Former Sudanese President Jaafar Nimeiri, 69, gestures during an interview with Reuters in this May 4, 1999 file photograph. Nimeiri, who took power in a coup in 1969 and brought Islamic rule to Sudan, died on May 30, 2009, after a period of illness, government officials said. Picture taken May 4, 1999. PHOTO/ REUTERS 

Photo: Masoud Popalzai/IRIN

KABUL, – Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has warned that tensions may erupt between Hazara locals and Kuchi nomads in central parts of the country. Conflict over land and grazing has resulted in deadly fighting between the tribes over the past three years. Government officials have acknowledged their failure to settle the ongoing dispute.  IRIN’s Noorullah Stanikzai

Photo: Kamila Hyat/IRIN

Ahmed Gul, an Afghan refugee in Lahore, Pakistan, is worried about his future in his host country

LAHORE,  – Nazir Khan, a 40-year-old Afghan refugee, recently began working as a watchman at a private house in Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province. “I am lucky I found work; now I can support my family at least,” he told IRIN.

Khan, who has lived in Pakistan for 25 years, fled Buner district in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) when fighting broke out there between Taliban militants and Pakistan army forces in early May.

According to a situation report on 29 May by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), just over 2.5 million people have been displaced since 2 May.

There is uncertainty over how many Afghan refugees may be included among those.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as of January 2007 Pakistan hosted about 1 million Afghan refugees in camps assisted by UNHCR. However, a 2005 Pakistan government census suggests a further 1.5 million Afghans were living outside camps.

Since 2005, the Pakistan government has stepped up pressure on these people to return to their country.

Nader Farhad, UNHCR spokesman in Kabul, said rates of return to Afghanistan had been slower this year than in previous years, with only 20,000 returning so far.

As fierce fighting broke out in areas of NWFP earlier in May, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, expressed deep concern over the well-being of some 20,000 registered Afghan refugees living in the conflict-affected districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Upper Dir.

“We have reports that many have fled together with the local population. Some have chosen to return to Afghanistan with UNHCR assistance and others have chosen to relocate to existing refugee sites in Pakistan,” Guterres said.

Farhad said that 114,000 Afghans had been living in conflict-affected areas of NWFP and had been forced to relocate to other parts of Pakistan or live with friends and relatives.

Afghan refugees harassed

According to watchman Khan, the Afghans he knows have shunned displacement camps and opted to move in with relatives, often in cities such as Peshawar or Lahore. “I had no idea what the situation would be like at camps. There are so many reports of harassment of Afghans that we were scared of any dealings with officials in case we faced persecution,” he said.

The arrest of Afghans in Pakistan, often after terrorist attacks, has been regularly reported in the local media and drawn calls from the Afghan government on Pakistan to avoid “mistreating” Afghan nationals.

For the Afghans forced to move from places they have called ‘home’ for decades, the new conflict is giving rise to growing anxiety over their future.

“I have lived in Buner since I was 20. I worked as a carpenter there,” said Khan. “I am now considering returning to Afghanistan, but people say the economic situation there is very bad. But then things are tough here too.”

Ahmed Gul, a cousin of Khan, moved in with relatives in Peshawar after leaving the Bajaur tribal area late last year following conflict there. “The future for Afghans is uncertain. Since 2005, when camps were closed in most parts of NWFP for security reasons, we have been treated like criminals. I just don’t know what to do or where to go. The fighting has made our lives very difficult.”

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Photo: WHO

The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2009 is “Tobacco Health Warnings”, with an emphasis on picture warnings

DUBAI,  – Tobacco Health Warnings is the theme for this year’s World No Tobacco Day on 31 May. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging governments to increase public awareness of the dangers of smoking by requiring that all tobacco packages include pictorial warnings to show the sickness and suffering caused by tobacco use.

“Health warnings on tobacco packages are a simple, cheap and effective strategy that can vastly reduce tobacco use and save lives,” said WHO Assistant Director-General Dr Ala Alwan in a press release. “But they only work if they communicate the risk. Warnings that include images of the harm that tobacco causes are particularly effective at communicating risk and motivating behavioural changes, such as quitting or reducing tobacco consumption.”

In its report – entitled Showing the truth, saving lives: the case for pictorial health warnings – WHO said only 10 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where warnings with pictures are required on tobacco packaging. Studies carried out in Brazil, Canada, Singapore and Thailand revealed that having graphic images on cigarette packets of the consequences of smoking motivates more users to quit and reduces the appeal of taking up smoking for non-users.

