Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-93: 10-Jan-03
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 93
04 - 10 January 2003
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Effort to contain whooping-cough outbreak
AFGHANISTAN: Security concerns in Zabul province
AFGHANISTAN: First female judges association
AFGHANISTAN: More young women being encouraged into higher education
PAKISTAN: Focus on honour killings
TAJIKISTAN: Severe winter weather taking its toll
TAJIKISTAN: IOM peace-building efforts continue
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Effort to contain whooping-cough outbreak
Various UN agencies and NGOs, together with the governments of Afghanistan
and neighbouring Tajikistan, are working to contain an outbreak of
whooping cough in the remote northeastern Afghan province of Badakhshan,
which is threatening the lives of an estimated 40,000 infants and
children. "We are on the ground and doing our best to improve the
situation," Yon Fleerackers, an epidemiologist with the World Health
Organisation (WHO), told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday.
An emergency team of officials from the Afghan health ministry, WHO and
the Aga Khan Development Network went into Darvaz District in Badakhshan
to try and tackle the outbreak. "In similar settings, we would expect a 15
percent mortality rate," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31597&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Security concerns in Zabul province
Following three separate incidents over the past two weeks, aid officials
are concerned over security in the remote southeastern Afghan province of
Zabul. Ravaged by more than four years of drought, Zabul is one of the
poorest of the beleaguered nation's 32 provinces. "We are concerned over
security situation in Zabul," Mohammed Hassan, a coordinator for the
Afghan Development Agency (ADA), an umbrella body for some 20 aid agencies
working in the province, told IRIN from the former Taliban stronghold, of
Kandahar on Wednesday. "The situation is getting worse."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31635&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: First female judges association
This week marked the launch of Afghanistan's first association of female
judges. Funded by the United Nation's Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
the Afghan Women Judges Association (AWJA) aims to ensure the active
participation of female judges and lawyers in the judicial system, as well
as to promote quality and reliable legal advice for vulnerable Afghan
women countrywide. Speaking in the Afghan capital, Kabul, the AWJA deputy
director, Huma Alizoi, a graduate of Kabul University's faculty of law,
with 17 years experience under her belt, told IRIN that despite the AWJA
having experienced women judges and lawyers, these had never been given
the opportunity to assume higher positions.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31652&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: More young women being encouraged into higher education
The Afghan education ministry is making special arrangements to
accommodate women seeking university places in 2003 by accepting those
with lower grades, IRIN learnt on Tuesday.
"The Afghan government has decided to give more opportunity to girls for
university education as they were deprived of learning for over five years
during Taliban regime," the deputy minister of higher education, Prof
Gholam Muhyioddin Dariz, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "A
commission has been made to monitor examination results and give more
chance for girls," he said, adding that a general decision had been made
to provide greater opportunities for women to receive higher education.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31610&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on honour killings
Jamila Khan, (not her real name) was confident when she described her
narrow escape from an honour killing in Pakistan's Punjab Province. "Women
were always hated in my household. My mother hated having girls," the
25-year-old told IRIN in the Pakistani, capital, Islamabad. From early on,
Khan said she was stopped from progressing in every aspect of life. "I
had to fight to go to school. I was tied up with rope and beaten on many
occasions, and the bones in my hands have been broken so many times," she
said.
Describing her treatment as worse than that meted out to animals, she said
she had finally fled her home after her brother accused her of having
premarital sex, ordered her to stay indoors, removed all the door-locks in
the house to prevent her from hiding, and then threatened to electrocute
her. Had she not fled, "I would be dead now", she asserted.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31641&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Severe winter weather taking its toll
Conditions in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, are slowly returning to normal
following severe winter conditions but concern remains for those in
isolated regions. "There was no electricity, no gas and water failure in
many places [in Dushanbe]," Maarouf Muhamedov, the programme assistant for
the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Dushanbe,
told IRIN on Tuesday. With a population of some 800,000 people, Dushanbe
was virtually crippled when harsh weather struck in early December,
leaving fuel supplies at an all-time low, damaging pipes and causing chaos
for the city's transport system. "It was a very difficult time, but we do
expect these conditions during the winter," Muhamedov added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31612&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: IOM peace-building efforts continue
As part of its continuing peace building efforts in Tajikistan, the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched a new
programme to reintegrate some 550 former combatants, amnestied detainees,
displaced persons and unemployed young people back into their communities.
"The most important aspect of this programme is peace-building in local
communities," Igor Bosc, IOM chief of mission, told IRIN from the Tajik
capital, Dushanbe. "Tajikistan has gone through a difficult recent history
so it is important such programmes exist in rural communities - in
particular to promote employment among individuals that might otherwise be
tempted to get involved in illegal activities."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31595&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&
SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
In a renewed effort to revive its long-standing relations with
Turkish-speaking Central Asian republics, Turkey's new leader, Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, is on a five-day tour of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and
Azerbaijan. Erdogan made a call for stronger ties after meeting Turkmen
President Saparmurad Niyazov on Thursday. Emphasising the need for closer
bilateral cooperation, particularly in developing and exporting
Turkmenistan's vast oil and gas reserves, he praised the country's
progress since its independence in 1992 following the break-up of the
former Soviet Union.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31663&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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