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 132
04 - 10 October 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: NGO sceptical on extension of peacekeeping force beyond Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: Farmers to benefit from US $6 million agricultural project
AFGHANISTAN: State of Kabul's main prison highlights need for penal reform
PAKISTAN: UNHCR-sponsored refugee law course
PAKISTAN: Heightened security following mob violence
PAKISTAN: Greater investment in young people needed, says UN
KYRGYZSTAN: Salt iodisation diseases still widespread
KYRGYZSTAN: People in potential disaster zones may be moved
KYRGYZSTAN: New protocol with Russia offers protection for labour migrants
KYRGYZSTAN: Presidential proposal to establish UNESCO University
KAZAKHSTAN: Focus on Northern Aral Sea fishery
KAZAKHSTAN: UNICEF head ends visit
IRAN: Children's Day celebrated
UZBEKISTAN: Regional conference on infectious diseases ends
TURKMENISTAN: IHF calls for UN resolution on rights abuses
CENTRAL ASIA: Interview with OSCE senior adviser on freedom of the media
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: NGO sceptical on extension of peacekeeping force beyond Kabul

An agreement reportedly reached between the Afghan government and NATO
earlier in the week to extend the mandate of peacekeeping forces beyond
the Afghan capital, Kabul, was greeted with scepticism by an official from
the NGO sector on Thursday. "We assess this change predominantly in the
light of upcoming changes to the Provincial Reconstruction Team [PRT]
plan, rather than the international community having found sufficient
political will meaningfully to address the highly complex security
situation that has developed, largely as a result of inaction in the
past," Barbara Stapleton, advocacy and policy coordinator for the Agency
Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, told IRIN from Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37118&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Farmers to benefit from US $6 million agricultural project

The Afghan government has decided to take steps to fight opium poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan with the Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) using its leading role in agriculture to define new opportunities to
enable farmers to replace poppy with other crops, according to an FAO
official. "FAO's role is to find alternative solutions, alternative
livelihoods, to opium poppy cultivation," the official, Etienne Careme,
told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul. A UK-funded FAO project worth US
$6 million is set to benefit more than 430,000 farmers in the mountainous
Hazarajat region. The region had not traditionally been a poppy-producing
area, but recent reports suggested that, attracted by high prices and the
eradication of poppy in the more visible areas of Helmand and Kandahar,
the crop was now being grown in the lower valleys with opium traders
extending their influence into the remote highland areas, an FAO press
statement said earlier this week.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37125&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: State of Kabul's main prison highlights need for penal reform

Yasmin and her two children had to struggle for more than two hours behind
a rusting metal fence to get a glimpse of her husband imprisoned within
the thick walls of Kabul's Velayat prison. "I did not hear what he said
and could not talk either," the mother of four said, noting that she had
come from Nejrab, 200 km north of the capital, to visit him. According to
prison officials, lack of space for visitors as well as insufficient rooms
for the inmates is leading to growing tension at the prison. The
100-year-old building, which was constructed to accommodate 200, currently
houses about 680 convicts in 17 rooms. "It is not easy to manage the
crowd, as over 1,000 people gather in this small yard to visit their
jailed dependants," Col Azizollah Khalili, the officer in charge of
Velayat prison, told IRIN, adding that there were over 40 convicts in each
room, which was built to house between 10 and 15.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37028&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: UNHCR-sponsored refugee law course

A unique collaboration between the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and a Pakistani open university will see refugee law
being taught as part of a distance-learning curriculum from next year,
according to an aid official. "The world in general will benefit more by
learning about the nature of the refugee situation worldwide and the
challenges facing them," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday. Three-month courses in refugee
law will be offered to students from early next year according to a
memorandum of understanding signed on Saturday between UNHCR and the
Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), a UNHCR press statement said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37029&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Heightened security following mob violence

Angry crowds rampaged through Pakistan's capital on Tuesday, a day after a
prominent Sunni leader was shot dead near Islamabad, setting a cinema on
fire, smashing cars and traffic signals and vowing to avenge his death.
Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of the Millat-e Islamiya, formerly known as
the Sipah-e Sahaba-ye Pakistan, which was one of five militant groups
banned during a crackdown on extremists last year, was gunned down by
unknown assailants on Monday as he was being driven to Islamabad to attend
a session of parliament, of which he was a member. His driver and three
bodyguards also died in the attack. "This is a conspiracy by Iran. Azam
Tariq was opposed to their attempts to impose their will on the way we
teach our religion to our people. They wanted us to change our Islamiya
textbooks, so they used their agents to kill him," Mohammad bin Alam, a
nephew of the slain leader, told IRIN from Tariq's home city of Jhang in
southern Punjab.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37056&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Greater investment in young people needed, says UN

Pakistan would not be able to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS or come
closer to gender equality unless greater investment was made in, and for,
the youth, a UN official said on Wednesday. "This is a wake-up call for
Pakistan - where basic information on reproductive health issues is
lacking - to listen, and to invest more in its young people so they can
lead healthy lives," Olivier Brasseur, the Pakistan head of the United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad. "It
is never too late for things to change. And I'm happy to say that change
does appear to be taking place," he added, pointing to a recent initiative
by the ministry of education, in collaboration with UNFPA, which is
including reproductive health education in a special course on population
and development for grades 9-12.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37083&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Salt iodisation diseases still widespread

Iodine deficiency related illnesses remain a problem in Kyrgyzstan mainly
due to a shortfall in iodised salt production and imports of low quality
salt flooding the market. "The situation as of today is very difficult.
Domestic production is only 30-40 percent of what the country needs,"
Aleksandr Politkov, an expert at the Kyrgyz sanitary and epidemiological
department, said at a recent seminar on salt iodisation in the capital,
Bishkek. During the Soviet era, iodine deficiency related diseases were
brought under control in Kyrgyzstan, and in the 1980s only occasional
incidences occurred. However, that situation deteriorated after the
mountainous republic gained independence in 1991. According to some
estimates, almost 90 percent of the population in the south and some 55
percent in north of Kyrgyzstan are now once again suffering from
iodine-deficiency disorders.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37124&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: People in potential disaster zones may be moved

Authorities in southern Kyrgyzstan are concerned over the reluctance of
local people to leave potential disaster zones. They have urged the
population of some areas prone to landslides to move to safer areas.
"Regarding those who don't want to do that voluntarily, we will have to
use forcible methods," Naken Kasiev, the governor of the southern Osh
Province, said at a press conference last week. He said the obstinacy of
the residents of the landslide-prone southern Uzgen District - despite the
numerous warnings by the authorities of a possible disaster - had led to
casualties caused by the landslides in there last spring. Kyrgyz
scientists and experts recently forecast seismic activity on the territory
of the mountainous Central Asian state, and authorities in Osh expressed
concern over the possibility of houses in mountain villages and valley
settlements, as well as communications infrastructure, being affected.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37060&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: New protocol with Russia offers protection for labour migrants

A protocol recently signed between Kyrgyzstan and Russia envisages some
preferential treatment for Kyrgyz labour migrants in Russia and is
expected to facilitate their life there and provide improved social
protection. "These amendments [being incorporated in the protocol] are
providing some preferences to our citizens," Vasiliy Kravtsov, the deputy
head of the external labour migration section at the Kyrgyz foreign
ministry's migration service department, told IRIN from the capital,
Bishkek. "Since 1 November 2002, Russia has completely changed its
migration policy, and all the Kyrgyz labour migrants there should have
been deported as illegal ones," Bermet Moldobaeva, an International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) project coordinator in Kyrgyzstan, told
IRIN from Bishkek. "Therefore, Kyrgyzstan has been trying for a year to
make some amendments to the current agreement."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37031&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Presidential proposal to establish UNESCO University

Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev proposed establishing a UNESCO (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) University in
Kyrgyzstan during his speech at the UN agency's conference in Paris on
Monday. "I would like to propose establishing a UNESCO University, similar
to the UN University in Tokyo. It could become one of the leading
universities in the world and distance learning could make it widely
accessible," Akayev said in a speech during the 32nd session of the UNESCO
General Conference. The call has been endorsed by the government. "Our
president always states that Kyrgyzstan can only develop through the
development of human resources, and all the democratic and economic
reforms are aimed at it," Dosaly Esenaliev, the head of the Kyrgyz
presidential press service, told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37079&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: Focus on Northern Aral Sea fishery

Standing on the shore of what used to be the Aral Sea, Kanali Kanybetov
remembers nostalgically how fishermen in his home village of Jambul, a
tiny Kazakh fishing hamlet of 1,500, had cast their nets into what was
once the fourth largest lake in the world. Recalling it like yesterday,
his eyes well up with tears, knowing full well those days are long gone.
"I have always been a fisherman. It's in my blood," he told IRIN. Like
many fishing villages in the area today, Jambul - about 50 km southwest of
Aralsk, the area's largest town - looks starkly out of place, and time.
Once teeming with activity, dust and sand swirl profusely through its now
empty streets, as stray dogs bark haphazardly between buildings. Many
young people have long since left the once thriving community in search of
jobs, leaving the elderly with only their memories to comfort them.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37063&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

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

IRAN: Children's Day celebrated

Thousands of Iranian children from all walks of life have been celebrating
the UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) World Children's Day Festival, while
some aid workers said the government should be doing more to help its
young people. Stalls aimed at raising public awareness of children's
rights have been entertaining the young festival-goers, and the week's
events culminated in a round-table discussion and a concert performed by
Tehran's street children. "Children's Day isn't just symbolic; in fact, we
are moving from an entirely ceremonious and symbolic Children's Day to a
more substantial one, from something which simply happens once a year to
something which really engages sectors in society," Hamid Marashi, a
UNICEF information officer, told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37122&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN

UZBEKISTAN: Regional conference on infectious diseases ends

Health experts and government officials have ended a two-day regional
conference on infectious diseases in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "This
was a conference dedicated to the integrated surveillance of diseases such
as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and STDs [sexually transmitted diseases],"
Kristina Pigenko, an administrative assistant at the Centre for Disease
Control (CDC) in Tashkent, told IRIN on Thursday. The conference offered
training in current international techniques of disease surveillance,
while also presenting new epidemiological information on AIDS, hepatitis
and STDs in the Central Asian Region (CAR). Sponsored by the US government
and organised by CDC in conjunction with the US Agency for International
Development, the conference, entitled "Integrated Surveillance for
HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs Control
and Prevention in the Central Asia Region)", drew some 400 participants.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37123&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN: IHF calls for UN resolution on rights abuses

The International Helsinki Federation (IHF) has appealed to the 15 member
states of the EU for their support for a resolution in the United Nations
General Assembly condemning Turkmenistan for committing human rights
abuses. "There should be a broader expression of the international
community's rejection of the regime's practices," Aaron Rhodes, the IHF
executive director, told IRIN from the Polish capital, Warsaw. "This is
necessary to mobilise all countries to examine their bilateral
relationships and to encourage business enterprises to examine their
relationships in view of their social responsibilities." His comments
follow a statement from the Vienna-based group on Tuesday, stating that as
EU members had played a strong role in mobilising the UN Human Rights
Commission on behalf of human rights in Turkmenistan, they should now
sponsor a resolution in the General Assembly to commit the world community
more strongly to improving the human rights situation in what has been
described as one of the most repressive dictatorships on earth.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37080&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Interview with OSCE senior adviser on freedom of the media

The Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) told IRIN in an interview on Thursday that Central Asia was
"returning to feudalism" and that media freedom in the region was by far
the worst the 55-nation organisation had to contend with. Alex Ivanko,
senior adviser to the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, said
that in the Central Asian states it was clearly noticeable that
journalists reporting on corruption were persecuted. Ivanko charted the
demise of media freedom since the glory days of independence from the
Soviet Union in 1991, and pointed out that poverty was a key factor
militating against a strong, well-resourced, independent media sector in
the five republics.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37130&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Economics featured prominently this week in Central Asia, a five-nation
region of some 60 million people, the vast majority of whom are
poverty-stricken. On Wednesday, the IMF reported an upturn in its
relations with Uzbekistan, the region's most populous nation, following a
fresh commitment to currency convertibility. Erik De Vrijer, the head of a
visiting IMF delegation to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, reportedly said
that the move must now be followed by efforts to improve the business
climate through legal and civil reform, and to promote external and
internal trade. The free-market oriented IMF has often been at odds with
the authoritarian leadership of Uzbek President Islam Karimov over its
reluctance to relinquish its grip on what is mainly a cotton- and
minerals-based economy.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37148&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

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