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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 45
5 - 11 November 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Election results postponed
AFGHANISTAN: UN and Afghan rights bodies condemn killing of female poet
AFGHANISTAN: Final election results out Wednesday
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Situation in prisons improves - officials
PAKISTAN: More than 400 cases of watery diarrhoea in quake camp
PAKISTAN: Temporary school emerges from quake rubble
PAKISTAN: Military launch emergency shelter programme for high altitude
   quake survivors
PAKISTAN: Huge number of toilets urgently needed in quake-hit north
PAKISTAN: Festive holiday brings little joy for quake victims
PAKISTAN: Relief workers battle as winter descends
PAKISTAN: Oxfam installs emergency water and sanitation
PAKISTAN: One month after earthquake and 500,000 still without shelter
PAKISTAN: Second border crossing-point opens to allow relief from India
PAKISTAN: Interview with UNICEF country representative, Dr Omar Abdi
PAKISTAN: Charities offer helping hand to quake survivors
PAKISTAN: Netherlands military hospital operational
TAJIKISTAN: Independent media face registration challenges
UZBEKISTAN: Andijan refugees in Romania await third-country resettlement


AFGHANISTAN: Election results postponed

Final results for Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary polls were again 
delayed by ongoing inquiries into alleged election fraud in southern 
Afghanistan, the UN and government-run Joint Electoral Management Body 
(JEMB) said on Wednesday. The results were initially scheduled for 
release in late October, but they have been repeatedly delayed by fraud 
investigations. Final results will be announced within a few days, Peter 
Erben, the chief electoral officer for the JEMB, told a press conference 
in the Afghan capital Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50035&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: UN and Afghan rights bodies condemn killing of female poet

The United Nations, Afghan rights groups and local intellectuals have 
condemned the killing of a prominent female poet, who died after a 
serious assault in her home in the western city of Herat on Friday. 
Nadia Anjuman, 25, was renowned in Afghan literary circles and had just 
published her first volume of poetry - Dark Flower - earlier in the 
year. Local police said her husband had been arrested and that an 
investigation is ongoing. According to the BBC, the husband has 
confessed that he had hit her during a row.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49989&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Final election results out Wednesday

The final results from Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections for 
more than three decades will be announced on Wednesday, an election 
official said on Monday in the Afghan capital Kabul. "The final results 
from the parliamentary election will be announced at a press conference 
on Wednesday," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN-Afghan Joint 
Electoral Management Body (JEMB). Election results for the historic 
parliamentary polls last September had initially been expected by 22 
October. But counting only ended last week.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49964&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, a prominent pro-opposition journalist was 
attacked in Uzbekistan in an alleged attempt to silence independent 
media in the former Soviet republic, Reuters reported. Aleksei 
Volosevich, a reporter for the Russian-based news and information site 
www.ferghana.ru, was beaten and doused with paint by unknown assailants 
near his apartment on Wednesday after he had received a call from a 
person asking to meet him and promising "interesting material from 
Andijan".

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50056&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


KYRGYZSTAN: Situation in prisons improves - officials

Rioting which had swept through Kyrgyzstan's penal system over the past 
month has subsided and the situation is currently under control, prison 
officials said Thursday. "All prison administration staff have gone back 
to work and continue their duty as usual," Sergey Sidorov, a spokesman 
for the Kyrgyz prisons administration, said in the capital, Bishkek.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50045&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


PAKISTAN: More than 400 cases of watery diarrhoea in quake camp

Over 400 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been identified in a camp 
in the district of Muzaffarabad in Pakistani-administered Kashmir as the 
threat of a disease outbreak in the earthquake stricken region of 
northern Pakistan looms. Fifty-five cases of acute watery diarrhoea have 
also been reported in a mountain village in the Muzaffarabad district.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50066&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Temporary school emerges from quake rubble

The signs of panic are strewn amongst the rubble. School bags, books, 
pens, clothes and shoes, now covered in a thick layer of grey dust, lie 
abandoned in the collapsed classrooms of the Ali Akbar Awarn boys' 
school in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. 
"I thought it was the end of the world and everyone was going to die," 
said 11-year old Jibran Rashid.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50053&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Military launch emergency shelter programme for high altitude 
quake survivors

In a bid to address immediate shelter requirements in quake-affected 
areas of northern Pakistan as the weather rapidly deteriorates, the 
military is deploying about 180 teams from engineering battalions with 
shelter repair kits. The plan is to help erect one room for each 
affected household living at higher altitudes before the snows arrive.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50044&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Huge number of toilets urgently needed in quake-hit north

An acute lack of latrines in quake-affected areas of northern Pakistan, 
where millions of survivors live under dire sanitary conditions, will 
undermine health and could lead to serious disease outbreaks unless 
immediate action is taken, aid workers warn. "We go in the open air," 
12-year-old Rafit giggled, obviously embarrassed by the question, as his 
cousin Umcad, laughed out loud. "We don't use the toilets over there - 
it's too far," he complained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50042&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Festive holiday brings little joy for quake victims

