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 89
07 - 13 December 2002


CONTENTS:


AFGHANISTAN: UK customs officers join drugs fight
KAZAKHSTAN: Pressure group to assist in Duvanov trial
PAKISTAN: Mixed reaction to Afghan refugee repatriation plan
CENTRAL ASIA: Think-tank urges police reforms in three states
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: UK customs officers join drugs fight

The battle against drugs in Afghanistan is being stepped up through a
training programme being made available to the Afghan Police Academy by
experienced British customs officers. "The fight against the illegal drug
trade is an international responsibility, because the impact of drugs on
society is immense. Our aim is to assist the Afghan police with practical
measures that will help trace those involved in drug trafficking, and
ensure proper systems are in place to take action against them," Ronald
Nash, the British ambassador to Afghanistan, told IRIN on Thursday at a
ceremony marking the inauguration of the programme. A UN crop survey
published in October estimated that 3,400 mt of opium would be produced in
Afghanistan this year - higher than the 2,700 mt predicted by the UN
earlier this year. This is nearly double the 2,000 mt harvested before the
Taliban banned production. The survey shows that Afghanistan is set to
resume its place as the source of 75 percent of the world's heroin and 90
percent of Britain's supply.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31360&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: Journalists' pressure group to assist in Duvanov trial

The Paris-based international pressure group Reporters Without Borders
(RWB) told IRIN on Wednesday that it was seeking clarification from Astana
following a government decision a day earlier to allow "foreign experts"
to play a role in the trial of the prominent opposition journalist, Sergei
Duvanov. "RWB has already written to the Kazakh general prosecutor to find
out exactly what they mean by this," Soria Blatmann, the head of RWB's
Europe desk, told IRIN from the French capital.  Duvanov was charged with
raping a 14-year-old girl in October, on the eve of a US lecture tour on
media freedom and human rights in Kazakhstan. A well-known critic of
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, he was investigated earlier this year for
"offending the honour and dignity of the president", a serious crime in
Kazakhstan. The investigation stemmed from an article he wrote accusing
Nazarbayev and his family of financial abuses. This followed a
presidential admission that he had spirited away US $1 billion in a Swiss
bank account without parliamentary approval.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31346&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

PAKISTAN: Mixed reaction to Afghan refugee repatriation plan

Afghan refugees and aid workers on Tuesday had mixed reactions to a draft
agreement on a tripartite plan between the governments of Pakistan,
Afghanistan and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) for the voluntary repatriation of some 1.8 million Afghan
refugees from Pakistan. "We are not in total agreement with the plan,"
Fatana Gailani, head of the Afghanistan Women's Council, told IRIN from
the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday. "I don't know the
understanding behind the agreement, but some Afghans are political
refugees," she said, adding that many Afghans did not want to go home for
fear of persecution for their political affiliations or ethnic origin.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31330&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Think-tank urges police reforms in three states

In a new report released this week, the International Crisis Group (ICG),
a leading independent international body working for conflict prevention,
urged the three Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan to step up police reforms in order to achieve the kind of
security required for peaceful economic and political development. The ICG
document suggests that police in the three states remain a coercive arm of
government without the expertise to tackle terrorism and serious crime.
Corruption is also a major problem - often police forces in the region
organise, or do not prevent, extortion rackets and other crimes, the
report says. "After 11 September, there has been increased military and
security aid to the region, but little attention paid to the need to
reform security structures," ICG Central Asia Project Director David Lewis
told IRIN from Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Osh on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31347&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Theo van Boven, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights on the question of torture, completed a two-week fact-finding
mission to Uzbekistan on 6 December, according to a UN press release.
Issued on Wednesday, it said he had met many alleged victims of torture,
as well as government and NGO representatives. Although he was granted
access to some prisons, detention facilities and secure hospitals both in
the capital, Tashkent, and elsewhere, there were regrets that access was
denied to the notorious State Security Service lock-up in Tashkent. The
mission's report will be made public in March 2003.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31387&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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