Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-07: 18-Feb-05
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 07
12 - 18 FEbruary 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Efforts to improve access to justice in rural areas
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands choose army after abolition of poppy cultivation
AFGHANISTAN: Turkey takes over ISAF command
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with OSCE Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj
KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with the chair of national Uyghur society
NEPAL: Focus on IDPs
PAKISTAN: Preparation for Afghan census underway
PAKISTAN: Relief efforts continue as death toll passes 400
PAKISTAN: Relief operation continues
PAKISTAN: Fresh rain, snow disrupts relief operation in north
PAKISTAN: Food shortage looms in flood-affected southern coastal belt
PAKISTAN: Humanitarian access to north remains poor
TAJIKISTAN: Avalanche damage estimated at US $3 million
TAJIKISTAN: Activists laud death penalty abolition
AFGHANISTAN: Efforts to improve access to justice in rural areas
A new multi-million dollar project will promote public access to justice
in rural areas of Afghanistan. According to officials at the Italian
Embassy in the capital, Kabul, the initiative is to promote access to
justice in selected districts of the country in the framework of human
rights protection. The project aims to benefit from the traditional and
communal justice systems that currently operate in remote areas of the
post-conflict country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45571&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands choose army after abolition of poppy cultivation
Almost every young man in the Sherzad district of eastern Nangarhar
province wants to join the fledging Afghan National Army (ANA) as an
alternative means of employment following a ban on poppy cultivation in
one of the country's largest poppy-growing provinces. "The army is the
pride of a country and [if you join] you will see the country. The
salary and food I heard are excellent," Gulab Shah, an ex-poppy grower
and now new recruit, told his friends who also sought alternative
employment after the ban on poppy cultivation came into effect. "Poppy
was rich materially but poor morally," he maintained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45622&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Turkey takes over ISAF command
Turkey has assumed command of the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, a multinational UN-mandated
force to assist the Afghan government and the international community in
maintaining security. "NATO has held the command of ISAF for the last
two years and yesterday was the change of command from Eurocorps, which
is a NATO Rapid Deployable Force, to the Rapid Deployable Corps in
Istanbul," Karen Tissot van Patot, an ISAF spokeswoman, told IRIN from
the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45551&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
A longstanding issue in Central Asia, landmines have killed two Tajik
herdsmen and wounded five other men near the unmarked Uzbek border, the
AP reported on Monday. Four of the injured were hospitalised in a
serious condition after the incident in the northern district of Asht on
10 February, said the press office of Tajikistan's border service.
Sixty-four Tajiks have been killed and 66 wounded since Uzbekistan began
mining its borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in 2000, claiming the
measure was needed to keep out drugs, smuggled weapons and fighters
linked with the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45636&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with OSCE Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj
With parliamentary elections scheduled for 27 February, Ambassador
Lubomir Kopaj of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), who also heads the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights (ODIHR) election observation mission, shared with IRIN his
insight into Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary elections and his views on his
role as an international observer of the event.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45547&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with the chair of national Uyghur society
Rozimuhammed Abdulbakiev is the head of Ittipak, the national society of
Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan. Many Uyghurs live in exile in the former Soviet
republic, after fleeing the heavy-handed Chinese state repression of
their activities, labelled as "nationalist" by Beijing, in their native
Xinjiang Province, a vast region that occupies a sixth of China's land
mass. Rights groups cite a serious rise in human rights abuses against
the Uyghur minority of northwest China, while Beijing has claimed to be
faced by "religious extremist forces" and "violent terrorists" in the
region for more than a decade.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45626&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: Focus on IDPs
Hari Prasad Gautam is too old to find a regular job, working instead as
a wage labourer in a brick factory or construction site in the Nepalese
capital, Kathmandu. But the 70-year old is now too weak and his health
is deteriorating. Two years ago, he was shot and attacked by Maoist
militants who left him for dead in remote Lohanpur village in Ramechhap
district, 150 km east of the capital. His only crime was not being able
to pay the US $500 demanded of him by the rebels. The local police saved
him by airlifting him to Kathmandu where he was hospitalised for almost
