‘We need peace, land to go home’: Afghan refugees tell UN

In this Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020 photo, Afghan refugee Hukam Khan narrates the situation of his country, at Kabobayan refugee camp, in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AP)
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Updated 17 February 2020
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‘We need peace, land to go home’: Afghan refugees tell UN

  • After four decades of war and conflict, more than 1.5 million Afghans still live as refugees in Pakistan
  • The United States and the Taliban appear to have inched closer to a peace deal, agreeing as a first step to a temporary “reduction in violence”

KEBABYAN CAMP, Pakistan: Hukam Khan isn’t sure how old he is, but his beard is long and white, and when he came to Pakistan 40 years ago fleeing an earlier war in Afghanistan, his children were small, stuffed onto the backs of donkeys and dragged across rugged mountains to the safety of northwestern Pakistan.

Back then the war was against the former Soviet Union and Khan was among more than 5 million Afghans forced to become refugees in Pakistan, driven from their homes by a bombing campaign so brutal it was referred to as a “scorched earth” policy.

After four decades of war and conflict, more than 1.5 million Afghans still live as refugees in Pakistan, feeling abandoned by their own government, increasingly unwelcome in their reluctant host country and ignored by the United Nations.

Now, for the first time in years, there’s a faint possibility they might eventually return home. The United States and the Taliban appear to have inched closer to a peace deal, agreeing as a first step to a temporary “reduction in violence.”
 

If that truce should hold, the next step could be a long-sought-after agreement between Washington and the Taliban to end Afghanistan’s current war, now in its 19th year.

The agreement would return American troops home and start negotiations between the warring Afghans to bring peace to their shattered country.
Against the backdrop of a possible peace deal, Pakistan is hosting a conference Monday attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to recognize 40 years of Afghans living as refugees.

Also attending the conference in the capital, Islamabad, is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, whose job would be to help the Afghans return home. It won’t be easy.

Many refugees have already tried going back — lured by promises of help and hope from the international community and from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani — only to find there was neither food nor shelter for them.

Many also discovered they were no longer welcome in the villages they had left decades earlier. Disillusioned, they returned to Pakistan and to Iran, while tens of thousands of other Afghans paid smugglers and risked their lives to escape to Europe. From there, many were later loaded on planes and returned to war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Grandi called the forced return of refugees from Europe “shameful” in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday. “I do ... fervently hope that the countries like Iran and Pakistan, who have hosted so generously ... don’t take their example from much richer countries that are shutting borders, not only to Afghans, but to many other refugees,” he said.

While the specter of a US-Taliban peace deal raises hope that the refugees will eventually return home, Grandi said, “I think this time around, the people who are still left outside will be very cautious in their judgment. They would want to have guarantees that it can be sustainable.”

Another challenge will be raising the vast sums of money needed to help return home not only refugees abroad, but also the millions of Afghans who are internally displaced inside their own country. The world has grown tired of sending money to a country with such endemic corruption, which has driven poverty levels up despite billions of dollars in aid since 2001.

Just last month, a US government watchdog said the Afghan government was more interested in ticking off boxes to demonstrate compliance than making real inroads to curb corruption.

Poverty levels in Afghanistan are climbing. In 2012, 34 percent of Afghans were listed as below the poverty level, living on $1 a day. Today, that figure has risen to 55%.
Khan, the Afghan refugee in Pakistan, now has grown children who have children of their own. He said he blames the overwhelming poverty in his homeland on a corrupt leadership.

“To tell you the truth, lots of money came to Afghanistan and every influential person, even the mullahs, stole that money,” said Khan. ”The leaders are all traitors, they betrayed Afghans. The children of poor people got killed, while no leader lost his son.” Khan said he had a message for Guterres and for Grandi.

“We don’t ask for much,” he said, looking out over the sunbaked mud and straw homes in the camp where he’s lived for 40 years. Located on the edge of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, the refugee camp is only about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border with Afghanistan.

Among locals, the camp is known as Kabobyan Camp, named for the many kabob shops that sprung up around it, most of which have long since disappeared.

“First we ask for peace,” said Khan, surrounded by dozens of children dressed in tattered clothes. None were wearing socks despite the chilly February morning, their feet and hands caked in mud.

