U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 
Fax: +92-51-2211 450 
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 6
11 - 17 May 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN team assesses sanctions impact
AFGHANISTAN: Afghans reject Taliban's policy on women says poll
AFGHANISTAN: Potential for famine "apocalyptic" - US famine expert
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban warns Afghans: no turbans, no education
PAKISTAN: Heat wave kills 33 people
PAKISTAN: Doctors set up heatstroke units at Jalozai
PAKISTAN: Tribal fighting continues in northwest 
TAJIKISTAN: Ex-Soviet republic becomes NATO partner 
TAJIKISTAN: New funding pledges top US $430 million 
KYRGYZSTAN: Parliament threatens to impeach president
KAZAKHSTAN: Highest HIV prevalence in Central Asia 
KAZAKHSTAN: Congo fever strikes in south
IRAN: Khatami seeks second term in June elections


AFGHANISTAN: UN team assesses sanctions impact

A UN team is nearing completion of its week-long assessment of the impact
of sanctions on Afghanistan. According to a senior UN official, the
assessment has involved meetings with Taliban officials and ordinary
Afghans in an attempt to determine the humanitarian implications of the UN
Security Council sanctions imposed on the Taliban.

The Deputy UN Coordinator in Islamabad, Antonio Donini, told IRIN that
this was the first time that a humanitarian monitoring mechanism had been
included in Security Council sanctions on Afghanistan. Although it was too
early to draw conclusions from the mission, Donini said the study would be
"more in-depth" than the first study conducted at the end of March. "Given
the extent of the crisis it is important that the humanitarian impact of
sanctions is measured in an objective manner," he said. The humanitarian
monitoring mechanism was included in the latest Security Council
Resolution 1333, which imposed a fresh round of sanctions on the Taliban
in January.

AFGHANISTAN: Afghans reject Taliban's policy on women says poll

An overwhelming majority of Afghan people oppose the restrictive policies
on women imposed by the ruling Taliban, a poll by a US human rights group
revealed on Thursday, according to Reuters.

The Boston-based group, Physicians for Human Rights, said the survey
conducted in Afghanistan last year, found over that 90 percent of Afghan
women and men "strongly support the rights of women, currently restricted
by the Taliban regime", the group said. The restrictions include the
exclusion of women from education, jobs and other aspects of civilian
life. The survey covered 1,122 households, randomly sampled from four
rural and urban areas. Women accounted for 53 percent of participants.

More than 80 percent of Afghans said women should be allowed to move about
freely and that Islamic teachings did not restrict women's human rights,
as the Taliban contends, the poll said.

AFGHANISTAN: Potential for famine "apocalyptic" - US famine expert

The US is expected to announce a significant new tranche of funds for
Afghanistan in the coming weeks - the result of its recent mission to the
northern and western areas, which found the potential for widespread
famine to be "apocalyptic", a US famine expert told a recent press
briefing.  Tom Hushek, refugee coordinator with the US Embassy in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and a member of the four-strong team, told
IRIN that this first official US humanitarian mission into Afghanistan
since 1998 would result in a two-pronged approach to funding. This would
focus on food aid and longer-term sustainable assistance, such as seed and
livestock provision, and income-generation projects. Masking the real
effects of the drought, families were pooling resources in order to give
preferential feeding to children. The fear is that when resources hit rock
bottom, which, according to Hushek, appears imminent, there will be a
precipitous drop in health and nutritional status, leading to an increase
in death rates and "massive displacement".  For full IRIN story see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010515a.phtml
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban warns Afghans: no turbans, no education Afghanistan's
ruling Taliban movement has extended its order for the wearing of turbans
to include students in private education, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The Taliban, which follows a 1,400 year-old model for headwear, had
previously enforced the policy on students in state education, and public
employees. Now private education centres offering courses such as
computing and languages have been told to expel any student arriving at
class without the headdress that the Taliban considers an Islamic
tradition.

Earlier this year, the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar,
ordered all governmental students beyond grade three to wear turbans.
Dozens of students who defied the order have been banned from classes, and
teachers have feared the closure of schools if found flouting the order.
The Taliban's stern brand of Islam also outlaws music, cinema and all
other forms of entertainment.

PAKISTAN:  Heat wave kills 33 people

At least 33 people died from heatstroke and dehydration this week due to
soaring temperatures across Pakistan, AP reported on Monday.

Dr Mazhar Mufti of Shifa International Hospital in the capital, Islamabad,
told IRIN: "We see four to five patients a day suffering from heat related
symptoms." He put the death toll at higher than 33, given the lack of
official statistics nationwide. Temperatures in the city have reached 40
degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) and are expected to remain high
for some weeks. While no heat-related deaths have been recorded at Shifa,
25 deaths were reported in the southern Sindh Province and eight in the
Punjab Province, AP said.

Mufti warned that the elderly and the young were most at risk, and urged
people to drink at least 10 to 12 glasses of water a day.

