Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-79: 07-Jul-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 79
1 - 7 July 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Japan donates US $3 million to buy food
AFGHANISTAN: Rights bodies and lawmakers condemn attack on
parliamentarian
AFGHANISTAN: Five civilians killed in Kunar province
AFGHANISTAN: UN condemns Kabul blasts
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill seven in the north
CENTRAL ASIA: Tajiks who fled civil war no longer refugees
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Lack of healthy blood donors causing unnecessary deaths
NEPAL: New budget to focus on rural development
NEPAL: UN help requested in bolstering peace process
NEPAL: Interview with regional director of UNIFEM South Asia
PAKISTAN: Lack of tourists affects livelihoods across quake zone
PAKISTAN: Japan extends $35 million for quake reconstruction
AFGHANISTAN: Japan donates US $3 million to buy food
The government of Japan has donated US $3 million to the United Nations
World Food Programme (WFP) to purchase food for 44,000 of the worst
affected families in Afghanistan, WFP said on Monday in the capital
Kabul. The donation comes after the WFP office in Afghanistan warned in
May that millions of Afghans were in a destitute condition and could
face severe hunger if more than US $30 million was not provided to the
UN agency.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54386&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Rights bodies and lawmakers condemn attack on
parliamentarian
Rights bodies in Afghanistan have condemned an assault on a member of
the newly elected national parliament in northern Jawzjan province and
called on authorities to conduct an investigation into the incident.
Faizullah Zaki was on holiday in his home town in Jawzjan province when
he was attacked and beaten in early June. The lawmaker was airlifted to
hospital in neighbouring Uzbekistan's capital, Tashkent, where he is
still under treatment.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54388&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Five civilians killed in Kunar province
Suspected Taliban guerillas killed five Afghan civilians working at a US
military base in the eastern province of Kunar province late on Monday,
while in the capital Kabul two separate bombs left six people wounded.
"Insurgents opened fire on a truck on Monday evening carrying labourers
working in a US military base in Korangal village in the Dara-e-Pech
district of Kunar province killing five of them and wounding another,"
Zahidullah Zahid, spokesman for the Kunar governor, told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54395&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UN condemns Kabul blasts
The United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan has condemned a series
of roadside bomb blasts in the Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday and
Wednesday that killed one person and injured at least 50 others. The
explosions, which appear to have been directed against government
institutions and staff, served no purpose other than to terrorise and
kill or maim ordinary citizens, Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of
United Nations Secretary-General to Afghanistan, said on Wednesday in
Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54411&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Floods kill seven in the north
Floods caused by heavy rains and melting snow in the northern Afghan
province of Baghlan have killed at least seven people and left hundreds
of families in urgent need of assistance, officials said on Wednesday.
"Flash floods that followed heavy rains on Monday night killed at least
seven people in the Khost-o-Pring district of Baghlan province,"
Mohammad Alam Rasekh, governor of Baghlan province, told IRIN.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54410&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Tajiks who fled civil war no longer refugees
Thousands of Tajiks who fled the civil war in their country in the
1990s, including those currently living in neighbouring Central Asian
republics, are no longer considered refugees by the office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "The cessation clause
for Tajik refugees became effective on 1 July [2006]. However, Tajik
refugees who remain in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan will be able to get
assistance from UNHCR if they want to repatriate voluntarily," Galima
Gubaeva, UNHCR's assistant protection officer, said from the Tajik
capital, Dushanbe, on Monday.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54367&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week in Central Asia, representatives of ethnic Uyghurs living in
Kyrgyzstan protested on Thursday outside the Chinese embassy in the
Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, demanding the release of Huseyin Cecil, an
ethnic Uyghur deported to China, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) reported. Cecil, a Canadian citizen who fled China in 1994, was
arrested in Uzbekistan in March while visiting the country and later
extradited to China. He was accused of involvement in human rights
activities for the Uighur minority in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous
Region (XUAR). He now faces a possible death penalty.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54488&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: Lack of healthy blood donors causing unnecessary deaths
A severe shortage of blood is having an impact on health care in
Kyrgyzstan and in particular on maternal mortality, the government says.
The son of Marina Tshai, a young designer from the Kyrgyz capital,
Bishkek, could have been an orphan today if his mother hadn't received a
blood transfusion after giving birth to him. His mother urgently needed
blood and not a single hospital in the city had the required type, even
though it was from a common group. Her relatives reverted to radical
measures to obtain the blood: they put out an urgent request on local
radio in order to find a donor.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54404&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: New budget to focus on rural development
Nepal's forthcoming national budget, for the fiscal year 2006-2007 to be
announced on 16 July, will focus heavily on rural development, senior
officials at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said on Monday. "The
government will focus on rural rehabilitation with huge public
investment in the forthcoming budget due to the new political
situation," said Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat in the capital,
Kathmandu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54376&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: UN help requested in bolstering peace process
The government of Nepal has asked the UN for help with the ongoing peace
process, in particular with reorganising the army and overseeing the
ceasefire, the organisation said on Wednesday. "The United Nations has
received an official request from the Nepalese government to offer
support to the ongoing peace process," said Junko Sazaki, acting UN
Resident Coordinator in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54446&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Interview with regional director of UNIFEM South Asia
Since the Nepalese monarch King Gyanendra gave up his direct rule in
April following mass uprising in Nepal, lack of women in the ongoing
peace talks between the country's new interim government and the Maoist
insurgents has been causing serious disturbance among the Nepalese women
and girls. Chandni Joshi, South Asia regional director of United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), spoke to IRIN about the situation
of Nepalese women during her visit in the capital, Kathmandu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54456&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Lack of tourists affects livelihoods across quake zone
Local people who used to make their living from tourism in parts of
northern Pakistan have been affected by a serious slump in trade since
the South Asian earthquake struck in October last year. Waheed, 32,
absent-mindedly twists a piece of paper in one hand as he sits by a
winding hillside path in the mountain town of Naltar, in the Kaghan
Valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), about 230 km north of the
capital, Islamabad.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54387&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Japan extends $35 million for quake reconstruction
The Japanese government has pledged an additional grant of US $35
million for rehabilitation work in quake-ravaged areas of northern
Pakistan. Commenting on the grant, a spokesman at the Japanese Embassy
in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN on Wednesday the amount
was to be used mainly to reconstruct destroyed schools and hospitals. He
also stated Japan was fully committed to extending maximum help to
assist in ongoing quake recovery efforts.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=54445&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
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