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 16
20 - 26 July 2001


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Suspected cholera claims 56 lives
AFGHANISTAN: UN Security Council urged to review policy 
PAKISTAN: Torrential rains no reprieve for drought
PAKISTAN: Future of Nasir Bagh residents uncertain
IRAN: Drought-affected areas suffer flash floods
IRAN: UNHCR concerned over anti-Afghan violence
KAZAKSTAN: Migrant workers could raise local tensions
KYRGYZSTAN: Prisoners fuelling TB epidemic
KYRGYZSTAN: NGO calls for release of journalist
UZBEKISTAN: Women appeal for release of relatives


AFGHANISTAN: Suspected cholera claims 56 lives

Suspected cholera has continued to take its toll in northern Afghanistan,
a WHO official in Islamabad told IRIN on Monday. The comment followed a
statement by an opposition Northern Alliance spokesman on 22 July saying
another 16 people, many of them children, had died of the disease
overnight in the remote Aqkupruk District of Balkh Province, bringing the
death toll to 139 in just one week. The WHO official confirmed to IRIN
that 56 of these deaths had resulted from suspected cholera, but said the
remaining reported deaths "could be from other causes due to deteriorating
conditions". According to WHO, when cholera occurs in an unprepared
community, the case-fatality rate may be as high as 50 percent - usually
because there are no facilities for treatment, or treatment is given too
late. If treated properly, case fatality drops to less than one percent.
[For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/afghanistan/20010723.phtml


AFGHANISTAN: UN Security Council urged to review policy

UN Security Council members have called for a review of council policy on
Afghanistan, the council's president, Chinese Ambassador Wang Yingfan,
told reporters on Thursday. "The members noted that the sanctions have had
limited impact on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, and that the
primary cause of human suffering was the ongoing conflict," Wang said.
"Some members suggested that we should have some kind of comprehensive
review," he added. However, a diplomatic source told IRIN that this did
not necessarily mean that the Security Council would change its sanctions
policy. "It won't get through politically," the source said. Members of
the Security Council were briefed by UN Under-Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima, who introduced Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's report on the effect of sanctions on the humanitarian situation in
Afghanistan. Council members also stressed the need to ensure the safety
of personnel providing humanitarian assistance to the war-torn nation, and
the smooth conduct of relief activities there, according to Wang.

PAKISTAN: Torrential rains no reprieve for drought

Despite Pakistan's receiving the heaviest rainfall this century,
government officials said on Tuesday that it would have little effect on
the country's ongoing drought. "Unfortunately, these heavy rains were
local in nature," Mirza Hamid Hasan of Pakistan's water and power
ministry, told IRIN. The rains are localised and downstream of the
country's main reservoirs, and not considered a significant relief to the
continuing Central Asian drought which has afflicted the country.
Torrential rains on Monday pounded northern and central parts of the
country, with flash floods and landslides sweeping away one village and
burying many victims beneath huge piles of mud, according to news reports.
One hundred and twenty-three people died in Pakistan's North-West Frontier
Province (NWFP), while another 50 died in the twin cities of Rawalpindi
and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, the director-general of Pakistan's
emergency relief division, Brigadier Ilyas Khan, told IRIN. He added that
the death toll was expected to rise even further as many of the missing
had not yet been accounted for.

PAKISTAN: Future for Nasir Bagh residents uncertain

Facing eviction from the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan's NWFP, most
of Afghan residents interviewed have no idea where they will go, according
to a recent survey carried out by the International Rescue Committee. Many
of the 120,000 Afghans being forced to leave by the local authorities to
make way for a new housing development said they were financially unable
to resettle elsewhere. Zahir Khan Jabberkhel, one of the first residents
at the camp set up 20 years ago, told IRIN it was a catastrophe. "We are
not going of our free will and we don't know where to go," he said. In
response to the crisis, the Afghan Taliban said on Tuesday that it wanted
to set up a camp for Nasir Bagh returnees in the eastern Afghan province
of Nangarhar. The Taliban embassy spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammad Suhail
Shaheen, told IRIN that it would provide land and security, but would like
NGOs and the UN to help with water, shelter and sanitation. He added,
however, that no discussions had yet taken place with the UN with regard
to the proposed camps. [For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/pakistan/20010725a.phtml]

IRAN: Drought-affected areas suffer flash floods

Heavy rain in areas affected by drought has led to severe flooding, loss
of life and extensive damage to property and crops in northeastern and
northwestern Iran. The absence of natural vegetation as a result of the
prolonged drought had left bare soil exposed to torrential downpours and
flash floods resulting in 32 deaths, a UN official in the capital, Tehran,
told IRIN on Monday. The official said heavy rains had destroyed many
hectares of agricultural land. Emergency search and rescue operations
began immediately, with government relief workers, Red Crescent Society,
and medical teams in place soon after the disaster, the official said. The
most affected areas included the Ardabil and Azarbayjan-e Gharbi provinces
in the northwest, and Golestan Province in the northeast.

