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 150
7 - 13 February 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Drug conference addresses mammoth heroin problem 
AFGHANISTAN: New STI centre boosts awareness in west 
AFGHANISTAN: ISAF to deploy outside Kabul as new Canadian commander takes 
  over 
AFGHANISTAN: Community radio struggling in hostile environment 
KAZAKHSTAN: Risk of further flooding in the south
KAZAKHSTAN: Syrdarya continues to flood with 2,000 people evacuated
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on landslide vulnerability in the south 
PAKISTAN: Anti-rape NGO struggles to be heard 
PAKISTAN: Saving the northern Brown Bear 
TAJIKISTAN: ECHO to slowly phase down operations
TAJIKISTAN: London donor conference concludes
TAJIKISTAN: US offers support for economic, political reform
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups condemn verdict on Uzbek mother 
UZBEKISTAN: World Bank funds water project in Aral Sea region 
UZBEKISTAN: Government wants UN mission on torture to return 
UZBEKISTAN: Focus on child labour in the cotton industry 
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Drug conference addresses mammoth heroin problem

Following a two-day international conference on reducing opium
proliferation in Afghanistan, the executive director of the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, said the next two
years were critical in the country's efforts to control the drug. “The
recent UNODC survey of [opium] farmers’ intentions points to perhaps an
even more severe drug cultivation problem in 2004,” he told IRIN.

Full copy of this report



AFGHANISTAN: New STI centre boosts awareness in west

Efforts to mitigate the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
in Afghanistan received a major boost recently after the establishment of
an STI centre in the provincial city of Herat, the first of its kind in
western Afghanistan.

Full copy of this report



AFGHANISTAN: ISAF to deploy outside Kabul as new Canadian commander takes
over

NATO’s Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, confirmed on Monday that
the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, would be deployed further afield in the shape of provincial
reconstruction teams (PRTs).

Full copy of this report



AFGHANISTAN: Community radio struggling in hostile environment

Surrounded by a group of noisy young people, Zakia Zaki, a 40-year-old
headmistress, tries to host a children’s programme on Radio Solh (Peace) -
a community radio initiative in Jabulsaraj in the central Afghan province
of Parvan. The province was on the front line between the Taliban and the
Northern Alliance (NA) for more than five years, which left shattered
lives everywhere.

Full copy of this report



KAZAKHSTAN: Risk of further flooding in the south

Water levels at the Chardara reservoir in southern Kazakhstan remain too
high with over 1,300 people being evacuated to date. "The water is still
coming as it was and there is still a risk of the Chardara bursting. The
issue has yet to be resolved," Kairzhan Turezhanov, the Kazakh emergency
situations agency spokesman.

Full copy of the report


KAZAKHSTAN: Syrdarya continues to flood with 2,000 people evacuated

In southern Kazakhstan, the water level in the Chardara reservoir - part
of the Syrdarya river system - continues to remain high and flood some
areas, with another 700 people evacuated over the past two days,
government officials told IRIN, expecting, however, that things may turn
to normal soon.


http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39489&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN

KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on landslide vulnerability in the south

Southern Kyrgyzstan is becoming increasingly vulnerable to major
landslides, while the devastation caused by landslides last year in the
south has yet to be rectified, emergency officials have told IRIN.

Full copy of this report



PAKISTAN: Anti-rape NGO struggles to be heard

War Against Rape (WAR) is an NGO that was set up in the early 90s by a
group of concerned citizens and activists after they saw the use of rape
escalate into disturbing numbers by the end of the 1980s. Its Resident
Coordinator, Ambreen Fatima, tries hard to aware the people about the job
they do.

Full copy of this report



PAKISTAN: Saving the northern Brown Bear

An endangered species of bear, specific to Pakistan's northern areas,
could face extinction of its already small population in a specially
designated national park, according to the head of an NGO that has
pioneered efforts to protect it.

Full copy of this report



TAJIKISTAN: ECHO to slowly phase down operations

The Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission (ECHO) will slowly
reduce its operations in Tajikistan, following a gradual improvement in
humanitarian conditions inside the mountainous state.

Full copy of this report



TAJIKISTAN: London donor conference concludes

Donor country representatives, along with international organisations and
the United Nations, have concluded a two-day meeting in London on how best
to address Tajikistan's assistance needs, the poorest of the former Soviet
republics.

Full copy of this report



TAJIKISTAN: US offers support for economic, political reform

Washington is ready to provide support for Tajikistan's political and
economic reforms, such as amending the election code, increasing media
openness, strengthening competition in the political sphere and
liberalising trade.

Full copy of this report



UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups condemn verdict on Uzbek mother

Rights groups have condemned Thursday's court decision to sentence Fatima
Mukhadirova to six years in prison for alleged extremist activities.
Mukhadirova is the elderly mother of a man who died in prison allegedly
after he was immersed in boiling water.

Full copy of this report



UZBEKISTAN: World Bank funds water project in Aral Sea region

The Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank signed a Drainage,
Irrigation and Wetlands Improvement Project, worth US $74.55 million which
is “the first meaningful intervention in the Aral Sea Basin to break a
vicious cycle of high water applications, water logging and secondary soil
salinisation”, according to Masood Ahmad, head of the World Band team
designing the project.

Full copy of this report



UZBEKISTAN: Government wants UN mission on torture to return

The Uzbek government is eager to accept a new United Nations assessment
mission on torture and plans to launch a special programme on fighting
such human rights abuses, a government official has said.

Full copy of the report



UZBEKISTAN: Focus on child labour in the cotton industry

With Uzbekistan's new cotton season approaching, there have been new calls
for regulation of the widespread use of child labour in this key export
sector. Despite some economic growth since independence in 1991,
Uzbekistan remains agrarian, with cotton, as it was in Soviet days, by far
the most important crop. Officially, Uzbek law discourages child labour.
But the requirements of the national economy, continue to outweigh its
obligations to international standards.

Full copy of the report


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

In Kazakhstan this past week, hundreds of opposition party members,
journalists and media rights activists demonstrated on Saturday, urging
the president to veto a new media bill being considered by the upper house
of parliament. Critics say the bill, already passed by parliament's lower
house, limits media rights through stricter registration and licensing
rules. "The parliament has passed a frightening bill. They are trying to
silence us with a law," Gulzhan Yergaliyeva, editor of the independent Soz
newspaper, told about 800 people who rallied at a square on the outskirts
of the country's commercial capital, Almaty. The lower house approved the
bill in December. To become law it must pass the upper house and be signed
by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Full copy of the report
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39471&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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