Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-79: 04-Oct-02
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 79
28 September - 04 October 2002
CONTENTS:
PAKISTAN: Special report on elections
PAKISTAN: Sustainability in the fishing industry
PAKISTAN: New technology helps track refugees
AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation continues to slow
AFGHANISTAN: UNEP to conclude environmental assessment
AFGHANISTAN: Conference on the disabled opens in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: "Shocking" maternal mortality rates in Herat
TAJIKISTAN: Deportation of Afghans halted
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
PAKISTAN: Special report on elections
Sweat runs down forty-nine-year-old Seyed Bilal Shah's shirt as he quickly
shakes a sea of extended hands and offers a few words on democracy at yet
another public gathering. He has plenty of popular support but he's
struggling against the odds in a country where the ballot box has changed
little since independence 55 years ago. Running for a provincial assembly
seat in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, he is
making every effort to get elected whatever it takes. As his frantic
campaign reaches a peak, he attends dozens of funerals and weddings
besides addressing numerous public meetings around his urban constituency
to drum up support. "Elected representatives can better resolve people's
problems," Shah told IRIN. "They are close to people and are also
trusted.".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30222&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Special report on sustainability in the fishing industry
Life has never been easy for Haji Ali, a 70-year-old fishermen, but it was
never as tough as it is these days. His community's staple food and source
of income is becoming scarce. "It is more then 15 days that we have not
gone out to sea," Ali told IRIN from squalid Baba Island near the southern
port city of Karachi. "There are no fish". Almost all residents of the
10,000-strong fishing village have the same complaint. Dotted along the
Arabian Sea, fishing communities living along Pakistan's 1,120-km coast
have traditionally depended on the sea. Although fishing was never hardly
lucrative, every expedition brought in a catch on which a household could
survive.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30216&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: New technology helps track refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan has
begun using state-of-the-art technology to prevent Afghan refugees from
abusing the voluntary repatriation programme. "We detected two people who
returned a second time for assistance on the first day the equipment was
used," spokesman for UNHCR Pakistan, Jack Redden, told IRIN on Wednesday
from Peshawar, the provincial capital of the North West Frontier Province
(NWFP). The equipment has been installed at the Takhta Baig Voluntary
Repatriation Centre (VRC) in NWFP, the only VRC now operating in the
country, due to a drop in returnees as winter approaches. The device
identifies people through the iris in their eyes on photographs taken for
repatriation forms. It converts a photographic image of the iris into a
digital code and only requires a second to check whether the person has
already received assistance.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30199&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation continues to slow
For the Ahmad family, going back to Afghanistan after years, living, as
refugees in Pakistan couldn't of been more natural. "This is our country.
Why shouldn't we return?" Mohammad Ahmad asked IRIN outside the
Pul-e-charkhi encashment centre outside the capital, Kabul. But as winter
fast approaches, more and more Afghans are pondering just that question.
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has already noted a significant drop in numbers. "Less than 4,000 people a
day are returning from Pakistan and Iran - with about half from each,"
agency spokeswoman, Maki Shinohara told IRIN in Kabul on Thursday. "This
is a significant drop. During the month of May, we were assisting as many
as 20,000 [per day]."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30219&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UNEP to conclude environmental assessment
Five teams of experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
are set to conclude a comprehensive assessment of the extent to which 23
years of war have impacted on Afghanistan's environment - the first such
effort in over two decades. "Based on our preliminary findings, the
situation is worse than expected," Pasi Rinne, senior policy adviser for
UNEP's post-conflict assessment unit, told IRIN on Tuesday in the Afghan
capital, Kabul. "In some areas, the environmental circumstances are so
poor that the recovery will probably not happen during our lifetime."
While the technical mission, comprising a total of five teams of 20 Afghan
and international scientists and experts, began on 5 September - with the
last team due back on 9 October - UNEP has been working extensively on
capacity-building with the Afghan authorities since last spring.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30175&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Conference on the disabled opens in Kabul
A three-day conference focusing on the rights of the disabled opened in
the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday. It aims to bring about better
coordination among sections of the international community working through
the Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled (MMD). "Life in Afghanistan is
difficult enough without being disabled," Dr Mohammad Arif, the national
chairman of the Afghan National Disability Commission (NDC) told IRIN on
Sunday. "The reality is that many of these people would prefer to be
dead." While there are no national survey statistics available, indicators
suggest that about five percent of the country's population is disabled -
or approximately one million out of 20 million - making it one of the
highest proportions in the world.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30148&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: "Shocking" maternal mortality rates in Herat
Health officials have branded maternal mortality rates in the western
Afghan province of Herat, as published in a new report, as shocking.
"These are very high statistics and a cause for concern," Dr Friba
Hayathamayun, a maternal and child health-care worker for the World Health
Organisation (WHO) in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told IRIN on Monday. A
recent report released by the US-based Physicians for Human Rights (PHR),
entitled "Maternal Mortality in Herat Province: The Need to Protect
Women's Rights", documented 593 maternal deaths in every 100,000 live
births, with the majority in rural areas. This figure exceeds maternal
mortality statistics in all of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries.
According to PHR, in Pakistan it stands at 200 deaths for every 100,000
live births, Tajikistan 120, Turkmenistan 65, China 65 and Iran 60.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30149&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Deportation of Afghans halted
Foreign diplomats in Tajikistan have received government assurances that
there will be no further deportations of Afghan refugees. The pledge
followed an incident in September when nine Afghan refugees were forced to
leave. "We are pleased with the response from the government and we hope
the remaining Afghan community will be safe," UK ambassador to Tajikistan,
Michael Smith, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. "We are
concerned about this incident and also have concerns over the remaining
Afghans in the country," he added. A joint decision was taken by the US,
UK and German embassies, as well as the European Union (EU) and the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Dushanbe to
try and prevent further deportations. The assurances from the government
came last Friday after meetings with the deputy Tajik foreign minister.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30196&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Iranian President Muhammad Khatami deplored "foreign inference" and what
he termed "non multilateral acts" in the oil-rich Caspian Sea, on Monday.
His comments follow a bilateral agreement between Russia and Azerbaijan
last week, giving the two countries a share of the Caspian's fabulous oil
wealth based on the length of their coastlines. The Caspian is thought to
be the third largest oil reserve outside the Gulf and Russia. The huge
inland sea is surrounded by Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan. Iran and Turkmenistan, with smaller shorelines on the sea,
want an equal five-way distribution of Caspian resources. In a related
development, Kazak officials showed their willingness on Thursday to
agree, by the end of the year, on a study of oil export routes to Iran
despite strong US reservations. Iran believes that the most economical and
environmentally safe route for Kazak oil would be south through its
territories. With foreign support, Kazakhstan hopes to triple its oil
production by the year 2015.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30241&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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