Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-105: 04-Apr-03
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 105
29 March - 04 April 2003
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Human rights offices open in the north
AFGHANISTAN: Yet again NGOs cite serious security concerns
PAKISTAN: US criticism of human rights "exaggerated"
PAKISTAN: Interview with UNHCR country representative
PAKISTAN: Bilateral trade with Afghanistan gets a boost
PAKISTAN: People living with HIV/AIDS thrown out of hospital
TAJIKISTAN: Increasing donor support for TB control
TAJIKISTAN: ECHO increases aid to disaster prone regions
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Human rights offices open in north
Following the opening of its first sub-office in the western city of
Herat, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) opened two
more sub-offices this week, in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif and the
central province of Bamian, both of which have experienced serious human
rights violations such as mass killings, torture and intimidation of
civilians over the last decade. The two areas changed hands many times
during past fighting between groups, including the Taliban and the former
Northern Alliance (NA), and abuses of ethnic minorities were widely
reported there. Today, both Bamian and Mazar-e Sharif remain under the
control of warlords, and human rights violations, mostly committed by
warring militias, are continuing, say observers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33281&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Yet again NGOs cite serious security concerns
Following the murder of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
delegate in the southern province of Kandahar last Thursday, some
international aid agencies have suspended work in southern provinces. “The
NGOs suspended their movements in all provinces outside Kandahar for 72
hours right after the killing of the ICRC staff member,” Diane Johnson, a
programme director for Mercy Corps in southern Afghanistan, told IRIN in
the Afghan capital, Kabul, noting that on Sunday the suspension had been
extended for another 72 hours as the situation was still fragile.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33184&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: US criticism of human rights “exaggerated”, says minister
he US State Department's Country Report for Human Rights Practices 2002
for Pakistan is exaggerated, according to the Pakistani information
minister. "There have been isolated cases [of abuse], which have been
highlighted and blown out of proportion," Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told IRIN in
the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday. The report, published on Monday,
stated that Pakistan's human rights record "remained poor," and that
although there had been improvements, they were in very few areas, and
"serious problems remained." The document said some members of the police
had committed many serious rights abuses. "Unlike in previous years,
police committed an increased number of extrajudicial killings," it said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33210&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Interview with UNHCR country representative
The Soviet occupation and subsequent civil war in neighbouring Afghanistan
prompted over three million Afghans to seek refuge in Pakistan. But with
the ongoing repatriations following peace and relative stability in
Afghanistan, this huge number of refugees is slowly being reduced. In an
interview with IRIN, Hasim Utkan, the country representative of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), spoke about the impact of the Iraq
crisis on repatriations. He also told IRIN that repatriation efforts this
year would focus on some 1.5 million refugees living in camps, to balance
out the 1.6 million Afghans repatriated from cities in Pakistan last year.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33182&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Bilateral trade with Afghanistan gets a boost
Pakistani and Afghan government officials, as well as the business
community, are upbeat about trade concessions offered to landlocked
Afghanistan by Pakistan in a joint ministerial conference over the weekend
in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "We welcome this and hope that further
concessions will continue in the future," Afghanistan's ambassador in
Pakistan, Nanguyalai Tarzi, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on
Tuesday. "We would like whatever is agreed to be implemented, and we hope
that our bilateral trade ties grow further," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33193&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: People living with HIV/AIDS thrown out of hospital, says NGO
An NGO working with people living with HIV/AIDS in Pakistan has expressed
outrage ys NGO after three HIV positive patients were allegedly thrown out
of a hospital in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) due to
discrimination. "These patients were thrown out because of discrimination
and ignorance of the disease," chief executive of the AWARD NGO, Maimoona
Masood Khan told IRIN from Peshawar, the provincial capital of the NWFP on
Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33153&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Increasing donor support for TB control
With enhanced political stability in Tajikistan resulting from the ongoing
successful peace process, donors and aid agencies are stepping up efforts
to contain tuberculosis (TB), which continues to figure as a major public
health emergency there. "Now there is increased attention to TB in the
whole region, and here in Tajikistan," Tom Mohr, the programme manager for
the international NGO Project Hope told IRIN from the Tajik capital,
Dushanbe, on Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33282&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: ECHO increases aid to disaster prone regions
Communities vulnerable to natural disasters in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Uzbekistan will benefit from a new 3 million euros [US $3.2 million)
Disaster Preparedness Action Plan launched by the European Commission and
managed through its Humanitarian Office (ECHO). "In disaster-prone
countries such as Tajikistan, this type of initiative will help save
lives," ECHO correspondent for Central Asia, Cecile Pichon, told IRIN from
the Tajik capital, Dushanbe on Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33245&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
IRAN: Students enrol for degree in human rights
Ebrahim Anvari, aged 22, hopes one day to be working for the Iranian
government, and believes that his degree in human rights, the first of its
kind in the country, will help him achieve his ambition of doing so. "Our
country is still evolving, and we need to be more familiar with human
rights and violations that are taking place, because people, especially
women and children, aren't aware of their rights," he said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33209&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
This week in the region, the representative of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Turkmen capital,
Ashgabat, said a series of weekend elections in increasingly isolated
Turkmenistan would be unlikely to meet democratic standards, according to
AFP. Speaking on Wednesday, Paraschiva Badescu, said voting for a
65-member people's assembly, 5,535 rural council seats and four
parliamentary seats in by-elections looked as if they would fall far short
of Western democratic standards.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33283&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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