“When there is peace, we should be provided with land on which we can build our homes first. Then we need to have food, and then we need to be able to build our schools, our shops and our mosques,” he said.

Indrika Ratwatte, the UN human rights organization’s regional director for Asia, told the AP in an interview last week that Afghan refugees have little faith in their government or international organizations.

Khan’s request for land is reasonable, Ratwatte said, explaining how the UN wants to set up 20 zones throughout Afghanistan that would offer returning refugees land to start anew, as a kind of prototype.

“We know how resilient Afghans are,” Ratwatte said. “If you give them that small opportunity, they will make it work. They will make it work. So we have to really ‘walk the talk’ on the land allocation.”

Shah Wali, another elderly refugee, left his home in Surkhrud in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province almost 40 years ago. He tried returning, but found nothing left. What wasn’t destroyed by war had been taken by neighbors and thieves.

But even the faint chance of peace has him hopeful. “Give us peace and then we will go back,” he said. “Who doesn’t want to back to their homeland?“


Red Cross confirms office closures in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff

Updated 4 sec ago
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Red Cross confirms office closures in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff

DAKAR: The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the ruling junta ordered the organization to leave the country.
The ICRC confirmed the closure and departure in a statement on Thursday.
“We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue with the authorities of Niger with a view to resuming our strictly humanitarian protection and assistance activities,” Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s regional director for Africa, said in the statement.
In February, Niger’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had ordered the ICRC to close its offices and leave the country. No official reason was given for the military junta’s decision to shut down the organization’s operations in the country at the time.
The ICRC said it had been in dialogue with Niger’s authorities since February to understand the reasons for their decision and provide any necessary clarification but that these efforts were unsuccessful.
On May 31, Niger’s junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, justified the ICRC expulsion on Nigerien state television, accusing the organization of having met with “terrorist leaders” and funding armed groups.
The ICRC refuted the accusations in its statement on Thursday, saying that dialogue with all sides in the conflict is necessary to carry out its humanitarian mandate and that it “never provides financial, logistical, or any other form of support” to armed groups.
The humanitarian organization had been active in the West African country since 1990, mainly helping people displaced by violence by Islamic extremists, food insecurity and natural disasters. According to the organization, it provided humanitarian aid to more than 2 million people in Niger.
Niger’s military rulers took power in a coup two years ago, the latest of several military takeovers in Africa’s Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that has become a hotspot for extremist violence by militant groups.
Since the coup, Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, such as France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for security.
Last November, the country’s military junta banned the French aid group Acted from working in the country amid tensions with France.

France cools expectations of swift Palestinian state recognition

Updated 22 min 39 sec ago
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France cools expectations of swift Palestinian state recognition

  • France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a UN conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians

PARIS: France on Friday dampened expectations Paris could rapidly recognize a Palestinian state, with the French foreign minister saying while it was “determined” to make such a move, recognition had to be more than “symbolic.”
France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a UN conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
There had been expectations that France could recognize a Palestinian state during that conference, with President Emmanuel Macron also growing increasingly frustrated with Israel’s blocking of aid to the Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“France could have taken a symbolic decision. But this is not the choice we made because we have a particular responsibility” as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, while saying Paris was still “determined” the make the move.
He said France would not recognize a Palestinian state alone, in a possible reference to the eagerness of Paris to see any French recognition matched by Gulf Arab allies — notably regional kingpin Saudi Arabia — recognizing Israel.
Several EU countries including Ireland, Spain and Sweden recognize a Palestinian state. But Germany, while backing a two-state solution, has said recognition now would send the “wrong signal.”
France is reportedly working closely on the issue with the United Kingdom, which also so far has not recognized a Palestinian state, at a time when French-British diplomatic ties are becoming increasingly tight after Brexit.
Macron on Thursday said that he expected the conference in New York would take steps “toward recognizing Palestine,” without being more specific.
He has said he hopes French recognition of a Palestinian state would encourage other governments to do the same and that countries who do not recognize Israel should do so.
Barrot meanwhile also stressed the “absolute necessity” to address the issue of the disarmament of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there, figures the United Nations deems reliable.
Relations between Israel and France have deteriorated over the last weeks, with Israel’s foreign ministry accusing Macron of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state” after he called on European countries to harden their stance if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve.


