From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Wed Jan 09 2002 - 09:53:03 EST
AFGHANISTAN NEWS
2-9 January 2002
CONTENTS
(with hyperlinks)
AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Afghan reconstruction plan finalised: Minister
Source: ReliefWeb, 09.01.02
15 billion dollars needed to rebuild Afghanistan: World Bank
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Afghan minister leaves Abu Dhabi after receiving aid pledges
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Japan expects donor pledges at Tokyo conference on Afghan aid
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
U.N. extends Afghan food aid operation out West
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Brahimi continues meetings in Afghanistan on next steps in political transition
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Iran : UN conference on Afghanistan rehabilitation opens
Source: IRIN, 07.01.02
Afghan cabinet focuses on security, reconstruction and property
Source: ReliefWeb, 07.01.02
Up to one million Afghan refugees set to return home: UNHCR
Source: ReliefWeb, 06.01.02
Ethnic Turkmen seek peace-building role
Source: RFE/RL, 04.01.02
Famine averted in Afghanistan, USAID Chief says
Source: ReliefWeb, 03.01.02
WHO representative leads official return
Source: IRIN, 03.01.02
Hopes for cultural heritage revival
Source: IRIN, 02.01.02
SOURCES
The opinions expressed in the documents carried by this transmission are those of
the authors and are not necessarily shared by the Aga Khan Foundation or its
representatives. Inclusion of links to sites does not imply endorsement of the
contents of those sites. The Aga Khan Foundation will not be held liable for any
delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions there from, or in the transmission or
delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the
foregoing
Afghan reconstruction plan finalised: Minister
Source: ReliefWeb, 09.01.02
Afghan officials have put the finishing touches on an ambitious 10-year
reconstruction plan and are itching to begin rebuilding the war-shattered nation,
according to Planning Minister Haji Muhammad Mohaqqeq. The reconstruction plan, he
told AFP, will be submitted to the interim cabinet for consideration at its next
meeting.
"Once approved by the cabinet, the plan will be taken to Tokyo," Mohaqqeq told AFP,
referring to the donor nations' conference to be held in the Japanese capital on
January 21 and 22. "In Tokyo, we hope the international community will make good
their promises to help in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan."
Once the conference approves a budget, and donors come through with their pledges,
"we will be ready to move in one or two days." The country has been ravaged by more
than two decades of conflict linked to the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of the country,
the 1992-1996 civil war, and the subsequent five-year armed struggle by the
Northern Alliance against the now-ousted Taliban regime.
The cost to the country has been horrific. A third of Kabul is in ruins, there is
barely an economy and local telephones, power and water supplies exist only in a
handful of cities. Much of the infrastructure is in ruins, some 10 million
landmines litter the countryside, and roads, schools and housing will have to be
rebuilt from scratch.
Estimates of the cost of rebuilding the country range from a conservative 6.5
billion dollars up to 25 billion dollars. According to Mohaqqeq, once the funds
start flowing, the rehabilitation of Afghanistan will begin in earnest.
"Everything is ready to implement the plan; we just need the budget," the minister
said.
The first priority of the reconstruction plan, he said, is to ensure security
throughout the country. "Then we are concerned to see all internally displaced
people return to their homes and all refugees living outside the country return to
Afghanistan," he added.
"We want to help people rebuild their houses. We hope to provide building materials
and, for farmers, some cows, agricultural implements and seeds." The government, he
added, wants to revive "family economies" in the farmlands.
To persuade the more than five million Afghan refugees living in camps in Pakistan
and Iran to return, the new interim administration sworn in on December 22 will
need to provide job opportunities, Mohaqqeq said. The reconstruction plan has also
identified short-term projects that will take up to two-and-a-half years, and
longer-term projects lasting up to 10 years.
"Among the short-term projects we have, for instance, the reconstruction of
schools, and in the longer-term projects we have the rebuilding of roads." Already
a number of non-governmental organisations have begun reconstruction projects but
the six-month administration, which is to oversee government until a transitional
authority is installed, is too cash-strapped to do anything beyond completing the
planning stage, he said.
Mohaqqeq said interim leader Hamid Karzai would head the Afghan delegation to the
Tokyo conference which will include himself, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah,
Reconstruction Minister Amin Farhang and Finance Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala and
perhaps one or two others.
