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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 80
8 - 14 July 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Civilian casualties from anti-insurgency conflict mount
AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents targeting schools - HRW report
AFGHANISTAN: UN concerned at deteriorating security
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN-PAKISTAN: Refugee returns down, but many with skills
   go home
CENTRAL ASIA: Dog training helps border guards curb drug trafficking
CENTRAL ASIA: European Commission seeks to improve immigration
   policies
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Foot-and-mouth disease moves north
KYRGYZSTAN: Global Fund acknowledges country's HIV/AIDS success
NEPAL: New budget boosts rural development, cuts king's income
NEPAL: Female labourers demand equal pay
PAKISTAN: Education key to quake region's future
PAKISTAN: Torrential rains flood quake areas, wash away roads
PAKISTAN: Landslides imminent following monsoons
PAKISTAN: Over a thousand women freed under change in law


AFGHANISTAN: Civilian casualties from anti-insurgency conflict mount

Local people and rights groups in southern Afghanistan are increasingly 
concerned about what they say is an escalation in civilian deaths and 
injuries resulting from the growing insurgency in the region. Lying in bed 
in Kandahar~Rs main hospital, 35-year-old Mohammad Jailani whose face, 
chest and legs are covered by white bandages, is surrounded by his 
relatives.


AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents targeting schools - HRW report

Escalating attacks by insurgents on teachers, students and schools in 
Afghanistan are shutting down educational institutions across the country, 
particularly in the south, a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has 
warned. The 142-page report, "Lessons in Terror: Attacks on Education in 
Afghanistan," released on Monday, documented 204 attacks since January 
2005.


AFGHANISTAN: UN concerned at deteriorating security

The United Nations' top envoy to Afghanistan has expressed concern at the 
deteriorating security situation in the south and called for more 
development work as well as further military and diplomatic intervention 
to curb the growing threat of insurgency in the country. "These are 
difficult times for Afghanistan. They are difficult times for the south 
but backing away is not an option," Tom Koenigs, the UN 
Secretary-General's Special Representative to Afghanistan told reporters 
on Monday in the capital, Kabul.


AFGHANISTAN-IRAN-PAKISTAN: Refugee returns down, but many with skills go 
home

The voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan this year has 
surpassed the 100,000 mark. Although the number is less than the same 
period last year, it includes many skilled workers taking their expertise 
back h ome, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 
said on Tuesday. Among the returnees so far this year are more than 1,200 
carpet weavers, 350 teachers, 325 engineers and 115 from the medical 
profession.


CENTRAL ASIA: Dog training helps border guards curb drug trafficking

Border drug detection teams from Central Asia are being trained to use 
sniffer dogs in counter-narcotics operations near the Kazakh commercial 
capital, Almaty. "During the course participants are learning skills on 
how to train and use sniffer dogs in searching for and detecting drugs and 
explosives," Ruslan Kovalev, head of the Kazakh border service's unit 
working with dogs, said from the training facility on Thursday.


CENTRAL ASIA: European Commission seeks to improve immigration policies

A new project by the European Commission (EC), in collaboration with the 
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), aims 
to strengthen legislation governing asylum seekers in Central Asia. "The 
main aim is to put into place asylum policies based on international 
standards," Adriaan Van der Meer, head of the EC's delegation to 
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, told IRIN from the Kazakh 
commercial capital, Almaty. "The issue of asylum seekers is a major 
component, but it's also to help countries distinguish between so called 
economic refugees and real refugees."


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan threatened on Wednesday to expel two 
US diplomats accusing them of interfering in the internal affairs of the 
former Soviet republic, Reuters reported. Kyrgyz authorities reportedly 
said that the diplomats had had "inappropriate" contact with NGOs in the 
republic, which is home to a US military airbase, a Kyrgyz news site 
reported.


KYRGYZSTAN: Global Fund acknowledges country's HIV/AIDS success

A specialist from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, 
speaking in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, confirmed on Friday that the 
mountainous former Soviet republic of 5.1 million is a leader among other 
Central Asian countries in its fight against HIV/AIDS.


KYRGYZSTAN: Foot-and-mouth disease moves north

The discovery of foot-and-mouth disease in the northern Chui region of 
Kyrgyzstan late last week has led to the closure of cattle markets and the 
implementation of an initial 21-day quarantine period. "We have announced 
a quarantine in Chui oblast [province]. Currently we have this disease 
registered in three districts of Osh region, two districts in Djalal-Abad 
region and three districts of Chui region," Esenbai Seitov of the National 
Veterinary Service told IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.


NEPAL: New budget boosts rural development, cuts king's income

The Nepalese government on Wednesday presented a new national US $1.9 
billion "peace budget" that will boost rural development and leave the 
monarch with less cash in the fiscal year 2006/07. Presenting the budget 
to parliament in the capital, Kathmandu, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat 
said the government was committed to rural development at a time when the 
country was moving towards peace.


NEPAL: Female labourers demand equal pay

Female labourers in Nepal are angry that they continue to be discriminated 
against in terms of pay and a group have gone to the capital, Kathmandu, 
to take legal action against the government. Kanchi Lama works eight hours 
a day at a construction site in the village of Madi in Chitwan district, 
100 km southeast of the capital. She toils carrying bricks and is expected 
to work as hard as the men who labour alongside her. But come pay day, she 
gets just half a male wage.


PAKISTAN: Education key to quake region's future

Education will prove a key component to the rebuilding of northern 
Pakistan, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday, where upwards 
of 10,000 schools and three-quarters of the area's health facilities were 
damaged or destroyed in last year's devastating quake. "The rebuilding of 
the region's education infrastructure is vital to the area's future," 
Tejre Thodensen, acting Country Representative for the UN children's 
agency, told IRIN from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "You need to go 
to school. Y ou need to learn to read and write," he explained.


PAKISTAN: Torrential rains flood quake areas, wash away roads

The monsoon season in northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir 
is bringing further misery to the victims of last October's earthquake, 
with many still living in inadequate, temporary dwellings. After recent 
days of heavy rainfall and predictions for a severe monsoon, there are 
fears that the rain could bring greater devastation than the snows of the 
past winter, which were relatively mild. In the North West Frontier 
Province (NWFP) town of Balakot, which was devastated by the quake, people 
are still camped out in tents.


PAKISTAN: Landslides imminent following monsoons

With monsoons making early inroads, fear has engulfed many communities in 
earthquake-battered areas of northern Pakistan after a warning by 
international organisations that torrential rains in July and August may 
trigger major landslides in the area. "We are afraid of another nightmare 
approaching us," said Imran Khan, a resident of the northern town of 
Balakot that was levelled by last year's tremor. "The land has developed 
wide cracks after last year's earthquake and there will certainly be 
massive landslides during the monsoons," he warned.


PAKISTAN: Over a thousand women freed under change in law

Women prisoners in Pakist an freed under an amendment to a controversial 
Islamic law began to be released over the weekend. President General 
Pervez Musharraf amended the law, which has been on the statute book since 
1979, on Friday. The change means women convicted of adultery or sex 
outside marriage can be released on bail rather than having to serve 
prison sentences.


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