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

Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484
Fax: +92-51-2211 450
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 43
26 January - 01 February 2002


CONTENTS:


AFGHANISTAN: Observers endorse Karzai's call for more troops
AFGHANISTAN: Former Taliban advisor wants amnesty for returnees
AFGHANISTAN: Reconstruction deal signed with Uzbekistan
AFGHANISTAN: Foreigners in town mean jobs for some
AFGHANISTAN: Major survey of displaced people
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the independent media
AFGHANISTAN: Hope for Kabul museum
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Loya Jirgah or grand council
AFGHANISTAN: Deplorable conditions at Shebarghan prison
AFGHANISTAN: Too early for refugees in Europe to be sent back
AFGHANISTAN: UNICEF helping two million children back to school
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on maternal health care
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with regional analyst Ahmed Rashid
AFGHANISTAN: Jalozai refugee camp prepares for closure
PAKISTAN: Army to preside in terrorism courts
PAKISTAN: New influx of Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Appeal for kidnapped journalist launched
PAKISTAN: Focus on water crisis
UZBEKISTAN: Referendum criticised by human rights groups


AFGHANISTAN: Observers endorse Karzai's call for more troops

Interim leader Hamid Karzai's call for the expansion of the multinational
force beyond the capital Kabul has been welcomed by observers. Karzai made
the call while addressing the UN Security Council in New York on
Wednesday. He made a similar plea at a joint press conference with British
leader Tony Blair in London on Thursday. "This is a good omen. Security is
the key to our country's recovery from years of fighting," Muhammad Zahir
Babri, an Afghan journalist, told IRIN on Thursday from Pakistan's
northwestern city of Peshawar. "Afghans will repatriate when they sense
complete safety," he said, adding that an uncertain security situation
prevented many professional Afghans from participating in their homeland's
reconstruction. He maintained that an international security presence was
necessary in the five major Afghan cities of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat,
Mazar-e Sharif and Jalalabad. "All major highways and airports need to be
under international security cover," he said. "Even the up coming Loya
Jirga [grand council] will be in danger if security is not stabilised," he
warned.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20251&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Former Taliban advisor wants amnesty for returnees

At the height of the war against the Taliban, millions of television
viewers around the world knew his face. Sitting next to the Taliban
ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, in the capital, Islamabad,
Ahmed Ratib Popal, his interpreter, became synonymous with the Taliban
itself. Today, Popal despite his links with the ousted and discredited
Taliban regime, hopes to return to Afghanistan. The former interpreter
believes there should be an amnesty for returning Taliban and Northern
Alliance members who are not wanted for criminal acts or crimes against
humanity. "Those who have committed crimes should be brought to justice -
that is the whole idea of having a government which is fair and just to
everybody," he said. The idea of an amnesty to encourage Afghans to return
has been suggested by the UN's refugee agency UNHCR.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20247&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Reconstruction deal signed with Uzbekistan

An Afghan government delegation led by the new planning minister, Hoji
Muhammad Muhaqeq, signed a statement of cooperation with Uzbek foreign
ministry officials on Wednesday in the capital Tashkent, a move hailed by
a regional analyst in Pakistan. "Uzbekistan can help the new
administration in reconstruction by providing expertise and raw material,"
Dr Fazle Rahim Marwat, a central Asian expert at Peshawar University, told
IRIN on Thursday. He said reports about the signing of the statement of
cooperation between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan was a positive development.
But he added Uzbekistan's ability to provide financial support to
war-ravaged Afghanistan was fairly limited. According to media reports,
the two neighbours discussed the reconstruction of existing roads as well
as the building of new ones. Joint operations against drug trafficking,
energy supplies and the construction of infrastructure by Uzbek engineers
were also discussed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20249&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Foreigners in town mean jobs for some