IRAN: UNHCR concerned over anti-Afghan violence

UNHCR officials on Wednesday voiced concern over increasing outbursts of
violence directed against Afghans living in Iran. "Last week, clashes took
place on the outskirts of Tehran when anti-Afghan protesters rampaged in
the Pishva neighbourhood south of the capital, leaving a number of people
injured," Ron Redmond, the agency's spokesman in Geneva, said. During
protests in Pishva, local residents were reported to have shouted "Death
to Afghans!", and similar slogans had been scrawled on buildings in the
area, he said. Redmond maintained that many Afghan men were now too afraid
to look for work in local markets due to the rising anger among some
Iranians, who believed that Afghans were taking their jobs. UNHCR has
raised concern over this and other recent attacks with the Iranian
interior ministry.

KAZAKHSTAN: Migrant workers could raise local tensions

The Kazakh authorities have introduced a series of emergency measures to
curb the influx of economic migrants into the country. With high
unemployment rates, there are concerns that local tensions between Kazakhs
and cheaper migrant labourers could lead to violence, according to a
report by International War and Peace Reporting on Thursday. The measures
include tighter border security, legislation to protect the domestic
labour market, and a controversial visa-style regime to keep tabs on
visitors from other Central Asian states. At present, over 5,000 illegal
migrants work in southern Kazakhstan, with the majority located in the
Almaty (Alma-Ata) region. The Kazakh authorities intended to hold
employers responsible for hiring illegal foreign workers, the report said.
But migrants had proved to be popular among Kazakh employers as they were
willing to take almost any job because, however low, the wages they
received were up to 12 times as much as they could earn at home, it added.

KYRGYZSTAN: Prisoners fuelling TB epidemic

With an estimated one quarter of inmates infected with tuberculosis (TB),
prisoners released back into the community are dramatically contributing
to the spread of the disease in Kyrgyz society. The director of the Kyrgyz
TB research institute, Avtandil Alisherov, told IRIN on Tuesday that more
than 50 percent of the 1,160 people who died of TB in Kyrgyzstan last
year, had been convicts infected in jail. Kyrgyz communities are
unequipped to cope with released convicts infected with active TB. As a
result, the country had one of the highest recorded incidences of TB in
Central Asia, with an estimated 200 per 100,000 people infected, said
Alisherov. Determined to counter the TB threat, the government has adopted
a five-year programme which it hopes will reduce the spread of the
disease. But Kyrgyz NGOs maintain that the policy on TB-infected convicts
must be revised and sufficient funds allocated to curb rising infection
rates in prisons. Although standard TB treatments usually cost under US
$25 per patient, curing convicts with multi-resistant TB strains could
cost up to US $7,000 per patient. [For full report go to:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/kyrgyzstan/20010726.phtml

KYRGYZSTAN: NGO calls for release of journalist

The immediate release of a television journalist in a Kyrgyz prison was
called for by Internews, an international NGO promoting press freedom
worldwide, on 20 July. The group says Samagan Orozaliev, jailed in the
southern city of Jalal-Abad, is being held on false grounds. "This is a
completely fabricated case," Internews Country Director Christoph Schuepp
told IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. "Such incidents prove that in
this country some people are above the law and, unfortunately, journalists
are increasingly becoming the targets of such individuals." Kyrgyzstan was
a difficult country for journalists to operate in freely, and this was
just another example of that, he added. According to the US-based group,
Orozaliev was arrested on 28 May after police officials found US $300 in
his clothing, money that he had allegedly received after blackmailing a
local politician/businessman in Jalal-Abad. The journalist claims he was
framed.

UZBEKISTAN: Women appeal for release of relatives

Hundreds of women in Uzbekistan have appealed to Uzbek President Islam
Karimov to free relatives jailed for belonging to an outlawed religious
organisation, a human rights group said on Tuesday, as quoted in an AFP
report. Some 420 women from the Ferghana Valley appealed under an amnesty
marking the republic's 10th anniversary of independence. According to the
report, a leading Uzbek human rights group said the women acted after
their spouses were sentenced to harsh terms for allegedly belonging to the
religious Hizbut Tahrir (Liberation Party). In an earlier IRIN interview,
Mikhail Ardzinov, the chairman of the Independent Human Rights
Organisation of Uzbekistan, said over 7,000 people had been imprisoned in
the country for their religious beliefs. This is the latest protest by
women against the alleged harsh treatment which, according to human rights
organisations, has been targeting followers of non-registered religious
groups. [For full details of the interview with Ardzinov see:
http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/asia/countrystories/uzbekistan/20010531.phtml]

Islamabad, 26 July 2001


IRIN-Asia Phone:- +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 , Mobile +92-0300-8501-307, Fax
No:- +92-51-2211450 or 475 E-mail:-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