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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 87
23 - 29 November 2002


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Military appeals for more relief following new tremors
PAKISTAN: Road closure sparks shortage of supplies
PAKISTAN: Focus on quake victims
PAKISTAN: Water channel gives new life to Bunji villagers
TURKMENISTAN: Amnesty raises concern after assassination bid
AFGHANISTAN: Government wants greater role in reconstruction
UZBEKISTAN: Country remains key humanitarian corridor to Afghanistan
TAJIKISTAN: IOM steps up advocacy efforts for migrating labourers
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with UN Secretary-General's representative
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

PAKISTAN: Military appeals for more relief following new tremors

The Pakistani military in the country's Northern Areas has appealed for
more relief items, following further tremors in the Astor Valley on Sunday
night. The latest quakes bring to over 35,000 the number of people
affected in the region. "We have to extend relief to Gorikot and Astor,
but we have distributed everything and have nothing left," the force
commander of the Northern Areas, Maj-Gen Nadeem Ahmed Khan, told IRIN at
an emergency news conference in the northern town of Gilgit on Monday
night. "We are concentrating on providing tents and medical supplies as
these are crucial at a time when temperatures are dropping," he said,
noting an urgent need for both items. Some 35,000 people or about half the
valley's population have been affected since the tremors - measuring up to
5.8 on the Richter scale - first began on 21/22 November. Conditions are
said to be desperate, and there is an urgent need for supplies.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31089&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Road closure sparks shortage of supplies

Following last week's earthquake and reoccurring tremors, the blockage of
a major highway linking Pakistan's northern areas to the rest of the
country has been causing havoc for local residents in Gilgit, who say
basic supplies are running low. "We haven't been able to get many types of
fruit and I'm losing around 1,500 rupees (US $25) per day in profit," a
trader, Ibrar Rahimi, told IRIN. Parts of the Karakoram Highway (KKH) have
been blocked by landslides following the devastating earthquake of 21/22
November, which flattened villages in the Astor Valley, some 114 km from
Gilgit. Shortages have also meant price increases, and in central Gilgit
tempers were running high when customers were told of them. "The price of
onions and potatoes has gone up by a few rupees per kilo because
shopkeepers say they cannot get hold of enough vegetables as the road is
blocked. This is not fair on us," Akil Khan told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31086&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on quake victims

With temperatures dropping to minus 10 at night, fears are growing that a
further humanitarian disaster is likely to befall thousands of quake
victims displaced from their homes in Pakistan's northern areas. "All of
the homes have been damaged in our village and we are all living in tents
now until next year when we can rebuild our homes," mother-of-four,
Gulzar, told IRIN in the Harcho village located in the heart of the Astor
valley, some 114 km from the northern Pakistani town of Gilgit. "We cannot
heat the tents at night and my children cry all night. I don't know how we
will survive the winter," she cried.  An estimated 10,000 people were
affected by tremors on 21/22 November, which measured between 5.6 and 5.8
on the Richter scale and claimed at least 25 lives.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31072&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Water channel gives new life to Bunji villagers

Hundreds of villagers in a remote part of Pakistan's Northern Areas will
soon be self-sufficient thanks to an irrigation project by the Aga Khan
Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). "The government tried to build a water
channel there, but it didn't last, and we were desperate to build another
one," father-of-six Salahuddin told IRIN in Bunji, located in the Astor
Valley, some 55 km south of Gilgit, the administrative capital of the
Northern Areas. There are very little jobs here, so this will be good for
me and my family," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31169&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN: Amnesty raises concern after assassination bid

Amnesty International has called on Ashgabat for justice, not revenge,
following an alleged plot to assassinate Turkmen President Saparmurad
Niyazov earlier this week. The country has a poor human rights and the
watchdog group is concerned of a possible crackdown. "At times of
heightened tensions it is particularly vital that governments abide by
their commitments under international human rights law," Anna
Sunder-Plassman, a Central Asia researcher for Amnesty, told IRIN on
Wednesday from London. "Now that the international community is closely
watching the government's response to Monday's events, it is
Turkmenistan's opportunity to show that it takes its obligations under
international human rights law seriously."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31122&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Government wants greater role in reconstruction

An Afghan minister told IRIN on Wednesday that he wanted his government to
have a greater say in how humanitarian and reconstruction aid was utilised
and for there to be better coordination of the overall aid effort. "The
people need us to deliver; we can, but we need more resources as a
government to do this," Ali Asghar Paiman, the deputy minister of
planning, said as he shivered in his unheated government office. Only
about one-fifth of donor funds for Afghanistan have reached government
channels to date, according to September's figures from Kabul's Donor
Assistance Database (DAD).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31142&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Country remains key humanitarian corridor to Afghanistan

Millions of Afghans facing starvation, hunger and disease at the height of
the US-led coalition war on Al-Qaeda and Taliban last winter were assisted
after Afghanistan's northern neighbour Uzbekistan opened up its border.
This allowed aid agencies to use the country as a critical humanitarian
gateway to northern Afghanistan.  Piet Vochten, an official of the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Uzbek
capital, Tashkent told IRIN that heavy winter snowfall in the Hindu Kush
mountains obstructs movement to northern Afghanistan making supply routes
through Central Asia vital. "The Central Asian republics have had a
prominent role in the provision of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan
after 11 September," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31073&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: IOM steps up advocacy efforts for migrating labourers

Problems faced by some 800,000 Tajik labour migrants were highlighted at a
two-day seminar arranged by the International Organisation of Migration
(IOM), which ended in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe on Thursday. "We are
hopeful that people working on awareness raising with labour migrants are
fully informed about the legislative framework of labour migration," IOM
head of mission in Tajikistan, Igor Bosc, told IRIN. He noted that the
event was important given stricter migration policies, particularly in
Russia, and the risks related to human trafficking and health concerns.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31139&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Interview with UN Secretary-General's representative

The UN Secretary-General's representative in Tajikistan is Bulgarian
former diplomat, Vladimir Sotirov. He heads the UN Tajikistan Office of
Peace-building (UNTOP), which is tasked with the delicate responsibility
of providing the political framework and leadership for the post-conflict
peace-building process in the mountainous Central Asian state. Working
with the UN country team, it mobilises international support for the
country's reconstruction and development.  In an interview with IRIN,
Sotirov maintained that the country's successful peace process could serve
as a model for peace-building in neighbouring Afghanistan. He hoped that
while continuing in the same direction, Tajikistan would soon become a
pluralistic democracy.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31118&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week started with a bang in Central Asia following the alleged
assassination attempt on Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov on
Monday in the capital, Ashgabat. The 62-year-old president, who escaped
unharmed, has been in power for the past 17 years, before independence
from the former Soviet Union in 1991. Whereas Niyazov has accused exiled
political opponents of the plot, human rights groups have raised concerns
over a possible crackdown and new round of domestic repression. Police
have already reportedly arrested some 16 suspects.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31172&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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