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

Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484
Fax: +92-51-2211 450
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 25
18 - 24 June 2005


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Floodwater inundates villages along Kabul river
PAKISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child camel jockeys
PAKISTAN: Focus on a quarter century of UN assistance to Afghan
   refugees
PAKISTAN: Flood risk along Kabul river
PAKISTAN: Interview with Mukhtar Bibi, gang-rape victim denied right to
   travel
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: More Uzbek asylum seekers may be deported
UZBEKISTAN: Locust invasion causes havoc in the south
UZBEKISTAN: Interview with leader of new opposition group - Sunshine
   Uzbekistan
UZBEKISTAN: OSCE Andijan report reaffirms need for inquiry
KYRGYZSTAN: Challenge of media liberalisation
KYRGYZSTAN: UN improving rural health facilities
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees uncertain of ever going home
AFGHANISTAN: UN sending emergency assistance to Badakhshan flood
   victims
AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN: New bridge to provide key economic link
IRAN: Reformists on the ropes amid charges of vote rigging
IRAN: Marking World Refugee Day
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


PAKISTAN: Floodwater inundates villages along Kabul river

At least 100 mud-walled houses have been damaged by floods while about
500 families have been evacuated by Pakistani army rescue teams after
several villages along the River Kabul were flooded on Thursday,
according to initial reports by the relief department of the North West
Frontier Province (NWFP). "People have been shifted to the houses of
their relatives and some to public buildings. But so far, we've not
received any report concerning human casualty or cattle loss," Ghulam
Jillani, the deputy relief commissioner, said from provincial capital,
Peshawar.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47801&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Focus on rehabilitation of child camel jockeys

Life took a dramatic turn for the better for 21 children on Tuesday when
they were sent home to the Pakistani city of Lahore from the United Arab
Emirates (UAE). There were no relatives or friends at the airport to
greet the boys, perhaps out of fear of being implicated in their
trafficking. They had previously been used to sheltering under makeshift
tents or in comfortless rooms close to sheds where racing camels were
kept. Their days as child camel 'jockeys' were over and they had spent
the last two days filling in colouring books, completing simple puzzles
and looking at picture books in a hostel of the Child Welfare Protection
Bureau (CWPB). Sadly, almost all the children, aged between three and 12
years old, were illiterate and could not read the stories that
accompanied the pictures.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47783&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Focus on a quarter century of UN assistance to Afghan refugees

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR)
marked its twenty-fifth year working with Afghans in Pakistan on World
Refugee Day last Monday. Now the agency see light at the end of the
tunnel and hopes to reduce its activities in the country over coming
years. This anniversary of working with refugees in Pakistan is
documented in a new report titled, "Searching for Solutions - 25 years
of UNHCR-Pakistan cooperation on Afghan Refugees."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47790&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Flood risk along Kabul river

Lowland parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) along
the river Kabul, running from Afghanistan into Pakistan, are facing the
risk of flooding. The water flow in the river has increased
significantly after a massive snowmelt, according to a UN interagency
coordinator in the NWFP provincial capital, Peshawar. "Low-lying areas
in the districts of Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar are at a high risk
of flooding. The provincial government has asked the relevant
departments to take appropriate measures and remain vigilant as the
water flow in the Kabul [river] is on the increase," Dr Quaid Saeed,
said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47782&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Interview with Mukhtar Bibi, gang-rape victim denied right to
travel

Mukhtar Bibi was gang-raped in 2002, on the orders of a council of
village elders as punishment for a crime attributed to her brother.
Defying the culture of shame that often surrounds rape victims in
Pakistan, the 33-year-old not only went public, but took her attackers
to court. Bibi was to have visited the United States last week at the
invitation of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of women (ANAA)
but she found her name on the government's list of people barred from
travelling abroad. In an interview with IRIN on the telephone from her
village of Meerwala, Bibi remained defiant.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47730&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: More Uzbek asylum seekers may be deported

While Bishkek's recent extradition of four Uzbek asylum seekers has
drawn strong international criticism, a group of 29 Uzbek asylum seekers
held in custody may be deported to Uzbekistan in a week, according to
the Kyrgyz prosecutor general's office. "They are dangerous criminals
and were involved in organising the Andijan events. There are both
terrorists and religious extremists among them," Azimbek Beknazarov,
Kyrgyzstan's prosecutor-general, was quoted as saying by the Kyrgyz
national news agency Kabar on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47789&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Locust invasion causes havoc in the south

Locusts are causing havoc in the southern Uzbek province of Kashkadarya,
where farmers and local authorities they have been unsuccessfully
fighting the harmful insects since April, while they have destroying
large swathes of cotton and grain crops. Kholturaev Mamayusuf, a worker
at the Erkin Erdonayev farm in Kashkadarya's Nishan district, bordering
Turkmenistan, said that swarms of locusts appeared in the area in the
middle of May and were still laying waste to crops. In an effort to
stave off the invasion, chemicals were being sprayed from planes and
each farm has been provided with a special spraying unit to kill the
insects in their fields, though a charge is levied for use of the
equipment.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47791&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Interview with leader of new opposition group - Sunshine
Uzbekistan