Mohaqqeq said he fervently hoped foreign nations would fulfill their promises to
the war-ravaged country. "If they abandon Afghanistan again, this will not only
affect Afghanistan, but will have ripple effects on the region and the rest of the
world," he said.
15 billion dollars needed to rebuild Afghanistan: World Bank
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
The World Bank has estimated that 15 billion dollars will be needed over the next
10 years for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, a report said Tuesday.
Acting head of the World Bank, Abid Hassan, told a conference in Islamabad Monday
that health, agriculture and education sectors were the most important investment
areas.
"Afghans will need around one billion to two billion dollars in a year which
translates into 10 to 15 billion dollars in the next 10 years for the provision of
putting in place basic infrastructure," Hassan said, quoted by The Nation daily.
Between 100 and 140 million dollars will be needed to build hospitals while 50-100
million dollars will have to be pumped into water supply projects, he said.
The primary education sector will require a 60-80 million dollar injection of
funds, while the power sector needs 40-50 million dollars, Hassan added. However,
Antonio Donini, head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for
Afghanistan, said any infrastructure reconstruction would not commence for another
three months while an assessment survey was underway.
He also cautioned that the successful implementation of a rebuilding programme
depended on the country's political stability and the security situation. "The long
term process cannot be delinked from issues of governance and political
dispensation in Afghanistan," he was quoted as saying.
A donor's conference on reconstructing the country torn apart by more than two
decades of war is to be held in Japan from January 21-22. Japan has taken a leading
role in international efforts to rebuild the country and in preparation for the
talks Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's representative for Afghanistan
assistance, Sadako Ogata, left Monday for a 10-day trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Iran.
Afghan minister leaves Abu Dhabi after receiving aid pledges
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim left the United Arab Emirates Tuesday
after securing pledges of aid for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the official
WAM news agency reported.
Fahim, the first member of the interim Afghan administration to visit Abu Dhabi,
met on Monday with UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, who assured
him that the Gulf Arab state would help rebuild his war-torn country. "Sheikh Zayed
wished success to the new Afghan leadership and confirmed that the UAE was ready to
contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan," WAM said.
The Afghan minister met upon his arrival Sunday with the UAE minister of state for
foreign affairs, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who also promised the UAE
would "seriously" contribute to Afghanistan's reconstruction. Tens of thousands of
Afghan workers live in the UAE, which in recent weeks has flown large amounts of
humanitarian aid to Afghan refugees.
The UAE was one of only three countries -- along with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia --
which recognized the former Taliban regime in Kabul, but it severed links after the
September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Japan expects donor pledges at Tokyo conference on Afghan aid
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Japan expects donor countries to commit to helping Afghanistan at an upcoming Tokyo
conference on the nation's rehabilitation, Japanese special envoy Sadako Ogata said
Tuesday.
During a visit to Pakistan, Ogata briefed Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on the
"parameters and mandate" of the two-day ministerial conference scheduled for
January 21-22, officials said. They said Ogata, who will co-chair the conference,
told Sattar that donor countries would be expected to make concrete pledges of
assistance for the war-torn country. But she added that economic support for the
people of Afghanistan would be forthcoming "if peace, harmony and stability
returned to Afghanistan quickly".
Sattar said he appreciated the "leading role" Japan was playing in the
reconstruction of Afghanistan and he confirmed Pakistan's participation in the
conference. Pakistan has already pledged to contribute 100 million dollars to
Afghanistan's rehabilitation program.
Ogata, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees who has now been appointed the
Japanese prime minister's representative for Afghanistan assistance, arrived in
Islamabad Monday. She is due to leave for Kabul on Wednesday, officials here said,
adding that she also plans to visit Iran.
In Kabul, UNHCR representative Maki Shinohara said Ogata's first stop would be to
visit the Estalif district in the Shomali plain outside the capital, to inspect the
living conditions of recently returned refugees.
"Her visit is to gain first-hand knowledge of the conditions of the displaced
people and the challenges of reviving Afghan communities ahead of the Tokyo
ministerial conference," Shinohara said. "An estimated 200,000 villagers have fled
the fighting in Shomali plain between 1998 and 2000," she said.
But with the ouster of the Taliban regime and the installation of the interim
administration in Kabul, refugees are beginning to feel secure enough to venture
back home. "Seeing the political changes in Kabul, many displaced families have
already begun returning to villages decimated by conflict."
