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 20
14 - 20 May 2005


CONTENTS:

KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Camp established as refugees flee Uzbek violence
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Refugees tell of horror in Andijan
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Border calm as official visit to Andijan dismissed
   by diplomats
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on labour migration
NEPAL: Aid suspension provokes criticism
NEPAL: Remittances - making a real impact on poverty
PAKISTAN: Remittances - the impact on communities
PAKISTAN: Debating Islam and family planning
PAKISTAN: Confronting 'honour' killing in Balochistan
PAKISTAN: IRC planning rehabilitation of infrastructure in flood-affected
   north
PAKISTAN: Twelve refugee camps to close
IRAN: World Bank launches nationwide slum improvement project
TAJIKISTAN: Demining restarts
TAJIKISTAN: Remittances - a tool for development
CENTRAL ASIA: Tajikistan to host CARK Education Forum
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Camp established as refugees flee Uzbek violence

The United Nations in Kyrgyzstan has launched an assessment mission to the 
south of the country and the goverment has opened a refugee camp, after 
more than 1,000 Uzbeks crossed into the country following three days of 
violence in eastern Uzbekistan. Human rights groups in Uzbekistan estimate 
the clashes left 600 people dead. The head of the Kyrgyz office of the 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Carlos Zaccagnini, 
is in the south of the country with members of a UN inter-agency mission.

Full 
report


KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Refugees tell of horror in Andijan

Teshik-Tash is an isolated hill district 25 km west of the capital of the 
southern Kyrgyz province of Jalal-Abad, situated on the banks of the 
Kara-Darya river. The community, lying close to the Kyrgyz border with 
Uzbekistan, is now home to around 500 Uzbeks who fled the violence in 
eastern Uzbekistan over the past four days. The bedraggled group, some 
wounded and others sick, sit munching flat, Central Asian bread, while 
sheltering in hastily-erected tents designed to accommodate much smaller 
numbers.

Full 
report


KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Border calm as official visit to Andijan dismissed 
by diplomats

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)in 
Uzbekistan confirmed on Wednesday that it was conducting an assessment 
mission in the border region with Kyrgyzstan to investigate reports that 
groups of Uzbeks who had tried to escape the killing in the eastern Uzbek 
city of Andijan by crossing into Kyrgyzstan, were stuck at the border. But 
a UNHCR programme officer in Kyrgyzstan, Almaz Burkutov, told IRIN from 
Kara-Suu on the border, that he had spoken to border officials late on 
Wednesday and that there were no reports of groups fleeing Andijan wanting 
to cross in order to seek asylum in Kyrgyzstan.

Full 
report


KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on labour migration

Kamiljan Khalmatov, 56, is standing in a long queue at the local branch of 
a commercial bank in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. He is a well known 
customer there, calling in once every two to three months to collect money 
sent back by his sons, currently working in Russia. He told IRIN that 
approximately 10 percent of residents in his home village of Aravan, 25 km 
from Osh, were making a living abroad and supporting their families back 
home, who then become regular customers of local banks.

Full 
report


NEPAL: Aid suspension provokes criticism

One of Nepal's most effective poverty alleviation projects, the Rural 
Community Infrastructure Works (RCIW), in Kalikot district, 400 km 
northwest of the capital, Kathmandu, has been indefinitiely suspended. The 
action has drawn criticism from national NGOs, government agencies and the 
communities affected by the decision. On 15 May, the German Development 
Agency (GTZ), the UK's Department for International Development (DfID), 
the Dutch Cooperation Agency (SNV) and the United Nation's World Food 
Programme (WFP) decided to suspend the RCIW as a protest after Maoist 
insurgents had assaulted a local female development worker involved in the 
project.

Full 
report


NEPAL: Remittances - making a real impact on poverty

Life has changed beyond all recognition for Sanchita Magar, 20, an 
illiterate woman from a poor village in Makwanpur district, 128 km east of 
the capital, Kathmandu. Five years ago she came to the city and started 
work as an underpaid carpet weaver, then she got a job as a waitress but 
had to endure sexual exploitation by drunken clients. Last year she sought 
help from an overseas manpower agent who supplies domestic workers to 
households in Hong Kong and her luck changed.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Remittances - the impact on communities

Nosheen Munir, 34, who lives in the small town of Kharian, some 160 km 
from the city of Lahore in eastern Pakistan, often cannot understand her 
own children. Her two sons and a daughter, aged between five and 10, speak 
fluent Norwegian, as well as Punjabi, the native tongue of their parents. 
The children have Swatch watches, branded sports shoes and other symbols 
of affluence. In obvious contrast, their mother and paternal grandparents, 
with whom they live, still dress in the simple cotton clothes of poverty. 
She regards the refrigerator, flat-screen television set and 
air-conditioner in their house with a wariness akin to suspicion.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Debating Islam and family planning

