U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 41
12 - 18 January 2002


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of returnees start to rebuild lives
AFGHANISTAN: European Commission to open Kabul office
AFGHANISTAN: New mobile network boosts aid effort
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on challenges facing Afghan journalists
AFGHANISTAN: Increased concern over Chaman refugees
AFGHANISTAN: US$ 15 billion needed for reconstruction
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul airport reopens
AFGHANISTAN: Discussions over composition of "grand council"
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on civilian victims of mines and bombs
AFGHANISTAN: Women educators back at work
AFGHANISTAN: Leading donor group meets interim administration
AFGHANISTAN: WFP to begin helicopter operations
PAKISTAN: Rights group welcomes ban on militants
PAKISTAN: Electoral changes hailed by minorities
PAKISTAN: Leishmaniasis outbreak in Kurram Agency
PAKISTAN: Karachi water shortage
PAKISTAN: Focus on micro credit
PAKISTAN: UNICEF to continue cooperation with government
IRAN: Flood relief efforts continue
IRAN: Spontaneous return of Afghans continues


AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of returnees start to rebuild lives

Thousands of internally displaced people, formally living in Afghanistan's
Panjshir Valley are now trying to rebuild their lives on the Shomali
Plains, 15 km outside the capital Kabul, following the fall of the
Taliban. "Many fled the area four to five years ago in fear of the Taliban
as they are of Tajik ethnic origin, the same ethnic background of the
opposition," Panjshir Valley and Shomali Plains coordinator for the French
NGO ACTED, Sherine Zaghow told IRIN on Thursday. Since 31 December,
together with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) and monitoring by the UN's refuge agency UNHCR, ACTED has helped
some 1,800 families return from the Panjshir Valley to the Shomali plains.
"There are another 400 families remaining who want to return here," she
explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19334&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: European Commission to open Kabul office

The European Commission (EC) announced on Wednesday it would open an
office in the Afghan capital Kabul next month to monitor reconstruction
and aid programmes. "We want to be a part of the reconstruction of
Afghanistan and we hope to have our office open sometime in February,"
Pedro Martinez, Deputy Head of the European Commission in Pakistan, told
IRIN on Thursday. The office would monitor the political situation in the
war-ravaged country and provide "optimal coordination" with the European
Union's (EU) special representative for Afghanistan, Klaus-Peter Klaiber,
a spokesman for External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten told AFP on
Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19332&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: New mobile network boosts aid effort

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and Swedish telecommunications firm
Ericsson will provide 200 cellular telephones in Kabul later this week to
help facilitate aid work, crucial for the war-ravaged Afghan capital. WFP
spokesman Khaled Mansour told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on
Thursday that the mobile phone service would enable users to make and
receive international telephone calls. "This is a breakthrough for the aid
community," Mansour said. "Communications is crucial for their work, to be
able to contact each other inside Kabul, or to connect internationally,"
he added. The project, announced in Kabul on Wednesday, would supply 200
cellular telephones to the UN and other relief agencies working in Kabul,
by the end of this week, though the system has the ability to provide up
to 5,000 connections.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19333&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on challenges facing Afghan journalists

Attiqullah Pazhwak is editor of two Afghan weeklies in Peshawar, capital
of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Although now 70, he
still dreams of returning to his country, provided there is freedom of
expression and security, a daunting challenge for the new administration
hoping to rebuild Afghanistan with international help. With the rout of
the hardline Taliban regime from Afghanistan, the international community
is promising billions of dollars for the reconstruction of the country.
Afghan journalists - who have had to operate from neighbouring countries
for decades - are now contemplating what role they can play in rebuilding
their shattered society.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19157&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Increased concern over Chaman refugees

The plight of 13,000 newly arrived Afghans at Chaman, a Pakistani border
town, is raising serious concern amongst aid workers on the ground. The
refugees, many of them vulnerable women and children, are receiving only
limited assistance following Islamabad's adamant refusal to allow them
entry into Pakistan proper. "The whole situation is inching towards
crisis," UNHCR spokesman, Yusuf Hassan told IRIN on Wednesday in the
Pakistani capital Islamabad. Hassan's comments followed this weekend's
dramatic increase of 7,000 new arrivals now stranded on the desolate
windswept site along the border with Afghanistan, now home to thousands
since they first began arriving on 4 January. With temperatures dropping
below zero, no adequate shelter, and limited assistance, their plight was
now worsening by the hour, he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19179&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: US$ 15 billion needed for reconstruction

