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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 95
21 - 27 October 2006


CONTENTS:

NEPAL: Vigilante groups still pose threat to civilians
NEPAL: Concerns over growing insecurity, despite ceasefire
NEPAL: New programme to boost education in rural west
AFGHANISTAN: UN calls for strengthening of disarmament process
   following deadly clashes
AFGHANISTAN: Scores of civilians killed in air strikes, say officials
   and elders
AFGHANISTAN: Record amount of marijuana seized
PAKISTAN: Eid travel brings dengue fever north
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap


NEPAL: Vigilante groups still pose threat to civilians

Despite a ceasefire and peace process, fear still lurks in many remote 
villages in Kapilbastu district, 200 km east of the Nepalese capital, 
Kathmandu. Anti-Maoist vigilantes continue to terrorise local people and 
routinely accuse them of supporting the rebels, according to citizens' 
groups.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56081&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: Concerns over growing insecurity, despite ceasefire

Human rights groups and other independent observers in Nepal expressed 
concern on Monday that the rising level of abduction, extortion, torture 
and killing by some Maoist factions was threatening to derail the 
country's fragile peace process and destabilise the state. Members of 
the Ceasefire Code of Conduct National Monitoring Committee criticised 
Maoist leaders for failing to act to control the activities of junior 
Maoist cadres, who were wrecking havoc across the country, they said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56051&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


NEPAL: New programme to boost education in rural west

Local community leaders say education standards in many rural villages 
in western Nepal are inadequate due to lack of commitment and investment 
from central government. But the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 
is helping to provide new schools for many poor children. In the remote 
village of Sihokar in Kapilbastu district, nearly 400 km west of the 
capital, Kathmandu, many children have no choice but to walk nearly 10 
km a day and then study in the open - with no roofs or walls.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56045&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL


AFGHANISTAN: UN calls for strengthening of disarmament process following 
deadly clashes

The United Nations has expressed grave concern at fierce fighting this 
week between two regional warlords, which left at least 32 people dead 
in the western province of Herat. The world body also called for an 
improvement in the ongoing nationwide disarmament programme.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56100&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Scores of civilians killed in air strikes, say officials 
and elders

Dozens of civilians have been killed during NATO air strikes in the 
insurgency-ravaged southern province of Kandahar, officials and local 
tribal elders said on Thursday. Atta Mohammad, 40, from Zangawat 
village, which was bombed during the NATO air strikes on Tuesday, was 
waiting in front of the surgical ward of Kandahar's Mirwais hospital to 
visit relatives.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56077&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


AFGHANISTAN: Record amount of marijuana seized

Afghan police and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force 
(ISAF) seized 9.2 mt of marijuana from a truck in the southern province 
of Zabul Province, the multi-national force said on Wednesday. In the 
largest known seizure of its kind, police recovered the drugs when they 
stopped the vehicle at a checkpoint on the Kandahar-Kabul road in Qalat 
city, the provincial capital of Zabul.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56064&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN


PAKISTAN: Eid travel brings dengue fever north

An outbreak of the deadly dengue virus in southern Pakistan has now 
spread to the north, partly because more people have been travelling 
across the country for Eid, medical officials say. The four-day national 
Eid ul-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan, started on Tuesday 
and has seen thousands boarding trains, buses or coaches to visit family 
or return home.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56050&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Human rights dominated the news in Central Asia this week, a region 
continually plagued by reports of ongoing human rights abuses. On 
Tuesday, Moscow deported an Uzbek man to his home country, despite a 
last-minute order by the European Court of Human Rights that the 
deportation be stayed pending a review.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56082&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA


IRIN-Asia
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Fax: +90 312 495 4166
Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org


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