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Saturday 4 March 2006


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IRIN Asia

Country Profiles

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 60 covering the period 18 - 26 February 2006

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

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Efforts against bird flu insufficient - FAO
AFGHANISTAN: Militants set fire to a school in southern Helmand
AFGHANISTAN: New UN envoy calls for end to attacks on schools
AFGHANISTAN: Five ex-commanders surrender arms to DIAG
CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap
KYRGYZSTAN: Bride kidnapping hampers women’s education prospects
KYRGYZSTAN: Typhoid cases reported in south
KYRGYZSTAN: Landslide activity starts early in 2006
NEPAL: Grave danger for civilians due to the conflict
NEPAL: Overview analysis: A people’s war?
NEPAL: The political context of the crisis in Nepal
NEPAL: Terrorism or liberation? Life in a rebel-held village
PAKISTAN: Women's committee highlights problems facing women in quake camps
PAKISTAN: Education key priority in quake region - Save the Children
PAKISTAN: Afghan repatriation assistance programme set to resume
PAKISTAN: Quake-affected Allai Valley receives livestock support
PAKISTAN: Mob violence heightens insecurity among minorities
PAKISTAN: USAID voucher programme makes difference in quake-affected north
PAKISTAN: Pessimism reigns as quake families struggle to rebuild lives
PAKISTAN: Assessment report reveals far reaching damage to livelihoods
PAKISTAN: NGO launches economic empowerment events ahead of Women's Day
PAKISTAN: WHO satisfied with the level of preparedness against bird flu
TAJIKISTAN: Donors call on country to strengthen battle again HIV/AIDS

AFGHANISTAN: Efforts against bird flu insufficient - FAO

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that efforts by Afghan authorities and the donor community to mitigate the risk of a potential outbreak of avian influenza, otherwise known as bird flu, have been insufficient. “With cases of the deadly disease detected in Iran and India, Afghanistan is practically surrendered," Serge Verniau, FAO representative in Afghanistan, said at a press conference at the Kala-e-Hashmat Khan Lake, outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday.

Full report

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AFGHANISTAN: Militants set fire to a school in southern Helmand

Suspected Taliban militants have set fire to a school for some 1,500 boys in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, officials confirmed on Tuesday. "Last night militants set fire to a boys' high school in Zarghon village of Nadali district, around 17 km west of the district capital, Lashkargah. All the books, desks and chairs have been burnt, but no one was killed or injured in the incident," Haji Mohammad Qasim, head of Helmand's educational department, said.

Full report

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AFGHANISTAN: New UN envoy calls for end to attacks on schools

The United Nations' new top envoy to Afghanistan has called on militants to stop attacking educational institutions, following a series of attacks on schools and teachers in the restive south of the country. "I cannot understand why anyone would target schools and teachers. These attacks amount to a denial of the human right to education for Afghanistan’s children,” Tom Koenigs, the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan told reporters during his first briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

Full report

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AFGHANISTAN: Five ex-commanders surrender arms to DIAG

Five ex-commanders in Afghanistan's southwestern Paktya province voluntarily surrendered 15 mt of ammunition, as well as more than 30 light and heavy weapons, to the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme, officials from the UN-backed initiative announced on Tuesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Following the disarmament of Afghan militia forces under the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants programme, completed in late June, the Afghan government and the UN are now focusing on the DIAG initiative.

Full report

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CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, the slaying of an opposition leader in Kazakhstan is fuelling a political crisis in the region's largest nation, international media reports claimed. Five Kazakh security service officers were arrested and the national security chief, Nartai Dutbayev, resigned, the Kazakh media reported. The arrests and resignation came just days after Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, a Kazakh opposition leader, his bodyguard and driver had been killed and their bodies were found in the mountains near the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty on 13 February.

Full report

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KYRGYZSTAN: Bride kidnapping hampers women’s education prospects

Meerim was a 21-year-old university student in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, when her admirer, an old classmate from the central province of Naryn, abducted her for marriage. "My schoolmates suggested having a reunion and we met in a café in Bishkek. We were having a small party with drinks and snacks. Then Nurlan [her then classmate and now her husband] offered to continue the celebrations at his home with kebabs and music,” Meerim said in Bishkek, recalling the experience.

