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Wednesday 24 August 2005


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IRIN Asia

Country Profiles

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 17 covering the period 23 - 29 April 2005

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

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on preparations for parliamentary elections
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Efforts to assist Afghan repatriation continue
AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Ethnic bias hinders decision to return
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on major players ahead of presidential polls
KYRGYZSTAN: Activists welcome anti-corruption probe
NEPAL: Focus on challenges of rural education
NEPAL: UN official calls for greater assistance for IDPs
NEPAL: Humanitarian re-orientation needed, says UN official
PAKISTAN: Country moves toward polio-free status before year's end
TAJIKISTAN: Demining delayed due to lack of money
UZBEKISTAN: Natural disaster risk high in south
UZBEKISTAN: UN-supported gender correction centre brings hope

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on preparations for parliamentary elections

Six months after a successful presidential poll, Afghanistan’s fledgling political system is starting to prepare for a much more ambitious undertaking: parliamentary elections slated for 18 September. Already, colourful posters conveying party messages can be seen in public places in the capital Kabul, and in some provincial towns.

Full report

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AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Efforts to assist Afghan repatriation continue

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stepped up its efforts to assist voluntary returns under its ‘Facilitated Group Returns’ (FGR) programme to Afghanistan, aimed at removing some of the basic hurdles preventing repatriation. UNHCR started the FGR programme in 2003 in support of the voluntary return of Afghans. Under the programme, refugee groups that come from one particular place inside Afghanistan are identified from among the refugee community in Pakistan and the refugee agency helps remove their concerns.

Full report

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AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Ethnic bias hinders decision to return

Haji Juma Khan, a refugee of over 20 years in Pakistan, has yet to decide whether to return to his homeland in northern Afghanistan or not, worried that his Pashtoon ethnicity might prove a barrier for him and his family's future. “For us having Pashtoon origin, even though we speak Dari, it's pretty difficult to survive in a non-Pashtoon area," the community elder told IRIN in the Zia Colony community of some 150 Pashtoon families in the southern port city of Karachi.

Full report

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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia started with a warning from Tajikistan about conditions in and around Lake Sarez in the east of the mountainous country. The Tajik emergency minister Mirzo Ziyo, expressed concern on Saturday over heavy precipitation in the area following an already heavy snowfall this year. "I do not wish to make a fuss about this issue. However, the level of water at Sarez is rising by 20 cm annually," the minister said.

Full report

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KYRGYZSTAN: Focus on major players ahead of presidential polls

The current political agenda in Kyrgyzstan, where opposition-led protesters overthrew the regime of former president Askar Akayev in March, is dominated by upcoming presidential elections in early July. Several political leaders have announced that they will run for the presidency, but most observers believe that the contest will be between two leaders; prime minister, acting president and leader of the National Movement of Kyrgyzstan (NMK), Kurmanbek Bakiev, who was among those who led the protests that toppled Akayev's regime on 24 March and the head of the Ar-Namys political party, Felix Kulov, who was jailed under Akayev for more than four years.

Full report

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KYRGYZSTAN: Activists welcome anti-corruption probe

Anti-corruption activists have applauded a move by Kyrgyzstan's interim government to investigate the business interests of former president Askar Akayev and his family, calling upon the Kyrgyz authorities for systematic and comprehensive reforms to tackle corruption in the former Soviet republic.

Full report

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NEPAL: Focus on challenges of rural education

Life is hard for eight-year-old Kasilal. From his village of Daraphai in the poor, mountain district of Humla, over 750 km northwest of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, he has to walk over three hours to reach Simikot district where he collects rice for his family, airdropped by the government to help those in remote, food-deficit areas. He spends the rest of his day fetching wood - the one source of fuel in the district, reachable only by plane given a lack of navigable roads. Kasilal has been unable to attend school for over six months. Hundreds of children like him are deprived of education due to their hardship and impoverished state.

Full report

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NEPAL: UN official calls for greater assistance for IDPs

A top UN official has called for greater assistance for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nepal whose suffering remains largely overshadowed by the nine-year-old Maoist insurgency. Walter Kälin, representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights, said on Friday that many of the displaced people needed protection and assistance, describing the caseload as "overlooked and neglected".

Full report

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NEPAL: Humanitarian re-orientation needed, says UN official

A top UN official has called for a refocusing of UN agency efforts to avoid a further deterioration in the condition of civilians in conflict-ridden Nepal. Speaking to reporters on Friday in New York, Dennis McNamara, the UN's Special Adviser on Internal Displacement, said that the human rights situation was "extremely serious" and a "reorientation from development to humanitarian programmes" was a priority. "That's what we're urging our UN agency friends to do; to re-orientate," he said.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Country moves toward polio-free status before year's end

Following more than a decade of aggressive campaigning and house-to-house immunisation rounds, health experts in Pakistan remain confident that the South Asian nation will be polio-free before the end of 2005. "In 2003, we had around 103 reported cases of polio, which dropped by almost 50 percent in 2004 with a total of 53 cases registered. Now, so far in 2005, a total of only five polio cases have been reported," Jeffery Bates, polio communications officer at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told IRIN on Thursday, the concluding day of the national polio immunisation campaign.

Full report

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TAJIKISTAN: Demining delayed due to lack of money

Tajikistan's demining programme for 2005 has been delayed due to lack of money. "We need around US $3 million for our activities this year, at the moment we have just half of that amount pledged [promised], so we cannot start urgent demining programmes," Jonmahamad Rajabov, head of the Tajik Mine Action Cell (TMAC), told IRIN on Tuesday in the capital Dushanbe.

Full report

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UZBEKISTAN: Natural disaster risk high in south

Many villages in mountainous areas of southern Uzbekistan face an increasing risk of natural disasters following a particularly harsh winter. Thousands of residents in several districts of the southern Uzbek province of Kashkadarya remain vulnerable to landslides and mudflows. "Landslides and mudflows are a permanent problem here," Burkhan Turdyev, head of the provincial emergency department, told IRIN in the southern city of Karshi, capital of Kashkadarya province. "Usually this season begins in March and continues up to July. But this year the first landslide occurred on 17 February in Kamashin district, which we did not expect."

Full report

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UZBEKISTAN: UN-supported gender correction centre brings hope

In a whitewashed Soviet-style operating room in the central Uzbek city of Samarkand, doctors operate on a patient while nurses help them in their scrupulous work. Gulya (not her real name), a 33-year-old patient, is among hundreds of people who annually come to this unique centre to get help for problems they cannot speak about openly. Gulya was born with male pseudohermaphroditism and had testicular feminisation syndrome. In other words she had an intersex state. Intersex states occur when there is ambiguity or uncertainty about physical sexual status. Such a status arises when there is a problem in early embryonic sexual development.

Full report

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[ENDS]

Accessed	2043
Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL ASIA reports:

Weekly news wrap, 19/Aug/05

Weekly news wrap, 12/Aug/05

Weekly news wrap, 5/Aug/05

Weekly news wrap, 29/Jul/05

Weekly news wrap, 22/Jul/05

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 19/Aug/05

ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 33 covering the period 13 - 19 August 2005, 19/Aug/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 12/Aug/05

ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 32 covering the period 6 August - 12 August 2005, 12/Aug/05

IRAN: Interview with Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari, 9/Aug/05

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