Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-39: 30-Sep-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 39
24 - 30 September 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Vote count continues, partial results emerging
AFGHANISTAN: Low government presence threatens disbandment of illegal
armed groups
AFGHANISTAN: Returnees should return to their provinces
AFGHANISTAN: Half of votes counted
AFGHANISTAN: Government dismisses legal poppy cultivation
AFGHANISTAN: Recent refugee influx ups pressure on aid agencies
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with chief electoral officer, Peter Erben
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
NEPAL: Effective anti-encephalitis programme could have saved lives
NEPAL: Interview with Sultan Aziz, Director Asia-Pacific Division,
UNFPA
NEPAL: High-level ICJ mission under way
TURKMENISTAN: No progress on religious freedom
UZBEKISTAN: Activists warn of further media crackdown
AFGHANISTAN: Vote count continues, partial results emerging
Vote counting was proceeding across the country one week after
Afghanistan's first general elections in three decades, with almost 20
percent of the votes counted, electoral officials said on Sunday.
"Counting is well under way and in full compliance with the United
Nations standards, with 19 percent of the overall count done," Peter
Erben, chief electoral officer at the Afghan-UN Joint Electoral
Management Body (JEMB), said in the Afghan capital, Kabul, noting in
some of the southern provinces, such as Zabul and Nimruz, well over 65
percent votes had already been counted.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49231&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Low government presence threatens disbandment of illegal
armed groups
A government-led effort to disband illegal armed groups is proceeding
slowly in remote parts of Afghanistan where Kabul's writ remains weak,
officials at the National Disarmament and Reintegration (DR) Commission
say. "In most of the districts where irresponsible regional armed
commanders receive money through unlawful means, including illegal tax
collection and enforcing people to smuggle narcotics, the public have
raised their voices to expedite the collection of arms and establish a
stronger administration," Masoum Stanekzai, a minister advising Afghan
President Hamid Karzai and deputy head of the DR commission, explained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49253&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Returnees should return to their provinces
Returnees to Afghanistan from both Pakistan and Iran will only get land
for shelters in their province of origin, the government announced on
Wednesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul. "In order to reduce crowding
here in the capital and provide equal reconstruction opportunities to
all provinces across the country, the government will soon implement the
plan of providing land for shelter for returnees in their own related
provinces," Hafiz Nadeem, public information officer for the Ministry of
Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR), said, adding one of the major problems
causing slow repatriation was the lack of shelter.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49273&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Half of votes counted
With almost 50 percent of all votes counted across Afghanistan following
the country's first general elections in three decades, electoral
officials have cited several places where the process needs to speed up.
"We are half-way into the counting all over the country. However, at
some places with more complex ballots and high voter turnout, like Kabul
and Herat provinces, the counting process is slow," Peter Erben, chief
electoral officer at the UN Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body
(JEMB), said in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday. "However, we are
trying to speed up the process through the reshuffling of staff from one
centre to other."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49272&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Government dismisses legal poppy cultivation
The Afghan government has rejected a call to legalise poppy cultivation
in the country, following a recent report advocating for its legitimate
production. "Poor security in the country means there are simply no
guarantees that opium won't be smuggled out of the country for the
illicit narcotics trade abroad," Afghan Minister for Counter Narcotics,
Habibullah Qaderi, said in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49268&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Recent refugee influx ups pressure on aid agencies
The arrival of 21,000 Afghan families from Pakistan over the past six
weeks has placed an additional strain on aid agencies in providing
adequate humanitarian assistance, representatives say. "The return of
such a large of number over [such] a relatively short period of time
just before the winter has created additional pressures for
reintegration operations," Tim Irwin, a spokesman of the office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in the
Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49289&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with chief electoral officer, Peter Erben
After almost three decades of conflict and violence, Afghanistan marked
its entry back to a civil and lawful rule last October when Hamid Karzai
was elected president with a 55 percent majority in a direct poll held
across the country. Eleven months on, on Sunday another historical
milestone was reached when the country held its parliamentary and
provincial council elections, under an Afghan-UN Joint Electoral
Management Body (JEMB), which also administered last year's presidential
polls. Since the run-up to 18 September election began by the end of
March, Peter Erben, as chief electoral Officer at the JEMB, has been
administering polling arrangements nationwide. In an interview with IRIN
in the Afghan capital Kabul, Erben discussed the many challenges and
remarkable features of Sunday's Afghan election.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49297&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
The trial of 15 men accused of plotting to overthrow the Uzbek
government in the eastern city of Andijan entered its second week in the
Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Upwards of 1,000 civilians may have been killed
in Andijan on 13 May, according to some rights groups, when security
forces opened fire on protesters demonstrating against the government of
Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Central Asia's most
populous state since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49300&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
NEPAL: Effective anti-encephalitis programme could have saved lives
Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a mosquito-borne arboviral infection and a
leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia, has killed hundreds in
Nepal since July, but many of the deaths could have been avoided if both
public and private bodies had done more to combat the preventable
disease, health experts say. According to the Ministry of Health, in the
past two and a half months alone, 270 people have been reported dead and
1,775 infected, with the number of deaths by 21 September exceeding the
usual annual mortality figure of 200.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49234&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Interview with Sultan Aziz, Director Asia-Pacific Division, UNFPA
Nepal has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with
the government estimating that 4,500 women die each year from
pregnancy-related deaths. According to the Ministry of Health, the
maternal mortality rate is 530 per 100,000 births, but experts believe
the figure is much higher. The American research organisation,
Population Reference Bureau, puts the figures as 830 per 100,000 births.
In the absence of enough trained birth attendants, low resources,
inadequate health facilities and illiteracy are just some of the crucial
issues contributing to poor maternal healthcare in Nepal. For health
organisations and UN agencies like the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), the challenge for healthcare delivery has become even more
difficult given the escalation of the nine-year-old armed conflict
between the Maoists and the government.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49271&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: High-level ICJ mission under way
A high-level mission of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is
visiting Nepal for the third time in less than a year to assess human
rights and the rule of law in the Himalayan country. During the four-day
visit, which began on Wednesday, the delegation will focus on the
judiciary's role in defending human rights, as well as respect for the
judiciary's decisions, in addition to restrictions on human rights
defenders and lawyers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49291&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
TURKMENISTAN: No progress on religious freedom
Turkmenistan continues to deny its citizens the right to religious
freedom, despite longstanding international pressure to reform.
"Turkmenistan's government still refuses to allow residents of the
country to practice their faith freely," Felix Corley, the editor of
Forum 18 News Service, an agency monitoring religious freedom in the
former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, said from London on
Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49288&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Activists warn of further media crackdown
Media watchdog groups warn of a further crackdown on press freedom as
the trial of 15 men charged with trying to overthrow the Uzbek
government in the southern city of Andijan last May enters its second
week. "We are deeply concerned about the escalating crackdown on
journalists by the Uzbek authorities," Pascale Bonamour, head of Europe
desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said from Paris on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49240&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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