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| May 31, 2006 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427 |
Security urged for returning Afghans
DOHA, May 30: UN, Afghan and Pakistani officials met in Doha on Tuesday to discuss the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, with a Pakistani minister calling for greater security in Afghanistan to encourage their return.
The Kabul government should “improve security so that the (refugees) feel they have an incentive to return,” minister for states and frontier regions Sardar Yar Mohammed Rind told the 10th meeting of the Tripartite Commission.
The commission groups Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
“Yesterday’s events in Kabul remind us that the situation in Afghanistan is still rather fragile. But we remain confident that progress will be sustained,” said Ekber Menemencioglu, director of the UNHCR’s bureau for Central Asia, Southwest Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
Afghanistan’s parliament demanded on Tuesday the arrest of those responsible for a deadly crash by a US military truck that set off the worst riots in Kabul since the Islamist Taliban movement fell in late 2001, as police said 12 people had died in the unrest.
The US-led military coalition has expressed regret about Monday’s accident, which it blamed on brake failure. The accident killed at least five people and sparked deadly unrest across the Afghan capital.
“It is time for the international community to step in to secure the necessary resources for the (refugees’) return in dignity,” said Rind, adding that the success of the repatriation hinged on “sustainable security in Afghanistan.”
Menemencioglu said 114,000 Afghans had returned home so far this year in the fifth year of major repatriation movements, including more than 62,000 from Pakistan.
The UNHCR official said the Afghanistan repatriation operation was “unprecedented,” resulting in the return of 4.5 million people to their homeland since 2002.
According to figures posted on the UNHCR website, the 4.5 million returnees include 1.47 million from Iran. There are some 2.55 million Afghan refugees remaining in Pakistan and approximately 960,000 in Iran.
The meeting will wrap up on Wednesday.—AFP
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