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 109
26 April - 02 May 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Mas'ud assassination probe welcomed
AFGHANISTAN: Government set to tackle maternal mortality
AFGHANISTAN: NGOs say security still critical following US visit
AFGHANISTAN: Forced return of asylum seekers from UK condemned
AFGHANISTAN: UN reports serious rights violations in northwest
AFGHANISTAN: Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the north
PAKISTAN: Last year's earthquake victims to be resettled
PAKISTAN: Poppy growers clash with paramilitary forces
TAJIKISTAN: Poverty growing despite increased assistance, says ICG
TURKEY: Powerful earthquake leaves more than 80 dead
TURKEY: Quake victims complain of slow assistance
UZBEKISTAN: Activists criticise EBRD for meeting in Tashkent
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
CENTRAL ASIA: Regional summit ends
CENTRAL ASIA: Civil emergency exercise opens in Ferghana Valley


AFGHANISTAN: Mas'ud assassination probe welcomed

Afghan and international human rights activists have welcomed the
formation of a special commission by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to
investigate the killing of the Afghan resistance leader, Ahmad Shah
Mas'ud, in September 2001. However, they also called for broader
investigations into past human rights abuses. "I think the new decree by
the government on investigating of the assassination of the late Mas'ud is
a good beginning, which means that the government has this willingness to
deal with past crimes," Ahmad Nader Nadery, an official of the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told IRIN in the capital,
Kabul, on Tuesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33797&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Government set to tackle maternal mortality

The Afghan government announced on Wednesday that it would take steps to
reduce maternal and child mortality in the country. "Currently, maternal
and child mortality comprises 90 percent of our health problems," Dr
Abdullah Shirzai, the policy director of the health ministry, told IRIN.
"We have created a basic package of health services which prioritises the
reduction of maternal and child mortality and decreasing of infectious
diseases within three years," Shirzai said, noting that 16 women in every
1,000 pregnancies died, and one child in four died before the age of five.
"The rate is the worst ever recorded in human history," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33819&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs say security still critical in the wake of Rumsfeld
visit

Following US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's statement in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, on Thursday that the bulk of the country was now secure,
and formal combat operations would cease, the aid community countered that
Afghanistan was still dangerously insecure, and called on Washington to
improve security as part of its contribution towards reconstruction.  "It
is premature to declare victory," Paul Barker, the country director of the
US-based aid agency CARE International, told IRIN in Kabul, adding that a
US role in improving security would be more helpful than its engaging in
reconstruction.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33845&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Forced return of asylum seekers from UK condemned

There has been strong condemnation of a decision by the UK to return a
group of Afghan asylum seekers, after the government rejected their
claims. With few details available, it's understood from rights groups and
Afghan community organisations in the UK that 30 Afghans were flown back
to their homeland from Stanstead airport, outside London on Monday. "We
are worried about the situation in Afghanistan and people are leaving
because there is no peace in Afghanistan and they should not be turned
away like this," a representative of the Afghan society in London, Sayed
Jan Karwani told IRIN on Tuesday. He left the southern Afghan province of
Kandahar in 1978 to settle in England.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33772&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UN reports serious rights violations in northwest

The United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) announced on Sunday
that serious human rights violations had taken place in Bala Morghab
District in the northwestern province of Badghis, resulting from clashes a
month ago between a coalition of factions and those of a local commander,
Juman Khan. "According to reports, during the recent conflict in Akazayi
village, 38 civilians died, while 761 homes and 21 shops were looted,"
David Singh, a media relations officer for UNAMA, told IRIN in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, urging the governor of Badghis and local authorities to
make every effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33718&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the north

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has confirmed that
foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is killing one in three newborn lambs in
northern Afghanistan. "On a national scale, an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease would debilitate cattle which plough wheat fields in the
"breadbaskets" of western and northern Afghanistan and till soil in
irrigated valleys, seriously threatening food security," an FAO spokesman,
Etienne Careme, told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday. FMD
spreads through contact between animals in places such as markets. The
sick animals have sores on their feet and in their mouths so they cannot
drag a plough. This condition keeps them out of action and can cause a
food crisis in the families which own them.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33727&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Last year's earthquake victims to be resettled

Thousands of victims from last November's earthquakes which rocked parts
of Pakistan's Northern Areas are to be returned to where they lived and
will receive compensation from the government. "The government will
provide the complete infrastructure of roads and power, and help rebuild
their homes," the public relations officer for the Ministry of Northern
Affairs, Abdul Akbar, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33798&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Poppy growers clash with paramilitary forces

