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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 68
15 - 21 April 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Rights groups critical of upsurge in civilian casualties
AFGHANISTAN: Former gunmen surrender arms, return to civilian life
AFGHANISTAN: Regional health conference kicks off
AFGHANISTAN: IOM assists ex-combatants in north to reintegrate
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Fear of bird flu hits poultry market
KYRGYZSTAN: Civic groups concerned over organised crime
KYRGYZSTAN: New Uzbek asylum seekers registered in south
NEPAL: National vitamin A campaign to proceed despite recent protests
NEPAL: Civilians concerned over deteriorating situation
NEPAL: Fear of shortages in capital exaggerated - suppliers
NEPAL: Indefinite strike affects overseas migrant workers
NEPAL: Children's health campaign kicks off despite nationwide strike
NEPAL: Rights groups urge sanctions on king
NEPAL: At least three demonstrators killed, 50 injured
NEPAL: King offers partial return to democracy, opposition not convinced
TURKMENISTAN: Media freedom in the spotlight as dissident writer awarded
UZBEKISTAN: Systematic use of torture continues - UN
UZBEKISTAN: Interview with Aziz Khudoberdiev, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS


AFGHANISTAN: Rights groups critical of upsurge in civilian casualties

Rights groups have expressed concern about the killing of civilians
during Afghan and US-led coalition operations targeting insurgents in
the country's restive southern and eastern regions. More than 20
civilians have been killed or wounded during counter-insurgency
operations this week in south and eastern Afghanistan, according to
local news outlets.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52881&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Former gunmen surrender arms, return to civilian life

Three former militia commanders in Afghanistan's eastern province of
Nangarhar have voluntarily surrendered around 90 light and heavy weapons
to the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme, officials
from the UN-backed initiative said on Tuesday in the Afghan capital,
Kabul. "Commanders from Nangarhar - Mohammad Zahir, Hamesha Gul, and
Hazrat Khan, - surrendered 45,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as 85
light and heavy weapons, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades
to the DIAG weapons collection team in Nangarhar province," Ahmad Jan
Nawzadi, public information officer at the DIAG programme, explained.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52838&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Regional health conference kicks off

A four-day regional conference to discuss ways of boosting cooperation
in Asia to curb infectious diseases in the region started in the Afghan
capital, Kabul, on Monday. The conference, entitled: "Health for All and
Health by All: Communicable Diseases Recognise No Borders", is set to
mainly focus on the six diseases, including cholera, HIV/AIDS, malaria,
polio and tuberculosis (TB), still posing a health threat in the region.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52827&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: IOM assists ex-combatants in north to reintegrate

Sitting in a tiny carpentry shop in a busy bazaar in Sheberghan, capital
of Afghanistan's northern Jawzjan province, Said Kamal assembles a chair
for a recently built school in his village. The 27-year-old has been
doing this work over the past year since giving up his life as a fighter
with a regional militia and handing over his AK47 under the UN-backed
Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme. "Life has
become better since I laid down my gun and started working in the
carpentry shop," Kamal grinned.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52823&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

This week in Central Asia, spent nuclear fuel containing enough uranium
to produce at least two bombs was safely returned to Russia from
Uzbekistan. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was
part of the operation, said it was the first time since the break-up of
the former Soviet Union that nuclear research fuel had been returned to
Russia.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52901&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


KYRGYZSTAN: Fear of bird flu hits poultry market

Consumers are staying away from poultry products in Kyrgyzstan following
reported cases of bird flu in neighbouring Kazakhstan and China, a move
that is having a devastating impact on local farmers and vendors. "We've
had to lower the prices after the bad news," said Gusyuna Aitbaeva, who
works in the central Osh market in the capital Bishkek. "Demand has
dropped and there has definitely been a change in the type of customers
we are seeing. People with low income who were too poor to buy chicken
before are now buying, while middle class and wealthy families are
simply staying away."

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52851&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: Civic groups concerned over organised crime

Civil society groups in Kyrgyzstan have expressed concern over a recent
attack on a pro-democracy activist, claiming that organised crime was
seeking access to political power in the former Soviet republic. "What
happened to Edil Baisalov [head of the local Coalition for Democracy and
Civil Society, local pro-democracy group] is very frightening," Tolekan
Ismailova, head of the human rights centre 'Citizens against
corruption', said from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on Monday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52825&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


KYRGYZSTAN: New Uzbek asylum seekers registered in south

The number of Uzbek nationals seeking asylum in southern Kyrgyzstan is
slowly increasing following the departure of more than 400 Andijan
refugees from the country in July. "There is not a huge influx of asylum
seekers from Uzbekistan, [but] there is a slight increase [in them],"
Vitaliy Maslovsky, a consultant with the office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh,
said on Thursday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52903&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN


NEPAL: National vitamin A campaign to proceed despite recent protests

Around 3.3 million Nepalese children are due to receive vitamin A
supplements this week in the latest phase of the successful campaign to
protect children's health. The vitamin A supplement is handed out every
six months and has helped to reduce the under-five mortality rate by 30
percent, averting the death of 12,000 children every year in Nepal,
according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is
helping the government to implement the campaign. In addition, it also
helps to prevent child malnourishment, which affects nearly half of the
country's children.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52826&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Civilians concerned over deteriorating situation

Depressed with his lack of income over the past week, Kiran Josi is
equally worried how he will pay for his children's school fees and run
the household. "If this situation continues like this, my family and I
will end up in the street as beggars," lamented Josi, who runs a small
earring shop in the middle of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. He is not
alone in his concern. More and more shopkeepers and small traders are
voicing their concern over the impact the deteriorating political
situation in the Himalayan kingdom will have on their daily lives.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52812&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Fear of shortages in capital exaggerated - suppliers

With the nationwide strike about to enter its second week, people in
major cities and towns across Nepal have started to panic buy over talk
of food and fuel shortages, but suppliers in the capital, Kathmandu, say
the fears are unfounded. According to local media reports, since the
strike started no food lorries or fuel tanks have been seen inside the
capital, leading many to speculate of an imminent supply crisis if the
strike continues. As a result, people have flooded the capital's market
places to stock up on essentials.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52843&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Indefinite strike affects overseas migrant workers

Hari Lamsal has been coming to the bus station every day for the past 12
days hoping that he will be able to travel to his home village in
Tanahu, 150 km west of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. He has less than
a week to collect his cash, employment contracts and other travel
documents before proceeding to Dubai, where he has the good fortune of
landing a security guard job. But with the recent political turmoil
intensifying, he is already on the verge of losing that rare
opportunity. Not a single bus has moved out of the capital for nearly a
fortnight given an indefinite nationwide strike called by the seven main
opposition parties, who have organised mass protest demonstrations
against King Gyanendra to force him from absolute rule and restore
democracy.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52828&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Children's health campaign kicks off despite nationwide strike

Despite the ongoing violence in Nepal the latest stage in the country's
programme to protect children's health has got off to a good start,
health workers said. "I'm not surprised to say that our mission was a
success today," said 36-year-old Female Health Care Volunteer (FCHV)
Bimala Budathoki, as she administered vitamin A and deworming tablets to
15-month old Dolkar Lama in the tiny village of Manamaiju, 10 km east of
the capital city of Kathmandu.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52852&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Rights groups urge sanctions on king

Three international rights organisations - Amnesty International (AI),
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists
(ICJ) - have urged the international community to impose sanctions
against Nepal's King Gyanendra and his royalist ministers. "The
situation has deteriorated so much by the king of Nepal sweeping away
democracy and suppressing democratic rights," Nicholas Howen,
Secretary-General of the ICJ, said from Geneva on Wednesday. "And now
that has become one of the most serious problems because the people of
Nepal do not have democratic space to discuss and decide their future
and to resolve the conflict peacefully,"

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52850&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: At least three demonstrators killed, 50 injured

At least three protestors were killed and at least 50 injured at the
hands of the security forces on Thursday afternoon during demonstrations
in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, according to the Himalayan Human Rights
(HimRights), a local rights group. In total, 14 demonstrators have been
killed and over 3,500 injured since the nationwide strike and
pro-democracy rallies against Nepal's absolute ruler King Gyanendra
began 15 days ago, another local rights group, Insec, said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52890&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: King offers partial return to democracy, opposition not convinced

The Nepalese monarch King Gyanendra announced on national television on
Friday that he is handing executive powers to the Himalayan kingdom's
seven main political parties.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52921&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


TURKMENISTAN: Media freedom in the spotlight as dissident writer awarded

Human rights groups have highlighted the ongoing assault on freedom of
speech in autocratic Turkmenistan, following the honouring on Tuesday of
Turkmen dissident and novelist, Rakhim Esenov, in New York. "The people
of Turkmenistan are being deprived of the fundamental right to receive
information and exchange ideas. It consigns the country to a state of
isolation and ignorance and future generations will continue to pay the
price," Acacia Shields, Human Rights Watch (HRW) senior researcher on
Central Asia, said from New York on Wednesday.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52878&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Systematic use of torture continues - UN

Concern over the systematic use torture by the Uzbek government has
again been raised by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred
Nowak. "There is systematic torture and the general conditions in
pre-trial detention facilities are worse than prison. There are even
reports of electric shocks [administered in detention]," Nowak said from
Vienna on Thursday. His comments came on the same day as Amnesty
International (AI) published a statement criticising Uzbekistan's
judicial system.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52879&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


UZBEKISTAN: Interview with Aziz Khudoberdiev, Joint UN Programme on
HIV/AIDS

The total number of registered HIV/AIDS cases in Uzbekistan is the
highest recorded in Central Asia, according to the UN's Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) report for Uzbekistan published on 11 April.
Nearly 2,200 cases were registered in 2005, bringing the official total
to 7,800. Unofficial estimates put the number of infections much higher.
A rise in the number of injecting drug users is driving the increase in
infections - particularly in prisons where more than 34 percent of new
infections were registered in 2004. Young people have become highly
vulnerable to HIV infection in the wake of rapid social and economic
change in the republic and are being targeted by education and advocacy
campaigns.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52899&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN


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