NEWS - UNHCR 'BETRAYED AND ABANDONE

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: NEWS - UNHCR 'BETRAYED AND ABANDONED' AFGHANS

Source:      Refugees Daily
 Date:       Wednesday 17 November 1999
 Title:      INDIA: UNHCR 'BETRAYED AND ABANDONED' AFGHANS
 Text:
       UNHCR has left some 60,000 Afghan emigres in the lurch in New
Delhi by
       cutting off payments and support, an Indian rights group said
yesterday,
       reports AFP. The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre
said in a
       report on Afghan refugees in India that UNHCR had "betrayed and
       abandoned" the exiles through its "heavy-handed and partisan"
approach.
       "There seems to also be a political agenda here. The UNHCR has
money for
       Kosovo and Rwanda and anything else that makes it on the CNN news
       bulletin but nothing for Afghan, Myanmar or Bhutanese refugees,"
Ravi Nair,
       the chief of the rights body said. "The Indian government has
surrendered part
       of its sovereignty by allowing the UNHCR to determine who is a
refugee and
       who is not," he said. According to Nair, there are 60,000 Afghan
refugees in
       India, all of whom are required by law to live in the Indian
capital. He said only
       16,000 "possessed certificates issued by the UNHCR." The study
said
       UNHCR had slashed its subsistence rolls from 12,000 Afghan
families at the
       end of 1994 to 1,500 families in 1998. It said UNHCR had "opaque
       procedures for much-coveted sponsorships for resettlement to
western
       countries." Meanwhile the Washington Post reports UN economic
sanctions
       against Afghanistan are provoking concern and anger in Pakistan
that
       thousands of hungry refugees may begin streaming across the
border.
       [UNHCR 'betrayed and abandoned' Afghan refugees: human rights
report ?
       www.afp.com; Pakistan Feels the Sanctions ?
www.washingtonpost.com]