Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 19:51:10 +0300 (BEAUT)
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CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN news Briefs, 3 October 2000

AFGHANISTAN: Pre-winter distribution continues in Ghor
AFGHANISTAN: WFP moves food to Badakshan, Takhar
AFGHANISTAN: Shelter needs urgent as temperatures drop
AFGHANISTAN: 'Time running low for Masood' - LA Times
AFGHANISTAN: Refugees flee northeast for Pakistan
PAKISTAN: "Significant rise" in Afghan refugee arrivals
PAKISTAN: Musharraf promises election in 2002
PAKISTAN: Japan offers drought support
IRAN: UNHCR defends Afghan refugee programme
IRAN: Government "committed to refugee obligations"
IRAN: Ministry rejects report of Afghan refugees ejection


AFGHANISTAN: Pre-winter distribution continues in Ghor

In an accelerated distribution of food to Ghor province, from where
several thousand people have moved to the western city of Herat in search
of relief, WFP is hoping to move 10,000 mt of wheat before the onset of
winter in the coming weeks. The movement of food from Herat to Ghor was
disrupted last week by a resumption of fighting in Farsi district, WFP
stated in an emergency report on Friday. An alternative route, from
Kandahar to Chakhcharan, was being reviewed; if feasible, it could reduce
the transportation time from six to three days, the report added.

Around 1,322 tons of wheat have been distributed so far to 13,200 families
in Ghor, in collaboration with implementing partners, WFP said.

The agency has strengthened its team in Ghor to speed up food
distributions. 

AFGHANISTAN: WFP moves food to Badakshan, Takhar

In the northeast, WFP has started moving food to Rustaq, Yangikala and
Khuja Bahauddin following the allocation of 275 mt of wheat for
distribution to 5,500 most vulnerable displaced families in Badakhshan and
Takhar provinces. Both deliveries and distributions have been stopped in
Dasht-i-Qala because fighting [between the advancing Taliban and
opposition Northern Alliance] has spread to Khuja Ghor district, WFP said.
People were reportedly fleeing the area and moving further west to Khuja
Bahauddin district, it said.

AFGHANISTAN: Shelter needs urgent as temperatures drop

Weather patterns across the northeast Afghanistan were changing rapidly,
and temperatures were expected to drop noticeably in the coming weeks as
winter approaches, according to the weekly update from the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan on Tuesday. The
change in weather makd the shelter needs of the displaced more urgent,
particularly as many of the internally displaced people (IDPs) were out in
the open, especially in Khoja Bahauddin and Dasht-i-Qala, it said.

The IDPs would need not only with food but also tents, blankets and warm
clothes, unless they can return home, according to humanitarian officials. 
So far, over 9,700 families have fled to Dasht-i-Qala, Khoja Bahauddin,
Keshem, Faizabad and Yangi Qala, and aid agencies were currently looking
into the heating requirements of public buildings that could be used to
accommodate IDPs in the event that fighting precluded their return home,
they added. [for full weekly update of Office of the UN Coordinator for
Afghanistan, go to:  http://192.168.1.201/]

AFGHANISTAN: 'Time running low for Masood' - LA Times

Military gains by the Taliban movement in the current campaign of fighting
have officials in the US and Russia worried that the conflict in
Afghanistan may have reached a turning point, both politically and
militarily, the 'Los Angeles Times' reported on Monday. The opposition
Northern Alliance (or United National Islamic Front for the Salvation on
Afghanistan), cut off from supply lines in Central Asia, now has only
about a month "to reclaim enough territory to remain a viable political or
military force before winter weather isolates its troops," it said.

The Northern Alliance of Ahmed Shah Masood was not finished yet, but had
so far been unable to recoup territorial losses as it did after summer
offensives over the past five years, according to US officials cited by
the paper. The difference this time was Pakistan's military assistance to
the Taliban, vehemently denied by both, the report quoted US intelligence
reports as saying. The Taliban has recently launched a major diplomatic
offensive in the world's capitals to turn its control of 95 percent of
Afghanistan into international recognition of its right to govern. The
Afghan seat at the United Nations is still held by deposed president
Burhanuddin Rabbani. 

AFGHANISTAN: Refugees flee northeast for Pakistan

More than 8,000 Afghans fleeing intensified fighting in northeast
Afghanistan have crossed into Pakistan, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski
reported in Geneva on Friday. The new arrivals said they fled their homes
in the wake of indiscriminate aerial attacks in which some of their
relatives were either killed or maimed, he said.

The refugees, predominantly Dari-speaking Afghans from Baghlan, Parwan and
Kapisa provinces, were camped in a makeshift area out in the open in

Jalozai, some 25 km east of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's NorthWest
Province. They had erected temporary shelters from old plastic sheets,
pieces of clothes and blankets but the site had no toilets or access to
safe drinking water, and torrential rains had made already poor conditions
worse, Janowski said.

