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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Fax: +92-51-2211 450 
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-up 162
1 - 7 May 2004

CONTENTS:

AGHANISTAN: UNFPA workshop promotes women leaders
AFGHANISTAN: Voter registration continues despite death of three election 
  workers
IRAN: Tripartite meeting looks at new ways to facilitate Afghan repatriation
KYRGYZSTAN: More landslides predicted following quakes
PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees asked to leave capital
PAKISTAN: Rights groups call for journalist's release
TAJIKISTAN: National conference on human trafficking opens in Dushanbe
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with US Ambassador Richard E Hoagland
TURKMENISTAN: Focus on Armenian migrants
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: UNFPA workshop promotes women leaders

The United Nations Population Fund - UNFPA early last week hosted a
five-day international training workshop to address issues of women in
leadership in the post-conflict country. Dozens of women from NGOs, civil
society groups and heads of departments of the Afghan Ministry of Women's
Affairs attended the UNFPA-initiated programme, "Training workshop on
leadership, media and conflict management".


AFGHANISTAN: Voter registration continues despite death of three election
workers

The United Nations in Kabul announced on Thursday that voter registration
work would continue despite the killing of two British and one Afghan
election workers in the eastern province of Nuristan. It has also been
announced that a UN-government joint team has been sent to investigate the
incident, which took place on Tuesday night. "Absolutely no change has
taken effect since yesterday as a result of this attack. All the plans we
had for voters' registration today are in effect."


IRAN: Tripartite meeting looks at new ways to facilitate Afghan
repatriation

Iran and Afghanistan have reaffirmed their commitment to the voluntary
repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran and discussed new ways to boost
the number of Afghans choosing to return home. At a meeting in Kabul on 28
April, the two countries and the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) agreed that increased transport services
would facilitate the return of more Afghans, as well as a waiver by the
Iranian government's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs
(BAFIA) of fees paid by departing refugees who cannot afford them.


KYRGYZSTAN: More landslides predicted following quakes

Emergency officials in Kyrgyzstan expect more landslides in the
mountainous Central Asian country following minor tremors in April and
anticipated rains in May. According to the emergency agency, a landslide
occurred in the southern Kyrgyz town of Mailuu-Suu, on Monday. "There
isn't a single day without landslides. Landslides occurred on Monday and
Sunday in various parts of the country, particularly in the south. They
are following one another."


PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees asked to leave capital

Afghan refugees living in informal settlements in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad, have been asked to leave and relocate to refugee camps situated
in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) because of security concerns,
according to a minister. "That is one of the reasons. Also, they should be
settled in our camps, where we can look after them better." According to
some estimates, there are roughly 35,000 Afghans living in informal
settlements.


PAKISTAN: Rights groups call for journalist's release

The fate of a Pakistani journalist, arrested on 21 April as he tried to
enter the country's tribal areas where an ongoing military offensive
against Al-Qaeda and Taliban groups had gathered impetus, remains a
mystery as rights groups called for his immediate release. Sami Yusafzai,
a Newsweek correspondent, was arrested in Wana in the South Waziristan
tribal area that borders Afghanistan, as he and Eliza Griswold, a
freelance journalist from the United States, attempted to enter the tribal
agency without special permission from the government.


TAJIKISTAN: National conference on human trafficking opens in Dushanbe

A national conference on human trafficking opened in the Tajik capital,
Dushanbe, on Tuesday, the first of its kind in the mountainous Central
Asian state. "Over half a million Tajiks regularly leave the country to
seek work abroad and the risk of being trafficked is increasing with
alarming rates." Although generally targeting women to work in the sex
industry in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Gulf states, many Tajik men
have also fallen victim to traffickers in the form of forced labour.


TAJIKISTAN: Interview with US Ambassador Richard E Hoagland

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tajikistan has faced
innumerable challenges in its quest for peace and prosperity. In an
interview with IRIN, US Ambassador to Tajikistan Richard E Hoagland, a
former director of the US State Department's Office of Caucasus and
Central Asian Affairs in the Bureau of Europe and Eurasian Affairs,
offered his assessment of a country very much on the right direction,
noting that political and economic reform were key to Tajikistan's future
development.


TURKMENISTAN: Focus on Armenian migrants

Thousands of Armenians from Armenia and Azerbaijan fled to Turkmenistan in
the 1990s, following the war in the Caucasus and the economic crisis in
Armenia. After the authorities in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat introduced
a visa regime with all the former Soviet republics in 1999, many of these
Armenians found themselves in Turkmenistan with no legal status, many have
sought to return home.


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

World Media Freedom Day was marked in Central Asia this week amid reports
of recent attacks on journalists. Human Rights Watch, an international
rights watchdog, wrote to Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev on Monday urging
him to halt the continued harassment of independent journalists in the
country.


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