According to UNHCR estimates, about 1,000 families returning from the northern
Panjshir Valley to the Shomali area have been assisted by aid agencies since
December 31.
U.N. extends Afghan food aid operation out West
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
The U.N. food agency started aid operations in the western Afghan city of Herat for
the first time since September Tuesday but elsewhere hundreds of thousands remained
in need because it was too dangerous.
A spokeswoman for the World Food Program (WFP) said the agency had started
providing enough food to feed 340,000 people for a month in the city, which is near
the border with Iran. It was the first time the WFP had mounted a sustained
operation in the city since before the September 11 attacks in the United States,
which triggered U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.
The agency said it was also delivering 90 tons of food a day to the nearby Maslakh
refugee camp to feed 324,000 people forced to flee their homes by the fighting.
"With security better around Herat, we have been able to launch a second major
operation in a big city after the earlier one in (the capital) Kabul," WFP
spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told a news briefing. But she said the agency was
still unable to reach hundreds of thousands of other people, notably in and around
the southern city of Kandahar, who were desperately short of food, because it was
too dangerous.
"There are at least 400,000 people around Kandahar but there are also other areas
where we cannot go," she said, pointing to south of Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and
Jalalabad in the east.
Kandahar, the former stronghold of the vanquished Taliban, was the last major city
to fall when it was taken in early December by U.S.-backed Northern Alliance
forces, but the United Nations has still not declared the area safe for aid
operations. The U.N. agency says it has enough food stockpiled in Afghanistan to
feed the six million people -- a little under a quarter of the total population --
who it says need help. "We have the food, the staff and the trucks but the problem
is the security," Berthiaume added.
Brahimi continues meetings in Afghanistan on next steps in political transition
Source: ReliefWeb, 08.01.02
Lakhdar Brahimi, the senior United Nations envoy in Afghanistan, today continued
his intensive consultations with various officials in Kabul in preparation for the
next step in Afghanistan's political transition - a process that UN officials
described as proceeding "apace."
The key focus of Mr. Brahimi's meetings is laying the groundwork for the
appointment of Afghanistan's Special Independent Commission for the convening of
the Emergency Loya Jirga, or council of elders, as called for in a political
agreement reached by Afghan factions meeting last month in Bonn. Under that
agreement, the Commission is to be formed by 22 January.
Among his meetings today, Mr. Brahimi, who serves as Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
Special Representative for Afghanistan, held talks with a group representing
Ayatollah Muhseni - a Shiite leader and head of Harakat Islami - and a group
representing Professor Sayyaf, a former official with the United Front who served
as a minister under the previous anti-Taliban administration of Burhanuddin
Rabbani.
A UN spokesman told the press in Kabul today that the meetings were a continuation
of the process of forming the Independent Commission. "Events are moving apace,"
Ahmad Fawzi said, adding that Mr. Brahimi's contacts included "various sectors of
Afghan society - not just the political leadership but also intellectuals,
professionals, women's groups."
Mr. Brahimi also met with the Commander of the International Security Assistance
Force, General John McColl, to discuss the security situation in general as well as
the convening of a joint meeting on Thursday of the Force, the UN and the Afghan
Administration.
Iran : UN conference on Afghanistan rehabilitation opens
Source: IRIN, 07.01.02
A UN Development Programme (UNDP) sponsored conference bringing together Afghan
professionals, entrepreneurs, businessmen and academics opened in the Iranian
capital, Tehran, on Monday, for discussion on the requirements for recovery in
Afghanistan.
Following a major international conference on Afghan reconstruction last November
in Pakistan, this week's two-day meeting will focus on first-year rehabilitation
efforts and the need to show an early "peace dividend".
"We want to build on what we achieved at the Islamabad conference and what is
happening in the country now," the UNDP resident representative for Iran, Francesco
Bastagli, told IRIN from Tehran. "The conference aims to facilitate a greater voice
to the active members of Afghan society, many of whom will be returning to assist
in the rebuilding of their country,"
he said.
The UN estimates there are some 2.3 million Afghans living in Iran. "Like all
members of the Afghan diaspora, many of these people will play a significant role
in the reconstruction of the country," Bastagli noted. The 60 to 70 participants of
the conference will divide into three working groups, which will arrive at
recommendations to be forwarded to the Afghan
reconstruction conference to be held in Tokyo from 21 to 22 January. The groups
will concentrate on lessons learned from ongoing programmes in Afghanistan and
post-crisis experiences elsewhere.
Also in attendance in Iran is the Afghan interim administration's trade minister,
Mostafa Kazemi, who, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, said on
Friday: "This seminar will be the first regionally initiated, international-level
move aimed at systematic and serious studies over the sensitive issue of
reconstructing Afghanistan." The Afghan economic delegation's is the first
official visit made by representatives of the interim government following recent
political developments in Afghanistan, the report noted.
According to UNDP, subjects to be discussed at the conference will comprise the
rehabilitation of main facilities vital to further reconstruction, such as roads
and bridges, water, energy, and housing, as well early initiatives to improve basic
health and sanitation services, and to rehabilitate the education system.
Particular attention will be given to the access to education by girls.
Also to be discussed will be community development activities aimed at subsistence
and income generation, including agriculture and food security, short-term
employment creation, small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as basic skills
training, particularly for returning
refugees and displaced people.
Commenting on the more practical aspect of the conference, Bastagli explained that
the talks would not be confined to what was needed, but would also dwell on how
these needs could be met, as well as on where the relevant infrastructure was
needed and who would be the key players in the process of implementation.
Discussions will begin with an assessment of available information on each theme,
outlining needs, priorities and actions required. The groups will indicate general
financing needs for their recommendations, while at the same time identify
constraints and risks involved in implementation. They will also discuss the main
principles and policies that should guide
rehabilitation efforts, bearing in mind that the first-year recovery that the
first-year recovery was a prelude to the longer-term reconstruction of the country.
Asked why they needed to focus on short-term rehabilitation needs now, Bastagli
explained that this would address the much-needed relief effort, give people a
psychological boost and sense of empowerment, as well as strengthen the new state.
"People need to see that peace dividend. If people see things happening in [the]
short-term, it will give the new leadership credibility." He added that the
conference would provide much-needed analysis of ways to meet the country's most
urgent rehabilitation needs.
Afghan cabinet focuses on security, reconstruction and property
Source: ReliefWeb, 07.01.02
Security, reconstruction and property rights topped the agenda of the twice-weekly
meeting Monday of the Afghan interim government, a source at Afghan radio said.
The source said the 30-member cabinet headed by Pashtun royalist Hamid Karzai
discussed how security will be implemented in Kabul and other major centres in
conjunction with the multinational force currently being deployed in Afghanistan.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), expected by the end of the
month to number 4,500 soldiers from 17 countries, is being deployed specifically to
assist the interim administration with security in Kabul and its environs. However,
ISAF officers and Afghan ministers have said the force could be used in other main
centres as well.
The source said it was also decided Monday to set up a committee headed by Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah to coordinate international efforts to rebuild
war-shattered Afghanistan. The committee, also comprising the ministers of
reconstruction, justice, public health and agriculture, will liaise with foreign
donors and non-governmental organisations on reconstruction plans ahead of a
donors' conference to be held in Tokyo on January 21 and 22.
The other main item discussed Monday, the Afghan radio source said, was how
property seized from private householders during the Taliban regime should be
returned to rightful owners. Hundreds of houses and farms were forcibly taken from
private individuals by the Taliban, which ruled from 1996 until it was toppled
December 7 by opposition forces backed by decisive US air strikes.
The source said the cabinet, which was sworn in for a six-month term of office on
December 22, considered the property rights issue as important as the security and
reconstruction items.
Up to one million Afghan refugees set to return home: UNHCR
Source: ReliefWeb, 06.01.02
Up to one million Afghan refugees are expected to return to their homeland over the
next 12 months from neighbouring countries, a senior United Nations official said
Sunday.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Maki Shinohara said tens of thousands of Afghan
refugees had already re-crossed their country's borders with Pakistan and Iran.
Between four and five million Afghans sought sanctuary in Iran and Pakistan during
more than 20 years of bloody conflict in Afghanistan, she told reporters.
But UN agencies are concerned that establishing aid distribution points for
internally displaced Afghans as well as returning refugees could create an
artificial dependence among villagers living nearby, Shinohara said. "At this point
the return figure from Iran and Pakistan since the end of November is about 80,000
-- 35,000 from Pakistan and 45,000 from Iran," she said.
"Four to five thousand are returning from Pakistan on a daily basis." "What we are
trying to prepare for is up to one million people coming back," she said in
response to a question about UNHCR estimates over the coming year.
In western Afghanistan, where six major refugee camps have been established to the
west of the regional capital of Herat, re-registration of refugees has begun, she
said. "We need to distinguish between the (different) types of displacement."
Shinohara said there was a danger aid centres could attract poverty-stricken local
villagers in western Afghanistan, hence the need to re-register hundreds of
thousands of people living in camps just outside Herat.
"We have established two monitoring points in Herat today where there are more
people arriving from central Afghanistan in search of aid and shelter," the UNHCR
spokeswoman said. The International Organisation of Migration is currently
assessing the needs and conditions of refugees in western Afghanistan.
United Nations de-mining teams are also clearing an area near Herat on which a
seventh camp will be established.
Ethnic Turkmen seek peace-building role
Source: RFE/RL, 04.01.02
Afghanistan's ethnic Turkmen community is known for being industrious and peaceful
in a country whose recent history has made it difficult to be either.
As factional warfare dominated Afghan life from the end of the Soviet-Afghan war in
1989 to the recent collapse of the Taliban, the country's roughly 2 million ethnic
Turkmen raised no significant military force of their own. Living largely in the
northeastern areas controlled by ethnic Uzbek General Abdul Rashid Dostum, they
instead concentrated on maintaining a livelihood through the traditional pursuits
of carpet weaving and agriculture.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Turkmen who fled to Pakistan during the 10-year
Soviet occupation also survived by carpet weaving, gaining a reputation for
self-sufficiency even within the refugee camps.
But the Turkmen community's determination to stay out of the post-Soviet Afghan
fighting has come at a high political cost. With no warlords or power brokers to
represent them on the national scene, the ethnic Turkmen had no voice in the Bonn
peace deal in early December. The deal between four Afghan factions established an
interim six-month government whose ministerial posts were shared among the
signatory parties -- made up principally of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks.
Now, in an effort to play more of a role in Afghanistan's nation-building, Turkmen
community leaders have formed a "shura," or council, to meet with the interim
government's top officials. The council is composed of intellectuals from the
Turkmen refugee community in Pakistan and elders and other leaders of the Turkmen
population in Afghanistan.
Delegates of the council recently visited Kabul and spoke with interim
administration Chairman Hamid Karzai and a number of key ministers. The delegation
continues to Mazar-i-Sharif early next week in hopes of also meeting with Dostum,
who was recently named the interim administration's deputy defense minister.
One of the delegates, Jamahir Anwari, described the purpose of the visit to our
correspondent. Anwari -- who holds a doctorate in biochemistry -- is a member of
the Turkmen refugee community in Peshawar, where he is in private business.
Anwari said the council's priority is to convey to the leaders in the interim
administration the Turkmen community's readiness to fully participate in rebuilding
Afghanistan. He said that includes an offer to raise units of ethnic Turkmen
peacekeepers to work alongside the United Nations-mandated ISAF.
"The Turkmen people did not want to take part in the feuding [of recent years]. Now
we are ready to announce that we are prepared to play a role as peacekeepers if
necessary," Anwari said. "Our young people volunteer to do duty beside the UN peace
forces."
Anwari said Turkmen neutrality in the country's recent conflicts would make such
peacekeeping units acceptable to all the country's ethnic groups. He said leaders
of Afghanistan's other ethnic groups recently confirmed to the Turkmen council that
they regard it, and the Turkmen community in general, as a neutral party.
"Our [Turkmen] people have formed a council, and all the other brother peoples of
Afghanistan have accepted it as a neutral body. All of them have confirmed its
neutrality," Anwari said.
The interim administration so far has made no public response to the Turkmen
community's peacekeeping proposal. But the visiting Turkmen delegates say the idea
was warmly received in meetings with Karzai and top cabinet members. The proposal
has not been conveyed by the Turkmen council to the UN, or to Britain, which will
lead the ISAF for its first three months.
The Turkmen council delegates also presented a statement to the interim
administration, detailing their hopes for Afghanistan's future. These included
establishment of local councils through elections based on a census of
Afghanistan's ethnic groups, press freedom, respect for women's rights, public
education at the primary level in students' mother tongues, and promotion and
protection of all ethnic cultures.
The statement also endorsed the key points of the Bonn accord, including
establishment of a loya jirga, or national assembly, to guarantee the participation
of all elements of the Afghan population in nation-building. The loya jirga process
is to lead to the establishment of a national parliament and government through
elections in two years.
