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 149
31 January - 6 February 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the 
  Common Foreign and Security Policy
AFGHANISTAN: Still an important source for human trafficking - IOM report
AFGHANISTAN: Kabul and Coalition getting tough on opium production
PAKISTAN: UNHCR extends birth certificate scheme to Afghan refugees 
PAKISTAN: Focus on farmers' battle to contain cotton virus
PAKISTAN: New Iraqi dinar prompts buying frenzy
TAJIKISTAN: More than US $13 million required for demining over 5 years
TURKMENISTAN: Repatriation of Armenians awaits further funding
CENTRAL ASIA: Syrdarya floods due to lack of regional coordination
CENTRAL ASIA: weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Interview with Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the
Common Foreign and Security Policy

In an interview with IRIN, Javier Solana, European Union (EU) High
Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy reaffirmed EU
committment to Kabul and expressed support for a new international
gathering on Afghanistan. Solana was in the Afghan capital recently to
assess EU work in the country. He also met president Hamid Karzai and
Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. He also said donor countries needed to
look at what would happen beyond Afghan elections slated for next June and
how they could continue to support moves to reduce insecurity and promote
development in Afghanistan.

Full copy of this report



AFGHANISTAN: Still an important source for human trafficking - IOM report

A new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) argues
that Afghanistan remains an important source country for human
trafficking, despite improvements in the conditions of women and girls in
post-conflict Afghanistan.

Full copy of this report



AFGHANISTAN: Kabul and Coalition getting tough on opium production

With Afghanistan set to produce another large and lucrative opium harvest
this year, Kabul, with support from international organisations, is
gearing up to take more serious drug-eradication measures in the world's
largest opium producing country. The Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) has been surveying Afghan poppy production for the past
decade and concluded that the 2003 harvest of 3,600 mt was the
second-biggest recorded, surpassed only by the bumper production of 4,600
mt of opium in 1999, a year before Taliban hardliners banned its
cultivation.

 Full copy of this report



PAKISTAN: UNHCR extends birth certificate scheme to Afghan refugees

A programme pioneered by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the southwestern Pakistani province
of Balochistan, which aims to issue birth certificates to all Afghan
children born in refugee camps in Pakistan, has been extended to the North
West Frontier Province (NWFP), according to an agency press release. The
new document records the baby’s name and gender, date and place of birth
and the father’s name and place of origin.

Full copy of this report



PAKISTAN: Focus on farmers' battle to contain cotton virus

A silent battle being waged on agricultural lands in southern Punjab,
famous for their high-quality cotton output, has just been forced into a
higher gear after the re-emergence of a deadly virus, the Cotton Leaf Curl
Virus (CLCV), that wrought havoc with cotton crops in the early nineties.
Eastern Punjab produces about 80 percent of the crop for Pakistan and the
virus could devastate the local economy.

Full copy of this report



IRAQ-PAKISTAN: New Iraqi dinar prompts buying frenzy

Motivated by the prospect of a lucrative windfall, small-time Pakistani
investors and even ordinary people are flocking to currency dealers to buy
the new Iraqi dinar at what they consider throwaway prices, hoping to reap
the huge profits that could accrue when the situation in the war-ravaged
oil-rich nation stabilises.

Full copy of this report



TAJIKISTAN: More than US $13 million required for demining over 5 years

Dushanbe needs at least US $13.5 million in aid over the next five years
to remove landmines from its territory, Jonmahmad Rajabov, head of the
Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), told IRIN on Wednesday. "This amount
could well increase as there is no accurate estimate of how many mines are
out there," he said, from the Tajik capital.

Full copy of this report



TURKMENISTAN: Repatriation of Armenians awaits further funding

Further efforts to repatriate Armenians living in Turkmenistan will
require additional donor assistance to proceed, an official from the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday. "At this
point, IOM Ashgabat has no more funding available for this return
assistance project, [but] will continue approaching various potential
donors that might be willing to support it," Zoran Milovic, head of the
IOM told IRIN from the Turkmen capital, Ashgabad. His comments came less
than a week after IOM successfully facilitated the return of 92 irregular
Armenian immigrants back to their homeland, 32 of them under the age of
18. The group boarded a chartered plane on Sunday for the Armenian
capital, Yerevan. Most cases returned to the Yerevan region, while a
considerable number went to the Sisian and Goris regions of the
impoverished nation, with a large number of individual cases to
destinations across Armenia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39363&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Syrdarya floods due to lack of regional coordination

The Syrdarya river - one of Central Asia's key resources - has flooded
some parts of Kazakhstan's southern Kzyl-Orda province after regional
governments failed to adhere to a recent agreement to reduce inflows to
the river. On Friday, Khazakh state media announced the evacuation of two
hundred families living in the Aray and Yagodka agricultural communities
in Kzyl-Orda was now under way. "Due to an increase in the water flow, the
situation in the Kazalinski district [of Kzyl-Orda province] is
characterised by a substantial overflow in low lying areas," Kairzhan
Turezhanov, the Kazakh emergency situations agency spokesman told IRIN
from the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, adding that some parts of a
local highway passing near the river had been flooded as well.

Full copy of this report http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39336&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Uzbekistan's human rights record came under international scrutiny again
this week. Human rights groups are concerned about the trial of an elderly
woman, who they say is being persecuted for publicising her son's killing.
Fatima Mukadirova, 62, is accused of attempting to undermine the
constitution of Uzbekistan and distributing extremist literature
advocating an Islamic state. Mukadirova's son, Muzafar Avazov was
allegedly beaten and tortured to death by prison officers in 2002 for
refusing to abandon his religious convictions and attempting to practice
religious rites in prison. He was serving long terms for religious
extremism and for being a member of the outlawed Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement.
The case became famous, in part because there are graphic photographs of
his mutilated body and an unusually high level of international attention.
The corpse was returned to the family with sixty to seventy percent burns,
his lower body scarlet to the chest.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39365&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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