Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-181: 17-Sep-04
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-Up 181
11 - 17 September 2004
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UK international development minister
AFGHANISTAN: Calm returns to Herat as UN relocates staff
AFGHANISTAN: Living with the drought in Ghazni
AFGHANISTAN: Country faces severe drought - WFP
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Repatriation operation to continue from Pakistan - UNHCR
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Deforestation in south contributing to floods and landslides
KYRGYZSTAN: New dam to bring hope to farmers in Karabura
PAKISTAN: Farmers urged to adopt modern irrigation techniques in face of water shortage
TAJIKISTAN: Mine clearance allows water pipe rehabilitation
TAJIKISTAN: Stemming the heroin tide
TAJIKISTAN: More than US $21 million needed to deal with disaster damage
UZBEKISTAN: Court closes local media support group for six months
UZBEKISTAN: Media rights groups react to Internews closure order
AFGHANISTAN: Observers question election's credibility
A local think-tank has questioned the legitimacy of Afghanistan's October
elections. The Kabul-based AREU (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit)
has outlined key challenges and recommendations to boost the credibility
and perceived legitimacy of the presidential and parliamentary elections.
"Fix the flaws to increase electoral legitimacy," warns an AREU briefing
paper that was released on Monday, entitled "Free, Fair of Flawed:
Challenges for Legitimate Elections in Afghanistan".
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43218&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with UK international development minister
As Afghanistan moves towards holding its first ever democratic elections
in early October, the international community is cautiously expecting to
see the results of the millions of dollars that have been spent in the
country, which is still reeling from the consequences of more than 20
years of conflict. In an interview with IRIN, Gareth Thomas, the
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International
Development (DFID), said Afghanistan had made major advances, while many
challenges, including security, had yet to be fully addressed.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43198&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Calm returns to Herat as UN relocates staff
Aid workers and United Nations international staff members are moving out
of the western Afghan city of Herat following the attack on Sunday by
angry demonstrators on the compounds of the UN and other aid agencies.
Seven people were reported killed and over 20 injured in the incident,
although no UN employee was badly hurt. The city is now reported to be
calm and the Afghan National Army (ANA), supported by US-led security
forces, is controlling the situation on the ground.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43177&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Living with the drought in Ghazni
Baz Mohammad is looking for work, even though he is only 10. He was forced
to leave the village school just outside the provincial town of Ghazni
after his father died - a victim of the drought that is devastating this
part of south-central Afghanistan. His 34-year-old father died two weeks
ago after falling into a deep well used to irrigate his small garden and
wheat field.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43154&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Country faces severe drought - WFP
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says more than 50 million dollars is
needed to tackle the severe drought now facing the country. According to
the WFP, some 1.4 million Afghans have been affected by continued drought
and crop failures. "We are facing a very significant problem. This is said
to be the worst drought in living memory, causing severe water shortages
and leaving thousands, if not millions, of Afghans unable to meet their
basic food needs this year," Maarten Roest, an information officer for
WFP, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43188&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Repatriation operation to continue from Pakistan -
UNHCR
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will continue
operating its voluntary repatriation assistance programme for Afghan
refugees from Pakistan, as the agency announced a suspension of operations
from Iran via Herat following the attack on the UN offices in the western
Afghan city of Herat on Sunday. "The UNHCR operation is continuing from
Pakistan. There is no change in the operation here. Obviously the
situation though is in the state of flux at the moment and our main
concern is to ensure that everybody is safe in Herat," Jack Redden, a
spokesman for UNHCR Pakistan, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, on
Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43157&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
International observers criticised the Sailau (Elections) electronic
ballot system, which Kazakhstan is going to use in its upcoming
parliamentary election on 19 September, the Russian Interfax news agency
reported on Monday. "There are many questions to the electronic ballot
system Kazakhstan is introducing," said Pavel Lobachyov, a vice-president
of Elections & Democracy (E&D), an international group established by
several NGOs of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries to
monitor elections in East Europe and Central Asia.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43227&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Deforestation in south contributing to floods and landslides
The depletion of fir tree forests in southern Kyrgyzstan is contributing
to soil degradation, one of the major causes of subsequent floods and
landslides, environmental scientists say. "A lack of proper protection of
forests, the growing human impact on nature and unlimited livestock
grazing have sharply reduced areas covered by these trees and have also
worsened their condition," Prof Biymyrza Toktoraliev, a prominent academic
and ecologist, told IRIN in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second largest city.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43176&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: New dam to bring hope to farmers in Karabura
The rehabilitation of a dam in northwestern Kyrgyzstan is under way, aimed
at improving irrigation facilities, a move expected to boost agricultural
production in the area. The Karabura River is a major water source in the
northwestern Talas province. The predominantly agricultural region lacks
water for irrigation when it is needed most, making the dam's
reconstruction an urgent priority.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43202&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
PAKISTAN: Farmers urged to adopt modern irrigation techniques in face of
water shortage
Pakistan's farming community urgently needs to switch to modern irrigation
techniques to combat declining agricultural productivity caused by an
acute water shortage, according to water experts. The shortage is mainly
caused by reduced monsoon rainfall this year. "Our immediate water
shortage problem could be solved through better water management and the
use of the latest agricultural techniques," Dr Munir Ahmed of the Pakistan
Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) told IRIN in the capital,
Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43186&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Mine clearance allows water pipe rehabilitation
The joint Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE)-Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) programme has cleared land
mines from an area near the Afghan border, allowing for the rehabilitation
of the Kumsangir water pipe. "The clearance in the Dusti-Kumsangir
district has significant economical and humanitarian impact as the water
pipe will immediately beneficiate the local community," Meaghan
Fitzgerald, OSCE's programme manager, told IRIN on Wednesday from the
Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43189&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Stemming the heroin tide
Peering through his binoculars, a young soldier, barely 20 years old,
scans the horizon outside the border town of Moskva, in southeastern
Tajikistan's Khatlon province. One of thousands of Russian border guards
along the 1,200 km frontier between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, he is the
first line of defence along one of the most important transit routes for
Afghan heroin today.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42836&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: More than US $21 million needed to deal with disaster damage
Tajikistan needs more than US $21 million worth of assistance to deal with
the damage caused by natural disasters this year, according to an
emergency official. "This year there have been many natural disasters in
Tajikistan, especially in mountain regions, and roads, bridges and arable
land have been damaged," Khilol Shamsuddinov, head of the Tajik disaster
relief coordination centre, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on
Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43156&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Court closes local media support group for six months
The Uzbek authorities have temporarily closed a local media support group
amid reports of government pressure on NGOs promoting pro-democracy
movements ahead of parliamentary elections due in December. Tashkent city
court ruled on Monday that the activities of the Internyus NGO should be
halted for six months after finding it guilty of not following internal
regulations and of breaching the country's laws on NGOs. "The court ruling
was baseless and a pretext to continue the pressure on NGOs working with
foreign donors ahead of parliamentary elections due in December," Kholida
Anorboeva, head of the Internews-Uzbekistan office, told IRIN in the Uzbek
capital, Tashkent, on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43155&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Media rights groups react to Internews closure order
International media rights groups have expressed alarm over this week's
suspension order against the Uzbek branch of Internews, a media training
and watchdog organisation, three months ahead of parliamentary elections.
"This is very bad news for Reporter Without Borders (RSF)," Sorie
Blatmann, head of RSF's Europe desk, told IRIN on Thursday from Paris,
expressing her concern at the recent court order against the locally
registered branch of Internews, over administrative issues.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=43205&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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