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 99
15 - 21 February 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Special report on displaced people in the south
AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers told to remain cautious
AFGHANISTAN: IOM office comes under bomb attack
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on tuberculosis
AFGHANISTAN: Key humanitarian route expected to reopen 
AFGHANISTAN: Demobilisation conference 
AFGHANISTAN: Biscuits to boost school attendance
AFGHANISTAN: Rights groups support ICC but want justice
AFGHANISTAN: Three children infected with meningitis
PAKISTAN: WFP warns of aid suspension for Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Death and devastation following severe winter weather
PAKISTAN: Destructive winter weather continues
PAKISTAN: Special report on family planning
KAZAKHSTAN: EU steadfast on resolution over journalist
UZBEKISTAN: ICG calls for pressure on Tashkent 
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: Special report on displaced people in the south

A cloud of flies erupts from Nasruddin's wheelbarrow as he holds up the
stomach lining of a cow he is trying to sell. "Would you eat this? I have
to feed this to my son," he told IRIN in the Zhare Dasht camp for
internally displaced people (IDPs), 30 km west of the southern city of
Kandahar. Six months after the controversial site was opened, the camp is
home to nearly 27,000 IDPs, with most having no option but to stay in the
harsh desert environment. For some, drought means they have nowhere to
shift to, but for many the main barrier to moving on is the insecurity
elsewhere in the country. Born in Meymaneh, southwest of the main northern
city of Mazar-e Sharif, Nasruddin said the different ethnic groups had
lived happily together in the past, but the Uzbeks obtained many weapons
after the fall of the Taliban and used them to intimidate the Pashtuns.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32391&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Aid workers told to remain cautious

The United Nations in Afghanistan has warned staff to remain cautious
following anonymous threats warning of increased retaliation in the
context of the possibility of a war in Iraq. "We have been cautious,
because some of the [militant] elements have been saying that they will
increase retaliation here if there is a war in Iraq," David Singh, the
public information officer for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan,
told IRIN from the capital, Kabul, on Friday. The comments follow a UN
statement on Thursday, directing staff to remain vigilant due to possible
terrorist activity. Singh, however, emphasised that the warning was
standard. "This is not abnormal, there is nothing new about the statement,
and it's not coming out of the blue," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32445&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: IOM office comes under bomb attack

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told IRIN on Thursday
its offices in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz had come under bomb
attack earlier in the week. "On Tuesday night there were two explosions,
one inside and the other just outside the IOM compound," Jarrett Blanc, an
IOM programme manager in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said. "Nobody was
hurt. Only seventeen windows of the compound building were blown out,"
Blanc explained, adding, however, the IOM had not delayed or suspended its
operations as a result of the incident.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32422&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB), a contagious disease transmitted via the air, continues
to be of major concern to health experts in Afghanistan. While there are
no precise statistics due to problems of access, reports indicate an
increase in the number of reported cases. "There are an estimated 150,000
people suffering from TB in Afghanistan today," Dr Giampaolo Mezzabotta, a
TB medical officer for the World Health Organisation (WHO), told IRIN in
the Afghan capital, Kabul. About 80 percent of all cases worldwide occur
within a group of 22 countries, with Afghanistan having one of the highest
rates of incidence.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32416&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Key humanitarian route expected to reopen

In Afghanistan, avalanches have blocked the Salang tunnel, the main access
route from the capital, Kabul, to northern provinces and the only
all-weather direct route between the north and south of the country. The
tunnel has been blocked by heavy snow for the past three days, the longest
closure this year, thereby severely hampering the movement of people and
goods, including humanitarian supplies. "Our aim is to keep it [the Salang
tunnel] open every day. We are trying our best to open it soon," Stephane
Nicolas, country director of the French aid agency, ACTED, told IRIN from
Kabul on Monday. ACTED has sent experts to Salang, about 150 km north of
Kabul, to clear the remaining snow - that could fall and block the route -
with controlled explosions.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32335&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Demobilisation conference expected to boost security

A major donor conference this weekend in the Japanese capital Tokyo is
expected to speed up the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration
(DDR) of former combatants in Afghanistan, following pledges by the US and
Japanese governments to provide US $95 million for the process. "It's an
opportunity to garner international support and funding for the DDR
process and to bring together the international partners with the key
Afghans involved who can create momentum towards implementation of the
programme on the ground," David Haeri, special assistant to the UN
Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar
Brahimi, told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32425&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Biscuits to boost school attendance

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN on Sunday it was
beginning to distribute 10,000 mt of fortified high-energy biscuits
recently donated by the Indian government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai
inaugurated the programme by distributing biscuits to schoolchildren of
the Amani High School in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The biscuits will help
to feed school children in Afghanistan's four principle provinces of
Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Herat.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32362&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Rights groups support ICC but renew calls for justice

While some human rights groups have applauded Afghanistan's accession last
week to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague in the
Netherlands, others say those responsible for decades of abuses should
also be prosecuted. The ICC treaty will take effect in Afghanistan on 1
May but may only impact on very recent human rights abuses. The court will
have the authority to investigate and prosecute serious war crimes,
genocide and crimes against humanity committed since 1 July 2002 in a
country where such acts have been commonplace during decades of war and
conflict.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32364&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Three children infected with meningitis

