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 45
09 - 15 February 2002


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: UNHCR closes controversial refugee camp
PAKISTAN: WHO reports outbreak of leishmaniasis
PAKISTAN: Internet project for farmers launched
AFGHANISTAN: IRIN interview with refugee affairs minister
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul bathhouses booming again
AFGHANISTAN: New era of press freedom
AFGHANISTAN: WHO sends huge consignment of medical supplies
AFGHANISTAN: Snow brings little reprieve to water shortage
AFGHANISTAN: Vital humanitarian route reopens with a warning
AFGHANISTAN: Improved relations with Pakistan envisaged


PAKISTAN: UNHCR closes controversial refugee camp

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
closed down the infamous Jalozai refugee camp in Pakistan's North West
Frontier Province on Tuesday, moving thousands of its last dwellers to
better-equipped camps in the area. Once a showpiece depicting appalling
living conditions for Afghan refugees - dotted with rows of plastic-sheet
tents as the only protection against sub-zero cold in winter and sizzling
heat in summer - Jalozai on Tuesday stood as a deserted expanse of dry mud
some 40 km east of Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province.
"I am very happy to be leaving, we have lived in these terrible conditions
for too long," Bibi Lakhda, an Afghan refugee woman, told IRIN just before
boarding a truck for another camp closer to the border with Afghanistan.
"It was a difficult life, living in a tent, there was very little water
and it was very cold."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20648&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: WHO reports outbreak of leishmaniasis

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported an outbreak of
leishmaniasis, a disfiguring skin disease, in the tribal rim of Pakistan
bordering Afghanistan, with about 5,000 cases identified so far, a WHO
spokeswoman told IRIN on Wednesday. "The WHO is providing the medicine
necessary to treat the outbreak," Lori Hieber-Girardet told IRIN, adding
that the first half of a consignment of the relevant medicines were
already here and the second half would arrive in the first week of March.
The medicine is not available locally. A WHO statement issued in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday, said 5,000 cases of cutaneous
leishmaniasis were reported in the Kurram agency and nearby areas in the
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, a country where this
disease is uncommon, although it is widespread in neighbouring
Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20810&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Internet project for farmers launched

A Pakistani web site focusing on the development of agriculture and rural
communities has launched a mobile Internet information unit to promote the
information highway among farmers, an executive of the site told IRIN on
Friday. Once conversant with the Internet and its possibilities, farmers
can download the latest information on weather, seeds, fertilisers,
pesticides, crop diseases and how to obtain loans. At present they rely on
state-run radio broadcasts or rural community coordinators for this kind
of information. The Internet can also be utilised for information
exchanges between farming communities.

AFGHANISTAN: IRIN interview with refugee affairs minister

One of the more important issues affecting Afghanistan's newly established
interim administration is how to do deal with the millions of Afghans who
took refuge in neighbouring countries over the past two decades.
Enayatollah Nazeri, the interim administration's minister of repatriation
and refugee affairs, rates the challenge he faces as enormous, but also
something achievable with the necessary international assistance. "We
can't do this alone," the 48 year-old trained lawyer and former minister
of repatriation under the Rabbani government, told IRIN. Provided that
peace and stability are maintained, he expects about five million Afghans
to come home over the next five years - one million of them this year
alone.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20872&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Kabul bathhouses booming again

It is only eight in the morning, but the steam-filled Haji Mir Ahmad
communal bathhouse, or hammam, located in the Karte Parvan District of the
capital, Kabul, is already packed to capacity. Hammams, which were banned
by the Taliban, are experiencing a major rebirth as thousands of men and
women in Kabul - lacking access to running water - return en masse to this
traditional form of bathing. "We don’t have water in our neighbourhood, 32
year-old Habib told IRIN. "If I am to wash, this is the only choice I
have," he said. Habib is not alone. With Kabul suffering from a major
water shortage, and hot water at a premium, the options for thousands of
city residents are limited. The municipality’s infrastructure was
devastated in the course of more than two decades of war. Costing less
than 20 US cents a visit, hammams are back, proving a necessary - but less
than ideal - alternative in this broken-down city.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20649&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: New era of press freedom

Afghanistan's Interim Authority has signed a new order, which it is hoped
will lead to a liberal independent media - free to cricitcise, warn and
inform, international media reported on Tuesday. A BBC report said the new
law, which was signed on Saturday by chairman of the authority, Hamid
Karzai, allows the country's press to be free and criticise the
government. Such a law would have been unthinkable under the Taliban, who
had imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on Afghanistan.
Things were no better during the reign of the mujahideen warlords before
the hardline Islamic movement came to power in 1996. There was also no
press freedom during the days of the Soviet occupation.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20652&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: WHO sends huge consignment of medical supplies

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dispatched 300 mt of medicines and
supplies to help three million people survive Afghanistan's harsh winter,
a spokesperson for the agency told IRIN on Monday. "In a humanitarian
crisis, food, shelter, and water are the essential components needed to
save lives, but without medicines to treat common diseases, fatality rates
can skyrocket," Lori Hieber-Girardet said in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad. "The supply of essential medicines and supplies to Afghanistan
is critical because many Afghans are not able to purchase required
medicines." According to WHO, the biggest killers of Afghans are measles,
acute respiratory infections, pregnancy-related complications, diarrhoea
and tuberculosis.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20597&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Snow brings little reprieve to capital's water shortage

Kabul can survive without gold, but it cannot survive without snow - or so
the saying goes. Despite two days of light snowfall last week, the
precious resource has proven scarce this year, leaving city officials
worried about the Afghan capital's dwindling water supply. "This isn't
enough," Abdy Delbar, an adviser to the Ministry of Public Works told IRIN
on Saturday. "Snow is the most important resource for water we have in
this city. Without it we simply won't have the capacity to cope," he
warned. Equally worrying is that meteorologists are less than optimistic
about future precipitation. While residents awoke on Friday to a blanket
of snow, leaving the country's largest city pristine white, by midday on
Saturday most of it had melted away. "We used to get one metre of snow
from a storm, now we get between five to 10 cm if we are lucky," Delbar
said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20516&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Vital humanitarian route reopens with a warning

The Salang highway, a vital humanitarian transit route linking the
northern and southern parts of central Afghanistan, has been reopened to
traffic following last week's deadly avalanche. But experts warn of an
even worse tragedy unless necessary safety precautions are taken
immediately.  "I can guarantee if this is not taken seriously it will
happen again," Farid Homayoun, programme manager for the British NGO Halo
Trust, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday. "People can
use this route, but strong safety measures are urgently needed to
safeguard that this catastrophe is not repeated," he said. Under the
coordination of the UN, the mine-clearance NGO spearheaded last week's
rescue operation after an avalanche ripped through the highway on
Wednesday, leaving five dead and trapping hundreds in and around its
tunnel for up to 36 hours.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20518&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Improved relations with Pakistan envisaged

Friday's meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the
chairman of Afghanistan's Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai, should improve
bilateral relations, strained by Taliban-era bitterness and serve to give
Afghan refugees more time to go home in peace and dignity, observers told
IRIN on Monday. Fazal Rahman, senior analyst at the Islamabad-based
Institute of Strategic Studies, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad, that the landmark meeting would lead to the burial of some of
the old misgivings, allow more time for refugees return and pave the way
for the release of Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


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