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Sunday 25 December 2005


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IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 41 covering the period 8 - 14 October 2005

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

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Regional earthquake claims at least three
AFGHANISTAN: Increase in people living with HIV/AIDS
AFGHANISTAN: Rockets fired at capital ahead of Rice visit
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Suspected anthrax cases in south
NEPAL: Parliamentary elections to be held by April 2007
PAKISTAN: Powerful quake rocks northeast
PAKISTAN: More than 18,000 dead following regional earthquake
PAKISTAN: Earthquake leaves 20,000 dead and huge numbers in need
PAKISTAN: Earthquake death toll likely to rise significantly
PAKISTAN: International aid pours in
PAKISTAN: Helicopters top priority 48 hours after huge earthquake
PAKISTAN: UN launches flash appeal for quake survivors
PAKISTAN: Efforts shift to relief as quake death toll leaps
PAKISTAN: Three days after earthquake, health risks grow
PAKISTAN: Thousands of earthquake children require urgent medical care - UNICEF
PAKISTAN: World boosts quake response
PAKISTAN: Dire need for shelter as earthquake survivors endure fifth night
PAKISTAN: Relief effort hampered by logistics as weather improves
PAKISTAN: Trying to stay alive in post-quake rubble
PAKISTAN: Battling against the weather to keep earthquake survivors alive
PAKISTAN: UN Relief Coordinator calls for more helicopters
PAKISTAN: Race against time to save lives
PAKISTAN: Skies over Shangla still silent
PAKISTAN: WHO believes earthquake disaster worse than December’s tsunami
PAKISTAN: Supplies for relief run short in major cities
UZBEKISTAN: Residents mute five months after mass killings
UZBEKISTAN: Media development NGO folds

AFGHANISTAN: Regional earthquake claims at least three

At least two children and an adult were killed and a number of houses damaged in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Saturday, when the strong earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan and the divided region of Kashmir, was felt in Afghanistan, the United Nations confirmed on Monday in the Afghan capital Kabul. There have also been reports of minor damage elsewhere. “In northeastern Badakhshan, a few houses were destroyed. We don’t have more information of casualties from there,” Kalanpari Saroesh, a public information officer for the United Nations Assistant Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

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AFGHANISTAN: Increase in people living with HIV/AIDS

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan could cripple the desperately poor country unless urgent prevention and treatment measures are taken, the Afghan health ministry warned this week. Available data on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan are very limited, although infection rates are thought to be many times higher than the official figure.

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AFGHANISTAN: Rockets fired at capital ahead of Rice visit

Two rockets hit the Afghan capital Kabul early on Wednesday, injuring two guards at the Canadian ambassador's residence, officials said. The attack is the latest in a series of killings and explosions to have taken place in the war-ravaged country in recent weeks and came hours before a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a tour of Central Asia. She was scheduled to discuss terrorism, militancy, opium proliferation and reconstruction efforts with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week toured Central Asia, visiting Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and making an unscheduled trip to earthquake-ravaged Pakistan. Her visit follows Washington’s vow earlier this year to make democracy-building central to bilateral relations with these countries. The US is vying with Russia and China for sway over a region that is a narcotics crossroads, a launch pad for the US campaign against the Taliban, and home to some of the world’s largest oil finds in recent decades.

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KYRGYZSTAN: Suspected anthrax cases in south

A quarantine has been imposed in parts of southern Kyrgyzstan after nine people were hospitalised in the southern province of Jalal-Abad with suspected anthrax, health officials said on Tuesday. "The situation is very serious and there are more infected cases amongst both residents and cattle. We have screened around 130 people for anthrax so far," Abdykalyk Nazarov, head of the provincial epidemiological unit, said from Jalal-Abad, capital of the southern province of the same name.

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NEPAL: Parliamentary elections to be held by April 2007

Nepal's King Gyanendra said on Wednesday he would hold parliamentary elections by April, 2007. In a message to the Himalayan kingdom to mark the Hindu festival of Dasain, the king urged the international community to help conduct dignified, free and fair polls. "We have commanded the Election Commission to conduct elections to the House of Representatives within the [Nepali] year 2063 B.S.[by mid-April 2007]," he said.

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PAKISTAN: Powerful quake rocks northeast

Hundreds are feared dead and scores injured after a powerful earthquake ripped through northeastern Pakistan on Saturday. Preliminary reports indicate wide scale damage in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, with officials warning of higher casualties to follow. "At the moment, information is just coming in and we have yet to determine the true scale of the disaster," Marie-Francoise Borel, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told IRIN from Geneva, noting, however, assessment teams were on the ground.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: More than 18,000 dead following regional earthquake

Rescue, relief and damage assessment missions were busy across the region on Sunday, after a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit mountainous parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan a day earlier, causing widespread devastation. In Pakistan alone, more than 18,000 people have been killed according to the Pakistani army, while another 40,000 have been reported injured across the northern hilly terrain of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, parts of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA).

