Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-166: 04-Jun-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 166
29 May - 4 June 2004
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: UN expresses outrage over MSF attack
CENTRAL ASIA: EC funding for disaster preparedness
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Rescuers work to help quake victims in north
IRAN: New death toll in northern quake
IRAN: Focus on child labour
PAKISTAN: Public sector development programme gets "unprecedented" boost
in funding
PAKISTAN: UN tackles Hyderabad water contamination
PAKISTAN: Children most at risk from Hyderabad's contaminated water
PAKISTAN: Murder of man accused of blasphemy highlights atmosphere of
intolerance
TAJIKISTAN: Labour migrant resource centre provides valuable advice
UZBEKISTAN: Prisons may open doors to human rights observers
UZBEKISTAN: Officials welcome foreign experts' no-torture finding
AFGHANISTAN: UN expresses outrage over MSF attack
The United Nations has expressed outrage over the killing of five staff members
of the international relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the Qadis
district of northwestern Badghis province on Wednesday. "The United Nations
family in Afghanistan is deeply shocked and outraged by Wednesday's attack on a
vehicle of the MSF staff."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41403&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: EC funding for disaster preparedness
The European Commission has approved 2.5 million euros (US $3.06 million) to
fund a second Action Plan to help vulnerable populations in Central Asian
countries to improve disaster preparedness in the region. Funds will be
allocated via the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to
finance projects to be implemented by the national Red Crescent Societies,
local authorities and NGOs, and will support activities to strengthen local
capacity on preparedness, prevention and mitigation.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41377&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
A special edition of Kazakhstan's largest opposition newspaper, Assandi-Times
that appeared on Wednesday was a fake and an attempt by the authorities to
discredit its rivals, the editors of the weekly charged in an AFP report. The
edition of the weekly, usually published on Fridays, was filled with criticism
of opponents of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the report said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41416&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
IRAN: Rescuers work to help quake victims in north
Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) rescue teams worked throughout the night
following a violent earthquake which shook northern Iran on Friday, measuring
6.2 on the Richter scale. About 30 people were reported to have been killed,
although news of the dead and injured was still trickling in. Many mountain
roads to villages were blocked, hampering work by rescue teams.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41342&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
IRAN: New death toll in northern quake
The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has said that 35 people were killed and
278 injured in Friday's earthquake in northern Iran. The rescue phase is
drawing to a close as attention is focusing on providing food and shelter
before the rehabilitation phase can begin. The forested Caspian province of
Mazandaran sustained the most damage, but mountain roads blocked by falling
rocks and boulders have made access difficult.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41356&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
IRAN: Focus on child labour
Official government figures estimate that there are about 20,000 street
children in the country, but NGOs say there are at least 35,000 in the capital
Tehran alone. Children like Hamid standing in the middle of four lanes of
unrelenting, heaving Tehran traffic, waiting for the lights to go red. He then
weaves his way through the fumes and noise, tapping on the sides of cars. If he
is lucky, a driver will lean out of his window and pluck from his hand a small
sheet of paper - a poem written by the great Persian poet Hafez - in return for
the equivalent of 15 US cents.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41348&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
PAKISTAN: Public sector development programme gets "unprecedented" boost in
funding
A Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) worth Rs. (rupees) 202 billion (US
$3,628,460,060) was approved by Pakistan's National Economic Council (NEC) on
Tuesday, with a senior Finance Ministry official calling the package, which
represents a 26 percent increase over last year's figures, "unprecedented".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41378&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: UN tackles Hyderabad water contamination
The United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) is working out an
assistance plan to tackle the issue of water contamination and a subsequent
outbreak of gastroenteritis in and around the southern Pakistani city of
Hyderabad, in Sindh province. More than 15 people have died while another 2,000
are reportedly suffering from stomach and skin problems caused by the
contaminated water over the last two weeks.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41371&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Children most at risk from Hyderabad's contaminated water
Children are said to be most at risk from contaminated water being consumed by
residents of the city of Hyderabad in the southern province of Sindh, with many
dying painful, almost instantaneous deaths, according to a health official. The
official said about 27 people, most of them children, are reported to have died
after poisonous water from a polluted lake was allowed to enter the mainly
rural region's water supply in early May. More than 2,000 others have been
treated for gastroenteritis and chronic diarrhoea.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41401&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Murder of man accused of blasphemy highlights atmosphere of
intolerance
The brutal murder last week of a man accused of blasphemy - by a police
constable who had been ordered to guard him while the victim was undergoing
treatment at a hospital in the eastern city of Lahore - is another example of
the religious intolerance bred in Pakistani society by the country's laws,
according to rights activists. Samuel Masih, 27, who belonged to the country's
Christian minority, was accused of littering the wall of a mosque in August and
was subsequently jailed under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC),
which deals with blasphemy.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41402&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Labour migrant resource centre provides valuable advice
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than
630,000 Tajik citizens a year seasonally migrate abroad for work. Most go to
Russia, but also to neighbouring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan seeking
work and a better life for their families. For Avaz Yakubov and his wife
Mehrinisso, the idea of travelling to Russia in search of work and a better
future is a dream. But like thousands of other Tajik labour migrants facing
similar decisions, without knowing the realities of what might await them when
they arrive, that dream could prove to be a nightmare.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41399&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Prisons may open doors to human rights observers
The international human rights organisation Freedom House has launched an
initiative for local human rights' observers to monitor conditions in Uzbek
prisons. Mjusa Server, director of the Freedom House office in the capital
Tashkent, told journalists that "very productive discussions" had been held
between Uzbek human rights activists and officials responsible for prisons in
the country. Server was speaking during the first ever press conference in
Uzbekistan attended both by top police officials and human rights' defenders.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41353&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Officials welcome foreign experts' no-torture finding
Uzbek officials have greeted with satisfaction the findings by western forensic
experts that there was no evidence of torture in the death of a man earlier
reported to have been tortured to death in Uzbek police custody. Ilkhom
Zakirov, an Uzbek Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that the findings by the
international experts were important for Uzbekistan in terms of demonstrating
transparency, given reports by human rights groups of "so-called torture" in
police detention facilities.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41362&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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