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 66
06 - 12 July 2002


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Aid needs still overwhelming
AFGHANISTAN: Government minister assassinated
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the Salang Tunnel
AFGHANISTAN: Herat IDPs head for home
AFGHANISTAN: Refugee return drops due to security concerns
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the disfiguring skin disease leishmaniasis
AFGHANISTAN: Waiting for the Internet
PAKISTAN: Nutritional programme for school girls
PAKISTAN: Focus on landmine threat
PAKISTAN: Elections may not bring democracy
PAKISTAN: Gang-rape accused arrested
CENTRAL ASIA: HIV/AIDS growing rapidly
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Children bear the brunt of poverty
TAJIKISTAN: Blow to independent radio



AFGHANISTAN: Aid needs still overwhelming

The United Nations and its non-governmental partners need almost US $398
million to continue their humanitarian, recovery and reconstruction work
in Afghanistan this quarter, a UN official told IRIN on Thursday. Andrew
Cox, in the office of the deputy special representative of the Secretary
General in Afghanistan, said that since the loya jirga last month, where a
transitional administration is oncourse to run the country for the next 18
months, there has been a determined effort to "move beyond pure emergency
programmes and to quite substantially expand recovery and reconstruction
work" in the country. He cited the needs of returning refugees and of
internally displaced Afghans (IDPs), the increase of social protection
like food security programmes, urban management and food to cities for the
most vulnerable, and health and nutrition programmes as priorities.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28763&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Government minister assassinated

Security was at an all time high Saturday following the assassination of
the Minister for Public Works, Haji Abdul Qadir, in the Afghan capital,
Kabul. The prominent Pashtun leader, who was also one of the country's
three vice presidents, was shot in the head. "This was a terrorist act,"
spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, Omar Samad, told IRIN at the
scene. "Whoever did this is an enemy of peace and stability and the
process of reconstruction in this country." According to eyewitnesses, two
gunmen sprayed the minister's Toyota land cruiser as it was leaving the
Ministry for Public Works midday Saturday, killing both Qadir and his
driver, before escaping in a waiting taxi. A former governor of Nangarhar
province, Qadir was one of the most powerful men in eastern Afghanistan
and one of the few ethnic Pastun members of the interim government. His
death will undoubtedly heighten already growing concerns over peace and
stability in the country - devastated by over two decades of war.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28683&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the Salang Tunnel - key humanitarian lifeline

Two leading NGOs this week renewed their calls for urgent repair work to
be started at Afghanistan's key Salang tunnel this summer. The 2.6-km
tunnel, representing a vital humanitarian link between the north and south
of the country, is in dire need of attention. "There is going to be a
major problem unless certain things are done now to prepare for the
winter," Shruti Mehrotra, the national programme coordinator for the
French NGO, ACTED, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Nasir Ahmad, an
assistant programme manager for the British demining NGO, Halo Trust, was
even blunter. Drawing attention to the lack of ventilation in the tunnel,
he told IRIN there was a high risk of carbon-monoxide poisoning for the
thousands of people travelling through it each day.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28756&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Herat IDPs head for home

The voluntary repatriation of nearly 7,000 displaced Afghans from the
Rawzabagh camp in Herat in the west has been completed, says the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Jeff McMurdo, IOM
programme co-ordinator for Afghanistan, told IRIN on Monday that only 65
families from a total of 7,000 people remained at the camp for internally
displaced people (IDPs). Those who remained, he said, did not want to
return to their homes and it was still unclear where they would resettle.
For now, however, they were still being provided with shelter and food at
the camp. Rawzabagh is one of five IOM co-ordinated IDP camps in Herat,
western Afghanistan. According to an IOM statement, more than 71,000
Afghans have returned to their homes from the camps in the past four
months - 9,000 of them since the middle of June.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28688&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Refugee return drops due to security concerns

Many Afghan refugees in Pakistan have delayed their repatriation after the
assassination of Afghanistan's transitional vice-president, Haji Qadir,
last week. Afghan civil society representatives told IRIN on Wednesday
that the Afghans were also concerned about rampant violence in northern
Afghanistan, coupled with a fear of errant American bombs, such as those
which killed dozens of civilians a week ago. "Security is the first
concern of the refugees, and they are worried for their lives," Muhammad
Hassan Taimuri, head of the Afghan National Shura [council] told IRIN from
Quetta, capital of the southwestern Baluchistan province bordering
Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28744&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the disfiguring skin disease leishmaniasis

Sitting on her bed at the Maywand hospital skin centre in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, 70-year-old Amena can barely lift her arm. Her limbs,
hands and face are marked by the first signs of leishmaniasis, a
disfiguring and disabling skin disease affecting hundreds of thousands of
people in Afghanistan. "I feel better now," she told IRIN. "I didn't know
I could get treatment and was worried it would only get worse." But Amena
is one of the lucky few. Most people infected with leishmaniasis go
without medical treatment altogether, with the result that the disease is
spreading quickly in this city of two million.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28710&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Waiting for the Internet

Afghanistan's only Internet café is empty. Located in the basement of the
Intercontinental Hotel in the Afghan capital Kabul, the 11 empty seats
illustrate one of the many challenges ahead - how to connect this
beleaguered nation to the rest of the world. "This is the first Internet
café in Afghanistan," manager, Weliash Nayab told IRIN proudly. "Local
people are curious about the Internet, but once they see the cost they
leave," the 24-year old said. Less than two percent of the customers were
local Afghans, he explained. But at US $5 for thirty minutes, it's not
hard to understand why. "It's simply a question of cost for the average
Afghan," Khalil Sharaiman, an Afghan American from Fremont, California
told IRIN. Working as a volunteer at the Ministry of Finance, he
appreciated the effort made by the newly-formed Afghan Wireless
Communications Company (AWCC) in setting up the operation.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28684&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Nutritional programme for school girls

