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 96
25 - 31 January 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Mine clearance continues despite bomb attack
AFGHANISTAN: ICG urges increased assistance to judiciary
AFGHANISTAN: New interior minister to prioritise security
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the battle to keep winter roads open
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai
AFGHANISTAN: Women's communal baths set to reopen
AFGHANISTAN: New institutional environment for drug control
AFGHANISTAN: IDPs in Kabul face bleak conditions
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR temporarily suspends work in Nangarh
AFGHANISTAN: Government to investigate female education in Herat
PAKISTAN: NGO threatens ambulance strike
PAKISTAN: UNHCR concerned over refugee arrests
PAKISTAN: Freedom of expression under attack in frontier
KAZAKHSTAN: Unfair trial for journalist, says RWB
IRAN: Tehran to host fewer Iraqi refugees if conflict begins
UZBEKISTAN: EU concerned over human rights
KYRGYZSTAN: Concern following assault on journalist
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Mine clearance continues despite bomb attack

UN officials say mine-clearance operations will continue despite a bomb
blast at a UN building in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif on 26
January. "We are not suspending our operations and work will continue as
normal," Abdul Latif Matin, the operations officer for the UN Mine Action
Centre for Afghanistan (MACA), told IRIN in the capital, Kabul, on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32047&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: ICG urges increased assistance to judiciary

A new report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), has called for
increased international support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan's
judicial system, which it says is being hampered by domestic political
infighting as well as lack of donor interest. "Judicial reforms underlie
everything, in terms of promoting a system of accountability and good
governance within the country," ICG's Senior Analyst Vikram Parekh told
IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32026&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: New interior minister to prioritise security

One day after taking office, Afghanistan’s newly installed Interior
Minister called security his top priority. Ravaged by years of war, the
country has seen a continuing spate of security incidents, which many fear
could impede relief and reconstruction efforts in the future.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31997&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on the battle to keep winter roads open

Several hundred men with shovels will make the life of a 22-year-old
Afghan shopkeeper and hundreds like him a lot easier this year. Every
winter the village of Yakawlang in the central highlands of Afghanistan is
cut off for several months by snow blocking passes where the road climbs
to over 3,500 m. But thanks to international initiatives, the roads in
this part of the country will be cleared and remain open throughout winter
for the first time in memory. "It will make such a difference - sometimes
the road would be closed for three months and we could not get food or
supplies until it went away," Jamshid, a shopkeeper, told IRIN in
Yakawlang.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31995&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a man with a mission. He was nominated to
head the Interim Administration in Bonn, Germany, in November 2001, and
elected President by an overwhelming majority at the Emergency Loya Jirga
in Kabul last June. The 45-year-old has worked arduously for years to
bring peace and stability to his fractured nation, devastated by over two
decades of war. In an exclusive interview with IRIN, Karzai, the son of a
prominent tribal leader, assessed the pressing humanitarian situation in
Afghanistan, but emphasised the importance of reconstruction.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31970&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Women's communal baths set to reopen

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday inaugurated the
reopening of some 30 communal baths, or hammams, in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, thereby resuscitating the age-old tradition for women, which had
been outlawed by the Taliban regime. "The main focus of this project is
women," the project manager and gender specialist, Fulya Vekiloglu, told
IRIN. During the previous regime, women were banned from using such baths
and, as a result hammams - particularly those frequented by women - were
neglected or left in disrepair, she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31971&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: New institutional environment for drug control

Afghanistan's newly established counter narcotics directorate (CND) said
it would make the country drug-free within three seasons. "We are working
with UN, UK, US and Afghanistan government to finalise a new anti drug
strategy," Mirwais Yasini Director General of CND told IRIN in the Afghan
capital Kabul on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32046&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: IDPs in Kabul face bleak conditions

As winter temperatures drop, conditions for some 4,000 internally
displaced persons (IDPs) within the Afghan capital, Kabul, remain bleak.
The city has seen a major influx of returnees, many of whom lack adequate
shelter and food. "We have no firewood to even make tea," Qandi Gul, a
40-year-old widow standing in front of her tent with her three bare-foot
children told IRIN at the Chaman Huzuri IDP camp in Kabul. All her
children had coughs, she said, warning that many children would die in the
camp if it snowed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31927&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR temporarily suspends work in Nangarhar

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has temporarily suspended its activities in three separate districts of
the eastern province of Nangarhar. The announcement follows Sunday’s
attack on a two-vehicle convoy of the agency, leaving two dead and one
injured. "UNHCR, in consultation with other UN agencies, has temporarily
suspended its missions in the districts of Khogyani, Kunar and Hesarak
districts of Nangarhar province," assistant public information officer for
the refugee agency, Mohammad Nader Farhad told IRIN in the Afghan capital,
Kabul on Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31949&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Government to investigate female education in Herat

The government of Afghanistan has reaffirmed its concern over recent
allegations of new restrictions imposed on female education in the western
province of Herat. "The government is very concerned about these reports,"
Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs Habiba Suraby told IRIN on Sunday in
the Afghan capital, Kabul, noting she would soon travel to the region
herself to investigate.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31945&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: NGO threatens ambulance strike following alleged kidnapping

One of Pakistan's most renowned NGOs says it may be instruct its ambulance
service to strike if the government does not step in to resolve a dispute
between the Edhi Foundation and another women's NGO. "We will go on strike
until someone listens to us," the director of the Edhi Foundation, Sattar
Edhi, told IRIN on Monday from the southern city of Karachi. The
foundation currently has 650 ambulances offering services across the
country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31947&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: UNHCR concerned over refugee arrests

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has expressed deep concern over the arrest of some 270 Afghan refugees
over the past week in the city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan's Punjab
Province. "We have written expressing concern to the authorities and have
been in touch with them in the provincial capital, Lahore," spokesman for
UNHCR in the capital, Islamabad, Jack Redden told IRIN on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32049&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Freedom of expression under attack in frontier

Human rights groups have expressed concern over diminishing freedom of
expression following the beating of a singer by police over the weekend in
the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. The assault follows
the murder of a local political writer last week in the same region, which
is ruled by the fundamentalist Islamist coalition of Muttahida Majlis-e
Amal or United Council of Action (UCA).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31944&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: Unfair trial for journalist, says RWB

A European journalist support group has condemned the sentencing of the
Kazakh opposition journalist, Sergei Duvanov, describing it as "legally
worthless", and suggesting it was part of the Kazakh government's
repression of the media. "We have talked to his lawyers and the
international observers such as the OSCE [Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe], and they said there were a lot of irregularities
during the inquiry and the rights of the defence were not respected during
the trial," the head of the Europe desk for Reporters Without Borders
(RWB), Soria Blatmann, told IRIN from Paris on Wednesday. "This trial
doesn't have any legal value," she added

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31996&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

IRAN: Tehran to host fewer Iraqi refugees if conflict begins

Iran has reduced the number of refugees it intends to host in case of a
US-led strike against Iraq to 200,000 people, the state news agency IRNA
quoted an interior ministry official as saying on Sunday. These refugees
would be cared for in just 10 camps. Iran has earlier stated it was
planning to establish a total of 19 camps along the border.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31946&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN

UZBEKISTAN: EU concerned over human rights

The European Union (EU) has said that it is concerned over the
deteriorating human rights situation in Uzbekistan, urging the coutry to
adopt more democratic reforms following a cooperation meeting between the
15 member European alliance and the former Soviet republic on Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32023&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Concern following assault on journalist

The French-based NGO Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) has called on the
Kyrgyz government to identify the perpetrators of an attack on a
journalist in the capital, Bishkek on 17 January. "This is a warning to
all free journalists to stop writing articles about corruption in the
political sphere and in the presidential family," Soria Blatmann of RSF's
Europe desk, told IRIN from Paris on Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31928&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

In Central Asia this week, experts at an international conference on
foreign investment in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, concluded that despite
increased Western interest in the region after 11 September, Central Asian
economies remain one of the least attractive to foreign investors.
Representatives of international financial institutions, researchers and
government officials at the two-day conference said that geographical
isolation, as well as poor transport and communication infrastructure were
the main deterrents to foreign investment. Bureaucratic hurdles,
widespread corruption and lack of transparency in business, frightened off
some investors, they added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32048&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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