U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 74
27 May - 2 June 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Deadly riots follow traffic accident
AFGHANISTAN: Seven aid workers killed
AFGHANISTAN: Business community angry in aftermath of riot
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
INDONESIA-PAKISTAN: Relief en route for Indonesian quake victims
KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank and government pledge to battle HIV/AIDS
NEPAL: Massive show of rebel support
NEPAL: Grassroots justice makes a difference
NEPAL: Despite ceasefire, displaced unready to return
NEPAL: Interview with new WFP Country Representative, Richard Ragan
NEPAL: Ceasefire offers chance to tackle small arms menace
PAKISTAN: Rescuing quake capital from toxic waste
PAKISTAN: Proposal to close all Afghan refugee camps within three years
PAKISTAN: Life returns to Allai villages eight months after quake
PAKISTAN: Quake helicopter service grounded
PAKISTAN: Media groups condemn killing of cameraman
PAKISTAN: Three Afghan refugee camps to close within two months
PAKISTAN: More than 100,000 quake victims need proper shelter this
winter - UN
THAILAND: Increased HIV/AIDS awareness needed - UNAIDS
UZBEKISTAN: Rights activist faces 8-year sentence after appeal fails
UZBEKISTAN: US NGO closed, two more under scrutiny


AFGHANISTAN: Deadly riots follow traffic accident

At least eight people were killed and more than 100 injured after a deadly 
traffic accident involving US troops sparked a demonstration in the Afghan 
capital Kabul, on Monday. The incident began when a US military convoy hit 
several civilian cars in rush-hour traffic as it entered the city from the 
northern outskirts. The crash aggravated the worst riot in Kabul since the 
fall of hard-line Taliban in late 2001, according to government officials.

Full report 



AFGHANISTAN: Seven aid workers killed

Seven aid workers lost their lives in Afghanistan on Tuesday in two 
separate incidents. At least four were killed in the northern Afghan 
province of Jawzjan when unidentified gunmen ambushed their vehicle, a 
government spokesman said in the capital Kabul. The Afghan aid workers - 
three women and one man from ActionAid International - were murdered when 
they were driving to the provincial capital of Sheberghan, Yousuf 
Stanizai, interior ministry spokesman, said.

Full report



AFGHANISTAN: Business community angry in aftermath of riot

"There is nothing but burnt chairs and tables. first they looted 
everything they could carry and then set fire to the rest of the 
restaurant," said owner Mohammad Arif standing in front of a 
smoke-blackened, windowless building burnt down by demonstrators during 
Monday's deadly riot in the Afghan capital Kabul. "This is the result of 
our investment here," Arif, who suffered thousands of US dollars damage 
during the disturbances, told IRIN.

Full report



CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has reduced the amount of rent 
required from Washington for use of the Manas military airbase in the 
Central Asian country, Financial Times reported on Friday. The Kyrgyz 
government wanted the Pentagon to pay US $207 million annually for use of 
the facilities - that support US operations in Afghanistan - a 100-fold 
increase on what Washington is currently paying for the base. On Friday, 
sources close to those involved in negotiations over the base said Bishkek 
might agree to as little as $15 million per year for the use of Manas, if 
an aid and investment package was included. The US delegation was expected 
to return to Washington on Friday, with negotiations ongoing.

Full report



INDONESIA-PAKISTAN: Relief en route for Indonesian quake victims

Pakistan has sent 30 mt of relief items for the survivors of Saturday's 
earthquake on Indonesia's Java island, where over 5,000 people have been 
confirmed died, thousands injured and an estimated 200,000 left homeless, 
according to the BBC. "The relief consignment from Pakistan includes 
tents, blankets, medicines and food items," Muhammad Naeem, an officer 
with the national Emergency Relief Cell in the Pakistani capital, 
Islamabad, told IRIN on Monday.

Full report



KYRGYZSTAN: World Bank and government pledge to battle HIV/AIDS

The World Bank's regional project to control HIV/AIDS in Central Asia and 
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday 
signed an agreement to fight the epidemic in the Central Asian country. 
"We need to strengthen national coordination mechanisms on fighting AIDS 
and this agreement will help us to do so," Tilek Meimanaliev, head of the 
World Bank's Central Asia Regional AIDS Control Project, said in the 
Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Full report



NEPAL: Massive show of rebel support

Nepal's Maoist rebels held the largest mass rally ever in the Nepalese 
capital Kathmandu on Friday, when nearly 200,000 people gathered to listen 
to speeches from 13 of the movement's leaders. Red communist flags could 
be seen fluttering from hundreds of locations throughout the city. 
Offices, businesses and schools were shut and public transport halted.

Full report



NEPAL: Grassroots justice makes a difference

A community effort to bring about social justice is making its presence 
felt in rural areas of Nepal, where a decade-long Maoist insurgency to 
overthrow the government has undermined local law and order mechanisms. In 
remote rural areas of the Himalayan kingdom, access to courts is next to 
non-existent, making informal mechanisms such as the United Nations 
Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s para-legal committees (PLC) a particularly 
encouraging sign of hope.

Full report



NEPAL: Despite ceasefire, displaced unready to return

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) throughout Nepal are not yet ready to 
return to their homes in large numbers despite the bilateral ceasefire and 
peace talks between the new government and Maoist rebels, NGOs say. The 
insurgency has dragged on for more than a decade and clashes between the 
Maoists' People's Liberation Army (PLA) and security forces have resulted 
in widespread displacement. The ceasefire has led to a trickle of returns 
as some villagers have taken the opportunity to reclaim property and 
livestock. But most IDPs are watching and waiting, aware that there have 
been many false dawns in Nepal's volatile recent history.

