Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 18:48:12 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs  [2010116]
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CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs (Tuesday 16 January)

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: EIU predicts acute food shortages
AFGHANISTAN: Iranian aid reaches refugees on Tajik border
TAJIKISTAN: Light rainfall and snow breaks dry spell
TAJIKISTAN: Court sentences members of Islamic group
PAKISTAN: EC grants US $1.7 million for food and livestock
IRAN: Tehran wants to be consulted on all Caspian Sea concerns
UZBEKISTAN: Regular anti-terrorist operations begin border area
KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank pledges three-year support


AFGHANISTAN: EIU predicts acute food shortages

A report from the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has
forecast that Afghanistan, as a result of the drought last year, will
suffer from acute food shortages in 2001, followed by a disastrous harvest
and scarcity of seed for the next planting season. 

Closed borders, bombed roads and international isolation will complicate
the delivery of food aid. Many farmers will face financial ruin as a
result of the drought and a half-hearted crackdown on drug production. 
The country's 22 million people are forced to live under some of the most
draconian, and bizarre, laws in the world, it said, citing how a Pakistani
football team recently had their heads shaved for wearing shorts and
football has since been forbidden. Women are banned from work or schools
and widows are forced to beg.  The country is friendless due to its links
with Osama bin Laden and the alleged hosting of terrorist camps, it said.
The EIU predicts that in 2001 large numbers of people will die through
disease, starvation, or war and many more will leave.  "The fact that the
misery is so largely of its own making is an added qualification for
bottom prize", the report said. 

AFGHANISTAN:  Iranian aid reaches refugees on Tajik border

Some 13,000 impoverished Afghan refugees stranded in a makeshift camp
along the Pyandj Rive on the Tajik-Afghan border were the beneficiaries of
a humanitarian aid shipment from Iran, AFP reported on Friday.  According
to the report, 40 mt of flour, butter, canned food and blankets were
distributed to the refugees who had fled the advancing Taliban army and
were now suffering from cold, diseases and hunger on Thursday.  Commenting
on the shipment, the second in 20 days to the camp area, Iranian
Ambassador to Tajikistan Saidrasul Musavi said: "Iran will continue to
help, but aid from the international community is very scant... unless
international organisations join our efforts and provide aid, the refugees
are doomed to a horrible tragedy," the report said. 

TAJIKISTAN: Light rainfall and snow breaks dry spell

Tajikistan received rain and snow overnight on Monday and throughout
Tuesday, the first break in the weather in more than three weeks.  Despite
forecasts by the Tajik meteorological service that the snow would continue
to fall in the mountains until 18 January, experts believed it would not
be enough to have any impact on crop production.  The Tajik Ministry of
Agriculture reported this week that with two more weeks of no rain and dry
conditions, all winter crops would fail. 

Meanwhile, WFP told IRIN on Tuesday it did not have enough food in the
country right now to cover the needs of 1.13 million people. Officer in
charge for WFP, Roman Sirois, told IRIN in the Tajik capital Dushanbe that
although the rain and snow was welcomed it was only patchy and much more
was needed for it to have an impact on the next harvest.  UN officials and
international organisations have expressed concern at the mild winter
Tajikistan was experiencing. A light covering of snow on the mountains
would mean little water on the ground for the coming season. 

TAJIKISTAN: Court sentences members of Islamic group

Tajikistan's highest court convicted eight members of an Islamic group of
subversive activities and sentenced them to prison terms from one to six
years, the Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday. 

Following a two-month trial, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan convicted
members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, or Islamic Revival, of "actions aimed at
inciting racial and religious tension". Two group leaders were each
sentenced to six years in jail while others received milder sentences. 

According to the report, many islamic militants have been arrested in
northern Tajikistan over the past year.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir is an underground group that advocates the creation of a
caliphate, or independent Islamic state, in the mountains and valleys
where Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan converge. Secular Central
Asian governments have accused these groups of plotting to seize power.
They have also accused Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement of fomenting
tension throughout the region by supporting the militant groups, the
report said. 

