Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-65: 31-Mar-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
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e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk
Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 65
25 - 31 March 2006
CONTENTS:
PAKISTAN: Child marriages on the rise across rural Sindh
PAKISTAN: Returns of earthquake displaced occurring at "an unseemly
rate"
PAKISTAN: UN survey highlights economic challenges
PAKISTAN: Trafficking awareness campaign launched in quake zone
PAKISTAN: Afghans need to return to place of origin for land programme
- UNHCR
IRAN: Relief teams work to reach quake survivors
NEPAL: Rural community schools under political pressure
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with new WHO head
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
PAKISTAN: Child marriages on the rise across rural Sindh
In the small, dusty city of Khairpur, in Pakistan's southern province of
Sindh, with its bazaars selling the hand-spun, embroidered cloth typical
of the region, as well as the dates grown widely in the area, Sumera,
11, is in high spirits. The bright-eyed girl, her long, dark hair
braided in a glossy pig-tail, is due to get married in a week, and her
delight over the coloured bangles, yards of embroidered cloth and
glittery footwear spread across the small house where she lives, is
typical of any little girl.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52533&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Returns of earthquake displaced occurring at "an unseemly
rate"
The returns of earthquake displaced in Pakistan's North Western Frontier
Province (NWFP) to their villages are occurring at "an unseemly rate",
according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). While no physical force was being used, there was
"considerable evidence" of undue and psychological pressure being used,
said Marion Roche, a spokeswoman for the UN agency. She said she
believed her comments summarised the findings of a number of agencies
working on protection in the area.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52540&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: UN survey highlights economic challenges
A new UN economic and social survey has underscored the need for
government intervention in making the growth process more equitable in
order to tackle poverty, noting a downward trend in unemployment and
poverty rates in Pakistan in recent years - a country recording its
third straight year of impressive fiscal growth in 2005.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52542&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Trafficking awareness campaign launched in quake zone
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Pakistani
government launched an information and awareness-raising campaign on
Thursday to reduce trafficking of women and children from
earthquake-affected areas of northern Pakistan. "This information
campaign will focus on vulnerable groups in the quake zone - especially
separated women, orphaned children and widows - to raise their awareness
about the risks and realities of human trafficking and indicate sources
of help in case of emergency," Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa, IOM's
regional representative said at the launch in the Pakistani capital,
Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52523&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Afghans need to return to place of origin for land programme -
UNHCR
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
has advised Afghan refugees repatriating from Pakistan to return to the
places they originally left in order to take advantage of a new land
distribution programme. "We're advising Afghans to go back to their
areas of origin, especially those who do not own homes or land for
housing, because under Afghan law, government land would only be
distributed to eligible returnees in the province of origin as stated on
the national ID card," Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52516&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
IRAN: Relief teams work to reach quake survivors
Relief efforts are under way after a series of earthquakes on Thursday
night struck Iran's western Lorestan province, killing at least 50
people and injuring more than 850. The quakes, measuring up to 6 on the
Richter scale, occurred between the industrial towns of Doroud and
Boroujerd. "The relief effort is ongoing and Iranian Red Crescent teams
are on the ground," Mansooreh Bagheri, programme coordinator for
international cooperation for the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS),
told IRIN at midday local time on Friday from the Iranian capital,
Tehran.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52534&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=IRAN
NEPAL: Rural community schools under political pressure
Over 2,000 of the country's community-managed schools, regarded by
education experts as the best model for quality schooling in rural
areas, are coming under immense political pressure both from the Maoists
- who have been waging an armed rebellion against the state for the last
10 years - and the Nepal National Teachers' Association (NNTA), a union
of 80,000 government school teachers.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52460&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with new WHO head
Santino Severoni, the new head of the World Health Organization's (WHO)
mission in Tajikistan, outlined in an interview with IRIN the mission's
priorities in the former Soviet republic. Tajikistan is still reeling
from the consequences of the five-year civil war in the 1990s that
devastated public health in the country. Severoni, 42, worked as a
surgeon for seven years in Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Burundi and Tanzania,
witnessing at least four civil wars in those countries.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52528&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, current chairman of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), called on
Kyrgyzstan to do more to ease ethnic tensions in the country and said
Bishkek needed a comprehensive action plan for national minorities,
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Wednesday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52537&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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