Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-50: 22-Mar-02
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 50
16 - 22 March 2002
CONTENTS:
KYRGYZSTAN: Activists raise concern over police killings
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR reports record repatriation
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on nomads and the drought
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Turkey's emerging role in reconstruction
PAKISTAN: Church bombing alarms minority
KYRGYZSTAN: Activists raise concern over police killings
Activists in Kyrgyzstan and abroad have called for an independent inquiry
into recent clashes between police and protestors in the southwest
province of Jalal-abad. The shootings, which left five dead and scores
injured, have been viewed by many as yet another example of deteriorating
human rights conditions in the mountainous Central Asian country. "We had
hoped that Kyrgyzstan's joining of the coalition force against terrorism
and the stationing of foreign troops on Kyrgz soil would actually push the
democratisation process in Central Asia," Edil Baissaloff, a leading
grassroots activist in the capital, Bishkek, told IRIN on Friday.
"Unfortunately that hasn't been the case. The situation has gone from bad
to worst," he maintained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26761&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR reports record repatriation
UNHCR officials in Pakistan on Thursday reported a record number of
Afghans voluntarily repatriating from the country's North West Frontier
Province (NWFP) this month. An estimated 80,000 Afghans have registered
for repatriation at the Takhtabaig voluntary repatriation centre (VRC)
since the programme began on 1 March - a number equal to the annual
repatriation rate in the late 1990s. "This has gone beyond our
expectations," UNHCR spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic told IRIN in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad." We never had such a large scale repatriation for
Afghan refugees as conditions inside the country have never been conducive
enough," she explained. On Wednesday alone, 14,000 refugees were
registered and agency staff were still working on a backlog of people
wanting to return, she maintained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26571&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on nomads and the drought
Afghan nomads or Kuchis, once a proud community of herd raisers and
merchants, have been turned into destitute farmers, internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and beggars by the ongoing drought in Afghanistan. Brothers
Gulab Khan and Brahim Jan herd a few overloaded and underfed donkeys on
the highway to Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Helmand province. "We
lost most of our flock of some 700 sheep, goats and camels to the drought
now we are left with these only," Khan said, pointing to the remaining few
goats accompanying the family caravan. "I sold a few of my animals for
500,000 Afghanis [US $15], we ate some because we were hungry, and most
were lost to the drought," he lamented pointing at the barren land ahead
where no vegetation has grown for years now. While the brothers continue
to eke out a marginal living thousands of other nomads have faired less
well and ended up in the growing number of displacement camps in the
region like Spin Boldak displacement in the southern Kandahar provinc
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26549&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Turkey's emerging role in reconstruction
For Sayed Nooruddin Hashimi, one of 20 Afghan foreign ministry officials
receiving diplomatic training in the Turkish capital this month, Ankara's
years of assistance is reflective of the longstanding spirit of friendship
over the past 80 years that have existed between the two countries.
"Turkey is Afghanistan's closest neighbour without common borders," the
33-year-old from Kabul told IRIN - an interesting perception shared by
many of the country's more than 20 million inhabitants. "This remark
explains a great deal," former Turkish government official for
humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, Ambassador Aydemir Erman told IRIN
in Ankara. "Whenever you have common borders you have problems and Turkey
and Afghanistan are too far away from each other to harbour any specific
agendas on one another," he maintained. Indeed, it is exactly this fact
that has enabled Turkey to be consistently welcome in Afghanistan,
allowing it to emerge as a potential key player in the country's future
reconstruction, both economically and politically.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26550&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Church bombing alarms minority
Sunday's deadly attack on a church in the Pakistani capital, which killed
five people and wounded more than 40, has put the minority Christian
community on a state of high alert. The killings also embarrassed the
government in its efforts to curb Islamic militancy and improve its
international image to gain crucial investment and development funds. "We
think this was a retaliation by pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan,"
minority leader Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the Christian Liberation Front
party of Pakistan, told IRIN on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=26079&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
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