U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 66
1 - 7 April 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Parliamentarian killed in northeast
AFGHANISTAN: Government to build 2,000 schools this year
AFGHANISTAN: Mines kill and maim up to 100 each month
AFGHANISTAN: Refugee returns approach 10,000 this year
AFGHANISTAN: Female farmers rebuilding orchards
AFGHANISTAN: Amu Darya River needs management to prevent erosion -
   ministry
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Concern over quake-affected children in Lorestan
KYRGYZSTAN: Criminal case following disclosure of HIV/AIDS status
KYRGYZSTAN: Minor earthquake felt in Naryn
KYRGYZSTAN: Cancer cases up but treatment limited
KYRGYZSTAN: New centre supporting vulnerable elderly
NEPAL: Schools caught in the conflict - NGOs
NEPAL: Opposition and rebels prepare for national strike
NEPAL: Government crackdown on democracy demonstrators
NEPAL: National strike leads to mass arrests
NEPAL: Violence takes toll during Friday demonstrations
PAKISTAN: Earthquake returns gather momentum
PAKISTAN: Land policy for earthquake displaced coming soon
PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator six months after
   South Asian quake
PAKISTAN: House-to-house survey kick s off in quake zone
TAJIKISTAN: New demining dog centre launched
UZBEKISTAN: UNHCR to hand over refugee responsibilities to other
   agencies


AFGHANISTAN: Parliamentarian killed in northeast

Unidentified gunmen killed the speaker of the provincial parliament in 
Afghanistan~Rs northeastern Takhar province on Saturday, officials 
confirmed on Sunday. ~SOn Saturday night, gunmen broke into the house of 
Sayed Sadeq in Khoja Ghar district [65 km north of the provincial capital, 
Taloqan] and shot him on the spot,~T Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, chief of 
police of Takhar province, told IRIN.


AFGHANISTAN: Government to build 2,000 schools this year

The Afghan education ministry is planning to build 2,000 schools in 
cooperation with international aid agencies during 2006, the ministry said 
on Tuesday in the capital Kabul. Afghanistan has one of the worst 
education systems in the world and one of the lowest adult literacy rates, 
at just 28.7 percent of the population, according to the UN's Afghanistan 
Human Development Report of 2005. Only Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger 
and Sierra Leone are worse.


AFGHANISTAN: Mines kill and maim up to 100 each month

Mines and unexploded ordnance (UXOs) are killing at least 100 people per 
month in Afghanistan, UK-based demining agency, the Halo Trust, has said. 
~SAfghanistan is one of the world~Rs most mined countries with around 716 
million sq metres still contaminated with mines and unexploded pieces o f 
ordnance. Around 25 percent of the country~Rs population is directly or 
indirectly affected by landmines,~T said Farid Homayoon, Country Director 
of the Halo Trust in Afghanistan.


AFGHANISTAN: Refugee returns approach 10,000 this year

Around 9,000 Afghan refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran since 
the United Nations-assisted voluntary repatriation programme resumed last 
month, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner Refugees (UNHCR) 
has said. The UN refugee agency estimates that in 2006 some 400,000 people 
may return to Afghanistan from Pakistan and around 200,000 from Iran. Last 
year the agency assisted more than 500,000 Afghans to return home, of whom 
440,000 came from Pakistan and the remaining 60,000 from Iran.


AFGHANISTAN: Female farmers rebuilding orchards

For the first time in her life Maruim is sowing seeds and planting fruit 
trees in nurseries close to her simple house near the town of Balkh in the 
province of the same name in northern Afghanistan. Traditionally the work 
of men, a new programme is getting women out of the home and into the 
fields and orchards in order to improve food security and boost rural 
incomes.


AFGHANISTAN: Amu Darya River needs management to prevent erosion - 
ministry

Under a hot spring sun, Alim Mohammad, along with more than 50 other 
villagers, toils to stack sand bags to create a temporary embankment to 
stop the Amu Darya River from creating any more damage. The river, that 
flows for more than 2,400 km and forms most of Afghanistan~Rs northern 
border with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has already swept 
away 40 ha of farm land around the village in the Kaldar district of 
northern province of Balkh and destroyed Mohammad~Rs house in 2005.


