Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-30: 29-Jul-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 30
23 - 29 July 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Progress on election preparations as UN displays ballot
papers
AFGHANISTAN: Child soldier demobilisation effort moves westward
AFGHANISTAN: Religious campaign for drug demand reduction
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Activists condemn execution of gay teens
IRAN: Extension of Afghan repatriation agreement under possible threat
IRAN: Human rights lawyer accuses appeals court of refusing to call
victim's witnesses
IRAN: UNDP to assist in depletion of land and water resources
KYRGYZSTAN: NGOs support conflict prevention with Uzbek asylum seekers
KYRGYZSTAN: Uzbek asylum seekers to be resettled to third country
KYRGYZSTAN: Uzbek refugees leave country
NEPAL: Flood victims feel neglected
NEPAL: Amnesty says children's vulnerability increasing
PAKISTAN: WHO warns of water-borne disease outbreak in NWFP
AFGHANISTAN: Progress on election preparations as UN displays ballot
papers
Forty million ballots for Afghanistan's 2005 autumn parliamentary
elections are being printed in Vienna and London and will be sent to the
country in the next three weeks, the Joint Electoral Management Body
(JEMB) announced on Wednesday. After several weeks of reviewing various
types of ballots, as well as a public consultation, the electoral body
showed the final ballot designs for the Wolesi Jerga (lower house) and
provincial council elections to the media.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48332&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Child soldier demobilisation effort moves westward
The United Nations has begun demobilising hundreds of child soldiers in
western Afghanistan, following a successful demobilisation of more than
4,000 child soldiers in the north, northeast, east and central regions
of the country, officials said on Monday. "We have already made a very
big impact and addressed more than we had expected to so far," Ibrahim
Sesay, head of child protection for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),
said in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48291&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Religious campaign for drug demand reduction
Afghanistan is launching a nationwide religious campaign to reduce
addiction in the post-war country, officials at the Haj and Awqaf
(Religious Affairs) ministry announced on Tuesday. Around 500 Afghan
religious leaders have participated in a symposium in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, to discuss combating drug abuse throughout the country.
"As drug abuse is forbidden in Islam, religious leaders can be very
effective in the struggle against drug abuse - particularly at the grass
roots level," Neyamatullah Shahrani, minister of Haj and Awqaf, said in
Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48311&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Hundreds of refugees who fled the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May
after government forces violently suppressed protests there and sought
asylum in Kyrgyzstan were flown to Romania early on Friday, according to
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
440 Uzbeks from Andijan flew to Timisoara in western Romania and would
stay there before being sent to other countries for permanent
resettlement.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48353&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
IRAN: Activists condemn execution of gay teens
Human rights groups the world over have strongly condemned the recent
execution of two gay teenagers in northeastern Iran. "It's entirely
unacceptable that people are actually killed because of their
sexuality," 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,
maintained from Istanbul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48274&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
IRAN: Extension of Afghan repatriation agreement under possible threat
The Director-General of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants
Affairs (BAFIA) has warned that Iran would not extend its agreement with
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and the government of Afghanistan for the voluntary repatriation of
Afghans in Iran. The current agreement, signed on 28 June, will expire
at the end of the Iranian calendar year in March 2006.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48323&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
IRAN: Human rights lawyer accuses appeals court of refusing to call
victim's witnesses
Human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi has angrily
denounced an appeal court that has heard the case of murdered Canadian
photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi. Ebadi, one of the lawyers for the Kazemi
family, condemned the court for refusing to call the family's witnesses,
despite promises made by the judiciary two months ago and has said the
legal proceedings were not legitimate. She said the court showed no
interest in her legal arguments. She has asked to present new evidence.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48339&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
IRAN: UNDP to assist in depletion of land and water resources
The Iranian government has recently signed a project with the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help it tackle the depletion of
land and water resources by adopting community-based methods. The
project was signed between the Forests, Rangelands and Watershed
Management Organisation (FRWO) and the UNDP.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48352&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
KYRGYZSTAN: NGOs support conflict prevention with Uzbek asylum seekers
A new project aimed at reducing tension and preventing conflict between
the local population and hundreds of asylum seekers who fled the eastern
Uzbek city of Andijan in May is under way in southern Kyrgyzstan.
Abdukhakim Abdusattarov, head of the Ladankar-Domoor local public
committee recently established to work on conflict resolution in the
southern Suzak district, is a frequent visitor to the Sasyk-Bulak camp
where 426 Uzbek asylum seekers are currently sheltered.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48310&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Uzbek asylum seekers to be resettled to third country
Hundreds of Uzbek asylum seekers in southern Kyrgyzstan will be
resettled to a third country, the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed to IRIN on Wednesday.
According to the UNHCR mission in Kyrgyzstan, all Uzbek asylum seekers,
namely 423 people, in the Sasyk-Bulak camp in the southern Kyrgyz
province of Jalal-Abad would be resettled.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48313&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Uzbek refugees leave country
More than 400 Uzbek asylum seekers have been airlifted to the Kyrgyz
capital, Bishkek, and are set to leave for a third country shortly,
according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). "The 426 Uzbek refugees who were in the Sasyk-Bulak
camp in southern Kyrgyzstan are currently in Bishkek," Carlos
Zaccagnini, head of the UNHCR mission in Kyrgyzstan, said from Bishkek
on Thursday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48340&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: Flood victims feel neglected
Flood victims in two of Nepal's flood-prone districts, Sunsari and
Banke, located in the far eastern and western regions of the country,
accuse both the government and international relief agencies of
neglecting their plight. In Sunsari district's Mahendranagar village,
nearly 700 km east of the capital, Kathmandu, dozens of families have
lost their homes and farmlands due to recent flooding in the second week
of July from the Saptakosi River, after it eroded nearly 2 km of land.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48278&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Amnesty says children's vulnerability increasing
With some 400 children killed in the nine-year Maoist conflict, it is
clear that it is the country's young population that is most vulnerable,
living constantly in fear and insecurity, a new report by Amnesty
International (AI) said. According to the report entitled "Nepal:
Children Caught in the Conflict" launched on Tuesday, children were at
risk from both the Maoist militants and security forces. Both parties
had done little to ensure a safe environment for the children, who had
been deprived of all the privileges of a normal childhood - especially
in the villages where a heavy presence of either the army or Maoist
militant activities continued, the watchdog group said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48299&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: WHO warns of water-borne disease outbreak in NWFP
The provincial chapter of the World Health Organization (WHO) in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has warned of an imminent
widespread outbreak of water-borne diseases in flood-hit areas of the
province, an official said on Thursday. "According to a recent survey of
main water sources including hand pumps, wells, tube-wells and water
supply schemes, drinking water has become highly polluted with bacteria
after flooding and there is an imminent chance of an outbreak of skin
and water-borne diseases," Dr Quaid Saeed, emergency medical officer
working with the WHO, said from the provincial capital Peshawar.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48342&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
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