Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-88: 08-Sep-06
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 88
2 - 8 September 2006
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands displaced by fighting in Kandahar
AFGHANISTAN: Polio vaccination drive in violent south targets 120,000
children
AFGHANISTAN: Voluntary refugee returns down by 60 percent
AFGHANISTAN: Opium harvest set to increase by 60 percent - UN report
PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele
PAKISTAN: Livelihoods still a concern for thousands of quake victims
PAKISTAN: Balochistan's girls miss out on education
NEPAL: Maternal and child mortality could increase in flood region
NEPAL: Isolated flood victims forgotten by relief appeal
NEPAL: Victims of floods desperate for food aid
NEPAL: Government and Maoists optimistic about peace process
UZBEKISTAN: Government clamps down on religious freedom
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands displaced by fighting in Kandahar
Thousands of Afghan families have been displaced by fierce clashes
between NATO and Taliban fighters in the southern province of Kandahar,
officials said on Wednesday. Mohammad Nabi Safai, head of Kandahar's
Refugees Department, said reports from tribal leaders in the Panjwaii
and Zhari districts indicated more than 2,500 families had been
displaced by the fighting. "People are still feeing their villages and
are in a very desperate condition with no shelter and food," Safai said.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55433&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Polio vaccination drive in violent south targets 120,000
children
Nearly 120,000 children aged under five will be vaccinated against the
crippling polio virus during a one-day government and United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) campaign in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday,
according to officials from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).
Afghanistan, one of four countries in the world still blighted by polio,
has seen the number of cases surge this year. There have been 26
confirmed polio cases in 2006, compared to only four in the same period
last year.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55409&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Voluntary refugee returns down by 60 percent
An estimated 125,000 refugees have voluntarily returned to Afghanistan
from Pakistan and Iran this year - nearly a 60 percent decrease on the
same period last year, the United Nations Assistance Mission to
Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Monday. "This is a very substantial level of
returns, and while it is lower than during the same period last year -
when 295,000 Afghans returned - it is a phenomenon that is happening
despite current security concerns in some parts of the country," Adrian
Edwards, UNAMA's spokesman, said in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55392&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
AFGHANISTAN: Opium harvest set to increase by 60 percent - UN report
Afghanistan's opium harvest is set to increase by nearly 60 percent this
year due to a massive jump in cultivation in the insurgency-hit south,
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says. UNODC's
Annual Opium Survey found the area used for opium cultivation had
reached a record 165,000 ha in 2006 compared with 104,000 in 2005.
Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, which
mostly ends up in the heroin markets of western Europe and Russia.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55393&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN: Interview with UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele
Almost one year after a devastating earthquake ravaged much of northern
Pakistan, killing 75,000 people and leaving more than 3.5 million people
homeless, survivors continue to grapple with rebuilding their lives. In
an interview on Thursday, Jan Vandemoortele, the United Nation's (UN)
Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, who has been on the ground since
the 8 October disaster, shared his perspective on what has been achieved
over the past 11 months and the immense challenges that remain.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55441&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Livelihoods still a concern for thousands of quake victims
It is almost 11 months since a massive earthquake killed at least 75,000
people in northern Pakistan, but those left behind are still struggling.
More than 5,500 women were widowed by the 8 October quake, which left
more than 3.5 million homeless. Gulab Jan, a 30-year-old widow with four
children, said her situation had not changed. She was one of more than
700 widows still living in camps after their homes were destroyed or
damaged by the quake.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55418&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
PAKISTAN: Balochistan's girls miss out on education
Amna, Qudsia and Areeba look no different to other Pakistani
schoolgirls. The trio of nine-year-olds with neatly braided hair and
pressed uniforms giggle at a private joke as they walk through the gates
of their school in the town of Sibi in Balochistan Province. However, in
the context of Balochistan, Pakistan's least developed province, they
are unusual: they are among the very few girls who go to school.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55405&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=PAKISTAN
NEPAL: Families demand to know fate of missing relatives
Debi Sharan Biswokarma wipes the tears away as she tries to recount the
last time she saw her husband Dhan Bahadur. He was dragged away by
Nepal's armed security forces for allegedly working with the Maoist
rebels. "The security force must have killed him by now. All I want to
know is the truth - if he is dead or alive - so that I can rest in
peace," said Biswokarma from Kohalpur, a remote village in Bardiya
District, nearly 800 km west of the capital, Kathmandu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55444&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Maternal and child mortality could increase in flood region
Maternal and child mortality could rise in flood-hit western Nepal if
the health care of women and children is not prioritised, the United
Nations Population Fund Agency (UNFPA) said on Wednesday. Flash floods
caused by monsoon rains killed at least 50 people in western Nepal last
week. Tens of thousands have been left homeless and food stocks were
destroyed in the Bardiya, Banke and Achham districts about 800 km west
of the capital, Kathmandu, according to the Nepal Red Cross (NRCS).
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55429&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Isolated flood victims forgotten by relief appeal
Displaced people in the remote regions of western Nepal say urgently
needed medical help and food aid is not reaching them, as flooding and
landslides continue to make their position more precarious.
Four-year-old Kamlesh Kumar Guriya has been sick and bedridden for five
days without any medical treatment in the remote village of Guleriya in
Bardiya district, western Nepal. He nearly drowned after a wall of
flood-water hit his house in the middle of the night.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55408&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Victims of floods desperate for food aid
Phulkala Khatig begged a group of visiting journalists for food to feed
her family. Flooding has devastated Chauferi, her remote village in the
Banke District, 600 km west of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. "Please
help me and my children. We have not eaten for many days and [have] no
spare clothes," pleads Khatig, 45, whose house was totally destroyed by
floodwaters from the Rapti River - one of the country's largest rivers -
a week ago.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55391&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
NEPAL: Government and Maoists optimistic about peace process
With peace talks in Nepal due to resume next week, the process aimed at
ending the decade-long armed conflict between the state and Maoist
rebels is still on track, said representatives from both sides on
Friday. "We are seriously committed towards a peaceful political
resolution but we need to sort out the barriers in our way," said senior
Maoist leader Dinanath Sharma in the capital, Kathmandu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55471&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=NEPAL
UZBEKISTAN: Government clamps down on religious freedom
Uzbekistan is clamping down on religious groups, with congregations
closed, harsh penalties for unregistered religious activity and
activists deported, Forum 18, a religious freedom watchdog, says. Felix
Corley, Forum 18's editor, said from London on Wednesday that the
situation had been bad since 1998 - when Uzbekistan's religious laws
were changed - but it had got "far worse" in the past year.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55431&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are among the worst human rights offenders
in the world, according to a new report released on Wednesday. 'The
Worst of the Worst: The World's Most Repressive Societies 2006' is an
annual compilation of the most dictatorial regimes in the world by
Freedom House that has called on the UN Human Rights Council to address
abuses in eight countries, including Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea,
Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55469&SelectRegion=Asia&SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA
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