Full report



NEPAL: Interview with new WFP Country Representative, Richard Ragan

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been working in Nepal 
for over 40 years and is one of the few humanitarian agencies that has 
managed to maintain its programmes in the remotest parts of the country 
despite the last decade of conflict. A ceasefire and peace talks, along 
with the restoration of the political system by King Gyanendra, offer the 
best chance for a settlement to the civil war in many years. WFP's new 
Country Representative to Nepal, Richard Ragan, spoke to IRIN about the 
food agency's work in the current changing political climate in the 
Himalayan kingdom.

Full report



NEPAL: Ceasefire offers chance to tackle small arms menace

In the remote village of Mahadiyama in Kapilbastu district, 350 km 
southwest of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, local people still shudder with 
fear when they recall the murder one year ago of villager Salim Fakir and 
his elder brothers Jama and Namdan, who were shot dead in cold blood by 
Maoist insurgents. Local witnesses said that the Maoists, who have been 
waging war against the government for 10 years, had accused the brothers 
of joining a local vigilante group which operated against the rebels with 
help from the security forces.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Rescuing quake capital from toxic waste

Seven months after the 8 October quake which killed at least 80,000, the 
stench of death has finally wafted away from Muzaffarabad, the capital of 
Pakistan-administered Kashmir. However, something almost as bad has come 
in its place. The city of 90,000 people has been turned into a massive 
rubbish dump. An estimated 25 million cu metres of rubble lies scattered 
across it, and, according to city municipal officer Zahid Kashif, just 
over 2 million cu metres has been removed so far. Atop the debris, 
deposits of filth lie dumped - and in the scorching heat of May, with 
temperatures climbing above 30 degrees Celsius - it creates a terrible 
odour that never quite seems to leave some parts of the city.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Proposal to close all Afghan refugee camps within three years

The Pakistani government has proposed a three-year plan to gradually close 
all Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan at a meeting on Tuesday on the future 
of Afghan refugees in Pakistan held in the Qatari capital Doha. Some of 
the camps are a quarter of a century old and still house many who fled the 
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Life returns to Allai villages eight months after quake

The towering mountains of Allai, in northern Pakistan's Battagram 
district, no longer look as threatening as they did seven months ago. In 
some places, fresh new growth has sprung up to cover cracks in the 
hillsides, caused by last October's devastating regional earthquake. In 
others, cherry blossoms bloom brightly and the terraces carved into the 
steep hillsides are furrowed and ploughed.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Quake helicopter service grounded

Poor funding has led to the closure on Wednesday of the United Nations 
Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) in Pakistan, a critical lifeline to 
thousands of survivors of last year's devastating earthquake in the north 
of the country. Launched just two days after the disaster, the service 
provided a primary source of relief supplies for many remote communities 
affected.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Media groups condemn killing of cameraman

International media watchdogs have condemned the fatal shooting of a 
Pakistani cameraman earlier this week while covering a tribal feud in the 
southern Pakistani province of Sindh. "This murder should not go 
unpunished. The Pakistani police and judicial authorities must carry out a 
professional and impartial investigation," Reporters Without Borders 
(RSF), a Paris-based media freedom watchdog, said in a statement on 
Wednesday.

Full report



PAKISTAN: Three Afghan refugee camps to close within two months

Delegates from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the office of the United Nation 
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have agreed to close three Afghan 
refugee facilities at the end of July, officials said on Thursday. The 
agreement came after a two-day meeting in the Qatari capital Doha, held 
this week to discuss the long-term future of Afghan nationals living in 
Pakistan.

Full report



PAKISTAN: More than 100,000 quake victims need proper shelter this winter 
- UN

For 7-year-old Shebaz and his sister, it is difficult to know what their 
family will do. They lost everything in last year's devastating earthquake 
in northern Pakistan and now face an uncertain future. "I don't have a 
house to go to," he said casually outside his family's tent in 
Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. "I guess we will 
live here for a while," he said smiling.

Full report



THAILAND: Increased HIV/AIDS awareness needed - UNAIDS

An overwhelming majority - 85 percent - of Thai youth do not consider HIV 
an issue they need to be personally concerned with, after nearly a decade 
without any mass public awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, according to a UN 
official. "Public information, which was once ubiquitous, has dropped off 
the radar screen," Patrick Brenny, Country Coordinator of the Joint United 
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Thailand, said on Wednesday at 
the launch of the UNAIDS 2006 report in the Thai capital, Bangkok. "There 
is a strong recognition that prevention programming needs to be ramped 
up," he added.

Full report



UZBEKISTAN: Rights activist faces 8-year sentence after appeal fails

An appeals court in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, on Tuesday upheld an 
eight-year sentence against prominent rights activist Mutabar Tojiboyeva, 
who was detained following the unrest in the eastern city of Andijan just 
over a year ago. "Appeal court judges reaffirmed Mutabar Tojiboyeva's 
guilt and upheld an earlier sentence despite the fact that even 
prosecutors themselves had asked for a softer sentence," her defence 
lawyer, who declined to be named, told IRIN outside the court.

Full report



UZBEKISTAN: US NGO closed, two more under scrutiny

A court in Uzbekistan on Thursday ordered the closure of the local office 
of a US-funded educational organisation for violating domestic laws, 
including the constitution. A French aid group and a Hungarian charity are 
also under scrutiny as the Central Asian country continues to crack down 
on foreign NGOs in the country.

Full report


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