U N I T E D   N A T I O N S
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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 116
19 - 25 March 2007


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR increases cash grant for repatriation
AFGHANISTAN: Floods and avalanches kill dozens and displace hundreds
AFGHANISTAN: Record numbers enrol in new school year
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Polio knows no borders
AFGHANISTAN: NATO evacuates 600 villagers stranded by floods
KAZAKHSTAN: Fighting tuberculosis remains a challenge
NEPAL: Underage marriages threaten maternal health
NEPAL: Food insecurity hits remote villages in west
NEPAL: New security measures imposed in southeast
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors angry at government inaction
PAKISTAN: Landslides kill at least 40 in quake area
PAKISTAN: Gov't to close all Kashmir quake camps by June
PAKISTAN: Emergency operation under way in landslide-hit Kashmiri village


AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR increases cash grant for repatriation

Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan will receive a six-fold 
increase in cash grants upon their return to Afghanistan, according to 
the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Each Afghan national who 
returns to Afghanistan in 2007 will receive US $100. This is in addition 
to transportation assistance which the UN agency provides to 
repatriating individuals. More than two million Afghan refugees 
currently live in Pakistan and about 900,000 stay in Iran.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70781


AFGHANISTAN: Floods and avalanches kill dozens and displace hundreds

More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds displaced because of 
heavy rainfall, avalanches and floods over the past few days in 
Afghanistan's southern and south-western provinces, officials say. In 
Uruzgan, Helmand, Badghis and Ghor provinces, more than 500 houses were 
destroyed or damaged by floods.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70815


AFGHANISTAN: Record numbers enrol in new school year

Schools in Afghanistan will open their doors to more than six million 
pupils at the start of the new academic year on 24 March - almost double 
the number of the past five years. Girls comprise about two million of 
all students who will join school from Saturday. In an effort to ensure 
equal access to education, Afghanistan's Ministry of Education plans to 
enrol 400,000 more female students in 2007. During the Taliban rule 
between 1996 and 2001, girls were deprived of any formal education.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70844


AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Polio knows no borders

Beginning on Sunday, a mammoth campaign to vaccinate close to 20 million 
children under five years of age will get under way in Afghanistan and 
Pakistan, employing tens of thousands of vaccinators. According to WHO, 
the world's success in eradicating polio depends on four countries where 
the virus remains endemic - India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 
2006, there were 40 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan and 31 in 
Afghanistan. This year, there have been no reported cases of polio in 
Afghanistan but six in Pakistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70863


AFGHANISTAN: NATO evacuates 600 villagers stranded by floods

NATO-led troops used helicopters to evacuate about 600 stranded 
villagers in southern Afghanistan after floods destroyed their homes, AP 
reported on Tuesday. Despite bad weather and persistent rain, Dutch and 
US helicopters rescued people in the border regions between the southern 
provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan, NATO's International Security 
Assistance Force said in a statement late on Tuesday.


KAZAKHSTAN: Fighting tuberculosis remains a challenge

Kazakhstan still faces a serious challenge in fighting tuberculosis 
(TB), despite infection rates dropping slightly in 2006, according to 
health officials. Figures from the national centre show that the rate of 
TB infection dropped from 165 cases per 100,000 people in 2002, to 147 
per 100,000 in 2005, to 132 per 100,000 in 2006. With 23,000 new cases 
of TB reported every year, officials say there is no room for 
complacency.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70772


NEPAL: Underage marriages threaten maternal health

In the remote villages of Accham, many girls aged between 12 and 15 
marry and have children. Most women, including underage mothers, deliver 
their children without any skilled birth attendant and are usually 
assisted by female relatives and neighbours who lack knowledge of safe 
and hygienic practices. According to the government's Demographic Health 
Survey, more than 88 percent of deliveries take place at home and 8 
percent of mothers deliver their babies with no assistance.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70816


NEPAL: Food insecurity hits remote villages in west

Low agricultural production and lack of effective food storage systems 
and market access have hit thousands of poor villagers in north west 
Nepal. The situation deteriorated in 2006 when there was a severe 
drought followed by heavy snowfall in early 2007 and most of the crops 
failed. More than 35,000 people are facing deteriorating food security 
in the area, according to the crop and food security assessment by the 
agriculture ministry, conducted with support from the UN agencies.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70847


NEPAL: New security measures imposed in southeast

The Nepalese government imposed mew security measures on Saturday to 
avert more violence in the southeast, where 29 people were killed in 
clashes between an ethnic group and Maoists, AFP reported. The 29 
leftists were killed in clashes with activists belonging to the Madhesi 
People's Rights Forum, which represents the ethnic group who live in a 
fertile strip of land known as the Terai along Nepal's border with 
India.

The clashes, the latest in a string of deadly battles between the 
leftists and the Madhesis, have cast a cloud over last November's peace 
deal, which ended 10 years of civil war between Maoist rebels and the 
government.


PAKISTAN: Quake survivors angry at government inaction

Across Pakistan-administered-Kashmir, the same rubble-strewn scene is 
repeated as irate locals allege that assistance from the government has 
been far from forthcoming. Instead, they say, most of the population has 
been forced to fend for itself, with some help from non-government 
organisations. In the hamlet of Lashdahar, 50km from Muzaffarabad, the 
capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, most of 3,000 inhabitants 
continue to live in tents and a large number interviewed by IRIN said 
they had not received any assistance from the government to rebuild 
their homes.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70820


PAKISTAN: Landslides kill at least 40 in quake area

Landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 40 people 
across Pakistani-administered Kashmir, an aid official confirmed on 
Wednesday. Apart from the deaths caused by landslides, about 350 
families have been left stranded in a remote village in Jhelum Valley at 
an altitude of more than 1,500 metres. Many roads in the area have been 
blocked due to a series of landslides following heavy rains that started 
on Sunday evening.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70846


PAKISTAN: Gov't to close all Kashmir quake camps by June

Authorities in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have announced plans to 
close by the end of June all tented camps housing thousands of people 
displaced by a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake in October 2005. About 
30,000 quake-displaced people, comprising more than 5,000 families, 
continue to live in about 44 makeshift settlements in 
Pakistani-administered Kashmir. More than 600 families living in camps 
are landless while another 1,700 households are categorised as 
vulnerable, including orphans, the elderly and female-headed households, 
according to camp management officials.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70858


PAKISTAN: Emergency operation under way in landslide-hit Kashmiri 
village

At least six bodies were recovered from rubble in a landslide-hit 
village of Pakistani-administered Kashmir on Thursday, while Pakistani 
soldiers and local villagers continued their search for another 20 
missing people, aid officials said. A four-day long spell of torrential 
rains and snow, which stopped late on Wednesday, triggered landslides 
that hit hamlets on the mountains and blocked already hard to access 
roads across the region - which was devastated by a massive 7.6 
magnitude earthquake in October 2005.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70867


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