Time for Afghans to go home

A process has been set in motion for the permanent repatriation of Afghan refugees, generally associated with the proliferation of heroin and Kalashnikovs. However, when they have left this country, people may recall that they had also brought with them concepts and services that were innovations here and benefited the public.

Pictures in last Wednesday’s newspapers showed refugee families gathered in a registration centre in their Sohrab Goth settlement called Afghan Basti. That such a large number of men — young, old and children — had gathered showed that they had responded positively to the government’s move to register and issue them identification papers that would allow them ample time to prepare for their homeward journey. The process that began last week will be on till the year end. More than 100 centres have been set up across the country and in Azad Kashmir by the National Database and Registration Authority after an agreement it signed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Over the years, some refugees have moved into proper houses to escape the harsh life of camps that lack amenities, and have established their businesses. But most of them are still living in camps and shanties set up near major cities and towns across the country. Next to the NWFP, Quetta and Karachi play host to large numbers of Afghan refugees. In Islamabad alone, their number tops 100,000.

The identity cards, called Proof of Registration (PoR), being issued for children above five years of age will arm them with a proper document and reduce the chances of harassment by the law-enforcement agencies. This will help the government block the re-entry of refugees into Pakistan once they are repatriated to their country.

People also believe that this campaign will help curb activities of suspected Taliban, spilling over and adding to the troubles of this country. By this exercise the authorities will know exactly how many Afghans are living on Pakistani soil. As a precursor to the registration process, the Pakistan Population Census Organization had carried out a census in February and March last year and collected data about refugees.

Of the more than three million refugees, about 600,000 have already been repatriated to Afghanistan. Most of the remaining refugees may also be willing to return to their homeland, where security situation and economic conditions have improved a little since they were forced to migrate to Pakistan more than a quarter century ago. Individuals with flourishing businesses here may resist the repatriation exercise, however.

Although poppy had been cultivated in Pakistan decades before their arrival and many people were addicted to opium, there was no concept of refining the drug into heroin before the influx of Afghan refugees. Guns had already been manufactured in Pakistan’s tribal belt since before independence of this country. The Darra (Adam Khel) brands of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, etc, were easily available across the country. But, the Russia-made AK-47 assault rifle, Kalashnikov, smuggled into Pakistan by Afghan warriors and professional smugglers gave a new twist to gun culture here. Gun enthusiasts were thrilled to see the hand-held machine that emptied 30 rounds within a couple of seconds. It instantly became a new symbol of power and pelf for the affluent, escorted around by their moustached Kalashnikov-wielding guards. Earlier the best gun allowed to civilians was the one that fired 11 bullets with pauses.

People fleeing Afghanistan also brought along transport vehicles, which boosted the transport system here. The sturdy Datsun pickup dwarfed its two-stroke Suzuki counterpart here and those who owned them carried their household goods and families from place to place as circumstances dictated. In Karachi’s case, the introduction of the dashing mini-coaches in different colours left far behind in demand their yellow Mazda alternatives. Of course, transporters here too sought newer models to meet the challenge, gradually consigning the older ones to routes used by the old minibuses and finally to the junk yard.

And it is Afghan boys who have shown us that anybody can earn their living just by collecting trash. Holding gunny bags with the left behind their backs, these boys pick recyclable items from piles of garbage and earn from Rs150 to Rs200 a day.

And their most useful innovation seems to me the horizontal clay oven (bhatties) for baking bread, naans, markedly different from the traditional vertical one. They produce dozens of breads in minutes. Meeting the demand for naans was a big problem before.

In the NWFP’s agriculture sector, too, they have brought about revolutionary changes with their hard work and innovative strategies. The farms that produced crops once a year now yield better crops at least twice a year.

Although most of the refugees flooded Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, many Afghan nationals arrived here to escape the suffocating Taliban rule and some fled Afghanistan in the wake of the American bombing of that country after the 9/11 attacks in America.

The UNHCR has suspended assistance for voluntary repatriation of refugees because of the registration exercise. Earlier, many refugees would come back after visiting their country at the UNHCR’s expense.

We have played host to Afghan refugees for long enough. We have reaped benefits afforded by their experiences and expertise. We have suffered the problems their presence caused. It is good for them that they are resettled in their own country, among their own people. There they can better train their next generations to meet the challenges of the future.

Post-Ramazan activities

With Ramazan drawing to a close invitation cards for fashion shows, painting exhibitions, product launches, luncheons and dinners have started pouring into the newspaper offices. This is not to include wedding invitations, which practically every household has been getting.