Modi inaugurates ambitious rail project connecting Kashmir to Indian plains

Updated 27 min 1 sec ago
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Modi inaugurates ambitious rail project connecting Kashmir to Indian plains

  • 272-kilometer line begins in garrison city of Udhampur in Jammu, runs through Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar
  • The line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges, Indian government has pegged the total project cost at around $5 billion

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated one of the most ambitious railway projects ever built in India, which will connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

Dubbed by government-operated Indian Railways as one of the most challenging tracks in the world, the 272-kilometer (169-mile) line begins in the garrison city of Udhampur in Jammu region and runs through Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. The line ends in Baramulla, a town near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.

The line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges. The Indian government pegged the total project cost at around $5 billion.

One of the project’s highlights is a 1,315-meter-long (4,314-foot) steel and concrete bridge above the Chenab River connecting two mountains with an arch 359 meters (1,177 feet) above the water. Indian Railways compared the height to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which stands 330 meters (1,082 feet), and said the bridge is built to last 120 years and endure extreme weather, including wind speeds up to 260 kph (161 mph).

Modi visited the Chenab bridge with tight security, waving an Indian tri-color flag before boarding a test train that passed through picturesque mountains and tunnels to reach an inauguration ceremony for another high-elevation bridge named Anji.

The prime minister also helped launch a pair of new trains called “Vande Bharat” that will halve the travel time between Srinagar and the town of Katra in Jammu to about three hours from the usual six to seven hours by road.

Modi traveled to Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday for the first time since a military conflict between India and Pakistan brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of their third war over the region last month, when the countries fired missiles and drones at each other.

The conflict began with a gun massacre in late April that left 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-administered Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied.

Addressing a public rally in Katra, Modi lashed out at Pakistan and alleged Islamabad was behind the massacre. He said the attack was primarily aimed at Kashmir’s flourishing tourism industry and meant to fuel communal violence.

“I promise you, I won’t let developmental activities stop in Kashmir,” Modi said, adding that local industries and businesses will get a boost from the new rail connectivity.

The railway project is considered crucial to boosting tourism and bringing development to a region that has been marred by militancy and protests over the years. 

The line is expected to ease the movement of Indian troops and the public to the disputed region, which is currently connected by flights and mountain roads that are prone to landslides.

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. 

Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.


Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

Updated 06 June 2025
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Three men to go on trial next year over fires linked to UK PM Starmer

  • Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life
  • Ukrainian Petro Pochynok and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc are accused of conspiracy to commit arson

LONDON: Three men all linked to Ukraine will go on trial next April accused of involvement in a series of arson attacks on houses and a vehicle in London connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a London court heard on Friday.
Over five days last month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader. Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, is charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life. Fellow Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, are accused of conspiracy to commit arson.
Lavrynovych and Carpiuc appeared by video-link at London’s Old Bailey court on Friday where Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb set the trial for April 27 next year. Pochynok was not present for the hearing.
In earlier hearings, prosecutors said the motive for the arsons was unclear.
The men will enter formal pleas at a hearing in October, but the lawyers for Carpiuc and Pochynok said their clients denied involvement.
Counter-terrorism police have led the investigation but none of the men have been charged with offenses under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act, which was brought in to target hostile state activity.
Police said the first fire involved a Toyota RAV4 car that Starmer used to own and sold to a neighbor. Days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer previously resided and the following day there was an attack on a house in north London that he still owns.
Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
Earlier this week a fourth man, aged 48, who had been arrested at London Stansted Airport in connection with the arson, was released on police bail.


Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

Updated 06 June 2025
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Canada and China agree to ‘regularize communications’

MONTREAL: Canada and China have agreed to regularize channels of communication, the office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, after a period of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“Mark Carney, spoke with the Premier of China, Li Qiang. The leaders exchanged views on bilateral relations, including the importance of engagement, and agreed to regularize channels of communication between Canada and China,” it said in a statement.
They also discussed trade and “committed their governments to working together to address the fentanyl crisis.”
Ties between Beijing and Ottawa have been tense in recent years following the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in 2018.
Li told Carney that “in recent years, China-Canada relations have faced unnecessary disturbances and encountered serious difficulties,” Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
He added that China is “willing to work with Canada to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade” in the face of growing unilateralism and protectionism, Xinhua reported, noting that the call came at Carney’s request.
Both countries have been targeted by US President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and have condemned them.