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DATE=10/13/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / AFGHAN REFUGEES (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-267903

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-C-R, reports that record numbers of Afghan refugees are fleeing fierce fighting between Taleban forces and the opposition Northern Alliance. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the agency says thousands are crossing into Pakistan.

TEXT: The fighting is going on in northeastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan. However, the refugees are fleeing toward Pakistan.

The U-N Refugee Agency says record numbers have crossed into Pakistan at the Torkham border in the past three weeks. U-N-H-C-R monitors observed more than two-thousand new arrivals between Sunday and Thursday. The agency says this is the single largest influx for this year in one week. U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says many of these people have traveled very long distances seeking asylum. He says one exhausted group traveled 25 days.

///JANOWSKI ACT///

They were trekking through the rugged Hindu Kush mountains. They were exhausted, traumatized and in a very poor state. They say the battle for control of Taloqun was the heaviest they witnessed in recent years. They also spoke of many casualties. These people have now been moved to the Khairabad camp in Thiral in Pakistan where they had been repatriated in 1992. So, they have basically come full circle. They went back and they had to flee again.

///END ACT///

So far, about 16-thousand Afghan refugees from the fighting in northeastern Afghanistan have arrived in Pakistan. The Refugee Agency says this influx shows no signs of slowing.

The Taleban control around 95 percent of Afghanistan. The opposition controls the remaining five percent.

/// OPT /// Mr. Janowski says the refugees are predominantly Dar speaking and are of Tajik ethnicity.

///2ND JANOWSKI ACT///

Some of the people are certainly of the wrong ethnic flavor, and they don't want an encounter with the Taleban for a number of reasons, because these people are usually perceived by the Taleban as hostile towards the Taleban since they lived in areas which were the stronghold of the opponent of the Taleban.

///END ACT/// /// END OPT ///

Mr. Janowski says the Taleban, in the past, have treated civilian populations in opposition territory ruthlessly. He says over a year ago, many people were killed and massacred when the Taleban took over the town of Herat. He says many of the current refugees do not want to take any chances and are fleeing the advancing Taleban forces. (Signed)

NEB/LS/GE/tdw