PAKISTAN: Doctors set up heatstroke units at Jalozai The director of
health at Jalozai refugee camp in northwestern Pakistan, Dr Javed Pervez,
told IRIN that 19 deaths had been reported at the camp over a 10-day
period due to disease aggravated by soaring temperatures. As a result
doctors mobilised three rehydration and heatstroke units to cope with any
further outbreaks. Meanwhile, NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told IRIN
on Tuesday it was extremely concerned about the effect of rising
temperatures given the overcrowding and poor sanitation in the makeshift
Jalozai camp. MSF Coordinator in Peshawar Jake Stringer told IRIN that
these conditions were conducive to the spread of communicable diseases
such as cholera and measles. The NGO also warned of a potential fire
hazard given the overcrowding. MSF added that the coverage of its ongoing
measles vaccination campaign had been "very high, and incidents of
measles, despite the crowded conditions and nutritional insecurity, are
very low in the camp". Jalozai remains at the heart of a stalemate between
the regional Pakistani authorities and UNHCR. In late January, the
regional authorities suspended UNHCR's refugee verification process,
thereby effectively blocking the transfer of vulnerable people from
Jalozai to formalised camps.  For full IRIN story see:  
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010515.phtml


PAKISTAN: Tribal fighting continues in northwest Intense fighting
continued this week in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, where more
than 10 people were killed over two days, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The
fighting between the two villages of Pewar and Teri Mangal, near the
Afghan border, began two months ago over the ownership of a forest and
water supplies. The villagers are using heavy weapons to attack each
other, including rocket launchers and mortars. The government has
dispatched a paramilitary force to the semi-autonomous region reknowned
for its violent feuds; however, the force has been accused of doing little
to help. According to the BBC report, there is a ready supply of weapons
in the area.  TAJIKISTAN: Ex-Soviet republic becomes NATO partner
Tajikistan has joined NATO's Partnership for Peace programme, bringing it
one step closer to the Western military alliance, Reuters reported on
Wednesday. General Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, told
reporters during a visit to the capital, Dushanbe, that the cooperation
would allow the former Soviet republic to exchange experience with NATO
and train its officers with the help of NATO experts. The Partnership for
Peace programme, launched in 1994, was devised by NATO to draw former
communist states into closer cooperation, but stops short of offering full
membership. Tajikistan, which broke free from the Soviet Union in 1991,
remains dependent on Russia for security, with Russian forces patrolling
its border with Afghanistan.  TAJIKISTAN: New funding pledges top US $430
million The international community on Wednesday pledged US $430 million
in aid to Tajikistan, to help the small landlocked Central Asian republic
to rebuild itself, AFP reported on Wednesday. The funding pledges were
announced at a six-country donor meeting in Tokyo, convened by the World
Bank, to help Tajikistan reduce poverty and stabilise its economy after
the end of its civil war in 1997. The announcement coincides with the
visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov, to Japan. The five-day tour,
which began on Monday, represents the first visit by a Tajik leader to
Japan, comes only weeks after Japan swore in its new Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi.  Japan pledged 2.5 billion yen (about US $20 million)
for the Tajik fund, AFP reported. Nearly 85 percent of the Tajik
population of six million lives in extreme poverty, with minimum wages
barely topping US $1 a month. The last donors' meeting was held in 1998 in
Paris, with funds pledged there totalling US $280 million dollars, the
report said.
 
KYRGYZSTAN: Parliament threatens to impeach president

The chairman of a Kyrgyz parliamentary committee, Azimbek Beknazarov, told
IRIN on Monday that parliament may start procedures to impeach President
Askar Akayev for contravening constitutional law. The move comes after
Akayev signed an agreement ceding 90,000 hectares of Kyrgyz territory to
the country's eastern neighbour, China. The agreement has only just
reached the Kyrgyz parliament, despite having been signed by Akayev and
President Jiang Zemin two years ago.

The agreement was defined as unconstitutional by the chairman of the
parliamentary committee on defence and security issues, Ismail Isakov. He
maintains that according to Kyrgyz constitutional law, only parliament is
entitled to take decisions concerning changes to Kyrgyzstan's borders.  
KAZAKHSTAN: Highest HIV prevalence in Central Asia Kazakhstan has the
highest number of cases of HIV infection in Central Asia, a UNAIDS
official in Almaty told IRIN on Thursday.  Studies reveal 1,700 officially
registered cases of HIV infection in Kazakhstan, 230 HIV cases in
Uzbekistan, 58 in Kyrgyzstan, 15 in Tajikistan and four in Turkmenistan.
The real figure of HIV-infected people in Kazakhstan, given its population
of about 15 million, was likely to be five times greater than the number
officially registered, the UNAIDS source said.

KAZAKHSTAN: Congo fever strikes in south

A woman and two men were admitted to hospital on Tuesday, suspected of
carrying the highly contagious Crimean-Congo-Haemorrhagic-Fever [CCHF] in
Kazakhstan's southern Zhambyl Region, the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency
reported.

Already more than 10 people, two of them children, have been admitted to
hospital in the southern region since the beginning of the year, suspected
of carrying the disease. CCHF is similar to the deadly Ebola virus found
in Sub-Saharan Africa, which causes violent haemorrhaging.

IRAN: Khatami seeks second term in June elections Iran's pro-reformist
president, Mohammad Khatami, announced this week he would seek a second
term in office. However, he would face only nine rivals in next month's
election, after the Council of Guardians, which vets candidates for their
Islamic and political credentials, disqualified more than 800 contenders,
including all the women, media reports said. Khatami, who won by a
landslide against the conservatives in 1997, is virtually assured of
victory in the first round of voting on 8 June after no prominent
conservative stepped forward, the 'Financial Times' reported. The Council
gave no reason for disqualifying the more than 40 women who had
registered. Iran's constitution does not make it clear whether women are
eligible to serve as president or not.

Islamabad, 17 May 2001


IRIN-Asia: Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 , Mobile +92-300-8501-307 Fax:
+92-51-2211 450 or +92-51-2211475 email: irinasia@irin.org.pk


[This item is delivered in the "asia-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central Asia                       www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia