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 113
24 - 30 May 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Heavy floods kill three, destroy homes
AFGHANISTAN: Women's radio initiative
AFGHANISTAN: Housing for widows
AFGHANISTAN: Nationwide anti-diarrhoea campaign
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Interview with UNICEF's regional director
PAKISTAN: 100 children fall ill from micronutrients
PAKISTAN: Strong reaction to "Talibanisation" 
TAJIKISTAN: US gives 2.4 million to curb drug trafficking
TAJIKISTAN: Mine-clearance project under way
CENTRAL ASIA: Fresh assaults on the media
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: Heavy floods kill three, destroy homes

Three people were killed and 30 houses destroyed as a result of heavy
rainfall and floods in northeastern Afghanistan. "The floods occurred last
Monday in Baghlan, Konduz and Takhar provinces," Manoel de Almeida e
Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for
Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.
According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), the floods occurred near the town of Pol-e Khomri, the
capital of the Baghlan Province, in an area occupied by internally
displaced people and, as a result, 30 houses were completely destroyed and
70 partially damaged.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34403&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Women's radio initiative

Najiyah Hanifi, a young Afghan radio journalist, is heading up the first
women's community radio station in northern Afghanistan, located in the
city of Mazar-e Sharif. "This work is not without challenges, but we have
a long journey ahead," she told IRIN. Named after the 9th century Afghan
princess and famous poetess, Rabi'ah Balkhi, the radio station broadcasts
two hours a day, carrying programmes on public health, ethics, women's
rights and entertainment, mostly consisting of Afghan songs. "As most of
our people are illiterate, radio is the most powerful media tool for
education and entertainment," she said.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34332&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Housing for widows

Zakiyah found her four-storey house completely burnt down after six years
when she, her six orphaned grandchildren and other relatives returned to
their destroyed town of Mir Bacheh Kowt, about 25 km north of the capital,
Kabul, last month. Hundreds of other houses like Zakiyah's had also been
set on fire by Taliban forces when Mir Bacheh Kowt found itself on the
front line between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance (NA) in 1998. "We
were forced to leave Nasir Bagh camp in Peshawar [northwestern Pakistan]
and had no choice than to come to these ruins," the 60-year-old-housewife
and head of her eight-member family told IRIN in Mir Bacheh Kowt.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34320&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN: Nationwide anti-diarrhoea campaign

More than 50 percent of deaths among Afghan children under the age of five
are caused by diarrhoea, the Afghan health ministry announced on Monday,
adding that the disease is becoming a serious problem for the country
where child mortality is already unacceptably high. "Already this year,
the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases in [the capital] Kabul has begun to
increase, with more new cases being reported every week," Seyyed
Wahidollah Majid, the director of hygiene education and environmental care
at the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), told IRIN in Kabul on
Monday.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34341&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN]

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Interview with UNICEF's regional director

With the world's focus shifting to reconstruction in Iraq, aid agencies in
the South and Central Asian region fear renewed donor fatigue, which could
have a negative impact on projects established in needy countries. In an
interview with IRIN, The United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF)
Regional Director for South Asia, including Afghanistan, Sadig Rasheed,
spelled out his agency's priorities, and said development work with
children in the region would be severely affected unless donors responded
more positively to urgent needs.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34404&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN]

PAKISTAN: 100 children fall ill from micronutrients

At least 100 children in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab fell ill
after consuming a dosage of micronutrient tablets in the wrong way. The
tablets were distributed by project workers for the government of
Pakistan. "There is nothing wrong with the programme, the only problem is
that these students should not have chewed the tablets, but swallowed them
whole instead," Nasir Jalil, the national project director for the Tawana
Pakistan Project, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on Monday.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34322&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

PAKISTAN: Strong reaction to "Talibanisation" of northwestern province

Women's groups and local observers are sceptical about new plans to impose
shari'ah (Islamic law) in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP)
by its hardline provincial government. A bill outlining a wide range of
Islamic reforms, and giving shari'ah priority over secular law was
presented to the provincial legislature on Tuesday. "They should focus on
real issues, which are health, education and social justice for all,"
Bushra Gohar, a human rights activist and head of the Human Resources
Management and Development Centre, told IRIN from Peshawar, the capital of
the NWFP, on Thursday.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34402&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN]

TAJIKISTAN: US gives 2.4 million to curb drug trafficking

The US has announced a US $2.4 million grant to help the Tajik government
fight drug trafficking. The country is a major route for heroin exports
from neighbouring Afghanistan to Europe and North America. "The money
follows a bilateral letter of Agreement on Narcotics Control and Law
Enforcement signed on 27 January of this year by both sides, adding a
programme to provide training, technical assistance and equipment to Tajik
law enforcement agencies," Fiona Evans, the public affairs and consular
officer at the US Embassy in Tajikistan, told IRIN from the Tajik capital,
Dushanbe, on Friday. "This programme will be administered by a US civilian
police adviser assigned to the US embassy in Dushanbe," she added.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34421&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN]

TAJIKISTAN: Mine-clearance project under way

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and a Swiss
NGO signed an agreement on Thursday to initiate a nationwide project next
month to clear thousands of mines laid during the five-year civil war in
Tajikistan, which ended in 1997. "It is significant, because it's the
first internationally assisted mine-clearance project in Tajikistan,"
Salla Kayhko, OSCE's political and media officer, told IRIN from the Tajik
capital, Dushanbe, on Friday. "Some 2,500 square kilometres of the
country's territory is mine-contaminated, and over the past year more than
30 people died in land-mine incidents," she said.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34427&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN]

CENTRAL ASIA: Fresh assaults on the media

Human rights organisations have urged Uzbek authorities to immediately
release three arrested journalists, and for Tajikistan to allow access to
a banned opposition website. Ruslan Sharipov, a journalist who leads an
independent civil rights group that focuses on protecting media freedom,
and two members of his group, Oleg Sarapulov and Azamat Mamankulov, were
detained on Monday in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Sharipov was charged
with sex abuse and homosexuality, a criminal offence in Uzbekistan. The
international NGO defending press freedom worldwide, Reporters Without
Borders (RWB), told IRIN that there was a distinct possibility the arrests
were politically motivated given Sharipov's history of critical writing
about government policies, and past harassment against him and his
colleagues.

[For a full copy of this report see:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34401&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA]

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday reported torture and serious
rights abuses across Central Asia, and said the human rights situation in
Uzbekistan remained dire. Uzbekistan and the other four former Soviet
states in the region - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
- were quick to offer assistance to the US post-11 September.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=34433&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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