The Turkmen council delegation is due to spend next week in Mazar-i-Sharif before
members from the refugee community in Pakistan return to Peshawar.
Famine averted in Afghanistan, USAID Chief says
Source: ReliefWeb, 03.01.02
Thanks to a tremendous effort by international donors, non-governmental
organizations and Afghan volunteers, Afghanistan has "averted widespread famine,"
said Andrew Natsios, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID).
Natsios and Alan Kreczko, Acting Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration, spoke January 3 at a special press briefing at
the State Department.
Natsios said the amount of food aid being delivered into Afghanistan doubled each
month after the program began in September 2001 and 116,000 tons had reached the
country in December. At the same time, said Natsios, relief organizations had been
gradually withdrawing foreign aid workers from the country.
"The people who should be congratulated are not just these organizations, but the
Afghan staff who remained in the country, stood at their posts at a very difficult
time and carried out their work. And we think that is a very hopeful sign that the
people who, in fact, saved Afghanistan, even though we provided the assistance,
were the Afghan people, themselves -- the people who worked for the NGOs for the
last 20 years," said Natsios.
The removal of the Taliban also greatly facilitated relief efforts, said Natsios.
"Literally 300 trucks and cars were confiscated or stolen by the Taliban during the
three-month period until they were defeated. They took that many trucks and cars.
That had a huge effect on the relief effort. And the expatriates left basically
because Taliban was going after them, even before September 11th," said Natsios.
Natsios also gave details of USAID's distribution of 20,000 shortwave radios to
Afghanistan, with an additional 10,000 expected to be delivered. The radios enable
the population to hear daily humanitarian bulletins broadcast in Pushto and Dari
that inform them about security and food conditions in their home villages, public
health information, and the amount of food aid each family is entitled to receive.
"People need to know what they have a right to get in terms of humanitarian
assistance. If a food delivery has been made to Herat, everybody's supposed to get
10 kilograms of ration, and they're getting two, and they hear this report that
they're supposed to be getting 10, there's going to be a little problem in the
city, because people are going to be very angry that the food has not been
delivered to them as it's supposed to be. So one of the purposes of this program is
to enforce sort of a democratized form of accountability on the system," said
Natsios.
With relief efforts appearing to be going well, said Natsios, "we look forward to
the next phase, which we're already beginning, which is the reconstruction
program."
Kreczko spoke of the return of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons to
their homes. He said that besides providing food assistance to the refugees, the
U.S. was also looking to fund long-term projects to help the population.
"We would be looking to fund things like water and sanitation system rehabilitation
and repair; basic health care, including reproductive health care and
maternal/child health care; shelter rehabilitation and repair; supplemental feeding
and nutritional programs; primary education; and mine education and awareness,"
said Kreczko.
According to Kreczko, between 60,000 and 80,000 Afghan refugees had returned from
Iran and Pakistan during November and December. However, he added that most of the
remaining refugees would wait until the spring to return, and that the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees was not encouraging returns at the moment.
WHO representative leads official return
Source: IRIN, 03.01.02
The United Nations' World Health Organisation (WHO) officially returned to
Aghanistan on Thursday, although it will take a month or so for all of its
international staff to return to
the country.
Although local staff continued much of the agency's work through the crisis period
that followed, UN international staff left the country for security reasons on 12
September 2001, following the previous day's terrorist attacks on the United
States.
"Dr Said Salah, World Health representative for Afghanistan, is moving today for
Kabul, and the remaining 21 international staff will be joining him over the course
of the next month," WHO official Fadela Chaib told IRIN in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad, on Thursday. "We are working for Afghanistan and we should be there,"
she said.
In addition to its international staff, WHO has 177 Afghan staff members, who have
been continuing the agency's work in their country for much of the past three and a
half months.
WHO said it was resuming its routine activities, such as coordinating health
activities and supplying health facilities with drugs and equipment, in Kandahar,
the former Taliban stronghold and the second-largest city in Afghanistan.
"The situation in general is quiet and morale is very high, according to our staff
there," Chaib said at a press conference on Wednesday. WHO noted that there was a
shortage of health workers in Kandahar, with most doctors having left the city.
Chaib said the health situation there was of great concern because hospitals and
health facilities in the southern region were in dire need of medical supplies and
equipment. There was also a need for short-term
training of health workers, she added.
