Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-62: 13-Jun-02
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
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 62
06 - 13 June 2002
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Loya Jirga overcomes divisions, endorses Karzai
AFGHANISTAN: Karzai poised for presidency
AFGHANISTAN: Disputes, confusion delay Loya Jirga
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Barnett Rubin
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women's prison in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Refugees suffer for lack of aid funding
PAKISTAN: Man accused of blasphemy killed in jail
PAKISTAN: Court acquits woman sentenced to death by stoning
PAKISTAN: Focus on demand for fake documents
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on Poverty and migration in the Fergana Valley
AFGHANISTAN: Loya Jirga overcomes divisions, endorses Karzai
Afghanistan's Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, voted Hamid Karzai in as head
of state with an overwhelming majority late on Thursday, and his election
seems to have won the approval of the majority of Afghans - at least in
the capital city of Kabul. Ashraf Ghani, Karzai's chief adviser, told IRIN
on Friday that his first priority would be to consolidate peace and
security in the country and to ensure "the security of people in every
sense of the word". "The first thing would be to create and strengthen the
national security institutions like the army and police," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28327&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Karzai poised for presidency
Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan's interim government for the past
six months, looked poised to keep his position on Wednesday as the
traditional decision-making council, the Loya Jirga, entered its second
day of deliberations. After much last-minute political maneuvering and
negotiations in the run-up to the jirga, his only opponent remained a
woman - Mas'udah Jalal - who does not stand a realistic chance of being
elected since only about 200 of the 1,500-strong jirga delegates are
women. Jalal has no known political background. The jirga is expected to
vote on a head of state and government to lead the country for the next 18
months, until elections are held in 2004.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28277&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Disputes, confusion delay Loya Jirga
The opening session of the historic Loya Jirga, or Grand Council, which is
to decide on a transitional government and head of state to steer
Afghanistan into democratic elections in 2004, has been delayed. The
special commission charged with convening the Loya Jirga announced on
Monday that the late arrival and registration of some of the approximately
1,500 delegates had resulted in logistical problems, making a 24-hour
delay necessary. The commission stressed that neither security nor
political issues were responsible.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28237&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Barnett Rubin
Barnett Rubin is the well-known author of several books on Afghanistan. A
leading international expert on security, he is the Director of Studies at
New York University's centre for international cooperation. He is the
former director of the centre for preventive action at the Council for
Foreign Relations. In an interview with IRIN on the eve of a regional
conference in Turkey this month, he predicted that the outcome of the Loya
Jirga, or grand council, would make most Afghan political factions
unhappy, because their expectations were incompatible. However, they would
not opt for war to settle scores, he maintained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28296&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women's prison in Kabul
Sitting with her four children behind bars at the women's prison in the
Afghan capital, Kabul, Shyma protested her innocence, saying she and her
four children had already suffered long enough, having been there for more
than six weeks. "We have to buy our own food here, and the conditions are
terrible." Sharing a room with six other female prisoners, Shyma had been
confined to the filthy compound day and night, with no running water, and
the crumbling walls about to cave in.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28225&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Refugees suffer for lack of aid funding
Up to 100,000 Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) face
an uncertain future due to lack of funding for aid agencies. Water and
food are already in short supply in the IDP and refugee camps in Spin
Boldak and Chaman refugee camps along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
"Everything will be jeopardised by lack of funding," Melita Sunjic, a
spokeswoman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN on Thursday in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad. "We will be bankrupt if we do not receive the funding towards
the end of the month."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28302&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Man accused of blasphemy killed in jail
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday strongly
condemned the killing by another prisoner of a man convicted on a
blasphemy charge. The appeal of the convict, Yusuf Ali, had been under
consideration by the high court when he was murdered. The HRCP urged the
government to urgently investigate the incident. "We had been warning for
some time that the prisoners accused of blasphemy should be kept separate
from other inmates," Kamila Hayat, a joint director for the HRCP, told
IRIN from Lahore. "Given the increased risk to the prisoners accused of
blasphemy in the intolerant environment such precautions are necessary."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28273&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Court acquits woman sentenced to death by stoning
Pakistani rights activists have hailed the acquittal of a woman sentenced
to death by stoning in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP),
but have called for the law providing for such a sentence to be abrogated.
Zafran Bibi, who had been found guilty of adultery by a local court in the
NWFP in April, was acquitted by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) last week.
Women and human rights activists had condemned the sentence and urged the
government to repeal the hudud, or Islamic canon law, ordinance.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28250&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on demand for fake documents
As 29-year-old Javed arrived at the district court in Rawalpindi, the
Pakistani capital's twin city, he said he had not applied for a visa for
the UK because he was sure it would not be granted. "We all know that they
don't give young Pakistani men visas," he told IRIN. "I paid an agent
three lakh rupees [US $5,000] for a UK visa in my passport, but I was
stopped at the airport," he said. Javed is now waiting for his case to go
through the courts before he will try once again. "Why should I stay here
when I can have a better life there?"
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28272&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN : Focus on Poverty and migration in the Fergana Valley
On the side of a small hill overlooking the town of Osh in the Fergana
valley, stands a small tomb-like structure said to have been built five
centuries ago by a son of the valley named Babur. From the front of the
otherwise unimposing building the vista stretches down across vermilion
fields before rising to the Alai mountain range to the south. Beyond these
mountains a route opens up which takes the traveller through Tajikistan
into Afghanistan to Pakistan, and finally to India.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28174&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
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