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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 46
12 - 18 November 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Election results finalized
AFGHANISTAN: Global micro-entrepreneurship awards come to Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN: New parliament faces many challenges
AFGHANISTAN: Afghan rights body condemns attack on its worker in the
   east
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors descend as weather closes in
PAKISTAN: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to attend Islamabad donor
   conference
PAKISTAN: Women face violence, harassment at camps
PAKISTAN: Humanitarian agencies struggle to reach quake-affected
   communities
PAKISTAN: WFP to increase food rations
PAKISTAN: New humanitarian route across divided Kashmir
PAKISTAN: UNICEF launches measles vaccination campaign in quake zone
PAKISTAN: Data standardisation to improve quake relief coordination
PAKISTAN: UN Secretary-General issues fresh quake appeal
PAKISTAN: Call for repeal of blasphemy laws
KAZAKHSTAN: Independent inquiry into death of presidential critic
   sought
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on lack of teachers
TURKMENISTAN: Activists flay US report on religious freedom
UZBEKISTAN: Rights bodies condemn Andijan trial unfair


AFGHANISTAN: Election results finalized

The results of September's landmark legislative elections in Afghanistan 
have been finalised, the UN-government Joint Electoral Management Board 
(JEMB) announced on Saturday in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The results 
were initially scheduled to be released in October, but have been 
repeatedly delayed by inquiries into widespread electoral fraud across 
the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50076&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Global micro-entrepreneurship awards come to Afghanistan

As part of the United Nations International Year of Micro-credit 2005, 
the Afghan winners of the Global Micro-entrepreneurship Awards will be 
announced on Saturday at a ceremony at the Serena Hotel in the Afghan 
capital Kabul. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the 
Afghan Micro-finance Association, and the Micro-finance Investment 
Support Facility for Afghanistan have coordinated the programme. The 
global awards programme has been taking place in over 30 countries 
alongside Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50132&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: New parliament faces many challenges

Covered with dust before a handcart full of wet cement, 30-year-old 
Mohammad Ibrahim waits to deliver his load to bricklayers busy 
constructing the new parliament building in the Afghan capital, Kabul. 
"It is a historic moment for me that I am cementing the bricks of the 
new parliament, which will host the representatives of my country," 
Ibrahim said. Ibrahim is one of the scores of dust-covered labourers 
working on the brand new parliamentary building in western Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50113&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Afghan rights body condemns attack on its worker in the 
east

Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Wednesday 
condemned this week's attack on the house of one of its local female 
staff members in eastern Afghanistan, vowing it would not dissuade them 
from continuing their work in the area. "The hand grenade attack which 
took place on Sunday night is against all the rules of Islam and 
humanity, but will not deter our activities in the area," Ahmad Fahim 
Hakim, AIHRC's deputy chairman said in the Afghan capital Kabul, adding 
there had been no casualties during the attack.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50136&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia opposition groups in Kazakhstan staged their 
first protest ahead of presidential polls slated for 4 December. Around 
1,000 opposition activists and supporters rallied in a district of the 
commercial capital of Almaty on Monday, demanding an investigation into 
the killing the weekend previously of Zamanbek Nurkadilov, a former 
government minister and outspoken critic of President Nursultan 
Nazarbayev, AP reported.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50174&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors descend as weather closes in

With winter in northern Pakistan's earthquake zone imminent, aid workers 
are increasingly concerned that hundreds of thousands of survivors 
currently living at high altitude may soon descend seeking assistance, 
swamping relief camps at lower levels. "An estimated 200,000 people may 
descend from the hills around Neelum and Allai valleys, according to aid 
agencies, but so far there are not sufficient arrangements if this many 
people decide to migrate," Darren Boisvert, a communications officer for 
the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in the Pakistani 
capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50175&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to attend Islamabad donor 
conference

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is due to arrive in the 
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for a three-day visit on Thursday to 
attend a donors' conference convened to bolster resources for 
rehabilitation of quake-devastated areas of Pakistan. At least 87,000 
people killed and over 100,000 were injured when the massive quake 
measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped though northern parts of the 
South Asian state on 8 October. Over 3 million people were rendered 
homeless in the disaster, with survivors now facing a harsh Himalayan 
winter as temperatures drop below zero in some places.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50135&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Women face violence, harassment at camps

A small group of women, their colourful shawls flapping gently in the 
breeze, huddle on a string cot at a relief camp in Peshawar, capital of 
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). As the women, all from 
the same village near Balakot, one of the areas worst hit by the 8 
October quake, collectively clean the rice they plan to cook for their 
evening meal; their talk, once more, is of the violence they and their 
children face at the camp where they have been based now for over four 
weeks.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50130&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Humanitarian agencies struggle to reach quake-affected 
communities

