U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 47
23 February - 01 March 2002


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Kenzo Oshima, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator
AFGHANISTAN: Major repatriation drive begin
AFGHANISTAN: UNFPA brings in crucial supplies
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Kabul street children
AFGHANISTAN: UN says more than a billion dollars needed this year
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with head of the Loya Jirgah Commission
AFGHANISTAN: Poor security prevents WHO treating influenza
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR slams Dubai deportations
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with the UN special representative for reconstruction
CENTRAL ASIA: No deal at Caspian Sea conference
PAKISTAN: Shi'ite killings a challenge to Musharraf's reforms
PAKISTAN: Rare Congo fever kills three people


AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Kenzo Oshima, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator

Kenzo Oshima, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator and
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, on Friday called for an
uninterrupted transition from relief, to recovery and reconstruction in
Afghanistan. In an interview with IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul,
Oshima underlined the need for strong international and UN support for the
peace-building process in Afghanistan. He also expressed optimism that
pledges made by the international community for recovery and
reconstruction of the country would be fulfilled.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23500&SelectRegion=Central_Asia

AFGHANISTAN: Major repatriation drive begins

A major campaign to voluntarily repatriate millions of Afghans began in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Friday. First off his
truck to register for the assistance package was father of five, Baz
Mohammad. "It's time for a fresh start for my country," the 65-year-old
watchmaker from Kabul told IRIN. "Now that there is peace in Afghanistan,
why should I stay here?" he exclaimed. Welcome words to UNHCR staff at the
Takhtabaig voluntary repatriation centre (VRC), 16 km west of the
provincial capital Peshawar and the first of seven such centres to open in
Pakistan. UNHCR estimates that up to 200 families will register for
repatriation and proceed to Afghanistan on the first day of assisted
repatriation there.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23390&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNFPA brings in crucial supplies

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) started bringing in crucial
medical and other health-related equipment on Saturday into the Afghan
capital, Kabul. A UNFPA statement issued to IRIN in Kabul over the weekend
said three plane loads of equipment arrived containing two ambulances
worth a million dollars. "Within a week, in three successive plane loads
starting on 2 March, UNFPA will provide sufficient medical and related
equipment for Malalai Maternity Hospital, Rabia Balkhy Maternity Hospital,
and Khair Khana 52-bed Hospital," the statement said. Afghanistan's
maternal mortality rate is estimated to be 1,700 deaths per 100,000 live
births, the world's second highest. Some 16,000 women will die of mostly
preventable pregnancy-related causes this year.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23499&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on Kabul street children

Nine-year-old Ehsan doesn't know his father. Despite occasional letters
and small remittances from Iran, where he works as a labourer, the family
can barely cope, much less pay the US $7 a month rent on their home.
Unable to provide food for her six young children, Ehsan's mother sent him
and his brother into the streets of Kabul to work 10 months ago. He told
IRIN he collected firewood, paper and rubbish, but his friends giggled at
the notion. "He's a beggar like us," they jeered. Ehsan is not alone.
Children are the most vulnerable members of Afghan society, particularly
in the capital Kabul, where thousands of inhabitants of the city have been
killed or disabled. Driven by the forces of war and drought, street
children abound in the city, a social problem set to worsen despite a
greater assistance presence in the city.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23330&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UN says more than a billion dollars needed this year

The United Nations and NGOs need US $1.18 billion immediately for the
humanitarian and transitional assistance programme for Afghanistan, where
an estimated nine million people require aid, a senior UN official said on
Thursday. Kenzo Oshima, Emergency Relief Coordinator for the Office for
the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the UN and the NGOs
were seeking these funds for the Immediate and Transitional Assistance
Programme (ITAP) for Afghanistan 2002. "Now is the time to deliver on the
substantial promises made in Tokyo for the year 2002," Oshima said, who
arrived in an overcast Kabul on Wednesday. He is due to leave for the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23286&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with head of the Loya Jirgah Commission

After the formation of Afghanistan's coalition interim government, the
establishment of the Special Independent Commission for the Convening of
the Emergency Loya Jirgah is the next major step in implementing the Bonn
agreement on country's political future. The Loya Jirgah is the country's
supreme national tribal assembly, which has been traditionally convened to
resolve major political issues. "This is a very important Loya Jirgah in
the history of Afghanistan. I call it [the] peace and democracy Loya
Jirgah of Afghanistan," Muhammad Ismail Qasimyar told IRIN. He added that
apart from ensuring the participation of all segments of the Afghan
society, women would get unprecedented representation.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23289&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Poor security prevents WHO treating influenza

Some 25 children have died from suspected influenza in a remote valley in
northeastern Afghanistan, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official told
IRIN after one of the organisation's teams was prevented from entering the
area due to reports of factional fighting. "Our teams should have returned
to the area to assess the situation, but we have had no radio contact with
them yet," a WHO official in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, Lori
Girardet, said on Tuesday.

