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 69
27 July - 02 August 2002


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan repatriation resumes as border reopens
AFGHANISTAN: Grenade attack on UN offices
AFGHANISTAN: Japan announces huge new aid
AFGHANISTAN: Number of malnourished children growing
AFGHANISTAN: IDPs unhappy at bread instead of wheat
AFGHANISTAN: Latest IOM figures for internal returns
AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation from Iran continues
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with the new governor of Nangarhar
AFGHANISTAN: Suspected cholera outbreak in east
AFGHANISTAN: Threat of locusts set to continue
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: Interview with United Nations Resident Coordinator
KAZAKHSTAN: Focus on civil liberties
PAKISTAN: NGOs debate proposed law
TURKMENISTAN: Focus on HIV/AIDS awareness

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan repatriation resumes as border reopens

Efforts to repatriate thousands of Afghan refugees resumed along the
Torkham border in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on
Monday. The crossing into the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar was
closed on Friday following a dispute over Afghans entering Pakistan
without documents, leaving some 500 returnee families stranded, a UNHCR
official told IRIN. "We held negotiations with both Pakistani and Afghan
authorities and resolved the matter. The border reopened at 2.30 pm on
Sunday," public information officer for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mohammad Ayub Khawreen, said in
Peshawar, the provincial capital of the NWFP.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29060&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Grenade attack on UN offices

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in the southern Afghan city of
Kandahar were attacked with a grenade on Thursday morning. Initial reports
said that the bomb smashed some windows but did not cause any injuries.
"The incident has raised our concern about security," UNHCR spokesman Jack
Redden told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Friday. According
to initial details, two people riding on a motorbike threw a grenade into
the FAO compound, which is adjacent to UNHCR offices, around 9 am local
time. The attackers fled from the scene, but crashed their motorbike and
escaped on foot afterwards.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29155&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Japan announces huge new aid

The Japanese government announced on Monday an aid package of US $42
million for Afghanistan, bringing its total assistance and humanitarian
aid to the impoverished country to about US $200 million since 11
September, a government statement from Tokyo said. The Embassy of Japan in
Pakistan said in a statement to IRIN that the announcement of the
assistance was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo. "Japan
welcomes the fact that the political process in Afghanistan is making
steady progress on the basis of Bonn agreement," it said.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29059&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Number of malnourished children growing

Fully clothed, 11-month-old Sher Mohammad looks like a normal child. But
as his mother removes his shirt, his bones are visible and it's clear he
is malnourished and in desperate need of rapid sustenance. "I could not
feed him with my own milk and I feel like I am to blame," his malnourished
mother, Nafisa, told IRIN in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. She had
resorted to feeding him on bread and a few vegetables now and again, but
was now attending a feeding centre with her child in the desperate hope
that her son would become healthy.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29105&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: IDPs unhappy at bread instead of wheat

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Maslakh, western Afghanistan's
largest displacement camp, are complaining of hunger after a change in the
wheat assistance they were being given by the UN World Food Programme
(WFP). Recipients are currently receiving one loaf of bread per person
each day instead of an earlier wheat ration of 277 grammes. "I will beg. I
cannot take it any more," Muhammad Wazir told IRIN in Maslakh. The
70-year-old fled Towr Ghundi, a border area with neighbouring
Turkmenistan, some 130 km north of Herat, five months earlier along with
his six family members after losing his flock of sheep to the ongoing
drought in the region. His last possessions were sold to pay the fare to
Maslakh, he explained.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29057&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Latest IOM figures for internal returns

As the number of refugees repatriating from Pakistan and Iran continues,
the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their homes
since the beginning of the year has surpassed 218,000, according to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM). "We have returned 218,286
people to 25 of the 32 provinces," IOM spokeswoman, Niurka Pineiro told
IRIN on Wednesday from the Swiss city of Geneva. "While we have returned a
few people to the south, our primary emphasis is on the north, central and
west of the country," she explained.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29106&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Repatriation from Iran continues

Mother-of-five Sabira, is returning to Afghanistan's capital Kabul after
nearly a decade in exile in neighbouring Iran, one of more than 100,000
Afghans who have made the journey back home in almost four months. "We are
tired of being refugees in foreign countries," she told IRIN, speaking at
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) repatriation centre at the
Islam Qala border crossing with Iran in western Afghanistan. "We look
forward to a new life in our own country

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29123&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with the new governor of Nangarhar

