AFGHANISTAN: Taliban show destroyed
Buddhas
Some 20 foreign journalists were on
Monday given their first glimpse of where two towering Buddha statues once
stood in the central Afghan province of Bamiyan after the Taliban, using
rocket launchers and heavy machine guns, systematically destroyed what
they deemed idolatrous. A 1,500 year-old statue, taller than the Statue
of Liberty in New York's harbour, was a heap of stone, while the other,
except for a few stone folds of its robe, lay destroyed, AP reported on
Tuesday. Orders to destroy the statues were given by Taliban's reclusive
leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, earlier last month, who declared all such
statues heathen and contrary to Islamic beliefs. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, chief
of the foreign ministry's press department, told reporters the destruction
was not intended to offend any religious group, and the move was strictly
a "domestic matter of Afghanistan", the report added.
Meanwhile, the BBC on Sunday quoted Sri Lankan Buddhists as saying that they would build replicas of the two ancient statues in Bamiyan if they received the necessary public donations to enable them to do so. Following the strong international outcry over the destruction of the statues, the private Mahi Bodhi Society said it would initially build a scaled-down version of the larger statue so that future generations would know what it looked like, the report added. The Sri Lankan government had offered to buy the rubble and remains of any destroyed statues, and was currently negotiating with other countries to buy such Afghan statues as remained undamaged, it said.
AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers robbed on main road
International relief workers were held up and had their vehicle and belongings stolen by armed men on the main road to Kabul in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. John Siston of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told IRIN that four colleagues - two Americans and two Afghans - were forced out of their vehicle at gunpoint by three men. The car and its contents, including cash, were stolen, he said. The IRC team made its way back to the Pakistan border, and then on to Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, with the help of the Pakistani authorities. Siston said Taliban officials had recovered the vehicle on Monday, but the cash and other valuables were missing. The IRC remained committed to working in Afghanistan, he added. In Siston's view, however, the security incident and reports of other unlawful activities "negatively affected the willingness of aid agencies to work in Afghanistan, and ultimately limited aid to recipients".
TAJIKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN: Japan announces more aid
Japan is to provide US $3.02 million in assistance to the population of Tajikistan in response to the acute drought conditions, Political Counsellor Masami Kinefuchi told IRIN on Tuesday. The Japanese donation of food aid is to be channelled through the World Food Programme (WFP) for the benefit of internally displaced persons and those affected by drought. The aid will be primarily targeted at 585,000 people considered to be at risk of starvation. A further one million people will receive urgent food aid.
Meanwhile, Japan announced an additional aid package for Afghanistan comprising 160 tents, 1,200 blankets and 1,600 vinyl sheets to help improve the living conditions of Afghans who have fled their homes. This follows a further US $7 million emergency assistance package for Afghanistan announced on Thursday, to comprise US $5 million in food aid, and a further US $1.86 million for sanitation, water supply, health and medical activities facilitated through UNHCR and other relief organisations. The third element of the package was a grassroots project to assist camps in Afghanistan and to support water supply efforts for Afghan refugees in camps in Pakistan.
While Japan was one of the countries to voice an outcry over the recent destruction of pre-Islamic artefacts in Afghanistan, including two giant Buddhas, it maintains that humanitarian assistance efforts must continue. Since 1979, Japan has extended more than US $400 million in humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people through UN agencies and other international organisations, according to the embassy. The funds have been used for mine clearance, food distribution and refugee assistance.
PAKISTAN: USAID hints of possible projects in Pakistan
Following an absence of nearly a decade, US officials in the Pakistani capital Islamabad have hinted that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) may resume some of its activities in Pakistan. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Islamabad told IRIN on Tuesday: "USAID has sent several small teams to investigate possibilities for grants and small projects in Pakistan. Projects may be undertaken in the next fiscal year in the areas of basic education, continued NGO support and democracy building." He added, however: "These projects are subject to congressional approval and do not constitute a return of a USAID bilateral programme in Pakistan."
An independent federal government agency based in Washington, USAID is the principal US agency extending assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, or engaging in democratic reforms. The agency works in six principal areas to achieve both sustainable development and the advancement of US foreign policy. The areas include economic growth and development; population, health and nutrition; environment; democracy and governance; education and training; and humanitarian assistance. The USAID bilateral programme began closing down its operations in Pakistan in 1992 as part of the Pressler sanctions imposed on Pakistan following the launch of its ongoing nuclear weapons research programme at the time.
KYRGYZSTAN: Discontent of Uzbek minority increasing
Tension affecting Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations is having an adverse impact on ethnic Uzbeks living in southern Kyrgyzstan. Local experts say the Kyrgyz government's policy of excluding Uzbeks from the region's political institutions, for fear of a possible separatist threat, could backfire and lead to an increase in discontent among the Uzbek minority, according to a report by EurasiaNet on Tuesday.
A local political analyst, Akhmadjan Saipjanov, said that discontent could transform into disorder unless the Kyrgyz government re-evaluated its policies in southern Kyrgyzstan. "If the government doesn't stop regarding them [Uzbeks] as potential separatists, and take immediate measures to involve this group in different decision-making levels and processes, the increasing perceived and real discrimination among them may translate into the rise of a separatist mood," he said. Increased exclusion from political participation could lead some Uzbeks to find outlets in more radical Islamic organisations active in Kyrgyzstan, the report said. [For further information visit www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav032601.shtml]
KAZAKHSTAN: First direct international oil link opens
Speaking near the Caspian port of Atyrau, the town set to become Kazakhstan's oil capital, Kazakh Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev on Monday opened a 982-mile oil pipeline from the giant oil-rich Tengiz field to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. This represented the Central Asian producer's first direct link to international markets, Reuters reported. The line is the first stage in an ambitious programme to ship crude oil from the Caspian, the world's largest undeveloped oil reserve, an act which could transform Kazakhstan into one of the world's major oil producers over the next decade. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) line went into operation with an initial capacity of 560,000 barrels per day (bpd), but is expected to reach 800,000 bpd later this year, with further increases in the future. Previously, the former Soviet state had to export nearly all its crude through the Soviet pipeline network. "This is an unforgettable day in the year of the 10th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence," the prime minister is reported to have said.
Meanwhile, preparations are now in place in Novorossiysk to begin receiving oil sent from Atyrau on tankers to arrive in June or July, Mervyn Goddings, the CPC project manager, is reported to have said. The Tengiz oilfield contains six to nine billion barrels of recoverable reserves, while another Kazakh field, Kashagan, may contain 10 billion recoverable barrels or more, making it the world's largest discovery in 30 years, the report said.
[ENDS]
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