All social activities were on hold except iftar parties, which incidentally were fewer this year. It was also the first year that the Bohra community, which used to hold a big iftar-dinner when the Syedna’s brother used to come, decided to say ‘Pass’. One regular guest at their iftars used to be a former Sindh governor, Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider. To say that he is very popular among the Bohra community would not be enough because his popularity cuts across all ethnic and sectarian divides.

This year there have been fewer Eid cards too. However, there are some compulsive senders of Eid cards, who can’t help sending them year after year. That the trend of sending Eid cards has been on the decline is borne out by the fact that, unlike previous years, the postal authorities issued no notification setting a deadline for the dispatch of Eid-related mail. One reason for the decrease in the number of Eid cards sent by what is often described as ‘snail mail’ is that now greeting cards of different kinds are available on the internet and all those who have access to the net prefer sending them for two reasons — speed and economy.

Last year Eid came closely at the heels of the devastating earthquake in parts of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP, resulting in subdued festivities. Even the Eid shopping last year had nosedived, but this year the shopping has picked up quite a bit.

This year there is less suspense about the Eid day. With the last two months of the Hijri calendar comprising 30 days, this time it is almost certain that Eid will fall tomorrow — that is Tuesday. Schools will not open until Friday (some private schools have declared Friday as a holiday too, which means nine consecutive days of holiday) but factories, offices and banks will reopen on the third day. What would be the attendance like? My guess is as good as yours.

— Karachian
Email: naseer.awan@dawn.com

Bracing ourselves for a dengue epidemic

REPORTS about dengue fever cases in the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad have been fuzzy. While there seems to be some suspected cases in Islamabad and Rawalpindi (according to one report, five and eight cases respectively), reports about confirmed dengue cases are conflicting.

Although the dengue outbreak has not quite hit this northern part of Pakistan yet, we cannot afford to be complacent about controlling mosquitoes. The fact that there have only been 13 suspected cases in the twin cities and three confirmed cases in Khoshab District in Punjab as compared to over 1,100 suspected cases in Sindh with at least 300 confirmed is no reason for us to relax.

According to the World Health Organisation, not only is the number of dengue cases increasing as the disease is spreading to new areas, but explosive outbreaks are occurring. This means that with time, not only is the disease likely to become endemic in this northern part of the country as well but the annual outbreaks in Sindh are likely to infect more and more people, if we fail to implement a sustainable programme to curb mosquitoes.

In 2005, more than 110,000 people from eastern India to the Philippines were infected with dengue fever with at least 890 deaths. The year 2005 had been the worst in the Asia-Pacific region since 1998 when more than 1.2 million cases with 3,443 deaths were reported. Focus on the SARS outbreak and the containment of the H5N1 virus in poultry could have been responsible for diverting attention from the efforts on mosquito control.

In 2005 Thailand had 32,193 dengue cases, the Philippines 18,802 cases with 259 deaths, Indonesia 38,285 cases with 538 deaths and 60,000 cases in 2004 with 700 fatalities. Sri Lanka had 15,365 cases in 2004 which dropped to 3,000 in 2005 because of a vigorous campaign asking residents to keep their premises clean and to empty pots of stagnant water.

Even clean and orderly Singapore, with a population of only 4.2 million people, was baffled by 10,237 dengue cases in the first nine months of 2005, which included eight fatalities. In 2004 it had 9,459 cases. Hospitals in this tiny city-state had to suspend non-emergency surgery to cope with the large number of dengue patients.

Neighbouring India, whose capital New Delhi had suffered a major outbreak in 1996 with 10,000 cases and over 400 deaths, has failed to prevent recurrent outbreaks of dengue fever year after year. This year nearly 5,000 dengue cases so far have been reported in India with nearly 100 deaths. For the first time too this year, dengue cases are being reported in Nepal in its southern districts bordering India.

According to a WHO study, in countries where dengue fever has become endemic, the sequence is more or less the same: first there are sporadic cases, followed by dengue epidemics which progressively become more frequent until they are seen virtually every year with major epidemics occurring at three to five year intervals.

Over the past few years, the sporadic cases of dengue fever in the Karachi area has increased to about two to three hundred last year and now well over a thousand suspected cases so far this year.

Karachi, or even for that matter, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, can be plagued with a dengue epidemic of Southeast Asian proportions affecting tens of thousands of people if we fail to launch a sustainable mosquito eradication campaign in time, i.e., every year in the post-monsoon period which is considered the ideal breeding season.

