Weekly Round-Up - IRINAS-123: 13-May-07
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 123
7 - 13 May 2007
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Gov't questions effectiveness of foreign aid billions
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child labourers in eastern province deprived
of education
AFGHANISTAN: UN to step up staff security after recent killing
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid
NEPAL: Food aid for Bhutanese refugees in jeopardy
NEPAL: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution
NEPAL: Widespread disappearances still unresolved despite peace
PAKISTAN: Over 34 million children vaccinated against polio
PAKISTAN: Islamic extremists attack aid workers
PAKISTAN: Hundreds missing in conflict-torn Balochistan
SRI LANKA: Over 120,000 affected by severe flooding in west
SRI LANKA: Economic, social and psychological impacts of conflict
SRI LANKA: US diplomat renews calls to halt rights violations
TAJIKISTAN: Disaster-prone communities need to be moved
AFGHANISTAN: Gov't questions effectiveness of foreign aid billions
Billions of dollars spent by the international community on war-ravaged
Afghanistan's reconstruction and development have had a limited impact
on the country's economic growth, Afghan officials said. Since the
ousting of the Taliban regime in late 2001, donors have spent some US$13
billion on various rebuilding and development activities in the country,
of which only 12 percent has been channelled through the government, the
country's Finance Ministry said.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72002
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child labourers in eastern province deprived
of education
>From dawn to dusk black smoke rises from the towering chimneys of
brick-making factories in the Sorkhroad district of Afghanistan's
eastern province of Nangarhar. According to Save the Children (Sweden),
there are up to 5,000 child labourers working in brick factories in
Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar. Seven-year-old Rahatullah
works with his father and elder brother, Habibullah, aged 12, in a brick
factory for over 12 hours a day.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72062
AFGHANISTAN: UN to step up staff security after recent killing
The killing of a United Nations driver on Tuesday is the latest in a
spate of attacks and kidnappings by insurgents deliberately targeting
aid workers and journalists in Afghanistan, local and international
observers say. According to UN officials, Sadequllah, 38, was shot dead
on his way to work in the southern province of Kandahar by unidentified
men on a motorbike. Police are now looking for the assassins.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72086
AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid
A year after the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan ended
relief operations in the Mukhtar camp for internally displaced people
(IDPs), the majority of its inhabitants still endure many hardships,
according to camp residents and specialists. Since 2002, more than
20,000 displaced people have been living in tents and mud huts in
Mukhtar camp, 5km north of Lashkargah, the capital of the volatile
southern province of Helmand. Camp residents interviewed by IRIN
complained about poverty and inadequate medical and educational
facilities in the camp.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72121
NEPAL: Food aid for Bhutanese refugees in jeopardy
Food assistance for over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, one of the
most protracted refugee situations in Asia, is now under threat unless
donor assistance is forthcoming soon. According to the United Nations
World Food Programme (WFP), US $5 million is needed to secure food
supplies for the refugees for 2007. WFP spends approximately US $1
million a month to feed Nepal's Bhutanese refugees.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72016
NEPAL: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution
For the past three years, 25-year-old Sita Maskey has been fighting a
court battle in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, to punish alleged
trafficker Rekha Karki, who she says tricked her into forced
prostitution in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Maskey trusted Karki
who had come to visit her family in her remote Ledang village of Morang
district, nearly 600km east of the capital, and told her about job
opportunities in Saudi Arabia - where she had already sent many girls
from several villages - as well as Sharjah and Dubai.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72037
NEPAL: Widespread disappearances still unresolved despite peace
Thousands of families of missing persons have said that they will begin
a nationwide demonstration for an indefinite period starting on Monday
as they are frustrated by what they say is the government's apathy and
negligence towards them. According to local NGO the Society of the
Families of the Disappeared, there are more than 5,000 people still
missing after their forced disappearances during the country's civil
war, which lasted for more than a decade.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72118
PAKISTAN: Over 34 million children vaccinated against polio
More than 34 million children in Pakistan were successfully immunised
against polio during last week's national vaccination round, health
officials have said. The WHO national campaign cell reported nationwide
coverage of 97.7 percent, with 34.1 million children under the age of
five successfully vaccinated, a result praised by UNICEF, one of three
partners involved in the immunisation effort, along with WHO and the
Pakistani government.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72026
PAKISTAN: Islamic extremists attack aid workers
The United Nations has temporarily suspended its activities - and closed
its offices - for two weeks in quake-affected Bagh sub-district in
Pakistani-administered Kashmir following a spate of security incidents
involving members of the humanitarian community. The move follows an
escalation of security incidents in Bagh, an isolated rural and
conservative community in Pakistani-administered Kashmir badly damaged
in the 8 October 2005 earthquake.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72048
PAKISTAN: Hundreds missing in conflict-torn Balochistan
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), hundreds of
people in Balochistan have disappeared since the attacks in the US on 11
September 2001 brought changes in global anti-terror policies. Activists
say security and intelligence forces are using the anti-terror climate
to tackle any form of dissent.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72078
SRI LANKA: Over 120,000 affected by severe flooding in west
Torrential rains on 3 and 4 May flooded much of western Sri Lanka,
affecting more than 120,000 people. In Colombo, the capital city,
routine commerce and most vehicular traffic, including some railway
lines, came to a standstill and a large sinkhole developed in one of the
city's main corridors, the Galle Road, causing massive traffic delays
and diversions. The Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) reported that
the government's Disaster Management Centre (DMC) is leading efforts to
assess, respond to, and mitigate the effects of, the floods. The
immediate needs were for equipment to clear canals, water pumps and
various non-food items.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72003
SRI LANKA: Economic, social and psychological impacts of conflict
The effects of the conflict between government forces and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam and of the massive displacements in the north and
east of Sri Lanka since late November 2005, are having a telling impact
on the victims as well as on local economies. The regions worst hit by
the fighting, the north and east, recorded annual growth rates of 12.6
per cent and 10.1 per cent in 2002 and 2003, respectively, before the
recent fighting set in, according to the World Bank. However, the Bank,
in its 2007 Poverty Assessment Report, warns that the situation may have
deteriorated.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72022
SRI LANKA: US diplomat renews calls to halt rights violations
A senior US diplomat expressed concern on Thursday over worsening human
rights violations in Sri Lanka and renewed pressure on the government to
deliver on its promises to curb abuses. US State Department official
Richard Boucher, ending a three-day visit to the island, said he was
troubled by the deterioration since his last visit in October.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72085
TAJIKISTAN: Disaster-prone communities need to be moved
The lives of thousands of families who live in natural disaster-prone
areas in rural Tajikistan are made miserable by the disasters, residents
and officials say. Up to 12,000 settlements are located in
disaster-prone areas and need to be resettled, Gulsara Poulatova, a
senior adviser for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
(ISDR) Central Asia, based in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, said.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71999
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