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ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 1 covering the period 1 - 7 January 2005 - OCHA IRIN

Sunday 23 January 2005


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IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 1 covering the period 1 - 7 January 2005

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs victims of growing criminality
AFGHANISTAN: The challenge of dismantling irregular militias
AFGHANISTAN: UN to deal with ammunition stockpiles
CENTRAL ASIA: Chronology of key humanitarian developments in the region, 2004 - Part I
CENTRAL ASIA: Soros Foundation to continue despite setbacks
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
IRAN: Special report on Bam - one year after the devastating earthquake
KAZAKHSTAN: MSM group works to raise HIV awareness
KAZAKHSTAN: River Syrdarya bursts its banks in Kzyl-Orda
KYRGYZSTAN: Further reduction of TB requires poverty alleviation, observers say
PAKISTAN: Relief for Indonesians caught in tsunami aftermath
PAKISTAN: Activists sceptical about new law designed to reduce honour killings
PAKISTAN: Consultations to reform Christian inheritance law
TURKMENISTAN: Seven mosques destroyed in one year, activists say

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs victims of growing criminality

Aid workers in the capital Kabul have raised concern about the increase in violent attacks on aid agencies over the last couple of months. In just four weeks, several NGOs have been targeted by gunmen and criminals in the capital.

"It is shocking that even in the capital, with thousands of international peacekeepers present, NGOs come under violent attack," Lal Gul, the head of the Afghan Commission for Human Rights (ACHR) told IRIN on Wednesday.

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AFGHANISTAN: The challenge of dismantling irregular militias

Tens of thousands of irregular militia groups will be disarmed through a new joint United Nations and government initiative, officials from the Afghan Ministry of Defence (MOD) told IRIN on Tuesday. Although more than 30,000 of an estimated 60,000 Afghan ex-combatants have already been assisted by the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme, MOD officials believe there are still irregular armed groups and individuals that are not linked to known militia forces and which operate privately.

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AFGHANISTAN: UN to deal with ammunition stockpiles

More than 100,000 mt of ammunition will be collected from across the country under a new programme, the United Nations backed Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) confirmed to IRIN on Monday. Although a huge programme of heavy weapons' collection, disarmament of militia forces and land mine clearance is already under way, the existence of such a sheer quantity of ammunition stockpiles is another major challenge for the post-conflict country.

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CENTRAL ASIA: Chronology of key humanitarian developments in the region, 2004 - Part I

The following is a complete chronology of humanitarian events and news items impacting Central Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran for the year 2004. To continue, clink onto the following URL and chose the month you wish you view.

Full report

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CENTRAL ASIA: Soros Foundation to continue despite setbacks

The Soros Foundation has said it will continue its work in the region and has dismissed suggestions it was suffering from an image problem with the authorities in Central Asia, where three out of four of its country-based foundations have encountered difficulties in their operations. "I don't really feel it's a public relations problem. I can't really speculate on the nature of an authoritarian regime or its reactions," Laura Silber, senior policy adviser for the Soros Foundation and Open Society Institute (OSI), told IRIN from New York.

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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia began with more reports of torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, with two local rights groups on Monday saying that an Uzbek man had been tortured to death. The independent rights group, Ezgulik, and the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU) claimed that Samandar Umarov, 35, who had been serving a 17-year prison sentence for belonging to the outlawed Islamic group, Hizbut Tahrir, had been tortured to death in a prison in the eastern Navoiy province on Sunday.

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IRAN: Special report on Bam - one year after the devastating earthquake

A year after an earthquake that killed at least 30,000 people in just seconds, and on the surface not much has changed. The mangled remains of a lost city are strewn across this once-fertile desert oasis. Debris, rubble and twisted metal girders are still piled high on every street and down every alley, almost untouched since the earthquake struck on 26 December 2003. Around them are date trees and a few half collapsed buildings stubbornly standing, precariously lopsided.

