Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-159: 16-Apr-04
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-CAS Weekly Round-up 159
10 - 16 April 2004
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul sends troops and police to troubled north
AFGHANISTAN: Human rights training for prison staff
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Interview with Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for
Refugees
IRAN: UNHCR head arrives in Iran
KYRGYZSTAN: Internews expresses concern over independent TV station
PAKISTAN: New ruling little help to female prisoners
PAKISTAN: Senior politician gets 23 years for treason
PAKISTAN: Job quotas for women abolished
PAKISTAN: Focus on national security council bill
TAJIKISTAN: Dushanbe to host regional mine action conference
UZBEKISTAN: Diseases caused by iodine deficiency in the south on increase
UZBEKISTAN: Crackdown on Muslim women
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul sends troops and police to troubled north
Following fighting in the northern province of Faryab late last week,
officials at the Afghan ministry of interior told IRIN on Monday the
situation was calm and that people had gone back to work. According to the
ministry, the Afghan National Army (ANA) is controlling the provincial
capital, Maimana, and Kabul has sent additional police to boost law and
order in the troubled province.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40518&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Human rights training for prison staff
The Afghan Ministry of Justice has embarked on basic training in human
rights for key national prison staff in the capital Kabul. The training
seeks to establish humane treatment of prisoners in a country where penal
standards are poor. According to the ministry, lack of resources and
management skills mean the country's crumbling jails fall far short of
minimum international standards.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40568&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Interview with Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for
Refugees
Commissioner for Refugees was in Iran earlier this week as part of a
nine-day mission to the region focussing on the voluntary repatriation of
Afghan and Iraqi refugees. Lubbers arrived in Tehran on Monday night to
begin talks with senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister
Kamal Kharrazi and Interior Minister Musavi Lari. Iran hosts the largest
number of Afghan and Iraqi refugees in the world, but since the fall of
the Taliban in 2001, 400,000 Afghan refugees in Iran have opted to return
to their homeland.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40578&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-IRAN
IRAN: UNHCR head arrives in Iran
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, arrived in the Iranian
capital Tehran on Tuesday, as part of an eight day mission to the region,
including visits Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Half the Afghans have gone
home already, so this is very much an opportunity to look ahead - as well
as push forward solutions for people who are still displaced in
neighbouring countries."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40530&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Internews expresses concern over independent TV station
Internews, an international non-profit organisation supporting open media
worldwide, has expressed concern over the operating status of Pyramida,
one of the largest independent television stations in Kyrgyzstan, and
which is currently being prevented from broadcasting on its licensed
channel. "This is a worrying development."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40577&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
PAKISTAN: New ruling little help to female prisoners
Human rights activists in Pakistan have called for an improvement in the
conditions faced by women prisoners and an overhaul of the entire justice
system following an announcement by President Musharraf that conditional
remissions and pardons for females in custody would be increased. "Such
remissions benefit only a limited number [of female prisoners] and not to
the majority in overcrowded jails in the country."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40520&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Senior politician gets 23 years for treason
A senior opposition politician, detained since late October on a treason
charge, was sentenced on Monday to 23 years in jail by a special court, a
spokesman for his political party said. Arrested in a late-night raid
outside his official residence in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, in
October, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, a member of parliament and the president
of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), had been housed
since in a central jail in Rawalpindi, the historic garrison city that
nestles close to the capital.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40613&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Job quotas for women abolished
The head of a special government-appointed commission on women said on
Tuesday that she was concerned by a recent government decision to abolish
a five percent job quota for women in the public sector, which
contradicted the recommendations made by the commission in a report
published late last year. "There's a government handout, or some sort of a
statement, [that says] that they have already done it."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40537&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on national security council bill
A controversial bill that seeks to create a national security council
affording the military a permanent role in Pakistan's governance, and
passed by the government in the country's senate on Wednesday, was likely
to remain a contentious issue in the long-term, according to an analyst.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40588&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Dushanbe to host regional mine action conference
Dushanbe will host a regional anti-land mine conference on Thursday for
representatives of Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Sponsored by the Tajik government and the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the two-day event is a
concerted effort to advance dialogue on the problems of landmines in
Central Asia.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40557&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Diseases caused by iodine deficiency in the south on increase
Doctors are reporting a worrying increase in iodine-deficiency related
illnesses in southern Uzbekistan. Begam Kurbanov, head of the provincial
endocrinology hospital based in Termez, capital of the southern
Surkhandarya province, told IRIN that the number of such diseases was on
the rise in the region. According to official statistics, the number of
people suffering from iodine-related illnesses in the province increased
from some 152,000 in 2000 to almost 160,000 in 2003.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40519&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Crackdown on Muslim women
Following a recent spate of violence in Uzbekistan, Uzbek authorities have
arbitrarily detained and harassed dozens of independent Muslim women,
indicating a broadening of the government's crackdown on non-violent
Muslims, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). "The particular concern
right now is that people being detained or harassed are tortured or
ill-treated on a large scale and there is information about this."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40536&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Westerns diplomats this week in Uzbekistan have pointed towards increasing
poverty and political repression as forces likely to radicalise Uzbeks,
whose average wages are just a dollar a day, media reports say. Their
comments follows a spate of violence in late March and early April -
including suicide bombings in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent - claiming the
lives of at least 47 people. While government officials attribute the
attacks to Islamic radicals and Al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cells,
activists in Central Asia's most populous state warn of a further
crackdown on human rights.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40617&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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