U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network

Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484
Fax: +92-51-2211 450
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 31
30 July - 5 August 2005


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN board game to raise children's awareness of peace
AFGHANISTAN: UN helps reopen family guidance centres in Kabul
AFGHANISTAN: Funding shortfall may postpone autumn polls
AFGHANISTAN: Women show greater interest in September polls
AFGHANISTAN: Plight of woman and children continues, says UNICEF
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UNHCR's mobile repatriation teams making headway
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Ganji near death as one of his legal team is arrested
KYRGYZSTAN: Concern over remaining Andijan asylum seekers continues
KYRGYZSTAN: Rural men show little interest in reproductive health
KYRGYZSTAN: Fate of Andijan 15 remains unclear
NEPAL: Growing concern over vigilante groups
NEPAL: World Bank announces aid to government
PAKISTAN: Activists complain of bar on women to contest NWFP polls
PAKISTAN: Government plans to remove Afghan refugees from capital
PAKISTAN: New radio series on 'honour' killings
TURKMENISTAN: Drug addiction on the rise
UZBEKISTAN: Activists welcome ban on death penalty


AFGHANISTAN: UN board game to raise children's awareness of peace

Sitting under a tree in the outskirts of the capital Kabul, Sameh and
his friends talked openly about very adult issues such as human rights,
child kidnapping and landmines as they played a new UN-designed game
entitled "The Road to Peace". "It is a nice game. It is informative and
entertaining," Sameh said, pointing to the colourful game illustrated
with text and numeric steps.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48371&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: UN helps reopen family guidance centres in Kabul

Standing amongst a gathering of women in a reproductive health clinic in
the Afghan capital, Kabul, Patooni tried to convince her audience - many
of them mothers of seven to 15 children - of the merits of family
planning. "Please note that a smaller but sound and healthy family is
better than a bigger family with too many ill and illiterate children,"
the 35-year-old health educator said, speaking to a group of some 50
women at the Malalai Maternity hospital reproductive health centre.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48405&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Funding shortfall may postpone autumn polls

Faced with a shortfall of millions of dollars, Afghanistan's upcoming
parliamentary elections slated for September may be postponed unless
donors take action now, the United Nations warned on Monday. "UNAMA [The
United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan] is concerned about the
US $31 million shortfall in funding for Afghanistan's upcoming
elections," Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN special envoy in
Afghanistan, said in the capital Kabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48393&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Women show greater interest in September polls

With less than seven weeks to September's historic parliamentary
elections, women have shown greater interest in participating, the
Afghan-UN joint electoral management body (JEMB) announced on Wednesday
in the capital Kabul. According to the electoral body, there had already
been a marked increase in women's voter registration - particularly in
the troubled south and southeastern provinces where no or very few women
had registered during last October's presidential elections.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48424&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Plight of woman and children continues, says UNICEF

While Afghanistan moves from a state of emergency to a focus on
development, the reality of the situation for women and children remains
serious, UNICEF warned on Thursday in the capital Kabul. "Infant
mortality and under five mortality are very high, girls' enrolment is
one of the lowest in the world and malnutrition affects almost half of
the country's child population," Cecilia Lotse, the UN childrens
agency's regional director for South Asia observed, adding that the
maternal mortality continued to claim 1,600 women per every 100,000
births in the country.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48447&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: UNHCR's mobile repatriation teams making headway

In a further effort to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Afghan
refugees across Pakistan, the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has increased the activities of its
mobile repatriation teams for those living in scattered urban and rural
areas. "Alongside seven regular repatriation centres across the country,
another 14 mobile teams are working to facilitate Afghans living in
urban and rural settlements in all four provinces wishing to return to
Afghanistan with the assistance of the UN refugee agency," Babar Baloch,
a UNHCR spokesman in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48394&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Relations between Uzbekistan and the US took a blow this week, when
Tashkent issued an order to close the US military base in the country on
Saturday. US forces and equipment must leave Karshi-Khanabad airbase in
the south of the former Soviet republic within 180 days, according to a
Washington Post report, citing unnamed officials at the US State and
Defence departments.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48464&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


IRAN: Ganji near death as one of his legal team is arrested

Hunger-striking political prisoner Akbar Ganji was near death, his wife
told the student news agency (ISNA) on Friday. "When we were leaving his
room, he went numb...I told them to re-attach the tube of drips with my
permission so that he stays alive," ISNA quoted Massoumeh Shafiie as
saying. Saturday marked the fiftieth day of Ganji's hunger strike and he
has been refusing to receive his drip for several days.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48382&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Concern over remaining Andijan asylum seekers continues