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday criticised 
Germany~Rs decision not to launch an investigation into Uzbekistan~Rs 
former interior minister, Zokirjon Almatov, for alleged crimes against 
humanity during an uprising in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan last May. 
German law allows prosecution of cases of torture and crimes against 
humanity regardless of where they were committed and the nationality of 
the perpetrators and victims. But in this case, federal prosecutors have 
refused to proceed on the basis that the Uzbek government would not 
cooperate with an investigation given its record of serious human rights 
abuses.


IRAN: Concern over quake-affected children in Lorestan

There is growing concern over the welfare of tens of thousands of children 
affected by a series of quakes in western Iran last week, which killed at 
least 66 people and injured over 1,000 more. "Preliminary indications 
suggest that 36,000 school-age children were affected in the two districts 
of Douroud and Boroujerd," Country Representative for the United Nations 
Children's Fund (UNICEF), Christian Salazar Volkmann, told IRIN on Tuesday 
from the badly affected town of Boroujerd in Lorestan province.


KYRGYZSTAN: Criminal case following disclosure of HIV/AIDS status

A civic group has initiated criminal proceedings against a health official 
in Kyrgyzstan for allegedly disclosing the status of a person living with 
HIV/AIDS in the first case of its kind in the country. The man who brought 
the complaint has since died of an AIDS-related condition. HIV/AIDS rates 
continue to rise in the Central Asian state, with intravenous drug users 
accounting for most of the increase.


KYRGYZSTAN: Minor earthquake felt in Naryn

A minor earthquake measuring three on the Richter scale has struck the 
northern Kyrgyz province of Naryn, a spokesman for the Kyrgyz emergencies 
ministry said from the capital, Bishkek, on Wednesday. "The epicentre of 
the tremor, which was registered on Tuesday, was near the village of Ak 
Muz in Naryn province. No casualties or damage have been reported," 
Abibilla Pazylov, an emergencies ministry's press officer, said.


KYRGYZSTAN: Cancer cases up but treatment limited

Since being diagnosed with cancer of the stomach, Azamat Baike, a 
45-year-old man from Naryn in central Kyrgyzstan, frequently comes to the 
Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to receive medical treatment. He receives only 
rudimentary care as the money collected by his famil y is barely enough to 
cover the travel costs from his remote region; one session of chemotherapy 
costs about US $35 in a country where the average monthly wage is around 
$50. His doctor has told him he needs a course of at least 15 sessions to 
have any chance of being cured.


KYRGYZSTAN: New centre supporting vulnerable elderly

A new centre has been opened in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh that will 
assist low income elderly access to information and legal advice and 
provide a place where pensioners can socialise and combat loneliness. 
Larisa Kuznetsova, the project head, said that the Soros-Kyrgyzstan 
Foundation-funded initiative has an initial six-month life.


NEPAL: Schools caught in the conflict - NGOs

Parents, teachers and NGOs in Nepal are gravely concerned about the rising 
number of clashes between Maoist rebels and security forces in or near 
places of learning. Despite commitments by both the state and the rebels 
to avoid schools, human rights groups say they are being increasingly 
targeted. ~SBoth the state and rebels have to think of the children first 
as they are the most vulnerable in such a violent situation,~T said 
activist Gauri Pradhan.


NEPAL: Opposition and rebels prepare for national strike

Nepal~Rs seven key opposition parties are gearing up for a four-day 
general strike due to start on Thursday. T he protest will begin with 
rallies across the country against the government of King Gyanendra, who 
assumed absolute rule of the Himalayan kingdom in February 2005. According 
to one of the leading parties, the Nepali Congress (NC), the strike is 
being organised to encourage a wide cross-section of Nepali society, both 
rural and urban, to demonstrate its opposition to direct rule and to call 
for a restoration of democracy.


