Afghanistan News February 1, 2005

February 1, 2005

Karzai Praises Iraqi Election
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
31 January 2005 -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai today expressed happiness and praised the higher than expected turnout in Sunday’s Iraqi elections.

President’s spokesperson Jawed Ludin said that Karzai was following the election closely. Ludin also mentioned that Karzai is 'extremely pleased' by the voters turnout.

The Iraqi independent election commission officials estimate that the turnout in Sunday’s election could be between 60 and 75 percent. Some 14 million Iraqis were registered to vote.

Voters on Sunday voted to elect members of the 275-seat National Assembly and the members of 18 provincial assemblies.

Afghanistan hails Taliban arrests in Pakistan
January 31, 2005
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan has praised Pakistan's arrest of 17 members of the former Taliban regime last week and hoped that it would boost security along the two countries' shared border.

The 17 suspects, among them the former deputy governor of southern Helmand province, Mullah Khush Dil, and ex-Kabul police chief Mullah Ibrahim, were picked up by police after a raid Thursday on hideouts in Quetta, near the Afghan border.

"We appreciate the Pakistani police raid on terrorists safe houses which resulted in the capture of 17 Taliban fighters," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP on Monday.

"We hope this will continue," he added.

Investigators in Pakistan have identified one detainee as Mullah Abdur Razzak but could not confirm whether he is the former Afghan interior minister of the same name during the Taliban's harsh rule.

Mashal said he was not aware if Razzak was among the detainees but he hoped that the arrests would improve security along the porous Afghan-Pakistani border.

"Most of the terrorists that carry out attacks in Afghanistan cross the border and hide back in the Pakistan's tribal area," he said.

Pakistan formerly supported the Taliban but joined a US-led coalition which ousted the militia from power in late 2001 for failing to surrender Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks.

Pakistan has captured more than 600 Al-Qaeda suspects since late 2001 but has not given figures for the number of Taliban fighters it holds.

Despite the presence of an 18,000-strong US-led coalition in Afghanistan, Taliban-linked militants still carry out attacks three years after their ouster from power.

Pak, Afghan troops exchange fire at Angoor Adda
By Sailab Mahsud / The News International (Pakistan) / January 31, 2005
TANK: Pakistani and Afghan security forces exchanged fire for more than 15 minutes on their Durand Line border near the Angoor Adda, a border village in South Waziristan tribal agency, in the wee hours of Sunday.

Tribal sources in Angoor Adda, sited just inside Pakistani territory, said one Afghan soldier was killed and another injured in the firing at 3am on Sunday. They claimed the Pakistani border guards belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps did not suffer any casualties.

It was not possible to reach the Afghan authorities across the border in Paktika province to confirm the reports about casualties suffered by their forces. The Afghan version of events that triggered the clash was also not known.

The tribal sources in Angoor Adda said the clash took place when Afghan troops intruded about 50 metres into Pakistani territory near the Zeb One Picket. They said the Afghan soldiers refused to step back despite warnings by Pakistani militiamen that they must vacate Pakistan’s territory. Some afterwards exchange of fire erupted as both sides argued loudly. The sources said the troops using light arms fired at each other for almost 20 minutes.

It is not known as to why the Afghan troops tried to enter Pakistani territory. Border clashes between Afghan and Pakistani troops have taken place in the past also. On most occasions, the poorly defined border has led to clashes. Not long ago, a Pakistani soldier from the Frontier Corps was killed and two of his colleagues were wounded when fired at by Afghan forces near the border in Saidgai village in North Waziristan.

Turkey takes charge of Kabul airport as NATO prepares to expand Afghan mission
Associated Press / January 31, 2005
Turkish troops took responsibility for Afghanistan's international airport Monday as NATO prepares to expand its security mission in the still unstable country.

Turkish Air Force Col. Kazim Ondul took charge of Kabul airport from an Icelandic counterpart at a ceremony in a helicopter hangar next to the runway. A Turkish general is to take overall command of the 8,000-strong NATO mission on Feb. 13.

Under the force's outgoing French general, NATO's International Security Assistance Force has expanded from Kabul across a swath of northern Afghanistan and helped provide security for October elections which installed Hamid Karzai as the country's first directly elected president.

During Turkey's six months in command, the force is also expected to take charge in the west, with countries such as Spain, Italy and Lithuania supplying extra troops. Parliamentary elections may be held during that period.