Einar Holtet, spokesman for the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for
Afghanistan, told reporters at the same press conference that malnutrition in
northwestern Afghanistan had reached alarming levels. "Records from a children's
nutritional programme in Qades, a district of Badghis Province, showed that about
50 percent of the children were suffering from severe malnutrition," he said. A
feeding programme planned for Badghis, as well as the western provinces of Herat,
Farah and Ghowr, will aim at achieving rapid nutritional improvements by providing
sugar and oil to all pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as children under five
years, he added.
Several NGOs had warned that there was now an urgent need to diversify food
supplies in remote areas of the northwest, where supplies were insufficient and
families had no means of obtaining food, according to Holtet. Pulses, oil and
corn/soya blend were needed for giving malnourished individuals a minimum intake of
proteins, fat and vitamins, he added.
Hopes for cultural heritage revival
Source: IRIN, 02.01.02
Following the establishment of Afghanistan's interim government, some Afghans
abroad are optimistic that recent developments may help lead to a revival of their
cultural heritage.
"Afghans want their cultural heritage to be protected and revived with
international assistance and supervision," Ismail Yoon, an Afghan writer, told IRIN
on Monday from Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
"Our national cultural heritage had been systematically destroyed and the interim
administration should prioritise its restoration," he said.
Yoon, 37, author of the book "The Cultural Losses of Afghanistan", illustrated the
extent to which Afghanistan's cultural heritage had been damaged. "The national
museum at Kabul housed up to 100,000 artefacts, 95 percent of these were either
stolen or vandalised over the last decade," he said, adding that golden ornaments
containing some 22,000 gold coins were
stolen during Burhanuddin Rabbani's stint in power during the early 90s.
"There were museums in Mazar, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Faryab and Ghazni," he
said. "Most of them lie in ruins," he lamented. Yoon wants the international
community and United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation
(UNESCO) to open an international museum for the collection and protection of
Afghan artefacts which would be restored to the
national museum in Kabul, once stability was restored.
Asked whether the two giant Bamyian Buddhas - destroyed by the Taliban last year -
could be restored, Yoon, optimistically pointed out that as the material was
available, it would not be impossible. "Even some Taliban were not happy with their
destruction. Many Afghans will welcome their restoration," he said.
But Habibullah Rafie, another Afghan writer, said that the Buddhas of Bamiyan were
build over a period of two centuries and they were lost forever. "Modern
technologies can build them much quicker but who will find the zeal that the
Buddhist craftsman had 1,800 years earlier?" he said. Highlighting the immediate
steps needed, Rafie said a comprehensive survey should be carried out to assess the
existing numbers of cultural artifacts in Afghanistan. Additionally, people should
be prevented from carrying out
illegal excavations.
He called upon Afghanistan's interim Minister for Culture and Information, Makhdoom
Raheen, to look into the restoration of some 30,000 artefacts that the Taliban
claimed to posses when they destroyed the giant Bamiyan Buddhas in March.
"Afghanistan is home to some of the oldest human civilisations and we had artefacts
and archaeological sites from Greco-Bactrian, Roman, Buddhist [Gandhara] and
Islamic civilisations spread over thousands of years," he said, adding that over
the last decade most of them were looted or vandalised in the war ravaged country.
Meanwhile, UNESCO has warned that Afghanistan's cultural heritage was under extreme
threat. Martin Hadlow, a UNESCO expert currently examining the cultural devastation
of Afghanistan, noted last week that he was amazed by the appalling loss of
cultural history in a land that once stood at the crossroads of so many important
civilisations. He added that the loss of Afghan cultural heritage was a loss to the
whole world.
Hadlow also met Raheen, who underlined the need for assistance from the
international community. Raheen called for international assistance for the Kabul
museum and Afghan public libraries.
SOURCES
(Please inform mitali.atal@akf.org.uk if you know of other useful online sources)
Central Asia Analyst
http://www.cacianalyst.org
Eurasianet
http://www.eurasianet.org
Institute of War and Peace Reporting
To subscribe to IWPR news services, e-mail saule@iwpr.net Website: www.iwpr.net
IRIN
For further information, free subscriptions e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org
ReliefWeb
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vLCE/Afghanistan?OpenDocument&StartKey=Afghanist
an&Expandview
RFERL
http://www.rferl.org/bd/ta/magazine/default.asp
Yahoo CentralAsiaNews
centralasianews@yahoogroups.com
|
