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 110
03 - 09 May 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty concerned over refugee returns from Europe
AFGHANISTAN: Journalists highlight harassment
AFGHANISTAN: NGO continues operating despite armed attack
AFGHANISTAN: Commission to review preliminary draft constitution
AFGHANISTAN: UN suspends mine-clearance after staff ambushed
CENTRAL ASIA: Region vulnerable to SARS, says WHO
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Afghan repatriation picks up
PAKISTAN: Farmers blame poor crops on excessive taxation
PAKISTAN: Deadline for Afghan refugees in Kacha Garhi extended
PAKISTAN: Afghan refugee children to benefit from new guide
TAJIKISTAN: Donors pledge US $900 million in aid
TURKEY: Education needs acute following earthquake
TURKEY: Death toll from quake reaches 176

AFGHANISTAN: Amnesty concerned over refugee returns from Europe

Amnesty International (AI) urged the EU to postpone the repatriation of
thousands of Afghan refugees after member states prepared to press ahead
with their controversial plan to do so on Thursday. "Our main concern is
that it is simply not safe for them to return, never mind the other
difficulties they will face once they are there, in terms of rebuilding
their lives," the head of AI's EU office, Dick Oosting, told IRIN from
Brussels on Friday.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34008&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Journalists highlight harassment

Journalists in Afghanistan marked World Press Freedom Day on Saturday by
highlighting incidences of harassment by President Hamid Karzai's interim
government. "There are threats from many directions," Shukria Dawi, the
editor of the Women's Mirror weekly, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul,
noting that she had been warned by politicians several times against
criticising or addressing them in her editorials and writings.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33884&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: NGO continues operating despite armed attack

Following an armed attack on a vehicle of the Afghan Development Agency
(ADA), in which one ADA staff member was killed and another injured, in
central Afghanistan on Saturday, the NGO said it would continue activities
despite the incident. "It was a shocking and tragic occurrence; however,
we will continue to deliver relief and development services in all our
regions," Abdul Raziq Samadi, the director of ADA, told IRIN in the
capital, Kabul, on Monday.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33902&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Commission to review preliminary draft constitution

Afghanistan's constitutional review commission on Sunday introduced its
board to review the preliminary draft constitution prepared by the
constitutional drafting committee. Their efforts will make it ready for
broad public consultations country-wide. "The review commission is
mandated to conduct public consultation on the preliminary draft of the
constitution in all 32 provinces of the country, Iran, Pakistan and, where
possible, in other countries," Prof Abdul Salam Azimi, the deputy chairman
of the constitutional review commission, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33915&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: UN suspends mine-clearance after staff ambushed

Following an ambush on an ambulance of the United Nations Mine Action
Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) in Afghanistan's volatile southeastern
province of Zabol late on Monday, UNMACA announced that it had suspended
operations in insecure areas of the south until adequate security was
provided. The attack left two UNMACA Afghan staff injured. "The incident
was a setback to our operations, and now we realise there are certain
areas we won't be able to operate [in]," Tammy Hall, an external relations
officer for UNMACA, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday.
She added that they would suspend operations in remote areas lacking
security.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33968&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

CENTRAL ASIA: Region vulnerable to SARS, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) told IRIN on Thursday that despite no
reported cases, Central Asian states were vulnerable to Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that has killed more than 200 people and
infected 5,000 others in neighbouring China. "There is lots of travel
between Mongolian China and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with
few measures in place to prevent SARS from spreading," Bernard Ganter,
WHO's regional adviser for communicable diseases, told IRIN from the
Danish capital, Copenhagen.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33962&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA]

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The week's news in Central Asia was dominated by Uzbek President Islam
Karimov's failure on Sunday to respond to a key demand by the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to condemn torture,
dwelling instead the country's achievements. The development bank for
central Europe and the former Soviet Union had understood that Karimov
would make the statement when he opened the bank's annual meeting in the
Uzbek capital, Tashkent. The United Nations, along with rights bodies and
some governments, say that in Uzbekistan, with a population of 25 million,
political prisoners are subject to beatings, suffocation, electric shock,
sexual violence and denial of food or water.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33996&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA]

IRAN: Afghan repatriation picks up

The daily number of Afghans going home from Iran is increasing, says the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Since
the launch of the programme over a year ago, over 400,000 have returned.
"The numbers are definitely increasing," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman,
told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran on Thursday. "At present, we
are looking at about 2,000 people crossing a day, about double the number
one month earlier."

