Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 16:16:50 +0300 (BEAUT)
From: IRIN <irin@ocha.unon.org>
To: asia-english@ocha.unon.org
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010329161616.10014Z-100000@mail.ocha.unon.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Subject: CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs [2010329]
Precedence: bulk
Sender: IRIN Asia English Service <asia-english@ocha.unon.org>


CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs, 29 March

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty reports on Afghan massacre
PAKISTAN: Hunger strike of Iranian asylum seekers ends
PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees lack legal protection
PAKISTAN: Rain brings some relief to NWFP
PAKISTAN: EC funds eye care in tribal areas
KYRGYZSTAN: Methadone distribution to heroin addicts begins


AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty reports on Afghan massacre

The human rights group Amnesty International issued a report on Wednesday
into January's massacre of over 300 men, women and children by Taliban
forces in Yakawlang in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan Province. 

The Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has denied that the massacres
took place, and banned journalists from visiting the district. According
to eyewitness accounts, Taliban forces began to arrest and execute ethnic
Hazaras over several days after recapturing the Yakawlang District.
Amnesty reported the deliberate killing of dozens of civilians hiding in a
mosque.  One person said: "Some people in Kata Khana ran to the mosque,
thinking the Taliban would respect the sanctity of the mosque, but they
were wrong."  They said they saw Taliban soldiers fire rockets at the
mosque, where some 73 women, children and elderly men had taken shelter. 
No one was allowed access to the mosque for three days, and only two young
children survived. 

PAKISTAN: Hunger strike of Iranian asylum seekers ends

A UNHCR official in Islamabad confirmed to IRIN on Thursday that an
agreement had been reached with the eight Iranian hunger strikers seeking
asylum, allowing them an additional review of their applications, on the
strict condition that the applicants end their hunger strike and accept
the final decision as binding.  Philip Karani, head of UNHCR's legal
division said: "These people were examined under the UN's strict criteria
for asylum status twice before, and their applications were denied." He
added, however, that "the focus of the story has been on the hunger strike
recently, and not their asylum status itself, which is wrong.  We are
hopeful that this additional reviewal will satisfy those individuals
concerned, demonstrating UNHCR's flexibility in dealing with an otherwise
difficult situation." 

Meanwhile, the decision bringing to an end the hunger strike, which began
on 12 March, was welcomed by the spokesman of the Iranian Asylum Seekers
and Refugee Committee, Arash Vaisi, in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. 
"We welcome this move and we are sure that these cases are within the
necessary criteria of UNHCR and are hopeful for their approval." According
to the group, all of the applicants have political reasons for not
returning to Iran, and would rather face death by starvation in Pakistan
than return to certain imprisonment and torture. The group hopes to have
interviews scheduled beginning next week. 

PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees lack legal protection

Following the forced deportation of an additional 130 Afghans to
Afghanistan this week, the chairman of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan (HRCP), Afrasiyab Khattak, on Wednesday called for greater legal
protection for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He criticised the government
and UNHCR for their apathy in dealing with the problem. "Pakistan
internally does not have any laws dealing with refugees, nor is it a
signatory to the Geneva Convention of 1951 or the Geneva Protocol of 1967
with regard to refugees," Khattak told IRIN.  "How is it then that these
people can be deported?  Deportation is a penalty which can only be
ordered by a court, but the police are arbitrarily deporting these people
without any legal process."  With regard to the UN refugee agency, Khattak
said: "UNHCR is supposed to protect people from forced deportations, and
these deportations themselves are against Pakistani law."  He added: "The
main culprit denying Afghans legal protection is the Pakistani government,
while the UN is also particularly passive in this regard." Moreover, there
was no government in Afghanistan capable of looking after its citizens
abroad, he said. "All of these things demonstrate that these people have
hardly any legal protection. They are living in a legal vacuum, making
them particularly vulnerable."

Thousands of unregistered Afghan refugees who have arrived in Pakistan
since September are at risk of being deported in the coming months, the
government has warned. 

PAKISTAN: Rain brings some relief to NWFP

Heavy rains brought much needed relief to Pakistan's North West Frontier
Province (NWFP) on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Pakistani daily 'The News'
on Thursday reported 26 mm of rain in northwestern Peshawar. Like other
parts of Pakistan, NWFP has witnessed a dry spell since last year, with a
rainless monsoon, resulting in higher temperatures than normal. Farmers
heaved a sigh of relief over the long-awaited rain. The lack of adequate
rain is expected to result in at least a 30 percent drop in agricultural
production in the province, the report said. One farmer, Haydar Zaman,
said: "These rains will not be of much help to the crops.  Neither produce
nor yield of crops will be increased, because the rains have come late."
He said these would at least save wheat crops from complete failure and
sustain them, the report added. 

Qazi Azmat Isa, a World Bank community development specialist, told IRIN
that in the context of a regional drought, the recent rainfall would "only
lead to greater complacency" in addressing the national water crisis. He
maintained that the country needed to go on a "war footing" to counter
severe water shortages in the southern provinces of Baluchistan and Sind.
 
PAKISTAN: EC funds eye care in tribal areas

The European Commission (EC) has recently set aside just under half a
million dollars for an eye-care programme which aims at reducing the risk
of preventable and curable blindness in three districts of the North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) and in Pakistan's tribal areas over the next five
years, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.  Implemented in
cooperation with the Government of NWFP, Sight Savers International and
the Pakistan Institute of Community Ophthalmology (PICO), the programme
aims to conduct cataract operations and restore sight to 13,500 people per
year. Medical teams will begin by clearing a backlog of 47,000 cases of
cataract.

The European Union Ambassador to Pakistan, Kurt Juul, told IRIN that in
the past the EC had been involved in infrastructural projects, but now
considered that the priorities for Pakistan were primary health and
primary education. "The Social Action Programme [SAP] is really a
pump-priming exercise where, through our efforts, we try to encourage the
government to do a bit more," he said.  The EC has earmarked US $63
million for its SAP, out of a total contribution of US $178 million of
assistance to Pakistan over the next five years. 

KYRGYZSTAN: Methadone distribution to heroin addicts begins

In an attempt to stem the spread of HIV among injecting drug users, health
officials announced on Tuesday that there would be a free distribution of
methadone to drug addicts in Kyrgyzstan.  Methadone is a synthetic and
habit-forming narcotic used since the 1960s to treat addiction to heroin
and other opiates. According to Wednesday's AP report, Kyrgyz authorities
were alarmed by the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in the
southern Osh region, which lies on a popular Central Asian drug-smuggling
route. 

Speaking at a news conference, the Kyrgyz deputy health minister,
Gulzhigit Aliyev, said that despite the opening of health centres in the
region where drug users could exchange syringes and needles free of
charge, the programme had apparently failed in containing the spread of
HIV.  Kyrgyzstan had no registered HIV cases until 1995. However, 11 new
HIV cases in Osh have been reported in the past three months alone. The
former Soviet republic has officially registered 78 HIV cases, but a UN
official told IRIN that the figure was probably much higher. The
authorities plan to start methadone distribution in the next two months,
the report said. 

[ENDS]

IRIN-Asia Phone:- +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 , Mobile +92-0300-8501-307, Fax
No:- +92-51-2211450 or 475 E-mail:-irinasia@irin.org.pk


[This item is delivered in the "asia-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000
 

Subscriber: zdwf-@t-online.de
Keyword: IRIN-Asia