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KYRGYZSTAN: Typhoid cases reported in south

Almost half a dozen patients have been hospitalised in southern Kyrgyzstan with typhoid in a town near radioactive dump sites. “Eight local residents have been hospitalised over the past week in the Mailuu-Suu town in the southern province of Jalal-Abad and we have five confirmed cases, the rest are ordinary diarrhoea instances,” officials at a local sanitary and epidemiological surveillance centre said from Jalal-Abad on Monday. “All of them are residents of the upper area of Mailuu-Suu known as Koktash settlement,” they added.

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KYRGYZSTAN: Landslide activity starts early in 2006

A landslide on Sunday ripped through a road linking the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh with the Aravan district, blocking traffic and destroying electricity and telephone services to the area, with no casualties reported. “The traffic is very intense on this road but luckily no one was there when the landslide hit. I saw from a distance how a large landmass slid down and blocked the road,” Usar Khalikov, a local taxi driver who witnessed the landslide, said in Osh.

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NEPAL: Grave danger for civilians due to the conflict

Kul Kumari Chapagain has not been able to sleep for over a week since she lost her 21-year-old daughter Asmita in a roadside bomb planted by the Maoist rebels. The bomb went off on 9 February on the main highway of Nawalparasi district, 200 km south of the capital. It was targeted at security personnel, but hit the innocent college girl leaving her family and villagers shocked and devastated.

Full report

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NEPAL: Overview analysis: A people’s war?

Nepal’s brutal conflict between Maoist insurgents and security forces has exacted a heavy toll on the civilian population, especially those in contested hill districts, many of whom already live near or on the global poverty threshold. An estimated 12,000 people have been killed since the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal, officially launched its “people’s war” in February 1996.

Full report

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NEPAL: The political context of the crisis in Nepal

The 1 February 2005 takeover of executive powers by King Gyanendra has led to a new era of uncertainty in the tiny mountain kingdom of Nepal. The king now rules the impoverished country of 25 million directly as chairman of the Council of Ministers. The decision by the king to assume direct rule is the latest move by the monarch to undermine democracy in the country. Parliament was dissolved in May 2002 and elections - planned for November of the same year - remain postponed.

Full report

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NEPAL: Terrorism or liberation? Life in a rebel-held village

When the clock strikes four in the morning, Lambu Lama and his family rush out of their home in a Maoist stronghold of Nepal. Rebels use the storeroom at the back of Lama’s house to clean and repair small arms and construct bombs. During the day, the orchards around his hilltop house echo to the sound of rifles cracking, as new recruits are initiated in the use of weapons.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Women's committee highlights problems facing women in quake camps

Over 30 women sitting in a tent are holding up their right arms high in the air, waiting for their turn to talk. Many are clutching scraps of paper with meticulous lists written on them. One by one they stand up and address the meeting in nervous, shaky voices. But as the women around them nod in agreement and call out their support, their confidence grows and so do their voices. This is Muzaffarabad’s Female Committee and for most of the women here, this is the first time they have aired their problems in a public forum.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Education key priority in quake region - Save the Children

It will take years to restore the education system in earthquake-ravaged Pakistan, says the UK-based charity Save the Children, which is appealing for close to US $10 million. “Rebuilding all the schools will take years. It is completely unacceptable for children to miss out on their education while that happens,” said Peter Sykes, emergency programme manager with the international NGO Save the Children, at the inauguration of a new classroom at the Chandara Boys Primary School near Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Afghan repatriation assistance programme set to resume

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan has announced it will resume its Afghan voluntary repatriation assistance programme on 1 March, after a winter break of three months. The programme is into its last operational year under an existing tripartite agreement between Islamabad, Kabul and the UN refugee agency set to expire by December 2006.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Quake-affected Allai Valley receives livestock support

The international NGO Save the Children, with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has begun a livestock support project at the Mehra relief camp in the quake-ravaged Allai Valley in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "Some Allai residents moved to the Mehra camp with their surviving livestock, without much fodder, shelter and veterinary services. These [survivors] could stand to lose their hard earned assets to the elements and disease or be forced to sell at reduced rates," Erica Ahmed, a spokeswoman for Save the Children said from Allai in the Battagram district of NWFP on Tuesday.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Mob violence heightens insecurity among minorities

Huddled in a small group, three Christian men pore over the newspapers early in the morning in the congested Mozang area of Lahore. All around, vendors serve up thick, milky tea, glasses of ‘lassi’, greasy ‘parathas’ and spicy omelets. The newspapers, borrowed from a nearby stand, display vivid pictures of the mobs that rampaged through city streets on 14 February, burning random targets, including parked cars and motorcycles, as part of ongoing protests against the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons seen by many Muslims as blasphemous.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: USAID voucher programme makes difference in quake-affected north

A United States Agency for International Development (USAID) voucher distribution programme has begun to improve life for villagers in the quake-ravaged Bagh district of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The USAID-sponsored voucher scheme being implemented by international humanitarian agency GOAL was started in the last week of January, under which US $100-vouchers have been distributed to 10,000 families in the area. The vouchers enable families to purchase items of their choice to supplement shelter kits containing corrugated iron and plastic sheeting.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Pessimism reigns as quake families struggle to rebuild lives

Snow has begun to recede from lower-lying villages in areas around the quake-devastated town of Battagram. But, despite the help residents have received and the fact that most families have been able to survive the long, hard winter of the north, many remain pessimistic as to how they will rebuild their lives. Of the 325,000 inhabitants of Battagram district in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at least 177,150 people were directly affected by the 8 October quake, which killed over 80,000, devastated the local economy and rendered millions homeless in the process.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: Assessment report reveals far reaching damage to livelihoods

Shopkeepers, small businesses and farmers who have lost land and livestock have been left most vulnerable by the 8 October earthquake in northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, according to a recent assessment report by the UK-based charity Save the Children. The damage has had a knock-on affect on the region's poorest survivors - farmers whose small plots of land do not yield enough produce to sustain them throughout the year and so depend on shopkeepers for credit.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: NGO launches economic empowerment events ahead of Women's Day

An Islamabad-based civil society group, the Society for the Advancement of Community, Health, Education and Training (SACHET), has launched a series of events over the next two weeks to promote gender harmony and empowerment through enhanced income generation opportunities for women. "On the political front, over the past few years we have seen steadily increasing awareness of the need to empower women," Ayesha Javed, in-charge of SACHET’s programme for poverty alleviation-cum-income generation (PACIG), said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Thursday.

Full report

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PAKISTAN: WHO satisfied with the level of preparedness against bird flu

The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Pakistan's level of preparedness against avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu. There have been no reported cases of bird flu either in poultry or humans in the South Asian country to date. “Pakistan has a good level of preparedness, thanks to the presence of international level laboratories on both the human and animal side, as well as a good surveillance system for the rapid detection of and response to cases and outbreaks,” Sacha Bootsma, a WHO spokeswoman, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

Full report

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TAJIKISTAN: Donors call on country to strengthen battle again HIV/AIDS

The number of HIV-infected people in Tajikistan could reach 10,000 by the end of this year unless preventive measures were taken immediately, members of the donor community warned on Wednesday. "Taking into account the factors conducive to the spread of HIV infection, experts have estimated that the number of HIV-infected people in the country may rise from an estimated 4,000 cases in 2004 to 10,000 by the end of 2006. At this rate the number of HIV-infected cases may double every 13 months,” the statement said.

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[ENDS]

Theme(s)	Other

Other recent ASIA reports:

Weekly news wrap, 3/Mar/06

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

Weekly news wrap, 24/Feb/06

Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 59 covering the period 11 - 17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

Other recent reports:

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

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap, 17/Feb/06

ASIA: IRIN-Asia Weekly Round-up 59 covering the period 11 - 17 February 2006, 17/Feb/06

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