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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 19
7 - 13 May 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Heavy rains bring flooding to centre and southwest
AFGHANISTAN: UN work continues despite killing of staff member
AFGHANISTAN: New radio soap promotes rural development
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Kabul to provide shelter to 48,000 families
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: More international support needed to stem flow of
   Afghan drugs
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: NGOs voice concern over new draft laws
KYRGYZSTAN: Bishkek residents demand effective police force
NEPAL: Concern about food crisis speculation
NEPAL: Interview with Ian Martin, head of UN human rights monitoring
NEPAL: Asian Development Bank will not stop aid
PAKISTAN: Focus on gay rights
TAJIKISTAN: UN appeal already 50 percent funded
TAJIKISTAN: Heavy rains and floods cause havoc


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.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46998&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: UN work continues despite killing of staff member

The United Nations in Kabul announced on Monday that relief and
development work would continue in Afghanistan despite the death of an
international staff member in a bomb blast in the capital Kabul, on
Saturday. The bomb went off in a city centre internet cafe killing three
people including Timt Swe, a Burmese UN staff member, and injuring five
others. "The United Nations is saddened by the killing of one of its
employees," Ariane Quentier, a spokesperson for United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47019&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: New radio soap promotes rural development

On the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, Daud Maqsoudi and several
other men and women were sitting around, talking about village
reconstruction. "We should be united and rebuild Chamanistan
[Afghanistan]. Lets consult with everyone and find out how to rebuild
our land," Haji Tawab, who was introduced as the community elder and
head of the Shura [community council] was heard saying. Tawab's call was
followed by a murmur of agreement from the group.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47059&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Kabul to provide shelter to 48,000 families

In a bid to entice Afghan refugees in Pakistan back home, Kabul has
announced it is building homes in six or seven Afghan provinces for
about 48 thousand families in 2005, the Afghan refugee and repatriation
minister said on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "We have
also a plan to distribute lands to at least a hundred thousand families.
Distribution of land does not mean to solely give lands to the people,
but we'll also work on the other needed elements such as schools,
clinics, roads, providing jobs and much more," Dr Muhammad Azam Dadfar,
Afghan minister for Repatriation and Refugees (RAR), said as he
addressed a gathering of Afghans in Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47085&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN


AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: More international support needed to stem flow of
Afghan drugs

Pakistan needs more international technical and financial support to
stem the flow of heroin from neighbouring Afghanistan - the biggest
opium producing nation in the world. There is also a need to drastically
reduce domestic drug production and a build a domestic capacity to
counter drug-related crime in Pakistan, a top UN official said on
Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47094&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia saw an unprecedented demonstration in
Uzbekistan, when at least 1,000 people gathered in the eastern town of
Andijan to demand justice for a group of 23 young men accused of being
Islamic extremists, BBC reported on Tuesday. Long lines of protestors
stretched down the streets around the courthouse - women on one side,
men on the other.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47096&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


KAZAKHSTAN: NGOs voice concern over new draft laws

NGOs in Kazakhstan have expressed concern over a set of new draft laws
they believe threaten the development of civil society and democracy in
Central Asia's largest nation. "This kind of law - if approved - will
kill civil society in Kazakhstan, because they [the authorities] aim to
put under very strict control the NGOs, not only international NGOs, but
local ones as well," Antonio Stango, country director for Freedom House,
a leading advocate of the world's young democracies, told IRIN from the
Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47061&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Bishkek residents demand effective police force

A change of regime and subsequent upheaval in the Kyrgyz capital has
changed the attitude of many local residents towards the country's
police force. Prior to the fall of deposed Kyrgyz president Askar
Akayev's regime on 24 March, many Bishkek residents considered law
enforcement officials inefficient and corrupt. As night fell on the city
at the end of that day, many Bishkek residents found themselves without
police protection. Officers kept a low profile and looters ransacked the
city.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47034&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


NEPAL: Concern about food crisis speculation

May is the time of the year when a large number of migrant Nepali
workers return from India to their home villages. They make the journey
in order to harvest winter crops and start sowing summer crops,
especially in the most remote hills and mountains. With the notorious
'hungry season' over in rural Nepal, villagers are now in a rush to
store enough food to last until August, when a second seasonal lean
period begins and lasts for around four weeks.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47005&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Interview with Ian Martin, head of UN human rights monitoring

Agreement was reached between the United Nations and the government of
Nepal on 11 April 2004 to allow United Nations human rights monitoring
in the country. Ian Martin arrived in the capital, Kathmandu on 7 May to
head the new Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in
Nepal. With over 30 years experience in human rights, Martin has led
significant missions to conflict-ridden countries like Rwanda, Bosnia,
Ethiopia, Eritrea and also recently to Darfur in western Sudan. He spoke
to IRIN on Tuesday about the challenges facing him and his team, in
launching a human rights monitoring operation in Nepal.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47043&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Asian Development Bank will not stop aid

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has refuted claims it was stopping aid
to Nepal, following reports out of Istanbul earlier this month that bank
president Haruhiko Karudo said they would stop future aid programmes to
the Himalayan kingdom unless the government took measures to improve the
country's human rights situation. "At no time did Mr Kuroda mention that
the bank might stop its aid to Nepal," a bank official told IRIN from
Manila. "He said that ADB was monitoring the situation cautiously," he
said, adding that Kuroda had been inaccurately quoted.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47060&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


PAKISTAN: Focus on gay rights

Sitting on a bench in the shade of the cool palms of Lahore's Lawrence
Gardens, Tariq thought carefully over what to say next. For years he had
kept his sexuality a secret, knowing all too well the risk of revealing
himself as gay. "My life is a lie and I know it," the 24-year-old fine
arts student told IRIN. "But this is the reality of Pakistan and this is
the reality I have to live."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47032&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: UN appeal already 50 percent funded

The United Nations in Tajikistan has already received 50 percent of the
money required for its annual appeal for the mountainous former Soviet
republic. "To date, exactly half has been funded, US $28.5 million and
that's almost all cash. We're doing well," William Paton, UN Resident
Coordinator in Tajikistan, told IRIN in the capital, Dushanbe on Monday.
The UN, together with the government of Tajikistan, launched the Appeal
for Tajikistan 2005 in Brussels on 20 January this year.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47044&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Heavy rains and floods cause havoc

A week of heavy rain in Tajikistan has damaged hundreds of houses and
destroyed crops and transport infrastructure in the former Soviet
republic, according to officials. "The country suffered extensive damage
because of heavy rains and flooding since 7 May," Mirzo Ziyoyev, the
Tajik emergency ministry, told journalists on Wednesday in the capital,
Dushanbe. According to the emergency ministry, more than 660 houses and
12 km of roads were destroyed by flooding, as well as 320 hectares of
cotton and other crops. Half a dozen bridges have been washed away along
with electricity pylons and telegraph poles.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47084&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


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