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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 75
3 - 9 June 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Press watchdog unhappy at new media restraints
AFGHANISTAN: Interview with regional analyst Barnet Rubin
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: Tajiks to lose refugee status
NEPAL: WFP begins emergency food relief operation in west
NEPAL: More than a million child labourers
PAKISTAN: Government to evacuate 30 villages due to landslide risk
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors living with disabilities ponder future
PAKISTAN: Thousands still entombed under quake rubble
PAKISTAN: New health units established in quake zone
PAKISTAN: Call for renewed support for Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Journalists protest at killing of colleague
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors to receive radios following customs dispute
TURKMENISTAN: OSCE mulls over spy allegations


AFGHANISTAN: Press watchdog unhappy at new media restraints

New media directives aimed at restricting local coverage of Afghanistan's 
security situation have been described as "outrageous" by a press 
monitoring group on Wednesday, calling the ban harassment of independent 
media. "This means that the media cannot talk about the reality of what 
is going on in Afghanistan - the killings, car bombs and military 
operations," Vincent Brossel, head of Reporter Sans Frontiers' (RSF) 
Asia Pacific desk, told IRIN from Paris.


AFGHANISTAN: Interview with regional analyst Barnet Rubin

Almost five years since the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime 
from Afghanistan, observers say security is at an all-time low outside the 
capital and confidence in the international effort to rebuild the country 
is questionable. Despite presidential and parliamentary elections leading 
to the country's first democratically elected legislature in more than 
three decades, economic progress has been painfully slow with opium 
production remaining widespread.


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly News Wrap

This week in Central Asia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation 
in Europe (OSCE) criticised a proposed media bill in Kazakhstan that 
would, if passed by the parliament, impose stronger restrictions on the 
media, a Russian online newspaper reported on Tuesday. OSCE said the bill, 
which would introduce high registration fees for media outlets, while 
requiring re-registration for others, was restrictive and called on Astana 
to withdraw the bill. The government, which is lobbying for chairmanship 
of the OSCE in 2009, said that the bill had been necessary to reduce the 
number of news outlets and to ensure public trust in the media.


KAZAKHSTAN: Tajiks to lose refugee status

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 
Kazakhstan has confi rmed that it will soon be withdrawing the refugee 
status of some 1,500 Tajik nationals living in Central Asia's largest 
state. The move comes in accordance with a global recognition that all 
Tajik refugees - irrespective of their country of asylum - ceased to be 
refugees after 30 June.


NEPAL: WFP begins emergency food relief operation in west

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun its first ever 
emergency food operation in the Himalayan kingdom due to acute food 
shortages faced by villagers in remote districts of northwestern Nepal. 
Traditionally, districts like Jumla, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Kalikot, 
Jajarkot, Dailekh, Rukum, Rolpa and Bajura have a history of suffering 
from food shortages given their high altitude locations where there are 
very steep slopes, poor soil and an especially dry climate - all of which 
limit cultivation potential, according to Action Contre la Faim (ACF), a 
French international NGO.


NEPAL: More than a million child labourers

Over a million Nepalese children are working as child labourers in Nepal, 
with 127,000 involved in the worst forms, according to the government's 
National Living Standard Survey (NLSS). "This is our society's bitter 
reality," said Gauri Pradhan from the local NGO, Child Workers in Nepal 
(CWIN), which has been leading the campaign against exploitation of 
children for the last 19 years.


PAKISTAN: Government to evacuate 30 villages due to landslide risk

Some 11,000 residents of 30 villages around the city of Muzaffarabad, 
capital of quake-hit Pakistani-administered Kashmir will be evacuated from 
their houses by the end of this month after their villages were declared 
unsafe and prone to further landslides, officials said on Friday. "So far 
some 1,054 families or 6,515 individuals living in 22 villages near 
Muzaffarabad and more than 700 families [around 4,500 individuals] living 
in eight villages in Hattian Bala [a district close to Mazaffarabad] will 
be evacuated before 1 July when the rainy monsoon [season] starts," Raja 
Abas, a commissioner from the government's Camp Management Organization 
(CMO), said in Muzaffarabad.


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors living with disabilities ponder future

Latif Ashraf is considering the layout of his new house carefully. In the 
family's tent, set up at their village 10 km outside the town of Bagh, 
one of the towns worst hit by the 8 October quake in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir, he shows a new set of drawings to his wife 
Shanaz. The drawings show kitchen counters built low down on the wall, 
cupboards at floor level and sinks raised about a metre from the ground. 
The purpose is to enable Shahnaz, left paralyzed from the waist down after 
being trapped under the rubble of her home in the quake, to manage 
cooking, cleaning and the care of the couple's two small children.


PAKISTAN: Thousands still entombed under quake rubble

Pointing to the remains of his shattered hous e, 35-year-old Ghulam Rasool 
explained how six members of his family died when a huge landslide 
destroyed his village during the 8 October earthquake that hit northern 
Pakistan last year, leaving more than 75,000 dead. "If I was sure that I 
would find the dead bodies of my beloved sons, mother, father, wife and my 
little brother, I would have worked day and night but I know it is very 
difficult for me to search for them in such a huge hill of debris and 
rubble," Rasool said.


PAKISTAN: New health units established in quake zone

The World Health Organization (WHO) handed out 23 newly constructed Basic 
Health Units (BHUs) on Saturday to health authorities in 
earthquake-affected Pakistani-administered Kashmir. "All these BHUs - 
equipped with medicine, supplies and furniture are currently operational, 
but we are giving [them] officially to the government to take care of the 
maintenance and staffing process," Dr Khalif Bile, WHO representative in 
Pakistan, told reporters in Muzaffarabad, capital of the 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir.


PAKISTAN: Call for renewed support for Afghan refugees

Marking World Refugee Day, aid workers on Tuesday called for international 
support for new initiatives to assist more than 2.6 million Afghan 
refugees living in Pakistan as well as those hosting them. "We remain 
committed to facilitating their [Afghan refugees] safe and dignified 
return home. But we must also take a holistic approach to assist both 
refugees and their host communities to increase their self-sufficiency," 
Mustafa Elkanzi, Country Director of the US-base d charity, International 
Rescue Committee (IRC), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.


PAKISTAN: Journalists protest at killing of colleague

Journalists' bodies across Pakistan held protest demonstrations on Monday 
against the killing of a reporter in the restive North Waziristan agency 
of the western tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The handcuffed body of 
30-year-old Hayatullah Khan was discovered on Friday outside the town of 
Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal agency. He had been shot in the back of 
the head, local media reported.


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors to receive radios following customs dispute

The international media support NGO, Internews, is set to distribute 
10,000 radios among quake-affected people in northern Pakistan, after 
losing a four-month battle to have customs charges on the Chinese-made 
sets lifted. The radios will assist quake survivors in gaining information 
about reconstruction and returns. "We were set to distribute the radio 
sets on=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN">Full report


TURKMENISTAN: OSCE mulls over spy allegations

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has yet to 
respond in full over accusations that a member of its staff was involved 
in a plot to undermine the Turkmen government. "We don't have any 
comment to make on the details," Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the 
organisation said from Vienna on Tuesday, referring to government 
accusations made public in a televised broadcast one night earlier in the 
Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.


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