Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-14: 08-Apr-05
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 14
2 - 8 April 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Country facing health disaster worse than the tsunami -
minister
AFGHANISTAN: Reduced flood risk - UN
AFGHANISTAN: Donor meeting reaffirms international commitment
PAKISTAN: Focus on kidney sales by bonded labourers
PAKISTAN: Winter rains alleviate drought conditions
UZBEKISTAN: Government takes democracy NGO to court
KYRGYZSTAN: New programme to get teachers to rural areas
KYRGYZSTAN: Power struggle intensifies following Akayev's resignation
NEPAL: Interview with Susan Ulbaek, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
NEPAL: Maoist blockade hits vulnerable rural communities
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Country facing health disaster worse than the tsunami -
minister
As Afghanistan marked World Health Day on Thursday, the country's health
minister, Dr Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimi, said it was facing a disaster
worse than the tsunami that hit Indian Ocean nations late in 2004 and
killed more than 300,000 people. "We are currently being faced with a
silent emergency which is heartbreaking and a big tragedy, it is worse
than the tsunami disaster," Fatimi told IRIN in the capital Kabul. The
minister estimates that around 700 children under the age of five die
every day in Afghanistan due to preventable diseases and one women dies
every 20 minutes due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46535&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Reduced flood risk - UN
After serious flooding in southern Afghanistan in March, humanitarian
workers in Kabul have told IRIN the worst is now over. "Most of the snow
melt which we anticipated would cause flooding has now gone so the
emergency that we thought might happen is less probable," John Odea of
the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told IRIN
on Thursday. After a very cold winter that killed hundreds of people
unprepared for the severe weather, Afghanistan faced two serious floods
last month, affecting thousands of people in the southern provinces of
Ghazni, Oruzgan, Nimruz and Kandahar.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46542&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Donor meeting reaffirms international commitment
A key meeting between the Afghan government and international donors
ended on Wednesday with renewed commitment from wealthy nations to
reconstruction and Kabul calling for more attention on what it called
"neglected infrastructure building." Donor countries that have
contributed billions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid to
the country in the post-Taliban period, got the chance to talk directly
to authorities about progress in reconstruction at the third Afghanistan
Development Forum (ADF).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46513&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Focus on kidney sales by bonded labourers
Today, Idrees, 27, is a free man, after nearly 10 years in bondage at a
brick-kiln near Sheikhupura, some 100 km north of the eastern Pakistani
border city of Lahore. He won his freedom by selling his left kidney.
With the Rs 90,000 (US $1,500) he got, he was able to pay off a debt of
around Rs 60,000 ($1,000) he and his elderly parents owed to the kiln
owner. The debt had accumulated over nearly 15 years. But after paying
off the amount, he had little left over, and less than six months after
undergoing surgery at a private clinic to remove his kidney, he is once
more in debt, having borrowed Rs 5,000 ($840) from a cousin a few days
ago.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46508&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Winter rains alleviate drought conditions
Higher than average winter rainfall has pulled Pakistan out of drought
conditions which had plagued the country for seven years. The drought
caused a water shortage of up to 50 percent last year, according to the
country's leading water authority. "The water supply is satisfactory
now. We have enough water for summer cultivation. Besides, we will be
able to carry some over in our reservoirs for the coming winter's
agricultural requirements," Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, a research
officer at the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), told IRIN in the
capital Islamabad, on Monday. The seven-year long water crisis had also
been exacerbated by a range of other issues related to policy and
management of available water, according to water experts.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46450&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Government takes democracy NGO to court
Uzbek authorities have started criminal proceedings against the Tashkent
office of Internews - an international media support NGO - the
prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday. The announcement came as
government stepped up scrutiny of foreign and local NGOs promoting
democracy in the country in the wake of the fall of the government in
neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Tashkent is charging the US-based NGO, under
Article 20 of the Uzbek criminal code, with operating without a licence,
an official for the prosecution said. "Investigations are under way, but
at this stage nobody has been arrested," Svetlana Artikova, spokeswoman
of the general prosecutor's office, told IRIN, adding that people and
witnesses related to the case were being questioned.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46482&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: New programme to get teachers to rural areas
Mairam Kurmanalieva, 21, is a final-year university student in the
Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. The industrious teacher-to-be, originally from
the eastern Issyk-Kul province, studies biology at the Kyrgyz National
State University (KNSU) and is expected to graduate this summer, but she
is not optimistic about returning to her native Tamchi village on the
northern shore of lake Issy-Kul and teaching children there. "After
getting my diploma, I have to go back to my village and teach children
there. But I don't want to leave Bishkek. I am planning to stay here and
find a job in the capital," Mairam told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46483&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Power struggle intensifies following Akayev's resignation
Deposed Kyrgyz president, Askar Akayev, signed his resignation on
Monday, marking the end of an era and a step toward restoring political
order in the Central Asian republic less than two weeks after he was
forced out of office. The official resignation ceremony was held in the
office of the Kyrgyz Embassy in the Russian capital Moscow. A speech by
the former leader, addressing the Kyrgyz nation, was expected to be
aired on Kyrgyz national television on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46467&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: Interview with Susan Ulbaek, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Susan Ulbaek, head of the Asia Department at the Royal Danish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, was in the Nepali capital Kathmandu this week on a
two-day official visit. She expressed concern about the deteriorating
human rights situation in the Himalayan kingdom. Denmark spent US $40
million on development projects in the health, education, energy and
human rights sectors in 2004. Ulbaek spoke to IRIN about the
significance of the visit and the future of Danish aid to Nepal.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46540&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Maoist blockade hits vulnerable rural communities
Rights activists, international aid workers and local NGO staff in Nepal
are seriously concerned over the humanitarian consequences of a
nationwide transport strike organised by Maoist rebels to block routes
to the capital Kathmandu and other major cities. The strike began on 2
April and is set to last for 11 days. "Some three weeks ago, the UN and
bilateral donors expressed their concern that blockades restricted and
stopped humanitarian and development activities. Children are especially
threatened as essential medical supplies such as vaccines and vitamins
may not reach them in time and schooling is interrupted," UN
Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal, Matthew Kahane, told IRIN on Tuesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46464&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Political stalemate continued this week in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian
country where opposition-led protesters ousted president Askar Akayev's
regime on 24 March. Although Akayev signed his resignation and submitted
it to a group of Kyrgyz parliamentarians at the Kyrgyz embassy in Moscow
on Monday, the Kyrgyz parliament failed to accept his resignation this
week due to disputes regarding the terms of the agreement. According to
the document, the deposed leader retains all the privileges and
guarantees laid down under Kyrgyz law - including immunity from
prosecution for himself and members of his family. Some legislators
claimed that if they were to accept the resignation under the current
terms it could spark unrest in the country given that anti-Akayev
sentiments are still strong in the former Soviet republic.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46541&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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