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 191
20 - 26 November 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: About 250,000 landmine victims struggle to make a life
AFGHANISTAN: Drug abuse rising warns CND
AFGHANISTAN: UN confirms release of kidnapped workers
AFGHANISTAN: Rally to stop violence against women
AFGHANISTAN: New multi-donor programme to strengthen district
   administrations
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: First regional poverty reduction strategy launched
KYRGYZSTAN: Rights activists concerned over missing colleague
KYRGYZSTAN: UN-sponsored radio targets youth
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Demining around Uzbek enclaves brings hope to
   impoverished villagers
KYRGYZSTAN: ADB road rehabilitation project to promote regional trade
PAKISTAN: Effective surveillence of rabies imperative
PAKISTAN: IOM developing strategy to counter human trafficking
PAKISTAN: Radio programme helps Afghans decide when to return
TAJIKISTAN: Ban on women attending mosques debated


AFGHANISTAN: About 250,000 landmine victims struggle to make a life

Despite having one of the highest numbers of landmine victims in the
world, Afghanistan has been slow to reintegrate its disabled war victims.
The figures are staggering. The country has more than a million people
living with disabilities, according to the Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and
Disabled (MOMD) and a quarter of them - at least 250,000 - are victims of
landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs).




AFGHANISTAN: Drug abuse rising warns CND

Drug abuse is continuing to rise with little happening in the area of
demand reduction, the Afghan Counter Narcotics Directorate (CND) warned on
Sunday at a donor conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "We are
noticing that illicit drug abuse is rising day by day and becoming a big
problem," Alamuddin Atheer, CND's deputy director told IRIN. While there
were tens of thousands of drug addicts in Afghanistan, there remained only
one rehabilitation centre for the entire country, he said.




AFGHANISTAN: UN confirms release of kidnapped workers

Three kidnapped UN workers were healthy and in good spirits following
their release this morning, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Kidnapped
off the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 28 October, the three had
been working on Afghanistan's first ever presidential elections. "They
look good and they seem to be in good spirits," Manoel de Almieda e Silva,
a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA), told IRIN.




AFGHANISTAN: Rally to stop violence against women

On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence
against Women, hundreds of women rallied in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to
promote their cause. Shukria Barekzai, who runs a weekly women's newspaper
and participated in the rally, explained that although domestic violence
had traditionally been a problem in conservative Afghan society, 25 years
of war had fuelled the problem even more so.




AFGHANISTAN: New multi-donor programme to strengthen district
administrations

The Afghan government has launched a new US $312 million project financed
by international donors to centralise and equip the country's fragile
district administrations, a senior Ministry of Interior official told IRIN
this week. The project, entitled the Afghanistan Stabilisation Programme
(ASP), is expected to strengthen the authority of the central government
beyond the capital Kabul.




CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

A new report released by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) on
Tuesday revealed that women were increasingly affected by HIV/AIDS and
nearly half of 37.2 million adults living with HIV in the world were
females. Eastern Europe and Central Asia region had the second highest
increase of 48 percent after East Asia. By the end of 2004, the region of
the former Soviet Union will have around 1.4 million people living with
HIV/AIDS, compared to a million people in 2002, it said.




KYRGYZSTAN: First regional poverty reduction strategy launched

The Osh regional governorate has launched the country's first regional
poverty reduction plan, with the aim of reducing poverty in the southern
province by more than half by 2010. "We have managed to change people's
psychology of uncertainty and dependency. As a result, poor families have
understood that if they do not actively participate in improving their
well-being, we will not able to overcome poverty merely through assistance
from the government and international organisations," Naken Kasiev,
governor of Osh province, told IRIN.




KYRGYZSTAN: Rights activists concerned over missing colleague

Local Kyrgyz human rights activists have joined with Human Rights Watch
(HRW) to express concern over the disappearance of Kyrgyz political
activist and human rights defender Tursunbek Akunov, who went missing on
16 November in unclear circumstances.  "We are very concerned about our
colleague Tursunbek Akunov going missing. This is an unprecedented event,"
Edil Baysalov, head of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a
local NGO, told IRIN from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Tuesday.




KYRGYZSTAN: UN-sponsored radio targets youth

A UN-sponsored radio station in Kyrgyzstan's remote southwestern Batken
province is working to encourage healthier lifestyles among the region's
youth. Atkantan Jolchubekova, a high school student, listens to all her
favourite programmes on Radio Salam. "Salam tells me about the history of
the world, the history of our region and provides me with answers on
difficult questions related to reproductive health," Atkantan told IRIN in
the provincial capital, Batken.




KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Demining around Uzbek enclaves brings hope to
impoverished villagers

Demining of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border is bringing hope to parts of the local
population, hope of a new life without fear, along with economic benefits
that have been denied them since 1999, when the area was first mined. "It
is good to walk on the ground without any fear," Nishanbai, a resident of
Suu-Bashi village in the southern Kyrgyz province of Batken, bordering
Uzbekistan, told IRIN, explaining the feelings of the local inhabitants.




KYRGYZSTAN: ADB road rehabilitation project to promote regional trade

A new Asian Development Bank (ADB) project on road rehabilitation in
Kyrgyzstan aims to promote regional trade and reduce poverty in the
country by boosting economic growth. The project, worth US $32.8 million,
will improve the 124-km Osh-Gulcha-Sopu Korgon section of the Osh-Sary
Tash-Irkeshtam road in the south and procure maintenance equipment for the
entire road.




PAKISTAN: Effective surveillence of rabies imperative

Pakistan, a rabies-endemic country, needs to develop an effective
surveillance network to assess the magnitude of the disease, health
experts say. "Every day there are about 25 to 30 new cases of dog-bites
treated by the doctors at the civil hospital of Karachi [one of the city's
biggest public hospitals]," Dr Naseem Salahuddin of the Infectious
Diseases Society of Pakistan (IDSP) told IRIN.




PAKISTAN: IOM developing strategy to counter human trafficking

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) held a one-day seminar
in the northwestern city of Peshawar this week, as part of a series of
meetings across the country to help develop a national strategy to combat
human trafficking.  "It is to raise awareness about the phenomenon of
trafficking," Richard Dazinger, regional representative of the IOM office
for West and Central Asia, told IRIN.




PAKISTAN: Radio programme helps Afghans decide when to return

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is producing a
programme with Radio Pakistan to help Afghan refugees in the country make
informed decisions on repatriation. "The programme is running throughout
Balochistan province for some 300,000 refugees living in 13 refugee camps,
as well as in urban and rural settlements," Babar Baloch, a spokesman for
UNHCR, told IRIN from the southwestern city of Quetta, capital of
Balochistan.




TAJIKISTAN: Ban on women attending mosques debated

A controversial ban on women attending mosques to pray is being debated in
Tajikistan. The secularist government endorses the ban, while the Islamist
opposition sees it as an infringement of women's rights. "I was born and
brought up in the ancient town of Ura-Tyube, where there have always been
strong religious traditions. But I have never heard of Tajik women going
to mosques," Guljahon Bobosadykova, a 60-year-old leader of the local
female association, told IRIN in the capital, Dushanbe.




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