Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-70: 05-May-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 70
29 April - 5 May 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Vaccinating 2 million children against polio
AFGHANISTAN: Poverty still a huge problem, says rights group
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 16 in the north
AFGHANISTAN: Misery for female prisoners
CENTRAL ASIA: ADB calls for greater regional cooperation
CENTRAL ASIA: Interview with Vice-President of World Uighur Congress
(WUC), Mohamed Tohti
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
NEPAL: Interview with senior Maoist leader, Ram Bahadur Bhandari
NEPAL: New cabinet declares indefinite ceasefire
NEPAL: Maoists ready for peace talks
NEPAL: Focus on malnutrition and the conflict
PAKISTAN: The struggle to iodise salt
TAJIKISTAN: Bad weather causes havoc in south
UZBEKISTAN: Government closes another American NGO
UZBEKISTAN: New school brings children with disabilities out of their homes
AFGHANISTAN: Vaccinating 2 million children against polio
More than 2 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated
against the crippling polio virus next week in southern, southeastern
and eastern Afghanistan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
said this week in the Afghan capital, Kabul.The three-day campaign,
which begins on 7 May, follows reports of a sixth polio case this year
in the southern province of Kandahar, the health ministry has said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53132&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Poverty still a huge problem, says rights group
Many Afghans are still suffering from poverty, lack of education and
health care, a local rights watchdog said in a study released on Monday
in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The report, "Economic and Social Rights in
Afghanistan" was jointly produced by the Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) and the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It was based on research carried out
between April and December 2005 in 29 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
More than 8,000 people were interviewed during the survey - mainly in
rural areas of the country.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53089&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill 16 in the north
Floods caused by heavy rains and melting snow in the northern Afghan
provinces of Baghlan and Faryab have killed at least 16 people and left
hundreds of families in urgent need of assistance, officials said on
Tuesday. "Flash floods that followed heavy rains killed at least seven
people and destroyed 120 houses in the Garziwan district of Faryab
province," Abdullatif Ibrahimi, governor of Faryab, said. The flooding
also killed a villager in another district and at least 500 head of
cattle, while 2,000 hectares of farm land were washed away, the governor
added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53109&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Misery for female prisoners
Lailoma, 10, has been living in squalid conditions with her imprisoned
mother in a provincial jail in Mazar-e Sharif, capital of the northern
Afghan province of Balkh, for years. "I cannot live without my mother,
brothers and sister who have been here with me for a long time," grinned
Lailoma. Nisar Ahmad, 8, Lailoma's brother, has no idea about life
outside the prison as he has been living in a poorly ventilated, dark
room with a tiny window and small yard most of his life. "How can I go
outside when the door is always locked and my mother is here?" he asked.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53087&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: ADB calls for greater regional cooperation
Countries in Central Asia need to bolster regional cooperation to boost
economic development in the landlocked region, the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) said in a recent report. "The best case scenario indicates
that the region's per capita incomes can double and that poverty can
halve by 2015 if comprehensive economic policies on economic reform,
regional cooperation and industrial competitiveness are implemented,"
Ganeshan Wignaraja, senior trade economist at ADB's Office of Regional
Economic Integration, said on Tuesday from the bank's headquarters in
Manila.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53114&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Interview with Vice-President of World Uighur Congress
(WUC), Mohamed Tohti
Many Uighurs live in exile in Central Asia after fleeing repression in
their native Xinjiang Province - a vast region that occupies one-sixth
of China's land mass. The emergence of the five independent states in
Central Asia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991
stimulated a separatist movement among the Uighur minority in China's
Xinjiang Uighurs Autonomous Region (XUAR). Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni
Muslim people, with close cultural and linguistic ties to other ethnic
groups in Central Asia, including Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Turkmen.
Rights groups cite serious human rights abuses against the Uighurs,
while Beijing has claimed it has been fighting "religious extremist
forces" and "violent terrorists" in the region for more than a decade.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53159&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia, in its second annual "failed states" index,
Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace concluded that six
countries in the wider region, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, are in the top 45 countries labelled as
failed states out of 148 examined in the survey, AP reported on Monday.
Despite ongoing US and international support, Afghanistan rank among the
world's 10 most vulnerable states. Pakistan's inability to police the
tribal areas near the Afghan border and sectarian violence placed it
high on the list.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53169&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
NEPAL: Interview with senior Maoist leader, Ram Bahadur Bhandari
For the last 10 years, Nepal's Maoist rebels have been waging an armed
struggle to end the monarchy and establish a communist state in the
Himalayan kingdom. King Gyanendra assumed absolute power on 1 February
2005 in frustration at the government's inability to contain the
rebellion, that has cost the lives of at least 13,000 Nepalese. Last
week the king announced an end to direct rule and reinstated parliament
following days of protest throughout the country organised by the seven
main opposition parties and the Maoists.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53081&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: New cabinet declares indefinite ceasefire
Nepal's new cabinet announced an indefinite ceasefire with Maoist rebels
on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli said in the
capital, Kathmandu. The decision came in response to the unilateral
truce announced by the rebels six days ago after three weeks of
demonstrations that forced King Gyanendra to hand power back to the
government last week. The Maoists have been waging war against the
government for more than a decade. The conflict has cost more than
13,000 lives.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53135&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Maoists ready for peace talks
Maoist insurgents, who have been waging an armed rebellion in Nepal for
the last 10 years, announced on Thursday that they were now ready for
peace talks with the newly-formed democratic government, led by the
seven main political parties in the Himalayan kingdom. Last week,
Nepalese monarch King Gyanendra gave up direct rule after pressure from
nationwide protests. Since then, political developments have been swift.
The House of Representatives of the Nepalese parliament was restored
after being dissolved four years ago by the king.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53153&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Focus on malnutrition and the conflict
For Goma Shrestha, providing for her children's daily needs is more than
a challenge; it's impossible. Despite the fact that her one-year old
son's normal body weight should be 10 kg, Babu Shristha, weighs just
eight kg, leaving this impoverished mother-of-four in a quandary over
what to do. Arriving in the capital Kathmandu from Shinduphalchok
district 200 km away, one of the worst affected areas of the decade-old
Maoist insurgency against the state, she now lives along the polluted
banks of the capital's Bishnumati River, where she cleans houses and
alongside her porter husband, earns a combined income of just US $50 a
month.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53152&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: The struggle to iodise salt
Shahida proudly keeps her new, brightly packaged box of sallt
prominently atop her kitchen counter. The condiment contains iodine -
part of a programme in Pakistan to tackle common diseases by fortifying
such products. Each time she adds a generous pinch to the food she is
cooking for her family, she is aware that the innocuous looking white
grains will help her family stay healthier and avoid illnesses like
goitre - an enlarged thyroid gland - visible in every third person in
the area.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53084&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TAJIKISTAN: Bad weather causes havoc in south
Landslides and floods triggered by torrential rains have damaged
farmlands and infrastructure in southern Tajikistan, the country's
emergencies ministry said on Wednesday. "Heavy rain and hail, along with
floods, have caused extensive damage to farmlands and cotton plantations
in the six districts of the southern Khatlon province, including Yavan,
Khorasan, Dangara, Muminabad, Shurabad and Temur-Malik," Jamila Tiloeva,
a spokeswoman for the Tajik emergencies ministry, said from the capital,
Dushanbe. "The bad weather has claimed the life of a local resident in
the Khorasan district. The total amount of damage incurred is still
being assessed," Tiloeva added.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53133&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TAJIKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Government closes another American NGO
In yet another blow to international NGOs working in Uzbekistan,
authorities in that country are now calling for the closure of the
US-funded NGO, Counterpart International, citing its systematic
violation of Uzbek law, as well as its own charter. "We just learned of
this development last night and we've yet to chart out a strategy on
this," Mark Granius, regional director for Counterpart International
told IRIN from the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty, on Tuesday. "We
knew we were under investigation, but what caught us by surprise was the
actual swiftness of this."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53113&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: New school brings children with disabilities out of their
homes
Elyor is 11 years old, but his stunted growth - the result of
polyathritis - makes him look half that. He is busy working with
modelling clay at a new school in the Uzbek city of Angren, 80 km
southeast of the capital, Tashkent.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53166&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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