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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e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 18
30 April - 6 May 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Gruesome murder of three women a warning to aid workers
AFGHANISTAN: Woman executed for adultery
AFGHANISTAN: Investigation team reaches site of Baghlan ammunition explosion
AFGHANISTAN: Rally calls for protection of women following triple murder
AFGHANISTAN: Heavy rains bring flooding to centre and southwest
CENTRAL ASIA: Press freedom throughout region worsening
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Mailuu-Suu closely monitored following recent landslide
KYRGYZSTAN: Ethnic minorities say they face an uncertain future
NEPAL: Health campaigns a success despite ongoing conflict
PAKISTAN: Afghan census shows three million remain
PAKISTAN: Focus on the slow death of the River Ravi
PAKISTAN: Voice of the media not getting across say activists
PAKISTAN: Interview with Abdul Sattar Edhi
PAKISTAN: Number of street children on the rise
PAKISTAN: Outbreak of water-borne diseases in Sindh
PAKISTAN: Gas explosion highlights need to separate industry from homes
TURKMENISTAN: Clampdown on dissent continues says Amnesty
UZBEKISTAN: Southern demonstration barred after week of protests


AFGHANISTAN: Gruesome murder of three women a warning to aid workers

Female aid workers in Pul-e-Khumri city in Afghanistan's northeastern 
province of Baghlan have been advised to stay at home after three women 
were found hanged by the neck on Monday morning in the centre of the city. 
The bodies had a letter attached threatening women working for foreign aid 
organisations, according to local sources. One of the three was identified 
as being involved with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) 
and the second was a local civil servant. The third remains unidentified 
according to Baghlan deputy governor, Daulat Mohammad Rafee, who spoke to 
IRIN from Pul-e-Khumri on Tuesday.

Full 
report


AFGHANISTAN: Woman executed for adultery

It's less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed 
the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life 
appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local 
religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern 
province of Badakhshan. Her crime was to be found in the company of a man 
she was not married to.

Full 
report


AFGHANISTAN: Investigation team reaches site of Baghlan ammunition 
explosion

Investigators arrived in the northeastern province of Baghlan, one day 
after a massive explosion at an ammunition dump rocked the village of 
Bajga, killing at least 30 people and injuring 70 more. "A team composed 
of the local Red Crescent bodies and explosion investigators arrived in 
Bajga to assess the explosion and current emergency humanitarian needs," 
Baghlan deputy governor Daulat Mohammad Rafee told IRIN from the 
provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri, on Tuesday.

Full 
report


AFGHANISTAN: Rally calls for protection of women following triple murder

Several hundred women demonstrated on the streets of the Afghan capital, 
Kabul on Thursday, calling on the government to improve their security and 
to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of five women over 
the past two weeks, three of them on Wednesday. "This is shocking that in 
just two weeks, five women have been brutally killed in separate incidents 
and the government and international community have kept silent," Urzala 
Ashraf, one of the demonstrators and head of local NGO, Humanitarian 
Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) told IRIN.

Full 
report


AFGHANISTAN: Heavy rains bring flooding to centre and southwest

Heavy rainfalls over the last few days in the central and southwestern 
parts of Afghanistan, has led to extensive flooding of agricultural land 
leading to loss of life and the killing of hundreds of animals, aid bodies 
said on Thursday. According to the United Nations in Kabul, the most 
recent flood took place in the southwestern Farah province. Reports from 
the department of rural rehabilitation and development in the province 
indicates that at least six people and 200 livestock are reported missing, 
after a flood in the Purchaman district of Farah on Wednesday.

Full 
report


CENTRAL ASIA: Press freedom throughout region worsening

The freedom of the press is continuing to deteriorate throughout much of 
Central Asia, with few signs of improvement in the region of 55 million 
inhabitants, according to Pascale Bonnamour, head of the European desk for 
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)."The level of press freedom in Central 
Asia is getting worse each year," she told IRIN speaking from Paris on 
Tuesday, World Press Freedom Day, citing recent geopolitical changes and 
events in the former Soviet Union over the past six months.

Full 
report


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Press freedom was under pressure in Kazakhstan this week, with authorities 
ordering the closure of the independent weekly 'Respublika' newspaper. The 
move is seen by observers and rights activists as a crackdown ahead of 
presidential elections in December 2006. According to Reuters on Thursday, 
the opposition weekly was told by the Kazakh Culture, Information and 
Sports Ministry that the paper had been "liquidated" without giving a 
reason.

Full 
report


KYRGYZSTAN: Mailuu-Suu closely monitored following recent landslide

Emergency workers in Kyrgyzstan are monitoring potential landslide sights 
which pose a potential threat to nuclear waste dumps in and around the 
southern town of Mailuu-Suu. This follows a recent landslip which only 
just missed a radioactive dump. "The situation around Mailuu-Suu has 
stabilised and our specialists are constantly monitoring landslide-prone 
areas close to the uranium waste dumps on the ground," Emil Akmatov, a 
spokesman for the Kyrgyz emergency ministry, told IRIN on Tuesday from the 
capital, Bishkek.