six months.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45591&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Preparation for Afghan census underway
In preparation for a full-scale census of Afghans living in the country,
the Pakistan Census Organisation (PCO), in collaboration with the office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), conducted
a pilot census earlier this week across the four provinces of the
country. "The exercise was basically to check the operational procedures
and make the enumerators prepared to deal with any particular
condition," Jehangir Khan, head of the Commission for Afghan Refugees
(CAR), told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45624&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Relief efforts continue as death toll passes 400
Efforts to provide humanitarian relief to flood-affected victims in
Pakistan continued on Sunday after two weeks of heavy rains and snowfall
across the country resulted in more than 400 deaths. Nearly 2,000 people
were still reported missing and thousands more badly in need of
assistance and shelter, officials told IRIN. In addition to floods,
avalanches and landslides have caused substantial damage to roads,
communications and the electricity service in the southern province of
Balochistan, the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), the federally
administered Northern Areas and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45532&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Relief operation continues
While casualty figures still remain unclear, relief teams continue to
struggle to reach the worst hit parts of the northern and southern areas
of Pakistan where communications have been severely disrupted by
torrential rains and snowfall over the past two weeks. Continuing bad
weather is hampering the provision of clean drinking water, food and
shelter to stranded communities in parts of the southern province of
Balochistan, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the federally
administered Northern Areas and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials
told IRIN on Tuesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45579&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Fresh rain, snow disrupts relief operation in north
Another fresh spell of rain and snowfall that started on Tuesday has
again disrupted relief activities in the northern districts of
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the Northern Areas and
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, according to provincial relief department
officials. "Nearly 270 people have been killed and some 244 have been
reported injured in a series of landslides, avalanches and roof
collapsing incidents over the last one-and-a-half months. Besides, the
heavy rain and snowfall have also caused huge damage to property in the
northern mountain range," Ghulam Farooq Khan, head of NWFP's provincial
relief cell, told IRIN from Peshawar.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45604&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Food shortage looms in flood-affected southern coastal belt
Flood-hit areas of Pakistan's southern coastal district of Gawadar in
Balochistan province might face a shortage of food and other daily
supplies if a damaged road link to the area is not repaired in the next
couple of days, officials told IRIN on Wednesday. "At present,
restoration of communication links - particularly the road network - is
one of the main concerns of our administration," Raziq Bugti, head of
the provincial crisis management cell (CMC), told IRIN from the
provincial capital, Quetta.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45598&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Humanitarian access to north remains poor
Concern over those stranded in the snowbound valleys of Pakistan's North
West Frontier Province's (NWFP) northern districts continued on Friday
after three weeks of prolonged bad weather and snow. "We are operating
in the Swat valley at the moment where about 70,000 individuals in
different parts remain inaccessible and we have no information about
them. Another 150,000 people have been reported stranded in the upper
valleys of District Mansehra and Battagram, but there are many more
areas in which we have no clue at all," one aid worker told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45648&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Avalanche damage estimated at US $3 million
The damage caused by a spate of avalanches that hit Tajikistan over the
past two weeks is estimated to be around US $3 million, according to the
Tajik emergency ministry. "Based on preliminary estimates, the damage is
currently estimated to be some $3 million," Abdurakhim Rajabov, deputy
emergency minister, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on
Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45603&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Activists laud death penalty abolition
Rights activists have welcomed the abolition of capital punishment in
Tajikistan, the second country in the Central Asian region to abolish
the death penalty for all crimes. "It is a very important event for us
because up to recently Tajikistan was considered one of the countries
where capital punishment was used quite often," Nigina Bakhrieva, a
programme coordinator with the National Bureau of Human Rights and Rule
of Law, a local rights group, told IRIN from the Tajik capital,
Dushanbe, on Tuesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=45574&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
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