The plight of more than a dozen Uzbeks still being held in detention in
Kyrgyzstan remains a source of concern following the recent evacuation
of over 400 Uzbek refugees from the country. The office of the Kyrgyz
prosecutor general was considering the extradition of 15 Uzbeks, who
came to Kyrgyzstan in May and are currently being held in a detention
centre in the south, Nurlanbek Jeenaliev, deputy prosecutor general,
said in the capital Bishkek on Monday, according to Kyrgyz media
reports.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48376&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Rural men show little interest in reproductive health

In Kyrgyzstan, where the vast majority of the population lives in rural
areas, men demonstrate little to no interest in reproductive health. "I
don't go to doctors. My wife goes there. It's her business. Why do I
need to? I am completely healthy," Azamat, a 30-year-old carpenter in
Kochi village of Kyrgyzstan's eastern province of Isyk-Kol, explained
matter of factly.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48414&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Fate of Andijan 15 remains unclear

The fate of more than a dozen Uzbeks who fled violence in the eastern
Uzbek city of Andijan in May and are currently being detained in
southern Kyrgyzstan remains unclear, pending a decision by the Kyrgyz
prosecutor general. "There is no final decision on this aspect yet.
Representatives of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Uzbek side are actively involved in this
issue along with our Kyrgyz group," Asan Kangeldiev, head of the
information and external relations department of the office of the
prosecutor general, said from the capital Bishkek on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48448&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


NEPAL: Growing concern over vigilante groups

Prahlat Sahni is just an ordinary villager living in Sarabal village of
Nawalparasi district, about 200 km southeast of the Nepali capital,
Kathmandu. He makes a meager income from his small farm and has no
political interest at all. But sitting at home after a hard day's work,
a group of armed villagers calling themselves members of the 'village
defence force' broke into his house and brutally beat him, accusing him
of sympathising with the Maoists, who have been waging a nine year
insurgency against the government.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48450&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: World Bank announces aid to government

The World Bank on Monday signed two grants totaling US $35 million with
the Nepalese government for the development of rural road infrastructure
and economic reform. Under the terms of the agreement, $32 million will
be financed to rehabilitate and upgrade over 4,500 km of rural roads,
trails and tracks in 20 districts, as well in the construction of some
350 suspension trail bridges, which are often the only means of access
to market areas and services.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48374&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


PAKISTAN: Activists complain of bar on women to contest NWFP polls

Rights activists have accused the authorities of failing to act on
reports of women being barred from contesting upcoming local elections
in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), a staunchly
conservative area governed by a religious parties' alliance. "Verbal
statements alone by officials at the Election Commission cannot do away
with decrees or agreements issued by regional tribal leaders and
office-bearers of major political parties aimed at stopping women from
contesting polls," Rakhshanda Naz, head of the women rights' body, Aurat
(Women) Foundation, said from the provincial capital Peshawar.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48415&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: Government plans to remove Afghan refugees from capital

Plans to evict Afghan refugees still living in the Pakistani capital and
the adjacent city of Rawalpindi are still being worked out, following a
formal announcement of the move earlier this week. "The schedule and
further details regarding options of repatriation or relocation of
Afghans living in Islamabad [capital] and Rawalpindi will be announced
shortly. We are working on it with all the relevant bodies," Jehangir
Khan, head of the state-run Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR)
said, on Thursday, from the western city of Peshawar.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48462&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


PAKISTAN: New radio series on 'honour' killings

The Pakistan chapter of the UK-based international NGO, Oxfam, has
recently begun broadcasting a radio series aimed at raising public
awareness of honour killings. In general, women fall victim to a variety
of assorted crimes carried out under the common name of 'honour' across
the country, argue rights activists. "This series of feature programmes,
to be aired twice a week, will cover different aspects of the 'honour'
killing issue through very interesting and moving stories," Farhana
Faruqi Stocker, Oxfam's country representative, said in the Pakistani
capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48441&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


TURKMENISTAN: Drug addiction on the rise

Drug addiction is on the rise in Turkmenistan fuelled by the
government's neglect of socioeconomic issues, a Turkmen rights group
charged on Tuesday. "Drug addiction is on the rise based on our recent
informal survey of residents in the capital and other parts of the
country," Tajigul Begmedova, head of the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation
(THF), said from the Bulgarian resort city of Varna where the rights NGO
is based.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48406&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Activists welcome ban on death penalty

Rights activists have welcomed an Uzbek government decision to abolish
capital punishment while at the same time calling on Tashkent to impose
an immediate moratorium on the execution of death row prisoners. "This
is the first step on behalf of the [Uzbek] state with regard to the
problem of the death penalty and I would like to thank the government
for this move which heeded to appeals that the death penalty was against
humanity," Tamara Chikunova, head of the Mothers Against Death Penalty
and Torture, a local rights group advocating for the ban on capital
punishment, said from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48421&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


IRIN-Asia
Tel: +90 312 454 1177
Fax: +90 312 495 4166
Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Asia-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

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


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Asia                               www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia