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Monday 20 March 2006


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IRIN Asia

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IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 58 covering the period 4 - 10 February 2006

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

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: No alternative to opium, say farmers
AFGHANISTAN: Education crisis in the south with 200 schools closed
AFGHANISTAN: Criticism of NGO de-registration
AFGHANISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 13
PAKISTAN: IOM assessing smaller quake camps
PAKISTAN: Young quake survivors turning to child labour
PAKISTAN: Rights environment grim, says report
NEPAL: Just one in 10 vote in controversial poll
NEPAL: To vote or not to vote?
KYRGYZSTAN: Passport problem strangling labour migration
KAZAKHSTAN: New NGO guide popular among journalists
TURKMENISTAN: Pension cuts begin to bite
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

AFGHANISTAN: No alternative to opium, say farmers

Sitting in his neighbour's swirling field of poppy, wearing dusty clothes, farmer Abdul Qauom, 32, is keen to find an alternative crop that will earn him a living after his two hectares of opium fields were recently destroyed by state security forces, in line with government policy. "I don’t know what to cultivate. There is nothing that can meet the financial needs of my family," said father-of–six Qauom. "The government has destroyed my crops without paying any compensation or giving me anything."

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AFGHANISTAN: Education crisis in the south with 200 schools closed

Sitting in her windowless, smoke-blackened classroom, Zubaida, 15, a ninth grade student, is happy to attend school again after an arson attack destroyed her secondary school in southern Kandahar two weeks ago. Education in the volatile region is in crisis as insurgents ruthlessly target schools, teachers and pupils, creating a climate of fear. "We go home by different routes every day because of threats and intimidation," Zubaida explained.

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AFGHANISTAN: Criticism of NGO de-registration

Civic groups in Afghanistan expressed varying reactions to a decision by the government on Tuesday to de-register some 1,600 NGOs in the post-conflict country. Some NGO groups complained that they had not been given time and support to go through the registration process. "The government has not been able to really process and facilitate the process of registration for the NGOs," Aziz Rafiee, managing director of the Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSF), a local NGO forum of some 75 participants, said from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

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AFGHANISTAN: Suicide bomber kills 13

A suicide bomber killed 13 and wounded 13 others when he blew himself up at police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said on Tuesday. "Around 9:45 AM local time, a suicide bomber tried to enter police headquarters. While police were searching him, he detonated the explosives which killed 13 people, among whom seven are police and six civilians," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told IRIN, adding eight civilians and five police were also wounded during the attack - the 20th suicide bombing in recent weeks in Afghanistan.

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PAKISTAN: IOM assessing smaller quake camps

In a further effort to assist quake victims living in smaller spontaneous settlements, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has completed an assessment covering quake-hit areas of two districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Mary Giudice, emergency shelter coordinator of the IOM's quake relief operation in NWFP in the northern city of Mansehra, explained that the assessment had three aims: to map out camp clusters of less than 50 tents; to identify the humanitarian partners working there; and to assess the needs of survivors living there.

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PAKISTAN: Young quake survivors turning to child labour

Ayaz, 14, is not quite sure where to throw the large black rubbish bag he is lugging down a small street in a suburb of the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. This is the first time Ayaz has been in Lahore, and certainly the first time he has worked as a domestic in a kitchen. "I have never chopped onions before, or washed pots and pans. Until the 8 October earthquake, I simply attended school in Muzaffrabad, and was preparing for my matriculation examination," Ayaz told IRIN.

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PAKISTAN: Rights environment grim, says report

A growing militarisation of society, coupled with an increased lack of transparency in matters of governance, has contributed to a grim human rights situation in the country, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said in a new report on Saturday. Releasing the organisation's annual report, covering the period from 1 November 2004 to 31 August 2005, HRCP officials noted that the failure to provide institutionalised protection to vulnerable groups, including women and children, also meant there had been no significant improvement in their plight.

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NEPAL: Just one in 10 vote in controversial poll

Turnout was low in Nepal’s first election in seven years, with less than 10 percent of voters casting their vote in the controversial municipal poll, the Himalayan kingdom’s Election Commission (EC) said on Wednesday. The low turnout was seen as a success by the main political parties and Maoist rebels who had been campaigning for an election boycott. They argued the election could not take place while King Gyanendra retains absolute power in Nepal.

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NEPAL: To vote or not to vote?

For 25-year-old housewife Sabrina Lama, security for her family is much more important than politics. But now she feels she’s under immense pressure – from those pushing her to participate in Wednesday’s municipal election and those warning her to stay away. “I wish I had joined my husband for labour work in India,” explained Lama. Maoist rebels and the country’s leading political parties are behind the boycott and have been campaigning widely against the elections, which they say has nothing to do with democracy and is all about King Gyanendra consolidating his year-long direct rule.

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KYRGYZSTAN: Passport problem strangling labour migration

Thousands of Kyrgyz labour migrants normally working abroad are in limbo in the Central Asian state as they cannot leave the country due to an ongoing passport problem. Ainura Tabyshalieva, a 50-year-old shoe trader working in the central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, came back to Kyrgyzstan in August to get a new passport as her old one had expired. Initially hoping to return to her flourishing small business in Russia quickly after sorting her travel documents out, she has been stranded in her home country for the past five months as she cannot get a new passport.

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KAZAKHSTAN: New NGO guide popular among journalists

A new guide on civil society in Kazakhstan issued with assistance from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is gaining popularity among journalists in the Central Asian state, bridging the gap between the two sectors.
"The idea behind publishing this guide is to establish a relationship between the NGOs and the mass media. We launched this project with the aim of bridging the gap between them," Nikolay Orininski, a programme manager with MediaNet, a local centre for supporting and developing journalism, said on Thursday from the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty.

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TURKMENISTAN: Pension cuts begin to bite

Big reductions in state benefits announced late last year in Turkmenistan are having a serious impact in the reclusive Central Asian state - particularly on the lives of the elderly who already live marginalised lives in the country of six million people. "I went to the post office on 2 January as usual to claim my pension. I was told I was no longer eligible for my monthly money, there was no explanation, no apology. There are thousands like me, how do we survive now?" 74-year-old Svetlana Ivanovna asked as she tried to hawk knitted socks in the Russian bazaar in central Ashgabat to buy food.

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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia an avalanche claimed the lives of a family of three in Tajikistan, the country's emergency ministry reported on Wednesday. The disaster killed the family near the eastern city of Khorog, about 650 km east of the capital, Dushanbe. About 93 percent of the Central Asian nation's territory is mountainous and avalanches are common during winter and spring. On 31 January, an avalanche in the northeastern Jirgital district killed 18 people and injured 12 others.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent CENTRAL ASIA reports:

US human rights report needs to inform policy - HRW, 14/Mar/06

New reports stress need for regional water cooperation , 13/Mar/06

Weekly news wrap, 10/Mar/06

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 62 covering the period 4 - 10 March 2006, 10/Mar/06

Weekly news wrap, 3/Mar/06

Other recent reports:

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 10/Mar/06

CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 62 covering the period 4 - 10 March 2006, 10/Mar/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 3/Mar/06

ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 61 covering the period 27 February - 3 March 2006, 3/Mar/06

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 24/Feb/06

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