UNHCR suspends returns to parts of the north

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has suspended the return of internally displaced people (IDPs) in parts of northern Afghanistan due to deteriorating security conditions. "The factional fighting is not only hampering the return of refugees but is also sparking new displacement," Yusuf Hassan, the UNCHR spokesman in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told IRIN on Tuesday. "We are providing them transport for their return journey and we need to know that they will be safe when travelling," he added. At a news conference in the capital Kabul, Hassan said UNHCR was extremely concerned about the escalating violence and the worsening human rights situation in northern and central Afghanistan. "The situation in several parts of the two regions remains extremely tense," he asserted. The refugee agency suspended the return of IDPs from the western province of Herat to Faryab in the north, Sar-e Pol, and Sholgara in Balkh Province, as well as to Samangan Province, also in the north. Asked whether there would be a suspension of refugees returning to these areas, Hassan said: "No, it is only IDPs at the moment, as we know that they are the ones using these routes". Hassan told reporters that scores of attacks on ethnic minorities in Faryab, Balkh and Sar-e-Pol provinces had reportedly resulted in fatalities and destruction of properties. "There has also been an upsurge in criminal activities, robberies, rapes and murders," he warned. A few weeks earlier an international aid worker was gang-raped outside the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, which prompted NGOs to call for an extension of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), currently covering Kabul only. Hassan also gave details of central Afghan areas affected by fighting. Security in the two districts of Kahmard and Sayghan in Bamian Province was rapidly deteriorating, resulting in the deaths of civilians - especially women and children, he said. Afghans were now said to be fleeing Sayghan district. and reports of human rights violations were emerging from several villages in Kahmard. In response to the lapse in security, Afghanistan's newly appointed president, Hamid Karzai, has sent a special delegation to the north to address the problem of ethnic minorities, particularly in Faryab and Sar-e Pol provinces. "UNHCR welcomes the Transitional Authority’s decision, and is urging provincial authorities to protect the security and safety of the civilian populations in the northern region," Hassan said. There are some 80,000 IDPs in Afghanistan, uprooted by the civil war, the war on terrorism and the drought.