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Asia
IRIN-AS Weekly Round-Up 149
5 - 11 November 2007


CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Tehran expels 8,000 Afghans
AFGHANISTAN: NGOs vulnerable to criminal violence and insurgency
BANGLADESH: World Bank committed to fight poverty
NEPAL: Families want answers to cases of the disappeared
NEPAL: 5,000 families safe to go home
PAKISTAN: Government cracks down on civil society
PAKISTAN: Militants threaten to burn Swat camp
PAKISTAN: Millions lack access to mental healthcare


AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Tehran expels 8,000 Afghans

The government of Afghanistan has called on Iran to stop deporting 
thousands of Afghan citizens without work permits or refugee status, 
Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IRIN on 5 November.

"Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to any mass deportation during 
winter," said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the ministry, adding 
that the country lacked the capacity to integrate a large number of 
deportees.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75152


AFGHANISTAN: NGOs vulnerable to criminal violence and insurgency

Civilians working for NGOs in Afghanistan say their work is being 
constrained by insecurity as criminal groups and Taliban insurgents 
target aid workers.

Ahmad Shah Shierzai quit his job as a doctor with a local NGO as soon as 
he was released by Taliban insurgents on 20 October in Kandahar 
province, southern Afghanistan. He and two others, who had been working 
at a district medical facility on 16 October, were abducted outside 
Kandahar city by armed men linked to Taliban rebels.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75190


BANGLADESH: World Bank committed to fight poverty

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has assured the government of 
Bangladesh it will continue to help the country and its people address 
poverty. A Bank-supported agricultural technology project worth US$65 
million is in the final stage of approval and will be replicated and 
continued for the next 15 years.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75169


NEPAL: Families want answers to cases of the disappeared

Families of hundreds of people who went missing during the armed 
conflict in Nepal want the cases of their disappeared relatives to be 
resolved. For the past six years, Ram Kumar Bhandari has been struggling 
to find out about his father, Tej Bahadur, who disappeared after 
government security forces arrested him in 2001 on suspicion of 
supporting the Maoist rebels.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75147


NEPAL: 5,000 families safe to go home

More than 5,000 displaced families taking refuge in Nepalgunj, a 
Nepalese city adjoining India, will be able to return home by December, 
according to aid agencies.

"There is now hope among the displaced families that they will be able 
to live in their home villages without fear of being forced out of their 
homes again," activist Bhola Mahat from the Informal Sector Service 
Centre (INSEC), a local human rights NGO, told IRIN on 7 November.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75187


PAKISTAN: Government cracks down on civil society

A senior UN expert has condemned the rounding-up of civil society 
leaders and activists in Pakistan after the declaration of emergency 
rule in the country. "It's not just emergency law. It's martial law," 
Asma Jahangir, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told 
IRIN from her home in Lahore, in the east of the country, on 5 November.

Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion and beliefs, 
was placed under house arrest for 90 days just hours after the 
announcement.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75150


PAKISTAN: Militants threaten to burn Swat camp

Efforts to establish a displaced persons camp in Pakistan's Swat Valley 
are under threat from militants fighting the government, according to 
aid officials.

"At present, there is no shortage of food or tents, but without any 
security, people don't want to come," Mohammad Munir, district manager 
of Pakistan's Red Crescent Society in Swat, told IRIN on 6 November from 
the town of Kanju, near the district capital Saidu Sharif.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75171


PAKISTAN: Millions lack access to mental healthcare

There are no exact numbers for the mentally ill in Pakistan, due largely 
to the associated stigma, but some estimates put the figure at more than 
14 million people, out of a population of some 160 million.

Speaking at a seminar to mark World Health Day in October, Ijaz Haider, 
of the Allama Iqbal Medical College in Lahore, reported that "mental 
problems had increased from 6 percent to 9 percent in the population in 
the past decade".

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75204[END]


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