Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-28: 15-Jul-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 28
9 - 15 July 2005
CONTENTS:
PAKISTAN: Flood risk high along Indus River
PAKISTAN: More than 30,000 Afghans repatriate from North Waziristan
PAKISTAN: Bottom of the class - new Asian education report
PAKISTAN: Heavy rains threaten squatter settlements
PAKISTAN: 17 killed, 400,000 people affected in Punjab flooding
IRAN: Concern over political prisoners mounts
KAZAKHSTAN: Astana lauded for release of Uzbek rights defender
KYRGYZSTAN: No money to resettle landslide and flood villages
KYRGYZSTAN: Presidential polls show significant improvements in
democracy building
AFGHANISTAN: Child marriage still widespread
AFGHANISTAN: Progress on disbandment of illegal armed groups
AFGHANISTAN: Mixed reactions to rights watchdog report
NEPAL: Concerns over development expenditure in new national budget
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
PAKISTAN: Flood risk high along Indus River
The provincial relief department of Pakistan's North West Frontier
Province (NWFP) has called on residents living in low-lying areas along
the Indus River in the southern district of Dera Ismail Khan, to
immediately evacuate the area to safer places as water levels continue
to rise. People living along the Indus, Kabul and Swat rivers have been
told to stay away from riverbanks and shift to relief camps set up by
the government, according to a press statement from the Flood Warning
Centre (FWC) in NWFP's provincial capital, Peshawar, issued on Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48135&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: More than 30,000 Afghans repatriate from North Waziristan
More than 30,000 Afghan refugees have been assisted to repatriate over
the past three weeks from North Waziristan agency in Pakistan's western
tribal belt following Islamabad's decision to close the camp they were
living in on 30 June for security reasons. A large number of refugees
still continue to show up at the registration centre of the office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This was set
up in the adjacent tribal agency of Kurram to register those who wished
to qualify for the agency's repatriation assistance.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48118&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Bottom of the class - new Asian education report
Pakistan ranks last out of 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region in
terms of education, according to a new regional report compiled by a
network of development organisations working in the education sector.
The Asia Pacific Report Card on Education for All, entitled, 'Must Do
better' has been published by the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult
Education (ASPBAE), a network of 200 bodies involved in formal and
non-formal adult education. It has been compiled jointly with the Global
Campaign for Education, a coalition of developmental organisations in
over 100 countries.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48131&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Heavy rains threaten squatter settlements
Ten-year-old Iqra and her younger sister, Rida, stood quietly beside a
large pile of mud and rubble in one of Lahore's 130 shantytown
settlements, locally known as 'katchi abadis'. Moments earlier their
simple mud-brick home had literally collapsed in front of them following
a sudden cloudburst, burying what few possessions they had under a giant
slab of still shifting clay. "My doll is under there," six-year-old
Rida, cried. "It's the only one I have."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48113&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: 17 killed, 400,000 people affected in Punjab flooding
At least 17 people have been killed and an estimated 400,000 affected
following a week of flooding along the Indus and Chenab rivers in
Punjab, Pakistan's largest province, according to the provincial relief
department. "Since 1992, there has not been much water in the river
Indus, so people started cultivating land inside the riverbed and
gradually settled there," said district officer coordinating relief
activities, Zaffar Abbas Lali, speaking from Layyah, some 450 km south
of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48074&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
IRAN: Concern over political prisoners mounts
Police used violence to break up a student demonstration in the Iranian
capital on Tuesday, amid escalating protests and concern over the
deteriorating health of political prisoner and journalist, Akbar Ganji.
The police beat both male and female demonstrators and a local Reuters
journalist covering the story was also attacked with batons as they
tried to disperse the crowd outside Tehran University, in the centre of
the city.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48132&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
KAZAKHSTAN: Astana lauded for release of Uzbek rights defender
Activists have welcomed a decision this week by the Kazakh government to
release Uzbek rights defender and witness to the Andijan massacre,
Lutfullo Shamsudinov. He faced extradition back to Uzbekistan, which
accused the leading activist of terrorism and spreading false
information. Shamsudinov was an eyewitness to the 13 May killing by
security forces of up to 1,000 civilians in the western Uzbek city of
Andijan. The security forces had been dispatched to the area to quell
anti-government protests.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48133&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: No money to resettle landslide and flood villages
Villagers in parts of Kyrgyzstan particularly vulnerable to natural
disasters are angry that government policy, which aims to compensate
them for resettling in safer areas, is not being followed. "Last year
people from the MEE [Ministry of Emergency and Ecology] came here and
agreed to resettle us but I still cannot get the money to resettle,"
said 57-year-old Jurabai Baikuliev. He continues to live with his two
sons in Aksy district in the province of Jalal-Abad, in southern
Kyrgyzstan, a region especially at risk from landslides.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48114&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Presidential polls show significant improvements in
democracy building
Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won a landslide victory in
presidential elections held on Sunday in Kyrgyzstan. Major election
watchdogs said the polls showed significant improvements meeting
international election standards in many areas, yet there were still
some aspects that required further improvement.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48059&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Child marriage still widespread
The United Nations, government officials and rights bodies in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, have expressed grave concern about the widespread
practice of girls marrying early, as the country marked World Population
Day on Tuesday. Nearly 60 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve
girls below the legal age of 16, according to reports from the Ministry
of Women's Affairs and NGOs. Some girls are married as young as nine.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48115&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Progress on disbandment of illegal armed groups
More than 200 local commanders have been disarmed and tens of thousands
of arms and ammunitions collected in Afghanistan since the
government-led Disbanding of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) started early
June, officials at the disarmament and reintegration (DR) commission
confirmed to IRIN on Tuesday. "In the last 36 days since DIAG was
launched more than 16,000 guns and up to 100 trucks of ammunition have
been collected throughout the country," Masoum Stanekzai, a minister
advising Afghan President Hamid Karzai and deputy head of the DR
commission, said on Tuesday in the capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48084&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Mixed reactions to rights watchdog report
The United Nations and human rights activists in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, on Monday welcomed a recent report of Human Rights Watch (HRW),
which called on the Afghan government to 'bring war criminals to
justice.' The New York based rights watchdog, in a 133-page report
released on Friday, accused some high-ranking officials in the Afghan
government of violating human rights and demanded their trial.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48060&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
NEPAL: Concerns over development expenditure in new national budget
The new national budget of Nepal for 2005-2006 is in the process of
being finalised and will be passed for royal assent by next week.
However, senior economists are concerned that security costs will absorb
revenues and there will be a corresponding slash in development
expenditure. The government has been asked to present a realistic budget
this financial year unlike the previous year and limit it to less than
US $1.5 billion. Economists are concerned that most of the allocations
estimated for development projects might be left unspent and be diverted
towards large-scale security operations.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48082&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) generally
praised the outcome to Sunday's election in Kyrgyzstan, while at the
same time calling on the fledgling Central Asian democracy to take
further steps to improve voting procedures. Acting President Kurmanbek
Bakiyev, a former opposition leader who led a March revolt that ousted
his predecessor, won with 89 percent of the vote in a field of six
candidates, the Central Election Commission said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48137&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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