Full 
report


KYRGYZSTAN: Ethnic minorities say they face an uncertain future

Ethnic minority groups in Kyrgyzstan are becoming increasingly concerned 
over July's presidential polls in the former Soviet republic, saying the 
election could become a major source of friction between north and south 
and between the Kyrgyz majority and other minority groups. "I am very 
anxious about the upcoming presidential elections," Nodira, a 42-year-old 
ethnic Uzbek woman from the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, told IRIN in 
the capital, Bishkek, on Monday. She cited concerns over possible violence 
towards ethnic groups.

Full 
report


NEPAL: Health campaigns a success despite ongoing conflict

Sabita Tharu is joyful as her 6-month-old daughter receives a vitamin A 
capsule from female health care volunteer (FCHV) Meena Thapa. "My 
daughter's safe now," Sabita told IRIN as she queued along with hundreds 
of other mothers at the health post in Hapur village in Dang district, 
nearly 400 km southwest of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. "Until a few 
years ago, it used to be so difficult to convince the women to bring their 
children here for vitamin A supplements but now they come on their own," 
Thapa told IRIN. Over 80,000 FCHVs like her operate in the remotest 
villages in rural areas.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Afghan census shows three million remain

More than three million Afghan refugees are living in Pakistan, according 
to the results of the first ever census conducted earlier this year to 
count the number of Afghans nationwide, officials told a press briefing on 
Monday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The national census was 
carried out by the government of Pakistan with financial and technical 
assistance from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees (UNHCR).

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Focus on the slow death of the River Ravi

The River Ravi has wound its way through the western Pakistani city of 
Lahore for thousands of years. Yet on many days, the only living creatures 
seen by it are the kites that gracefully swoop down to collect chunks of 
meat, hurled by people standing on bridges spanning the river. The meat 
given to the birds is regarded as a religious ritual by many, just as 
feeding sparrows or ants are seen as deeds smiled upon by Allah (God). 
There is also a superstition that anyone feeding the kites and crows at 
the Ravi will receive good fortune. This brings many to the river and also 
attracts vendors selling chunks of meat who set up their stalls early 
every morning.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Voice of the media not getting across say activists

Media rights activists marking this year's World Press Freedom Day, have 
said that the media in Pakistan could be more of a vehicle for social 
change. "Media, electronic and press, have been highlighting lots of 
social and development issues. But, in most cases the information is 
falling on deaf ears, creating an impression of the media as a 'powerless' 
player," Owais Aslam Ali, secretary general of the Pakistan Press 
Foundation (PPF) told IRIN from the southern port city of Karachi.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Interview with Abdul Sattar Edhi

One of the most admired men in Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi has made a 
career out of helping those in need. For over half a century, the 
foundation that bears his name, has been at the forefront of charity work 
in the South Asian nation. From humble beginnings in 1951, as a tiny 
dispensary in Karachi's downtrodden Mithadar neighbourhood, the Edhi 
Foundation has expanded into a national organisation.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Number of street children on the rise

Living on the rough and tumble streets of Pakistan's port city of Karachi, 
12-year-old Ashique knows all too well the harsh reality of life. "I'm not 
afraid. I sleep with my friends," says the dark-haired youth, who was 
abandoned by his parents. He told IRIN he dreams one day of attending 
school. But after five years on the street, despite putting on a brave 
face, prospects for this slender youth are poor.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Outbreak of water-borne diseases in Sindh

An outbreak of water-borne diseases has been reported in central areas of 
Pakistan's southern province of Sindh caused by polluted domestic water 
supplies. Over 1,100 people with diarrhoea and other related problems have 
attended public health facilities in the last two weeks, a health official 
told IRIN. "At present, some 300, mostly children, are admitted in various 
hospitals, while others were discharged after treatment," Dr Masood 
Solangi, deputy director of the provincial health department, told IRIN 
from Hyderabad on Wednesday. "But the main cause, the polluted water 
supply, is outside the mandate of our health department.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Gas explosion highlights need to separate industry from homes

Several ruptured gas cylinders poke out of the grey rubble which is all 
that remains of a three-storey residential block in the eastern Pakistani 
city of Lahore. The building collapsed after a gas explosion early on 
Tuesday, killing at least 32 people as they slept. The incident is the 
latest in a series involving the commercial use of premises in residential 
areas that have killed many people in the past five years.

Full 
report


TURKMENISTAN: Clampdown on dissent continues says Amnesty

A new report by Amnesty International (AI) has strongly criticised the 
government of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov for failing to 
adequately address the ongoing issue of human rights. "The report 
documents that the human rights situation in Turkmenistan remains 
appalling," Anna Sunder-Plassman, a researcher for the watchdog group, 
told IRIN on Tuesday from London. An alleged assassination attempt on 
Niyazov in November 2002, known as Turkmenbashi or father of the Turkmen 
people, triggered one of the worst waves of repression. The report says 
that the clampdown has continued unabated since then, explained 
Sunder-Plassman.

Full 
report


UZBEKISTAN: Southern demonstration barred after week of protests

Women who participated in demonstrations that shook the Uzbek capital, 
Tashkent, this week, were prevented by authorities from marching on a 
regional centre in southern Uzbekistan, protestors said on Friday. "We 
were planning to march to the administrative centre of the [Kashkardarya] 
region demanding the release of our men who were arrested in Tashkent 
after police broke up our protest outside the US embassy," Zulayho 
Charieva, 29, told IRIN. "But all women were taken away to the police 
office on Thursday morning and kept for a whole day," she added.

Full 
report


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