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 160
17 - 23 April 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Key business conference
AFGHANISTAN: Rural women benefit from WFP's food-for-training
AFGHANISTAN: Development forum sets priorities for billions pledged in 
  Berlin
IRAN: International concern over jailed journalist
KAZAKHSTAN: UNDP calls for integrated water management
KYRGYZSTAN: Uyghur minority fear deportation to China
PAKISTAN: Growth rate in South Asia improving - survey
PAKISTAN: Need for skilled birth attendants imperative - UNFPA
PAKISTAN: NSC attempt to rewrite civil-military equation - opposition 
  senator
PAKISTAN: UNHCR head announces closure of "new" refugee camps in Pakistan
UZBEKISTAN: Largest private donor being forced to close
UZBEKISTAN: Focus on domestic violence
UZBEKISTAN: Tashkent cancels annual presentation with EBRD 
TURKMENISTAN: International gender conference underway
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Key business conference

Afghanistan is hosting a two-day meeting of the 10-nation Economic
Cooperation Organisation (ECO). The conference, which started on Sunday,
is aiming to boost trade in the post-conflict country and boost economic
cooperation in the region. The conference is the first international
meeting of its kind for decades and is expected to encourage much needed
foreign investment opportunities in Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40630&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


AFGHANISTAN: Rural women benefit from WFP's food-for-training

Sorting fruit bearing saplings in a garden, Noor Begum, a 37
year-old-widow, supports her nine-member family in Charmassa village, in
the conservative eastern Nangarhar province. WFP's initiative aims to
empower rural communities with a focus on widows and illiterate women who
have to work to support their families.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40686&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


AFGHANISTAN: Development forum sets priorities for billions pledged in
Berlin

Delegates from more that 40 international organisations participated in a
two-day conference organised by the Afghanistan Development Forum (ADF) in
the capital Kabul on Tuesday. Chaired by the government, the meeting
discussed the financial implications of the nation's development
priorities and how donor money can be best utilised.  According to
officials, the conference's priority is to hammer out a strategy for the
US $8.2 billion that was pledged at a donor conference in Berlin in early
April.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40675&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


IRAN: International concern over jailed journalist

In a joint effort, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World
Editors Forum (WEF) have sent a letter of protest to Ayatollah Mahmoud
Shahroudi, head of the judiciary in Iran, voicing their concern over a
prison sentence handed down to freelance journalist Ensafali Hedayat. "In
Iran, the last months have been mainly concentrated on this kind of
individual harassment and detention."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40684&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN 


KAZAKHSTAN: UNDP calls for integrated water management

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in a new report on
Wednesday, has called for integrated water management in Kazakhstan,
Central Asia's largest nation. "The main findings of the review indicate
that Kazakhstan's further development will be defined by the availability
of water for various sectors of the economy."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40688&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN 


KYRGYZSTAN: Uyghur minority fear deportation to China

There are some 50,000 Uyghurs living in Kyrgyzstan - with unofficial
estimates putting their numbers at nearly double that. An ethnic Turkic
group living in the northwestern region of modern China - estimated at
some 10 million - Uyghurs have long complained of persecution.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40694&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN 


PAKISTAN: Growth rate in South Asia improving - survey

South and South-West Asia showed a marked improvement in its collective
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in 2003, according to an annual
survey conducted by the United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) which was launched in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40642&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: Need for skilled birth attendants imperative - UNFPA

The need for skilled birth attendants (SBAs) in Pakistan, where about 60
women are reported to die daily because of pregnancy-related
complications, is absolutely imperative and needs to be linked and backed
up by emergency obstetrics care and services at health facilities. "We are
advocating SBAs because an SBA is very well trained to handle
life-threatening situations and to provide first-aid then and there
immediately, because in a short span of time, a small amount of first-aid
can do a lot."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40638&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: NSC attempt to rewrite civil-military equation - opposition
senator

The creation of a National Security Council (NSC), presidential approval
for which was granted on Monday, just five days after it was passed by the
Pakistani senate, has been opposed because the opposition does not
recognise the concept of such a council. Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf signed the controversial bill creating the 13-member NSC into
law as an act of parliament on Monday, less than a week after the
country's senate passed the bill in the absence of the opposition who had
staged a walk-out in protest.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40659&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: UNHCR head announces closure of "new" refugee camps in Pakistan

Refugee camps set up by Pakistan to accommodate Afghans fleeing their
homeland after the US-led war on terror began in Afghanistan in late 2001
will be closed by September, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Monday. About 200,000 residents remain in
so-called "new" camps, located close to Pakistan's long and often porous
border with Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40653&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: Largest private donor being forced to close

the largest private donor to Uzbekistan, is placing its hopes on what
could prove to be a lengthy appeals process after Tashkent forced the
closure of the Open Society Institute's (OSI) operation in Uzbekistan by
revoking the foundation's registration. "We would like to continue doing
what we do. We do a lot of valuable things here."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40641&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: Focus on domestic violence

There are no statistics on levels of domestic violence in Uzbekistan, and
no legislation protecting women from it. "The rate of violence against
women in the home is rising. This is partly due to increasing poverty and
partly due to a national regression to 'traditional' family values that do
not recognise women's rights." In an effort to try and help the growing
number of victims of domestic violence in Kashkadarya, Najot was founded
in February 2000.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40635&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: Tashkent cancels annual presentation with EBRD

Uzbek officials cancelled their country presentation during the annual
meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD],
held on Monday in London, after the intergovernmental bank criticised
Tashkent for not making sufficient improvements to the political and
economic situation in the country during the past year.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40662&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


TURKMENISTAN: International gender conference underway A two-day
conference on the protection of rights of women and children kicked off on
Friday in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, organised by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) and Ministry of Justice of Turkmenistan. "This conference
represents a continuation of our cooperation with the Ministry of Justice
of Turkmenistan that we started in October last year. We signed the
memorandum of understanding to assist the legal information centre within
the ministry and also to assist with specific issues of mutual interest,"
Zoran Milovic, head of IOM's mission in Ashgabat, told IRIN on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40718&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The week began tragically, with five Kyrgyz children losing their lives in
a landslide over the weekend, a spokesman for the Central Asian country's
emergencies ministry said on Monday. "They had set out for school but seem
to have been buried under the landslide," the ministry's spokesman Emil
Akhmatov told AFP. Fearing a further landslide, rescuers decided on Monday
to call off their search at the site in the Kara-Suisky district, around
200 km north of the southern city of Osh, Akhmatov said. About one million
cubic metres of soil and rock were displaced in the tragedy. Landslides
and avalanches are common in this former Soviet republic that boasts some
of the world's highest mountains. Fatalities are also relatively common in
Kyrgyzstan due to the unsuitable location and flimsy construction of many
homes.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40719&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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