Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-54: 19-Apr-02
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 54
13 - 19 April 2002
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Frequently asked questions about the Loya Jirga process
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Pakistani prisoners
AFGHANISTAN: HIV/ AIDS threat
AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation effort in full swing
AFGHANISTAN: IRIN Interview: Iranian Ambassador Seyed Seraj Uddin Mousavi
AFGHANISTAN: Relief work stepped up for Friday quake victims
PAKISTAN: Focus on human trafficking
PAKISTAN: Government accused of intimidating journalists
CENTRAL ASIA: Border disputes increase potential for conflict
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
TAJIKISTAN: Last Pyandz river refugees to return this week
KAZAKHSTAN: Doubts about human rights ombudsman
AFGHANISTAN: Frequently asked questions about the Loya Jirga process
On 10 June, some 1,500 Afghan men and women will gather in the capital,
Kabul, for six days to discuss the future of their country. The outcome is
crucial for the future of Afghanistan. This meeting will be the Loya
Jirga, a uniquely Afghan institution designed to resolve national
questions. Afghanistan's former monarch, Muhammad Zahir Shah, returned to
Kabul on Thursday after nearly 30 years in exile to a hero's welcome. He
will open the event. IRIN talked to leading Afghanistan experts to answer
common questions about the Loya Jirga.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27341&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Pakistani prisoners
Wajid Ali is barely 18 years old. He's back in Pakistan after four and a
half months in northern Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, Ali is lucky
to have made it back. Hailing from the small scenic village of Cheena in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), he comes from the same
area where hundreds of other locals are missing - most believed to be
either dead or prisoners in neighbouring Afghanistan. "Our fate is in the
hands of Allah, I went to Jihad [Holy War] and will do so again if
needed," he told IRIN, sitting in his mud-walled house in the
poverty-stricken village where most depend on agriculture for their
living. Ali, accompanied by 17 elders of his village, had sneaked into
Afghanistan along with thousands of Pakistani volunteers in early November
across the Nawagai pass in Bajuar Agency.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27314&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: HIV/ AIDS threat
With hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees expected to return over the
next couple of months, doctors and health experts in the country fear a
spread of infectious diseases - including HIV/AIDS. "We are aware of the
threat that is looming with regard to refugees bringing in disease, but
there is no way of tracking them," Dr Hekmat, the head of the central
blood bank in the capital, Kabul, told IRIN. To date, 10 HIV-positive
people have been detected, the most recent cases in the eastern Afghan
city of Jalalabad, and on the outskirts of Kabul. While this is a
relatively low figure, the statistics are unreliable and do not present a
realistic picture, experts say. "During the Taliban era, women were
restricted, and they were not encouraged to give blood or even leave the
house, so there must be many undetected cases," Hekmat noted.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27312&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation effort in full swing
Twin efforts to assist hundreds of thousands of Afghans repatriate from
neighbouring Pakistan and Iran - the two countries hosting the largest
number of Afghan refugees - were in full swing on Wednesday with the
number returning fast approaching 300,000. The joint voluntary
repatriation programmes, between the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistani and Iranian
governments, aim to assist 800,000 Afghans return to their homeland this
year. "As of Tuesday evening we had 267,572 just from Pakistan," a UNHCR
spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic, told IRIN from the western Pakistani border
town of Peshawar. "At that speed, I expect we could surpass 300,000 by
this weekend," she maintained. The programme, which began on 1 April, has
met unprecedented enthusiasm from Afghans wanting to take advantage of an
assistance package including both food and non-food items, as well as a
small cash grant.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27316&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: IRIN Interview: Iranian Ambassador Seyed Seraj Uddin Mousavi
With world attention now focused on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, one
of the key players set to emerge is its neighbour - Iran. In an interview
with IRIN, Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Seyed Seraj Uddin Mousavi
emphasised the importance of stability and peace in the country,
reaffirming his government's commitment to the reconstruction process with
a pledge of some US $560 million. Such money will prove well spent in the
long term, he said, maintaining that Iran would benefit immensely from a
strong and stable Afghanistan. According to the veteran diplomat, there
are 2.8 million Afghans refugees in his country - making Iran host to the
largest number of Afghan refugees in the world today, and costing Tehran a
staggering US $6 billion a year.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27264&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Relief work stepped up for Friday quake victims
