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Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-up 151
14 - 20 February 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UNICEF makes progress in child-soldier demobilisation work
AFGHANISTAN: Second symbolic destruction of landmines
AFGHANISTAN: UN plans massive voter registration campaign in May
IRAN: No international assistance sought after train tragedy
IRAN: Bam survivors continue to deal with psychological trauma
KYRGYZSTAN: Avalanches on the Bishkek-Osh highway claim four lives
PAKISTAN: First national water policy to be presented for approval
PAKISTAN: Earthquake victims in the north fear further tremors
PAKISTAN: Twin earthquakes claim 24 lives in Pakistan's north
PAKISTAN: UNHCR to resume Afghan repatriations from March
TAJIKISTAN: Focus on Afghan refugees
TAJIKISTAN: Mothers continue to seek missing sons of civil war
TURKMENISTAN: National immunisation programme proceeding well
UZBEKISTAN: UN keeps humanitarian pipeline in Termez open during winter
UZBEKISTAN: ADB project aims to cut poverty by rehabilitating key 
  irrigation system
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups continue condemnation of Mukhadirova verdict
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap 


AFGHANISTAN: UNICEF makes progress in child-soldier demobilisation work

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has announced that it has made
progress in demobilising child soldiers in Afghanistan, an initiative
targeting an estimated 8,000 such children in the country. Over the last
23 years of conflict in Afghanistan, thousands of children have been used
by warlords and fighting forces.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39609&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Second symbolic destruction of landmines

As part of its commitment under the Mine Ban Treaty, Afghanistan completed
a pilot phase of destroying stockpiled landmines, which started last May
in the capital Kabul. In a UN-Government-ISAF (International Security
Assistance Force) joint venture, some 1,300 anti-personal mines (APMs)
were detonated in three massive blasts on Thursday in northern outskirts
of the city. The APMs were collected from 49 stockpiles of the Afghan
Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39535&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: UN plans massive voter registration campaign in May

The UN is making an ambitious effort to expand the current fewer than 100
registration sites to thousands, an effort requiring an army of tens of
thousands of workers to be deployed across Afghanistan. Nowadays, there
are just a million Afghans registered since the process began on 1
December 2003.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39596&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN 


IRAN: No international assistance sought after train tragedy

The Iranian authorities are not seeking international assistance after a
chemical train blast in the northeastern city of Neyshabur killed almost
300 people and injured hundreds more, an official said, adding that the
situation was now under control. "At this point no international
assistance is sought and the Iranian Red Crescent Society [IRCS] is
providing assistance [to the affected people]," Hossein Sharifara, head of
the international communication and reporting unit at the international
affairs department of the IRCS.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39578&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN 


IRAN: Bam survivors continue to deal with psychological trauma

Earthquake survivors in Bam continue to suffer psychological trauma from
their ordeal in December, with health officials noting that rehabilitation
may take quite some time. The quake hit the southeastern Iranian city in
the province of Kerman, on 26 December, killing at least 40,000 people and
leaving more than 100,000 homeless and destitute.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39507&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN 


KYRGYZSTAN: Avalanches on the Bishkek-Osh highway claim four lives

A series of avalanches struck the Bishkek-Osh highway, the only
transportation route connecting the north and south of the mountainous
Central Asian state early Tuesday morning, claiming the lives of at least
four people.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39531&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN 


PAKISTAN: First national water policy to be presented for approval

Pakistan's first ever national water policy is set to be presented to the
cabinet for approval soon, the country's water and power minister said on
Tuesday. "This is the first time we'll have a national water policy. This
document will be the first document, as far as water policy is concerned."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39533&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: Earthquake victims in the north fear further tremors

A group of men stood uncertainly around a truck, laden with relief goods,
which had just arrived at the Mansehra police station in Balakot, about
180 km from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The crowd swelled suddenly
as a man emerged from the front of the truck and clambered up the back,
pausing to look down at an assistant once he stood on top of the vehicle,
before kneeling to unclasp the latch that would allow the hatch to open.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39602&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Twin earthquakes claim 24 lives in Pakistan's north

A disaster-hit rural populace in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province
(NWFP), their homes and belongings destroyed or damaged by two
moderate-intensity earthquakes that claimed at least 24 lives and injured
dozens of others on Saturday, were still waiting for government-pledged
aid to arrive on Monday, according to an official.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39493&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


PAKISTAN: UNHCR to resume Afghan repatriations from March

A voluntary repatriation programme for Afghan refugees, run by the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), that was suspended in
November following the murder of a staff member in Afghanistan, will
resume operations in March, according to an agency official.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39557&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN 


TAJIKISTAN: Focus on Afghan refugees

While much is known about the status of Afghan refugees in Pakistan and
Iran, the two largest host countries to the Afghan diaspora, little is
known about those in neighbouring Tajikistan, where some 3,000 currently
reside. Ask them what they want though the answer will most likely be the
same. "I don't want to return to Afghanistan. I want to be resettled,"
Rahima Sakhidod, a 38-year-old refugee.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39508&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN 


TAJIKISTAN: Mothers continue to seek missing sons of civil war

Tajiks have a tradition of biting a piece of bread before starting a long
journey, claiming the carefully saved remaining loaf will bring the
traveller back home quicker. Leaving his family to join the army seven
years ago, Bisabokhat Makhmudova's son Abdurashid jokingly took two bites
of bread in a bid to return sooner. Recruited during the last days of
Tajikistan's five year civil war, there has been no word from him since.
Bisabokhat has searched the whole country, though the soldier's father
could not stand the grief and passed away.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39554&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN 


TURKMENISTAN: National immunisation programme proceeding well

A new nationwide immunisation and vaccination programme aimed at
eradicating vaccine preventable diseases and maintaining the country's
polio free status is proceeding well in Turkmenistan. "The aim of the
national immunisation programme is to cover more than 95 percent of the
population and maintain polio-free status".

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39558&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: UN keeps humanitarian pipeline in Termez open during winter

As Afghanistan enters into a new developmental and reconstruction phase,
the United Nations is keeping its aid corridor to the north of that
country open by extending a protocol signed with the Government of
Uzbekistan for another year to facilitate the delivery of much needed
humanitarian assistance through the winter. The Friendship Bridge over the
region's Amudarya River served as a critical humanitarian gateway to
Afghanistan's north during and after the US-led coalition's war on terror.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39530&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: ADB project aims to cut poverty by rehabilitating key
irrigation system

By approving a US $72 million loan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is
helping Uzbekistan to rehabilitate a key irrigation system in the
country's southern province of Surkhandarya that services five districts,
where the area's 400,000 residents depend primarily on irrigated
agriculture.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39588&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups continue condemnation of Mukhadirova verdict

Human rights groups continue to criticise an Uzbek court ruling sentencing
Fatima Mukhadirova, the mother of a torture victim, to six years in prison
for alleged extremist activities. The activists have called on Washington
and others to take a more active stand on what they describe as one of the
worst human rights records in Central Asia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39586&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN 


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The situation at the Syrdarya River's Chardara reservoir in southern
Kazakhstan remained a concern this week as the Kazakh media reported on
Thursday that the water level in the Uzbek Arnasay reservoir, separated
from the Chardara by a dyke, was alarmingly high and had washed away some
parts of the dam. The report added that a state of emergency had been
declared in the area, while the authorities were trying to reinforce the
dam between the two reservoirs. The Soviet-built reservoir was constructed
for irrigation purposes and, according to the initial plans, excessive
water in the Chardara was to flow into the neighbouring Arnasay depression
in Uzbekistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39607&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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