Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-58: 10-Feb-06
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 58
10 February 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: No alternative to opium, say farmers
AFGHANISTAN: Education crisis in the south with 200 schools closed
AFGHANISTAN: Criticism of NGO de-registration
AFGHANISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 13
PAKISTAN: IOM assessing smaller quake camps
PAKISTAN: Young quake survivors turning to child labour
PAKISTAN: Rights environment grim, says report
NEPAL: Just one in 10 vote in controversial poll
NEPAL: To vote or not to vote?
KYRGYZSTAN: Passport problem strangling labour migration
KAZAKHSTAN: New NGO guide popular among journalists
TURKMENISTAN: Pension cuts begin to bite
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: No alternative to opium, say farmers
Sitting in his neighbour's swirling field of poppy, wearing dusty
clothes, farmer Abdul Qauom, 32, is keen to find an alternative crop
that will earn him a living after his two hectares of opium fields were
recently destroyed by state security forces, in line with government
policy. "I don't know what to cultivate. There is nothing that can meet
the financial needs of my family," said father-of-six Qauom. "The
government has destroyed my crops without paying any compensation or
giving me anything."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51638&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Education crisis in the south with 200 schools closed
Sitting in her windowless, smoke-blackened classroom, Zubaida, 15, a
ninth grade student, is happy to attend school again after an arson
attack destroyed her secondary school in southern Kandahar two weeks
ago. Education in the volatile region is in crisis as insurgents
ruthlessly target schools, teachers and pupils, creating a climate of
fear. "We go home by different routes every day because of threats and
intimidation," Zubaida explained.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51608&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Criticism of NGO de-registration
Civic groups in Afghanistan expressed varying reactions to a decision by
the government on Tuesday to de-register some 1,600 NGOs in the
post-conflict country. Some NGO groups complained that they had not been
given time and support to go through the registration process. "The
government has not been able to really process and facilitate the
process of registration for the NGOs," Aziz Rafiee, managing director of
the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSF), a local NGO forum of some 75
participants, said from the Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51611&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 13
A suicide bomber killed 13 and wounded 13 others when he blew himself up
at police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar,
officials said on Tuesday. "Around 9:45 AM local time, a suicide bomber
tried to enter police headquarters. While police were searching him, he
detonated the explosives which killed 13 people, among whom seven are
police and six civilians," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai
told IRIN, adding eight civilians and five police were also wounded
during the attack - the 20th suicide bombing in recent weeks in
Afghanistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51598&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: IOM assessing smaller quake camps
In a further effort to assist quake victims living in smaller
spontaneous settlements, the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) has completed an assessment covering quake-hit areas of two
districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Mary
Giudice, emergency shelter coordinator of the IOM's quake relief
operation in NWFP in the northern city of Mansehra, explained that the
assessment had three aims: to map out camp clusters of less than 50
tents; to identify the humanitarian partners working there; and to
assess the needs of survivors living there.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51587&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Young quake survivors turning to child labour
Ayaz, 14, is not quite sure where to throw the large black rubbish bag
he is lugging down a small street in a suburb of the eastern Pakistani
city of Lahore. This is the first time Ayaz has been in Lahore, and
certainly the first time he has worked as a domestic in a kitchen. "I
have never chopped onions before, or washed pots and pans. Until the 8
October earthquake, I simply attended school in Muzaffrabad, and was
preparing for my matriculation examination," Ayaz told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51591&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Rights environment grim, says report
A growing militarisation of society, coupled with an increased lack of
transparency in matters of governance, has contributed to a grim human
rights situation in the country, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP) said in a new report on Saturday. Releasing the organisation's
annual report, covering the period from 1 November 2004 to 31 August
2005, HRCP officials noted that the failure to provide institutionalised
protection to vulnerable groups, including women and children, also
meant there had been no significant improvement in their plight.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51555&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
NEPAL: Just one in 10 vote in controversial poll
Turnout was low in Nepal's first election in seven years, with less than
10 percent of voters casting their vote in the controversial municipal
poll, the Himalayan kingdom's Election Commission (EC) said on
Wednesday. The low turnout was seen as a success by the main political
parties and Maoist rebels who had been campaigning for an election
boycott. They argued the election could not take place while King
Gyanendra retains absolute power in Nepal.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51622&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: To vote or not to vote?
For 25-year-old housewife Sabrina Lama, security for her family is much
more important than politics. But now she feels she's under immense
pressure - from those pushing her to participate in Wednesday's
municipal election and those warning her to stay away. "I wish I had
joined my husband for labour work in India," explained Lama. Maoist
rebels and the country's leading political parties are behind the
boycott and have been campaigning widely against the elections, which
they say has nothing to do with democracy and is all about King
Gyanendra consolidating his year-long direct rule.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51554&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
KYRGYZSTAN: Passport problem strangling labour migration
Thousands of Kyrgyz labour migrants normally working abroad are in limbo
in the Central Asian state as they cannot leave the country due to an
ongoing passport problem. Ainura Tabyshalieva, a 50-year-old shoe trader
working in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, came back to
Kyrgyzstan in August to get a new passport as her old one had expired.
Initially hoping to return to her flourishing small business in Russia
quickly after sorting her travel documents out, she has been stranded in
her home country for the past five months as she cannot get a new
passport.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51592&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
KAZAKHSTAN: New NGO guide popular among journalists
A new guide on civil society in Kazakhstan issued with assistance from
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is
gaining popularity among journalists in the Central Asian state,
bridging the gap between the two sectors. "The idea behind publishing
this guide is to establish a relationship between the NGOs and the mass
media. We launched this project with the aim of bridging the gap between
them," Nikolay Orininski, a programme manager with MediaNet, a local
centre for supporting and developing journalism, said on Thursday from
the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51639&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KAZAKHSTAN
TURKMENISTAN: Pension cuts begin to bite
Big reductions in state benefits announced late last year in
Turkmenistan are having a serious impact in the reclusive Central Asian
state - particularly on the lives of the elderly who already live
marginalised lives in the country of six million people. "I went to the
post office on 2 January as usual to claim my pension. I was told I was
no longer eligible for my monthly money, there was no explanation, no
apology. There are thousands like me, how do we survive now?"
74-year-old Svetlana Ivanovna asked as she tried to hawk knitted socks
in the Russian bazaar in central Ashgabat to buy food.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51553&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia an avalanche claimed the lives of a family of
three in Tajikistan, the country's emergency ministry reported on
Wednesday. The disaster killed the family near the eastern city of
Khorog, about 650 km east of the capital, Dushanbe. About 93 percent of
the Central Asian nation's territory is mountainous and avalanches are
common during winter and spring. On 31 January, an avalanche in the
northeastern Jirgital district killed 18 people and injured 12 others.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51661&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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