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Central Asia: IRIN Weekly Round-up 42 covering 19 - 25 January 2002

Pays
Afghanistan
+ 2
Sources
TNH
Date de publication

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
IRIN-Asia
Tel: +92-51-2211451
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Email: IrinAsia@irin.org.pk

AFGHANISTAN: UN Secretary General urges people's cooperation

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Afghans on Friday to support the interim administration and the international community in helping to rebuild Afghanistan. "I urge the Afghan people to support the interim administration and the international community to rebuild Afghanistan," the Secretary General told a news conference in the Afgan capital Kabul. Annan addressed the press accompanied by Hamid Karzai, chairman of the Interim Authority. The Secretary General started a three day tour of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran soon after attending a conference in Tokyo where up to US $4.5 billion were pledged for Afghanistan's reconstruction. The Secretary General said there was a need for the reconstruction process to start soon and for the funds to be made available as early as possible.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20079&SelectRegion=East_Africa&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Commission to appoint interim government formed

In another step towards the formation of a government, Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai announced the composition of a 21-member Special Independence Commission at a joint press conference with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday. The commission will be responsible for convening a 'Loya Jirga' or grand council that will in turn appoint a two-year transitional government for Afghanistan. "This is a real impartial commission," said Karzai, who was speaking from Kabul where he was hosting a visit by Kofi Annan. Karzai said the composition of the Loya Jirga had been agreed in conjunction with the UN from a list of 300 people, which his administration had initially provided. The commission will be headed by Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a noted Afghan jurist, and will organise the calling of the Loya Jirga in six months time.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20080&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR welcomes new refugee accord

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday praised this week's agreement with Afghanistan's new Interim Administration on a wide-ranging plan to assist hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons return home this year. Final cabinet approval of the plan, expected in coming weeks, may include an amnesty for returnees.

"This agreement provides us with a willing partner," UNHCR spokesman, Yusuf Hassan told IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. "This understanding with the interim authorities demonstrates a common recognition and desire to facilitate the return of Afghans back to their homeland and their reintegration into society," he explained. Hassan's comments follow discussions on Wednesday in the Afghan capital Kabul between Afghan Repatriation Minister, Enyatulah Nazir and UNHCR officials on the return home of 3.5 million refugees in Iran and Pakistan and an estimated 1.3 internally displaced Afghans inside the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20020&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Newspaper back on the streets after five years

"Be quiet Afghans, international funds are coming" read the caption of a cartoon showing a monster of high prices eating poor people, while a man hushes them into silence looking towards the foreign aid. The cartoon was on the front page of the Kabul Weekly, an independent newspaper that appeared for the first time on Thursday in the Afghan capital after being banned in the winter of 1996, the year the ousted Taliban captured the city. "We are committed to objective journalism," its editor Fahim Dashy told IRIN. On Thursday 2,500 copies of the weekly, with parts in English, French, Dari and Pashto languages, were distributed. Dashy's weekly has promised to work for democracy, defend human rights, combat terrorism, and publish authentic and impartial news.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20002&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Calls for expanded international security presence

A senior UN official said on Thursday that war-ravaged Afghanistan needed a larger international security force to be deployed throughout the unstable nation. "It is important for the international security force, which has started doing good work in Kabul, to expand," Francesc Vendrell, deputy to the UN Secretary-General's special envoy to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, told IRIN in Kabul. Vendrell, rounding up his assignment at the United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan (UNSMA), said a larger force across the country would help facilitate neutrality during the selection of members of the Loya Jirga (grand council) - the next step in the Bonn process. He declined to give an exact number of international troops that would be required for such a daunting and risky task. "It is obviously going to be much larger than 5,000," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19994&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Agriculture to play pivotal role in rehabilitation.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched a US $39 million appeal for agricultural rehabilitation in Afghanistan as part of US $1.3 billion needed to meet the country's immmediate needs. The appeal was made on the closing day of the ministerial conference on Afghanistan in Japan's capital Tokyo. "Some 85 percent of Afghans live in rural areas and their livelihoods are associated to agriculture," Cyril Ferrand, FAO deputy emergency coordinator for Afghanistan told IRIN on Tuesday in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. "Rehabilitation of agriculture would contribute to significant improvements in their livelihoods," he explained. An FAO press statement on Monday said that peace and long-term economic stability in the country should be built on the restoration of productive agriculture.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19829&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on return of qualified Afghans

