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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 55
20 - 26 April 2002


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Jihad prisoners released from Afghan jails
PAKISTAN: Focus on disaster preparedness
PAKISTAN: Woman sentenced to death by stoning
TURKMENISTAN: Afghans going home
TURKMENISTAN: Focus on Afghan humanitarian pipeline
UZBEKISTAN: Women's political rights reviewed
AFGHANISTAN: Flash floods kill six, destroy homes
AFGHANISTAN: Public space for women
AFGHANISTAN: Iran ready to increase repatriation figures
AFGHANISTAN: Refugees start selecting their representatives to the Loya Jirga
CENTRAL ASIA: Experts welcome move to prevent conflict in Ferghana Valley
CENTRAL ASIA: Caspian summit must consider environment
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

PAKISTAN: Jihad prisoners released from Afghan jails

Human rights groups and the government have welcomed the release of some
30 Pakistani prisoners from Afghanistan on Thursday. "It is a good
beginning and should continue," Afrasiab Khattak, Chairperson of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told IRIN on Friday from Pakistan's
northwestern city of Peshawar. In the aftermath of the demise of the hard
line Taliban regime late last year in Afghanistan, many thousands of
Pakistanis who crossed into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban
against the US-led coalition were detained. A large number of them came
from the Malakand division in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
(NWFP) - a region sympathetic to the Taliban. HRCP had been actively
pursuing the issue of up to 1,000 prisoners detained in Afghanistan with
the interim administration in Kabul while being in close contact with the
relatives of the detainees in Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27509&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on disaster preparedness

Beneath the breathtaking grandeur of the mountains that straddle northern
India, Pakistan and most of Central Asia lurks a force so powerful that it
could flatten whole cities and bury hundreds of thousands of people in a
few minutes. From shallow but deadly localised shocks, like the ones in
Afghanistan recently, to the massive quake that devastated the Indian
state of Gujarat last year, seismic activity remains a real threat in the
region. This is because the Indian tectonic plate is colliding with its
Eurasian counterpart, an ongoing process that started roughly 50 million
years ago. But scientists and officials say governments, NGOs and UN
agencies appear unprepared for such disasters. The director of Pakistan's
meteorological department, Anjum Bari, told IRIN that all the countries in
the area should be prepared for earthquakes because of the numerous faults
in the plates deep in the ground, which have wrought massive devastation
in the past. "Earthquakes are hard to predict," Bari said, "but it makes
sense to be ready for a major earthquake to happen at any time."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27461&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Woman sentenced to death by stoning

Human rights groups are trying to save a Pakistani woman sentenced to
death by stoning. Zafran Bibi was found guilty of adultery and sentenced
by a local court under the 1979 hudud ordinance, or Islamic laws, lawyers
and activists told IRIN. The woman says she was a raped. "We have moved
her case to the National Commission on the Status of Women," said Shahnaz
Ahmed, head of the Aurat Foundation NGO, which promotes legal rights for
the women of Pakistan. The commission is the highest government body set
up to protect and promote women's rights. Bibi's lawyer, Sardar Ali, told
IRIN from the northwestern city of Kohat in the North West Frontier
Province that an appeal had been filed with Pakistan's Federal Shariat
Court on Monday against last week's judgment. Adultery is a serious
offence under the hudud ordinance, instituted by the former military
ruler, the late Gen Muhammad Ziaul Haq.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27415&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN: Afghans going home

With repatriation gaining momentum in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran,
Afghan refugees in Turkmenistan - estimated at 6,000 - are also going
home. Largely overlooked given their limited numbers, these refugees are
now returning at a rate of 50 per month. "The vast majority of the persons
currently returning to Afghanistan from Turkmenistan are doing so under
the auspices of UNHCR [office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees]," the agency's country representative, Ruvendrini Menikdiwela,
told IRIN from the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, on Thursday. While only
1,800 had formally registered with the agency, planning figures were for
some 6,000 to potentially register for assistance, she explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27462&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

TURKMENISTAN: Focus on Afghan humanitarian pipeline

As conditions slowly improve inside Afghanistan, relief efforts in
neighbouring Turkmenistan, a major staging post for humanitarian
assistance into the country, are scaling down. Historically one of Central
Asia's poorest and least developed nations, Turkmenistan, a country of
only 4.5 million people, shares 744 km of border with Afghanistan, giving
it a pivotal role following the events of 11 September. "Many people do
not realise the significance that Turkmenistan played in the Afghan
crisis," Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer for the Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), Ted Pearn told IRIN from
the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat on Friday, calling it an 'untold story'.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27388&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Women's political rights reviewed