Pakistani authorities, the Aga Khan University (AKU) and several NGOs will
be partners in a nationwide nutritional programme for school girls, which
is to start later this year as summer vacations end, officials told IRIN
on Wednesday. The two-year programme plans to provide a meal per day and
food supplements to about half a million girls between the age of five and
12 in 28 of the country's poorest regions. A government statement faxed to
IRIN said the Ministry of Women's Development signed a memorandum of
understanding with the AKU on Tuesday for the implementation of the
project, which is going to cost close to US$ 58 million over a period of
two years. The money is being provided by the government of Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28735&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on landmine threat

Ten-year-old Rauf lost his left leg after stepping on an antipersonnel
mine two years back while playing in a field near his home. Now he hobbles
to school in his village of Bargabary in the Bajaur Agency, a tribal
district adjacent to the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan,
far from the conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan. Rauf's 16-member family
is destitute in a remote and marginalised part of the country. "I want to
read more, and maybe one day I will play again," he said. His story
highlights the ever-present, but little-publicised, threat arising from
the presence of landmines, which have maimed and killed hundreds over the
past two decades in these semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering
Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28734&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Elections may not bring democracy

Politicians in Pakistan have reacted cautiously to the presidential
announcement of general elections on 10 October for all national and
provincial legislatures after three years of military rule in the country.
Welcoming the announcement, spokesman for the Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP), Farhatullah Babar told IRIN on Thursday in the capital Islamabad
that the date was not important but the manner of the elections was
important. "We will see if they are free fair and transparent," he said.
The announcement of general elections follows the unveiling of a series of
radical constitutional amendments to the country's suspended 1973
constitution. Many politicians in Pakistan suspect that the changes will
undermine the parliamentary system. Observers say the country's powerful
military elite is establishing a permanent political role for itself by
heading a National Security Council and ensuring parliament and the prime
minister are subservient to it.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28762&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Gang-rape accused arrested

Under mounting domestic and international attention, Pakistani police has
arrested 13 of the 14 accused of the gang-rape of a girl late last month
that shocked the entire country. A tribal jirga, or village council, in
Punjab province had ordered the rape as a means of punishing her brother.
"We have arrested 13 people so far, only one remains to be caught," a
police official told IRIN from the remote region of Jatoi near
Muzzafargarh in Punjab province. "The arrested include the people accused
of rape and those on the panchayat [council members]," he added. The
incident brought Pakistan into the international spotlight once again over
its human rights record, prompting authorities to act by arresting the
accused and providing police protection to the victim's family. Pakistan's
Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Punjab provincial authorities to
speed up action against the perpetrators of the crime.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28780&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: HIV/AIDS growing rapidly

Delegates at the 14th International AIDS Conference, in Barcelona, Spain
have been told that intravenous drug users are boosting the spread of
HIV/AIDS in Central Asia, where the prevalence of the deadly disease
remains low but the rate of spread is increasing alarmingly. "In spite of
the fact that CARs [Central Asian Republics] are now considered to be
relatively low HIV prevalence countries, the rate of the spread of HIV is
very high," Alexander Kossukhin, programme officer for the joint United
Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), told IRIN from Kazakhstan's
principle city of Almaty on Tuesday. The findings on Central Asia are part
of the latest UNAIDS report released ahead of this week's conference. The
report said the scale of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has outstripped even the
worst-case scenarios of a decade ago. Dozens of countries are in the grip
of serious HIV/AIDS epidemics, and many more are on the brink.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28711&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said this week it will fund a feasibility
study for a much-awaited 1,500 km natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan
to Pakistan, through Afghanistan. Unocal, an American energy company,
signed a deal with the Taliban regime in 1997 to develop the pipeline.
However, the company pulled out the following year, citing ongoing
instability and uncertainty over costs and contracts. It is believed that
the pipeline could bolster stability in Afghanistan by providing badly
needed revenue to the fledgling Kabul regime as well as diversifying gas
export routes in the region. News reports said the revived initiative -
discussed in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat this week among senior
Turkmen, Afghan and Pakistani officials - has the backing of the US, which
views the pipeline as a way of countering the huge influence of Russia and
Iran in the region.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28781&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

KYRGYZSTAN: Children bear the brunt of poverty

Ten-year-old Maksat waves his polish-stained hands in the air as he
solicits business on one of the busy streets in the Kyrgyzstan capital,
Bishkek. "Baike [which means older brother in Kyrgyz]," he croons at
passers-by, "let's clean your shoes, it is really cheap." Maksat, in his
dirty, ragged clothes, told IRIN he earned 50 soms (US $1) a day polishing
and shining shoes. He uses the money to buy bread for his family and to
buy pencils and notebooks for the two days he attends school every week.
Child labour is illegal in Kyrgyzstan, but Maksat is just one of thousands
of children forced to work to provide family support. According to the
United Nations, more than 55 percent of families live below the poverty
line in this Central Asian country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28687&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Blow to independent radio

The refusal on Monday of a licence for what would have been the first
independent radio station in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, has sparked
concern from media organisations in the former Soviet republic, where
freedom of the press has long been restricted. The licence, applied for in
1998, by Asia Plus, an independent media agency, only received a response
last week. The Tajik commission for television and radio responded by
saying that it was "unnecessary" to have another radio station in
Dushanbe. "This decision and reason behind the decision is just silly,"
the director of Asia Plus, Umed Babakhanov, told IRIN in Dushanbe. "We are
going to make sure that the people of Tajikistan are informed of this
decision, to show how unjust and undemocratic this is," he added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=28691&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


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