A senior UN official said on Wednesday that a needs verification campaign
would immediately follow the Tokyo meeting next week on the reconstruction
of Afghanistan, estimated to cost about US$ 15 billion over the next
decade, according to a preliminary report. The Ministerial Level
Conference on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan is to be held on 21-22
January. It is expected to be attended by more than 50 countries, as well
as international financial institutions, the UN, and the new interim
Afghan government. The meeting is not a pledging session, though members
are expected to bring some kind of concrete proposals for Afghanistan's
rebuilding and to assess the preliminary need assessment report released
on Tuesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19181&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Kabul airport reopens

While aid agencies have welcomed the opening of Kabul airport on Wednesday
for humanitarian and military flights only, demining teams say there is
still much work to be done. "The airfield is surrounded by a tactical
minefield planted by the Soviets," head of the UN’s Mine Action Programme
for Afghanistan (MAPA), Dan Kelly told IRIN. Although an area of 500,000
square meters has been cleared at the airport by some 64 Afghan deminers,
Hakim said they needed twice as many workers in order to clear danger
zones as quickly as possible.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19199&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Discussions over composition of "grand council"

Afghans in Pakistan are anxiously awaiting the announcement of an
independent special commission for the holding of an emergency Loya Jirga
[grand council] in the summer. Following the establishment of the interim
government in December the announcement of such a commission will be
another important step in implementing the Bonn agreement signed by four
Afghan factions. "The members of the commission should not come from among
the warring factions," Afghan intellectual Habibaullah Rafie told IRIN
from the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Wednesday. He suggested
that the UN should collect a list of nominees from all political factions
and should include those individuals, which are recommended by more than
one group. He added that in 1992 the factions agreed on an unanimous list
of such people.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19212&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on civilian victims of mines and bombs

Lying on his hospital bed at the Italian-funded Emergency Surgical Clinic
in the Afghan capital, Kabul, 15-year-old Mukhtar is in agony. He talks
about the day he was hit by shrapnel from US-led bombing. As a doctor
tends his wounds, he screams in pain. His left arm was fractured, one of
his legs has been amputated and the other badly burned. Doctors say he may
never walk again. "I want to be with my family at home," he told IRIN. The
US-led bombing, aimed at wiping out Taliban forces and terrorist training
camps, has claimed civilian lives and left unexploded ordnance scattered
throughout a country with one of the highest concentrations of land mines
in the world.  "There are between 50 and 100 victims of land mines and
unexploded ordnance every week," head of the UN's Mine Action Programme
for Afghanistan (MAPA), Dan Kelly told IRIN in Kabul. He estimated some
500 sq km of the country have been littered with unexploded bombs, shells
and mortars.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19109&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Women educators back at work

Hundreds of women in the Afghan capital, Kabul have returned to work
following the fall of the hard-line Taliban regime. At Kabul University,
some 80 female staff are back at their desks.  "I was very happy and
excited to come back to my job," Humera, a 23-year-old administrative
officer told IRIN. She started work at the university in 1995 but was
banned by the Taliban a year later. Following five years of being
housebound, she said she now felt that she had been "released from
prison". Although the university and the Afghan interim administration are
not able to pay salaries, women have been flocking to the educational
institution. "I don't mind not being paid," she said. "I just want my
freedom back and hopefully the international community will help us with
payment," Humera added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19121&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Leading donor group meet interim administration

Representatives from at least three nations comprising the 16 member
Afghan Support Group (ASG) will met the new Afghan interim administration
in Kabul this week, a Norwegian diplomat told IRIN on Sunday. Norway
currently holds the presidency of the ASG and this was the first meeting
to be held in Kabul by the donor body, which provides a large chunk of
Afghanistan's aid. The gathering was attended by ASG representatives from
Germany, the previous holders of the presidency, as well as Japan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=1905&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: WFP to begin helicopter operations

As winter conditions worsen, the World Food Programme (WFP) will deploy
helicopters in an effort to access remote areas of Afghanistan where
thousands of people are nearing starvation. "These helicopters will
significantly enhance WFP's ability to reach areas where access due to
weather or insecurity have diminished," agency spokesman, Wagdi Othman
told IRIN on Monday in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Two of six
helicopters will be based in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, while
the other four will be in Chaghcharan and Bamyan, the provincial capitals
of Afghanistan's central Chowr and Bamyan provinces. "The north and
central highlands are particularly difficult to reach and overland access
to remote villages is proving difficult during the winter," he explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19069&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Rights group welcomes ban on militants

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said on Monday the
government must follow up on a crackdown on Islamic militants announced by
President Pervez Musharraf at the weekend. HRCP said the militants
operated as a state within a state, and threatened the growth of civil
society.