Reeling from drought, poverty and decades of war, Afghanistan is hardly the place to enjoy the golden years of one's life. But for Abdul Hamid Mobarez, a 70 year-old Afghan intellectual, nationalist, writer and former journalist, returning to his country after years abroad couldn't be more natural. Just hours before he boarded a UN flight to Kabul on Tuesday, he told IRIN why he was returning to Afghanistan - and why now, more than ever, others should follow. "Afghans have no reason to stay in a foreign country now that there is peace in our homeland," Mobarez said. "All professional Afghans should return. Your country needs you now more than ever."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19830&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Banditry hampering relief efforts

Following the establishment of an interim government after the fall of the hardline Taliban - notoriuosly tough on crime - incidents of banditry have been reported in northern Afghanistan, impeding relief efforts in the area, aid workers told IRIN on Tuesday. According to WFP, armed ethnic Uzbeks stole up to 40 mt of food aid intended for the predominantly Pashtun drought-affected population in the Qaiser area of northern Faryab province on Thursday after beating up aid agency staff and smashing vehicles. "The bandits are using ethnic tensions as a pretext for looting," spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP) Khalid Mansour told IRIN in Pakistan's capital Islamabad. WFP and its partners distributed some 700 mt of food in the area prior to the attack.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19828&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Sima Samar, Minister of Women's Affairs

After a month in power, Afghanistan's new Women's Affairs Minister, Sima Samar told IRIN in the capital Kabul that while some men were beginning to wake up to women's rights there remained a great deal of work to be done. Returning from the United States after nearly a decade, the doctor-turned-politician is also deputy chair of the interim administration.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19773&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers welcome Salang tunnel reopening

Aid workers have welcomed the reopening of the strategic Salang tunnel connecting northern and southern parts of central Afghanistan, some 80 km north of the capital Kabul in the Hindu Kush mountains. Spokesman for World food Programme (WFP), Kahild Mansur told IRIN on Monday in Pakistan's capital Islamabad that the reopening would dramatically reduce traveling time between north and south of the country. "It used to take two to three days, now it takes one day to travel from Kabul in the south to Mazar-e Sahrif in the north, " he said. The Salang tunnel was officially reopened on Saturday when a Russian aid convoy passed through it. The tunnel was blown up by retreating Northern Alliance forces following the fall of the capital Kabul to the Taliban in 1996.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19671&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Poppy ban welcomed by UN drug control agency

The United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) on Monday welcomed last week's decision by Afghanistan's new interim government to ban all poppy cultivation. "We welcome this ban on the cultivation, production and trafficking of poppy and we look forward to working with the interim administration," Thomas Zeindl, ODCCP officer in charge told IRIN in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Zeindl's comments follow Wednesday's announcement by the leader of the new Interim Administration in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, effectively banning the production, processing and trafficking of drugs such as opium and all of its ingredients.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19581&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Security improving in Kabul

The security situation in the Afghan capital has improved over the past week since the interim authority banned armed elements from the streets of the city, a UN security officer in Kabul told IRIN. Although initially the interim authority was not in complete control of security, the disarming of people on the streets had made a difference, he explained. Most of the people on the streets with guns were the security forces and there were now very few that were not part of this force, he maintained. Since the fall of the Taliban, however, there has been a rash of reported robberies, thefts and even murders in the capital city, none of which involved foreigners.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19561&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the demand for education

