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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 48
26 November - 2 December 2005


CONTENTS:

PAKISTAN: UNHCR suspends assisted Afghan repatriation for winter
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors keep dreams alive despite winter closing in
PAKISTAN: Big Afghan refugee camp to close
PAKISTAN: New quake patients pour into hospitals
PAKISTAN: More winterised shelter needed urgently in quake zone
PAKISTAN: Kagan communities at landslide and flood risk
PAKISTAN: UNICEF launches water and sanitation project in quake zone
PAKISTAN: Loss of livelihoods in quake zone severe
PAKISTAN: WHO despatches medical team to investigate Congo fever
PAKISTAN: Relief operation slowed by poor weather
PAKISTAN: Quake villagers brave snow to stay put
NEPAL: Maoists ceasefire extension welcomed
NEPAL: Government crackdown on broadcast media continues
AFGHANISTAN: Survey calls for end to female carpet weavers' misery
AFGHANISTAN: Certification of upper house completes election process
AFGHANISTAN: FAO workshop on avian influenza
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on gender inequality
KYRGYZSTAN: World AIDS Day marked with concert
UZBEKISTAN: Campaign to halt the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS begins
UZBEKISTAN: New closed trials for Andijan accused
UZBEKISTAN: Concern over jailed opposition leader
IRAN: Rights groups call on UN to investigate executions based on
   sexual orientation
IRAN: UNICEF ready to assist Qeshm quake victims
TAJIKISTAN: Border guards seize 122 kg of heroin
TURKMENISTAN: INCB calls for greater drug control compliance
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap



PAKISTAN: UNHCR suspends assisted Afghan repatriation for winter

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
announced on Friday that it would temporarily close its Afghan voluntary
repatriation operation from Pakistan for a winter break from 20 December
till the end of February 2006. "All repatriation registration and
departure centres of the UN refugee agency will remain closed during the
winter months beyond 20 December, however, the encashment centres inside
Afghanistan will remain operational for another week up till 27
December," Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50473&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors keep dreams alive despite winter closing in

Hameeda Bibi, 37, hums cheerfully as she carefully combs and braids the
hair of her daughters, Aziza, 11, and Kulsoom, five. The girls are
getting ready to attend the outdoor school set up for quake victims in
Punjgara, a town of some 7,500 people, located nearly 30 km from
Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in the
devastated Neelum Valley.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50452&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Big Afghan refugee camp to close

Pakistani authorities are soon to close the large, well-established
Jalozai Afghan refugee camp, home to 120,000 people and located in the
Nowshera district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP),
some 140 km northwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50457&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: New quake patients pour into hospitals

In scenes of panic reminiscent of the first, chaotic post-quake days,
doctors at Mansehra's district headquarters hospital on Tuesday morning
surround a small child who has just been brought in. The toddler's lips,
like his hands, are blue and his wailing mother, Parveen, clearly fears
the worst. But 20 minutes later, doctors bring good news. Two-year-old
Omar, suffering from hypothermia and pneumonia, is still alive and will
likely, with hospital care, drugs, good food and most crucially of all,
warmth, recover within a few days.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50422&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: More winterised shelter needed urgently in quake zone

With the onset of winter conditions in much of northern Pakistan and
hundreds of people pouring daily into medical facilities in the region
with cold-related problems, health officials have stressed the urgent
need to upgrade the living conditions of quake survivors and provide
them with warm shelters and clothing to avert a second wave of deaths.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50433&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Kagan communities at landslide and flood risk

Parts of at least 12 villages in Pakistan's quake zone could be wiped
out by landslides and floods and must be evacuated, a top geologist and
United Nations consultant advising the Pakistani government on
landslides, warned on Tuesday. "Parts of Chikarhas, Karrian and Jebal
Danna have to be evacuated. Parts of mountains are slipping away and
whole sides of mountains have come down," said Professor Jean Schneider
from the Centre of Natural Hazards and Risk Management in the Austrian
capital, Vienna.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50376&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: UNICEF launches water and sanitation project in quake zone

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the government of
Pakistani-administered Kashmir have jointly launched a new US $8.2
million project to rehabilitate rural water supply systems and improve
sanitation in the two worst quake-affected districts of Muzaffarabd and
Bagh over the next six months.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50390&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Loss of livelihoods in quake zone severe