Kifayat is just one of several thousand Afghan youths trying to find a job
- not with domestic local employers, but with the foreigners, who pay
better wages. A challenge the Afghan government will face will be to
retain the services of skilled personnel on the lookout for jobs with
international aid organisations, which are expanding their presence in the
capital, Kabul. Hundreds of NGOs, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral
donors, and diplomatic missions returned to Afghanistan together with
their international staff after the rout of the hardline Taliban, who
opposed the presence of foreigners in the country. But things may be
looking up for people like Kifayat. Now that the Afghan interim
administration is in place and the country has attracted unprecedented
international attention, hope is burgeoning that the country may actually
see some reconstruction and rehabilitation.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20245&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Major survey of displaced people

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will soon begin a
massive campaign to re-register up to 350,000 displaced people in camps
near the western Afghan city of Herat, officials told IRIN on Wednesday.
Expected to last up to nine days, the operation, which will involve nearly
a thousand staff, will better determine humanitarian needs at the five
displacement camps around the city, particularly Maslakh, the largest of
the group. "The reason for this registration is to make sure the aid goes
to those most in need," IOM spokesman, Jean Philippe Chauzy told IRIN from
Geneva. With camp population estimates varying from over 320,000 to around
150,000 or so, the only indicator available remains a quick count of tents
and shelters at the camps - completed by IOM in December last year, he
explained. As the coordinating agency for humanitarian aid to displaced
people in western Afghanistan, IOM has become increasingly concerned with
the logistical problems associated with managing and providing services to
Maslakh, already one of the largest refugee camps in the world.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20228&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the independent media

As the world watched the events of 11 September in horror on their
television screens, Afghans missed out on the shocking images that spelt
change in their lives. Television was banned under the rule of the
ultra-orthodox Sunni Muslim Taliban, but the new Afghan Interim
Administration has revived it, also lifting a ban on the independent
media. Banning of the media - television, newspapers and radio stations is
nothing new in Afghanistan, a country traumatised by conflict, warlordism
and, finally, Islamic extremism during the Taliban days. "The state of
media is just similar to the state of everything else in Afghanistan,
everything needs total reconstruction," Afghan journalist Gul Agha, told
IRIN in the capital, Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20294&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Hope for Kabul museum

Standing in the grounds of the Kabul museum, caretaker Sheruzzuddin, who
has worked there for the past 25 years, looked sad as he reminisced about
the days when the building was still intact. "This building used to
sparkle, but now it is dull and dead," he told IRIN. The museum, standing
as it does at the crossroads of many ancient civilizations, should be a
record of centuries of conquest, trade and culture. But the shattered
building is a testament to two decades of war: its doors are riddled with
bullet holes, piles of rubble can be found everywhere, and at least 70
percent of display and storage items have been looted. In an effort to
prevent further looting, the UN repaired the doors and bricked up the
windows in 1994, and some of the exhibits were taken for safekeeping to
the Afghan museum-in-exile in Switzerland. However, despite these
measures, many items were sold, and at one stage in the early 1990s, the
bazaars in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi were
full of objects stolen from Kabul museum.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20216&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Loya Jirgah or grand council

The UN's top envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi addressed the first
meeting of the commission responsible for organising an Emergency Loya
Jirgah (grand council) in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Tuesday. The
formal inauguration of the commission is expected to take place after
Hamid Karzai, head of Afghanistan's interim government, returns to Kabul
from his visit to the United States. Five weeks after the establishment of
Afghanistan's new interim administration, Karzai announced the
establishment of the Loya Jirgah Commission on 25 January. The 21-member
independent panel of experts and elders constitutes the next step in
implementing the Bonn agreement signed on 5 December outlining the
country's path towards democracy. But many people involved or interested
in Afghanistan are unsure of what a Loya Jirgah is and how it works.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20218&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Deplorable conditions at Shebarghan prison

Conditions at the Shebarghan prison in northern Afghanistan, home to some
3,000 pro-Taliban former combatants, are raising serious concern among
human rights groups. The outcry follows a report released this week by the
US-based activist group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), - it described
conditions at the facility as "deplorable". "We are gravely concerned
about conditions in Shebarghan, particularly the reports of over crowding,
unhygienic conditions, lack of heating and the use of heavy feet
manacles," Maya Catsanis, spokesperson for Amnesty International (AI) told
IRIN on Tuesday from London. "Somebody needs to take responsibility for
the treatment of these prisoners before conditions deteriorate further,"
she added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20194&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Too early for refugees in Europe to be sent back - UNHCR