The NATO force is separate from the 18,000-strong U.S.-led coalition hunting Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts mainly in the south and east, though officials are discussing how the two could be placed under common command.

Ondul earlier commanded the airport, ISAF's main logistical hub and home to 1,700 soldiers, during Turkey's first stint in charge in 2002-2003.

In a speech, Ondul vowed to continue the gradual handover of operations at the airport, which is handling a growing number of commercial flights, to Afghan civilian control.

16 dead, hundreds marooned as heavy snow hits Afghanistan, Pakistan
Mon Jan 31,10:39 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - At least 16 people, six of them Afghan army soldiers, were killed and hundreds stranded as heavy snow caused accidents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan officials and the US military revealed.

A guide to different laptop breeds, plus the top 15 notebooks, and a look at the future of tablet PCs.

The six soldiers returning from holidays in Pakistan were among at least 11 people killed when a minibus skidded off the road and overturned on Thursday, Ibrarullah, commander of the border regiment in the eastern Afghan province of Ningarhar, told AFP on Monday.

The soldiers were heading back to Kabul from the Pakistani border city of Peshawar when the accident occurred at Lwargai village on the Pakistan side of the border, he said.

"Their bodies were sent to Kabul on Friday," said Ibrarullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name. Three other civilians were wounded, he said, blaming the accident on heavy rain and snowfall.

Five other people died in southern Afghanistan, including three who froze to death, after accidents on the Kabul-Kandahar road over the weekend.

Two people died of their injuries while three died of exposure after they abandoned their car in the hope of reaching the nearest village in Zabul province, provincial governor Khyal Mohammad Husseini told AFP.

The US military confirmed the death of five people in Zabul and said about 10 to 15 others were treated by coalition forces for exposure.

More than 400 vehicles were stranded on Sunday in the eastern suburbs of Kabul after a snowslide blocked the road to Jalalabad, the NATO (news - web sites)-led peacekeeping force reported.

NATO soldiers handed out hot drinks to people stuck in their cars and traffic resumed on Monday.

National broadcasts have said up to six people have died in recent days in a refugee camp in Kabul, where the temperature dropped on several nights to minus 18 deg C (0 deg F).

The latest snowfall in Afghanistan, the heaviest in several years, has raised hopes that the six-year-drought affecting the country would end.

ADB assistance to Afghanistan hits 500 million dollars in 2004
Tuesday February 1, 11:31 AM AFP
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has fulfilled its pledge of providing 500 million dollars in soft loans and grants to Afghanistan in 2004, the bank announced.

It said annual assistance to the war-torn country would henceforth amount to about 200 million dollars, at least half of which would be in grants.

The pledge of 500 million dollars was made at the Tokyo conference of donors to Afghanistan in January 2002, the ADB said from its headquarters in the Philippine capital.

The ADB also pledged in April 2004 to consider assistance of about 800 million dollars in soft loans and grants during 2005-2008 under a plan prepared with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The ADB resumed operations in Afghanistan in May 2002 after the fall of the Taliban regime. In December of that year, the ADB approved a 150 million dollar loan, the first by an international financial institution to Afghanistan in over 23 years.

Four civilians killed in Kandahar mine blast
By Javid Samim and Saeed Zabulai
KANDAHAR, Jan. 31, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- Four civilians were killed and five wounded in a landmine blast in Arghandab district of the southern province of Kandahar on Sunday.

The blast took place when a car overran a landmine after going onto an unpaved portion of the road in an attempt to overtake another car. Eyewitnesses said one among those killed and four among the wounded were children.

Kandahar security chief, Gen. Mohammad Salim Ehsas, told Pajhwok that the blast was caused by an old landmine planted during the Soviet era. Doctor Abdul Sami of the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar city said two of the wounded were in a critical condition while the others were stable.

On Saturday, a car carrying government soldiers ran over a roadside bomb in Spin Boldak district in Kandahar killing nine soldiers. The Taliban had taken credit for the blast.

Meanwhile, Taliban insurgents claim that they killed two Afghan soldiers in an attack on a security checkpoint in Spin Boldak on Sunday, but the claim was rejected by officials.

Lutfullah Hakimi, a spokesman for the Taliban, told Pajhwok the soldiers killed was from the Frontier Brigade led by Commander Raziq and that the Taliban suffered no casualties. An official of the brigade told Pajhwok they were investigating the incident. "Commander Raziq is busy in mourning ceremony of the nine soldiers killed on Saturday and more information will be given later," the official said.