PAKISTAN: EU grants US $1.7 million for food and livestock

The European Commission in Islamabad confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday the
executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission, has approved
a new grant under its food security programme for US $1.7 million to
Pakistan.  The grant aims to help develop a national control system for
livestock contagious diseases, mainly rinderpest and foot and mouth
diseases, thereby contributing to improved food security for those
involved in the livestock farming sector (producers, service providers and
consumers), as well as the eradication of contagious diseases amongst
livestock in the country.  The project will be implemented by the UN food
and agriculture organisation (FAO) in close collaboration with Pakistani
authorities over a period of three years. 

IRAN: Tehran wants to be consulted on all Caspian Sea concerns

Iran reminded Russia and its neighbours around the Caspian Sea on Thursday
that Tehran wants to be consulted on all issues regarding the sharing of
the sea's resources, stressing at the same time, that previous agreements
between Iran and the former Soviet Union still applied, the semi-official
Iranian news agency IRNA reported.  "A new set of rules for the Caspian
must take into account the current arrangements, but for now only the 1921
and 1940 agreements (between Iran and the former Soviet Union) still
apply, and no other arrangement outside those agreements is acceptable,"
an official at the foreign ministry was quoted as saying. 

The comment came following an agreement signed on 9 January between
Russian President Vladimur Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Heydar
Aliyev concerning the status of the Caspian Sea, calling for a delineation
of the sea bed, but not the waters, between the two countries.
Accordingly, a line would be drawn from an agreed point in the sea's
centre to the Azeri-Russian border on the shoreline. 

Meanwhile, according to a 11 January report by the Russian Itar-Tass news
agency, Iranian President Mohammad Khattami has called on Caspian coastal
states to reach a settlement soon on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. 
The waters , bordered by five countries - Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and Iran - are said to be home to billions of dollars of
potential oil reserves .  The countries, however, have yet to agree on how
to share the sea's resources amicably, the report said. 

UZBEKISTAN: Regular anti-terrorist operations begin in border area

Uzbek security forces have started regular anti-terrorist operations in
the Tashkent border region to prevent possible attacks there, a senior
police official told AFP on Thursday. Sharaf Rasulov, head of the Tashkent
border police, said the operations concentrated on "checking areas in the
mountains near the border with Tajikistan". The Uzbek authorities are
concerned with incursions by Muslim fundamentalists who are allegedly
intent on destabilising the government of Islam Karimov.  According to the
Uzbek authorities, some 100 Islamic rebels who had been trained in
Afghanistan and had crossed over from Tajikistan, killed four Uzbek troops
in the Bostanlyk district last August, it was reported. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit reported on Thursday that it was "likely
that IMU incursions would be carried out annually" over the next year, in
light of the Taliban's refusal to extradite two prominent leaders of the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Both men had been sentenced to death
in absentia by an Uzbek court in November. On a related note, relations
with the Kyrgyz Republic, which had improved after both countries
co-operated in combating IMU rebels last year, came under strain when
Uzbekistan's unilateral decision to lay land mines along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek
border resulted in the deaths of several Kyrgyz civilians, it said. 

KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank pledges three year support

The World Bank plans to continue providing financial help to the
impoverished Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan for the next three
years, a senior Bank official told Agence France Presse on Friday.  Kyrgyz
President Askar Akayev discussed future cooperation between the ex-Soviet
state and the global finance institution at a meeting with Kiyoshi Kodera,
the director of the bank's department for Central Asia, it was reported. 

The talks focused on preparation of a three year programme, with an annual
total of US $25 to US $30 million dollars a year, in support of the Kyrgyz
budget. The funds would be targeted at projects to help the 60 percent of
the population that is estimated to live below the poverty threshold,the
report said. 

[ENDS]

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


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