Weekly Round-Up - IRINCAS-190: 19-Nov-04
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 190
13 - 19 November 2004
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: New local women's radio to fight gender violence and
illiteracy
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with a female ex-combatant
AFGHANISTAN: UN highlights massive increase in opium cultivation as the
US announces major commitment
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Anaemia in women high due to poverty, poor diet
KYRGYZSTAN: Bribing teachers for a better grade common - parents
KYRGYZSTAN: Convicts in southern prison protest against abuse of their
rights
PAKISTAN: Charitable donations needed for social development
TAJIKISTAN: Independent paper seized by authorities
TAJIKISTAN: Rock fall kills six in Nurobod district
TURKMENISTAN: UNODC and UK government train customs officials
UZBEKISTAN: Rotating micro-credit associations help improve livelihood in
south
UZBEKISTAN: Interview with Craig Murray, former UK ambassador
AFGHANISTAN: New local women's radio to fight gender violence and
illiteracy
Sitting around a table with their burqas (top to bottom covering veil) on
chairs, Arefa Zareh, a school teacher and her fellow women were preparing
to broadcast the first trial programme of Quyash (the Sun), a newly
established local women's radio station in the northern city of Maimana.
Radio Quyash is now one of the four local women's radio stations and one
of over 30 independent radio stations in the country. It counts as the
only independent media outlet in troubled Maimana, the provincial capital
of Faryab.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44166&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with a female ex-combatant
As Afghanistan's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR)
programme entered its second year in early November, over 20,000 of
approximately 60,000 Afghan militia forces (AMF) have been disbanded and
reintegrated into civilian life. While some disarmed soldiers are finding
post-military it difficult to earn a living, many others have found new
livelihoods through the UN-backed multi million-dollar Afghanistan New
Beginning Programme (ANBP), the official name for the DDR process.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44186&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UN highlights massive increase in opium cultivation as the US
announces major commitment
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by two-thirds,
reaching an unprecedented 131,000 hectares, a new survey by the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed on Thursday. The survey
also said that poppy cultivation spread to all 32 provinces of the
country, making narcotics the main engine of economic growth and the
strongest bond among previously quarrelsome populations.
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia, the Kazakh media reported that the shrinking of
the Aral Sea could cause a rise in infectious diseases. The report
maintained that the region had very high level of oesophagus cancer. "This
pathology accounts for 80 percent of all oncological diseases in the Aral
Sea region," the report said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44229&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Anaemia in women high due to poverty, poor diet
Health officials in the central Kyrgyz province of Naryn say that the high
prevalence of anaemia among women of child-bearing age in the area could
result in a weakening of the national gene pool, citing poverty as the
main cause of the problem. Daniyar Jumaev, head of the family health
centre in the Naryn district of the province, told IRIN that up to 60
percent of such women suffered from the condition.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44142&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Bribing teachers for a better grade common - parents
"I have to find money to give to my teacher, my father cannot understand
that I have to pay," Aziz, a 16-year-old schoolboy, told IRIN in the
Alamedin district of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. With students in Kyrgyz
secondary schools well into the new academic year, parents are complaining
that their children are asking for money to be passed on to teachers.
While it is common for students to pay for books and for the upkeep of
school premises, demands for "razvesti" - money to resolve problems - is
new.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44158&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Convicts in southern prison protest against abuse of their
rights
A group of prisoners and detainees revolted on Tuesday evening in a
temporary detention facility (TDF) in the southern city of Osh, Ziaydin
Jamaldinov, a representative of the Kyrgyz Ombudsman, told IRIN on
Thursday after he had visited the jail together with the head of a local
human rights protection organisation. Jamaldinov said that almost 20
prisoners, including four teenagers, harmed themselves, some seriously, in
protest against use of violence in the prison. The victims were given
medical aid and they were now being kept in their cells, he added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44214&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
PAKISTAN: Charitable donations needed for social development
Philanthropic organisations in Pakistan are calling on civil society to
help channel charitable donations towards sustainable social development
initiatives and so reduce the country's dependence on foreign aid. "Having
an Islamic and charitable instinct, we make many philanthropic
contributions but we don't have much visible impact, mainly because people
are not giving in an institutionalised and organised way, instead a
personal approach of giving directly to needy persons has flourished," Ali
Raza, a programme manager at Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), told
IRIN in the capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44183&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Independent paper seized by authorities
The Tajik tax police have impounded copies of the independent weekly Ruzi
Nav printed abroad, Rajabi Mirzo, editor of the newspaper, told IRIN in
the Tajik capital, Dushanbe on Tuesday. Mirzo said that the newspaper's
most recent issue printed at an independent printing house in the Kyrgyz
capital, Bishkek, had been seized at the cargo unit of the Dushanbe
airport. The newspaper was forced to print abroad following a government
crackdown on independent media in the former Soviet republic.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44165&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Rock fall kills six in Nurobod district
Falling rocks and stones killed six local residents in the central Tajik
district of Nurobod and seriously injured another inhabitant, an emergency
official told IRIN on Friday. "There was a rock fall in Nurobod district's
mountainous area on Wednesday and a car was knocked from the road onto the
nearby River Vakhsh. There were seven people in the car, of whom six
drowned and one managed to make his way out, but his health condition
remains serious," Nazokatsho Sayorabekov from the Tajik emergency
ministry's press centre said from the capital, Dushanbe.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44221&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TURKMENISTAN: UNODC and UK government train customs officials
A seminar to train Turkmen and Afghan customs officials on how to detect
chemical precursors to help reduce drug trade in Central Asia is being
held in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, thanks to a joint initiative by the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UK government.
Precursors are chemicals such as kerosene which can be used to turn raw
substances like opium into morphine, or morphine into heroin.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44143&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Rotating micro-credit associations help improve livelihood in
south
Khosiyat Khojakulova is an elementary school teacher in the southern Uzbek
city of Termez, capital of the Surkhandarya province. Like many other
teachers in the region, she is trying hard to make a living. "I earn about
US $30 a month and the earnings of my husband are not big either. We have
four children so it is difficult to provide for our family with this
amount of money," Khosiyat told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44153&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Interview with Craig Murray, former UK ambassador
While a mission from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is touring Central Asia, Uzbekistan, long
criticised by the international community over its poor human rights
record and the practice of torture, is cracking down on independent
Muslims following the terrorist attacks earlier this year and the
situation is not likely to improve, Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to
Tashkent, told IRIN in an interview on Thursday. Murray, who served in
Central Asia's most populous country for more than two years, said that
the Uzbek government was giving very few economic opportunities to its 25
million odd population, a situation likely to cause more violent reaction
to the government's harsh policies.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44215&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
IRIN-Asia
Tel: +92-51-2211451
Fax: +92-51-2292918
Email: IrinAsia@irin.org.pk
[This Item is Delivered to the "Asia-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to
change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International web: www.cidi.org
Disaster Information listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central Asia www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia