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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 67
13 - 19 July 2002


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Attack on cultural heritage
PAKISTAN: Focus on fight against poverty
PAKISTAN: Aid community takes extra security precautions
PAKISTAN: Interview with Samina Ahmed, head of the International Crisis Group
AFGHANISTAN: Concern over refugees' return from Europe
AFGHANISTAN: Swimmers make a splash in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: Back to school rush spawns further aid needs
AFGHANISTAN: Chaman border refugees continue to stay on
AFGHANISTAN: Reported cholera outbreak downplayed
TAJIKISTAN: Focus on Afghan refugees
TAJIKISTAN: Journalists cautiously welcome decision over editor
TAJIKISTAN: Mudslides continue to threaten villagers
TAJIKISTAN: Mine awareness still needed
IRAN: Afghan repatriation nears 100,000 mark
IRAN: UNHCR hails arrival of refugees from Iraq
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap


PAKISTAN: Attack on cultural heritage

Standing before a 3,000-year-old stone carving of Buddha, which sits
proudly amid more than 2,000 other ancient artifacts secured behind their
glass showcases, vivid images of an era long past are conjured up. But
these priceless pieces of history, housed at the museum in Chakdarra, a
small hilly town some 200 km northwest of Peshawar, the provincial capital
of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), are at the centre of a
raging local controversy.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28856

PAKISTAN: Focus on fight against poverty

Rehmat Bibi, 67, is a widow who lives on private charity and a meagre
monthly stipend from the government. Her total monthly income does not
guarantee that she will sleep on a full stomach or be able to buy
medicine. Outside the office of a government-run charity managed under the
Islamic system of Zakat - an obligatory deduction of alms from rich
Muslims for distribution among the poor - Bibi told IRIN she was
desperate. "I am old, I am tired and want to rest," she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28852

PAKISTAN: Aid community takes extra security precautions

Many international aid organisations in Pakistan are taking extra
precautions in the face of rising insecurity and terrorist threats in the
country. Expatriate staff in particular are being cautioned after several
attacks targeting foreigners this year.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28833

PAKISTAN: Interview with Samina Ahmed, head of the International Crisis
Group

A political scientist by training and a researcher by profession, Dr
Samina Ahmed heads the International Crisis Group's (ICG) recently
established office for Pakistan and Afghanistan in Pakistan's capital,
Islamabad. In an interview with IRIN on Wednesday, Ahmed said that the
international community might overlook democratisation to preserve
stability in the region. "The approval of the international community has
meant that international actors have overlooked domestic problems to
accept repressive regimes," she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28899

AFGHANISTAN: Concern over refugees' return from Europe

NGOs on Thursday warned against the premature voluntary repatriation of
refugees and asylum seekers from European countries back to Afghanistan.
"The conditions are still not conducive enough to promote such
repatriation," Noorullah, a senior programme officer for the UK-based NGO,
Islamic Relief, told IRIN. "I don't think the situation is so good yet,"
he said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28879

AFGHANISTAN: Swimmers make a splash in Kabul

Neither 19-year-old Ali nor 21-year-old Mohammad can swim, but that didn't
stop them from making a splash at the opening of Kabul's only public pool
last week. "We never had a chance to learn how," they told IRIN. "We're
just going to have to make up for lost time." Their enthusiasm, shared by
the dozens of young men and boys who joined them, is a breath of fresh air
in the war-shattered country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28806

AFGHANISTAN: Back to school rush spawns further aid needs

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is looking for long-term
international support to run its programmes in Afghanistan, following an
overwhelming response to its back-to-school campaign launched in March. An
ongoing comprehensive survey on education carried out by UNICEF and
Afghanistan's ministry of education reveals that an estimated three
million children are attending schools across the country - much higher
than the planned figure of 1.8 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28831

AFGHANISTAN: Chaman border refugees continue to stay on

Aid workers remain concerned over the plight of thousands of Afghan
refugees who have chosen to remain along the Pakistani border at Chaman,
despite the willingness of some 400 families to move to a temporary
relocation site near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Many of the
refugees have been in the waterless "no man's land" since February,
receiving only limited assistance.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28904

AFGHANISTAN: Reported cholera outbreak downplayed

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Afghan Ministry of Public Health
have downplayed reports of a possible cholera outbreak - a waterborne
infectious disease - in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. "We don't have a
cholera outbreak, but we have an outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases,"
spokeswoman for WHO, Loretta Hieber Girardet, told IRIN from Kabul on
Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28810

TAJIKISTAN: Focus on Afghan refugees

Afghan refugee Khoja Atif Hakim has lived in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe,
for more than four years and is more than ready to go back home. Standing
at the registration point at Nijni Pyandhz, the southern border crossing
with northern Afghanistan, he told IRIN he hoped to return to work with
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). "I was working in
Mazar-e Sharif but left when the Taliban took control of the city in 1998.
We feared for our lives," he explained, saying that he had been
responsible for collecting bodies after the bloody battle. But the journey
home for Hakim will prove a long one, requiring a further six days to
reach his town in the northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28878

TAJIKISTAN: Journalists cautiously welcome decision over editor

A decision to drop legal action against Dodojon Atovulloyev, editor of a
Tajik newspaper, who is currently living in exile, was met with cautious
optimism by the journalist community in this impoverished Central Asian
nation. "This was the first time that the Tajik government felt intense
pressure," country director for Internews, a media support group, Roshan
Khadivi, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe on Wednesday. "They
knew that the world was watching closely."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28853

TAJIKISTAN: Mudslides continue to threaten villagers

Mudslides are continuing to drown parts of northern Tajikistan,
threatening the lives of hundreds of villagers, aid workers told IRIN.
"The mountains are not solid. Every time it rains parts of the mountain
turn into mud and slide down," programme assistant for the Office of
Co-ordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Tajik capital,
Dushanbe, Maarouf Muhamedov, told IRIN in the northern Sughd province.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28832

TAJIKISTAN: Mine awareness still needed

Mine awareness, especially among the young, is dangerously low in
Tajikistan, a country where perhaps hundreds of thousands of the deadly
devices litter the land, aid workers say. "We discovered recently that
there is a real lack of mine awareness, particularly among the younger
generation in mined areas. For example, [among] boys who are out herding
cattle in rural areas," International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
head of mission in Tajikistan, Jean-Francois Sonnay, told IRIN in the
Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28805

IRAN: Afghan repatriation nears 100,000 mark

The number of Afghans who have returned to their homeland from Iran is
approaching the 100,000 mark, says the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The programme envisions the voluntary
repatriation of 400,000 Afghan refugees this year. "The operation in Iran
is well-organised and going smoothly," UNHCR spokeswoman Laura O'Mahony
told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Monday. "We are not seeing
signs of any significant 'revolving door' syndrome."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28811

IRAN: UNHCR hails arrival of refugees from Iraq

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hailed the first
group of Iranian refugees to repatriate from Iraq under the auspices of
UNHCR this weekend. Their return comes under an agreement signed in March
2001 between the refugee agency and the governments of Iran and Iraq.
"This is a positive and significant development in the right direction,"
UNHCR deputy head of mission for Iran, Bo Schack, told IRIN from the
capital, Tehran, on Wednesday. "After many years in exile, the refugees in
Iraq have now been told by the Iranian authorities that they can come home
without fear and that their rights will be recognised."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28854

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

Conflict resolution initiatives in Central Asia have received a US $22.2
million boost from the United Stated Agency for International Development
(USAID). A USAID press release said it would channel the money through
international NGOs, which worked with their local counterparts, to
implement its Community Action Investment Programme (CAIP). The plan is to
launch innovative conflict prevention activities in Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28900


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