Tobacco continues to be the leading preventable cause of death in the world, killing more than 5 million people every year. “It is the only legal consumer product that kills when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer,” according to the WHO report.

Photo: WHO

WHO data on tobacco consumption prevalence by percentage and sex within the Eastern Mediterranean Region

According to WHO, current trends show that by the year 2020/2030, tobacco is likely to be the world’s leading cause of death and disability, killing more than 10 million people annually (70 percent of these deaths occurring in developing countries) and claiming more lives than HIV, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and homicide combined.

Middle East statistics

The most recent WHO information for tobacco uses in the Middle East is from surveys conducted around 10 years ago in 19 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). They revealed that Yemeni men were the biggest smokers in the region, with 77 percent smoking, and Lebanese women topped the female category with 35 percent smoking.

Overall, the richer Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman) had the lowest prevalence of smokers, with Oman faring best, and the poorer Levant countries (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan) and Yemen had the highest. 

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Tobacco facts
	Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced
	There are more than one billion smokers in the world, about one third of the global population aged 15 years and over
	Globally, use of tobacco products is increasing, although it is decreasing in high-income countries
	Almost half of the world’s children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke
	The epidemic is shifting to the developing world
	More than 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- and middle-income countries
	Tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year – an average of one person every six seconds – and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide
	Tobacco kills up to half of all users
	It is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of deaths in the world
	100 million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century
	Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million a year by 2030, and 80% of those deaths will occur in the developing world
Source: WHO

Photo: Masoud Popalzai/IRIN

KABUL,

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has expressed concern over the use of health facilities for voter registration or as polling stations in Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential elections, saying this could jeopardise the security of health workers and put patients at risk. IRIN’s Ahmad Zia Entezar reports.

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Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN

Should sex work be legalized?

JOHANNESBURG,  – Proposals to decriminalize sex work in South Africa have been moved back to the front burner after the newly installed premier of the country’s richest province, Gauteng, remarked that the issue should be addressed “objectively and with an open mind”. A review of the current legislation is underway.

The Sexual Offences Act of 1957 prohibits all sex work, and any activity associated with it – keeping or participating in the management of a brothel, procuring someone to become a sex worker, soliciting or selling sex, and living off the earnings of a sex worker – is a criminal offence. The Act was amended 50 years later to make buying sexual services a criminal offence.

Enforcement of the sweeping law is extremely difficult; the police generally use municipal by-laws that target street-based sex workers under the guise of being a “public nuisance”, leading to claims of police harassment, while the authorities ignore thousands of classified adverts for sexual services in daily newspapers and elsewhere.

The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) sets out four scenarios in a report released in May 2009: maintaining the status quo, partial criminalization, non-criminalization, or the “regulation of adult prostitution and prostitution-related acts.” Public submissions and comments on the proposed changes can be made until 30 June 2009.

The country is divided on the issue. “Worldwide, you will find it [sex work]… We must begin to appreciate that commercial sex work is an industry, here in Gauteng,” said the province’s female premier, Nomvula Mokonyane.

“The best is to recognize commercial sex work, make sure it has different support systems … have a designated area, register people, let them be subjected to periodic health tests, and also let them be subjected to what me and you are subjected to — tax.”

‘Lowering morals’

Worldwide, you will find it [sex work] … We must begin to appreciate that commercial sex work is an industry, here in Gauteng

Although Mokonyane did not explicitly call for sex work to be legalized, her view was at odds with South Africa’s chief prosecutor, Mokotedi Mpshe, who told local media that decriminalizing sex work would be bad for the country’s morals.

Proponents of decriminalization said a changing the law would not destigmatize the sex industry, but would improve the health and safety of sex workers.

Lauren Jankelowitz, of the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit (RHRU) at the University of the Witwatersrand, which runs sex worker-friendly clinics and outreach programmes, said most sex workers were reluctant to access health services or report incidents of rape and assault to the police, fearing both stigma and arrest.

At a forum in Johannesburg on 28 May, Sex Workers and the World of Work, sponsored by the South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS (SABCOHA), Jankelowitz said a change in the law would be a step in the right direction, but given the prevailing conservative views of government, this was unlikely.

Regardless of the law, South Africans had to change their prejudiced views of sex workers, and the police, health workers and the public should be sensitized, she said.

Eric Harper, director of the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT), told IRIN it would take more than sensitization training to change the treatment of sex workers.

“The emphasis has to be less on opinion change and more on actual practices to make sure people are treated in a humane and dignified way, and are given access to the services they deserve,” he said. “If I’m a health worker, I have to know that I have to act in a professional way, regardless of what I think about what people are doing.”

