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Central Asia
IRIN-CAS Weekly Round-Up 176
7 - 13 August 2004


CONTENTS:

U N I T E D  N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network


CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-CA Weekly Round-Up 176 covering the period 7 - 13 
August 2004

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN condemns attack on election workers
AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR shelter programme helping more than 100,000
AFGHANISTAN: Dramatic reduction in leishmaniasis possible - WHO
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: UNHCR continues to assist Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Journalist detained following coverage of land dispute
PAKISTAN: Promotion of breast-feeding critical - NGO
PAKISTAN: Journalists concerned over proposed defamation bill
TAJIKISTAN: Living with HIV/AIDS
TURKMENISTAN: Reproductive health shows signs of improvement
UZBEKISTAN: Focus on rural schools
UZBEKISTAN: Private agricultural sector struggles with basics - like
   water
UZBEKISTAN: US to increase aid to reduce biological weapons


AFGHANISTAN: UN condemns attack on election workers

The United Nations has expressed outrage over Friday's fatal attack 
against a convoy of the Secretariat of the Joint Electoral Management Body 
(JEMB) in central Uruzgan province, killing two JEMB national staff. "The 
Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), Jean Arnault, 
condemns in the strongest terms this murderous attack," Manoel de Almeida 
e Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in 
Afghanistan (UNAMA), said on Sunday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42582&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR shelter programme helping more than 100,000

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 
is moving forward with its shelter programme to provide 20,500 housing 
units for Afghan returnees this year. While over 3.6 million refugees have 
returned over the past two years, lack of accomodation remains a huge 
problem for most returnees. "The shelter programme is mainly for 
vulnerable Afghan returnees who find their houses destroyed once they are 
back in their homeland," Nader Farhad a spokesman for UNHCR told IRIN in 
Kabul. So far, this year more than half a million Afghans had returned, 
mainly from Iran, he added.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42606&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Dramatic reduction in leishmaniasis possible - WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) is taking part in an emergency 
initiative that should dramatically reduce the incidence of leishmaniasis 
in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in less than two years. Without immediate 
action, the current prevalance rate threatens to escalate into an 
uncontrollable health problem. "Kabul is the largest centre of cutaneous 
leishmaniasis in the world, with an estimated 67,500 cases. It is vital 
that it be reduced," Dr Sardar Ahmad, a WHO information officer, told IRIN 
in Kabul on Thursday. "This figure accounts for a third of all 200,000 
cases in Afghanistan."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42643&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The Uzbek Prosecutor-General Rashidjon Qodirov said on Monday that a 
series of terrorists attacks which struck the country in March, April and 
July were the work of the outlawed Hizb-ut Tahrir Islamic movement, local 
media reports said. "The investigation has grounds to announce, on the 
basis of watertight evidence, that international radical and extremist 
organisations, including Hizb-ut Tahrir, are behind them [the attacks]," 
he said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42659&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


IRAN: UNHCR continues to assist Afghan refugees

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 
will continue to assist Afghan refugees inside Iran, despite claims by the 
Iranian government earlier this week that it had cut assistance to its 
refugee programmes. In just over two years, the UN refugee agency has 
assisted hundreds of thousands of Afghans to voluntarily return home. 
"UNHCR is and will continue to assist Afghan refugees inside Iran," 
Marie-Helene Verney, a spokeswoman for the agency told IRIN from Geneva on 
Wednesday, noting her surprise at the claim. "The idea that we have ceased 
to provide assistance is simply not based on the reality of all the work 
that we are doing on the ground."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42625&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


PAKISTAN: Journalist detained following coverage of land dispute

A Pakistani journalist, Sarwar Mujahid, has been detained for three months 
following his coverage of an ongoing land dispute between paramilitary 
forces and military farm tenants in Punjab's Okara district. Mujahid, a 
correspondent for the Urdu-language daily 'Nawa-I-Waqt', has been detained 
under section three of the 1965 law of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) 
and is currently being held in the central jail of the adjoining district 
of Sahiwal, also in Punjab province.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42605&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Promotion of breast-feeding critical - NGO

The Network for Consumer Protection (NCP), an Islamabad-based NGO working 
to promote civil rights, has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the 
benefits of breast-feeding amongst mothers and healthcare professionals as 
the practice is declining in Pakistan, health workers say. "Breast milk is 
the ideal and perfect food for the development and healthy growth of 
infants. It stimulates their immune system and improves response to 
vaccination," Dr Ayesha Zaman, NCP project coordinator, told IRIN on 
Thursday in the capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42642&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Journalists concerned over proposed defamation bill

Journalists in Pakistan are alarmed and outraged over government proposals 
to increase the penalties for anyone - including publishers, editors, 
reporters and distributors - held liable for defaming others. A government 
bill, introduced in parliament on 29 July, holds that defaming a person is 
a crime no less heinous than murder in the South Asian state. "It is 
observed that there is a general tendency to scandalise and defame others, 
including public figures, whereby perceptible injury to their reputation 
is caused, either for an ulterior motive or through irresponsible 
conduct," said a written statement from the government attached to the 
bill.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42572&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Living with HIV/AIDS

Life is not easy for an HIV-positive person in Tajikistan given the 
negative approach to infected people and the stigma attached to the 
disease prevalent in the country. IRIN was able to meet a person living 
with the diseases in the Tajik city of Khujand, capital of Sogd province, 
some 350 km north of Dushanbe. Zukhro, 24, who has been an injecting drug 
user for five years doesn't know who she contracted the virus from. She 
doesn't have a regular job and is engaged in sex work to pay for her 
narcotics habit. She needs three injections a day, requiring her to make 
at least US $11 in the same period to keep her going.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42626&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


TURKMENISTAN: Reproductive health shows signs of improvement

Reproductive health services are improving in Turkmenistan, home to some 
6.5 million people, with more women utilising modern methods of 
contraception, officials say. Bahar, 21, a resident of the western Turkmen 
city of Balkanabat, the capital of Balkan province, is waiting her turn to 
see the doctor at the reproductive health (RH) centre. Four-months 
pregnant, as this is her first pregnancy, she wants to be sure that 
everything is going right. "I was told that there is a good doctor at this 
centre. That's why I came here," she told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42583&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Focus on rural schools

With the beginning of the academic year in Uzbekistan fast approaching, 
rural students in Central Asia's most populous state may well find 
themselves once again in the cotton fields, while their teachers struggle 
to make a living, complaining of low pay and poor conditions. It is common 
for classes at rural schools not to proceed when the cotton harvesting 
season starts as pupils become engaged in agricultural work.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42608&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Private agricultural sector struggles with basics - like water

Uzbekistan's private farmers say they face an uphill task making a living 
from the land. One of the key instruments of agricultural reform in 
Uzbekistan - rural water management groups - face severe problems due to 
economic and administrative obstacles, IRIN learnt on Thursday. Water User 
Associations (WUAs) are supposed to lobby for adequate irrigation water 
for the country's growing number of private farms.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42635&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: US to increase aid to reduce biological weapons

The US government will increase its financial assistance to Uzbekistan in 
its campaign against the storage and proliferation of biological weapons. 
"Visiting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers 
during the meeting with the Uzbek defence minister informed us about the 
US decision to increase the financing of joint projects to another US $21 
million," Uzbek deputy foreign minister Vladimir Norov told journalists on 
Thursday in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42654&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


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