Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-83: 01-Nov-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
Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484
Fax: +92-51-2211 450
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk
Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 83
26 October - 01 November 2002
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Special report on government winterisation efforts
AFGHANISTAN: Female TV journalists go international
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on security in Lowgar province
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions
AFGHANISTAN: Northern disarmament deal uncertain
IRAN: Focus on repatriation of Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Electoral victory for religion
PAKISTAN: AIDS prisoner in critical condition
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Special report on government winterisation efforts
With the onset of winter just weeks away, efforts to safeguard the lives
of millions of vulnerable Afghans are now under way. Working with the
United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), the Afghan
government, in collaboration with UN agencies and NGOs, is leading the
winterisation campaign - in what could prove its greatest challenge yet.
"The government has the leadership in coordinating the efforts, along with
key UN agencies and relevant ministries," Minister of Rural Rehabilitation
and Development (MRRD) Hanif Atmar, who has been tasked to lead the
winterisation effort, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30679&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Female TV journalists go international
News reports filmed by Afghan women are being shown for the first time
ever on French national television after an agreement reached by
journalists heading up AINA, the Afghan media and cultural centre run by
French journalists in the capital, Kabul. "The editor of the news
programme was very satisfied with the quality and depth of the reports,"
the video project manager for AINA in Kabul, Florent Milesi, told IRIN on
Tuesday. Four reports, each of two and a half minutes in length, are being
shown on the France 3 channel. "We don't know how often we will send
reports to the channel, but this is a premiere and it has opened up doors
for these women," he added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30643&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on security in Lowgar province
Lowgar, in central Afghanistan, is one of the calmer provinces in the
region. Although there is security and stability, according to local
officials there is always the threat of destabilisation due to its close
proximity to the capital, Kabul, and neighbouring Pakistan. "From a
political point of view, the province is calm. After the Taliban left,
mujahidin forces moved in and wanted peace in Lowgar," the new governor of
Lowgar province, Abdul Malik Hamwar, told IRIN in Pol-e Alam, the
provincial capital. Originally from the central province of Kapisa, he
admitted that he had a huge task ahead of him.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30638&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial
executions
As special rapporteur on summary, extrajudicial and arbitrary executions
to the UN Human Rights Commission, Asma Jahangir, a Pakistan-based lawyer
and longtime human rights campaigner, recently travelled to Afghanistan to
report on the human rights situation there. In an interview with IRIN, she
defended her call for an international inquiry into human rights abuses in
Afghanistan, because she believes only peace backed by accountability is
sustainable. Jahangir also demanded a moratorium on the death penalty in
Afghanistan until such time as a functional justice system is
re-established in the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30662&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Northern disarmament deal uncertain
Despite an agreement reached on Monday between the Shi'ite Hezb-e Wahdat-e
Eslami (Islamic Unity Party), the Jamiat-e Eslami (Islamic Association)
and Jonbesh-e Melli-ye Eslami (Islamic National Resurgence, also known as
the Islamic National Movement) to disarm their fighters in northern
Afghanistan, local military commanders may prevent the restoration of
stability in the volatile region. Only a cessation of hostilities could
make possible the return of thousands of ethnic Pashtun families who fled
the area after being subjected to intimidation and harassment following
the fall of the Taliban late last year. Their plight worsens as winter
approaches - many will have to spend the cold months in makeshift IDP
camps in the south.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30642&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
IRAN: Focus on repatriation of Afghan refugees
Standing outside the Soleymankhaneh voluntary repatriation centre (VRC)
near the Iranian capital, Tehran, the seven members of the Hoseyni family
appear calm and relaxed. Just minutes before boarding a bus back to
Afghanistan - a country they fled 18 years earlier - they were looking
forward to the prospect of finally rebuilding their lives. As his father
nodded approvingly, 21-year-old Mojtaba told IRIN: "I'm not nervous to
return. I want to go back." To date, some 35,000 families like the
Hoseynis have gone home from Iran since the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) joint voluntary repatriation programme
was launched on 9 April. Six months into the campaign, more than 300,000
Afghans have returned - three-quarters of them with assistance from UNHCR.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30641&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
PAKISTAN: Electoral victory for religion
For the first time since independence, Muttahida Majlis-e Amal, or the
United Council of Action (UCA), a coalition of six religious parties is
set to rule two of Pakistan's strategic provinces along the country's
western border with Afghanistan. The results of the 10 October national
poll are expected to cast a long shadow over the country's already
uncertain future. "The victory signifies a fundamental shift in Pakistani
politics," Aqil Shah, an analyst with the International Crisis Group
(ICG), told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad. " [President Pervez] Musharraf
and the military need them [the UCA] so that they will have leeway with
the west and get its unconditional support."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30678&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: AIDS prisoner in critical condition
Pakistani health officials are trying to gain access to a Nigerian man
dying of AIDS in a prison in Punjab Province where there is only limited
access to health facilities. "We have asked to get permission to see him
and send people in so that we can get him moved," Asma Bokhari, the
national programme manager for the AIDS control programme in the
Pakistani, capital Islamabad, told IRIN on Friday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30705&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
In Central Asia this week, hundreds of people took to the streets in
southern Kyrgyzstan to protest against the exclusion of an opposition
candidate from a run-off parliamentary election, AP reported. Usen Sadykov
received 46 percent of the vote during the election on 20 October, but was
disqualified from the run-off on 3 November after a court ruled that his
documents were not in order. Sadykov has appealed against the decision
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=30704&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
IRIN-Asia
Tel: +92-51-2211451
Fax: +92-51-2292918
Email: IrinAsia@irin.org.pk
[This Item is Delivered to 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.irinnews.org . 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 2002
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