As Uzbek authorities face increased Western pressure for an
international probe into the deadly crackdown in the eastern city of
Andijan last month, a new local opposition group, Serkuyosh Uzbekistonim
(Sunshine Uzbekistan) has called for action from Washington increase the
pressure for reform of the current regime. Looking beyond the rule of
President Islam Karimov and taking note of events in Kyrgyzstan in March
that swept away the old order, the group has also called for peaceful
change and economic liberalisation, in a rare assertion of dissent. IRIN
spoke to the leader of Sunshine Uzbekistan, Sanjar Umarov, in the
capital, Tashkent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47755&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: OSCE Andijan report reaffirms need for inquiry

In a limited but significant step forward, a report by the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has further underscored the need
for a full independent inquiry into what transpired in Andijan,
Uzbekistan, last month, when upwards of 1,000 people are thought to have
been gunned down by Uzbek military forces. "This is the only thing we
could do under the current circumstances but it does not mean that it
ends there. Absolutely not," Urdur Gunnarsdottir, a spokeswoman for the
ODIHR, said on Tuesday speaking from Warsaw.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47749&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Challenge of media liberalisation

Despite a pledge by Kyrgyzstan's new government to reform and liberalise
state-controlled media, the shift from rhetoric to reality will prove a
key challenge for the former Soviet republic. Following the overthrow of
former president Askar Akayev in March, lawmakers and civil society have
been wrestling with how to transform national radio and television from
a mouthpiece of the regime into an independent public service. The
interim government was ushered in on a platform of liberalisation and
transparency. It also pledged itself to reform the state-controlled
media.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47776&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: UN improving rural health facilities

Tasma is a pilot village where the UN inter-agency project "Stronger
Voices for Reproductive Health" is working to improve healthcare in
rural areas. "We live very far from the district centre and during
winter it is impossible to get there. Now we have a maternity hospital
where 14 women have already given birth and a place to buy medicine
here, thanks to the UN Population Fund [UNFPA]," said Baktygul
Chotorova, a midwife working in Tasma village, 60 km from Karakol city,
capital of the northeastern Kyrgyz province of Issykkul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47777&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees uncertain of ever going home

Many Bhutanese living as refugees in Nepal have lost all hope of ever
returning home, according to observers. "The level of despair has taken
its toll amongst them and now they are looking towards the international
community to help in third country settlement," said dissident Ran
Bahadur Basnet, chairman of the Bhutan National Democratic Party. In the
last 15 years, the number of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal has reached
nearly 110,000. They live in 11 camps in east Nepal with support
provided by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP) and several other aid
agencies.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47750&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


AFGHANISTAN: UN sending emergency assistance to Badakhshan flood victims

Aid organisations in Afghanistan are rushing emergency assistance to
devastated areas of Badakhshan province in the northeast of the country,
following heavy flooding which killed at least 50 people and destroyed
more than 1,000 homes in several villages on Friday, according to the
Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). The MRRD said
that flash floods had hit the provinces of Badakhshan, Takhar,
Sar-e-Pul, Faryab, Jozjan and Smanagan on Thursday and Friday but that
Badakhshan suffered the most.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47727&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN: New bridge to provide key economic link

Efforts to boost the economies of both Tajikistan and Afghanistan moved
one step further on Saturday, when Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and
Afghan President Hamid Karzai laid the foundation stone for a US-funded
bridge across the Pyanzh River. "The Nizhiniy Pyanzh bridge will unlock
the economic vitality of the two countries through expanded trade
opportunities," US Ambassador to Tajikistan, Richard Hoagland, told IRIN
from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47729&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-TAJIKISTAN


IRAN: Reformists on the ropes amid charges of vote rigging

Iran's reformists were left reeling after a hard-line conservative
candidate swept into second place in the presidential elections. Voters
must now decide between Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and powerful
ex-president and cleric, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the country's first
ever presidential election run-off on Friday. The shock win by
Ahmadinejad prompted unprecedented accusations of ballot rigging by
centrist reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi. On Monday, Tehran announced
a partial recount in four cities to try and ascertain whether voting or
vote counting irregularities had occured.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47728&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


IRAN: Marking World Refugee Day

Top UN officials have praised Iran for hosting more refugees than almost
any other country in the world, in remarks made in the capital, Tehran,
marking World Refugee Day on Monday. "Iran still ranges among the
countries that have the highest number of refugees in the world. This is
a record which Iran and Iranian people can be proud of as a
demonstration of a humanitarian commitment," UNHCR's resident
representative in Tehran, Sten Bronee, said at a press conference.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47734&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Police in Uzbekistan's capital on Tuesday dispersed protestors holding a
public meeting to mark 40 days - a tradition in Muslim societies of
Central Asia - since the violent suppression of protests in the eastern
city of Andijan last month, AFP reported. The Uzbek government said the
Andijan death toll was 173, while rights groups say upwards of 1,000 may
have been killed when security forces opened fire on protesters
indiscriminately. Around 15 human rights activists laid flowers at a
monument in the capital, Tashkent, that commemorates the victims of a
1966 earthquake.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=47804&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


IRIN-Asia
Tel: +90 312 454 1177
Fax: +90 312 495 4166
Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Asia-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2005


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Asia                               www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia