This Response to Information Request is supplemental to that provided in AFG28173.E of 27 November 1997 and AFG27853.E of 21 November 1997.

The following information comes from to a July 1998 report produce by the Danish Immigration Service and entitled Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Afghanistan, 1 to 29 November 1997 (also available on the Internet at http://www.udlst.dk/start.htm). The mission was carried out by the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Immigration Service together.

With regard to the tazkiras, the report states that

Upon registration of a birth, an identity card is issued. However, a child's parents are free to choose at what point before it reaches the age of seven they wish to have it registered. By virtue of the fact that an identity card is issued upon registration of a birth, according to the Repatriation Ministry's Herat office, no actual birth certificates are issued.

An Afghan identity card takes the form of a 16-page booklet. It is issued on either a permanent or a temporary basis, according to the Repatriation Ministry's Herat office. In order to start school, a child needs an identity card. An identity card has to be produced at the request of the police, e.g. at road checkpoints. Failure to so do may entail arrest for identification purposes (87).

The following information was provided during a 10 July 1998 telephone interview with a documentalist for the Danish Immigration Service in Copenhagen. The documentalist was part of the fact-finding mission to Afghanistan that produce The Report on the Fact-Finding Mission to Afghanistan, 1 to 29 November 1997.

The taskera is a booklet that has sixteen pages with paper cover. The cover page bears the national symbol of Afghanistan with a text stating the name of the country and the type of the document (e.g., an identity card). The first page includes the national symbol of the country, a text and the number of the identity card in arabic, surrounded by a pink or reddish frame. Pages 2, 3 and 4 are blank.

Pages 3 to 7 are pink or reddish where the national symbol is placed in the middle of the pages, except for page 4. The photo of the card holder is placed on page 4. Pages 8 to 16 are white.

The following information was provided during a 7 July 1998 telephone interview with the Director of the Centre For Afghanistan Studies (CAS) at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. The CAS publishes the Afghanistan Studies Journal. The director lived in Afghanistan between 1964 and 1974 where he was in charge of the Fullbright Foundation. He currently travels to Afghanistan regularly as a consultant on Afghanistan for the United Nations and the Department of State of the United States. The director was in Afghanistan in the Spring of 1998 where he travelled around the Kabul and northern area of the country as part of a United Nations team.

The director stated that the tazkiras is a small pocket-size booklet of sixteen pages. The document contains one page that indicates where the document has been registered while another page is used for change of address. The last two pages of the document provide the rules that govern the use of the identity card. Each tazkiras has its own serial number.

Both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance issue identity cards. The director could not provide information on the difference between tazkiras issued by the Taliban and by the Northern Alliance.

The date of issue is indicated in the tazkiras. One can replace or renew a tazkiras issued by the Taliban by making an application to the Ministry of the Interior offices. People who do not have any documentation as a proof of identity in order to replace or renew their tazkiras, can be accompanied by people with tazkiras who would vouch for them.

The director indicated that differences in the tazkiras reflect changes in governments in Afghanistan between 1973 and 1998. The director could not provide detailed information on all the transformations to the tazkiras since 1973, but added that the main changes affected the colour of the document, the national emblem and the full name of the country.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Danish Immigration Service. July 1998. Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Afghanistan, 1 to 29 November 1997. (http://www.udlst.dk/start.htm).

Director, Centre For Afghanistan Studies (CAS), University of Nebraska in Omaha. 7 July 1998. Telephone interview.

Documentalist, Danish Immigration Service, Copenhagen. 10 July 1998. Telephone interview.