When the 8 October earthquake rumbled through the tiny hamlet of Dung in
the Gojra Union Council, west of the city of Muzaffarabad, the animals
fled to the fields where they destroyed all the crops. Most of the
villagers had not yet begun harvesting the maize and wheat that would
provide food for two months during the bitter winter. Those who had
started to harvest their crops were only half way through.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50391&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: WHO despatches medical team to investigate Congo fever

A three-member medical team has been despatched to Pakistan's southern
port city of Karachi to oversee the health situation after reports of
some 40 suspected cases of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) over
the last two months. At least two people suspected of having contracted
CCHF, including one female doctor, died last week, according to health
officials.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50392&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Relief operation slowed by poor weather

Bad weather conditions were seriously hampering earthquake relief
efforts in northern Pakistan on Monday, with dozens of helicopter
flights cancelled. Millions of survivors without shelter were drenched
by heavy rain and left freezing as temperature plummeted. Up 20 cm of
snow fell in some high altitude areas.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50361&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Quake villagers brave snow to stay put

Ismat Bibi, 44, expertly packs twigs and straw around the cracks in the
windows of her shelter to keep out the cold. The warped tin sheet, laid
over the rough walls of the one-room shack, had gone up only a day
before, just as a steady drizzle began to fall around the house, near
the small village of Choon, about 24 km north of Muzaffarabad, the
capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50374&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


NEPAL: Maoists ceasefire extension welcomed

Political parties and citizens groups have welcomed the decision by
Nepal's Maoist rebels to extend their ceasefire for another month. The
three-month unilateral ceasefire announced by the Maoists in September
ended on Thursday. "This ceasefire allowed our party and major political
parties to reach a far-reaching understanding to pave the way towards
resolving the current political crisis in the country," the Maoists' top
leader, Prachanda, said in press statement on Friday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50471&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Government crackdown on broadcast media continues

Popularly known as South Asia's first community radio station, Radio
Sagarmatha has come under immense pressure from the Nepali government
not to re-broadcast news from the BBC Nepali Service, following a BBC
interview with Maoist rebels. On Sunday, government-armed security
personnel raided the station in the Pulchok area of the capital,
Kathmandu, seized radio equipment and arrested four workers, including
journalists and technicians, after the station aired a BBC interview
with Maoist chief, Prachanda. Those arrested were released the next day.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50421&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


AFGHANISTAN: Survey calls for end to female carpet weavers' misery

Thousands of women and girls who toil in appalling conditions to make
Afghan carpets for export are treated as unpaid slaves and suffer from
routine exhaustion, long hours and health problems, according to a
survey conducted by a local rights body released on Thursday. The world
famous handmade carpets, woven mainly in northern and central
Afghanistan, are one of the poverty-stricken country's few exports and
can fetch thousands of dollars abroad. According to the Ministry of
Commerce, there are around 1 million small carpet workshops across the
country, in which around 6 million people, mainly women and children,
are employed.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50453&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Certification of upper house completes election process

Final results for all of Afghanistan's provincial council elections to
the 102-seat Meshrano Jirga - the upper house of the national
legislature - have been certified, the Joint Electoral Management Body
(JEMB) announced on Sunday in the capital, Kabul. "Now that the
Electoral Complaints Commission has reviewed and adjudicated all
complaints related to the Meshrano Jirga elections, we are pleased to
announce all the elected members of the national assembly," Bissmillah
Bissmil, chairman of the JEMB, said. Newly elected provincial councils
voted for upper house members.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50364&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: FAO workshop on avian influenza

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has completed a two-day
workshop aimed at increasing awareness about the highly pathogenic avian
influenza, more commonly referred to as bird flu, in the capital Kabul,
the UN agency announced on Monday. Afghanistan depends on poultry
imports from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, and it's also a stop for
birds during their annual migration from Siberia to the warmer weather
of the Indian subcontinent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50406&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on gender inequality

Almost nine months after the revolution in Kyrgyzstan that promised a
better life, democracy and equality for the people of this Central Asian
nation, women-s groups say there has been little improvement in their
lives. "The revolution might have livened up society and brought new
hope, but I doubt it will have an effect on the role of a woman in
society. Women will never be at the same level in politics with men,"
Zamira Akbagysheva, head of leading gender NGO Congress of Women in
Kyrgyzstan, said in the capital, Bishkek.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50455&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: World AIDS Day marked with concert