As one WHO expert on dengue fever said: All you need is a year with a good combination of the right temperatures and right amount of rainfall and bang ‘you’ve got an outbreak.

As there is no vaccine or anti-viral drug for dengue fever, the only way to prevent dengue transmission is to reduce the population of its principal vector, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same mosquito that transmits the even more deadly yellow fever.

While we have been doing some fogging and spraying in public spaces in major cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, we need to do much more, judging by the dengue experience of other countries in Southeast Asia. Some of these countries, like Singapore for instance, also carried out an active campaign searching out and destroying breeding places. Another important measure is public education, i.e., getting the people to recognise the problem, assume a share of the responsibility for its solution, and acquire the capability and motivation to prevent and control dengue fever.

The Capital Development Authority is said to have divided Islamabad into 14 zones for chemical spraying and fumigation in a bid to eradicate mosquitoes. CDA has also reportedly disinfected some 35 big drains in the city and 22 tributaries. With development projects in full swing in the capital, CDA would also need to keep a constant check on all construction sites and vacant properties, which are well known breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Since the dengue virus transmission is often a problem of domestic environmental management as well, much more needs to be done to educate households in both the twin cities about the importance of controlling larval habitats in their homes and surroundings and combating adult mosquitoes by screening windows and doors and using household insecticide and sprays.

Public involvement and education are crucial to the sustainability of a mosquito control programme. Campaigns such as “Keep Islamabad (or Rawalpindi) clean and mosquito free” should be conducted annually and school children encouraged to carry out source reduction in their homes.

Grassroot leaders from civil defence organisations, the National Volunteers Movement, local government officials and members of the national and provincial assemblies should move out and scour places suspected to be mosquito breeding grounds across the twin cities as part of house-to-house checks aimed at preventing a dengue outbreak. The government should also distribute flyers detailing measures to prevent mosquito breeding.

CDA or the ministry of environment should open 24-hour tip- off hotlines for people to report potential and actual mosquito breeding sites. Callers and those who send e-mails should be encouraged to give their names and contact number as well as the location and description of mosquito breeding areas or potential breeding sites.

Finally, an effective mosquito control programme also involves limiting the importation of the dengue virus into Pakistan since the increase in travel and trade in the region is likely to raise the possibility of dengue fever being imported from abroad through infected travelers. Thus, dengue control must be a regional effort. Countries that control dengue transmission are doomed to failure if neighbouring countries do not prevent continued epidemic transmission.

According to a 2006 Singaporean study on dengue fever prevention, controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito is important not only to curb the spread of dengue fever but also to prevent a potential urban yellow fever epidemic, the risk in the American tropics for which is reportedly at its highest level in 60 years.

The study is of the view that with modern transportation, urban yellow fever could move quickly from the American tropics to the Asia-Pacific region where approximately two billion people are at risk. Already health experts in India are warning that yellow fever would come to India ‘some day’ if the country continues to fail to shore up its vector control programme.

While a safe, effective vaccine for yellow fever is available, it is not manufactured in large enough quantities to prevent or control epidemics in Asia. Regional control of the Aedes aegypti mosquito would thus be an effective preventive measure for epidemic dengue as well as yellow fever in Asia in general and in Pakistan in particular.

Of military rule by other means

THE Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee was set up recently to review India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act, (AFSPA, 1958) -– a law that has been inflicting a heavy toll on democracy and civil liberties in border states like Jammu and Kashmir and across the northeastern swathe of primarily tribal provinces.

The committee’s report has been lying with the government for days and human rights groups now want it to be made public and discussed in parliament. A “leaked” copy was distributed to the press last week by rights NGOs, especially those engaged in the troubled state of Manipur. Incidences of frequent rape and killings in this state, allegedly by security forces, have triggered a wave of protests there.

According to the committee’s findings “... the (AFSPA) Act, for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness.” Giving other similar arguments, the Reddy Committee has recommended that it would be desirable to repeal the Act altogether. We’ll discuss the caveat entailed in this generosity.

In its initial comments on the proposed repeal of the Act, Manipur’s Human Rights Alert welcomed the move, albeit cautiously. But some other activists led by senior Supreme Court lawyer Colin Gonsalves warned that the recommended repeal could really be another way of bringing the law back through the back door to encompass not just the border states but the entire country. “Remember that we could be preparing the grounds for Martial Law in India,” Gonsalves warned his audience at the Delhi Press Club.

