U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-up 146
10 - 16 January 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN office and aid agency premises attacked
AFGHANISTAN: Defence ministry removes heavy weapons from capital
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of soldiers forsake new army
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Repatriation of Afghan Bam survivors continues 
IRAN: Local welfare organisation assisting hundreds disabled by quake
IRAN: Communicable diseases under control but sanitation and hygiene 
  shortages remain
IRAN: Better shelter needed before weather warms up
IRAN: Bam emergency food distribution proceeding well
KAZAKHSTAN: UNDP releases eighth National Human Development Report
PAKISTAN: Car bomb outside church was meant for police, says government
PAKISTAN: Focus on possible dividends from Pakistan-India talks
PAKISTAN: Human development report calls for changes in the economy
PAKISTAN: UNHCR operations to continue unimpeded, despite lay-offs
PAKISTAN: Foreign journalists freed
TAJIKISTAN: IOM resource centre for labour migrants opens
UZBEKISTAN: Senior UN official dies in plane crash
CENTRAL ASIA: Economic freedom remains poor
CENTRAL ASIA: Focus on security threat from radical Islamic groups
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap


AFGHANISTAN: UN office and aid agency premises attacked

The Afghan NGOs Security Office (ANSO), an organisation providing security
advice to national and international NGOs in the country, confirmed that a
bomb exploded in front of the office of an international aid organisation
in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif on Sunday. According to the group,
one person was injured as a result of the explosion, which occurred
outside premises belonging to French aid group Agency for Technical
Cooperation and Development (ACTED). "It is believed that an explosive
device was either thrown or planted against the guard hut," Nick Downie,
ANSO project coordinator, told IRIN on Tuesday in Kabul, adding that the
injured person was a passer-by.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38915&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN>


AFGHANISTAN: Defence ministry removes heavy weapons from capital

Standing in front of his tiny bicycle repair shop in Kabul, Ghulam Jilani
was watching a convoy of old Russian trucks and armoured vehicles loaded
with heavy weapons, many drawing artillery pieces. The vehicles headed out
of the capital on Thursday in a move by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to
improve security by removing such weapons of war. “We never believed that
these arms which caused all the destruction would one day be moved out of
our Kabul,” the 38-year-old mechanic who had lived in the city through
decades of conflict, told IRIN. Assisted by troops from the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the ministry moved more
than 100 heavy weapons, including multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank
guns and artillery pieces to a deserted former military base some 15 kms
south of the capital. “Today’s process is not disarmament; it is aimed at
securing Kabul,” deputy defence minister, General Rahim Wardak, told IRIN
at a handover ceremony.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38988&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of soldiers forsake new army

More than a quarter of the newly-trained 10,000-strong Afghan National
Army (ANA) have left the service since its formation in mid-2002,
officials at the Afghan Ministry of Defence told IRIN on Sunday. "Around
two to three thousand soldiers have fled the ANA so far," General Zahir
Azimi a spokesperson for the ministry said. The widespread desertion of so
many new troops is a serious challenge to the internationally-trained and
supervised ANA, seen as critical to the country's future peace and
stability.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38870&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN>


AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Repatriation of Afghan Bam survivors continues

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
said on Thursday that more than 400 hundred Afghans who had survived the
devastating earthquake which occurred in the southwestern Iranian city of
Bam in late December, were repatriated to the country on Tuesday. "A
convoy of 11 buses, five trucks and four trailers, carrying 171 men, 79
women and 165 children left Bam the day before, crossing the Afghan border
at Malik [the western Afghanistan border with Iran]," Peter Kessler a
UNHCR spokesperson, told IRIN on Thursday. Most are reported heading to
Kabul to an uncertain future.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38951&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-IRAN>


IRAN: Local welfare organisation assisting hundreds disabled by quake

A Large numbers of people disabled by the Bam disaster, mostly women and
the elderly, have been seeking medical assistance from the government run
Iranian Welfare Organisation (IWO) in Bam, three weeks after the
devastating earthquake hit the city. The IWO has called for increased
international assistance to deal with the huge new case load. Masouma
Borji, 37, a resident of Bam injured in the disaster, had come to the IWO
compound to ask to be refered to a rehabilitation camp in the provincial
capital of Kerman, 175 km northwest of Bam. "My ears were badly injured in
the earthquake, they were bleeding and after that I could hardly hear
anything," she told IRIN. According to a recent UN report, some 20,000
people were injured when the earthquake hit the city on 26 December. Of
the injured, 12,500 have been medically evacuated to other parts of Iran,
and about 2,500 sent to Kerman.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38965&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


IRAN: Communicable diseases under control but sanitation and hygiene
shortages remain

Almost three weeks after a devastating quake hit Bam in late December,
killing an estimated 30,000 people, the prevelance of communicable
diseases has remained under control while serious sanitation and hygiene
concerns remain in the southeastern Iranian city. The main issue that was
of our concern was the health of the people [who] survived and the people
that came to help the others to support the activities on the ground. In
that context we were very concerned about communicable diseases," Bijan
Hamidi, a medical officer responsible for the World Health Organization
(WHO), told IRIN in Bam.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38871&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN>


IRAN: Better shelter needed before weather warms up

Maryam, a resident of Bam in her 40s, lost her husband and four of her 11
children in the devastating earthquake that hit the southeastern Iranian
city on 26 December. She has been provided with a tent by the Iranian Red
Crescent Society (IRCS) subsequently established not far from the place
where her house used to stand.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38924&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN>


IRAN: Bam emergency food distribution proceeding well

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a programme to
provide food supplies to the people of Bam for an initial period of three
months with the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) as their implementing
partner. The southeastern Iranian city, devastated by an earthquake on 26
December, has been divided into 12 zones. An IRCS official in the central
zone told IRIN that they had no problems with food distribution and they
were busy sending supplies into sub-zones to be further distributed by
community leaders. They were said to be going tent-to-tent to provide
people with needed food items and other assistance.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38949&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN>


