Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-64: 24-Mar-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Integrated Regional Information Network
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 64
18 - 24 March 2006
CONTENTS:
KAZAKHSTAN: UNHCR may assist other Uzbek asylum-seekers
KAZAKHSTAN: Avian flu detected in wild birds in west
IRAN-PAKISTAN: Focus on human smuggling
UZBEKISTAN: UNHCR closure will leave at least 2,000 refugees vulnerable
NEPAL: Interview with OHCHR head Ian Martin
NEPAL: Chronic kidney disease on the rise
NEPAL: UN welcomes lifting of Maoist blockade
PAKISTAN: Deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu confirmed
PAKISTAN: Clean water critical to quake returns
PAKISTAN: IOM offers free transport to quake returnees
PAKISTAN: UNESCO literacy initiative launched
KYRGYZSTAN: Help needed to deal with aftermath of disasters
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: UNHCR may assist other Uzbek asylum-seekers
Following the recognition last week by the office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kazakhstan of Imam Abidkhan
Nazarov, who is wanted in neighbouring Uzbekistan, the agency has said
it is considering offering refugee status to another 60 asylum-seekers
from Uzbekistan. UNHCR assisted Nazarov in leaving Kazakhstan in order
to live under political asylum in an undisclosed third country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52367&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
KAZAKHSTAN: Avian flu detected in wild birds in west
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been discovered in western
Kazakhstan, officials said on Wednesday. "Cases of highly pathological
bird flu [H5N1] have been confirmed by laboratory tests in a dead wild
bird from the Caspian shore [Mangistau province]," an official at the
Kazakh agriculture ministry said on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52381&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
IRAN-PAKISTAN: Focus on human smuggling
In the small, dusty town of Taftan, located in the extreme southwest of
the Pakistani province of Balochistan, along the Iranian border,
Muhammad Fayyaz, 24, is a long way from home. He is also extremely
tired, having begun his journey on a rickety bus the day before from the
provincial capital, Quetta, 600 km away.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52350&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry
UZBEKISTAN: UNHCR closure will leave at least 2,000 refugees vulnerable
The fate of thousands of refugees in Uzbekistan remained unclear on
Tuesday following a decision by Tashkent to close the national office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "Uzbekistan
has said that they want to close our operations because they feel that
we've finished our work [in the country]," Astrid van Genderen Stort, a
spokeswoman for UNHCR, said from the UN agency's headquarters in Geneva.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52351&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
NEPAL: Interview with OHCHR head Ian Martin
Since coming to Nepal as head of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Ian Martin faces the daunting
task of trying to improve that country's human rights record while the
ongoing conflict between the royalist government of King Gyanendra and
the Maoist rebels looks set to intensify. For the last 10 years, the
Maoists have been waging an armed insurgency against the Nepalese
government resulting in the death of over 13,000 people, including
civilians, Maoists and security personnel.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52363&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Chronic kidney disease on the rise
With hardly any energy left, all Ramesh Lama can say is that he wants to
live longer. "I don't want to die," said 25-year-old Lama, lying in the
intensive care unit of the National Kidney Hospital (NKH) in the capital
Kathmandu. But with both of his kidneys already badly damaged, he now
has end stage renal disease (ESRD), an advanced form of life threatening
chronic kidney disease (CKD).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52352&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: UN welcomes lifting of Maoist blockade
The United Nations on Monday welcomed a decision by the Communist Party
of Nepal/Maoists (CPN/M) to lift a nationwide blockade, noting the
impact it was having on local communities. "The UN welcomes this move
which will relieve the suffering of ordinary Nepalese who are the ones
bearing the brunt of such blockades," acting UN Resident Coordinator for
Nepal, Abraham Abraham, told IRIN in the capital Kathmandu. "We also
hope that this will contribute to the resumption of a peace process in
Nepal and the resumption of normalcy which ordinary Nepalese citizens
desperately need."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52311&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu confirmed
Islamabad on Tuesday confirmed the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain
of bird flu at two poultry farms in Pakistan's North West Frontier
Province (NWFP), after receiving positive test results from the European
Union's (EU) Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in the UK.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52353&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Clean water critical to quake returns
The Aga Khan Foundation is bringing clean drinking water to thousands of
earthquake survivors in mountainous parts of Pakistani-administered
Kashmir. The provision of water is seen as critical to the sustainable
return of hundreds of thousands of survivors of October's earthquake.
"We are installing water pipelines in Hir Kotli. The main pipeline is
about 60,000 feet long [around 18 km] and there are some sub-pipelines,
which take water to villages and hamlets in the area," Muhammed Shakeel
Abbasi, a supervisor with the Aga Khan Foundation in Muzaffarabad,
capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52328&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: IOM offers free transport to quake returnees
In order to facilitate speedy returns, the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) is offering free transport home to nearly 300,000
survivors of the 8 October earthquake currently living in government-run
temporary relief camps across northern Pakistan. "It's a huge task.
Each family would need several trucks to take their tents and what
remains of their personal belongings and it may take months to finish,"
Hassan Adbel Moneim Mostafa, IOM's regional representative said in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52329&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: UNESCO literacy initiative launched
Pakistan is to benefit from accelerated financial and technical
assistance under the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization's (UNESCO) new literacy initiative to speed up efforts to
realise the Education For All (EFA) goal of a 50 percent improvement in
adult literacy levels by 2015.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52390&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
KYRGYZSTAN: Help needed to deal with aftermath of disasters
Kyrgyzstan's emergency agency needs assistance to deal with the
aftermath of natural disasters that hit the south of the former Soviet
republic in one of the harshest winters in the past 20 years, an
emergency spokesman said on Thursday. "We have appealed to many
organisations and embassies of various countries for assistance to deal
with the consequences of heavy snow and avalanches that struck the south
in late January," Abibilla Pazylov of the Kyrgyz emergencies ministry
said from the capital, Bishkek.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52416&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) Fund for
International Development have launched a US $4 million project to
improve HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment among drug users and prisoners
in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and
Azerbaijan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52442&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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