans held in a
detention centre in Kabul since their arrest more than three weeks ago.

The prisoners were reported to be in good health physically and
emotionally. Diplomats representing the detainees' respective countries
have requested permission to monitor their proposed trial, although a date
has still not been set. The trial is expected to take place before an
Islamic court. A previous trip to Kabul by the diplomats ended with them
leaving without seeing the detainees.

AFGHANISTAN: Swedish committee to increase drought relief

Under an emergency drought relief project launched last June, the Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) Rural Engineering Unit has deepened
another 440 dried-out wells, making a total of over 800 so far this year
in the provinces of Kabul, Nangarhar, Vardak, Lowgar, Paktika, and Ghazni
in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, and Balkh and Jowzjan in the
north. "We hope to finish deepening 1,500 wells by the end of October,"
SCA's rural engineering coordinator in the Pakistani city of Peshawar,
Abdullah Aini, told IRIN. "In the meantime, people will be using surface
water, which is what most Afghans use; however it is contaminated, posing
huge health risks."

The ongoing drought in Afghanistan is causing a daily reduction of 2.5 cm
in the water table, which has resulted in the drying out of 50 percent of
wells. The SCA also plans to construct 1,200 new wells under its regular
rural engineering programme. Funding for the emergency project was
provided by the European Union's humanitarian aid office, ECHO, and also
from proceeds donated last year by the Swedish public during a
fund-raising campaign for drought relief in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban calls on UN to help stranded Afghans

The Taliban has called on the UN to help Afghan refugees stranded on a
ship in waters off the Australian territory of Christmas Island. "If the
UN does not help these refugees to go to such countries (as Australia), it
is a violation of human rights," spokesman for the Taliban embassy in
Islamabad, Mohammed Suhail Shaheen, told IRIN on Thursday. A Norwegian
freighter rescued 400 refugees, most of whom are Afghans, when the
Indonesian ferry they were on started to sink last on 26 August. However,
the Australian government has refused to allow them to land on its
territory despite concern over their health, and is insisting that
Indonesia should take responsibility for them.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Motawakkil has written to UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, appealing for the UN to help. Meanwhile, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a statement on
Thursday expressing "growing concern" over the continuing plight of the
asylum seekers, and saying it was ready to help the Australian government
resolve the situation.

PAKISTAN: Islamists vow to block UN monitors

Pro-Taliban Islamists vowed on 26 August to block the deployment of UN
monitors along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. "Pakistanis should not
allow this to happen. The UN has no right to do this," the head of the
Afghan Defence Council in Pakistan, Sami-ul Haq, told IRIN. The use of UN
monitors to help enforce sanctions against the Taliban was approved by the
UN Security Council last month. A team of 15 experts is to be sent to
countries bordering Afghanistan - China, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, although no date for their arrival has yet
been given.

The UN-imposed sanctions on the Taliban in 1999 to pressurise them into
handing over the Saudi dissident, Usama bin Ladin. Pakistan has been
highly critical of the sanctions, which it calls one-sided, as they
include an arms embargo against the Taliban, but not against the
opposition Northern Alliance. However, the Pakistani government has said
it will cooperate with the monitors. The Afghan Defence Council was
established to support the Taliban against UN sanctions and comprises 35
Islamic religious and militant groups.

PAKISTAN: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador visits Afghan refugees

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie left Pakistan on 26 August after spending
a week visiting Afghan refugees at camps near Peshawar, the capital of
North West Frontier Province (NWFP), and Quetta, the capital of the
southwestern province of Baluchistan. She also met refugees in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and its twin city, Rawalpindi. A television
report by the BBC showed a clearly emotional Jolie surrounded by crowds of
ragged refugee children. Blinking back tears, she said their lives "must
be hell". Jolie left Pakistan for Geneva, where she was formally appointed
on Monday as Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR.

PAKISTAN: Second screening of Afghans in NWFP begins

The second phase of the joint UNHCR/Pakistan screening programme which
will determine the refugee status of thousands of Afghans in Pakistan's
NWFP got under way on Wednesday. This follows a 20-day initial
registration phase earlier this month carried out at two screening centres
set up at the Nasir Bagh camp in the provincial capital, Peshawar, and the
nearby makeshift Jalozai refugee camp. Of the 21,029 families who attended
the first phase, 6,465 opted for voluntary repatriation, while 14,564
families registered will go to the next phase of screening, when they will
be interviewed to determine their status. Due to a landmark agreement
between Pakistan and the UN, those found to be in need of protection will
be granted temporary legal status to reside in Pakistan. Afghan refugees
who opt to return to their homeland will receive an aid package from
UNHCR.

TAJIKISTAN: One million people face starvation

Food aid is urgently needed to help an estimated one million people in
Tajikistan survive the winter after a second successive crop failure has
left the population on the brink of starvation, the International
Federation of Red Cross in Geneva warned. "People have already sold parts
of their homes including doors and windows. They now have nothing left to
sell and we don't know how they will survive this winter," the head of a
recent Federation mission to Tajikistan, Roger Bracke, told IRIN on
Monday.

Two years of drought have resulted in a shortfall of 341,000 mt of grain,
and this year's cereal harvests are 15 percent below the disastrous
harvests of last year. "We have seen children digging among rat holes in
wheat fields, searching for grain hoarded by the rodents for the winter,"
Bracke said. The Federation has launched an appeal for US $4 million to
provide 130,000 people in seven districts in northern and southern
Tajikistan with essential food items to see them safely through the bitter
winter months. Meanwhile the EU announced on Monday it would provide a
further 2 million euros (US $ 1.8 million) in emergency aid for
drought-stricken Tajikistan.[For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/tajikistan/20010829.phtml]

TAJIKISTAN: Anniversary amnesty to release 19,000 prisoners

A sweeping amnesty was approved by both houses of the Tajik parliament on
Tuesday that will free 12,000 convicts and reduce the sentences of 7,000
others, according to an AP report. Similar amnesties have been issued by
the Tajik government for the past few years to mark the 9 September
anniversary of Tajikistan's 1991 declaration of independence from the
Soviet Union. This year's amnesty is particularly broad, and includes
women over 50 and men over 55, pregnant women and those with small
children, war veterans, prisoners suffering from tuberculosis, and
foreigners. Prisoners convicted of serious crimes, such as murder,
kidnapping and terrorism, will not be included in the amnesty.

TAJIKISTAN: Rat population explosion in Dushanbe

The rat population in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, has quadrupled, and
nine people have been hospitalised due to rat bites, according to the
city's disinfecting station. The station's head physician, Gurez Azimov,
told IRIN that he feared the actual number of victims was much higher,
"because not all of them are taking medical advice". The increase in the
rat population has been caused by a rising number of illegal rubbish
sites, combined with irregular collection. Measures to control rodents
have sharply decreased since 1994, when mass housing privatisation gave
rise to a breakdown in the system of compulsory prophylactic disinfecting
measures for all city structures. The mayor of Dushanbe, Mahmadsaid
Ubaydulloyev, has passed a resolution aimed at urgent rodent control
measures, as well as improving sanitation in the city. The Tajik
authorities have also appealed to the World Health Organisation for help
in rat eradication.

Islamabad, 30 August 2001

[IRIN-Asia: Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 480-4 Fax: +92-51-2211450 or
+92-51-2211475 e-mail: irinasia@irin.org.pk]



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