Over five weeks on, aid agencies on the ground are still struggling to 
meet the basic needs of shelter, water and sanitation to millions of 
quake victims in northern Pakistan. The 8 October earthquake measuring 
7.6 on the Richter scale killed more than 86,000 people in Pakistan's 
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, 
and injured over 100,000, rendering some 3 million people homeless.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50126&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: WFP to increase food rations

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it is 
increasing food rations to help those affected by the South Asian 
earthquake to survive the bitter winter months. "The rates will increase 
next month from 75 kg of wheat flour per family per month to 100 kg," 
Kyaw Oo Maung, a WFP programme officer, said in Muzaffarabad, capital of 
Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50125&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: New humanitarian route across divided Kashmir

In the middle of a green valley, under a collapsed bridge on a riverbed, 
24 Indian villagers stranded in Pakistani-administered Kashmir since the 
8 October earthquake were allowed to cross the Line of Control (LoC), 
back to their villages in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday. The 
move marked another step toward realising a breakthrough agreement 
reached in October to let people from either side of Kashmir cross over 
at five points along the frontier to help relief efforts and allow 
divided families to reunite.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50168&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UNICEF launches measles vaccination campaign in quake zone

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched a massive 
measles immunisation campaign to vaccinate 800,000 children affected by 
the South Asian earthquake. At least 86,000 people were killed and more 
than 100,000 injured in the earthquake that razed much of 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The campaign, run in conjunction with 
the Ministry of Health (MoH), will take two weeks and will cover young 
people up to the age of fifteen in the earthquake-affected area of 
Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50073&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Data standardisation to improve quake relief coordination

The United Nation's Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) in Pakistan 
has finalised data standardisation of locations across Pakistan's 
quake-affected region in an effort to better coordinate relief and 
development activities. "We were trying to establish - now almost 
finished - a single list of all the towns and villages, each with a 
unique code through which people can search the database to gather and 
share information with improved inter-linkages and better integration," 
Craig Williams, data coordinator with the HIC, said in the Pakistani 
capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50117&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UN Secretary-General issues fresh quake appeal

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Pakistan on 
Thursday where he made a fresh appeal for donors to urgently help 
victims of the 8 October South Asian earthquake. Annan will attend a 
donor's conference on Saturday aiming to raise the US $5.2 billion 
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf says is needed for the Asian 
nation to recover from the disaster. Musharraf has called funds received 
so far from international donors "negligible". The UN leader arrived at 
an airbase in Rawalpindi, near the federal capital Islamabad, for his 
three-day visit.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50156&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Call for repeal of blasphemy laws

Outraged at the burning of two churches after alleged desecration of 
Islam's holy book by a Christian man, minority groups and human rights 
watchdogs in Pakistan on Monday demanded repeal of the country's 
blasphemy law, which they said was being misused frequently. The fires 
came a day after a local Muslim resident in Pakistan's central Punjab 
province accused a Christian of burning a one-room Islamic school along 
with copies of the Koran.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50093&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


KAZAKHSTAN: Independent inquiry into death of presidential critic sought

The mysterious death over the weekend of an outspoken critic of Kazakh 
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has prompted calls for an independent 
investigation, less than a month before the country's upcoming 
presidential elections. "The circumstances are extremely suspicious," 
Eugeniy Zhovtis, director of Kazakhstan's International Bureau for Human 
Rights and Rule of Law, said from the commercial capital, Almaty, on 
Monday, calling for a thorough and independent inquiry into his death.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50092&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on lack of teachers

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has just approved a US $15.5 million 
grant for a project aimed at delivering better education to children in 
poor areas and from disadvantaged families in the Kyrgyzstan. The 
project will help the government modernise the country's basic education 
curriculum, rehabilitate facilities and provide educational equipment 
for 90 priority schools in rural areas.


TURKMENISTAN: Activists flay US report on religious freedom

Human rights groups have strongly criticised a US government report for 
failing to designate Turkmenistan a country of particular concern (CPC) 
on the issue of religious freedom. "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=50157&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Rights bodies condemn Andijan trial unfair

Human rights groups have strongly criticised the ruling of an Uzbek 
court finding 15 Andijan trial suspects guilty of terrorism and 
sentencing them up to 20 years in jail. "It was expected and some could 
even have been given the death penalty, but as the case had received 
such wide international publicity the authorities did not dare to give 
capital sentences," Tolib Yakubov, head of the Human Rights Society of 
Uzbekistan (HRSU), a local rights group, said from the Uzbek capital, 
Tashkent, on Tuesday.


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


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