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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 121
19 - 25 July 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Afghan interior minister
AFGHANISTAN: Sandstorms affect over ten thousand people
AFGHANISTAN: Development potential in new census
AFGHANISTAN: Three children die from Diphtheria in camp
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on prison reform
PAKISTAN: New cases of HIV among drug users
PAKISTAN: Afghan interior minister's visit met with optimism
PAKISTAN: Proactive policies needed for youth, says report
PAKISTAN: Chaman waiting area closed
TAJIKISTAN: Malaria back with a vengeance, experts say
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with prominent opposition leader
KAZAKHSTAN: Interview with leading rights activist
KYRGYZSTAN: Concerns over press freedom
TURKMENISTAN: Building the non-governmental sector
UZBEKISTAN: TB still problematic in Karakalpakstan, experts say
CENTRAL ASIA-KAZAKHSTAN: Reassessing infant mortality figures
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Afghan interior minister

Although allies in the US-led coalition to fight terrorism, relations
between Pakistan and Afghanistan hit a low recently when an angry mob,
protesting against alleged Pakistani border incursions, ransacked the
Pakistani embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The Afghan interior
minister, Ali Ahmed Jalali, is currently in Pakistan to resolve a range of
bilateral issues, including the border dispute and alleged cross border
attacks by Al-Qaeda and Taliban renegades. Relations between Afghanistan
and Pakistan have been poor in recent years, with Islamabad being blamed
for creating and supporting the Taliban - the fundamentalist movement that
ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted by the US-led coalition in late
2001.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35613&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Sandstorms affect over ten thousand people

The United Nations in Kabul reported this week that more than 12,000
people living in 57 villages had been badly affected by serious sandstorms
in the Lash Juwayan and Shib Koh districts of western Farah province. "Up
to 20 villages had to be evacuated because they were covered in sand which
was banked up against the walls of homes and compounds," Manoel de Almieda
el Silva, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN. The UN spokesman said the storms had left
hundreds of people homeless, destroyed crops and contaminated water
supplies.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35589&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Development potential in new census

Mohammad Salim and his colleague had walked for half a day to reach a
six-member family living in an isolated part of the Yakawolang valley in
the central province of Bamian. The reason for the journey, and for
thousands of others over coming weeks was to collect information for
Afghanistan's first post-conflict census. The census results will be an
important developmental tool for post-conflict Afghanistan. "Agencies will
use the information to make sure their programmes are effective. This
means delivering their services to the right place, in the most
appropriate manner and monitoring the results to make any changes that are
necessary," Joseph Crowley of the UN's Afghanistan Information Management
Service (AIMS) told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35591&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Three children die from Diphtheria in camp

Health workers are taking preventative measures to stop the possible
spread of diphtheria after the disease claimed the lives of three children
at a camp for the internally displaced in the southern Afghan province of
Kandahar. "It is infectious and lethal and the most vulnerable group are
children," technical officer for child health for the World Health
Organisation (WHO), Ahmed Shadoul told IRIN on Monday from the Afghan
capital, Kabul. At least 17 children are suspected to be infected with the
disease at the Zharey Dasht camp, which houses some 40,000 displaced
people and aid agencies, along with local health officials are working
fast to prevent more cases. An infectious diseases ward has been
established at the hospital in the camp and specimens (throat swab slides)
are being studied at a laboratory in Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35519&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on prison reform

Waiting in a long queue in front of the only four toilets at Kabul's
Wolayat provincial jail, Khan Ali, a 44-year-old prisoner, said conditions
at the antiquated, overcrowded facility were worse than torture. "We are
not beaten or tortured but inadequate toilets, lack of health care,
inadequate bedding and food, are themselves a continuous form of torture
that we have to suffer every day," the ex-businessman, charged with fraud,
told IRIN. Some 59 people are housed in his cell - a poorly ventilated,
dark room - 10 by 15 metres - with tiny windows and a damp, concrete
floor. The stench of human misery permeates the air. "It is months since
they [the authorities] promised to transfer prisoners to a proper jail
with sufficient space and essential facilities," Ali's cell mates said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35517&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: New cases of HIV among drug users

A further eight new HIV positive cases have been identified among
intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Pakistan's southern Sindh Province,
bringing the total to 17. The first nine were detected in June after a
prisoner in the local jail of Larkana, 300 km from the port city of
Karachi, tested positive. The prisoner was an IDU and was placed in jail
after being rounded up by police along with other drug users in Larkana.
Subsequently 100 prisoners who were jailed for drug and petty offences
were tested.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35595&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Afghan interior minister's visit met with optimism

Afghan and Pakistani officials and experts are optimistic that the ongoing
visit of a high-ranking official Afghan delegation led by Interior
Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali will improve bilateral ties strained by the
ransacking of the Pakistani embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, earlier
this month. "This is important, and we will look into ways and means of
strengthening our cooperation and coordination in the fields of internal
security and the fight against terrorism," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry
spokesman Masood Khan told IRIN on Wednesday. Khan maintained that there
was no border dispute between the two neighbouring Muslim nations. But
recently Pakistani-Afghan relations hit a further low after protests over
the alleged cross-border movement of Pakistani military resulted in the
ransacking of its embassy in Kabul. The Durand Line, the 2,400 km long
border between the countries remains poorly marked and porous.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35567&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Proactive policies needed for youth, says report

The government of Pakistan needs to be more proactive in developing
policies aimed at the country's youth if they are to have a brighter
future, a new study launched on Thursday said. "Adolescents and Youth in
Pakistan 2001-02 (AYP), A Nationally Representative Survey", was compiled
by the Population Council, a New York-based research organisation, which
spent almost four years preparing the first ever documentation of
Pakistan's younger generation. A 2001 government statistic counts
approximately 25 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 - the
largest number in the country's history.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35614&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Chaman waiting area closed

A makeshift settlement for Afghan asylum seekers on the southern
Pakistan/Afghan border was closed down on Tuesday, as the last convoy of
settlers were transported back to Afghanistan. "In general the move went
very smoothly. But the convoy was held up at Spin Buldak in Afghanistan
due to security concerns. However, they crossed into Afghanistan at 1 p.m.
(local time)," a spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Babar Baloch, told IRIN on Tuesday from
Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan in southwestern Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35547&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Malaria back with a vengeance, experts say

Malaria remains a source of concern in Tajikistan due in part to the
collapse of preventive measures after the country gained independence in
1991. Cases of the deadly malaria falciparum have increased in the past
year. "The current situation with malaria in Tajikistan is very similar to
that of 2002," Nazira Artykova, head of the World Health Organisation
(WHO) office in Tajikistan, told IRIN from the capital, Dushanbe, adding
that according to official statistics, the total number of registered
cases for the first six months of 2003 was 1,474, showing a decrease of
3.1 percent compared to 1,521 incidences in 2002.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35592&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

TAJIKISTAN: Interview with prominent opposition leader

Although the five-year civil war ended in 1997, Tajikistan still suffers
the legacy of the conflict. The peace agreement between the government and
the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) brought relative stability to the
country, but the recent constitutional referendum aimed at strengthening
the position of incumbent President Emomali Rahmonov has done little to
foster reconciliation and accountability. In an interview with IRIN,
Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of
Tajikistan, called for transparency in the allocation of international aid
and warned that growing authoritarianism could destabilise the fragile
peace process.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35569&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN

KAZAKHSTAN: Interview with leading rights activist, Zhovtis Evgeny

On the streets of the Kazakh commercial capital Almaty, Zhovtis Evgeny is
a well-known figure. As director of Kazakhstan's International Bureau for
Human Rights and Rule of Law, one of the largest rights group in Central
Asia today, the 47-year-old trained lawyer is one of the most outspoken
and respected activists in the country today. In an interview with IRIN,
he described some of the many issues and challenges facing Kazakhstan in
the field of human rights. But he's not optimistic. "We are now further
from our goals than we were in the beginning," he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35520&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Concerns over press freedom

Independent media representatives and international organisations have
expressed concern over a decline in press freedom in Kyrgyzstan, once
considered an island of democracy in the region, since its independence in
1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "There is no press freedom in
Kyrgyzstan," Zamira Sydykova, the editor of the opposition Respublica
newspaper told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek. "The judicial system, which
is not independent, is responsible for the fact that most of the
[independent] newspapers might be closed down in the near future," she
said, adding that there were many lawsuits initiated against each
independent publication.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35544&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN

TURKMENISTAN: Building the non-governmental sector

Working with the non-governmental (NGO) sector in Turkmenistan is not easy
- because there isn't one to speak of, not officially at least. Trying to
get information on registered NGOs in Turkmenistan is extremely difficult.
When IRIN visited the Ministry of Justice in Ashgabat nobody was able to
provide updated information on NGO activity. According to the Ashgabat
office of the USAID-funded NGO Support Initiative for Central Asia, there
are around 150 civic groups operating throughout the country but most do
not enjoy official recognition. This compares very poorly with Tajikistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where the NGO concept has been
introduced and governments are gradually opening up to the benefits that
such civic groups can bring. For example, there are over 1,400
foreign-funded NGOs operating in Tajikistan - a country with a similar
population to Turkmenistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35545&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN

UZBEKISTAN: TB still problematic in Karakalpakstan, experts say

Health experts say that cases of TB remain high in Uzbekistan,
particularly in Karakalpakstan autonomous republic in the northwest of the
country. "Karakalpakstan is probably the region with the most difficult
situation with regard to TB, with the highest morbidity and mortality
rates," Zakir Khodjaev, head of the World Health Organisation (WHO)
mission in Uzbekistan, told IRIN in the capital, Tashkent. "It is too
early to say that the situation has stabilised because the DOTS [Directly
Observed Treatment Short-course] programme being implemented has not
covered all the districts of Karakalpakstan yet."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35568&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA-KAZAKHSTAN: Reassessing infant mortality figures

While Kazakh official statistics continue to record a drop in infant and
child mortality figures, such figures may not be an accurate portrayal of
the real situation. "It's too early to say, given the contradictory nature
of the two sources of data being used," Phillippe Heffinck, area
representative for the UN children's agency, UNICEF, told IRIN in the
Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, on Wednesday. Like other Central Asian
countries, the oil and gas-rich nation has maintained the former Soviet
definition of live birth, which is considerably looser than the World
Health Organisation (WHO)-recommended global definition. A new UNICEF
report issued on Tuesday calls for countries in Central Asia and elsewhere
to reassess how they compile infant mortality figures so a more accurate
picture of child health can be established.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35570&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA-KAZAKHSTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The week in Central Asia started with Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev's
meeting with representatives of the government, media, political parties
and non-governmental groups, and claiming he would not seek re-election in
2005. "New constitutional amendments don't allow a new term for me," he
said, adding that elections in 2005 would take place in full accordance
with the constitution and democratic principles. However, Emil Aliyev,
deputy chairman of the Ar-Namys opposition party, called the meeting a
'decoration' to improve the country's international image.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35611&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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