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
warned on Tuesday that it is too early for western countries to be sending
Afghan refugees home. This follows comments made by UK Immigration
Minister Jeffrey Rooker, who was quoted by a British newspaper as saying
Afghanistan was becoming safe and could take back its refugees, an AFP
report said on Monday. "If we look at countries such as Pakistan and Iran,
they are worse off economically than western nations, and they are home to
the largest Afghan refugee communities in the world. We feel western
countries have a moral obligation to be patient and allow refugees to wait
until we are absolutely sure that conditions are right for them to
return," a UNHCR spokeswoman, Melita Sunjic, told IRIN in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20191&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNICEF helping two million children back to school

The UN agency for children, UNICEF, has launched an ambitious plan to get
two million Afghan children back to school by March, the vast majority of
them girls. It's a daunting challenege, but one that would firmly reverse
the ban placed by the ousted hardline Taliban on educating girls and
women. "We are now geared up to getting two million children back to
school by the Afghan new year, which will be 21 March," UNICEF acting
representative for Afghanistan, Sikander Khan, told IRIN in the Afghan
capital, Kabul. UNICEF is working in cooperation with the interim Afghan
authority to realise the target, which Khan said had the firm support of
the international community and the Afghan leadership. The programme,
which will provide pencils, textbooks, re-train teachers and renovate
facilities, is estimated to cost US $25 million. The programme is
considered to be one of the biggest project undertaken by the UNICEF in
such difficult circumstances. "I am not aware that anyone has taken up
such a massive, massive, campaign in a situation like this, and in such
short period of time," Khan said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20111&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on maternal health care

Wasin Gul was nine months pregnant when she travelled from Afghanistan's
central Lowgar Province to the Malalai maternity hospital in the capital,
Kabul, only to find on arrival that her baby had already died in her womb.
"I feel so weak. I can't get up," she told IRIN as she lay on her hospital
bed attached to a drip. A few metres away, Anisa, who is blind, was to
have been a first-time mother, but she had been admitted 15 days earlier
and her child had also died before birth. Due to the dire health care on
offer at state hospitals, stillborn babies are one of the most common
maternal problems women face in Afghanistan. Already at the hospital for
seven days, Gul was still waiting for the dead foetus to be removed from
her body. Afghanistan has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in
the world. "There are 1,700 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births
in Afghanistan," a medical officer for the World Health Organisation (WHO)
in Kabul, Dr Abdi Momin Ahmed, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20082&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with regional analyst and writer Ahmed Rashid

Ahmed Rashid is a prominent Pakistani writer on Afghan and Central Asian
affairs. Respected in the region, he shot to prominence after 11 September
when his book on the Taliban became required reading worldwide. He told
IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad he wanted to see a lean Afghan
government and small bureacracy emerging that would not consume vast
amounts of aid. Rashid also called for a central trust fund to administer
aid money, so that low profile, but essential projects would get the
resources needed. He also spoke about the need to widen reconstruction,
emphasising that many of Afghanistan's problems are common to the region.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20150&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Jalozai refugee camp prepares for closure

The Jalozai refugee camp, a makeshift transit point for masses of Afghans
fleeing their war-torn country, looks set to close in mid-February as the
last group of refugees prepares to be transferred. Often referred to as a
death camp by former residents, Jalozai proved a major source of
contention between the UN and Islamabad as aid agencies struggled to
provide relief to thousands living under deplorable conditions. "There are
approximately 8,000 people left in the camp, but with bus convoys leaving
each day, the site will soon be empty," UNHCR spokesperson, Melita Sunjic
told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Monday. Former residents
were now living under humane conditions with regular food supplies,
shelter and the necessary food items in one of six new camps built in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) since 11 September,
including Kotkai, Bajaur, Shalman, Old Bagzai, Basu and Ashgaru, she
explained. While no definite date had been given, agency officials were
looking to close the site in mid-February, she added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20158&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Army to preside in terrorism courts

