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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 82
22 - 28 July 2006


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Religious police raises concern among rights groups
AFGHANISTAN: Appeal launched to cope with drought
AFGHANISTAN: Former militia commanders disarm in northern province
AFGHANISTAN: Drug abuse on the rise in Helmand
CENTRAL ASIA: Aral Sea crisis continues to erode health
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: More Andijan victims seek asylum
NEPAL: Rebels not ready to disarm until peace process completed -
Maoist leaders
NEPAL: Make torture a crime - activists
PAKISTAN: Victims of forced evictions struggle to survive
PAKISTAN: Landslide kills 14 quake victims
PAKISTAN: Floods kill 40, creating havoc in cities


AFGHANISTAN: Religious police raises concern among rights groups

An Afghan government decision to recreate the notorious Department for the 
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has raised grave concerns among 
human rights groups. The government announced plans last week to 
re-establish the vice and virtues department, but said it would not return 
to the hardline ruling enforced by the Taliban.


AFGHANISTAN: Appeal launched to cope with drought

Afghanistan's government and t he United Nations (UN) have appealed for US 
$76 million to help feed 2.5 million drought-hit Afghans. Afghanistan, 
which suffered harsh droughts between 1998 and 2001, is facing a "food 
crisis" due to inadequate rainfall in April and May and an expected 
shortfall in this year's wheat harvest. Officials said wheat would 
normally account for 80 percent of total cereal production.


AFGHANISTAN: Former militia commanders disarm in northern province

Two former militia commanders in Afghanistan's northern Takhar province 
have surrendered more than 100 light and heavy weapons to the Disbandment 
of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme, officials from the UN-backed 
initiative said on Wednesday. "Former commanders Bashir Qanet and 
Waisuddin Khan surrendered 130 light and heavy weapons including mortars 
and rocket-propelled grenades to the DIAG weapons collection team in Chah 
Ab district of Takhar province," Ahmad Jan Nawzadi, a public information 
officer for the DIAG programme, said from the Afghan capital, Kabul.


AFGHANISTAN: Drug abuse on the rise in Helmand

Halima's drug addiction started with a toothache. "Some of my relatives 
told me to put a piece of opium in my mouth to relieve the pain. After a 
while I soon became addicted to this evil,~T the 30-year-old 
mother-of-four said as she sat in a long queue of women waiting for 
treatment at a drug addiction clinic in Lashkar Gah, the capital of 
Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand. Helmand, the largest 
opium-producing province in a country that produces nearly 90 percent of 
the world~Rs illicit opium, has seen a steady increase in addiction.


CENTRAL ASIA: Aral Sea crisis continues to erode health

Millions of people living near the Aral Sea face a bleak future, with 
health experts saying diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and cancer are 
having a terrible impact. The sea, located on the border of Kazakhstan and 
Uzbekistan, was once the fourth largest lake in the world. However, it 
continues to shrink despite regional commitments to halt the draining of 
the rivers that feed it. It is now a quarter of its original size.


CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week Washington sought to expand military cooperation with countries 
in Central Asia, but would likely cut down its military presence in the 
region, AP reported on Monday, citing a senior US general. General John P 
Abizaid, head of the US army's central command, said that the US military 
was looking for help to stabilise Afghanistan, which neighbours three of 
the former Soviet republics, but had no intention to establish new 
military bases in the region.


KYRGYZSTAN: More Andijan victims seek asylum

At least 14 Uzbek nationals have applied for refugee status in the 
southern Kyrgyz city of Osh in the past few days, the office of the UN 
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and local migration officials have 
confirmed. ~SThey are seeking refugee st atus in Kyrgyzstan and their 
applications have been duly registered,~T officials at the Kyrgyz 
Migration and Employment Agency in Osh said on Friday.


NEPAL: Rebels not ready to disarm until peace process completed - Maoist 
leaders

Despite spending the last three months engaged in peace talks with the 
Nepalese government, Maoist rebels are still not prepared to demobilise, 
disarm or integrate, their leaders said in the Nepalese capital, 
Kathmandu, on Monday. "The government should stop raising their voices for 
demobilising or decommissioning only our military. Let there a be 
political solution first," Dinnanath Sharma, a senior Maoist leader and 
negotiator, said.


NEPAL: Make torture a crime - activists

Human rights lawyers and activists in Nepal are concerned that the 
country's peace process will fail to recognise that torture is a crime and 
deliver justice for its victims. The interim government and Maoists are 
trying to negotiate a lasting settlement to end the decade-long conflict 
that has gripped the Himalayan kingdom.


PAKISTAN: Victims of forced evictions struggle to survive

Pervaiz, 13, has not been to school for more than seven months after his 
family was relocated to Taiser Town, a new settlement of 95,000 people 
outside the industrial city of Karachi. Most of Taiser Town's residents 
were forcibly evicted fro m their homes in Karachi's Lyari area, which was 
demolished to make way for the controversial Lyari Expressway. Pervaiz's 
father has been left jobless, meaning his family can no longer afford to 
send him to school. "He [Pervaiz's father] worked as an office cleaner 
near Lyari before, but now he cannot go so far early in the morning to 
work," Pervaiz explained.


PAKISTAN: Landslide kills 14 quake victims

At least 14 earthquake survivors have been killed after monsoon rains 
triggered mudslides in northern Pakistan. At least 12 died in the Chehla 
Bandi area of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, 
on Monday when a landslide swept away seven tents and shelters constructed 
from tin sheets and concrete blocks.


PAKISTAN: Floods kill 40, creating havoc in cities

Another week of heavy rains throughout Pakistan has brought death and 
destruction across northern parts of the country. At least 40 people have 
died in July as a result of landslides and drownings in rain-submerged 
urban areas.


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