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PAKISTAN: Earthquake leaves 20,000 dead and huge numbers in need

Disaster assessment teams arriving in Pakistan on Sunday said very large numbers of people had been affected by Saturday’s devastating earthquake that killed more than 20,000 people, according to officials, in a belt stretching from Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into India. While parts of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir are among the worst hit areas, there are many reports of massive destruction across northern mountainous areas of Pakistan.

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PAKISTAN: Earthquake death toll likely to rise significantly

As night fell more than 48 hours after a devastating earthquake hit northern Pakistan and India, rescue teams continued to battle against time, pulling survivors out of collapsed buildings and trying to get to hundreds of devastated villages in outlying regions. The official death toll of some 20,000 announced by the Pakistani government on Sunday is likely to grow significantly, according to authorities in Pakistani-administered Kashmir where the emergency is acute. "I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," Tariq Farooq, communications minister for the region, was quoted as saying by Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper.

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PAKISTAN: International aid pours in

The world's leading donor nations and international bodies rushed to provide aid to support relief efforts in Pakistan following a devastating earthquake, which has so far claimed the lives of over 20,000, left some 42,000 injured and made around four million homeless. Islamabad said it was overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. The US government pledged US $50 million on Monday as an initial contribution for relief and reconstruction after the earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir affected most by the disaster. In Indian-administered Kashmir, 865 people died from the earthquake.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Helicopters top priority 48 hours after huge earthquake

Many more helicopters are urgently needed to deploy rescue teams and assist an estimated four million people left in dire need of food, shelter, water and medicine after Saturday's devastating earthquake, aid workers said on Monday. The earthquake has left at least 20,000 people dead and 42,000 injured over northern Pakistan and India. Many of those trapped beneath collapsed buildings are in areas cut off by road and time is rapidly running out to get to them. "We are having logistic problems at the moment. Roads are not in a condition to carry heavy trucks of supplies. It's time that matters most now," Andrew Macleod, spokesman for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, early on Monday.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: UN launches flash appeal for quake survivors

The United Nations and its agencies appealed on Tuesday for upwards of US $280 million to help hundreds of thousands people in Pakistan and India who survived the regional tremor that killed around 33,000 in Pakistan alone and left scores more injured. “Every hour counts and I urge the world to respond and respond generously and willingly,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a news conference in Geneva as the UN was preparing to launch the international appeal.

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PAKISTAN: Efforts shift to relief as quake death toll leaps

More than 72 hours after a powerful earthquake hit northern Pakistan and India, operations on the ground were shifting to providing relief aid to survivors, as the death toll shot up from an earlier estimate of 20,000. Islamabad said on Tuesday the earthquake killed more than 33,000 people in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. New Delhi has said at least 1,300 lost their lives in Indian-administered Kashmir as a result of the quake. But with thousands still trapped under rubble or located in isolated areas where help has not reached, the figure is expected to rise significantly.

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PAKISTAN: Three days after earthquake, health risks grow

Three days after the devastating earthquake that hit mountainous parts of northern Pakistan and India, fears are growing that deteriorating sanitary conditions in the affected areas could provide a breeding for epidemics, officials said on Tuesday. The disaster has killed at least 20,000 people, injured twice that number and left up to 4 million homeless and 1 million in immediate need of assistance. Many thousands more, buried under rubble or caught by the quake in remote areas, are feared dead.

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PAKISTAN: Thousands of earthquake children require urgent medical care - UNICEF

More than 300 children injured in Saturday's devastating regional earthquake have been airlifted to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, over the last four days. Most of children have head injuries, broken limbs or are severely traumatised by their experiences, said Akhtar Haq, head of local NGO, Friends of the Child, working at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). "Medical support is sufficient so far here, but there is a shortage of bandages. We need blankets, sweaters and warm clothes for children and also for their guardians or relatives," Haq added.

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PAKISTAN: World boosts quake response

As the scale of the devastation caused by Saturday’s South Asian earthquake becomes clearer, many countries and international bodies are increasing their support to help millions of survivors in the region. The World Bank on Tuesday doubled its initial commitment of US $40 million to Pakistan, hit hardest by the regional tremor that struck northern Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

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PAKISTAN: Dire need for shelter as earthquake survivors endure fifth night

Communities made homeless by Saturday's powerful regional earthquake urgently need shelter and warm clothes as cold winter weather saps the energy of hundreds of thousands forced to camp in the open throughout northern Pakistan. The earthquake, that has killed at least 30,000 people and injured many more, has left over 2.5 million people homeless. "The shelter situation is a serious problem at the moment and in view of the cold weather, rain and snowfall across the mountainous region, tents should be winterised," Andrew Macleod, spokesman for the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, said in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Relief effort hampered by logistics as weather improves

Four days after the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan and India, killing at least 40,000 people, relief supplies have started to reach more isolated quake-hit areas after bad weather cleared. But many challenges lie ahead in meeting the immediate humanitarian needs of an estimated 1 million survivors, officials said on Wednesday. "The aid is coming through, but yes, it's not sufficient. We know that," Jan Vandemoortele, UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan said in the capital, Islamabad. "But we are getting more international commitments," he noted.

