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By Jean-Claude Chapon HERAT (AFP) - The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, was warmly welcomed by the ruling Taliban militia Sunday when she flew into the western Afghan city of Herat for talks on repatriation of refugees from Iran and Pakistan. Taliban minister for repatriation, Mulla Abdul Raquib, and other senior officials greeted her at the heavily guarded airport, witnesses said. Armed Taliban soldiers in a convoy of some 30 vehicles accompanied her when she drove to the official residence of Herat Governor Mulla Khairullah who led the Taliban side. Ogata, currently on a regional tour, arrived in a U.N. plane from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to discuss the plight of some 2.6 million Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan and Iran. She said she would discuss the human rights situation in Afghanistan, and urge the Taliban rulers to establish conditions conducive for the returnees to stay in Afghanistan. The UNHCR chief said she would also ask the Taliban to provide security, health coverage and education to Afghanistan, amid international criticism over denial of jobs and schooling to Afghan women. Afghan sources said the Taliban would discuss the problems being faced by people affected by recent drought in Afghanistan. Journalists visiting the city said hundreds of people uprooted by drought in the southern province of Ghor were languishing in an open public park in central Herat. Before leaving for Herat, Ogata bade farewell to some 201 Afghan families who left the Beleli refugee camp near Quetta in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province for their home country as part of the UNHCR's voluntary repatriation program. A total of 916 refugees, all ethnic Pushtuns, left the camp located near a Pakistan army base on the road to Chaman, bordering Afghanistan. The returning refugees will be settled in Hilmand and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, U.N. sources said, adding that each family will get 5000 rupees (about $90) and 300 kilograms of wheat upon their arrival in Afghanistan. "I have come here to say goodbye to those who want to go back," said Ogata at the camp on the outskirts of the provincial capital Quetta. She stressed that the people of the war-torn country wanted peace. "They are going back hoping peace will return soon," Ogata said as trucks loaded with goods and families left the camp amid clouds of dust. "I am happy to be back home, but I am a bit worried, " said Mohammad, 36, father of seven children, who is returning to his home province of Hilmand. "I was never involved in politics, and I am Pushtun. I think I will have no problem," he said referring to the ethnic affinity of the ruling Taliban militia. Ogata began her tour last week to focus on the plight of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran. During her four-day stay in Pakistan, she held talks with Pakistan President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar and military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, who called for increased international interest in ending the refugee crisis. "I am fully aware it is a very heavy burden on people and the government of Pakistan," hosting 1.2 million refugees for the past 21 years, she said. "There are still new outflows due to fighting," in Afghanistan, she added. However, she did not promise any increase in the assistance from the UNHCR, which is already hit by "donor fatigue." She described the repatriation of the refugees as a "complex issue, which has to be addressed in a comprehensive manner." The commissioner will cross the border from Herat into Iran where she will visit several refugee camps holding about 1.4 million Afghan refugees. |
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