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Integrated Regional Information Network for Central Asia

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Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-Up 193
4 - 10 December 2004


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: ILO to tackle unemployment
AFGHANISTAN: Britain boosts counter-narcotics efforts
AFGHANISTAN: Progress seen on human rights but concerns remain
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: Wind energy sector receives boost
KYRGYZSTAN: UN-supported project brings hope to drug addicts
PAKISTAN: Civil society role central to combat human trafficking
PAKISTAN: UN agencies implement HIV/AIDS programme for Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: UN volunteers working with UNHCR to support Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Religious leaders to boost HIV/AIDS awareness
TAJIKISTAN: Plight of elderly ethnic Russians in north
UZBEKISTAN: Uighur minority demands more political rights


AFGHANISTAN: ILO to tackle unemployment

New centres will be established in Afghanistan to tackle unemployment and
provide training opportunities for unqualified job seekers, the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) announced on Sunday in the
capital, Kabul. The issue of unemployment is very serious in Afghanistan
as many people lack skills due to more than 20 years of conflict. For
example, widespread illiteracy, at over 70 percent of the population, is a
major cause of high unemployment.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44532&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Britain boosts counter-narcotics efforts

Surrounded by tens of armed security guards, Bill Rammell, UK
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs, set alight a pile of narcotics on the outskirts of the capital,
Kabul, on Monday. The narcotics had been seized by the newly established
UK-backed Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) in several
operations around Kabul recently.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44582&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Progress seen on human rights but concerns remain

On the eve of the universal day of human rights there are still major
human rights violations in Afghanistan, but some improvements have been
made in the post-conflict country. Abdul Sabour Babai was celebrating his
freedom two weeks after he was released from a private jail in the
northwestern Faryab province. The 35-year-old returnee was arrested and
tortured by a local commander when he tried to get back his confiscated
land in Pashtun Kut district on the outskirts of Maimana, the provincial
capital of Faryab.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44597&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

An explosion at a coal mine in central Kazakhstan killed 23 people and
injured three, the AP reported on Sunday. A total of 27 miners were
working in the mine in the Karaganda town of Shakhtinsk when the blast
occurred, Karaganda regional administration spokesman Zhanibek Sadykanov
said. Expert reports indicated that the explosion was caused by a methane
blow-out.  On Monday, a senior member of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group that
disavows violence but seeks to build a worldwide Islamic state was
arrested in Kazakhstan, officials said. Vadim Barsenev, 31, was detained
on Saturday in the southern city of Shymkent, and accused of inciting
inter-ethnic and religious discord as a member of the group, the AP said
quoting city police official Kalykul Abdramanov.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44615&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


KAZAKHSTAN: Wind energy sector receives boost

In a major initiative to increase the use of alternative energy sources in
Kazakhstan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Kazakh
government have launched a three-year programme to develop the country's
wind sector. Although significant resources in the form of hydro, solar
and wind energy are available, 98 percent of all energy consumed in the
former Soviet republic comes from coal, oil and gas.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44586&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: UN-supported project brings hope to drug addicts

Sergey, 30, has had a difficult time since he started taking heroin over
eight years ago. Like many other addicts he has tried to quit numerous
times, even undergoing addiction treatment at the Republican Narcology
Centre (RCN) in the capital, Bishkek, but he cannot resist new hits of the
drug. "I was so addicted that I could not imagine another life. When I
realised that I could no longer continue this way, I joined special
treatment sessions designed to remove my addiction, but still could not
get rid of thoughts about another dose [of heroin]," he told IRIN at the
centre.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44522&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


PAKISTAN: Civil society role central to combat human trafficking

Given the lack of economic and human resources in Pakistan, civil society
should shoulder the responsibility of reducing human trafficking by
developing skills and employment opportunities in general, and for victims
in particular, anti-trafficking activists say. "Combating human
trafficking in Pakistan should be located within the larger context of
underlying social and economic problems and lower status of women," Abid
Gulzar, acting national executive secretary of the Rome-based
international charity, Caritas Pakistan, told IRIN in the eastern city of
Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44535&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UN agencies implement HIV/AIDS programme for Afghan refugees

The UN refugee agency has signed a three-year agreement with the UN joint
programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to strengthen its prevention and control
programme for Afghans residing in refugee camps in Pakistan. "We are
running a basic HIV/AIDS awareness raising programme for Afghan refugees
through our health units - set to cater for the refugee population in
camps. But now we are going to enhance it with the cooperation of UNAIDS,"
Dr Naveeda Rehman, a coordinator of health programmes at the office of the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN from the northwestern
city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44584&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UN volunteers working with UNHCR to support Afghan refugees

Bikram Chand Thakuri, 39, a Nepali by nationality, is a UN volunteer
working for Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of
North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Thakuri is among the eight UN
Volunteers (UNVs) who have been working with the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since late 2001 when a flow of some
300,000 Afghans began towards the Pakistani border due to the conflict in
Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44583&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Religious leaders to boost HIV/AIDS awareness

Intensifying its efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS becoming an epidemic,
Pakistan's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), with the support of the
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), has developed an information-kit for
religious leaders on HIV/AIDS prevention. "The information kit has been
adapted from the global generic version, which has been translated into
Urdu [Pakistan's national language]. The text has been revised to suit
Islamic ideologies taking into consideration Pakistan's unique
characteristics," Dr Nabila Zaka, a UNICEF programme officer, told IRIN in
the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44604&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Plight of elderly ethnic Russians in north

Galina Akhmerova is one of thousands of elderly ethnic Russians living in
northern Tajikistan. She has had a hard time since both her husband and
son died in early 1990s. "I have experienced a bitter and terrible life
[since that]," she told IRIN at the regional centre catering for the
disabled and vulnerable elderly in Khujand, capital of the northern Sogd
province. There are about 40 people at the centre, Mukarrama Negmatova,
head of the centre, told IRIN. "They have come from all parts of
Tajikistan and they are representatives of other ethnic groups, who came
to this country," she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44579&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Uighur minority demands more political rights

"For our father [President Islam Karimov] there is no such nation as
Uighurs in Uzbekistan," Dilshad (not his real name), a 29-year-old Uighur,
told IRIN in the capital, Tashkent. Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim
people, with close cultural and linguistic ties to other ethnic groups in
Central Asia, including Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Turkmen.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44554&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


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