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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 44
29 October - 4 November 2005


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: Cold brings quake victims south
PAKISTAN: Number of tented camps to increase
PAKISTAN: IOM starts pilot shelter repair programme
PAKISTAN: Closed or destroyed roads hamper relief effort
PAKISTAN: Increase in respiratory infections
PAKISTAN: Helicopter lifeline under threat in earthquake zone
PAKISTAN: UNICEF and government start child registration
PAKISTAN: Health care under pressure in Muzaffarabad
PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Area Coordinator, Rashid
   Khalikov
PAKISTAN: Muzaffarabad and the struggle to survive
PAKISTAN: Plans to evacuate 100,000 people after volcano fears
PAKISTAN: UNHCR to suspend repatriation over Eid
PAKISTAN: Appropriate reconstruction vital to prevent future disaster -
   planners
PAKISTAN: UNICEF head visits quake-ravaged north
KYRGYZSTAN: Prison riots quelled, say officials
KYRGYZSTAN: Prison conditions fuel revolts, observers say
KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN: Landmine threat along Uzbek border removed
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with head of UNHCR country office, Francisco
   Galindo-Velez
UZBEKISTAN: Rights group and opposition condemn jailing of leader
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


PAKISTAN: Cold brings quake victims south

Outside the home of Muhammad Aurangzeb, a small village seems to have
sprung up almost overnight. String cots, tattered mattresses and a bench
lie across the tiny courtyard outside the cramped servant's quarter
Aurangzeb occupies in a private family home along a residential street
in the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, Lahore. Around 25 people,
all distant relatives of Aurangzeb, have taken up temporary residence on
the assorted furniture.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49932&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Number of tented camps to increase

Saleem Akhtar arrived at the Bela Nur Shah tent camp in Muzaffarabad,
capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir for one thing only: help.
Originally from Khania, a mountainous village of some 3,000 inhabitants
in quake-affected Neelum Valley, 40 km east of Muzaffarabad, he wonders
out loud about his future. "I had no choice but to come here," the
32-year-old day labourer explained. "There is nothing left for me back
home. My house and village have been destroyed. What else could I do?"
he asked.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49922&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: IOM starts pilot shelter repair programme

With more than 3 million quake survivors facing winter without a roof
over their heads, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM),
together with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and
other organisations, has launched a pilot project to provide shelter
repair kits to victims of the South Asian earthquake.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49923&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Closed or destroyed roads hamper relief effort

Ramzan Khan, 42, has moved in with relatives. His wife and six children
cramp the tiny house belonging to his uncle, Muhammad Rafiq, 64, in the
town of Nouseri, some 20 km from Muzaffarabad, the capital of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir and close to the epicentre of the 8
October regional earthquake that has killed at least 60,000 people in
three countries.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49924&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Increase in respiratory infections

It starts with a cough, a cold and strong shivering, but the results can
be deadly. Sitting on a bed at the Abbas Institute for Medical Sciences
(AIMS) in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Faraz
Lalkhan, 28, has no idea what's wrong with her daughter Zarana, although
doctors are already convinced. The two-year-old has pneumonia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49897&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Helicopter lifeline under threat in earthquake zone

As an expectant crowd gathers below, hovering overhead, Capt Leonid
Toderenciuc, a seasoned pilot for the World Food Programme (WFP)
delicately positions his MI-8 helicopter to land in the mountain village
of Nardajjan, deep inside Pakistan's quake-devastated Jelum Valley. More
than three weeks after the devastating regional quake that has claimed
at least 58,000 lives, the helicopters remain a lifeline for hundreds of
thousands of survivors.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49881&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UNICEF and government start child registration

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), together with the Ministry
of Social Welfare (MoSW), has begun the massive task of registering all
children currently living in emergency settlements across quake-hit
areas of Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49883&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Health care under pressure in Muzaffarabad

Carried on foot by his brother for three days from Batnara, a tiny
village located in quake-affected Neelum valley, it's unclear whether
Ali Riza, two, will get the medical assistance he needs in Muzaffarabad,
capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Suffering from a severe form
of diarrhoea, he may well die unless he gets immediate medical
attention.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49885&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Area Coordinator, Rashid
Khalikov

Rashid Khalikov is a man with a mission. Tasked with the difficult job
of coordinating the various UN agencies on the ground in quake-affected
northern Pakistan, he has repeatedly appealed for more funds to help the
millions of survivors in dire need of immediate assistance. But that
message has yet to be fully understood. In an interview with IRIN on
Sunday at the UN compound in Muzaffarabad, capital of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the senior UN official warned that the
world body might scale back and phase out unless donors acted now.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49851&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Muzaffarabad and the struggle to survive

It started with a rumble, than a roar, and ended in utter devastation.
But for residents of Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered
Kashmir, the devastating quake of 8 October will be etched in their
minds forever. "I cannot describe it. It was like the end of the world,"
Asaf Khan said, recalling in fervent detail how the walls of his simple,
two-room house toppled in around him.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49852&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Plans to evacuate 100,000 people after volcano fears

Abdul Ghafoor, 33, believes a new calamity could befall the
quake-stricken Allai Valley area in the Battagram district of Pakistan's
North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Ghafoor, like many others in the
area, is fearful of volcanic activity they believe has been triggered in
nearby mountains by the quake of 8 October, which has killed at least
54,000.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49861&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UNHCR to suspend repatriation over Eid

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
on Monday announced it would temporarily suspend the voluntary
repatriation programme for Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan for a
brief period of five days starting from Thursday due to the Islamic
festival of Eid.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49862&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Appropriate reconstruction vital to prevent future disaster -
planners

Across the quake-devastated area of Mansehra and Pakistan-administered
Kashmir, concrete beams, steel bars and piles of brick lie everywhere.
Experts now surveying the situation have little doubt that the
widespread use of such materials, in a quake-prone zone with unstable
ground conditions, contributed to the death toll in the quake which is
now officially put at over 54,000.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49863&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UNICEF head visits quake-ravaged north

Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ann
Veneman, arrived in Pakistan on Sunday as part of two-day visit to
highlight the plight of children in quake-affected areas of the north.
"The children and their families cannot wait much longer," Veneman
warned at a press conference at the UN compound in Muzaffarabad, capital
of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "We must do everything we can to
ensure their survival. They need shelter and care as quickly as
possible."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49840&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Prison riots quelled, say officials

Inmates rioted in several prisons in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday, with at
least three convicts killed when security forces tried to quell protests
in the penal institutions, officials say. From early in the day the
Moldovanovka jail near the capital, Bishkek, was surrounded by security
forces, roads to the prison were blocked and eye-witnesses reported
gunshots coming from the prison.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49889&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Prison conditions fuel revolts, observers say

A series of prison protests over the past month in Kyrgyzstan has
highlighted the need for reform in the country's burgeoning penitentiary
system, where poor living conditions, disease and malnutrition fuel
protests, say experts. The situation in the penal system was
dramatically brought to public attention when the head of the
parliament's committee on defence and law enforcement, Tynychbek
Akmatbaev, was killed on 20 October while visiting the Moldovanovka
prison near the capital, Bishkek.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49860&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN: Landmine threat along Uzbek border removed

Uzbek security forces have demined the country's eastern border with
Kyrgyzstan, with work under way to clear landmines from the Tajik part
of the Uzbek border as well, officials said on Monday. Kyrgyz border
units in the southern province of Batken have completed inspections of
minefields near the border settlements of Chonkara, Ak-Turpak and
Otukchu, which were cleared by Uzbek demining squads, and confirmed that
the border was now landmine-free.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49864&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN-TAJIKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Interview with head of UNHCR country office, Francisco
Galindo-Velez

Fleeing conflict and destruction that plagued Afghanistan for more than
two decades, thousands of Afghans found shelter in neighbouring
Tajikistan. In an interview with IRIN, Francisco Galindo-Velez, head of
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in Tajikistan, spoke about long-term solutions for Afghan refugees in
the former Soviet republic, including third-country resettlement.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49891&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Rights group and opposition condemn jailing of leader

Uzbekistan has again came under international criticism over the arrest
of an opposition leader who was found naked and delirious in a prison
cell by his lawyer, following the release of another prominent rights
activist and opposition member from a psychiatric hospital. Sanjar
Umarov, leader of the Sunshine Uzbekistan Coalition, was arrested on 22
October, on what his supporters say are spurious charges.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49916&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

With only a month left until presidential elections in Kazakhstan,
Europe's largest security and cooperation body urged the former Soviet
republic on Monday to lift rigid rules on Web site registration, saying
they contradicted freedom of expression in the country. The Kazakh
authorities introduced new rules in June that require any Kazakh web
site with the .kz suffix to maintain at least two domain name servers -
computers that link sites' names to their digital addresses - physically
inside Kazakhstan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49936&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


IRIN-Asia
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