PESHAWAR, Feb 22, 2012 (IPS) - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government recently launched a harsh crackdown on illegal Afghan immigrants who have been pouring across the border into Pakistan, going so far as to request federal government permission to deal with the situation, which has deep social and economic implications for the host country.
During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, about five million Afghans entered Pakistan through the porous 2400-kilometre-long border between the two countries.
Half a million Afghans displaced by fighting are struggling to survive in makeshift shelters let down by their government and international donors that look the other way, Amnesty International said in a new report released today.
At least 28 children have died in the harsh winter conditions in the camps around Kabul. The Afghan government estimates more than 40 people have frozen to death in camps across the country.
Ahmad Shah, a local resident of Godar, leads a visitor around his village, pointing out patches of land where minefields once existed. Godar is located in an area of Parwan province that suffered heavy fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in 1999. The clashes left lands contaminated with anti-personnel and anti-tank mines as well as unexploded ordinance (UXO), seriously hampering economic and agricultural activities.
High up in the dry mountainous terrain of central Afghanistan nestled on the slopes of Koh e Baba (Father Mountain) is the village of Sherdosh. The air is thin and winters are long and brutal.
The people here are Hazara. For centuries they have suffered as a minority group looked down upon by many Afghans, persecuted from the time of Genghis Khan to the more recent Taliban. Now in a time of reconstruction they are often overlooked as aid groups reach out to people in more troubled areas.
22 February 2012 –
The United Nations health agency is calling on all Afghans to vaccinate their children after a recent measles outbreak that has been made worse by severe weather that hampers access to immediate treatment as well as low immunization coverage.
According to an update from the World Health Organization (WHO) office in the country, 20 children have died due to measles and pneumonia in the western provinces of Ghor and Baghdis.
KABUL, February 22, 2012 (AFP) - At least nine demonstrators were shot dead and dozens wounded Wednesday in violent protests across Afghanistan over the burning of the Koran at a US-run military base, officials said.
The Afghan interior ministry blamed at least one of the deaths on "foreign guards of Camp Phoenix", a US military base in eastern Kabul attacked by protesters, but most were attributed by local officials to clashes with police.
HERAT, February 22, 2012 (AFP) - Abdullah was left catatonic and almost mute by the electric shocks meted out to him by Iranian police before they bussed him to the border and sent him back to Afghanistan.
His arms marked with slashes of red paint to identify him as a deportee, the 18-year-old lies on a bed of cushions in an otherwise bare hut that has become his temporary home, uttering only his name and that of his home province Tahir.
KABUL, 21 February 2012 – Ján Kubiš, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Afghanistan, met with Maulawi Qiyamuddin Kashaaf, the Chairman of the Ulema Council of Afghanistan, this afternoon.
Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0845 GMT on Tuesday.
HELMAND - Insurgents beheaded four civilians they believed to be spying for the government in the Washir district of southern Helmand province, the regional governor said in a statement.
KABUL - A man wearing the uniform of the Afghan National Police killed a service member of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Monday in southern Afghanistan, ISAF said in a statement. It gave no other details.
Trailer for IWPR documentary on war crimes committed in Afghanistan over two decades.
By IWPR - Afghanistan
17 Feb 12
“The Forgotten Victims”, a new documentary produced by IWPR, sheds light on the war crimes and other human rights abuses committed in Afghanistan over two decades of serial conflict. The film raises difficult issues about accountability in a country where the victims of crimes against humanity are sidelined, while the perpetrators walk free and in some cases continue to hold political power.
19 February 2012 - This week 285 Mullahs from throughout Bamyan province completed a UN-supported workshop on gender equality.
The week-long programme was a joint endeavor by the Gender Empowerment Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the provincial Department of Religious Affairs and Hajj. The workshop brought together both Shia and Sunni Mullahs (Islamic clergies) to discuss women's rights and gender equality from an Islamic perspective.
KABUL, February 20, 2012 (AFP) - The Afghan government said Monday that police had rescued 41 children from becoming suicide bombers as they were about to be smuggled across the mountains into Pakistan.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told a news conference that the children aged six to 11 had been released on February 15 from the clutches of four insurgents in eastern Kunar province.
USAID economic development projects have brought a reason for laborers to feel secure while at work
20 February 2012 | Kandahar, Afghanistan
By adding reliable security personnel to the USAID-funded irrigation project, laborers were able to conduct their activities without harassment from antigovernment forces.
KANDAHAR, February 20, 2012 (AFP) - A suicide car bomber rammed the gate of a police station in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, unleashing a powerful blast that killed at least one policeman, officials said.
General Abdul Raziq, the provincial police chief, said the attacker detonated a bomb-laden sedan at the gate of Kandahar city's fourth district police station, killing at least one officer.
A sixth-month downward slide in food prices came to an end in January as the FAO Food Price Index rose for the first time since July 2011. FAO analysts cited poor weather as the possible main factor. The Index stood at 214, a 4 point or 2 percent increase over December. Nonetheless, food prices were still 7 percent below the levels recorded in January 2011. The increase was propelled by rising prices in every commodities group measured by FAO, with oils and fats recording the largest increases.
