"); NewWindow.document.close(); return false; } // end hiding from old browsers -->

Sunday 8 January 2006


Search

IRIN Asia

Country Profiles

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 40 covering the period 1 - 7 October 2005

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

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: First election results released
AFGHANISTAN: JEMB discounts incidents of election irregularities
CENTRAL ASIA: Disabled child institutionalisation continues
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with chair of the Coalition of NGOs for Democracy and Civil Society
KYRGYZSTAN: Tough life in Barak enclave
NEPAL: Europeans concerned over Nepal’s situation
PAKISTAN: Voluntary Afghan repatriation reaches 2.7 million
PAKISTAN: Anti-TB programme launched
PAKISTAN: Water shortage demands urgent attention
TAJIKISTAN: Domestic violence remains rife
TAJIKISTAN: Poor conditions mean TB still rife in prisons
UZBEKISTAN: Rights activists welcome EU sanctions

AGHANISTAN: First election results released

With the announcement of provisional results from two provinces in Afghanistan, the physical process of counting ballots across the war-ravaged country has been completed, Peter Erben, head of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said on Thursday in the Afghan capital Kabul. "We are pleased to announce the provisional results from two provinces today, Nimroz and Farah,” Erben said.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

AFGHANISTAN: JEMB discounts incidents of election irregularities

With close to 80 percent of all ballots from Afghanistan's recent historic elections now counted, the level of reported irregularities seen to date remained low compared with other similar post-conflict elections, electoral chief of the Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Sunday. "I don’t believe that these irregularities give any reason to doubt the overall integrity of the elections," Peter Erben, JEMB'S chief electoral officer, maintained.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

CENTRAL ASIA: Disabled child institutionalisation continues

The placement of children with disabilities in institutions remains problematic throughout much of Central Asia, a new report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has revealed. "The numbers of children with disabilities placed in institutions are low, but there has been an increase over the past decade," Marta Santos Pais, director of UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) in Florence, said from Geneva, citing figures from 1990 to 2002.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Washington confirmed on Tuesday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to Central Asia between 10 and 13 October with stopovers in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The trips aims at advancing bilateral and regional cooperation on security issues, promoting freedom through democratic and market-oriented reform, and strengthening security in the region, including cooperation on counter-terrorism.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

KYRGYZSTAN: Interview with chair of the Coalition of NGOs for Democracy and Civil Society

Edil Baisalov is the chair of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a group of local NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. He spoke to IRIN in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, about the importance of civil society and the preservation of peace and stability in this former Soviet republic, which recently saw the ousting of president Askar Akayev, who ruled for almost 15 years following the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

KYRGYZSTAN: Tough life in Barak enclave

Less than an hour's drive northwest from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh is the Kyrgyz village of Barak, a tiny community of some 700 residents. What makes it unique is the fact it is located in Uzbekistan. And although only 3 km of Uzbek territory separates the Barak enclave from the mainland, life is not easy for Barak inhabitants.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

NEPAL: Europeans concerned over Nepal’s situation

A European Union troika visiting Nepal says it is worried that the country could be on the verge of political collapse. The three-day visit by the high-level EU team concluded its assessment on Thursday, calling on the government, political parties, rebels and security forces not to lose time in effectively addressing the country's problems. "The real fear we have in our minds is that the failure of the constitutional forces in Nepal to work together would lead to breakdown of the government institutions," head of the delegation Tom Phillips said.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

PAKISTAN: Voluntary Afghan repatriation reaches 2.7 million

The number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation assistance programme of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has passed the 2.7 million mark, with over 415,000 repatriated so far in 2005, the agency has announced. “It is very encouraging. Of all solutions for refugees, returning to their homeland is the most desirable," Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR assistant country representative, said in Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

PAKISTAN: Anti-TB programme launched

International relief and development NGO Mercy Corps, in collaboration with Pakistan's National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP), has launched an anti-tuberculosis (TB) drive in the two southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.
"Over 11,000 TB patients will benefit every year directly from this project through the strengthening of existing treatment facilities in 60 diagnostic centres of government district hospitals in the target areas," Dr Saeedullah Khan, head of Mercy Corps’ anti-TB project, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

PAKISTAN: Water shortage demands urgent attention

Despite a normal wet season over the summer months, Pakistan faces a possible 17 percent water shortage during the upcoming cropping season from October to March next year, the country’s leading water regulatory authority has announced. "Though the situation is far better than last year when we faced a 50 percent water shortage with having just 5 MAF [million-acre feet] water available for irrigation needs, these shortages are becoming perpetual with every passing year - partly as a result of climatic conditions, but more for our lessened storage capacity over time," Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, a spokesman for the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

TAJIKISTAN: Domestic violence remains rife

The death of 27-year-old Sanam (not her real name) from Jabarrasul district in the northern Tajik province of Sogd was initially presented as a suicide by her husband's family. However, forensic experts concluded that she was suffocated to death and then hung in the barn. The search for the suspected murderer did not last long; it was her husband. Sanam's two pre-school age children were left without care or family.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

TAJIKISTAN: Poor conditions mean TB still rife in prisons

Tuberculosis (TB) remains widespread in Tajikistan's prisons, where crowded conditions and an acute lack of funding is making life harder for inmates with the disease. "The situation in terms of tuberculosis in the penitentiary institutions has been so neglected over the past few years that the registration of TB patients started only in 2004," Bakhrom Abdulkhakov, deputy head of the corrections department at the Tajik justice ministry, said in the capital Dushanbe on Wednesday.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

UZBEKISTAN: Rights activists welcome EU sanctions

Rights groups have welcomed a decision by the European Union (EU) to impose sanctions on Uzbekistan, following the country's refusal for an international probe into the Andijan killings of May. "It's the right thing to impose these sanctions with regard to Uzbekistan and I support it," Surat Ikramov, head of the Independent Initiative Group of Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan (IIGHRAU), a local rights group, said from the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday.

Full report

[Top of the Page]

[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent ASIA reports:

Weekly news wrap, 6/Jan/06

Weekly news wrap, 30/Dec/05

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 52 covering the period 24 - 30 December 2005, 30/Dec/05

Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 6/Jan/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 30/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 52 covering the period 24 - 30 December 2005, 30/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 51 covering the period 17 - 23 December 2005, 23/Dec/05

[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about IRIN's Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2006
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.