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Central Asia
IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 127
30 August - 5 September 2003


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Attack on road construction team kills six
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UNODC head on opium production
AFGHANISTAN: Defence reforms may reduce faction fighting
AFGHANISTAN: Police violently evict Kabul residents
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on disarmament in the north
PAKISTAN: Foreign investment up
PAKISTAN: More HIV cases identified in Sindh
KAZAKHSTAN: Islamic Development Bank seeks closer ties
KAZAKHSTAN: Special report on ethnic Kazakhs and the struggle to return
TURKMENISTAN: Banned Baptists highlight lack of religious freedom
CENTRAL ASIA: Water forum calls for water decade 2005-2015
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



AFGHANISTAN: Attack on road construction team kills six

The US based construction and engineering company Louis Berger Group (LBG)
said that four people were killed and another four kidnapped when
unidentified assailants attacked one of the company's guest houses on the
Kabul-Kandahar road, about 100 km north of Kandahar on Monday.

"At approximately 0100 on Monday, an unknown number of invaders attacked a
hilltop security position of the Ministry of Interior located on the
Kabul-Kandahar highway, the attackers killed four men, wounded four and
possibly kidnapped four more people," Mike Staples, a public relations and
report manager for LBG told IRIN in the capital Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36307&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UNODC head on opium production

Afghanistan has been regaining notoriety as the world's leading poppy
producer, now accounting for about three quarters of global opium
production following the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime who had
virtually eradicated production in 2001. The director of the United
Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa was in
Afghanistan last week, to see for himself the extent of the opium industry
and help develop strategies to reduce production.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36387&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Defence reforms may reduce faction fighting

Analysts in Central Asia hope that the newly-reformed Afghan defence
ministry will pave the way to genuine disarmament and bring an end to
factional fighting that has plagued the north of the country. Plans to
reform the Defence Ministry in Afghanistan were finally approved by the
country's cabinet this week.

"The reforms are intended to create a more equitable ethnic balance within
the ministry and encourage national disarmament," Vikram Parekh, a senior
analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG), told IRIN from the
Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday, adding that 22 new appointments had
been approved by the cabinet, with defence minister Marshal Fahim
retaining his position.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36390&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Police violently evict Kabul residents

Abdul Salam and his six-member family were having breakfast quietly at
home on Wednesday when their house was bulldozed by Afghan police. "We
thought it was a bomb explosion or earthquake," the 35-year-old civil
servant told IRIN, adding that two of her children were injured when they
started to escape the destruction through the windows.

Salam's is one of 30 families in the Shirpur area of Wazir Akbar Khan
district of the capital Kabul, who were evicted from their homes and then
watched in horror as their houses were destroyed in front of them,
because, authorities say, they were built illegally. Many of those evicted
were badly injured during the operation as their flimsy houses crashed
down around them. According to residents and witnesses, the chief of
police of Kabul himself led the operation.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36402&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Focus on disarmament in the north

Sitting under a tree, Mohammad Taher toys with his old Russian AK-47
assault rifle as he reluctantly lets a British Provincial Reconstruction
Team (PRT) soldier register his weapon as part of a local disarmament
programme. "You have to keep a gun to be safe from all these rival
commanders," the father of nine told IRIN in Bagh-e Pahlavan village in
Sholgara (also known as Balkh) District of the northern city of Mazar-e
Sharif.

According to local officials, Sholgara District with its population of
40,000 to 50,000 is one of the most vulnerable areas in northern
Afghanistan, where simmering feuds between local strongmen have often
erupted into conflict. "The district has been the site of ongoing
factional tensions for over a year; these tensions have periodically
erupted into localised fighting with a lot of causalities," Taher said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp ReportID=36354&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

PAKISTAN: Foreign investment up

An annual report launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Thursday said
Pakistan had seen a substantial increase in foreign private investment in
2003. The World Investment Report (WIR), which was launched simultaneously
in 80 countries, is an analysis of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with
an emphasis on development implications. The current report focuses on
global fluctuations in FDI and the role national policies and
international investment agreements play in attracting FDI.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36391&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: More HIV cases identified in Sindh

An additional seven HIV positive cases have been identified in the
southern Pakistani province of Sindh, bringing the total to 24, following
the testing of 5,714 intravenous drug users (IDUs) in the province. The
cases were identified in Larkana, some 300 km from Karachi, following the
start of HIV testing in June of IDU prisoners. "We have noticed a
different pattern developing with Larkana having the highest amount of
cases. In Larkana, out of those tested, 22 were drug users and two were
non-drug users," head of the AIDS control programme in Sindh, Dr Sharaf
Ali Shah, told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi on Tuesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36345&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


KAZAKHSTAN: Islamic Development Bank seeks closer ties

The annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) opened on Tuesday
in Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, the largest Central Asian
nation, hinting at more active involvement in the region from the
international financial institution.

"This meeting underlines the importance for the bank of improving the
social and economic situation in this region [Central Asia]," Ahmad
Mohamed Ali, IDB President said at the meeting, where Uzbekistan, the most
populous country of the region, was admitted as the last of five countries
in the region to join the development bank that now boasts 55 members.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36368&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KAZAKHSTAN: Special report on ethnic Kazakhs and the struggle to return

Standing outside his simple, roughly constructed home with his wife and
three children, Bakhtyar Kelmanov, an ethnic Kazakh from Nukus,
Uzbekistan, couldn't be happier. "As soon as I get citizenship, I'll have
more opportunities here," the 28-year-old told IRIN, in the knowledge that
his mud-brick house could well hold the key to a more prosperous future in
Kazakhstan - a country his family had fled over 50 years earlier. While
such stories are not unusual in Kazakhstan, the struggle for many ethnic
Kazakhs like him remains fraught with challenges.

Officially, 277,000 have returned since 1991, but millions more remain
scattered among the country's Central Asian neighbours, as well as China,
Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36323&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


TURKMENISTAN: Banned Baptists highlight lack of religious freedom

Observers and journalists expressed concern over the lack of religious
freedom in Turkmenistan on Thursday, following reports that the Turkmen
police have banned members of a Baptist congregation in the western town
of Balkanabad from gathering to practice their faith.

The groups said they had been threatened that if they did so they would be
fined for each meeting. In Turkmenistan, the most reclusive Central Asian
nation, only followers of officially-sanctioned Islam and the Orthodox
Christian church are allowed to openly worship.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36388&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Water forum calls for water decade 2005-2015

The International Fresh Water Forum that ended on Monday in the Tajik
capital Dushanbe has adopted an appeal to declare 2005-2015 the decade of
water for life. "Supporting the plans and tasks adopted by the
international community, the Dushanbe [Fresh Water] Forum is putting
forward a proposal to declare the next decade the decade of water for
life," Akil Akilov, the Tajik prime minister reportedly said at the final
session of the conference.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov speaking at the final plenary session of
the conference noted that "the subject of water had become a new strategic
goal of the international community, the achievement of which would serve
people". Assessing results reached at the Forum, Rahmonov noted that no
country was in a position to address challenges and risks in water issues
alone.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36342&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

This week in Central Asia started with the International Fresh Water Forum
that ended on Monday in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, adopting an appeal to
declare 2005-2015 the decade of water for life. Assessing results reached
at the Forum, Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov noted that no country was
in a position to address challenges and risks in water issues alone.

According to the UN's new World Water Development Report, launched in
March, more than 2.2 million people die each year from water related
diseases and poor sanitation. By the middle of this century, at worst
seven billion people in 60 countries will be faced with water scarcity, at
best 2 billion in 48 countries, depending on factors like population
growth and policy making, the report warns

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=36410&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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