Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-71: 16-Aug-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 71
10 - 16 August 2002
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR office looted in Ghazni
AFGHANISTAN: Herat University comes to life again
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on displacement in the western region
AFGHANISTAN: 11 dead in NGO warehouse explosion
TAJIKISTAN: Villagers to be relocated after mudslide
PAKISTAN: Religious minorities to observe "black day" of protest
PAKISTAN: Government to receive financial support to fight poverty
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR office looted in Ghazni
A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the town
of Ghazni has been looted by armed gunmen, officials told IRIN on
Thursday. Though no staff, including an expatriate, was physically harmed,
the attack has raised security concerns in the area, 120 km southwest of
the Afghan capital, Kabul, prompting the refugee agency to increase
security at its offices.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29356&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Herat University comes to life again
Herat University is emerging again as a centre for higher learning in
western Afghanistan. Like many educational institutions trying to recover
recently, the university, its student body and faculty suffered heavily
under the hardline Taliban.
Seyyed Qasim, a first-year law student, works as a cashier in a local
shop, supporting his eight-member family and continuing his studies. "I
want to become a lawyer and help in establishing the rule of law," he told
IRIN. His dream sounds ambitious in a country where law courts hardly
function after decades of devastating war and five years of hard line
Taliban rule.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29276&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on displacement in the western region
The massive refugee camp of Maslakh, west of Afghanistan's historical
western city of Herat, stands as a sharp reminder of the challenges
destitute Afghans face - even after the routing of the hard line Taliban
last year. More than 100,000 men, women and children struggle to survive
in the squalid camps - almost half have been there for almost a year.
Their lives illustrate well the problems thousands of internally displaced
persons (IDPs) face.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29366&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: 11 dead in NGO warehouse explosion
At least 11 people were killed and 84 wounded following a massive
explosion at an NGO warehouse in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on
Friday. According to initial reports, victims of the blast were either
people living near the site or passing by. Ambulances provided by local
NGOs rushed to the scene, while the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) took the lead role in providing medical care and transport
for the wounded.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29275&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Villagers to be relocated after mudslide
Tajik authorities will relocate about 500 people left homeless after a
flash flood ripped through their village this month, killing 24 people.
Aid agencies, however, are "concerned" about the new site. "We are
concerned about a number of things at the new site," Rafael Wargus, CARE
International deputy head, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
"Apart from distance, the place they are being transferred to is not
appropriate for agriculture."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29364&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Religious minorities to observe "black day" of protest
Religious minorities in Pakistan will observe a day of protest on Thursday
to protest against a recent spate of terrorist attacks on Christian
establishments, rights activists told IRIN on Tuesday. "On 15 August we
will observe a black day against terrorism," Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the
All Pakistan Minority Alliance said from Lahore, the capital of Punjab
Province. "We are protesting because the government has failed to provide
protection."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29310&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Government to receive financial support to fight poverty
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will step up its financial support to
enable Pakistan to fight rising poverty, estimated to affect more than
one-third of its population, a bank official told IRIN on Tuesday. "The
bank will provide US $1.1 billion financing to the country in the current
calendar year," said Naved Hamid, the bank's principal economic adviser,
adding that the government would receive at least $800 million up to 2006.
"The support is to achieve [economic] growth and poverty reduction," he
noted.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29306&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami concluded his official Afghan visit
this week reiterating his country's resolve to see a peaceful and stable
Afghanistan. "I would like to point out that no other country is as much
interested in Afghanistan's stability and security as the Islamic Republic
of Iran," Khatami told reporters on his arrival at Mehrabad airport in
Iran.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=29367&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