Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-87: 01-Sep-06
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Integrated Regional Information Network
Tel: +92-51-2211451 Ext 484
Fax: +92-51-2211 450
e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk
Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 87
26 August - 1 September 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Japan pledges US $29 million to UNDP projects
AFGHANISTAN: UNESCO helps officials to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: UNHCR to relocate Uzbek asylum seekers from south to
capital
NEPAL: UN to play more active role in peace process
NEPAL: Urgent humanitarian aid needed for flood victims
NEPAL: Flood victims need a lot more food and medical aid - NGOs
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees refuse to give up strike
PAKISTAN: Tribal chief's killing leads to violence
PAKISTAN: More fighting in Balochistan, but no aid in eight long months
TURKMENISTAN: Government condemned over jailing of two journalists and
a rights activist
AFGHANISTAN: Japan pledges US $29 million to UNDP projects
Japan has pledged US $29 million to the United Nations Development
Programme's (UNDP) efforts to boost rural development and the
disarmament of thousands of illegal armed groups in war-ravaged
Afghanistan. UNDP's office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said $23
million of the contribution announced on Thursday would be used to
support rural development projects in the provinces of Bamiyan, Balkh,
Nangarhar and Kandahar in conjunction with the Ministry of Rural
Rehabilitation and Development(MRRD). The remaining $6 million would be
used to support the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG)
programme.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55357&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: UNESCO helps officials to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS
two-day United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) workshop designed to help raise students' awareness of HIV/AIDS
has been held in Kabul. Roxanna Shapour, a UNESCO public information
officer in Kabul, the Afghan capital, said the workshop aimed to revise
the teacher training manual so it provided the tools needed to raise
students' awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and improve preventive
education.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55336&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week Central Asia hosted Junichiro Koizumi on the first visit by a
Japanese premier to the region, international media reported. Koizumi,
who steps down next month, held meetings with Uzbek President Islam
Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev during his four-day
visit to the region, which ended on Thursday. "We need diversity in our
energy strategy," AFP quoted Koizumi as saying before his departure on
Monday. "Japan wants to build good relations with Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan, both of which have abundant resources."
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55363&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
KYRGYZSTAN: UNHCR to relocate Uzbek asylum seekers from south to capital
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
plans to move a group of Uzbek asylum seekers from southern Kyrgyzstan
to the capital, Bishkek, to protect them. Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the
UNHCR's mission in Bishkek, said on Tuesday that it had offered to
relocate some of the refugees pending the determination of their status
and likely resettlement to third countries.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55327&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=KYRGYZSTAN
NEPAL: UN to play more active role in peace process
The United Nations (UN) will play a more active role in the peace
process in Nepal, Ian Martin, the newly appointed personal
representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said on Tuesday. The
Maoists, who had waged a decade-long armed rebellion, and the
seven-party interim government have spent the past four months working
together to permanently end the conflict that left more than 13,000
dead. A ceasefire was declared in April after the two sides led a mass
uprising to end the direct rule of King Gyanendra.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55328&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Urgent humanitarian aid needed for flood victims
Thousands of people have been evacuated and temporarily resettled, but
"a worrying unknown number of persons" are still thought to be trapped
and waiting for help following recent flooding and landslides in western
Nepal, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). More than 50 people have been killed and
thousands of people displaced in the area since Saturday, the Nepal Red
Cross Society (NRCS) says.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55334&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Flood victims need a lot more food and medical aid - NGOs
More than 60,000 victims of flooding in western Nepal urgently need
food, water and basic shelter, the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday. Flooding
and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rain had killed more than 50
people and displaced tens of thousands in western Nepal since Saturday,
the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), the NGO most active in providing
humanitarian relief and support to the victims, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55355&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees refuse to give up strike
Bhutanese refugees in Nepal say they will continue their indefinite
strike in the capital, Kathmandu, despite appeals by human rights
activists to call it off for humanitarian reasons. The refugees have
been living in Nepal since 1990 when they were evicted from their homes
by the Bhutanese government. It introduced a new citizenship law that
deprived the group, most of whom have Nepalese ancestry, of citizenship
and civil rights.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55295&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
PAKISTAN: Tribal chief's killing leads to violence
Sajjida Iqbal, 25, a young teacher in Quetta taking shelter in her
house, says people have seen enough violence. "Is this any way to live?
Look at those military men pointing their guns at us," Sajjida said as
she pointed out of the window of her house. "We have seen enough guns
and bombs... we need peace now," she added. Quetta, the dusty capital of
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, feels like it is under siege.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55314&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: More fighting in Balochistan, but no aid in eight long months
Zubaida Bibi, 60, holds her shawl firmly over her face as she speaks.
The thin, threadbare piece of brown cloth seems to act as her defence
against a hostile world. "No one has come to help us," she says, seated
under a flimsy canvas shelter. Eight months after Zubaida was displaced
from her home, the death of Bugti tribal leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti
in an army operation on Saturday, has triggered further unrest in
Pakistan's westernmost province of Balochistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55353&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
TURKMENISTAN: Government condemned over jailing of two journalists and a
rights activist
Rights groups have condemned Turkmen authorities for the jailing of two
journalists and a rights activist. On Friday a Turkmen court in Ashgabat
sentenced Ogulsapar Muradova, a local correspondent for Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and Annakurban Amanklychev, who worked
for the French production company, Galaxie-Presse, to six and seven-year
jail terms respectively for illegally possessing ammunition.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55300&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=TURKMENISTAN
IRIN-Asia
Tel: +90 312 454 1177
Fax: +90 312 495 4166
Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International web: www.cidi.org
Disaster Information listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Asia www.cidi.org/humanitarian/irin/casia