Two killed while planting bomb on highway
By Zahid
ASADABAD, Jan. 30, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Two persons were killed while trying to plant a bomb on the Jalalabad-Kunar highway in eastern Kunar province, according to officials.

Kunar provincial deputy police chief, Arif Khan, told Pajhwok: "One of them was from Khas Kunar district and the other was from Mazak district." He said government forces had identified the home of one of the bombers and had surrounded it. A search was underway to identify the home of the second one.

NGOs warn US anti-drugs policy could destabilize Afghanistan
Mon Jan 31, 1:56 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Non-government groups in Afghanistan urged the United States to reconsider its emphasis on eradicating poppy crops in the drive to stem opium and heroin production, saying this could destabilize the country.

Thirty-one NGOs, including leading groups CARE, the International Crisis Group and Oxfam International, made the plea in an open letter sent to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday.

"We are writing to express concern that the current counternarcotics policy places premature and excessive emphasis on crop eradication," the letter said.

"Massive eradication efforts in 2005 could risk destabilizing large areas of the country thereby undermining critical alternative livelihood and law enforcement initiatives," it said.

The United States has promised 780 million dollars to help Afghanistan combat drugs in 2005 with an emphasis on eradicating poppies, which are used to make opium and heroin.

Afghan opium production boomed in 2004, rising 64 percent on already high yields and 60 percent of Afghanistan's economy is dependent on drug production.

Last year the country accounted for 87 percent of world opium production and the majority of heroin consumed in Europe.

The NGOs said "it is precisely because the narcotics industry is so entrenched in Afghanistan that the United States should prioritize alternative livelihood and interdiction efforts rather than crop eradication".

A strong eradication policy could devastate already poor families without giving rural development projects enough time to provide alternative sources of income, they said.

"It has the potential to turn millions of Afghans against a government which is struggling to extend its reach and strengthen its authority," they said.

President Hamid Karzai announced in December that the anti-drugs campaign would be the main priority of his government alongside the fight against terrorism.

Security problem delaying project: Torkham-Jalalabad Highway
Dawn, Pakistan 01/31/2004
ISLAMABAD - Lack of security to workers of the National Highway Authority (NHA) is causing hindrance in the reconstruction of 75-km Torkham-Jalalabad Highway which is the main land route for trade between the two neighbouring countries, a source in the authority told Dawn on Sunday.

The source said militants in Afghanistan had recently attacked an office of the NLC, and NLC guards killed two attackers in retaliation. The source said militants often laid mines under the road hampering the development work.

"Although the governor of Kandahar, Haji Din Muhammad, has provided his own security guards to Pakistani workers engaged in the reconstruction of the highway, many steps are to be taken by the Afghan government to provide fool-proof security to them," the source said.

Another problem the NLC was facing there was that the Afghan government had not allowed the cutting of roadside trees, which was delaying the project. "Due to snowfall and heavy winds, branches of trees break and fall on the road causing traffic congestion," the source said.

The source said the daily volume of vehicular traffic on the under construction highway was 15,000 vehicles, that was also creating hurdle in the pace of construction work.

The reconstruction of Torkhum-Jalalabad Highway was started in February 2004 with an estimated cost of Rs1 billion with monetary assistance of Pakistan. The road is scheduled to be completed by August this year.

The NLC firm, ECO West Corporation International, was executing the project while the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) is serving as a consultant body.

The road had been damaged in the US-Afghanistan war. Now the travelling time from Torkhum to Jalalabad is stated to be 1.45 hours, but its re-construction would help reduce the time to 45 minutes, the source said.

Iran's Rafsanjani raps Afghanistan over river water
Iranian Labour News Agency 01/28/2005
Tehran - The head of the Expediency Council has said: The Afghans should fulfil their commitments regarding the use of Hirman river's water and pay Iran for its share of the river.

According to ILNA, Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani at a visit to the border market of Milak and the bridge over the joint river of Pariyan said: At present, the Afghan brothers are not cooperating with us because they should not allow the flow of water from Hirman river toward Iran to be cut off. He added: The Afghans should bear in mind that this is a joint river and they should be committed to their mutual obligations in this respect.

