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 138
15 - 21 November 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN staff member killed in Ghazni
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR withdraws international staff from south and east
AFGHANISTAN: UN-backed pilot disarmament under way in Paktia
AFGHANISTAN: Mine-clearance agency's driver abducted in Ghazni
AFGHANISTAN: Media outlook remains bleak in Konduz
IRAN: Focus on reverse migration
KYRGYZSTAN: Outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Batken
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on increasing rat menace
PAKISTAN: ILO launches four-year programme to eliminate child labour
PAKISTAN: Islamic activists rounded up, leader arrested
PAKISTAN: UNHCR to close repatriation centres for Afghans following 
  Sunday's attack
PAKISTAN: National nutrition survey reveals disturbing trends
TURKMENISTAN: New law could obstruct NGO activity
UZBEKISTAN: Amnesty International slams government over capital 
  punishment
UZBEKISTAN: Interview with UN Resident Representative Richard Conroy
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: UN staff member killed in Ghazni

A staff member of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
was shot and killed in the southern Afghan city of Ghazni on Sunday. The
death of the French national was the first such incident involving an
international staff member of the United Nations since the fall of the
Taliban two years earlier.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37895&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR withdraws international staff from south and east

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is
withdrawing its international staff from the troubled southern and eastern
provinces, as well as reducing the number of its local staff on the
ground, four days after a French UNHCR staff worker was shot dead in the
southern city of Ghazni. Although described as a temporary measure, the
move will undoubtedly have an adverse effect on the agency's repatriation
effort from neighbouring Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37976&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: UN-backed pilot disarmament under way in Paktia

Spingul, an ex-combatant, together with several of his friends, performed
the traditional Paktyawal dance following the disarmament ceremony in the
southeastern city of Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province, on Monday. "I
am happy that I delivered my gun voluntarily. As there is no war now,
there is no need for a gun," the 35-year-old participating in the
disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process of
Afghanistan's New Beginning Programme (ANBP) told IRIN in Gardez.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37932&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Mine-clearance agency's driver abducted in Ghazni

Two days after the murder of a UN staff member by armed men in the
southern city of Ghazni, a driver for a mine-clearance agency was abducted
by gunmen from the centre of the same city on Monday. He was later
released. The United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA)
told IRIN that the incident had occurred when a vehicle belonging to the
Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDC) (an implementing partner of UNMACA) and
its driver were stopped as it was returning from the field.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37947&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Media outlook remains bleak in Konduz

Mohammad Yasin and his colleagues have no choice but to routinely wrestle
with the half-century-old manual monotype German printing press at the
Konduz printing press in their efforts to publish the state-run Konduz
bi-weekly. The four-page, A4 size news and information sheet has a
circulation of only a few hundred, but remains virtually the only source
of national information for the city's 800,000 inhabitants.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38022&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

IRAN: Focus on reverse migration

Ra'nah Rahmani works as a cleaner in the wealthy suburbs of north Tehran,
the capital. Six days a week, eight hours a day, the chatty
32-two-year-old cooks and cleans for Tehran's elite, earning US $250 a
month. She has almost tripled her salary since she moved to Tehran 14
years ago from her remote village, Khoshk in northeastern Iran, and says a
new government pilot scheme aimed at encouraging rural migrants to return
to their villages of origin from cities will not attract her.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37946&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Batken

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been reported from the
southwestern province of Batken, suspected by some Kyrgyz experts to be an
extension of a recent outbreak in neighbouring Tajikistan. "There are 60
confirmed cases of the disease among animals," Sultanmurat Latipov, the
deputy governor of Batken, told IRIN from the provincial capital, adding
that treatment of infected animals was under way, coupled with
prophylactic examinations of animals at farms.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37969&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on increasing rat menace

Health officials in Kyrgyzstan have expressed concern over the growing
population of rats, which could expose local communities to health risks.
"My son went to bring some water from the tap and was bitten on his
finger," Nargiza, a staff member of one of the city's service departments,
told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek, adding that as they were keeping small
domestic livestock in the garden, rats were feeding there.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38004&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

PAKISTAN: ILO launches four-year programme to eliminate child labour

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Wednesday formally launched
a four-year programme intended to support an ongoing programme being
conducted by the government to help eliminate child labour in Pakistan.
"We are primarily providing technical support in this campaign against
child labour, because, like poverty, it has to be phased out step by
step," Johannes Lokollo, the ILO country representative, told IRIN in the
capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37975&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Islamic activists rounded up, leader arrested

A ban imposed on three Islamic organisations by the Pakistani government
over the weekend, in a move that saw dozens of Islamic activists rounded
up across the country, was the continuation of a ban imposed last year,
according to a senior government official. "This is a continuation of the
old ban on groups that had become active under new names," Information
Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad. "If they
become active again under new names and the government does nothing, then
it [such a ban] is useless," he stressed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37916&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: UNHCR to close repatriation centres for Afghans following
Sunday's attack

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is
temporarily closing its voluntary repatriation centres (VRCs) in Pakistan.
The announcement follows a deadly attack in the southeastern Afghan city
of Ghazni this weekend, in which a UN international staff member was
killed and a local staff member wounded. "We are going to close
temporarily the repatriation centres in Peshawar and Quetta until the
security situation is clarified," Jack Redden, a spokesman for the agency,
told IRIN from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Monday, referring to
the two western Pakistani cities in which the centres were located.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37914&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: National nutrition survey reveals disturbing trends

A national survey conducted over the past two years to probe the
nutritional status of women and children has yielded disturbing trends,
with an estimated 38 percent of children between the ages of six months
and five years reported underweight, and another 36.8 percent stunted,
according to an analyst.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37949&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN: New law could obstruct NGO activity

International humanitarian aid activists have expressed varying views over
a new law on NGO registration, which takes effect on Thursday. "Even
before the law actually entered into force, it [the Turkmen government]
had already stripped one NGO, the Dashoguz Ecological Club, of its legal
registration. The domestic remedies for that are virtually nil," Erika
Dailey, the Open Society Institute's Turkmenistan project director, told
IRIN from Budapest, pointing out that this was the first such incidence,
with more likely soon to follow.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38006&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Amnesty International slams government over capital punishment

Amnesty International (AI) has accused the Uzbek government of widespread
human rights violations in its application of death sentences, and called
on the authoritarian regime of President Islam Karimov to take immediate
steps towards a moratorium on capital punishment. "The criminal justice
system in Uzbekistan is seriously flawed. Torture is systematic,
'confessions' forced under torture are routinely used as evidence in
trials, and corruption is notorious," Anna Sunder-Plassman, a researcher
for the watchdog group's Central Asian division, told IRIN from London on
Tuesday

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37948&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: Interview with UN Resident Representative Richard Conroy

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is one of the largest
development partners working with the Uzbek government and civil society.
Still grappling with a plethora of challenges created by the collapse of
the Soviet Union 12 years ago, Tashkent has made progress, particularly
economically, but there is still a long way to go, as UNDP's Resident
Representative, Richard Conroy, told IRIN in a recent interview.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38013&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia started with a heavy snowfall which hit the
Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Saturday. The Tadzhikgidromet, or Tajik
meteorological service, said that almost the monthly norm of precipitation
had fallen on Dushanbe and its surrounding areas in just one day. The
city's power lines have suffered the most damage, caused by trees falling
on them after being overwhelmed by the weight of the snow. The emergency
ministry said there had been no casualties, but Tadzhikgidromet has
forecast more heavy snowfall and further falls in temperature.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38026&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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