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PAKISTAN: Trying to stay alive in post-quake rubble

Four days after the quake that destroyed their lives, Raheema Bibi, 25, sits on a pile of rubble in the wrecked town of Battagram, some 200 km north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Close to her, she holds her infant daughter, Maryam, and two-year-old son, Abdullah. Another son, Wali, five, lies somewhere under the mountainous piles of rock, rubble and twisted steel that can be seen for literally miles around. But Raheema has no time to mourn her first-born. Her only concern is to keep her surviving children alive. Both were uninjured in the quake - but for four days, no food has reached Battagram; there is no water, no medicine and no tents to provide shelter from the bitterly cold winds that lash the area all through the night.

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PAKISTAN: Battling against the weather to keep earthquake survivors alive

Heavy rain, which has been falling since Tuesday, is hampering relief efforts in areas of northern Pakistan devastated by Saturday's regional earthquake. In the town of Abbottabad, about 30 km south of the quake's epicentre, the rain has added to the human misery visible everywhere, including people with serious injuries lying outdoors in makeshift hospitals set up at the Ayub Medical Hospital, the Combined Military Hospital and at what is left of the district headquarters hospital.

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PAKISTAN: UN Relief Coordinator calls for more helicopters

The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, toured the devastated city of Muzaffarabad on Thursday - close to the epicentre of Saturday's massive regional earthquake - to see for himself the extent of the disaster that has killed at least 25,000 people and left more than 2 million homeless. "The biggest problem at the moment is to reach people in outlying areas. It's heart breaking to see flattened small villages. This devastation is just a complete nightmare, 70 percent of this city has been completely destroyed," Egeland told IRIN.

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PAKISTAN: Race against time to save lives

The first vehicles carrying tents and the first convoys of rescue workers including Pakistani troops, who arrived in the devastated town of Bisham late on Wednesday, were met with a mixture of anger and relief. Bisham, in the picturesque Kaghan Valley, some 250 km north of the capital Islamabad, stands at the entrance to the towering, rocky Karakorums mountain range. Each year, hundreds of tourists pass through the sleepy town on their way to Kaghan and Gilgit, further north.

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PAKISTAN: Skies over Shangla still silent

For five days, Faraz Hussain, his wife and their three children have looked to the sky for the helicopters to bring them aid. They had heard on their crackly pocket radio that large-scale relief efforts were on their way to their district of Shangla in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP). So far the helicopters have failed to appear. “All we know is that supplies were reaching Muzzafarabad and other Kashmiri areas,” Faraz said. “But does no one care about us? Why are there no planes, no helicopters to bring us some help?”

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PAKISTAN: WHO believes earthquake disaster worse than December’s tsunami

Leading international agencies believe the devastation caused by the earthquake that struck Pakistan last Saturday is still being underestimated. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the calamity was bigger in scale than the tsunami that struck East Asia last year and the long-term problems created as a consequence will prove more difficult to deal with.

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PAKISTAN: Supplies for relief run short in major cities

Acute shortages of tents, bedding, matches, biscuits and many drugs continue to hamper relief efforts in earthquake-affected cities and towns in Pakistan, according to aid workers. Charity groups, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals are working tirelessly to gather essential items but lack of transport is hindering distribution, despite the efforts of the government’s Federal Relief Commission (FRC), set up on Tuesday to coordinate relief efforts and an unprecedented public response.

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UZBEKISTAN: Residents mute five months after mass killings

Five months after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed anti-government protests in the eastern city of Andijan, many local residents are still too afraid to even mention the demonstration and subsequent government crackdown, which according to rights groups claimed up to 1,000 lives. While many residents are busy with daily life and both traders and customers flock the bazaars, very few are willing to talk about what transpired in their city on 13 May, when thousands of demonstrators gathered in the city's Bobur square.

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UZBEKISTAN: Media development NGO folds

The Internews Network, a leading international media development organisation, has lost its bid to continue working in Uzbekistan, the Central Asian nation where it has operated for ten years to support independent media. “This was clearly a political move, the government has been determined to get rid of any organisation promoting freedom of speech and things got worse after Andijan [the killing five months ago of demonstrators in the eastern Uzbek city],” Catherine Eldridge, Internews head in Uzbekistan, said on Thursday.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent ASIA reports:

Weekly news wrap, 23/Dec/05

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

Weekly news wrap, 16/Dec/05

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 50 covering the period 10 - 16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

Weekly news wrap, 9/Dec/05

Other recent reports:

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

AFGHANISTAN: Government approves new counter-narcotics law, 20/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 16/Dec/05

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 50 covering the period 10 - 16 December 2005, 16/Dec/05

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