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KAZAKHSTAN: MSM group works to raise HIV awareness

Raising HIV awareness is no easy task, particularly amongst Kazakhstan's largely closeted gay community. But in a campaign aimed at doing just that, one local NGO is looking towards the Internet to reach members of the MSM community (men who have sex with men). "This is a collective opportunity to share information on the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst the MSM community - not just in Kazakhstan, but throughout Central Asia," Igor Galkin, president of the Kazakh NGO Alliance, currently the only NGO working on the issue of MSM and HIV in the commercial capital, Almaty, told IRIN.

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KAZAKHSTAN: River Syrdarya bursts its banks in Kzyl-Orda

Warm weather caused the Syrdarya river to burst its banks in southern Kazakhstan on Tuesday, although no settlements in the area were affected, the emergency agency of Kazakhstan said on Thursday. "Currently the situation is under control and routine water discharge [from the Chardara reservoir upstream], which is now 700 cu m per second, is under way," Kayrat Tarbaev, a spokesman for the emergency agency, told IRIN from the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Thursday.

Full report

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KYRGYZSTAN: Further reduction of TB requires poverty alleviation, observers say

Most observers equate the persistence of tuberculosis (TB) in Kyrgyzstan with high levels of poverty. "TB, by its nature, is a social disease, and its the reduction depends not only on medical treatment but also on how well poverty is alleviated," the deputy director of the National Centre of Physiology (NCP), the institute responsible for the fight against TB, Myrzahat Imanaliev, told IRIN. While there have been some signs of a reduction in the number of new TB cases in recent years, the disease continues to remain a major health concern in the country. Of its five million inhabitants, those in rural areas and the state's overcrowded prisons are most at risk.

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PAKISTAN: Relief for Indonesians caught in tsunami aftermath

Pakistan dispatched the first part of a taskforce of about 250 army personnel to parts of devastated Indonesia on Monday, in two C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). "The taskforce assigned for Indonesia, includes about 160 army engineers and a 50-bed field hospital. The deployment of all the personnel will be completed within the next six days while the heavy equipment is being transported by sea in navy ships," an official from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)office told IRIN, from the city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

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PAKISTAN: Activists sceptical about new law designed to reduce honour killings

Pakistani President General Musharraf on Tuesday gave his assent to a bill setting out enhanced punishment for honour crimes - usually carried out against women and girls who "offend the honour of the family". But women's rights activists are not convinced the law will have any impact on the widespread problem. "It won't make any difference. It has just increased the punishment to 25 years in prison, but that remains discretionary," Sadia Mumtaz, coordinator of the Legislative Watch Programme (LWP) of the women's rights body, Aurat Foundation, told IRIN in the capital Islamabad.

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PAKISTAN: Consultations to reform Christian inheritance law

The Committee for Justice and Peace (CJP), a minority rights NGO, is holding consultations to amend the Succession Act of 1925 that governs how Christians in Pakistan inherit property, money and goods. "This consultation, in particular, is focusing on the share Christian women get when it comes to inheritance, as women are generally denied their right by male members of their family," Naeem Shakir, head of CJP, told IRIN from the eastern city of Lahore. Half of the roughly 10 million Christians in Pakistan are female.

Full report

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TURKMENISTAN: Seven mosques destroyed in one year, activists say

Efforts to curtail religious freedom in the reclusive oil-rich state of Turkmenistan continue, with at least seven mosques demolished in 2004 alone, activists told IRIN on Wednesday. "By destroying mosques - as well as a Christian church and Hare Krishna temples, as was done in the past - the Turkmen government is demonstrating its contempt for the rights of believers of different faiths to maintain their own places of worship where they can pray freely in the way they wish to," Felix Corley, editor of Forum 18 News Service, told IRIN from London on Wednesday.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Other recent ASIA reports:

Weekly news wrap, 21/Jan/05

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 3 covering the period 15 - 21 January 2005, 21/Jan/05

Weekly news wrap, 14/Jan/05

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 2 covering the period 8 - 14 January 2005, 14/Jan/05

Weekly news wrap, 7/Jan/05

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 21/Jan/05

ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 3 covering the period 15 - 21 January 2005, 21/Jan/05

TAJIKISTAN: The year in review, 20/Jan/05

UZBEKISTAN: Review of 2004, 20/Jan/05

NEPAL: Withdrawal of rural development project, 20/Jan/05

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