Pakistan's decision to allow army officers to preside over anti-terrorist
courts was condemned by human rights groups and lawyers in the country on
Friday. "This is another blow to the judiciary and their freedom. We are
not happy with this move," the chairman of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan (HRCP), Afrasiab Khattak, told IRIN from Peshawar, the capital of
North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "The presence of the army officer
will mean that he will call all the shots," he maintained. Pakistan's
Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) has the jurisdiction to try cases of
kidnapping, hostage taking, highjacking and inciting hatred against
religious sects or ethnic groups. The move was implemented on Thursday by
Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf. He said the existing
system was not delivering satisfactory results, a government official told
IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20293&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: New influx of Afghan refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on
Tuesday that a new influx of some 3,500 Afghan refugees had arrived at the
Chaman border crossing on Tuesday in Pakistan's southern province of
Baluchistan. "The latest arrival is that of some 700 families arriving on
Tuesday," agency spokeswomen, Melita Sunjic, told IRIN in the Pakistani
capital Islamabad. She added that Pakistan allowed some 400 to 500
vulnerable individuals including sick, elderly and pregnant women to cross
everyday. Highlighting the reasons of their arrival, she said that
primarily it was because people did not receive assistance inside
Afghanistan. She added some newly arrived Afghan refugees claimed that as
Pashtuns - the same ethnic group as the hardline Taliban - they faced
problems in the cities of northern Afghanistan such Kunduz and Mazar-e
Sharif where the majority are of different ethnic origin.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20229&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Appeal for kidnapped journalist launched

The employers of kidnapped American journalist Daniel Pearl say they
believe he is still alive, despite e-mails sent on Friday saying he had
been killed. "Based on reports from Pakistan, we now believe that both of
the messages received yesterday about Danny were false," the managing
editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Steiger, told the BBC on Saturday.
"We continue to believe that Danny is alive." A day earlier, Reporters
without Borders (RSF - Reporters Sans Frontieres) launched an appeal to
five Muslim religious authorities for the correspondent's release. The
kidnappers, members of the little-known National Movement for the
Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty, have threatened to execute Pearl
unless demands for detainees from the war in Afghanistan, held by the US
at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, were met.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20295&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on water crisis

Pakistani farmer Ehsan Ahmed floods his entire field before sowing a crop,
just as his father and grandfather did, believing that this kind of
age-old irrigation method will produce a better crop. No! say Pakistani
water experts. The problem is not only that too much water is not good for
the crop but that the water thus wasted is in short supply. Water
availability per person in Pakistan today is 1,000 cubic metres, down from
5,600 cubic metres per person in 1947, the year that the country gained
independence from Britain. There were about 35 million people in Pakistan
in 1947. Today there are nearly 140 million, but water availability has
remained the same.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20192&SelectRegion=Central_Asia

UZBEKISTAN: Referendum criticised by human rights groups

Uzbeks voted on Sunday on whether to lengthen the presidential term, a
move that human rights groups criticised as an attempt by President Islam
Karimov to expand his power. "This referendum looks like the farce which
we saw once in 1995. Now the situation repeats, Uzbekistan's President
wants to extend his authority for the period 2005-2007," Mikhail Ardzinov,
Chairman of the Independent Human Rights Organisation of Uzbekistan, told
IRIN from the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Monday. The referendum, which was
approved by the Uzbek parliament in December, asked voters two questions:
whether to extend the five-year presidential term to seven years, and
whether to introduce a two-house parliament. The current parliament is
dominated by Karimov loyalists.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20159&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


IRIN-Asia
Tel: +92-51-2211451
Fax: +92-51-2292918
Email: IrinAsia@irin.org.pk

[This Item is Delivered to the "Asia-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2002


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central Asia                       www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia