Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-124: 15-Aug-03
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 124
9 - 15 August 2003
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: UN says 15 killed in bomb blast
AFGHANISTAN: UN says urgent funds needed for elections
AFGHANISTAN: Drug use in Kabul on the rise, says report
AFGHANISTAN: Special on insecurity in the south
AFGHANISTAN: NATO takes over ISAF command
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Rights activists condemn aspects of OSCE police assistance
KYRGYZSTAN: Poverty fuels labour migration in the south
PAKISTAN: Oil spill threatens marine life, coastal ecosystems
PAKISTAN: Early childhood education to be boosted in the south
PAKISTAN: Focus on aftermath of floods in Sindh
PAKISTAN: Afghan returnee children to undergo iris verification
TAJIKISTAN: Iodine deficiency remains problematic
TAJIKISTAN: Development university for Central Asia taking shape
UZBEKISTAN: Activists react to journalist's conviction
AFGHANISTAN: UN says 15 killed in bomb blast
Fifteen people were killed when a bomb explosion ripped through a bus in
the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday, according to a UN
official. The incident is the latest in a series of such incidents in the
country. "Fifteen people - eight men, six boys and a woman - were killed
as a result of a bomb explosion in a bus in Manja village in the Nad-e Ali
District of Helmand Province, just 10 kilometres from the provincial
capital, Lashkar Gah," David Singh, a media relations officer of the
United Nations Assistant Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN in the
capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35954&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UN says urgent funds needed for elections
The United Nations announced on Thursday that the voters registration
programme for the Afghan general elections scheduled to be held by June
next year urgently needed US $76 million from donors. "We are poised to go
ahead, but actual movement and activity will depend absolutely on the
early arrival of necessary funds," Reg Austin, the chief electoral officer
for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN following
the signing ceremony for the Voters Registration Project (VRPA) for
Afghanistan between the UN and the Afghan government in the capital Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36013&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Drug use in Kabul on the rise, says report
Nearly one-third of opium users and pharmaceutical drug users in Kabul are
women, according to a historic report released by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which chronicles the first-ever
assessment of the extent of drug use in the Afghan capital. "Such a report
clearly shows that problem drug use, as well as drug control generally, is
a cross-cutting development issue in Afghanistan that needs to be dealt
with through partnerships between a wide range of actors from, for
example, the ministries of health, education, labour and social affairs,
women's affairs and information and culture," David Macdonald, UNODC's
senior adviser on demand reduction, told IRIN from Kabul on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35907&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Special on insecurity in the south
Parts of southern Afghanistan have witnessed a spate of deadly attacks in
recent months, including a bomb blast that killed 15 people on Wednesday.
Provincial officials warn that the insecurity threatens rehabilitation and
humanitarian efforts on the ground, in addition to the lives of civilians.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35983&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: NATO takes over ISAF command
As NATO took over command of international peacekeeping forces from
Germany and The Netherlands in Kabul on Monday, locals and aid agencies
expressed disappointment on learning that the operations of the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would not be extended
beyond the Afghan capital. "People will be frustrated and will not believe
in rehabilitation and development if ISAF is not expanded to other cities
of Afghanistan," Zalmai Nejrabi, told IRIN following NATO's takeover of
the ISAF.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35909&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
The US State Department said on Monday that Turkmenistan had been granted
a waiver under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment after President George W. Bush
waived trade curbs pending under a US law. State Department Deputy
Spokesman Philip Reeker said the waiver would encourage the Turkmen
government to move forward expeditiously to remove the exit regime and its
selective application. The Amendment effectively bars access to official
credit and credit guarantee programmes to countries that restrict
emigration.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36009&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Rights activists condemn aspects of OSCE police assistance
Rights activists in Kyrgyzstan have strongly criticised a recent agreement
between the government and the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) on a comprehensive police assistance programme. "Police
today in Kyrgyzstan are a tool used for suppressing civil initiatives, and
they need to be trained and reformed to be professional," Tolekan
Ismailova, head of the Civil Society Against Corruption (CSAC), a local
NGO, told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek. She said that the component of
the project on the resolution of conflict situations and prevention of
public disorders was the main source of concern.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35906&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Poverty fuels labour migration in the south
"I was a real slave there [in Kazakhstan]," Kalil Matkerimov, a
32-year-old resident of the southern Nookat District, told IRIN, saying he
had only escaped by chance after his employer, a local tobacco planter,
had taken his passport and left a person behind to watch over him.
Trusting illegal recruiters in his home country, he along with 50 other
young peasants from southern Kyrgyzstan had been taken to neighbouring
Kazakhstan where they worked from dawn to dusk for a promise of US $40 a
month - a pledge rarely fulfilled.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35985&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
PAKISTAN: Oil spill threatens marine life, coastal ecosystems
Spillage from an oil tanker grounded just off the coast near the southern
Pakistani port city of Karachi, has already caused catastrophic damage to
marine and plant life, the effects of which could linger on for years with
devastating results, according to a top environmentalist. "It is an
ecological, environmental and economic disaster," Tahir Qureshi, the head
of the coastal ecosystems unit at the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature, told IRIN from Karachi on Friday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36012&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Early childhood education to be boosted in the south
A new programme to improve childhood development and education in
Pakistan's poverty stricken provinces of Balochistan and Sindh in the
south of the country will be implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation
Pakistan (AKFP) and USAID. This is the first time these communities are to
benefit from such a programme, which resulted from identifying weaknesses
in policies on early childhood education. "AKFP is moving early childhood
education [ECE] and early childhood development [ECD] back into the
communities and forward," Randy Hatfield, AKFP's education programme
manager, told IRIN from the southern city of Karachi on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35934&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on aftermath of floods in Sindh
An old woman remonstrated angrily inside the district administration's
headquarters in Badin town in the southern province of Sindh. "We don't
have any food at home and we've come from very far away," Khadijah Bibi
told a government official, speaking in Sindhi, her eyes brimming with
tears. "And we're just four old women; we don't have a man to keep on
sending back and forth to help you verify if we haven't received your
supplies already."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35969&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Afghan returnee children to undergo iris verification
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
has made it compulsory for all Afghan refugees aged six and above to
undergo iris scanning verification as part of the repatriation process,
according to a UNHCR official. "It is in the interest of the children,"
Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's senior repatriation officer told IRIN in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday. "UNHCR decided to lower the age
limit due to instances of adults trying to abuse the system by taking back
more children under the age of 12; they were being used for multiple
repatriations to fraudulently claim family repatriation assistance
packages," Ratwatte said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35908&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Iodine deficiency remains problematic
Goitre caused by iodine deficiency amongst women and children remains
highly prevalent in the impoverished Central Asian nation of Tajikistan.
The deficiency induces swelling of the thyroid gland in the neck, leading
to goitre. In some regions it was estimated that close to 60 percent of
children were suffering from goitre.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35972&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Development university for Central Asia taking shape
In a unique international initiative, the Aga Khan Development Network
(AKDN) is creating the University of Central Asia (UCA) with campuses in
the three Central Asian countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan. This will be the first private, internationally chartered
university offering subjects related to sustainable development in these
impoverished mountain societies. "Education is a key to successful
development in all the world's low-income countries," Nasir Virani, the
UCA's business manager, told IRIN in Khorough, the capital of Tajikistan's
eastern Badakhshoni Kuhi Province.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35905&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Activists react to journalist's conviction
Human rights activists in Uzbekistan have expressed varying views on the
conviction on Wednesday of Ruslan Sharipov, an openly gay Uzbek
journalist. While some of them said that the trial had been politically
motivated, others believed that he had been convicted according to the
law. "It is a political case," Vasilya Inoyatova, the head of the E'zgulik
Human-Rights Society of Uzbekistan, told IRIN from the capital, Tashkent.
She noted that whereas he had been charged with sodomy, the article
concerning this offence was rarely acted upon in the country, and if the
authorities considered that they could charge someone with sodomy, then
many people in Uzbekistan could be brought to court on the same charge.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=35984&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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