Saima, eight, listlessly holds the doll she has just received as a gift 
as she sits beside her aunt in their tent. Even though the doll is the 
first toy she has played with in days, it seems to do nothing to bring a 
smile to her face. The doll, the child says, reminds her of the two 
sisters killed in the earthquake and of her mother, lying injured in a 
Rawalpindi hospital, close to the federal capital, Islamabad. "Of course 
we are grateful for these gifts," says her aunt, Nudrat Bibi, gesturing 
towards the small heap of glittering bangles and a box of sweets that 
lies in a corner.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49967&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Relief workers battle as winter descends

The winding, mountainous road to Balakot in Pakistan's North West 
Frontier Province (NWFP) is slow and dangerous, clogged with landslides 
and mounds of rocks that still shower down from the mountainside almost 
a month after the devastating regional earthquake that has claimed at 
least 73,000 people. Clusters of tents are dotted along the route, many 
homemade from a patchwork of old blankets and clothes.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49966&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Oxfam installs emergency water and sanitation

Almost one month after the South Asia earthquake, international charity 
Oxfam has started installing sanitation facilities in emergency 
settlements housing quake victims in and around the city of Bagh in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Almost 70 percent of the town's water 
supply was destroyed after the 8 October disaster. "The plan is to cover 
all the quake-affected areas in the district of Bagh by the end of this 
month. At the moment, we are working in emergency settlements located in 
and around Bagh city, which we hope to cover by the end of this week," 
Zulfiqar Ali Haidi, a public health engineer working with Oxfam, said in 
Bagh, some 100 km from Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered 
Kashmir.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49965&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: One month after earthquake and 500,000 still without shelter

One month after the earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan and has 
killed at least 73,000, some half a million people are still without 
shelter. For the aid agencies it has become a race against time to reach 
remote mountain villages with shelter kits and tents before the bitter 
Himalayan winter descends. If snow falls before aid gets to survivors, 
Pakistan could be facing another humanitarian crisis with thousands of 
deaths.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49993&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Second border crossing-point opens to allow relief from India

A straggly, single file of porters, hunched over as they carried sacks 
of relief goods sent across from Indian-administered Kashmir, were 
watched by dozens as they walked up the broken road towards Chakoti on 
Wednesday morning.

The opening up of the Chakoti-Uri crossing-point, known as Kamran Post, 
on the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Pakistan and Indian-administered 
portions of the Kashmir Valley, a disputed territory over which India 
and Pakistan have fought two wars, has been widely welcomed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50020&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Interview with UNICEF country representative, Dr Omar Abdi

At least half of the 86,000 people known to have died in October's 
devastating quake in northern Pakistan were children. In an interview 
with IRIN, country representative for the United Nations Children's Fund 
(UNICEF) in Pakistan, Dr Omar Abdi, highlighted the impact the disaster 
has had on children and some of the many challenges the agency now faces 
in addressing them.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50025&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Charities offer helping hand to quake survivors

A long queue of survivors snakes out of a tent in a camp on a hilltop in 
Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir that was destroyed in the 
8 October earthquake. Some have travelled for up to two days to get to 
the city, from villages nestled high in the mountains that overlook the 
city. The tent serves as a medical centre and those queuing are waiting 
to see a doctor. The medical centre is in the Tariq Abad camp, which was 
set up by the UK-based charity, Muslim Hands, after the suburb, which 
sits high on the hills on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, was flattened 
in the quake.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50022&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Netherlands military hospital operational

As part of NATO's assistance to earthquake-devastated northern Pakistan, 
the first military field hospital from the Netherlands began operating 
on Wednesday in the central Bagh district of Pakistani-administered 
Kashmir. "Starting from a 40-bed in-patient care facility, the medical 
facility will provide care in the areas of general surgery, obstetrics, 
paediatrics and dentistry," Dr Chris Bleeker, an anaesthetist in charge 
of the operating theatre, said on Wednesday in Bagh town, 200 km north 
of from Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50036&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TAJIKISTAN: Independent media face registration challenges

Independent media are under increasing pressure in Tajikistan as the 
government tightens its grip by enforcing tougher procedures to register 
new newspapers, radio and television stations, activists say. Local 
civic group FIDES submitted an application to the justice ministry in 
early October to register its new television channel 'Markaz'. At the 
end of the same month their application was turned down, FIDES activists 
said on Tuesday in the capital, Dushanbe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49990&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Andijan refugees in Romania await third-country resettlement

More than 400 Uzbek refugees from Andijan who fled violence in the 
eastern Uzbek city are currently living in Romania after an evacuation 
by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
(UNHCR) from Kyrgyzstan in July, and awaiting third-country 
resettlement. "Uzbek refugees live in an accommodation centre in the 
western city of Timisoara, run by the National Refugee Office [under the 
Romanian interior ministry]. They are accommodated in three buildings, 
with all the necessary facilities," Cristina Bunea, a UNHCR information 
officer, said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50029&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


IRIN-Asia
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005


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