Tribesmen in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, on the
border with Afghanistan, have fired on paramilitary troops trying to
destroy their poppy fields. "One Frontier Corps man was killed in the
clash that took place on 26 April," Brig Sikander Ali of Pakistan's
anti-narcotics division told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in the Pinakai valley in Gulistan District. Local
newspapers reported that weapons such as Kalashnikov assault rifles,
mortars and rocket launchers were used. "We know that these tribesmen have
these types of weapons due to their location and proximity to the border,"
he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33751&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Poverty growing despite increased assistance, says ICG

A new report from the Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis
Group (ICG), says poverty continues to grow in Tajikistan despite a
substantial increase in international aid following the US-led military
campaign in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001. "We think that there has
been some progress in Tajikistan over the last couple of years, but for
long-term development there is a real need to improve governance and
tackle the corruption in a serious way," the ICG's Central Asia project
director, David Lewis, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on
Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33741&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

TURKEY: Powerful earthquake leaves more than 80 dead

More than 80 people were confirmed dead by Thursday evening following a
powerful earthquake that shook eastern Turkey early the same morning.
"Confirmed deaths stand at 82 but the death toll could still rise, 93
people are still under the rubble, time is running out," Oktay Ergunay, a
Turkish Red Crescent official, told IRIN in Bingol as rescue work
continued frantically. Upwards of 1,000 people are feared injured in the
quake that measured 6.4 on the Richter scale. The number of dead and
injured is likely to rise as the full picture of the devastation unfolds
in coming days. Communications and power lines to outlying areas around
the epicentre have been severely disrupted.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33830&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKEY

TURKEY: Quake victims complain of slow assistance

Rescue efforts continued on Friday after a deadly earthquake struck the
eastern Turkish town of Bingol one day earlier, with survivors now
demanding quicker government response. At least 130 people have now been
confirmed dead and hundreds more injured when the quake ripped through the
town of 70,000 people in the early hours of Thursday, catching many
residents as they slept. "None of the buildings are safe," Antika Bektas
maintained as she showed IRIN the interior of her damaged ground floor
apartment. While the hundred or so newly constructed four storey blocks in
Bingol's Karsiyaka district appear unscathed from the outside, a quick
glimpse inside reveals another, more serious, story altogether.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33854&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKEY

UZBEKISTAN: Activists criticise EBRD for meeting in Tashkent

Rights groups have strongly criticised a decision by the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to proceed with its annual meeting
and business forum in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Sunday. The
government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov has a poor human rights
record, and activists maintain that the two-day meeting will send out the
wrong message both domestically and abroad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33849&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The United States on Wednesday lauded Central Asian countries for
supporting its global anti-terrorism campaign. "Central Asia, which for
years had suffered from Afghanistan-based extremism, saw no significant
terrorist activity in 2002," the State Department said in its annual
Patterns of Global Terrorism Report. The survey noted that the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, which seeks to overthrow the Uzbek government, was
severely disrupted when some of its leaders were killed fighting on the
side of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Kazakhstan continued to be "outspoken
and supportive" in the fight, while the Kyrgyz had repeatedly demonstrated
"strong support for the war against terrorism", the assessment said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33842&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Regional summit ends

A one-day summit of the leaders from the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation (CSTO) including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
concluded in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Monday. The leaders of
Armenia, Belarus and Russia also participated in the event. CSTO is a
six-member military and political alliance of the former Soviet republics.
"This was an important event in strengthening the CSTO," Vladimir Sotirov,
the UN secretary-general's special representative in Tajikistan, told IRIN
from Dushanbe. "It increases the cooperation among the participating
states in military and security fields, which is also a prerequisite for
strengthening their link in other fields, and will add to the stability of
the region," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33759&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Civil emergency exercise opens in Ferghana Valley

Monday marked the opening of "Ferghana 2003", a disaster preparedness
exercise based on a devastating earthquake and landslides striking the
Ferghana valley region of Uzbekistan. The exercise is part of Uzbekistan's
contribution to NATO's Partnership for Peace Programme and the first
NATO-led civil emergency exercise to be held in Central Asia. "This is the
first time in Uzbekistan and Central Asia that there has been a joint
exercise of this scope," NATO press officer, Ariane Quentier told IRIN
from Brussels, emphasising the high level of international cooperation
where regional rivalries often predominate. "Regional cooperation is not
the cardinal virtue here."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33734&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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