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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 36
3 - 9 September 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Nationwide vaccination campaign under way
AFGHANISTAN: EU finances election shortfall
AFGHANISTAN: Housing for a million women planned
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UNHCR suspends repatriation operation ahead of
   Afghan election
CENTRAL ASIA: ECHO grant to bolster disaster preparedness
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: New election monitoring initiative launched
KAZAKHSTAN: Joining Clinton foundation opens way for cheap AIDS drugs
KYRGYZSTAN: Camp empowers youth to change their communities
NEPAL: Democracy demonstrations continue
NEPAL: Positive reaction to Maoist ceasefire
NEPAL: Encephalitis deaths on the rise
PAKISTAN: UNHCR processing Afghans without testing, following attack
PAKISTAN: Lack of status contributing to poverty in northern areas
PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees feel coerced into repatriation
PAKISTAN: Women more confident in reporting sexual violence
TAJIKISTAN: Demining expands to east
TURKMENISTAN: Prostitution on the rise
UZBEKISTAN: Amnesty urges OSCE to monitor Andijan trials


AFGHANISTAN: Nationwide vaccination campaign under way

More than 40,000 male and female volunteers have been deployed across
Afghanistan in a three-day polio vaccination campaign. The joint
government-United Nations campaign, which began on Monday, is expected
to reach 7 million children under the age of five and is aimed at making
the country polio-free. Afghanistan is among just six countries in the
world where polio remains endemic: Nigeria, India, Niger, Somali and
Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48917&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: EU finances election shortfall

To meet the financial shortfall in Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary
and provincial elections later this month, the European Commission (EC)
has pledged an extra 9 million euros (US $11.2 million) for the landmark
poll, the United Nations said on Thursday in the capital Kabul. A month
ago, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA)
appealed for additional funding for the elections, stating there was as
$20 million shortfall in a budget of $159 million.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48972&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Housing for a million women planned

Mah Gul is a 40-year-old widow living with her four children in the
dusty shell of a battle-scarred building in the Bari Khot district of
the Afghan capital Kabul. "I must get somewhere for my family to live,
here there is no water, no windows even, it's worse than a tent and I
have endured this for three years," she said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48938&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UNHCR suspends repatriation operation ahead of
Afghan election

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
on Tuesday announced it plans to temporarily suspend its repatriation
operation for Afghan refugees from Pakistan for about a week from 14
September until after Afghanistan's parliamentary election. "The
registration of Afghans, those who wish to repatriate through UNHCR,
would continue in between. However, further processing of the cases at
repatriation and departure centres would remain closed till 20
September," Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, said in the Pakistani
capital Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48939&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: ECHO grant to bolster disaster preparedness

The European Commission's (EC) recent assistance of 3.5 million euros to
Central Asia is intended to bolster disaster prevention and preparedness
in the region. The funds are being allocated through the European
Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) and the aid package, agreed in
August, is part of the EC's Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48940&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said in Moscow on Monday that a
timetable for the withdrawal of a US military base from his country
would depend on the situation in Afghanistan, AP reported. When the
situation in Afghanistan had stabilised, Bishkek would reconsider the
status of the base, said Bakiyev, who was visiting Russia for talks with
President Vladimir Putin. Bakiyev added though, that he had told US
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a recent meeting that Washington
should pay a higher rent for using the base.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48977&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


KAZAKHSTAN: New election monitoring initiative launched

In the run-up to the presidential election expected in December, a group
of local human rights defenders, journalists and sociologists have
banded together to form what could be the first genuinely independent
election monitoring group in Kazakhstan. "We belong to neither the
opposition nor the government," Eugeniy Zhovtis, director of the
Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law and
member of the newly founded Initiative for Fair Election, said from the
commercial Kazakh capital of Almaty.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48937&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KAZAKHSTAN: Joining Clinton foundation opens way for cheap AIDS drugs

A decision to join the Bill Clinton Foundation's initiative in fighting
HIV/AIDS may give people in Kazakhstan living with the virus access to
affordable anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). "This was a Memorandum of
Understanding [MOU] and there is a commitment in this memorandum on
behalf of the [Kazakh] government to consider the possibility of
procuring anti-retroviral drugs through the Bill Clinton Foundation,"
Alexander Kossukhin, national programme officer for the joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said, from the Kazakh commercial
capital of Almaty on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48974&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Camp empowers youth to change their communities

Teenagers involved with local NGOs and civic groups in Kyrgyzstan have
been attending a unique summer camp in recent weeks, aimed at raising
awareness about drug addiction and the dangers of HIV/AIDS. The camp is
a United Nations initiative, involving several agencies. "In [the
eastern town of] Taldu-Suu, the number of teenagers who are addicted to
drugs is increasing. In the majority of villages there are no education
projects to help with these issues, or even facilities for youth,"
Daniyar, a 21-year-old at the camp on the shore of lake Ysyk-Kol in the
east of the country, said, explaining why he was attending.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48976&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