NEPAL: Government crackdown on democracy demonstrators

Over 50 demonstrators were arrested on Wednesday in the Nepali capital 
Kathmandu during rallies organised by the Professional Alliance for Peace 
and Democracy (PAPAD), a local network of professionals including lawyers, 
journalists, doctors, teachers and engineers. The group says it is 
campaigning for the restoration of democracy and an end to absolute rule 
by King Gyanendra, who took over in February 2005 after suspending the 
government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.


NEPAL: National strike leads to mass arrests

Local human rights groups expressed serious concerns over the Nepalese 
government~Rs heavy-handed reaction to peaceful pro-democracy rallies that 
have been taking place throughout the Himalayan kingdom to mark the start 
of a Maoist-backed four-day strike aiming to end absolute rule by King 
Gyanendra. ~SWe were shocked to witness police brutality against 
demonstrators,~T said prominent human rights activist Subodh Pyakhurel, 
who attended marches in the capital, Kathmandu.


NEPAL: Violence takes toll during Friday demonstrations

Violence took it toll on Friday in several major cities and towns in Nepal 
during peaceful demonstrations on the second day of a nationwide strike, 
called by the seven main opposition parties against King Gyanendra, who 
assumed direct rule in February 2005 after sacking the democratic 
government. Human rights observers monitoring the mass political rallies 
both inside and outside the capital said that the violence erupted 
following a heavy crackdown by security forces to prohibit demonstrators 
from making any anti-king slogans.


PAKISTAN: Earthquake returns gather momentum

With the focus shifting from earthquake relief to recovery in northern 
Pakistan, more than 40,000 quake survivors have returned from emergency 
settlements to what~Rs left of their communities as part of the return 
process that began on 10 March, according to relief officials. ~SIn North 
West Frontier Province (NWFP), eight camps are now empty in the Mansehra 
district, while two camps in the Battagram district emptied on Friday, 
meaning over 38,000 people have left relief camps since 10 March. Nearly 
1,400 quake survivors have repatriated from relief camps in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir,~T Fatma Bassiouni, a spokeswoman for the 
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said 
in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Monday.


PAKISTAN: Land policy for earthquake displaced coming soon

Within 15 days information on land allocation for those displaced in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir by October~Rs earthquake is expected to be 
available. The head of the Camp Management Organisation (CMO) in 
Muzaffarabad, Sardar Nawaz, said that lists had been compiled showing 
which earthquake-affected areas of the region were safe to return to.


PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator six months after 
South Asian quake

Pakistan sustained the heaviest death toll and destruction in its 58-year 
history after a powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake ripped through the north 
of the country and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 8 October last year. 
More than 80,000 people were killed and over 100,000 were injured while 
nearly 4 million people were rendered homeless just weeks before the start 
of the bitter Himalayan winter. Six months on, the emergency relief phase 
is almost over and focus is shifting towards rebuilding the shattered 
region. The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemootele, 
spoke to IRIN in Islamabad about the massive national and international 
relief effort and the prospects for reconstruction.


PAKISTAN: House-to-house survey kicks off in quake zone

As part of its massive reconstruction effort, Pakistan's Earthquake 
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) on Friday started a 
house-to-house survey in quake-affected areas to assess damage for 
subsequent house rebuilding grants to some 600,000 families before the 
next winter sets in. Over 650 teams have been established to survey the 
houses over th e next ten days across nine quake-affected districts, 
including five in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and four in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir.


TAJIKISTAN: New demining dog centre launched

A centre for demining dogs was launched in Tajikistan on Tuesday as the 
world marked International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine 
Action. ~SThe opening of this centre is part of Tajikistan~Rs broader 
demining programme and it is possible due to financial support from the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE],~T Jonmahmad 
Rajabov, head of the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), said at the opening 
ceremony in Khasanobod, south of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.


UZBEKISTAN: UNHCR to hand over refugee responsibilities to other agencies

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 
Uzbekistan is seeking alternative arrangements to meet the needs of 1,800 
refugees in the country. The move follows a March ultimatum by the Uzbek 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs for UNHCR to close down its Uzbek office by 17 
April.


Copyright (C) IRIN 2006


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