Obstacles

Research by the RHRU found 45 percent to 60 percent of its patients in the sex worker outreach programme were HIV-positive, yet Jankelowitz said many sex workers did not have access to reproductive health and HIV services.

Daytime clinic hours were often inconvenient for sex workers, who mainly work at night and sleep during the day; when sex workers did visit clinics, they often found unfriendly healthcare workers, and could be arrested on the way there.

A sex worker could be going to the grocery store and if a policeman sees her and knows she is a sex worker, he might arrest her for loitering or being a public nuisance

“A sex worker could be going to the grocery store and if a policeman sees her and knows she is a sex worker, he might arrest her for loitering or being a public nuisance,” Jankelowitz told IRIN/PlusNews.

Lindi Nyembe*, a sex worker in the Johannesburg’s inner-city neighbourhood of Hillbrow and co-ordinator of the local branch of Sisonke, an organization advocating sex worker’s rights, said police often extorted sexual or monetary bribes from sex workers, and were reluctant to open cases for those who were raped or assaulted by clients, as their attitude was that they “deserved it”.

“I’ve known women who have said, ‘Better safe in the hands of the criminals than in the hands of the police,’” she said.

In a case brought by SWEAT in Cape Town, the High Court recently ruled that the police were guilty of harassing the sex workers, because they arrested them knowing that the sex workers would not be charged or prosecuted.

Harper said in countries such as New Zealand, which had decriminalised sex work, relations between police and sex workers were greatly improved. In South Africa, better relationships between sex workers and law enforcement could encourage sex workers to report cases of human trafficking and children’s involvement in the sex trade.

He warned that while decriminalization was a step toward addressing human rights violations and increasing access to health care, it did not necessarily guarantee real improvements in sex workers’ lives: “It’s a step in that direction, but it’s not a magic wand that is going to make stigmatization disappear.”

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Photo: Jacoline Prinsloo/IRIN

Supporters of the FNL, the last rebel group in Burundi to be integrated into government institutions – file photo

BUJUMBURA,  – With the integration of Burundi’s last rebel groups into government institutions almost complete, the team that mediated the peace process has set up a structure to monitor the implementation of the pact signed in 2006, officials said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who chairs the Regional Initiative for Burundi, initiated the Partnership for Peace in Burundi (PPB), to monitor the consolidation of peace in the country until December 2009.

The partnership is mandated to promote sustainable peace in the country and “contribute to an enabling environment for the period leading up to the elections” scheduled in 2010, according to Dumisani Kumalo, a member of the South Africa-led mediation team that brokered the agreement between the Burundian government and the last rebel group, the Forces nationales de libération (FNL).

“The major task of the PPB in this new phase is to monitor the consolidation of the peace process between now and the end of the year,” Kumalo said at a news conference in Bujumbura on 27 May.

Kumalo said the PPB would comprise representatives of the Political Directorate – which has been guiding the peace process; the UN Mission in Burundi (BINUB); as well as the International Conference for the Great Lakes region, an initiative of the UN and African Union.

BINUB, he said, would provide the secretariat as well as the logistical support to the PPB while the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region will “regularly brief the leaders of the Regional Initiative to ensure that they remain updated on the peace process”.

Photo: Judith Basutama/IRIN

Charles Nqakula, chairman of the peace mediation team

South African politician Charles Nqakula, chairman of the Burundi peace mediation team, said he hoped the PPB would succeed as “there is a lot of optimism and confidence – for the first time in Burundi we are going to assist a democracy of dispensation.

“This is a great moment for Burundi. The work that we were asked to do has been completed; that is why we are now moving to a new phase which is the phase of consolidating peace.”

The 15-year civil war resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Burundians.

“Greater stability”

Both the government and the FNL have praised the move to complete the peace process.

Evariste Ndayishimiye, the government’s representative in the PPB, said Burundi was entering a phase that heralded greater stability.

“FNL is now part of Burundian society, with its integration in institutions and its involvement in the DDR [Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration] process,” Ndayishimiye said.

However, he said there was a need to closely monitor the process as there will be “no more negotiations”.

Photo: Barnabe Ndayikeza/IRIN

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa

FNL leader Agathon Rwasa said a precise programme of action of the PBB should be drawn up to settle existing challenges, including dissatisfaction among some recently demobilised FNL combatants, scheduled to end in June.

With DDR expected to end in December, South African peacekeepers are expected to leave and their place taken by a Burundian unit comprising former FNL combatants integrated into the police and the army.

Scepticism

However, analysts have expressed scepticism over the completion of implementation of the ceasefire agreement, citing persistent reports of criminality.

Ramadhani Kibuga, a lecturer at a private university for peace and reconciliation in Bujumbura, said: “The time was not yet ripe for the end of the South African mediation. Even if combatants of the FNL were integrated in the national army and police, there are still many uncontrolled elements in the country.

“Considering the big number of combatants the FNL presented, the DDR process left many frustrated,” Kibuga said. “They have a feeling they were left out of the process.”

André Ndayishimiye, a political analyst, told IRIN: “The disarmament programme has not yet yielded significant results; acts of violence and abuses continue to occur as several arms remain in circulation in the hands of civilians.”

He said the FNL had handed in very few arms, whereas it probably had many. “The national defence forces also need to be further sensitized in effectively protecting civilians,” Ndayishimiye said.

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Photo: Abdullah Shaheen/IRIN

Farmers are tending to their opium poppies fields (file photo)

FARAH,  – Taliban insurgents are forcing farmers in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, to grow opium poppies and are imposing a hefty tax on yields, some farmers and provincial officials told IRIN.

“The Taliban told me to grow poppies or I would be punished,” said Abdul Sattar, a farmer in the Poshtroad District, southwestern Farah Province.

“They say by growing opium [poppies] we are actually demonstrating our support for `jihad’ against the Americans,” said Abdul Majid, another farmer.

Mullah Shah Mohammad and Mullah Salaam, two senior insurgent commanders in Farah, confirmed to IRIN that the insurgents were encouraging poppy cultivation and were demanding up to 20 percent of the harvest.

“It is an obligation upon every Muslim in this country to pay and support the `jihad’ and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Shah Mohammad told IRIN on the phone from an unidentified location, calling the exercise a kind of Islamic tax, `usher’.

Mullah Salaam dismissed allegations about punishments: “We don’t punish people who do not grow opium.”

Under strong international pressure, the Afghan government has declared poppy cultivation a crime and is ostensibly committed to eradicating all poppy fields in the country.

“The Taliban are forcing people to grow poppy in order to create animosity and rifts between the government and the people,” said Joma Khan Bashiri, head of Farah’s counter-narcotics department.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium cultivation is concentrated in the seven most unstable provinces of southern and southwest Afghanistan where Taliban insurgents are considered influential.

Farmers in southern Helmand Province also said they were told by the insurgents to grow poppies.

“The Taliban gave assurances they would protect our poppy fields from the government,” said Ahmad Jan, a farmer in Helmand.

Drugs, crime, conflict

Over the past seven years, and despite strong efforts to curb opium production, Afghanistan has annually produced over 90 percent of the world’s heroin and opium, according to annual reports by UNODC.

Drug abuse is widespread with serious humanitarian consequences.

It is also believed that opium production has strong links to the insurgency, organized crime, corruption and other illegal activities, and has often led to violent incidents.

On 3 May, insurgents took up positions in Granai village, Bala Boluk District, in Farah Province and demanded a share of the villagers’ poppy income. The incident turned into a fire-fight between the insurgents and patrolling Afghan and US forces as a result of which dozens of civilians were killed and injured, US-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement on 15 May.

Others have highlighted the organized crime element: “Insurgent commanders benefit from taxation in kind at the farm-gate, from direct involvement in trafficking and sales and from protection money paid by traffickers to smooth exports,” says Jacob Townsend in the JamesTown Foundation’s publication in January.

Who to obey?

As the government and insurgents pursue diametrically opposed policies on poppy cultivation, farmers – especially in volatile southern areas – are increasingly facing a dilemma.

“If we grow poppy the government will destroy it, but if we don’t grow poppy the Taliban think we are defying them,” said a farmer in Farah.

Whilst still stressing the importance of the manual eradication of poppies, government officials say the bigger priority is apprehending the big-time drug smugglers.

The Interior Ministry has said hundreds of drug smugglers have been arrested and imprisoned, and dozens of heroin-producing laboratories destroyed over the past year – actions praised by the UN – but the extent to which these moves have significantly affected the heroin trade, is still unclear.

Meanwhile, UNODC’s executive director, Antonio Maria Costa, has told the UK’s Guardian newspaper that efforts are being made to stop any drugs leaving the country in a bid to allow the domestic market to become saturated with drugs, thus driving down drug prices inside Afghanistan and discouraging farmers from poppy cultivation.

“Manual eradication is incompetent and inefficient,” Costa was quoted as saying.

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