Three children in the northern Afghan province of Takhar have contracted
the fatal meningitis virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed
to IRIN on Monday. "We have sent an investigation team to the area
comprising of doctors from the Afghan Ministry of Health and the Swedish
Committee for Afghanistan," Asadullah Taqdeer, the national emergency
preparedness and response officer for WHO in the capital, Kabul, said. A
helicopter mission was sent to the Chahab district in the province on 12
February, where the three cases were identified along with two cases of
pneumonia. Doctors with the WHO-supported team could not confirm any
related deaths and believed that they are isolated cases. Taqdeer said the
local clinic had been supplied with medicine to treat the patients, and
the situation would be monitored for the next fortnight.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32330&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: WFP warns of aid suspension for Afghan refugees

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it might be forced to
suspend food aid for Afghan refugees in Pakistan as early as next month if
donors do not meet a US $24 million appeal for aid for about 300,000 of
them currently in the country. "There might be a pipeline break fairly
soon in March. So far we have received pledges in trickles and drops,"
Reza Sultan, a spokesman for WFP, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on
Tuesday. "We really need an acceleration in the process from the donor
community in order to meet the food needs of these poor refugees." Last
month, the agency asked donors to contribute $24 million towards a
programme to supply about 65,000 mt of food to 288,000 Afghan refugees in
16 camps throughout 2003 in the southwestern province of Balochistan and
the North West Frontier Province, both bordering Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32366&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Death and devastation following severe winter weather

Heavy rains and snow across Pakistan have battered parts of the country,
with reports of deaths and devastation caused to land and households. "We
are investigating the matter. We cannot determine the exact damage yet,
but houses have been destroyed, cattle and other possessions washed away
and people have died," Ali Nawaz Mallah, a government relief official,
told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday. Local media
reported that five people, including two women, were killed and about 35
injured as a tornado struck Ali Muhammad Khaskheli Goth and Saleh Muhammad
Jumani Goth in Gadap town, some 30 km north of Karachi on Monday. More
than 80 houses and a couple of poultry farms were also destroyed, while a
large number of livestock perished in the violent storm that hit the two
villages. The stormy winds were followed by rain that continued for hours.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32363&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Destructive winter weather continues

Maqbul Masih, aged 50, looks after his wife and three children by selling
sweets in a small wooden shop in a slum area of the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad. He was forced to live in a tent in July 2001 after his mud
house was washed away by severe flooding. But he now faces even more
misery, as the heaviest winter rains in five years have left his makeshift
home waterlogged. "These rains have made our lives miserable. We cannot
sleep inside our tents as they cannot withstand the heavy showers," he
told IRIN. Masih is one hundreds of thousands across the country whose
lives and properties have been devastated by the severe weather
conditions.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32390&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Special report on family planning

Fatima Shameem Akhtar is a mother of five and a volunteer at a family
planning clinic in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi. She told IRIN if it
had not been for the clinic in the People's Colony area, she would now
have been a mother of 15, having been completely ignorant of contraception
when she first visited it. "I had an IUCD [Intrauterine Contraceptive
Device] fitted," she said. "Without this clinic I don't know what I would
have done. We simply cannot afford any more children," she said, adding
that she wanted the best for her children, but feared that she and her
husband would not be able to provide for them with a monthly income of US
$60.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32328&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: EU steadfast on resolution over imprisoned journalist

The European Parliament remains undeterred over Kazakh objections to a
resolution last week calling for the release of Sergei Duvanov, a
journalist jailed on disputed rape charges. The Brussels resolution also
urged Astana to respect human rights. "The European Parliament stands by
the terms of its resolution," David Harley, spokesman for the European
Parliament told IRIN from the Belgian capital on Thursday. His comments
follow criticism of the resolution by the Kazakhstan government, which
according to a Reuters report on Wednesday described its contents as
"biased."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32420&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

UZBEKISTAN: ICG calls for pressure on Tashkent

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a multinational advocacy NGO, has
called on donors to take a much tougher, critical approach with the Uzbek
government on reform efforts being undertaken in the country. "There is a
very strong need for political, economic and judicial reform," ICG Vice
President, Alain Delatroz, told IRIN from the Belgian capital, Brussels.
While officially, Tashkent claims to be engaged in reforms, this was not
the case, he said, adding: "Uzbekistan is being ruled with very little
change politically from the Soviet era." His comments coincide with a
statement issued by the group on Wednesday calling on Washington, the
European Union (EU), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD) and other international donors, to step up demands for greater
reform.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32403&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week marked the 63rd birthday of Turkmen President, Sapamurat
Niyazov. The autocratic leader and president for life - known as
Turkmenbashi the Great, or Father of all Turkmen - was hailed as a prophet
on Wednesday by his admirers: this despite growing international criticism
of his hardline approach on political opposition and human rights
following an alleged assassination attempt in November. The Organisation
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday that it was
very worried about human rights in the reclusive Central Asian state, with
OSCE Chairman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer reportedly saying he would further
press the Turkmen authorities on the issue when he visited the country
later this year.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32444&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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