Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-33: 19-Aug-05
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 33
13 - 19 August 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Policies in short supply as election campaigning begins
AFGHANISTAN: Debate on justice reform
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Up to a thousand Andijan asylum seekers remain
KYRGYZSTAN: Increase in rural youth migration to cities
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Court overturns denial of refugee status to Uzbeks
NEPAL: New NGO law spells end of autonomy, say activists
PAKISTAN: Impoverished Christians face forced eviction
TURKMENISTAN: Focus on ethnic minorities
UZBEKISTAN: Fear grips Andijan three months after killings
UZBEKISTAN: Russian human rights journalist deported
UZBEKISTAN: New support for those living with HIV/AIDS
AFGHANISTAN: Policies in short supply as election campaigning begins
Sitting in a printing house in a dusty Kabul street, Ghani Mohamad, a
45-year-old candidate in Afghanistan's first democratic parliamentary
elections next month, is about to launch his campaign. He's pondering
what to put on his campaign poster that would capture the electorate's
attention as campaigning began officially on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48631&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Debate on justice reform
State institutions involved in the justice system along with the United
Nations and other national and international organisations, are
discussing justice reform at a three-day workshop that began on Monday
in the capital, Kabul.
A 24-page strategy paper entitled 'Justice for All' is being used as the
basis for discussion at the meeting and is expected to form the
foundation of future policy for the justice sector.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48602&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Around 4,000 residents in eastern Tajikistan are to be resettled within
five to six years from an area that will become the future Rogun
reservoir, the Tajik Avesta news agency reported on Monday. Russian
investors in the Rogun hydropower plant will reportedly compensate for
the resettlement costs. The construction of the Rogun hydropower plant
started in the 1980s, but was suspended after Tajikistan became
independent in 1991 and suffered a subsequent five year civil war from
1992 to 1997.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48657&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Up to a thousand Andijan asylum seekers remain
Activists believe that more than 1,000 Uzbeks may still be in Kyrgyzstan
and in need of assistance after fleeing from a violent government
crackdown in the southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan on 13 May. More than
400 Uzbek refugees from Andijan recently left Kyrgyzstan under the
protection of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48603&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Increase in rural youth migration to cities
In economically deprived Kyrgyzstan, young people are increasingly
migrating from rural areas to urban centres like the capital, Bishkek,
in search of improved employment prospects and a better future. "Next
year I will finish [secondary] school and will go to Bishkek. My elder
brother is already there. I do not know whether I will be able to study
at university. If not, I will work and help my family," 16-year-old
Zaripa explained, speaking from her home in Juzumjan village in the
southern Jalal-Abad province.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48623&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Court overturns denial of refugee status to
Uzbeks
An appeal to overturn a decision by the Kyrgyz migration department to
deny refugee status to Uzbeks who fled violence in southeastern
Uzbekistan was granted by a city court in the capital, Bishkek, on
Thursday. "We decided to rule out the statement by the migration
department to deny refugee status due to the fact that the department
had not sufficiently assessed all the materials," Jyrgalbek Nurunbetov,
a judge at Bishkek's inter-district court, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48645&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN-UZBEKISTAN
NEPAL: New NGO law spells end of autonomy, say activists
Some national and international NGOs in Nepal say they are seriously
concerned over the introduction of the Social Welfare (First Amendment)
Ordinance 2005. The new government ruling was promulgated during the
last week of July and gives new powers to the state to enable it to
control and regulate programmes run by NGOs and their activities.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48618&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Impoverished Christians face forced eviction
Hundreds of Christian residents in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore
may be forced off their land in the face of soaring land values. The
area, known as Yohanabad-II, was established in 1998 on the outskirts of
the city as a model village but rumours of planned redevelopment of
adjacent areas have created a problem for residents. Residents report
that local 'land mafia' are now desperate to get their hands on the land
and are attempting to harass around 400 families out of their homes.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48639&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TURKMENISTAN: Focus on ethnic minorities
The plight of ethnic minorities in Turkmenistan remains bleak, despite
claims to the contrary by the Turkmen government during this month's
session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD). "Each of Turkmenistan's ethnic and racial
minorities bears a heavy burden of discrimination and exclusion in the
environment where preferential treatment is openly afforded only to
ethnic Turkmen," Robert Arsenault, president of the International League
for Human Rights (ILHR), asserted from New York. He went on to describe
the human rights situation in the largely desert but energy rich state,
as alarming.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48641&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Fear grips Andijan three months after killings
Three months after a violent government crack down on protests in the
southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan, there is a palpable sense of fear on
and off the streets, despite less soldiers seen in public and shops and
office open as usual. People who witnessed the killing of up to 1,000
mainly unarmed civilians on 13 May in and around the city say they are
burning inside but giving up hope of obtaining justice for the dead and
injured.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48644&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Russian human rights journalist deported
The Uzbek government on Saturday deported Russian human rights
journalist, Igor Rotar, after he had spent two days in detention at
Tashkent airport. John Kinahan, assistant editor for Forum 18 News
Service, an agency covering religious freedom in the former Soviet
republics and Eastern Europe, commented on the significance of the
deportation in a statement. "The case has shown how religious freedom is
an excellent 'litmus test' of the state of human rights and that
attention should remain on the extremely grave human rights situation
still faced by Uzbekistan's people."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48589&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: New support for those living with HIV/AIDS
When a police officer barged into Natalya's home in the Uzbek capital,
Tashkent, screaming at her that she had AIDS she nearly died of shame.
She had not even told her parents about the disease which she contracted
by sharing a hypodermic needle. "I had problems with the police earlier
as I was an injecting drug user. When they came to the house the police
started insulting me loudly saying that I was infected with HIV. It was
a shock for my parents - and the neighbours were watching," the
34-year-old said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48600&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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