IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 34 covering the period 20 - 26 August 2005
CONTENTS:
AFGHANISTAN: Many candidates still linked to armed groups
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
PAKISTAN: Census suggests more than 2.5 million Afghans want to stay
KAZAKHSTAN: Fight against HIV/AIDS continues
KAZAKHSTAN: Bird flu threat demands greater international response - FAO
KYRGYZSTAN: The water problems of a provincial town
NEPAL: Searching for the disappeared
NEPAL: Confidence building ahead of talks with rebels
PAKISTAN: Progress in women's participation in election
PAKISTAN: Refugee camp closures to go ahead
PAKISTAN: Boost to women's cricket
PAKISTAN: Terror suspects disappear
TAJIKISTAN: Half a million dollars needed for demining dogs
UZBEKISTAN: UN refugee agency reacts to Tashkent's criticism
AFGHANISTAN: Many candidates still linked to armed groups
Despite significant progress on preparations for autumn polls, some candidates of Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections are still linked with armed groups and some are holding stocks of weapons, the United Nations and a local human rights body warned. The concern was raised after the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) released a joint report on the verification of political rights prior to the Wolesi Jerga [lower house] and provincial council elections slated September.
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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
This week the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a possible flu pandemic, adding, however, that the timing and severity of it remained uncertain. As part of its efforts to prepare for, detect and mitigate the impact of such an event, the agency was creating an international stockpile of antiviral drugs for rapid response at the start of any pandemic, WHO Director-General, Lee Jong-wook, said. In an agreement signed on Wednesday, Roche, a leading healthcare company based in Switzerland, agreed to provide three million treatment courses of the antiviral drug oseltamivir to the WHO, which could be provided to people in greatest need at the site of an emerging influenza pandemic.
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PAKISTAN: Census suggests more than 2.5 million Afghans want to stay
More than 2.5 million Afghan refugees would like to continue living in Pakistan beyond 2005, according to a detailed census report released on Wednesday by Pakistani authorities, in conjunction with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The findings of the report, entitled, 'Census of Afghans in Pakistan 2005' revealed that of three million Afghans in the country, some 75 percent are not ready to repatriate, citing poor security, a lack of adequate housing, scarcity of jobs and various land issues.
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KAZAKHSTAN: Fight against HIV/AIDS continues
Efforts to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kazakhstan are proceeding well, despite an increase in rates of sexual transmission. Central Asia's largest state enjoys a relatively low prevalence of the disease. "In general, our assessment of the situation is positive," said Valery Chernyavskiy, portfolio manager for Kazakhstan's grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, speaking from Geneva.
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KAZAKHSTAN: Bird flu threat demands greater international response - FAO
The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has called for further support from the international community in mitigating the spread of bird flu, following a recent outbreak of the disease in Kazakhstan carried by the westward migratory movement of hundreds of thousands of birds. "During various meetings, we - alongside the OIE [World Organisation for Animal Health] - have repeatedly urged the international community to invest more money in affected countries so as to improve their surveillance work early on in the virus's movement," Samuel Jutzi, director of the FAO's Animal Production and Health Division said from Rome.
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KYRGYZSTAN: The water problems of a provincial town
The lack of clean drinking water in the town of Karakol, around 600 km east of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, is a problem which creates a variety of health hazards for the local people. It's typical of many medium-sized communities in Central Asia in the post-Soviet era. Karakol's lack of clean water is unspectacular and has been a fact of life for residents for decades, generating little concern outside the town itself. Because of this, such problems are often ignored by both national and international bodies.
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NEPAL: Searching for the disappeared
Every evening, Kamala Tharu and her two young daughters Dilkumari and Premkumari sit near their house in the district of Bardiya, 700km west of the capital, Kathmandu, gazing at the dusty tracks that lead to their village in the vain hope of seeing husband and father, Laka Jawan Lahanu, returning. Almost three years have passed since he was taken by security force personnel on suspicion of being a Maoist rebel.
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NEPAL: Confidence building ahead of talks with rebels
Nepal's seven main political parties say they are preparing for talks with the leaders of the nation's Maoist rebels, who have been waging a violent campaign against the state for the last nine years. Over 12,000 people have died in the continuing insurgency. On Monday, party leaders reached a consensus on forming a monitoring committee to ensure the rebels adhere to promises made not to attack civilians, NGO staff or political party workers in areas of the country they effectively control.
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PAKISTAN: Progress in women's participation in election
Rights activists in Pakistan have hailed increased participation by women in last week's local elections. "For the first time in the country's history, civil society groups, rights activists, media and other bodies have come up with a collective campaign for women electoral rights," Naeem Mirza, a project director with a leading women rights' body, the Aurat Foundation, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Monday.
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PAKISTAN: Refugee camp closures to go ahead
Islamabad intends to adhere to a timetable of closures of various Afghan refugee camps and settlements across the country, a government official said on Tuesday, responding to reports that extensions were being considered to allow camp residents time to leave in safety and with dignity. "The deadlines will remain the same for all the Afghan refugee camps whether in the western tribal region or in Balochistan province or for Afghan settlements on the outskirts of capital. We have no plans to revise any of them at all," Dr Imran Zeb, director of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR), a state body dealing with Afghan refugees, said in the capital, Islamabad.
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PAKISTAN: Boost to women's cricket
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have launched a ground breaking campaign using cricket to focus on girls' right to education and sports. UNICEF representative in Pakistan, Omar Ahmed Abdi and PCB chairman Shahryar Muhammad Khan signed the agreement on Thursday in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, as part of the regional "Fair Play for Girls" initiative.
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PAKISTAN: Terror suspects disappear
Fifty-two-year-old Anwari Mai keeps an old black and white photograph of her son on the kitchen shelf of her house in the tiny village where she lives with her family, close to the industrial town of Gujranwala in the central Pakistani province of Punjab. Her son, Qayyum, stares out from the faded picture, sitting amidst rows of spices stored in old plastic bottles. He has a a straggly beard, making him look somewhat older than his 19 years. Today, Qayyum would be nearly 23.
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TAJIKISTAN: Half a million dollars needed for demining dogs
The Tajik national demining body needs at least half a million US dollars in funding in order to establish a dog demining centre. The centre would form an important part of Tajikistan's efforts to clear millions of mines in the former Soviet republic by 2010. "We need US $500,000 in order to implement the programme on demining mined areas in Tajikistan with the help of demining dogs," Parviz Mavlonkulov, deputy head of the Tajik Mine Action Centre (TMAC), said on Tuesday in the capital Dushanbe.
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UZBEKISTAN: UN refugee agency reacts to Tashkent's criticism
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has denied claims by the Uzbek authorities that it is harbouring alleged criminals and terrorists. "We are absolutely not in the business of protecting criminals or terrorists as was claimed by the Uzbek prosecutor [general]," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for UNHCR, speaking from Geneva on Wednesday. "Under international refugee law, people guilty of serious crimes are explicitly excluded from refugee status," Colville added.
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