On the subject of trade through the border market of Milak, he said: We have had 32,000 dollars worth of imports and 101,153 dollars of exports through this border in 1382 [March 2003-March 2004] and 11,969 people travelled through this border in that year.

He added: This region is one of the most important north-south corridors which should be used to support Afghan trade and services so that they can be connected to central Asia as well.

The head of the Expediency Council said: At the moment the Afghans are receiving more services through the Milak market; as the market develops; we should benefit from it too.

He added: This market is situated in one of the most suitable regions for the restoration of the Silk Road and the Silk Bridge which in turn will help the revival of the great and historic Province of Sistan.

It is also reported that today, Thursday, visiting the Zabol open University, Hashemi-Rafsanjani inaugurated a project for the expansion of the university and the construction of a new education building.

Helmand army corps disarmed and dismantled
By Javid Samim
KANDAHAR, Jan. 27, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- An army corps has been disarmed and dismantled in southwestern Helmand province as part of the nationwide disarmament program.

Abdul Aziz Ahmad, an official of the regional office of the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration(DDR) program in the southern zone, told Pajhwok that the Infantry Army Corps No. 93, which had two battalions in the capital city of Lashkargah and two battalions in Garishk district, had been disarmed and dismantled.

"Three hundred people have returned to civilian life from this corps which gave up 200 light weapons and 40 pieces of heavy weaponry," Ahmad said, promising that the disarmed men would be provided with jobs and vocational training.

He added that disarmament of the No. 2 Army Corps along with its divisions and brigades in the southern zone would be completed by February 3. So far, 2,400 soldiers and military officers have been disarmed in five southern provinces, including Helmand, Oruzgan, Zabul, Kandahar and Nimruz.

Afghanistan's Election Commission says it will try to hold elections on schedule
Mustafa Basharat
KABUL, Jan. 30, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- Head of the newly established electoral commission in Afghanistan has told Pajhwok that his team will do its best to hold the parliamentary elections in spring as scheduled.

Earlier, President Hamid Karzai had expressed hope that the Commission would hold polls on schedule. "We will be very very happy to if they (the electoral commission) manages to hold parliamentary elections in the spring," Karzai told a press conference on Friday. However speaking on the same day Foreign minister, Abdullah, said technical problems could delay the vote.

Bismillah Bismil, head of the independent electoral commission in charge of organizing the elections, told Pajhwok on Saturday that the parliamentary vote was different from last year presidential elections. "The difference is that we haven’t got an exact census from all over the country and that the financial needs haven’t been funded so far," he said in a phone conversation. Bismil did not specify a date for the election but said he will do his best to organize it as soon as possible.

Many experts and political analysts expect the polls to be delayed beyond the original schedule because the United Nations has not completed the necessary preparations. Foreign minister, Abdullah, also said on Friday that technical problems could suspend the vote.

About the procedure, Bismil said that more than 1000 eligible people would contest for the 249 parliamentary seats and that they were required to announce their candidacy 75 days before the election date.

Afghan Minister strikes note of self-confidence
By Zarghona Salehi
KABUL, Jan. 31, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- Striking a new note of self-confidence in the donor dependant country, Seddiqa Balkhi, the new minister of Martyrs and Disabled says she will stop seeking funds from the international community and turn to rich Afghans instead, for help.

In an interview with Pajhwok, Balkhi said she was focused on the economic crisis faced by her ministry. With numbers of the disabled and the martyred estimated at more than a million and half, the Ministry has an enormous responsibility and has already registered 260,000 families who lost one or more of their members and more than 790,000 persons who were disabled during the two decades of war.

"I won’t ask for aid from international donors, but I need assistance from the government, the Afghan people and traders. I want to be self-sufficient because the international community is here only for a short time", Balkhi said. She however added that she would accept international aid if it was given voluntarily.

Fears of the collapse of the international community's interest and subsequent withdrawal of aid have been expressed from time to time, with questions raised on the sustainability of the majority of ongoing development programs. Balkhi said she would ask the traders to create industrial factories where most of the disabled people and the relatives of the martyrs could be employed.

Hamidullah Faroqi, a professor of economics at the Kabul University however said that it was not feasible for any ministry of the government to deal with their problems without donations from the international community because the government had no resources of its own.

Mohammad Hadi Hadi, a legal advisor to the ministry of disabled and martyrs affairs, said the ministry had a budget of 750 million Afs (about $15 million) last year. Balkhi said she is talking to the government to increase the budget and she is sure it will do.