The sweep extended a crackdown launched following a 13 December attack on
India's parliament and a military stand-off between the nuclear rivals.
India has put pressure on Pakistan to arrest those it holds responsible
for the attack and to hand them over to New Delhi, though Musharraf has
rejected the demand.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19065&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Electoral changes hailed by minorities

Pakistan's decision to reduce electoral discrimination by doing away with
separate voting for minority religious groups is an important development,
Christian leaders and constitutional experts told IRIN on Thursday. It
will help make Pakistan a more moderate state, and end minority
discrimination, they added. President Pervez Musharaf's government
announced on Wednesday that a separate electoral system - introduced by
former military ruler General Ziaul Haq before 1985 general elections -
was being scrapped. In its place, a joint electoral system was being
introduced for general elections due later this year under a Supreme Court
ruling.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19330&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Leishmaniasis outbreak in Kurram Agency

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported an outbreak of the skin
disease leishmaniasis in the Kurram Agency, a tribal area in Pakistan's
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. "In addition to
some 1,500 cases among the Afghan refugees, there are some 738 new cases
and some 289 cured cases amongst the local population," WHO official Dr
Faizullah Kakrar told IRIN in the capital Islamabad on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19335&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Karachi water shortage

Most people living in Pakistan's second city of Karachi do not have access
to clean water. Apart from the obvious health problems, lack of potable
water is leading to social, economic and political difficulties as well.
Two ethno-political parties staged a rally against water shortages last
June, which turned violent after police fired at the protestors killing
two and leaving six injured. The protestors set vehicles on fire and
ransacked property. Karachi, with an unofficial population figure of 15
million, needs about 600 million gallons of water per day, but the city
currently receives only about 435 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19178&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on micro credit

Wahid Gul had always thought of bankers as Babus (officers) in their
striped suits and ties living in posh houses and working in modern
offices. His only exposure to a bank was from the outside. He imagined
bankers carried wads of cash around, the richest people in the world. One
day about three months ago, that image was shattered for Wahid. A group of
young men and women were asking his neighbours whether they wanted small
loans to set up their own businesses. "Yes", he said when a neighbour
asked him about it.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19158&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: UNICEF to continue cooperation with government

The United Nations children's organisation UNICEF would closely cooperate
with the government of Pakistan in improving the situation of women and
children. The mid-term review of the Pakistan-UNICEF country programme
1999-2003, a project aimed at improvements in health, education and child
protection, showed promising results. UNICEF spokesman, George Somerwill,
told IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Wednesday that the most
important lesson learned from the project was the significance of
coordination among the partners. "Sharing ideas and lessons make a major
difference," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19208&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

IRAN: Flood relief efforts continue

Relief efforts to assist those affected by last week's floods in Iran were
proceeding well after torrential rains on Friday led to a rash of flash
floods throughout southern and western parts of the country, aid workers
told IRIN on Tuesday. Nine people have been confirmed dead and scores
injured during what is being described as one of the heaviest rainfalls in
years. "About 1,500 people were directly affected by the flooding which
left some people homeless," Mostafa Mohaghegh, director general of the
international affairs department of the Iranian Red Crescent Society
(IRCS), told IRIN from the capital Tehran on Tuesday. According to the
most recent information provided by Mohaghegh, the southern province of
Fars was the worst hit, where six of the nine fatalities occured and some
13 buildings were destroyed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19138&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN

IRAN: Spontaneous return of Afghans continues

Despite a recent drop, the spontaneous return of Afghan refugees from Iran
is continuing, with more than 10,000 going back in the first half of
January, UNHCR in Iran confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. "The total number of
spontaneous returnees for the first half of this month stands at 10,881,"
agency spokesman, Mohammad Nouri said from the capital Tehran. The refugee
agency reported that 3,060 Afghans made the journey back to their homeland
between 10 and 16 January, down more than 40 percent on the same period
one week earlier. According to UNHCR, the total number of spontaneous
(unassisted) returnees from Iran for the year 2001 was 140,373. This was a
major increase from the previous year, in which only 50,000 spontaneously
made the move from mid-July until December 2000.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19375&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


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