U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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e-mail: irin@irin.org.pk


Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 109
29 January - 4 February 2007


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Rebuilding "not on track"
AFGHANISTAN: Grave concern over impunity plans for war lords
AFGHANISTAN: More than 1,000 civilians killed in 2006, rights group
   says
AFGHANISTAN: School burning condemned
NEPAL: Violence stops access to hospitals in south
NEPAL: Medicine and food shortages in Terai
NEPAL: Journalists, aid workers and rights activists under threat
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors learn to walk again
PAKISTAN: Blood disorder thrives amid ignorance
PAKISTAN: Commercial sex workers face HIV threat
PAKISTAN: 2 million Afghans registered as refugees


AFGHANISTAN: Rebuilding "not on track"

The international community pledged US $10.5 billion for the recovery of
Afghanistan in 2006, and in return, the Afghan government promised to
introduce policy reforms to improve its people's lives over five
years. Out of this was born the Afghanistan Compact, which established
targets and benchmarks to be met by the Afghan authorities by the end of
2010.

One year on, analysts say Kabul is behind in meeting even the most basic
targets. In a report released in New York on 30 January, Human Rights
Watch (HRW) says the Afghan government is failing to meet the basic
security and human rights needs of its citizens.


AFGHANISTAN: Grave concern over impunity plans for war lords

The United Nations and a leading human rights group in Afghanistan
expressed concern over a draft law that seeks to grant impunity to Afghans
accused of committing war crimes during 25 years of conflict in the
country. Some analysts say the bill was passed by the lower house of
parliament because war lords and ex-communist officials are the majority
in it.

Rights groups say, if accepted, it will excuse war criminals involved in
nearly 30 years of conflict which have cost the lives of more than 1
million Afghans and forced millions of others to leave the country.


AFGHANISTAN: More than 1,000 civilians killed in 2006, rights group says

On 30 January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said more than 1,000 civilians
were killed in Afghanistan in 2006. HRW said that the majority were killed
by the Taliban or other anti-government forces. The rights watchdog added
that, with fighters included, more than 4,400 Afghans died in
"conflict-related violence" last year, twice as many as in 2005 and more
than any year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.


AFGHANISTAN: School burning condemned

Afghan education officials have condemned the torching by insurgents of a
school in the eastern Logar province. Apa Khan boys primary school in
Kharwar district, which had 650 students and eight teachers, was set
alight at night on 2 February. No pupils were present as the school was
closed for the winter vacation.

According to education officials, 183 schools were burned in 2006 by
insurgents who oppose government-run schools and back traditional Islamic
teaching.

While huge efforts have been made to get children back to school since the
ouster of the Taliban in 2001, recent years have seen increasing violence
targeted at educational institutions. Zahoor Afghan, advisor to the
education ministry, said that currently more than 200,000 students were
missing out on an education due to the closure of some 300 schools across
the country, mainly in the insurgency hit south.


NEPAL: Violence stops access to hospitals in south

Aid agencies in Nepal have called on those involved in the communal
violence in the south to allow humanitarian access. People in the Tarai
region have been subjected to two weeks of clashes after political
protests led by the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF).

The MPRF has been staging protests demanding more political rights for the
Madhesi, who live predominantly in the Tarai. They say they feel
discriminated against and excluded from Nepal's development and political
process.

The Madhesi are a mixture of Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. They make up
33-45 percent of Nepal's population of 27 million and have strong cultural
links to neighbouring India.


NEPAL: Medicine and food shortages in Terai

Violence and curfews have crippled Nepal's southern region bordering
India, creating shortages of food and medical supplies, aid workers say.
Some aid workers told IRIN on 1 February that the failure of talks between
the government and Madhesi leaders to stop the protests had limited access
to medical services.

The 12-hour curfews from 9 a.m., imposed by the government on key towns
and cities in the region, have continued. Aid workers warned that clinics
and hospitals could soon run short of blood supplies, oxygen cylinders and
medicine. The curfew is preventing medical staff from getting to work and
personnel carrying medical supplies are coming under attack from
demonstrators.


NEPAL: Journalists, aid workers and rights activists under threat

Journalists have been attacked and aid workers and human rights activists
threatened in the continued unrest in Nepal's south-eastern Terai
region. The Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF), a major political
party in the region, has been spearheading demonstrations in the region
for the past 20 days against the Nepalese government with demands for more
political rights and greater autonomy for the Madhesi people - the
predominant ethnic community of the Terai.


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors learn to walk again

More than 2,000 child survivors of the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan
are reportedly waiting for prosthetics, with finances and funding scarce
and private charities providing most donations to help in changing their
lives. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastated much of
Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province
(NWFP), with its epicentre only 145km from Islamabad, the capital.


PAKISTAN: Blood disorder thrives amid ignorance

Fuelled by ignorance and a lack of compulsory medical testing,
thalassaemia - an inherited blood disorder - continues to affect
thousands of children in Pakistan. Thalassaemia sufferers do not produce
adequate amounts of haemoglobin, which carries oxygen through the blood,
and need regular blood transfusions to keep levels near normal.

In Pakistan, 12 million (5-7 percent of the population) have the disorder.
Up to 9,000 children are born with it every year. High illiteracy rates of
50 percent and the absence of a health infrastructure in remote areas
compound the problem.


PAKISTAN: Commercial sex workers face HIV threat

Despite low HIV/AIDS prevalence, Pakistan could have up to 80,000
unreported HIV cases - making up 0.1 percent of the adult population,
according to the World Health Organization (WHO). There are some 3,000
reported cases of the infection so far. Lack of awareness among sex
workers and their inability to negotiate safe sex makes them vulnerable,
the World Bank noted in its 2006 update on the AIDS epidemic in the
country.

Experts say that unsafe sex practices threaten a spillover of HIV/AIDS
from vulnerable groups, such as sex workers, to the general population.
There are an estimated 25,000 sex workers in Lahore alone, Pakistan's
second most populous city.


PAKISTAN: 2 million Afghans registered as refugees

More than 2 million Afghans have been registered by the government of
Pakistan with support from the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) this week. Since October 2006, when the
registration exercise began, 80 percent of the target population of 2.4
million Afghans in Pakistan has been registered.

Nearly 65 percent of those registered are in North West Frontier Province
(NWFP); 20 percent in Balochistan; 10 percent in Punjab/Islamabad; 5
percent in Sindh and the rest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (AJK).

Registration is conducted by Pakistan's National Database and Registration
Authority (NADRA) with help from the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees
(CAR) and UNHCR.

More than 2.8 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan since the
programme was first launched by UNHCR in 2002, following the ousting of
the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.


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