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

Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484 
Fax: +92-51-2211 450 
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-up 152
21 - 27 February 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Campaign underway to raise awareness of child trafficking
AFGHANISTAN: NGOs voice concern over recent spate of killings of aid
  workers
AFGHANISTAN: More women needed for country's fledgling police force
IRAN: Reconstruction still being debated in Bam
PAKISTAN: Newborns face uphill battle to earn life
PAKISTAN: Outbreak of deadly form of malaria worries medical association
PAKISTAN: Women's lobby group demands inquiry into girls' murder
TAJIKISTAN: Re-registration of refugees and asylum seekers proceeding 
  well
TAJIKISTAN: Drug use, migration and ignorance fuel rise in HIV infections
TAJIKISTAN: NGO helps raise labour migrants' legal awareness
UZBEKISTAN: Focus on high rate of birth defects in south
UZBKISTAN: Local rights activists welcome freeing of Mukhadirova
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


AFGHANISTAN: Campaign under way to raise awareness of child trafficking

With increasing concerns about child trafficking in post-conflict
Afghanistan, local human rights bodies and the United Nations have started
a countrywide awareness-raising campaign in a bid to sensitise government
officials, local police, religious leaders and parents about the existence
and consequences of the problem.




AFGHANISTAN: NGOs voice concern over recent spate of killings of aid
workers

The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an umbrella
organisation representing more than 90 national and international NGOs
working in Afghanistan, has expressed outrage over yet another fatal
attack on the NGO community in less than two weeks. "The NGO community is
deeply shocked that within the space of 11 days, nine members of the NGO
community have been killed," Barbara Stapleton, advocacy coordinator for
ACBAR, told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39739&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN>


AFGHANISTAN: More women needed for country's fledgling police force

The country is finding increasingly difficult to attract new female
recruits in its efforts to create a 50,000 trained national police force
over the next five years. Jamila, a 33 year-old woman, is one of the only
eight policewomen at the 85-member internationally trained new department
for crime scene investigation within the Afghan Interior Ministry.




IRAN: Reconstruction still being debated in Bam

Two months after a devastating earthquake struck the southeastern city of
Bam on 26 December 2003, killing more than 40,000 and leaving some 100,000
homeless, the majority of the survivors continue to live in tents, while
the issue of long-term reconstruction remains unclear.




PAKISTAN: Newborns face uphill battle to earn life

Birth asphyxia, low birth-weight and infections are the main causes of
newborn mortality in Pakistan, according to a doctor working with Save The
Children US, which recently published a landmark study that focused on the
causes of an estimated 270,000 neonatal deaths annually in the country.




PAKISTAN: Outbreak of deadly form of malaria worries medical association

A spate of recent deaths caused by malaria in a rural district of the
southern province of Sindh has alarmed the country's medical association
which fears a shortage of doctors and indifferent monitoring could lead to
further problems, according to a health official.




PAKISTAN: Women's lobby group demands inquiry into girls' murder

The chairperson of the country's special commission on women said on
Friday that she had written a letter to the governor of the southern
province of Sindh, asking him to initiate an inquiry into the killing of
two girls in the port city of Karachi last week. "The entire nation is
shocked by the brutal murder of those two girls. I have written a letter
to the governor, requesting him to initiate a thorough inquiry."




TAJIKISTAN: Re-registration of refugees and asylum seekers proceeding well

In a joint exercise by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Tajik government, efforts to re-register some
3,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the Central Asian state - the vast
majority of them Afghan - are proceeding well.




TAJIKISTAN: Drug use, migration and ignorance fuel rise in HIV infections

Despite a low official prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS in Tajikistan, the
incidence of the deadly disease is on the rise in this impoverished nation
of 6.5 million. As of February 2004, of the total 152 officially
registered cases, 33 were recorded in January 2004 alone.




TAJIKISTAN: NGO helps raise labour migrants' legal awareness

Tajikistan has been losing as many as 1.2 million jobs to labour markets
in Russia and other Central Asian countries every year since 1991, due to
its difficult economic situation. Understanding that poor knowledge of
immigration laws presents the greatest difficulty for Tajik immigrants,
Zebo and her fellow members of the League embarked on an ambitious
programme to raise the legal awareness of Tajik citizens abroad.




UZBEKISTAN: Focus on high rate of birth defects in south

Shokhista Rakhimova, a resident of the southern Uzbek city of Karshi, gave
birth to a second baby in November 2003. She had been expecting a daughter
and luckily delivered a girl. But her happiness was short lived when the
baby died the same day. Upon examining the little infant's body, doctors
concluded that the reason for her death was hydrocephalus, or in simpler
words, the girl had been born with a congenital abnormality.




UZBKISTAN: Local rights activists welcome freeing of Mukhadirova

Leading human rights groups in Uzbekistan welcomed on Wednesday a court
ruling in the capital, Tashkent, to free Fatima Mukhadirova, convicted of
alleged extremist activities earlier this month, after intense
international pressure.




CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The week saw a visit by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Uzbekistan
and Kazakhstan, where he held meetings with senior government officials on
security and defence issues. Rumsfeld arrived in the Uzbek capital,
Tashkent, on Tuesday for talks with President Islam Karimov and military
chiefs. His visit to the most populous Central Asian nation, his third
over the past two years, illustrates Washington's interest and commitment
to the region.




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