NEPAL: Democracy demonstrations continue

Pro-democracy street demonstrations in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu,
have been attracting increasing public support as more people join
thousands of protestors every day. The protests, that have been
occurring daily for more than a week, aim to pressurise King Gyanedera
to restore multiparty governance, that he suspended in February. The
capital's main streets have been closed most afternoons in recent weeks
as protestors throng key centres like New Road, Putali Sadak, Baneswor,
Pulchok.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49000&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Positive reaction to Maoist ceasefire

NGOs and donors have responded positively to a declaration by Maoist
rebels in Nepal to observe a three-month ceasefire. "The ceasefire is a
great opportunity for the government and political parties, as well as
the international community, to work towards peace and development,"
activist Subodh Pyakhurel said. The rebels have waged a nine-year war to
install a communist state in the Himalayan kingdom.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48915&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Encephalitis deaths on the rise

A rise in the number of deaths from Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is
causing concern among health workers in Nepal who say more needs to be
done to combat the preventable disease. JE mostly affects impoverished
families, with many children and elderly people among the victims. In
the past two months alone at least 200 people have died of JE, according
to the Nepalese health authorities.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48954&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


PAKISTAN: UNHCR processing Afghans without testing, following attack

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in Pakistan is now processing repatriation cases of Afghan refugees from
the northwestern city of Peshawar without an Iris test after hundreds of
Afghans waiting in long queues for registration attacked the agency's
centre on Wednesday in protest against the slow pace of repatriation
work. "The angry refugees pelted UNHCR vehicles with stones and
destroyed office equipment, including computers, furniture and Iris
checking machines," Yaris Khan, head of the UNHCR repatriation centre
said in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province
(NWFP).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48997&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Lack of status contributing to poverty in northern areas

Pakistan's leading independent rights body expressed grave concern this
week over the poor humanitarian situation across remote parts of
northern Pakistan. A 10-member group from the Human Right Commission of
Pakistan (HRCP) visited the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA)
in late August to assess the level of social services and infrastructure
in this poorly developed part of the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48975&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Afghan refugees feel coerced into repatriation

Eviction notices and increased police harassment of Afghan refugees in
recent months have forced many to opt for repatriation to Afghanistan
despite security and livelihood concerns, refugees said on Monday. "As
we listen to the news of eviction notices served on Afghans in different
parts of the country. It is making us scared. Day by day, Pakistani
authorities are becoming harder towards us," Abd-ul-Mannan, an Afghan of
Turkmen origin, said in the Pakistani city of Attock, some 80 km
northeast of the capital Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48911&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Women more confident in reporting sexual violence

The tale of Sonia Naz, the latest case of alleged gang-rape to be widely
publicised in Pakistan, has left even the most hardened observer badly
shaken. But the very fact that the incident has come to light is
indicative of a growing willingness among many women in this devout
Islamic country to report such crimes. Sonia's ordeal began nearly six
weeks ago in the industrial city of Faisalabad, about 200 km west of
Lahore, when her husband, Asim, was arrested by police. Asim, a
low-level clerk in the revenue department, was involved with nearly a
dozen other officials in a corruption case.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48927&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Demining expands to east

Demining work is set to expand in Tajikistan, with two demining teams,
newly trained by the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD), joining the
mountainous Central Asian nation's mine action body. "Both groups have
been sent to their duty areas and will work there until the first snow,"
Parviz Mavlonkulov, deputy of the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC) said
in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48955&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


TURKMENISTAN: Prostitution on the rise

Poverty remains the driving-force behind rising levels of prostitution
in the energy-rich state of Turkmenistan, where upwards of 44 percent of
the country's population reportedly lives on less than US $2 per day.
"For a certain part of the female population who are unemployed,
prostitution is the only means to provide for themselves and their
families," Farid Tuhbatulin, chairman of the Turkmen Initiative for
Human Rights group (TI), said. "Never before have so many women and even
under-age schoolgirls worked the streets or gathered in special places,
offering sexual services."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48914&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Amnesty urges OSCE to monitor Andijan trials

Amnesty International (AI) has joined other human rights groups in a
call for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
to send observers to the upcoming trial of those arrested for their
alleged involvement in May's bloody events in the southeastern Uzbek
city of Andijan. "We want this trial to be open and genuinely open,"
Maisy Weicherdi, Central Asia researcher for the watchdog group, said
from London. "Of course we would like the OSCE to send monitors," she
explained on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48973&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


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2005


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