When eight year-old Madina walked into the Abdul Hadi Dawi school in Kabul three weeks ago, it was the first time ever she had entered a school. "I'm so happy to be here and I've made so many friends," she told IRIN as she eagerly practiced writing in Dari, one of the official languages of Afghanistan. With a growing number of parents demanding education for their children after the fall of the Taliban, young Madina is just one of thousands of Afghan children clamouring for a chance to attend school. During the Taliban's hard-line regime when girls were banned from school, such hope would have been unthinkable. Families now more than ever want that dream fulfilled.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19625&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Tokyo conference welcomed with cautious optimism

Afghans expressed cautious optimism over the rebuilding of their war-ravaged country following the opening of a major donor conference on Afghanistan that began in Tokyo on Monday. Representatives of some 60 countries along with major international organisations and NGOs are attending the two-day event."If [Hamid] Karzai returns home with money, it will boost the morale of Afghans and they will be more optimistic about future," Idress Zaman, programme manager with Agency for Rehabilitation and Energy conservation in Afghanistan (AREA), an Afghan NGO, told IRIN. While Afghans were positive, they feared the collapse of the new government if money was not injected quickly, Zaman said. "The interim administration had estimated US$ 45 billion as the reconstruction cost but I believe that any estimates should be based on elaborate planning," he explained. International donors had pledged more than US $4.5 billion in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan by the time the Tokyo conference closed on Tuesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19642&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Multiple movements of Afghans reported: UNHCR

The multiple movement of Afghans leaving and entering Pakistan has been continuing, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told IRIN on Thursday. Pakistan shares almost 2,500 km of porous border with Afghanistan, a country suffering from the twin scourges of war and the worst drought in living memory. Of the 16,934 Afghans who entered Pakistan through the southern province of Baluchistan over the past three weeks, 13,000 were registered at the Killi Faizo transit centre adjacent to the Chaman border post and transferred to the Dara and Lani Karez refugee camps. At the same time, more than 58,000 spontaneously returned home from Pakistan. According to agency figures, 33,365 originated from Baluchistan, while more than 24,672 left Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) by way of the Torkham border crossing between 16 and 22 January.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=20004&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: Government to contribute to Afghan reconstruction

The Republic of Kazakhstan will contribute to the reconstruction effort currently under way in Afghanistan, news agencies reported on Tuesday. According to a document circulated by the Kazakh delegation at the Tokyo conference on rebuilding Afghanistan, the republic will supply 3,000 mt of food aid in the form of wheat, and offer its territory for the storage and transit of relief supplies. In addition, Kazakhstan said it would provide assistance in the form of experts to help in the development of farming, transport, irrigation and the gas industry. According to the report, the vast Central Asian country plans to become a major wheat supplier to Afghanistan, having already arranged to supply 70,000 mt of the commodity to the country. Kazakhstan is also exploring the possibility of sending troops to Afghanistan within the framework of a peacekeeping contingent. Bomb disposal, communications and medical specialists could also be sent, the document said. The Tokyo conference ended on Tuesday with a commitment from participating nations to contribute US $4.5 billion towards rebuilding Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19913&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKSTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Focus on the health impact of the Aral Sea crisis

The ecological disaster caused by the shrinking Aral Sea in Central Asia, continues to seriously affect the health of millions of people in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and the northern Uzbek region of Karakalpakstan. The Aral Sea is now just a third of its original size following Soviet attempts to divert the rivers that fed it for irrigation purposes. "In the past 15 to 20 years, we have witnessed a worsening of the situation for people living around the Aral Sea," Dr Oral Ataniyazova, deputy of the Karakalpak parliament in the regional capital Nukus, told IRIN. Given the increased salt and pollutant content in the air and soil, as the sea shrinks, the rate of tuberculosis, anemia, cancer and birth defects have all increased, she explained. Epidemics and respiratory diseases continue to threaten people living in the area.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=19532&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

[ENDS]

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