Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-38: 23-Sep-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 38
17 - 23 September 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Most ballot boxes in, as observers comment on poll
AFGHANISTAN: Vote counting under way
AFGHANISTAN: Election turnout low
AFGHANISTAN: Nation votes in relative peace
AFGHANISTAN: Electorate urged to vote despite risks
KYRGYZSTAN: Maternal and infant mortality rates still high
KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Working to reduce conflict in the
Ferghana valley
TAJIKISTAN: UNHCR concerned over forced returns
PAKISTAN: UNHCR resumes Afghan repatriation programme
PAKISTAN: Perils posed by pesticides grow
NEPAL: Aid agencies resume key project
NEPAL: UN concerned about excessive force against democracy
demonstrators
UZBEKISTAN: New reports on Andijan human rights abuses as trial begins
CENTRAL ASIA: Tajikistan to host regional forum on women's and
children's health
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Most ballot boxes in, as observers comment on poll
The movement of ballot boxes from polling centres to counting locations
has been completed in 29 provinces out of a total of 34 in Afghanistan's
landmark elections, electoral officials said on Thursday. "The counting
is under way in all 32 counting centres. The count is slow but
deliberate due to the complex ballots with so many entries of
candidates," Peter Erben, chief electoral officer at the Joint Electoral
Management Body (JEMB) said in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49200&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Vote counting under way
Counting of votes in Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary and provincial
elections began on Tuesday, while the transportation of 130,000 ballot
boxes from 6,000 polling stations to provincial counting centres
continued, electoral officials said. "Almost 80 percent of polling
material has arrived at the counting centres at 32 locations nationwide.
Over the next couple of days all ballot boxes should have arrived. The
vote counting has started in some places," Peter Erben, Chief Electoral
Officer at the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said in the
Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49159&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Election turnout low
The turnout in Sunday's parliamentary and provincial polls in
Afghanistan is estimated at around 50 percent of the electorate,
considerably lower than last year's presidential poll where 70 percent
of the electorate voted, election officials said on Monday. "Based on
preliminary reports from about 35 percent of polling centres nationwide,
our projections are that some 6 million voters participated in
yesterday's election, which is quite satisfactory in the context of a
post-conflict situation," Peter Erben, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) at
the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said in the capital Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49136&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Nation votes in relative peace
Afghanistan's first parliamentary and provincial poll in thirty years
passed without major incident on Sunday, with a high degree of voter
participation, early reports suggested. "The election was held in a
peaceful manner - there was also a high level of political awareness and
participation amongst the Afghan people," Bimillah Bismal, chairman of
the Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said as polling
booths closed across the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49120&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Electorate urged to vote despite risks
Electoral authorities in Afghanistan urged the voters to cast fears
aside and get out and participate in Sunday's historic poll. Another
candidate standing for parliament was killed on Friday in the southern
province of Helmand. The Taliban has threatened to disrupt the
parliamentary and provincial elections - the first for 30 years. "Do not
be intimated or frightened by the empty threats of those who attempt to
influence your vote. The vote is secret," Bismillah Bismal, chairman of
the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said in the Afghan capital on
Saturday on the eve of election day.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49119&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Maternal and infant mortality rates still high
Health officials in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, said on Thursday that
although falling in some areas, maternal and child mortality rates for
the former Soviet republic of 5.1 million were still unacceptably high,
especially in rural parts of the country. "In the past, we considered
the foetus as a living organism from 28 weeks, now we consider it alive
from 22 weeks, according to World Heath Organization (WHO) criteria. So
it looks like an increase in the rate of infant mortality. However,
[despite this] the rate of infant and maternal mortality is still high
in rural areas," Roza Amiraeva, head gynecologist at the health
ministry, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49202&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Working to reduce conflict in the
Ferghana valley
Children in Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz national dress performed a play
recently at a UN-sponsored summer camp designed to confront border
tension in the poverty-stricken Ferghana valley region of Central Asia.
The piece of theatre - in which children from different communities in
the border region were able to resolve conflict despite their ethnic and
linguistic differences - marked the end of the camp.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49135&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN-UZBEKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: UNHCR concerned over forced returns
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has expressed concern over the recent forced return of five members of
an Afghan family from Tajikistan. "It's of course an issue of concern.
Forced returns are a violation of the 1951 Convention," Astrid Van
Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for UNHCR said on Monday from Geneva,
referring to the international convention related to the status of
refugees, of which Tajikistan is a signatory.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49137&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
PAKISTAN: UNHCR resumes Afghan repatriation programme
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
on Wednesday resumed its repatriation assistance programme for Afghan
refugees returning from Pakistan after a week-long break due to the
parliamentary and provincial elections in Afghanistan held on Sunday.
"All the repatriation centres across the country have reopened today.
Around 2,000 Afghans comprising some 385 families have been processed at
different locations," Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, said in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49181&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Perils posed by pesticides grow
Last month, Saira, six, died in Jehanian, a village near Multan in the
southern Pakistani province of Punjab. The area is best known for its
high quality mangoes and for its cotton, the country's most important
cash crop. Doctors in the village seem uncertain over what caused the
child's death - but her grief-stricken parents are sure. "It was the
chemicals in the pesticides. She came with me sometimes to work in the
fields, and those chemicals killed her," said Saira's father, Anwar.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49160&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
NEPAL: Aid agencies resume key project
Aid agencies are to resume one of Nepal's most successful
poverty-alleviation projects, which was suspended in May in protest
against assaults on female staff by Maoist rebels. The worst case seen
at the Rural Community Infrastructure Works (RCIW) project, located in
Kalikot district, nearly 700 northwest of the capital, Kathmandu, was
that of Debkala Acharya. She was seriously injured in February after she
was badly beaten by the insurgents, who have been waging an armed
campaign against the state for the last nine years and control most of
the rural Nepal, including Kalikot.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49182&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: UN concerned about excessive force against democracy
demonstrators
Street demonstrations in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, against absolute
rule by King Gyanendra have been causing concern among United Nations
agencies and human rights groups, who say security forces are using
unnecessary violence to quell them. The United Nations Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it has received a number
of reports of excessive use of force by police against demonstrators.
OHCHR chief in Nepal, Ian Martin, said that his office had complaints
about the police throwing stones and rocks at demonstrators, causing
serious injury.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49161&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
UZBEKISTAN: New reports on Andijan human rights abuses as trial begins
Two new reports reveal clear instances of human rights abuses in the
southern Uzbek city of Andijan as the trial of 15 men accused of
plotting the May rebellion began in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on
Tuesday. "The government has been laying siege to the truth of what
happened in Andijan," Maisy Weicherdi, Central Asia researcher for
Amnesty International (AI), said from London, calling for such efforts
to cease and the truth to be heard. "There must be justice and
reparation for all the victims," Weicherdi stressed.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49158&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Tajikistan to host regional forum on women's and
children's health
The Tajik capital, Dushanbe, will host this year's Central Asian
Republics and Kazakhstan (CARK) Protection of Mothers' and Children's
Forum on Thursday, bringing together 150 participants from all five
countries. "The forum is held on an annual basis and aims to improve the
health of children and women in the area by promoting innovative,
practical programmes and policies and cooperation among CARK countries,"
Yukie Mokuo, country representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),
said from Dushanbe.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49179&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia, 15 men accused of plotting to overthrow the
Uzbek government in the eastern city of Andijan went on trial in the
Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in what rights groups are describing as a
farcical attempt to conceal the truth. Upwards of 1,000 civilians may
have been killed in Andijan on 13 May, according to some rights groups,
when security forces opened fired on protesters demonstrating against
the authoritarian regime of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled
Central Asia's most populous state since the collapse of the former
Soviet Union in 1991.
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