Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-85: 18-Aug-06
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 85
12 - 18 August 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Emergency fund provides US $11 million for drought relief
AFGHANISTAN: Hepatitis B kills more than 11,000 people annually
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
NEPAL: Rights activists demand rehabilitation of child soldiers
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees want third-country resettlement
PAKISTAN: Quake victims despair as wait for land drags on
PAKISTAN: Flooding forces quake victims to relocate again
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups fear refugees will be tortured
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups welcome Russian decision on 13 Andijan
suspects
AFGHANISTAN: Emergency fund provides US $11 million for drought relief
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) has allocated $11 million from the Central Emergency Response
Fund (CERF) for drought-stricken Afghanistan, it was announced on
Monday. The CERF aims to provide a more timely international response to
humanitarian crises. The contribution came after a joint appeal by the
United Nations (UN) and the Afghan government on 25 July for $76 million
to feed and assist more than 2.5 million drought-affected people.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55147&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Hepatitis B kills more than 11,000 people annually
Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) officials estimate hepatitis B
kills more than 11,000 people annually, with 7 percent of the country's
population already infected. Sayed Bibi's family has been devastated by
hepatitis B. "I have been suffering from this illness for the past three
years and the same illness killed my mother. Now my elder son is also
suffering from this sickness," Sayed, a mother-of-eight, said from her
bed in the crowded room she shares with other patients at Kabul's only
infectious disease treatment facility.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55169&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Kazakh authorities on Tuesday handed over an Uzbek refugee to the office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which said
his life would have been in danger if he had been extradited to
Tashkent. Gabdurafikh Temirbayev, detained in June after an extradition
request from Uzbekistan, had fled to Kazakhstan in 1999, fearing
persecution because of practicing Islam outside of Uzbek state-run
mosques, according to UNHCR.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55175&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
NEPAL: Rights activists demand rehabilitation of child soldiers
Rights groups are concerned that peace talks to end Nepal's decade-long
conflict have ignored the disarming and rehabilitation of child
soldiers. Tarak Dhital, of the local NGO Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN),
said the demilitarisation, demobilisation and reintegration(DDR) of
child soldiers had to be given top priority. "This issue has not been
raised in any of the peace talks yet," Dhital said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55125&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees want third-country resettlement
Bhutanese refugees in Nepal have vowed to continue their demonstration
in front of the United Nations (UN) office in the capital, Kathmandu, to
draw international attention to their plight. Tirtha Bahadur Gurung, 70,
a member of the Bhutanese Movement Steering Committee (BMSC) formed in
May to represent the interests of the estimated 106,000 refugees in
Nepal, said they were not going to move. "We will continue with our
strike until death and not move from here until our problems are sorted
out," Gurung said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55167&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Quake victims despair as wait for land drags on
Thousands of survivors are still waiting for land to be allocated so
they can rebuild their homes more than 10 months after the devastating
earthquake that struck northern Pakistan. The 8 October quake measuring
7.6 on the Richter scale killed at least 75,000 people and left more
than 3.5 million homeless when it ripped through Pakistan's North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Many
survivors are living in camps and have no idea when they will be
allocated land by the government.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55136&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Flooding forces quake victims to relocate again
Hundreds of Pakistani families who had returned to their homes following
last year's massive earthquake have been forced to relocate again by
flooding. This year's monsoon season has brought severe flooding to
quake-affected northern Pakistan, killing at least 200 people since the
rains started in mid-July. Water levels have been up to three times
higher than last year in some places, according to reports. Houses,
roads, railways tracks, water supplies, sewerage pipes and crops have
been destroyed.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55174&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups fear refugees will be tortured
Human rights groups have expressed serious concerns about the safety of
five men recently extradited by Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan for their
alleged involvement in last year's anti-government protests in the
eastern Uzbek city of Andijan. Bahtiyor Khamroev, an activist with the
Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, said on Monday that the men's "lives
and well-being" were under real threat in Uzbek prisons. "We are very
concerned about their fate as the systemic usage of torture is still
very much a reality here," Khamroev said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55118&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
UZBEKISTAN: Rights groups welcome Russian decision on 13 Andijan
suspects
Human rights activists have welcomed Russia's decision to halt the
extradition of 13 Uzbek nationals wanted on terrorism charges following
protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan last year. The group's
lawyer had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
citing concerns over the possibility of torture and execution. "We very
much welcome the decision of the General-Prosecutor's office to halt the
extradition. However, it is troubling to me that it took the
intervention of the European Court to bring about this change," Alison
Gill, director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55148&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
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