There was tumultuous applause from the audience of more than a thousand
following the appearance of popular singers during a charity concert
devoted to World AIDS Day on Thursday, in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
The concert was a platform for pop stars to inform and mobilise people,
especially the young, in the fight against AIDS. "The importance of such
event is that it informs people, and especially youth, about the
HIV/AIDS problem and of course the participation of music stars leads to
an increase in people's interest in this issue," Nail Sufiyanov, from
the Kyrgyz Alliance of Family Planning, a local NGO, said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50468&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Campaign to halt the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS begins

When Dilnara tested HIV positive she was told by the doctor not to mix
with "normal people." With little access to information or counselling,
she believed the doctor and stayed at home for a year, frightened and
alone. "I was ignorant about HIV. But now I know I am normal and I'm
helping others to overcome the despair and rejection that I first felt,"
Dilnara said in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50436&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: New closed trials for Andijan accused

New trials connected with the May uprising in the eastern Uzbek city of
Andijan have started in Uzbekistan, with 58 people charged with
terrorism, religious extremism and other serious crimes in four separate
closed court hearings, the country's Supreme Court said on Thursday. The
trials are closed due to concerns over security in the courts in the
capital, Tashkent, and in central Sirdarya province, the Supreme Court
said in a statement.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50456&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Concern over jailed opposition leader

The arrested leader of a pro-reform opposition block in Uzbekistan is
still being interrogated in custody and needs medical care, his lawyer
said on Tuesday. "We met Sanjar [Umarov] yesterday after we had been
trying to get access to him for a week and we were finally allowed to
see him=85. Overall he looked normal as we talked to him and everything
[he spoke] was clear," Vitaliy Krasilovski, Umarov's lawyer, said from
the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50395&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


IRAN: Rights groups call on UN to investigate executions based on sexual
orientation

Human rights groups fighting for gay rights have called on the United
Nations to act on reports of executions based on sexual orientation in
Iran. "We are against the death penalty on any grounds, however, I find
it particularly abhorrent that these executions were reportedly carried
out based on people's sexual orientation and in the name of Islam,"
Kursad Kahramananoglu, head of the International Lesbian and Gay
Association (ILGA), the oldest and only membership-based lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisation in the world, said from
Istanbul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50425&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


IRAN: UNICEF ready to assist Qeshm quake victims

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is ready to provide
assistance after a moderate-sized earthquake struck the Persian Gulf
island of Qeshm in southern Iran over the weekend. "We are preparing to
respond if needed, pending a request by the government and further
assessments," Jan Kleiburg, UNICEF officer-in-charge, said from the
Iranian capital Tehran on Monday. "In terms of basic survival needs, it
seemed the Iranian authorities had things under control."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50363&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


TAJIKISTAN: Border guards seize 122 kg of heroin

Tajik border guards have seized 122 kg of heroin and arrested a drug
courier as he tried to cross from Afghanistan, a spokesman said on
Monday. "After warning shots were fired, one of the couriers probably
swam away to the Afghan side. Another one, an Afghan citizen, was caught
and handed over to officials," Abdusattor Gulahmatov, a border guard
spokesman, said. The incident occurred near Moskovsky checkpoint on the
Tajik-Afghan border, 250 km southwest of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50365&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN


TURKMENISTAN: INCB calls for greater drug control compliance

The International Narcotics Board (INCB) has called on Turkmenistan to
fully comply with its obligations under a number of international drug
conventions to which it is a party. "There has been an improvement, but
it is far from satisfactory," Beate Hammond, an INCB drug control
officer, said from their headquarters in Vienna on Tuesday. Sharing over
700 km of common border with Afghanistan - the largest producer of
illicit opium in the world today - those efforts were simply not enough,
Hammond stressed, prompting the independent UN body monitoring global
proliferation to call for more action.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50427&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

With just a couple of days before presidential elections in Kazakhstan,
the authorities in that country have beefed up border security and
deported dozens of Kyrgyz labour migrants this week. Astana said that
those deported were illegal migrants, while Kazakh border guards were
not allowing Kyrgyz nationals to cross into Kazakhstan until after
Sunday's poll, AP reported.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=50470&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


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