Haji Din Mohammad, brother of Haji Qadir, the assassinated former Afghan
vice-president and governor of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar,
admits he faces a tough challenge ahead. No stranger to politics, he held
the position of education minister under the former government of
President Burhanuddin Rabbani. But as the newly appointed governor of
Nangarhar he probably holds the most powerful position in eastern
Afghanistan today. In an interview with IRIN in the provincial capital,
Jalalabad, Haji Din Mohammad, who maintained security in the region was
his top priority, called on the international community to further extend
its help to Nangahar where there remains a desperate need.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29119&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Suspected cholera outbreak in east

While some 200 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in the
eastern province of Nangarhar, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official
told IRIN only two cases had been confirmed thus far. "We have two
confirmed cases of cholera," acting national health coordinator, Dr Tera
Wal said in the provincial capital, Jalalabad. The suspected outbreak,
discovered earlier this week, has affected the Ghala Khel and Chinar Kalay
villages in the district of Kot, some 50 km southeast of Jalalabad. More
than 200 people were suffering from mild to chronic diarrhoea in the
villages - a symptom of the potentially fatal disease.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29141&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Threat of locusts set to continue

While efforts to control a locust outbreak in Northern Afghanistan have
succeeded in keeping crop damage to a minimum, the threat of infestation
will continue unless further operations begin early next spring. FAO
estimated crop losses in the three most seriously affected provinces, the
breadbasket of the war-torn country, at about seven percent this year.
"The situation at the moment is that the locusts have laid their eggs and
these will hatch next spring," Dr Andrew Harvey, independent consultant
and locust expert for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told
IRIN from his home in England. A survey of egg-laying had been undertaken,
with indications that large areas would be infested, comparable to those
this year, he explained.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29142&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

Economic ties between Uzbekistan and Japan have risen in recent years with
Tokyo's total allocation to the Central Asian state so far nearing US$ 1.6
billion, international media reported this week. Of the total, US $1.44
billion is in the form of credits and US $120 million as aid. The two
countries expect to enhance this cooperation in the future, particularly
in the power engineering sector, textiles, chemical industry, as well as
small and medium-size businesses. This week a new UN-backed centre for
preventing AIDS and drug addiction among young people opened in the
eastern Uzbek town of Andizhan. A report from Uzbekistan's health ministry
says that 75 percent of AIDS sufferers are drug addicts; there are
officially estimated 18,000 drug addicts in the country. It goes on to add
that most of the addicts contracted AIDS by sharing needles.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29143&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA]

KAZAKHSTAN: Interview with United Nations Resident Coordinator

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, five new nations were born
in Central Asia. The United Nations has been active in Kazakhstan, the
largest country in the region, for nearly a decade, but which, despite its
oil and gas wealth, remains desperately poor with one-third of its
population living on less than a dollar a day. IRIN spoke to Fikret
Akcura, the UN Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan, about what had been
achieved since independence and the importance of donor engagement with
the country and the region.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29054&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN]

KAZAKHSTAN: Focus on civil liberties

In the latest blow to independent media in Kazakhstan, a small band of
journalists and human rights activists gathered on the steps of Almaty's
main court on Wednesday were told by squads of police to disperse or face
the consequences. The group had gathered to voice opposition to the
proceedings within, where a Kazakh publishing house was ordered to close
for violating press laws. Sergei Utkin, lawyer for the publisher, told
IRIN the ruling was "purely a political decision," and added that an
appeal would be launched against the ruling within two weeks.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29104&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN]

PAKISTAN: NGOs debate proposed law

Pakistan is seized by a raging debate over new laws regulating civil
society and NGOs, thousands of which operate across the country providing
crucial assistance to millions, aid workers told IRIN on Wednesday.
Critics of the proposed law say it is an attempt by Pakistan - where 40
percent of the population of 140 million live in poverty - to regulate
civil society organisations under a powerful commission and to bring them
under the control of the government. But those backing the bill say the
proposal merely provides an "enabling" environment for the NGOs to carry
out their work as partners with the government, while enhancing efficiency
and transparency in their operations.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29120&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

TURKMENISTAN: Focus on HIV/AIDS awareness

While Turkmenistan enjoys one of the lowest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the
world today, a growing increase in sexually transmitted infections (SDI)
and injecting drug usage makes the potential risk of its spread real.
Enhanced awareness, particularly among vulnerable groups and the general
public, must remain a key component of the government's already existing
prevention strategy, say local and international experts. "People need
more information as public awareness is limited," Leyla Rejepova, a
23-year-old instructor for the Turkmen Red Crescent Society, told IRIN in
the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat. One of a growing number of AIDS awareness
trainers in the country, she said there was insufficient information on
and discussion of HIV/AIDS. "Many feel this is an outside problem in which
Turkmenistan does not play a part," she said.

[To see the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29055&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN]


IRIN-Asia
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