KAZAKHSTAN: UNDP releases eighth National Human Development Report

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday released its
2003 National Human Development Report entitled "Water as a Key Factor of
Human Development in Kazakhstan." The report offers a comprehensive review
of water resources in the Central Asian nation from the economic,
environmental and social perspectives.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38897&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN>


PAKISTAN: Car bomb outside church was meant for police, says government

A car bomb that exploded on Thursday outside a bible society's office in
the southern port city of Karachi, injuring at least 12 people and
damaging the wall of a church close by, was actually an attack against
law-enforcement agencies, according to a government official. "It was an
attack against law agencies, not against the church or Christianity or the
bible society. A police van was attacked and policemen were injured;
rangers [elite paramilitary soldiers] were injured," Salahuddin Haider,
the information advisor to the Sindh provincial government, told IRIN from
Karachi.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38971&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Focus on possible dividends from Pakistan-India talks

A ground-breaking agreement reached between Pakistani president Pervez
Musharraf and Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee could have
positive developmental dividends for both countries, analysts told IRIN on
Monday. "This is a welcome sign for the entire region," Dr Rasul Baksh
Rais, a professor of political science at the elite Lahore University of
Management Sciences (LUMS), told IRIN from Lahore. "Both Pakistan and
India have faced development crises for well over half a century," he
added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38875&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN> 


PAKISTAN: Human development report calls for changes in the economy>

Years of high-deficit spending have taken their toll on the Pakistani
economy and pushed it to a point where reversing the damage caused is
going to be very difficult, according to the author of the latest human
development report for South Asia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38896&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN>


PAKISTAN: UNHCR operations to continue unimpeded, despite lay-offs

Despite the forced lay-off of about 160 staff due to budget constraints,
operations of the office for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan were likely to continue unimpeded, an aid
official said on Thursday. "Our budget, which has been shrinking ever
since the emergency in 2001-02, was reduced further last year by almost 25
percent. So this reduction in our staff was part of the reaction to that,"
Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38950&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN>


PAKISTAN: Foreign journalists freed

A high court judge allowed two French journalists to go free on Monday -
two days after a lower court sentenced them to a six-month prison term for
violating their visas - following a successful appeal, according to their
lawyer. "It is all over. After hearing our appeal, the judge has ordered
the two journalists released. The sentence is finished," Nafis Siddiqui,
the counsel for the two Frenchmen, told IRIN from the southern port city
of Karachi.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38855&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN>


TAJIKISTAN: IOM resource centre for labour migrants opens

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) opened an information
resource centre for labour migrants in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on
Monday, the first of its kind in Central Asia. "IOM and the Government of
Tajikistan have assessed the principle preventive manner to address the
problem of labour migration. It is to create a public information resource
centre with qualified counselors and an assemblage of information that is
tailored to respond to the needs of these migrants," Frederic Chenais, IOM
deputy chief of mission told IRIN from Dushanbe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38878&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN>


UZBEKISTAN: Senior UN official dies in plane crash

UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Resident Representative in Uzbekistan, Richard Conroy, has died in a plane
crash in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, the United Nations has confirmed.
"This is a tragic event for UNDP and the UN in Uzbekistan. Not only have
we lost a great professional who truly believed in and always strived to
apply UN values, but also an excellent colleague and a very good friend,"
Lykke Andersen, UNDP's Deputy Resident Representative told IRIN on
Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38922&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN>


CENTRAL ASIA: Economic freedom remains poor

Economic freedom remains a serious challenge among the five landlocked
Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, following the collapse of the former Soviet
Union in 1991, according to a new report. "A legacy of interventionist
policies lingers in many countries in Central Asia," Anthony Kim, a
research assistant at the Center for International Trade and Economics
(CITE) at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation told IRIN. "Burdened
with a high cost of government, many bureaucratic hurdles to investment,
and an ineffective financial sector, countries in the region have not been
able to swiftly catch the momentum of solid economic growth."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38947&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA>> 


CENTRAL ASIA: Focus on security threat from radical Islamic groups

Although recent reports suggest that the outlawed Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan (IMU) has been regrouping and could threaten stability in
Central Asia, experts and regional observers remain unconvinced. The IMU
is a coalition of Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central
Asian states opposed to Uzbek President Islam Karimov's secular regime.
The armed IMU and non-violent Hizb-ut Tahrir movement are the most
well-known radical Islamists in Central Asia. The IMU is on the US State
Department's formalised list of 33 Foreign Terrorist Groups, while Hizb-ut
Tahrir is operating freely from its London headquarters, but is legally
banned in all Central Asian states. Hizb-ut Tahrir's ideology envisages a
strict Islamic state and the re-establishment of the medieval Arab
caliphate in the region.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38916&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA>


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Traffic along the Khorag-Dushanbe highway in Tajikistan resumed on Sunday.
The 600-kilometre road had been paralysed by heavy snowfalls after a
landslide days earlier tore down the mountains of the former Soviet
republic, an official with the Central Asian state's emergencies ministry
said. Up to six people were reportedly killed in the incident, local media
reported. Moscow reportedly supports the idea of a gradual transfer of
policing the Tajik border with Afghanistan to Tajik border guards. While
Tajikistan is unable to guard the whole border with Afghanistan, Lt
General Aleksandr Manilov reportedly said on Sunday: "Russian forces will
gradually hand over their sectors to the Tajik border guards." The
mountainous state shares some 1,200 km of common border with Afghanistan,
which has proven a popular crossing point for heroin bound for Europe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38973&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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