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33970&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN]

PAKISTAN: Farmers blame poor crops on excessive taxation

Farmers in Pakistan say an 18 percent General Sales Tax (GST) imposed on
pesticides and fertilisers by the government early last year is putting
them out of business. "Pesticides are one of the main components of
agriculture that we can't do without, but this tax means that many farmers
cannot afford to use them, and their crops are suffering as a result," the
general secretary for the Farmers' Association of Pakistan, Mohammad
Idris, told IRIN from the eastern Punjabi city of Lahore on Tuesday. He
added that the usage of pesticide had decreased significantly on cotton
farms. "Eighty percent of pesticides are used by the cotton farmers, and
they have really suffered since the tax was imposed," he said.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33898&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

PAKISTAN: Deadline for Afghan refugees in Kacha Garhi extended

The deadline for thousands of Afghan refugees to leave Kacha Garhi camp in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has been extended for
another year to 30 March 2004, IRIN learnt on Wednesday. "This is good
news for the refugees as it gives more time to those who are not yet ready
to leave," the public information clerk for the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Asif Shazad, told IRIN in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33936&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

PAKISTAN: Afghan refugee children to benefit from new guide

A training manual and guide on improving the performance of teachers
working with Afghan refugee children in Pakistan was launched on Thursday.
"There have been great changes in education over the years in relation to
equal participation, provision of facilities for girls, and environmental
changes, to name but a few. These are just a few issues that need to be
taken on board by the teachers," Dr S.B. Ekanayake, the author of the
book, who is a technical adviser to the German Agency for Technical
Cooperation(GTZ), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33969&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

TAJIKISTAN: Donors pledge US $900 million in aid

Donors and aid agencies have pledged to increase aid to Tajikistan, the
poorest of the Central Asian nations, in an effort to fight increasing
poverty there. "Tajikistan is still trying to get back on track, and there
needs to be a more concerted effort in order for things to change," the
country manager for the World Bank in Tajikistan, Cevdet Denizer, told
IRIN from the capital, Dushanbe. Pledges totalling US $900 million over
the next three years were made for a poverty-focused programme presented
by the Tajik government to the Consultative Group for Tajikistan during a
meeting chaired by the World Bank in Dushanbe between 2 and 3 May. About
two-thirds of the total was pledged in grants.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33875&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN]

TURKEY: Education needs acute following earthquake

Education was one of the first victims of last week's powerful earthquake
in the eastern Turkish city of Bingol, which left 167 dead, and over 500
injured. More than 90 percent of the schools in the area were impacted by
the quake, leaving thousands without facilities to continue their
education. Sebahattin Gamsiz, the acting director of the ministry of
national education, told IRIN from the city on Monday that "31,493
students have been affected by this quake. We now need to rebuild."

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33877&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKEY]

TURKEY: Death toll from quake reaches 176

The death toll from last week's powerful earthquake in the eastern Turkish
city of Bingol appears to be levelling out, officials told IRIN on
Tuesday. "The death toll is 176, but I don't expect it to increase any
further," Oktay Ergunay, the deputy director-general of the Turkish Red
Crescent, told IRIN from the quake-hit city, noting that search and rescue
operations for potential survivors had ended on Sunday. More than 500
residents in the area had been injured, with those still in hospital
having suffered from broken bones and fractures, but expected to make a
full recovery, he said.

[For a complete copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33914&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKEY]


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