WHO was informed of the deaths by local residents, and immediately
dispatched a mission to the Yamagan valley clinic in the province of
Badakhshan late last week, she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=22843&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR slams Dubai deportations

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday voiced
its concern over last week's deportation of some 750 Afghans from Dubai
back to Afghanistan. The incident nearly doubles the number of Afghans who
have been forcibly returned back to their country this year alone.
"Governments always have the right to deport illegal aliens, but
individuals should have access to UNHCR staff if they feel they have an
asylum claim," agency spokesman, Peter Kessler told IRIN from Geneva.
"This was clearly not the case in Dubai," he maintained, adding without
access to forcible returnees, it was difficult to determine if there were
any human rights or refugee protection concerns amongst the group.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=22856&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: IOM set to launch major returnee programme

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is preparing for a
major returnee programme in western Afghanistan. Set to begin next week at
the Maslakh internally displaced persons (IDP) camp near Herat, it will be
the first IDP return programme there since 11 September. "Some 90,000
people are expected to participate over a nine month period," the IOM
chief for western Afghanistan, Rafael Robillard, told IRIN in Herat.
"Everything has improved. There has been some rain, security has improved,
and assistance to affected areas is being provided," he said. As part of
the programme, IOM will provide participants with seeds, tools,
fertilisers and transportation. "IOM is now focusing on the return of
residents to their place of origin," he added. The programme is
tentatively set to begin on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=22323&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with the UN special representative for
reconstruction

With more than US $4.5 billion pledged for Afghanistan reconstruction, the
newly appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for
reconstruction, Nigel Fisher, told IRIN that the UN would not take the
lead role in Afghanistan - rather it would support the Afghan
administration in rebuilding the country. "There is every reason to hope
that the country can come out of this cycle of conflict because you have
the beginnings of administration and you have considerable international
interest and support," he said expressing optimism and hope.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=22325&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: No deal at Caspian Sea conference

A Russian conference on the legal status of the Caspian sea ended with no
solution to disputes over the sharing of the waters between Central Asian
states and Russia, a Reuters news report said on Thursday. The meeting,
which opened in the capital Moscow on Wednesday, was attended by legal
experts and officials from the five states which lay claim to the sea.
They are, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Russia. The
Caspian Sea is rich in oil reserves and sturgeon which provides some of
the best black caviar in the world and the countries are arguing over how
the sea's resources should be divided up. During Soviet times the Caspian
was divided between the former USSR and Iran.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23277&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

PAKISTAN: Shi'ite killings a challenge to Musharraf's reforms

The brutal massacre of 10 Shi'ite Muslims in Pakistan has sparked fear and
outrage among the minority community and also posed a direct challenge to
the government, bent on cracking down on hardline Islamic militants,
analysts said on Wednesday. "The government has completely failed in
protecting the lives of Shi'ites," Sayed Raziuddin Razi, a Shi'ite leader,
told IRIN in Rawalpindi, adjacent city to the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad, where at least 10 people were shot dead and more than a dozen
injured on Tuesday evening. Police said two unidentified gunmen opened
fire on the worshippers while a third accomplice waited outside the mosque
on a motorcycle.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23074&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Rare Congo fever kills three people

Three people have died in Pakistan of what health authorities suspect is a
rare incidence of the highly contagious Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
(CCHF). Prof Abbas of the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, near the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN that the three had died in the
past week, including a woman doctor who caught the virus while treating a
female patient. CCHF is transmitted by eating and/or handling sheep and
goats carrying ticks, but is relatively rare in humans. However, there
were some cases recorded in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1998, and again in
Pakistan in May last year. Doctors say the disease has been present in the
country for a much longer period. It killed a doctor in Rawalpindi in
1974.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=23052&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


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