Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-80: 11-Oct-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 80
05 - 11 October 2002
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Sporadic fighting undermines security
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Reconstruction Minister Dr Amin Farhang
AFGHANISTAN: WFP food for education programme helping more children
AFGHANISTAN: UN expert to investigate mass graves
AFGHANISTAN: New currency launched with UN support
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan repatriation nears 300,000
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan-American architect seeks support for major shelter initiative
PAKISTAN: Special report on female participation in elections
PAKISTAN: Interview with head of EU election observers
PAKISTAN: Special report on minorities and the election
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Sporadic fighting undermines security
Exactly a year after the launch of the US-led military campaign to
overthrow the Taliban, parts of Afghanistan remain fragmented and
dangerous, with periodic fighting breaking out among competing warlords
across the country. International media reported this weekend that
fighting had erupted in Zar-e Kuh District, close to the strategic
Shindand air base in the western Afghan province of Farah, between forces
loyal to Herat's governor Ismail Khan and the independent ethnic Pashtun
commander, Amanullah Khan. The fighting left at least six people dead,
including three children, and injured more than 20 others
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30264&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Reconstruction Minister Dr Amin Farhang
As Minister of Reconstruction, Dr Amin Farhang has the herculean task of
rebuilding his country's shattered infrastructure. Born in Kabul in 1938
and educated at the University of Cologne in Germany, this former
professor of economics and development at Bochum University has been
Afghanistan's minister of reconstruction since the establishment of the
interim government in Bonn last year.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30262&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: WFP food for education programme helping more children
In a effort to get children to school and mitigate the impact of
short-term hunger on learning, the World Food Programme (WFP) is stepping
up its current food for education programme in Afghanistan. Launched in
March, the programme coincides with the country's back-to-school campaign
initiated earlier this year. "Over 200,000 students are being supported by
this programme," the WFP food for education coordinator for Afghanistan,
Bai Bojang told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "Projections are that
by March 2003, we are likely to reach one million."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30314&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UN expert to investigate mass graves
The UN Special Rapporteur on extra judicial, summary and arbitrary
executions, Asma Jahangir, will visit Afghanistan on Sunday to investigate
serious human rights abuses including mass graves in the war-ravaged
country." I will go there and see things on the ground," she told IRIN
from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Thursday. "I will meet all
the relevant people to make a balanced and independent assessment." But
after 23 years of protracted conflict, the horrific details of human
rights violations by conflicting military factions are unclear and likely
to remain so. In early May, a UN team of forensic experts investigated
three alleged mass-grave sites in Mazar-e Sharif, Sheberghan and Bamian in
northern and central Afghanistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30344&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: New currency launched with UN support
>From Monday Afghans will no longer be forced to go shopping with
suitcases full of bank notes. Replacing the hopelessly devalued currency,
new notes - worth 1,000 old afghanis - have been launched in the capital
Kabul, and will soon be available throughout the country. "We've targeted
the money changers first, because they control such vast amounts of cash,"
Anwar ul Haq Ahadi, Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, told IRIN
from Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30263&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan repatriation nears 300,000
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
announced on Thursday that the total number of Afghans returning to
Afghanistan from Iran since the start of the joint voluntary repatriation
effort this year has now neared the 300,000 mark. "The total number is
295,531," a UNHCR spokesman, Mohammad Nouri, told IRIN from the Iranian
capital, Tehran. Since the start of the voluntary repatriation effort on 9
April, 224,432 Afghans had been helped to go home, while another 71,099
had returned spontaneously, or unassisted, he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30343&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan-American architect seeks support for major shelter
initiative
An Afghan-American architect living in the United States has called on the
international community to support a major shelter initiative in his
native Afghanistan. Supported by the US-based NGO Afghan Rescue Effort,
his project, aptly named Village of Hope, comes at a time when government
officials and international agencies are struggling with the problems of
housing thousands of recently returned Afghans.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30361&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Special report on female participation in elections
With 10 years of political experience, Nuzhat Aamir Sadiq knows only too
well the challenges facing female politicians in Pakistan. As a candidate
from the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, she has been nominated for
one of 60 seats reserved for women in the country's National Assembly of
332. An electorate of 72 million will vote in Thursday's General Election
as part of President Musharraf's plan to return the country to democracy.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30265&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Interview with head of EU election observers
John Cushnahan, head of the EU's election observer mission to Pakistan, is
a member of the European Parliament for a constituency in the Republic of
Ireland. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, this is the third
time that he has been involved in election observation. In an interview
with IRIN, Cushnahan maintained that the future of democracy depended on a
successful outcome in Thursday's elections. He added that although the
mission's report would not be directly related to aid, progress on human
rights and democracy were essential preconditions for many bilateral
cooperation agreements with the EU.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30291&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Special report on minorities and the election
In the same week that the US State Department's annual report on
international religious freedom accused Islamabad of hostility towards
certain faiths, millions of religious minorities including Christians,
Hindus, Sikhs and Zoroastrians are preparing to cast their votes in a new
inclusive electorate system on Thursday - perhaps ending more than two
decades of political isolation for religious minorities in this
deeply-Muslim country. Rukhsana is a Protestant, she cooks for a wealthy
expatriate in the capital, Islamabad, and is preparing to cast her ballot
in the elections on Thursday. She lives in a mud-built slum known as
"Christian colony" in the sprawling capital.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30319&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
A regional summit of the Central Asian Cooperation Organisation was held
in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Sunday. The heads of state of four
Central Asian republics - Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and
Kyrgyzstan - discussed issues of regional development, particularly those
affecting trade and economic cooperation. The gathering also reviewed the
activities of the International Fund for the Aral Sea, an interstate
council founded nine years ago to launch humanitarian projects to resolve
the crisis.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30363&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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