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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e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-up 156
6 - 12 March 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Women said still oppressed in Heart
AFGHANISTAN: Community-based National Solidarity Programme showing results
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul prisoners celebrate International Women's Day
AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women's status in third post-conflict year
AFGHANISTAN: Red Crescent continues operations despite fatal attack on 
  its staff
IRAN: Afghan repatriation continues unabated
PAKISTAN: Contractual problems caused rejection of wheat: official
PAKISTAN: Absent rains add to country's water woes
PAKISTAN: Focus on renewed repatriation of Afghan refugees
TAJIKISTAN: US-backed AIDS prevention programme for military launched
TAJIKISTAN: Risk of avalanches increases as weather warms
UZBEKISTAN: Drug-related HIV/AIDS cases on the rise in south CENTRAL 
  ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Women said still oppressed in Heart

An increasing number of women and even young girls have committed suicide
in the Afghan province of Herat, ruled by local strongman Ismail Khan,
because of oppressive social conditions that hark back to the time of the
fundamentalist Taliban regime, according to a member of the Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39999&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Community-based National Solidarity Programme showing results

Almost every villager in Guzara - including children and elders - has been
engaged in intensive work to construct a girls school, in an attempt to
complete the building before the academic year starts in the spring, as
part of the National Solidarity Programme (NSP).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39980&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


AFGHANISTAN: Kabul prisoners celebrate International Women's Day

Sitting in a tiny renovated room, Shahgul, a 55-year-old housewife,
received a bunch of flowers as her first-ever gift to mark International
Women's Day. But this is inside a cell at Kabul's Wolayat prison. "I have
not heard of a women's day before nor have I ever had such a gift," the
mother-of-eight, convicted of murder, told IRIN after a joint
UN-government delegation visited the prison's female detention centre on
Monday, International Women's Day.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39938&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Focus on women's status in third post-conflict year

Afghan journalist Shukria Dawi Barekzai is optimistic that 2004 will prove
to be a turning point for women in her country. But like many others she
admits that there is a long way to go before the women's rights enshrined
in Afghanistan's new constitution become a reality. "This year's
(International) Women's Day should be a unique and significant event. This
time we have a new constitution which grants us equal rights that every
other citizen of this country enjoys."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39910&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


AFGHANISTAN: Red Crescent continues operations despite fatal attack on its
staff

The Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) is continuing operations in the
troubled Zabul region of the country despite a fatal attack on one of its
vehicles on Saturday which left one local employee dead and another
injured, ARCS officials said on Monday. The attack took place in the Zabul
provincial capital, Qalat.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39913&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


IRAN: Afghan repatriation continues unabated

Efforts by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) to assist hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Iran
to repatriate to their homeland are continuing. "A series of initiatives
undertaken by UNHCR such as mobile teams, organising visits of Afghan
officials from different provinces to talk to refugees in Iran about
opportunities in Afghanistan, as well as some measures taken by the
Iranian government, make us hope that numbers will pick up during the
summer season."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39907&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


PAKISTAN: Contractual problems caused rejection of wheat: official

The controversy over a consignment of wheat that arrived in Pakistan late
last month and now awaits a decision from the authorities about its
eventual fate, has arisen because of a contractual obligation that has not
been met, a government official said on Thursday. The consignment of about
150,000 mt of wheat, imported by a private Pakistani contractor for the
state-owned Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO)
from Australia, was rejected by Pakistani officials in February on the
grounds that it was infected by a fungus.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40007&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: Absent rains add to country's water woes

Faced with an impending water shortage, which could adversely affect the
season's crops, the country's premier water regulatory authority has
reduced the share given to Pakistan's two most populous provinces and
could reduce it further if the rains stay away, according to a government
official.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39972&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: Focus on renewed repatriation of Afghan refugees

Aalim Gul, an old Afghan refugee, peered short-sightedly through his thick
spectacles at the rows of trucks and smaller passenger vehicles that stood
parked just to a side of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) repatriation centre on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of
the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) that borders Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39926&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: US-backed AIDS prevention programme for military launched

A joint effort by the US government and the Tajik Ministry of Defence to
educate thousands of military personnel about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and
other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is now under way. "The United
Nations has identified military forces as one of several high-risk groups
for HIV/AIDS transmission and infection, along with long distance truck
drivers and other occupations primarily occupied by young men who often
move from place to place."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39971&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Risk of avalanches increases as weather warms

With the weather warming, the emergency authorities in Tajikistan are
becoming worried about possible natural disasters, including avalanches,
landslides and mudflows. "There are [now] avalanches almost every day,"
Abdurakhim Radjabov, deputy minister for emergency situations, told IRIN
from the capital, Dushanbe, on Wednesday. "It is because the snow is
starting to melt."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39973&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Drug-related HIV/AIDS cases on the rise in south

Injecting drug use, fuelled by illicit drug trafficking, is increasing the
number of HIV/AIDS cases in southern Uzbekistan, particularly in areas
bordering Tajikistan, health officials say. Aknazar Pardaev, the head of
the Epidemiological Department of the AIDS Centre in the southern Uzbek
city of Karshi, capital of Kashkadarya province, told IRIN that HIV/AIDS
was on the rise in the area with injecting drug usage being the main mode
of transmission.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39932&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

An avalanche killed one man in southeastern Tajikistan on Thursday, the
Tajik emergency situations ministry reported. The 50-year-old road worker
was buried by snow in the Shugnan district of the mountainous Badakhshan
region, some 500 km east of the capital, Dushanbe. His body was dug out by
his colleagues five hours after the incident. Abdurakhim Radjabov, deputy
minister for emergency situations, told IRIN from Dushanbe earlier this
week that there were now avalanches almost every day. Mountains cover more
than 80 percent of Tajikistan's territory and avalanches are common in
winter and early spring, especially in the Badahkshan area in the Pamir
mountains. The recent incident brought the number of people killed by
avalanches this year to 11.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40012&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA 


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