In a bid to win the support of religious groups in the country, Pakistan 
earlier this month convened a conference of key religious leaders and 
scholars from Islamic communities in 22 countries. The conference 
discussed the thorny issue of reducing high population growth within the 
framework of Islamic principles. Around 90 delegates from almost every 
school of Islamic thought participated in the three-day "International 
Ulama Conference on Population and Development" held in the Pakistani 
capital, Islamabad from 4-6 May.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Confronting 'honour' killing in Balochistan

The international NGO, Oxfam, has launched a campaign to fight the 
increasingly common practice of 'honour' killings in Pakistan's remote 
southern province of Balochistan. It used to be an unusual custom to 
punish men and women for having illicit relationships. It has evolved into 
common practice in recent years with more and more women falling victim to 
assorted crimes carried out under the common name of 'honour' across the 
country, particularly in Pakistan's tribal belt, according to rights 
activists.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: IRC planning rehabilitation of infrastructure in flood-affected 
north

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is planning to launch a 
comprehensive rehabilitation operation in parts of Pakistan's northern 
areas affected by recent floods and heavy snow. The operation will focus 
on the reestablishment of health facilities. The region endured three 
months of heavy rains, snowfall, avalanches and landslides earlier this 
year. Over 450 people were reported killed with another 500 injured in the 
hilly terrain of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). There was 
extensive damage to public and private infrastructure.

Full 
report


PAKISTAN: Twelve refugee camps to close

Pakistan is set to close more than a dozen Afghan refugee camps within 
four weeks, citing concerns over security. The camps have a total 
population of over 30,000 and are located in the North Waziristan agency 
of the western tribal belt, officials told IRIN. "In total, about 14 camps 
would be closed. However, the [Afghan] population living outside the camps 
in urban or rural settlements would be allowed to stay on in the area," 
Jehangir Khan, head of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR), said 
in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Full 
report


IRAN: World Bank launches nationwide slum improvement project

A nationwide project has been launched to upgrade slum areas in three 
Iranian cities, with work scheduled to begin in a further five cities over 
the next eight years. Following a three month pilot project in the 
south-eastern city of Zahedan, the Urban Upgrading and Housing Policy 
Reform project will now be implemented in the western city of Kermanshah 
and the southern port town of Bandar Abbas. The project is funded by a US 
$85 million loan from the World Bank which will cover the first four years 
of operations.

Full 
report


TAJIKISTAN: Demining restarts

Demining work has restarted in the Rasht and Tavildara districts of 
Tajikistan, some 300 km from the capital, Dushanbe, Parviz Mavlonkulov, 
deputy head of the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), told IRIN on 
Wednesday. "The demining work in these areas was suspended in November due 
to poor weather conditions. In 2005, we are planning to clear three 
minefields of five remaining," Mavlonkulov said. Minefields in the two 
districts are a legacy of the civil war that ravaged the former Soviet 
republic from 1992 to 1997. Government forces and armed groups of the 
United Tajik Opposition (UTO) mined the area heavily.

Full 
report


TAJIKISTAN: Remittances - a tool for development

Motoring through the small villages of the Bahor district, about 20 km 
south of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, all seems well as spring gives way 
to early summer and local people tend their wheat fields, orchards and 
dairy herds. But there is an absence of men in the fields, and in the 
cafes around the district. Ask a dozen locals where they are and the 
answer is always the same: "North, in Russia earning money - this is the 
only way we survive."

Full 
report


CENTRAL ASIA: Tajikistan to host CARK Education Forum

Tajikistan will host this year's Central Asian Republics and Kazakhstan 
(CARK) Education Forum in June, bringing together 120 delegates from all 
five countries. "This is the first time [the] Tajikistan Ministry of 
Education is hosting the CARK Education Forum in Tajikistan," Yukie Mokuo, 
UNICEF country representative, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, 
noting the significance of the event. The two day event to be held on 6-7 
June near the Tajik capital is to be hosted by the Tajik government, in 
partnership with the UN Children's Fund and the United Nations Educational 
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Full 
report


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

The week in Central Asia was dominated by the aftermath of events in and 
around the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan on 13 May, when troops opened 
fire on protesters. Human rights groups said more than 500 died in the 
violence. A further 200 people were shot dead by security forces in nearby 
Pakhtabad, local residents said. Following the killings, hundreds of 
residents fled the city and sought asylum in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. They 
told IRIN they had been ambushed by Uzbek security forces and shot at as 
they tried to cross the border.

Full 
report


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