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 131
27 September - 03 October 2003


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Water, energy sectors take up bulk of new economic measures
PAKISTAN: Slow reaction to AIDS spread to have serious ramifications
PAKISTAN: Government to monitor oil spill
AFGHANISTAN: NGOs meet to reassess work in dangerous south
AFGHANISTAN: United Nations to start pilot disarmament programme
TAJIKISTAN: Labour migration on the rise
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on child labour
KYRGYZSTAN: Lack of insulin brings health concerns
KAZAKHSTAN: UNICEF head ends visit
UZBEKISTAN: Government cited for blocking political opposition
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups react to appeal loss of activist
CENTRAL ASIA: Disaster response conference underway in Almaty
CENTRAL ASIA: IOM welcomes US counter-trafficking assistance
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


PAKISTAN: Water, energy sectors take up bulk of new economic measures

An economic council in the Pakistan government has approved over two dozen
development projects worth close to US $3.5 billion in a meeting by its
executive committee over the weekend, with the bulk of the approved amount
being slotted towards energy- and water-related projects, a government
official said on Monday. "The Executive Committee of the National Economic
Council (ECNEC) approved a total of 28 development projects worth 193
billion rupees on Saturday," Dr. Ashfaq Hassan Khan, the spokesman for the
economic affairs division of the finance ministry, told IRIN in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Seven of the approved projects were
energy-related and had been budgeted at slightly more than $1.1 billion,
Khan said, adding that another six projects were water-specific and had
been slotted into the budget at close to $1.7 billion.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36877&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Slow reaction to AIDS spread to have serious ramifications

The head of a private voluntary organisation working to help AIDS and
HIV-positive patients in the northwest city of Peshawar, has warned of
possible long-term ramifications if national health authorities continue
to ignore the slow spread of the deadly illness. "If the authorities don't
do something about it, this issue will be thrust underground and will
re-emerge as a full-blown epidemic in a couple of years; much as it has
happened in some parts of Africa," Maimoona Masood Khan, the chief
executive of All Women Advancement and Resource Development (AWARD), told
IRIN from the capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36907&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Government to monitor oil spill

The government has ordered the formation of different committees to fully
monitor the extent of the damage caused by the spillage from a tanker
carrying crude oil, which ran aground just off the coast of the southern
port city of Karachi in late July, an environmentalist said on Thursday.
Carrying about 67,000 mt of crude, the Greek-registered Tasman Spirit ran
aground on 27 July, spilling about 15,000 mt on impact and leaking more of
its contents steadily over the next few weeks, causing a huge oil spill
that spread quickly along the coastline and forced a thickly-populated
shorefront to close its beach after it was swamped by a thick layer of
oil.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36960&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs meet to reassess work in dangerous south

Some NGOs in Afghanistan have told IRIN they would meet later this week to
reassess their programmes in the south following last Wednesday's fatal
attack which killed two men working for the Voluntary Association for the
Rehabilitation of Afghanistan (VARA) after suspected Taliban fighters shot
at their car. The attack, along with many others recently, has led to
renewed calls for more foreign peacekeepers to be deployed outside the
capital. "If no effective action is taken to arrest the sharp downward
trend in security, particularly in the south and southeast of the country,
it will not be possible for NGOs to continue working there," Barbara
Stapleton, an advocacy and policy coordinator of the Agency Coordination
Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) told IRIN on Sunday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36862&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: United Nations to start pilot disarmament programme

The United Nations announced on Wednesday that the initial pilot project
of the country's over 100,000 ex-combatant disarmament effort would begin
later this month. "The first pilot project will start the third week of
October in Kunduz province when 1,000 people will be disarmed," Sultan
Aziz, a United Nations senior advisor and programme director of the
Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP), told IRIN in the Afghan
capital, Kabul. According to ANBP, six pilot projects would be undertaken
before the main phase, the disarming of 100,000 ex-combatants, would start
early next summer. "6,000 people will be disarmed in the pilot projects in
six provinces including Kunduz, Gardez, Mazar-e Sharif, Parwan (Kabul),
Kandahar and Bamyan provinces," Paul Cruick, an operations manager of ANBP
said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36935&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Labour migration on the rise

Labour migration is on the rise in Tajikistan, an impoverished Central
Asian nation with a population of some 6 million, mainly due to
socioeconomic difficulties and high unemployment. "The number of the Tajik
labour migrants in Russia is on the rise," Abdumajit Surkhakov, the
representative of the Tajik ministry of labour and social security in
Moscow, told IRIN from the Russian capital, adding that according to his
estimates that number had increased by almost 10 percent over the past
months of 2003 as compared to 2002. Surkhakov also said that there were
some 125,000 officially registered Tajik labour migrants in Russia as of 1
January 2003, citing the Russian interior ministry. However, he estimated
the real number to be some 500,000, hinting to the fact that most of the
migrants were working in the country illegally. He went on to say that in
the Moscow region alone there were between 50,000 and 60,000 labour
migrants.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36958&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on child labour

Despite the frowns of onlookers, 13-year-old Murat and his companions earn
their keep in the quiet village of Aravan, not far from the southern
Kyrgyz city of Osh, making bricks. "Making bricks is a job for adults,"
Jalil Dadaev, an elderly resident told IRIN disapprovingly. "One needs
good health, nutrition and proper rest, to carry out such tasks." But
young Murat and his friends disagree. After completion of his daily
consignment, he along with his friends, share a frugal lunch of dried
bread and a couple of tomatoes each. The oldest in their families, each of
the boys emphasised the need factor to why they had to work.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36924&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Lack of insulin brings health concerns

Parents of insulin dependent children and adults suffering from insular
diabetes, as well as health officials, are concerned over the lack of
insulin in Kyrgyzstan. "My child has been on insulin for eight years. His
development is good and he doesn't differ from the children of his age,"
Tatiana Guliayeva, a mother of an insulin dependent child, living in the
Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek told IRIN. "However, switching to animal-based
insulin might affect my child's health." Yelena Bayalinova, a
press-secretary at the Kyrgyz Health Ministry told IRIN that the ministry
was concerned about the situation regarding the supplies of insulin
preparations. According to the health official, companies supplying
insulin rejected providing the medicine unless the debts, totally some US
$750,000 as of September 2003, including some $165,000 remaining from
2002, were paid.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36864&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: UNICEF head ends visit

Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF), ended a four-day visit to Kazakhstan, Central Asia's
largest nation, as part of that agency's regional management team meeting
on Friday. "This is an annual meeting of UNICEF, which is held twice a
year in different locations, involving the heads of the various CIS
[Commonwealth of Independent States] regions," Philippe Heffinck, the area
representative for the Central Asian Republics, told IRIN from the Kazakh
capital, Astana. During her visit, stopping in Astana and Almaty, Bellamy
met UNICEF colleagues from the region, as well as from New York, and also
had separate meetings with senior government officials, including the
prime minister, the health and foreign ministers, the deputy education
minister and the wife of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36991&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Government cited for blocking political opposition

In yet another example of ongoing efforts to stifle political opposition,
Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the government of Uzbek President Islam
Karimov of effectively blocking the opposition Erk Democratic Party from
holding its congress in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "The message that
democratic processes are still unacceptable is the wrong message to be
sent to the population in Uzbekistan," Matilda Bogner, HRW head of office
for Tashkent told IRIN. "The government puts out a lot of rhetoric on
democracy, both for the international as well as the local media," she
said, noting, however: "In reality there is no democracy and the
opposition is persecuted."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36906&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups react to appeal loss of activist

Rights activists have expressed concern over an Uzbek court decision last
week to uphold an earlier conviction of Ruslan Sharipov, a human rights
activist, incarcerated on charges of homosexuality. "He should have been
immediately released, because he is innocent and the whole process was
fabricated," Tolib Yakubov, the head of the Human Rights Society of
Uzbekistan [HRSU], a local rights group, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital,
Tashkent. Sharipov, a journalist and human rights defender, who had
written extensively about government corruption and improprieties, was
arrested on 29 May on charges of homosexuality, and sex with a minor. The
25-year-old was arrested under Article 120 of the Uzbek Criminal Code,
which punishes "besakalbazlyk" - defined as "consensual satisfaction of
the sexual needs of one man with another man" - with up to three years in
prison.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36866&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Disaster response conference underway in Almaty

An anti-disaster conference is underway in the Kazakh commercial capital,
Almaty, aimed at sharing information and experience in terms of response
to emergency situations. "The issue is to develop common efforts and
coordinate activities in preventing emergency situations and eradicating
those situations related to the utilisation of weapons of mass
destruction," Eldar Kunaev, the head of the disaster prevention department
at the Kazakh emergency situations agency told IRIN from Almaty on
Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36928&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: IOM welcomes US counter-trafficking assistance

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has welcomed US $1.4
million in funding support from Washington in its efforts to establish a
two-year regional counter-trafficking programme for Central Asia. "These
funds will allow us to deal with the issue of trafficking on a regional
basis," Igor Bosc, the IOM acting regional counter-trafficking coordinator
for Central Asia, told IRIN from the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, on
Thursday. Whereas there had been donor support for the various countries
in the past, this had been the first time it had been initiated on a
regional basis, he explained, emphasising the opportunity for greater
cooperation and coordination among IOM's various partners on the ground on
the part of both governmental and nongovernmental organisations.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36956&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

An earthquake measuring five on the Richter scale hit eastern Kazakhstan
on Saturday. According to the Central Seismic Station in Almaty, the
Kazakh commercial capital, its epicentre was in the Zaysan District's
Qarabulaq village, close to the Kazakh-Chinese border, where the magnitude
reached seven on the Richter scale. No casualties or damage has been
reported. The number of prisoners in Kazakhstan has decreased thanks to
amendments to the country's criminal law to mitigate penalties for a
number of crimes. "There were over 65,000 people imprisoned in the country
at the beginning of 2002, and since the new law came into force their
number has gone down to 52,000," Mukhamedzhan Pakerdinov, the deputy of
the legal department of the Kazakh presidential administration, said on
Monday. Thus, in terms of prisoners per 100,000 of the population,
Kazakhstan has moved from third to sixth place in the world. Kazakhstan's
population is close to 15 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36990&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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