In an effort to accelerate the process of democratisation in the country
and its integration into the international community, the Uzbek parliament
(or Oliy Majlis - Supreme Assembly) this week considered implementation of
the 1952 UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women. While Uzbekistan
joined the convention in 1997, this was the first time its implementation
has been closely scrutinised. During Monday's meeting, which was initiated
by the Uzbek Parliamentary Commission for Family and Women's Affairs and
held jointly with the Committee for International Affairs and
Inter-Parliamentary Relations, discussion focused on the implementation of
the Convention in the eastern Namangan region of the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27458&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Flash floods kill six, destroy homes

The United Nations and aid agencies rushed relief supplies to the western
Afghan city of Qaleh-ye Now in Badghis Province on Wednesday, where flash
floods caused by torrential rains have reportedly killed six people and
destroyed hundreds of houses. Yusuf Hassan, spokesman for the office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN from
the Afghan capital, Kabul, that he believed the extent of damage could be
greater. "The road has been washed away, and there is water around the
city," he said. The flooding, caused by torrential rain that began falling
on Monday, had stranded more than 650 Afghan refugees returning from Iran
to different villages in Badghis Province at UNHCR's transit camp in the
western city of Herat. "About four truckloads of returnees are also
stranded near Qaleh-ye Now because of the floods," he added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27435&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Public space for women

A French NGO wants to renovate derelict land in the heart of the Afghan
capital, Kabul and turn it into a public space for women, an official told
IRIN on Tuesday. "We want to transform the park and provide local women
with the recreational space and independence they deserve," the head of
programmes for Action et developpement solidaires-international (ADSI) in
Afghanistan, Alban L'houmeau, told IRIN in Kabul. Despite the fact that
some women have gone back to work following the fall of the Taliban, many
remain too scared to go out or to remove the all-enveloping burkas.
Recreational facilities in Kabul are very basic and for women virtually
non-existent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27412&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Iran ready to increase repatriation figures

The Iranian government stands ready to increase this year's planned
repatriation figure of 400,000 Afghans if demand necessitates. Since the
joint programme between the office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) and Iran's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants
Affairs (BAFIA) was launched on 9 April, some 15,000 Afghan refugees have
participated in it. "While we have already signed a tripartite [with UNHCR
and Afghanistan's interim government] agreement for 400,000 to return this
year, we are ready to increase this capacity, and have discussed this with
UNHCR accordingly," Rostami Taresi, the newly appointed head of
international affairs for BAFIA, told IRIN in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27419&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Refugees start selecting their representatives to the Loya
Jirga

Haji Jabbar, 55 years old and an Afghan refugee from Akora Khattak camp in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), was waiting in a hotel
lobby in the provincial capital, Peshawar, to meet the Loya Jirga
Commission delegation. "I am proud to participate in an effort for peace
after years of fratricidal bloodshed," he told IRIN. Jabbar and a group of
the refugee camp elders were trying to figure out ways of sending their
representatives for the upcoming Loya Jirga or grand council meeting.
"Everything cannot be corrected in one day in our war-ravaged country;
Loya Jirga will be a nice start," he said. The Loya Jirga Commission has
allotted some 40 seats to the Afghan refugees in Pakistan, of a total of
100 seats for Afghan refugees in the region and diaspora.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27398&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Experts welcome move to prevent conflict in Ferghana Valley

Experts have welcomed an initiative by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) to prevent conflicts in the Ferghana
Valley, which includes territories of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan. The region is one of the most volatile in Central Asia. "This
is a good initiative and one of the first to look into a wide range of
issues affecting the region," David Lewis, Director of Central Asia
Project at International Crisis Group (ICG) told IRIN from Kyrgyzstan's
southwestern city of Osh on Thursday. The project aims at regulating
conflicts - mostly over land and water - at community level without the
involvement of the authorities. It also focuses on community development
projects, and tries to establish links between the different countries of
the Ferghana Valley, and the different resident ethnic groups.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27395&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Caspian summit must consider environment

Environmental groups called for vigorous measures to protect the fragile
ecosystem of the Caspian Sea on Wednesday as regional leaders tried to
work out how to divide the sea's valuable resources at a landmark two-day
summit in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. "For most countries bordering on
the Caspian, environmental considerations come way down their list of
priorities," Tim Turner, Programme Coordinator for the Caspian Environment
Programme (CEP) told IRIN from the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Large
quantities of toxic waste generated by on-shore and off-shore oil fields,
refineries and petrochemical plants have polluted the Caspian shorelines
and coastal waters in many areas, most prominently in Baku Bay.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27436&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

A two-day-meeting between the Presidents of the five states which surround
the resource rich Caspian Sea held in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat this
week and designed to try and thrash out a deal over mineral proprietary
rights to what is estimated to be the world's third largest oil and gas
reserves, ended in failure on Wednesday. The leaders of Turkmenistan,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan were trying to draw up a new
agreement to succeed the previous deal between the Soviet Union and Iran
drawn up in 1970.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27510&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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