Aid agencies on Monday stepped up emergency relief work for the latest
victims of an earthquake in northern Afghanistan, which killed at least 50
people and injured another 150 on Friday. Rebecca Richards, spokeswoman
for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul, that most of those killed were
children. The quake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, hit several
villages in Nahrin district of the northern Baghlan Province. Its
epicentre was just 35 km from the surface. According to OCHA, the most
seriously affected locations were Dawabi and Khojakheder, where several
hundred families had been provided with aid. Other areas affected by the
quake included Borkeh, Jelgah valley, Shinderak, Koedhai, and Koh-I-Zolaaw
- all in Nahrin district.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27265&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on human trafficking
Pakistani police raided a house in a middle-class Karachi suburb on 15
March and found 11 infants - the oldest aged 18 months - in the process of
being smuggled to Malta for adoption. Each baby carried a price tag of US
$20,000. The tip-off came from neighbours who heard incessant crying from
the house in the middle of the night. The illegal trade in people goes on
unabated as it has done for centuries, with criminals more organised then
ever before, exploiting every loophole in the law to evade arrest and
conviction. The arrest of about eight people in Karachi on 15 March,
thereby preventing 11 Pakistani infants from being smuggled out of the
country, has shaken the police force, which is working "full-time" to
investigate the case.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27288&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Government accused of intimidating journalists
The Pakistani government has come under scathing attack from human rights
groups and journalists' unions, following an attack on reporters by police
at a government rally on Sunday. The incident took place as the entire
media walked out of a rally called by the government to lobby for a yes
vote in President Pervez Musharraf's referendum to be held on 30 April.
Critics call the referendum an unconstitutional way of extending his rule.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27289&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Border disputes increase potential for conflict
An independent group, warning that border disputes in Central Asia can
lead to conflicts, has urged the international community and the concerned
countries to resolve them for the sake of regional security, improved
economic cooperation and better ethnic relations. The region is one of the
poorest in the world. "Resolving these lingering, and often quite
substantial, border disputes has become critical," said a report by the
International Crisis Group (ICG), a private multinational organisation,
working to prevent and contain conflicts in the world.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27263&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
"I believe that for the next year or two or three Central Asia will be on
everybody's agenda," said World Bank chief James Wolfensohn this week as
he concluded an eight-day tour of Central Asia, which in itself
underscores the growing international importance of the region following
the events of 11 September. "My perception of the region as important
economically, socially and politically has been very clearly demonstrated
on the trip," said Wolfensohn.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27359&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
TAJIKISTAN: Last Pyandz river refugees to return this week
The plight of thousands of Afghans stranded along the border between
Afghanistan and Tajikistan should end this week as the last group of
displaced on the Pyandz river islands return home. Their presence - once
estimated at 12,000 - has proven a major humanitarian concern since their
arrival in the autumn of 2000. "This is wonderful news," UNHCR programme
officer, Dost Yousafzai told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. "I
expect the last refugees will be gone by Friday," he said, adding the last
remaining group - comprised of 300 families or 1,500 people on Island No.
9 - the larger island of the two - were being assisted by UNHCR and the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27291&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
KAZAKHSTAN: Doubts about human rights ombudsman
A leading Kazakh human rights activist told IRIN on Thursday that a recent
announcement by the government to establish a human rights ombudsman was
just window dressing to enhance the image of the country at a time when it
has come under criticism for ignoring human rights issues. Yevgeny
Zhovtis, director of the independent Kazakh Human Rights Bureau, speaking
from the southern Kazakh city of Almaty, said the proposed office of
ombudsman was not going to be independent and would therefore be
ineffective. Kazakhstan's foreign minister, Kasymzhomart Tokayev, said in
Almaty on Tuesday that the country would appoint its first human rights
ombudsman by the end of this year. According to the American news agency
AP, quoting government officials, Kazakhstan has had a presidential human
rights commission since 1994, but the new ombudsman would be more
independent and have proper powers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27338&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
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