The Reddy Committee’s report coincides with what is seen as an apporaching change in India’s neighbourhood policy, particularly the “Look East Policy”. There is an aim here to link the country to South East Asia, by a network of roads and railways. The Human Rights Alert sees the move as part of a wider globalization process that offered a window of opportunity to the historically ignored region. “But this is contingent on whether and how far are the people of the Northeast empowered and prepared enough to leverage this opening promised by the Look East Policy.”

Colin Gonsalves is evidently not so sanguine about the future. In a detailed critique of the Reddy report he listed concerns, primarily the suggestion that the key provisions of the AFSPA could be transferred to beef up already existing Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAP Act, 1967). To begin with, the Reddy report suggests that even if a new law is not made, the Central Government can nevertheless order the Army into any particular state under Article 355 of the Constitution to protect the State against “internal disturbances”. It can do so even without there being a request from the state government.

Gonsalves points to other troublesome implications. The Reddy report, for example, says that “it is highly advisable to repeal this Act altogether, without of course, losing sight of the overwhelming desire of an overwhelming majority of the region that the Army should remain.” In other words, the Act can go but the army should stay under different heads. “For this purpose an appropriate legal mechanism has to be devised.”

To justify the transfer of the powers of the AFSPA to UAP, the Committee presents arguments. It says that a major consequence of the proposed course would be to erase the feeling of discrimination and alienation among the people of the north-eastern states that they have been subjected to, what they call “draconian enactment made especially for them. The UAP Act applies to entire India including to the Northeastern States. The complaint of discrimination would then no longer be valid.”

Now that’s a brilliant way of arguing against discrimination. In other words, let’s share the same draconian laws with everyone and make it equitable throughout the country. As Gonsalves notes, the Reddy Committee is aware that the UAP Act “does not provide for an internal mechanism ensuring accountability of such forces with a view to guard against abuses and excesses by delinquent members of such forces.”

The committee has proposed Grievances Cells to address this problem. However, a cursory look at the constituents of these cells makes the proposal look laughable. The cells “should be composed of three persons namely, a senior member of the local administration as its chair, a captain of the armed/security forces and a senior member of the local police.”

Not only are the cells going to be dominated by the security forces and the police, but they would also have no power to punish at all. All they can do is to enquire into an allegation and provide information. Gonsalves suggests an alternative -– a Civilian Oversight Commission along the lines prevalent in Britain. “This is obvious from the principal grievance against the security forces in India. No enquiry has ever come to light where the security forces have been severely punished.”

Further, after setting out the principles that the use of the armed forces ought to always be for a limited period, the Reddy Committee suggests an open-ended time schedule. It says that while the Central Government should desist from extending the period for calling in the army beyond six months, there were circumstances when it could do so.

“At the end of the period so specified, the Central Government shall review the situation in consultation with the State Government and check whether the deployment of forces should continue and if it is to continue, for which period. The review shall take place as and when it is found necessary to continue the deployment of the forces at the expiry of the period earlier specified.”

Another proposed amendment to the clauses of the AFSPA that may be co-opted into the UAP Act has raised serious concern. The Reddy Committee qualifies its suggestion that the armed forces act in aid of the civil power by saying that the forces will do so “to the extent feasible and practicable... However, the manner in which such forces shall conduct their operations shall be within the discretion and judgment of such forces.” Worse, the Committee also suggests that the deployment of the security forces in any states can happen “notwithstanding that no request for such force is received from the State Government concerned.” In the opinion of Colin Gonsalves and others all this adds up to a proposal to pave the way for martial law in the country as and when that is found feasible to have it. But many Manipuri activists are too busy celebrating the proposed repeal of the dreaded law to notice the warning. And given their long ordeal, they can’t be blamed.

We all know that American diplomats often interfere with the most private matters of state of the countries they are stationed in. Some half a century ago the boot was on the other foot. Here’s a vignette from The Hindu of October 21, 1956.

“India’s Ambassador to the United States, Mr. G.L. Mehta, was on October 18 spotted by a reporter as he (Mr. Mehta) was standing far back in the rear of a crowd at the railway station at Elyria (Ohio) to watch the Democratic Presidential candidate, Mr. Adlai Stevenson. The reporters called out from the train “Hi Ambassador” to Mr. Mehta, who was standing with his hat brim lowered firmly over his eyes.

The Ambassador then dropped his “disguise” and was greeted by Mr. Stevenson. Mr. Mehta had just delivered an address to students at the Oberlin College at Elyria.

He said he had not planned to attend the “whistle-stop” meeting as he did not want to get mixed up in American politics but was persuaded that the disguise would work. Evidently, it did not, he added.”