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 92
28 December 2002 - 03 January 2003


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Islamabad investigates US bombing
AFGHANISTAN: More than two million return home this year
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

PAKISTAN: Islamabad investigates US bombing

Pakistan is investigating an alleged US bombing of an Islamic seminary in
the border village of Angur Ada in the country's southwest over the past
weekend. "The security agencies are investigating the matter and they will
shortly announce their findings," Aziz Ahmed Khan, a foreign ministry
spokesman,told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. According to
the media reports, the US military in Afghanistan have confirmed calling
for air strikes after an American soldier reportedly sustained head
injuries in Angur Ada, some 500 km southwest of Islamabad, in the course
of a gun battle between a Pakistani border guard unit and US forces on 29
December.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31558&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: More than two million return home this year

As the year ends, more than two million Afghan refugees and displaced
persons have returned to their country and communities from the
neighbouring states and camps inside Afghanistan in one of the largest
repatriation efforts in decades. "It's more than we initially expected. Of
course, we do not promote [repatriation] or push people to go back to
their country," Maki Shinohara, a spokeswoman for the office of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN from the Afghan capital,
Kabul, on Tuesday. According to the refugee agency, more than 1.8 million
Afghans went home with the help of UNHCR from Pakistan, Iran and Central
Asian states.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31547&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz
Ahmed Khan

As the former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan and the head of Afghan
affairs, Aziz Ahmed Khan, now the spokesman for Pakistan's Ministry of
Foreign affairs, remains optimistic about future relations between the two
nations and the rest of the region. In an interview with IRIN on Monday he
said stability in Afghanistan would open up more doors for trading
partners in Central Asia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31524&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

In Central Asia this week, Turkmenistan's harsh crackdown on opposition
figures in the ongoing probe of the alleged assassination attempt on the
authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov in November has drawn sharp
criticism from the US administration and human rights groups.
"Turkmenistan is one of the most repressive countries in the world,"
Elizabeth Anderson, the executive director of Human Rights Watch's (HRW)
Europe and Central Asia division, said in a statement on the conviction
and sentencing of the Turkmen opposition leader and former foreign
minister, Boris Shikhmuradov.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31565&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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