The minister said they aim to organize workshops to improve the vocational skills of the disabled and to build some schools for the children of martyrs.
Computer maintenance, repair of autos and radios, carpet-waving, shoemaking and other skills will be taught to the disabled and discussions are on with the Ministry of Education on the need to build schools for the children of the martyrs.

The ministry will continue to register more families who were the victims of the war, Balkhi said, but added that she was unhappy with the practice of families seeking to register their children born with congenital disabilities as victims of the war.

Balkh site historical relics shifted to Kabul for further research
By Zarghona Salehi
KABUL, Jan 31,( Pajhwok Afghan News) – Artifacts from the Kushanid and Buddhist periods which were discovered in archaeological sites in the northern province of Balkh have been shifted to Kabul for further research.

200 bronze coins and 35 boxes of ceramic dishware and 6 stone and bone beads were discovered from the Zargaran mound in the Balkh district by a joint team of French and Afghan archaeologists. The excavation on the site, which was started in October last year, has been suspended temporarily because of the weather and will be resumed in the month of May or June.

Though the provincial head of the Department of Information and Culture in Balkh, Abdullah Roueen said 35 boxes of precious stones of the Kushanid and Buddhist eras have been found, researcher Mohammad Nadir Rassuli, head of the Balkh section of the Institute for the Archeological Studies, a part of the government academy of sciences, said the boxes contained ceramics from the Islamic and Buddhist periods.

He added that the bronze coins uncovered during the excavations had been transferred to Kabul and would be placed in the Kabul museum once their ancestry was determined.

Women's park in former Taliban stronghold
By Saeed Zabulai and Javid Samim
KANDAHAR, Jan. 30, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- The Governor of Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar has said a special park would be built for women, the first such initiative in the area which was earlier a Taliban stronghold.

Parks for women were closed under the Taliban as were all public spaces. Women were not allowed out of their homes unaccompanied by a male family member, much less allowed any recreation. Kandahar, which was a stronghold for the Taliban, saw the implementation of particularly repressive measures against women.

Making the announcement on the park on Friday, Governor Shirzai said Kandahar women should also have parks like men do so that they could have their own space for walking and amusing themselves. A venue for the park has been identified near the famous shrine of Baba Wali in Arghandab district. A two-storeyed restaurant and car park will also be built on the site.

Abdul Mateen Kakar, a resident of Arghandab, expressed happiness over the decision. "Men can go everywhere they want but the poor women have to stay at home. Now they will have a park, a space to have fun," he told Pajhwok.

However not everybody approved of the move. Those with land adjoining the shrine which has been demarcated for the park were unhappy about the decision. They had earlier complained to the government asking for the return of their lands or adequate compensation.

Responding to these complaints Governor Shirzai distributed one plot of land to each person along with 100,000 Afs, three tents and food stuffs for three months on Friday.

Independent expert on human rights in Afghanistan to visit country from 31 January to 6 February
GENEVA, 31 January (UN Information Service) - Cherif Bassiouni, the Independent Expert on Human Rights in Afghanistan, will conduct an official mission to that country from 31 January to 6 February 2005.

During the course of the mission, he intends to hold meetings with representatives of civil society. He will also undertake a field mission to Mazar-i-Sharif, where he will meet with local officials and the main actors working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the province.

The Independent Expert will present a report on his mission to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-first session.

The mandate of the Independent Expert is to develop, in collaboration with the Transitional Authority, including the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, as well as with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), a programme of advisory services to ensure the full respect and protection of human rights and the promotion of the rule of law, and to seek and receive information about and report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, in an effort to prevent human rights violations.

The Independent Expert’s previous mission took place from 14 to 22 August 2004. It was followed by a report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee on 28 October 2004 (U.N. Doc. A/59/370 (21 September 2004)).

The Independent Expert will hold a press conference on 5 February at UNAMA.

The Jalalabad road re-opened
ISAF NEWS RELEASE – 31 January 2005
KABUL – On January 30, 2005 at approximately 1100hrs a snow slide blocked the Jalalabad road 6 km east of Kabul entry point C. ISAF reacted immediately by launching reconnaissance forces to the site and then deploying over 100 soldiers and 20 vehicles to assist the more than 400 vehicles that were stranded in the traffic jam.

