IRIN-CA Weekly Round-up 193 covering the period 4 December - 10 December 2004
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: ILO to tackle unemployment
AFGHANISTAN: Britain boosts counter-narcotics efforts
AFGHANISTAN: Progress seen on human rights but concerns remain
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KAZAKHSTAN: Wind energy sector receives boost
KYRGYZSTAN: UN-supported project brings hope to drug addicts
PAKISTAN: Civil society role central to combat human trafficking
PAKISTAN: UN agencies implement HIV/AIDS programme for Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: UN volunteers working with UNHCR to support Afghan refugees
PAKISTAN: Religious leaders to boost HIV/AIDS awareness
TAJIKISTAN: Plight of elderly ethnic Russians in north
UZBEKISTAN: Uighur minority demands more political rights
AFGHANISTAN: ILO to tackle unemployment
New centres will be established in Afghanistan to tackle unemployment and provide training opportunities for unqualified job seekers, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) announced on Sunday in the capital, Kabul. The issue of unemployment is very serious in Afghanistan as many people lack skills due to more than 20 years of conflict. For example, widespread illiteracy, at over 70 percent of the population, is a major cause of high unemployment.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Britain boosts counter-narcotics efforts
Surrounded by tens of armed security guards, Bill Rammell, UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, set alight a pile of narcotics on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, on Monday. The narcotics had been seized by the newly established UK-backed Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA) in several operations around Kabul recently.
Full report
AFGHANISTAN: Progress seen on human rights but concerns remain
On the eve of the universal day of human rights there are still major human rights violations in Afghanistan, but some improvements have been made in the post-conflict country. Abdul Sabour Babai was celebrating his freedom two weeks after he was released from a private jail in the northwestern Faryab province. The 35-year-old returnee was arrested and tortured by a local commander when he tried to get back his confiscated land in Pashtun Kut district on the outskirts of Maimana, the provincial capital of Faryab.
Full report
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
An explosion at a coal mine in central Kazakhstan killed 23 people and injured three, the AP reported on Sunday. A total of 27 miners were working in the mine in the Karaganda town of Shakhtinsk when the blast occurred, Karaganda regional administration spokesman Zhanibek Sadykanov said. Expert reports indicated that the explosion was caused by a methane blow-out. On Monday, a senior member of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir group that disavows violence but seeks to build a worldwide Islamic state was arrested in Kazakhstan, officials said. Vadim Barsenev, 31, was detained on Saturday in the southern city of Shymkent, and accused of inciting inter-ethnic and religious discord as a member of the group, the AP said quoting city police official Kalykul Abdramanov.
Full report
KAZAKHSTAN: Wind energy sector receives boost
In a major initiative to increase the use of alternative energy sources in Kazakhstan, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Kazakh government have launched a three-year programme to develop the country’s wind sector. Although significant resources in the form of hydro, solar and wind energy are available, 98 percent of all energy consumed in the former Soviet republic comes from coal, oil and gas.
Full report
KYRGYZSTAN: UN-supported project brings hope to drug addicts
Sergey, 30, has had a difficult time since he started taking heroin over eight years ago. Like many other addicts he has tried to quit numerous times, even undergoing addiction treatment at the Republican Narcology Centre (RCN) in the capital, Bishkek, but he cannot resist new hits of the drug. “I was so addicted that I could not imagine another life. When I realised that I could no longer continue this way, I joined special treatment sessions designed to remove my addiction, but still could not get rid of thoughts about another dose [of heroin],” he told IRIN at the centre.
Full report
PAKISTAN: Civil society role central to combat human trafficking
Given the lack of economic and human resources in Pakistan, civil society should shoulder the responsibility of reducing human trafficking by developing skills and employment opportunities in general, and for victims in particular, anti-trafficking activists say. "Combating human trafficking in Pakistan should be located within the larger context of underlying social and economic problems and lower status of women," Abid Gulzar, acting national executive secretary of the Rome-based international charity, Caritas Pakistan, told IRIN in the eastern city of Lahore, capital of Punjab province.
Full report
PAKISTAN: UN agencies implement HIV/AIDS programme for Afghan refugees
The UN refugee agency has signed a three-year agreement with the UN joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to strengthen its prevention and control programme for Afghans residing in refugee camps in Pakistan. "We are running a basic HIV/AIDS awareness raising programme for Afghan refugees through our health units - set to cater for the refugee population in camps. But now we are going to enhance it with the cooperation of UNAIDS," Dr Naveeda Rehman, a coordinator of health programmes at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN from the northwestern city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Full report
PAKISTAN: UN volunteers working with UNHCR to support Afghan refugees
Bikram Chand Thakuri, 39, a Nepali by nationality, is a UN volunteer working for Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Thakuri is among the eight UN Volunteers (UNVs) who have been working with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since late 2001 when a flow of some 300,000 Afghans began towards the Pakistani border due to the conflict in Afghanistan.
Full report
PAKISTAN: Religious leaders to boost HIV/AIDS awareness
Intensifying its efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS becoming an epidemic, Pakistan's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), with the support of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), has developed an information-kit for religious leaders on HIV/AIDS prevention. "The information kit has been adapted from the global generic version, which has been translated into Urdu [Pakistan's national language]. The text has been revised to suit Islamic ideologies taking into consideration Pakistan's unique characteristics," Dr Nabila Zaka, a UNICEF programme officer, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Full report
TAJIKISTAN: Plight of elderly ethnic Russians in north
Galina Akhmerova is one of thousands of elderly ethnic Russians living in northern Tajikistan. She has had a hard time since both her husband and son died in early 1990s. "I have experienced a bitter and terrible life [since that],” she told IRIN at the regional centre catering for the disabled and vulnerable elderly in Khujand, capital of the northern Sogd province. There are about 40 people at the centre, Mukarrama Negmatova, head of the centre, told IRIN. "They have come from all parts of Tajikistan and they are representatives of other ethnic groups, who came to this country," she said.
Full report
UZBEKISTAN: Uighur minority demands more political rights
“For our father [President Islam Karimov] there is no such nation as Uighurs in Uzbekistan,” Dilshad (not his real name), a 29-year-old Uighur, told IRIN in the capital, Tashkent. Uighurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim people, with close cultural and linguistic ties to other ethnic groups in Central Asia, including Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Turkmen.
Full report
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