PAKISTAN: "Significant rise" in Afghan refugee arrivals

The government in Islamabad had dispatched a team to verify the numbers of
those arriving so that the refugees could quickly be transferred to a camp
with adequate sanitation and receive urgent assistance, UNHCR stated on
Friday. Some 3,000 new arrivals had already been moved to the New
Shamshatoo refugee camp, about 10 km from Jalozai, the agency's spokesman
Kris Janowski said.

"There has been a significant rise in the number of Afghans arriving in
Pakistan" through September, Janowski said. On Tuesday 26 September nearly
500 refugees crossed over but, on average, they had been crossing

at the rate of 30 families [or about 200 people] a day, he added. While
most of the new arrivals had been arriving at Torkham border post, UNHCR
learned on Wednesday last that some 50 families had crossed at Chitral,
some 300 km north of Peshawar. Chitral is just across from Badakshan
Province, the last stronghold of the Northern Alliance opposing the
advancing Taliban movement, and the latest flashpoint in Afghanistan's
long-running conflict. There are already 1.3 million Afghan refugees in
Pakistan.

PAKISTAN: Musharraf promises election in 2002

Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf said on Monday he would hold
national elections in 2002, but gave no date for the vote.  "We will hold
provincial and national elections in 2002", Reuters news agency quoted him
as saying at an award distribution ceremony of the All Pakistan Newspapers
Society. Musharraf said that before the elections he would put in place a
system of "checks and balances" in the form of local councils he plans to
create by mid-2001 in a plan for devolution of power to the grass-roots
level. 

Musharraf had resisted international demands to give a timetable for
national elections, but has agreed to follow a Supreme Court ruling last
May that upheld his coup and asked him to complete his reforms and hand
over to an elected government within three years from the date of his coup
on 12 October 1999. 

PAKISTAN: Japan offers drought support

The Japanese government has pledged 481 million yen (about $4.5 million) 
in emergency grants to help areas of Pakistan affected by the prolonged
drought in central Asia, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported on
Tuesday. This sum adds to 41 million yen in emergency grants and drought
relief supplies - tents, medical supplies and water tanks - given in June,
it cited the Japanese foreign ministry in Tokyo as saying. 

Japan has maintained sanctions against Pakistan since it conducted
unilateral nuclear tests in May 1998, freezing new grants and loans to the
country, except for humanitarian purposes, the report said. The current
drought has hit the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan and Sindh
particularly, causing hardship for an estimated 2.2 million people. 

IRAN: UNHCR defends Afghan refugee programme

The Joint Programme for Afghan refugees operated by the Iranian government
and UNHCR was "a positive development, contributing significantly to the
protection of Afghan refugees in Iran, UNHCR has stated in reply to an
open letter criticising it by the NGO Medecins sans frontieres (MSF). The
programme had its shortcomings, and a number of MSF's concerns which would
be followed up, the UN refugee agency stated, in a response released to
IRIN on Monday. Overall, however, the programme had "improved the quality
of returns to Afghanistan as well as the quality of asylum in Iran for
those who genuinely need protection,"  the statement said. 

Unassisted repatriation of Afghans was monitored by UNHCR, and its
voluntary character ascertained, and interviews had shown a majority were
by single males who had resources of their own and did not wish to prolong
their stay in Iran, it said. There were also some deportations, some 3,000
to 5,000 each year, which the government out down to judiciary decisions,
but this was still a vast improvement on the situation that prevailed a
year ago, it added. MSF had called for the repatriation process to be
suspended since the programme had not fulfilled the promise of protection
and assistance for refugees. 

IRAN: Government "committed to refugee obligations" 

UNHCR said it was also pleased that Iran had agreed to extend the
programme to the end of the year, allowing undocumented Afghans who had
not had a chance to present their case an opportunity to do so, and that
a longer term follow-up formula for 2001 would be agreed before the year's
end. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata had also received a
renewed commitment from Iran, during her visit in late September, that it
would respect its international obligations in relation to refugees, the
agency's statement said. 

IRAN: Ministry rejects report of Afghan refugees ejection

Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign ministry has rejected an Amnesty
International claim of compulsory repatriation of Afghan refugees living
in Iran, and criticised what it called Amnesty's "one-sided attitude." 
The Iranian IRNA news agency quoted a ministry officials as saying that
Iran's hosting of some two million Afghan refugees for a long period of
time under sensitive and critical conditions, was an indication of its
goodwill, the official said. 

Amnesty's claim that Iran was forcibly repatriating Afghan refugees could
be considered "as a move to distort the realities and to play down the
humanitarian aid being rendered by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the
Afghan nation," IRNA quoted the official as saying. 

[ENDS]

[IRIN-Asia: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail:
irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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