The soldiers provided hot drinks to the people stuck in their cars and kept them informed of the ongoing situation. A medical team was present. The soldiers placed salt on the road and this allowed the traffic to slowly start moving.

This morning the ISAF Italian Engineers deployed with salt, sand and heavy equipment to clear the road. The road was cleaned as of 1018 hrs this morning and is now passable for traffic.

Bacha Khan's 17th death anniversary: ANP stopped from going to Jalalabad
Daily Times, Pakistan 01/30/2005
PESHAWAR - The political administration of Khyber Agency on Saturday stopped a delegation of the Awami National Party (ANP) from going to Afghanistan to observe the 17th death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan, in Jalalabad.

The delegation led by Imran Afridi, ANP president from the tribal areas, was stopped at Tkhta Baig. The ANP central and provincial leadership have condemned the political administration's act.

Later the agency administration also stopped another ANP procession at Bara Tehsil of the agency led by Mr Afridi from participating in Bacha Khan's death anniversary celebrations in Peshawar.

The party high command, however, directed the party workers to refrain from violence and offer fateha for the soul of Bacha Khan, according to a statement issued yesterday (Saturday).

Speaking to participants, Imran Afridi, Haji Rasool Jan, Anwar Shah Dawar, Zahoor Afridi, Ahmad Din Dawar, Innayatullah Wazir and Fazlki Hameed Dawar, said that the Durand Line was a conspiracy to divide Pakhtuns and they would not accept this line. They said they had no intentions to carry out any political agenda while participating in the death anniversary programmes of Bacha Khan in Jalalabad but the political administration's action had proved that tribals were still treated as slaves.

The speakers said in the past the tribesmen living on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border had never been stopped from meeting each other but the NWFP governor's action had put the country's solidarity at stake. They said the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) were not acceptable to the tribal people as no one could ban tribal customs and traditions.

Uzbekistan: UNHCR assists in the resettlement of Afghan refugees to Canada
TASHKENT, 31 January (IRIN) - The office for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uzbekistan has started resettling 237 Afghan refugees to Canada following an agreement with Ottawa reached late last year, a UN official said on Monday.

Those who are to be resettled in Canada were selected because they were considered to be at risk if repatriated to Afghanistan. "Of the persons referred for resettlement to Canada in August 2004, 237 persons were accepted, 113 persons were rejected and the decision regarding 29 persons was put on hold," Abdul Karim Gul, head of UNHCR, in Uzbekistan told IRIN.

Under this year's resettlement programme, the UNHCR plans to submit details of another group of 400 Afghan refugees to the governments of Canada and the USA. "Given the positive outcome of the 2004 resettlement programmes, signalled by high a acceptance rate both by the USA and Canada, the UNHCR expects similar results for the forthcoming 2005 submissions," Gul said.

Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous state, fearing a flood of refugees from conflicts in neighbouring Afghanistan and Tajikistan, effectively sealed its borders to stop refugees entering. Contrary to international convention, Tashkent has never granted refugee status to those escaping persecution who managed to enter the country between 1993 and 2001.

According to UNHCR estimates, in 2003 more than 6,000 Afghans were living in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is one of the few former Soviet states that has not joined the Convention of 1951 and Protocol of 1967 concerning refugee status.

Since Uzbekistan is not a party to these conventions, those who entered the country and are now under UNHCR's protection are not officially recognised by the Uzbek government. As a consequence, their living conditions remain extremely difficult, with no legal access to work, education or health care.

Most refugees are dependent on material aid provided by the UNHCR and local charities. Until recently, the lack of legal status in authoritarian Uzbekistan means refugees had to live under constant threat of arrest and deportation.

"Afghan refugees always face great difficulties in Uzbekistan, unlike in neighbouring countries like Kyrgyzstan, where they have legal refugee status," an Afghan refugee who will soon will be going to Canada told IRIN under condition of anonymity.

"Though documents given by UNHCR now protect them [refugees] from police arrest and deportation which used to be very common in recent years, it remains extremely difficult to find a job here, where you have to always bribe someone even to push a handcart in bazaars to earn a little money," he continued.

The UN agency is also implementing a voluntary repatriation programme for Afghan refugees who wish to return to their homeland.

"Since the beginning of the voluntary repatriation programme in 2002, a total of 501 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan via Uzbekistan. Out of them, 285 returned from Uzbekistan, [the] other 216 returned from other former Soviet republics via Uzbekistan," Gul said.