ASIA: IRIN-ASIA Weekly Round-up 113, 26 February – 4 March 2007
11 Mar 2007 11:56:07 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 11 March (IRIN) - CONTENTS: AFGHANISTAN: President pressured to sign
controversial amnesty bill
AFGHANISTAN: Gov't steps up fight against bird flu
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Afghan refugees given repatriation extension
AFGHANISTAN: Gov't bid to boost police in south AFGHANISTAN: Girls miss out on full education
AFGHANISTAN: Economy, violence hit prospects for youth
AFGHANISTAN: Child forced marriages still a common tradition
KYRGYZSTAN: Youth poverty fuels
radicalism
NEPAL: Maoists return to camps demanding better living conditions
NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees and locals clash over resources
NEPAL: Maoists and Madhesi activists clash in Terai
PAKISTAN:
Religious leaders fight vaccine propaganda
PAKISTAN: Quake trauma could haunt children forever
PAKISTAN: Young Afghans reluctant to go home
PAKISTAN: Young people caught in an extremist web PAKISTAN: Wealth gap blamed for surge in crime
PAKISTAN: No help for addicted women AFGHANISTAN: President pressured to sign controversial amnesty bill Afghan President Hamid Karzai is under
pressure to sign a controversial amnesty bill approved by the country's national assembly last week. The bill provides sweeping immunity for those guilty of war crimes committed over the past two and
a half decades of conflict in the country. The 49-year-old Afghan leader had earlier decided not to sign the bill, but pressure for him to sign the document into law has been steadily rising. Around
80,000 civilians were killed in Kabul alone during the internal fighting between various Mujahideen groups in the 1990s after the Soviets pulled out of the country in 1989. Many others were kidnapped,
mutilated or raped between 1992 and 1996 as the country plunged into a chaotic civil war. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70405 AFGHANISTAN: Gov't steps up fight against bird flu The Afghan government confirmed on 24 February four cases of the H5N1 virus in chickens in the two eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar, both bordering Pakistan. But mitigating the risks of a
possible outbreak of bird flu in Afghanistan poses a challenge. In the quarantined areas of Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, where the virus was detected, hundreds of domestic birds were culled by MAIL
workers and "owners duly compensated". http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70454 AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Afghan refugees given repatriation extension A voluntary repatriation programme for
thousands of Afghan refugees to return to their home country from Iran has been extended for another year following a meeting by the governments of Iran and Afghanistan and the United Nations refugees
agency on 27 February. An accord has been extended until 19 March 2008, officials at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Tehran told IRIN on 28 February. Hosting around
915,000 Afghan refugees and 54,000 Iraqi refugees, Iran has the second largest refugee population in the world after Pakistan. While the repatriation drive has been extended for another year, most
Afghans in Iran are reluctant to return. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70450 AFGHANISTAN: Gov't bid to boost police in south Despite the resurgence of pro-Taliban forces in the
area, there has been little commensurate increase in security forces. Funding and support for the Afghan national police and the army are being stepped up only now, while an increase in the deployment
of international forces has been incremental. The Afghan national army has experienced high rates of desertion and it has only half the force of 70,000 it was expected to reach by 2010. As a result,
police in the volatile south have no choice but to take on anti-insurgency duties, which prompted the government to set up an auxiliary force. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70504 AFGHANISTAN: Girls miss out on full education Eighteen-year-old Diba is from northeastern Kunduz province, where she could be in her first year of high-school. Instead, her father has forced her to
stop her education. Diba is one of thousands of young Afghan girls who are deprived of a full education in Afghanistan. There are many reasons why families do not allow their daughters to continue
their education after finishing secondary school: some are concerned about security, but some girls are forced to leave school due to discriminatory traditions, or because they are married off by
their families. A recent report by the international NGO, OXFAM, says more than 110,000 girls attended secondary schools last year, but just one third of those went on to complete their education. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=69986 AFGHANISTAN: Economy, violence hit prospects for youth Poverty, a war-shattered infrastructure and poor security are preventing millions of young
Afghans from having an education or paid work, officials and aid groups have said. Poverty recently forced Mohammed Sayed, 16, to quit his studies in the seventh grade of Mahmood Hotaki high school,
in Kabul city; he now works repairing tyres in a tiny workshop. He is just one of millions of poverty-stricken children and youth, missing out on an education in the central Asian state where nearly
half of the 25 million population lives below the poverty line; the official unemployment rate is 35 percent. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=69985 AFGHANISTAN: Child forced marriages
still a common tradition In Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province, 17-year-old Humaira Taiba is considering committing suicide. She is trying to terminate
the engagement arranged by her grandfather when she was just 1 month old. Despite some progress in women's rights such as guaranteeing equal rights for both men and women in the new constitution, the
day-to-day life of women has changed little. Forced marriages and child marriages still continue and lead some women to escape their fate by choosing self-immolation. Many girls are married off
before the legal age for different reasons; sometimes to end a dispute or to earn money. According to United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), 57 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve girls below
the legal age of 16. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=69984 KYRGYZSTAN: Youth poverty fuels radicalism Central Asia's densely populated Ferghana Valley, shared by Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, has long been considered a potential hotbed of religious extremism. The fact that the majority of the impoverished region's 10 million inhabitants are young with little to
do and no job prospects, only fuels existing radicalism and criminality. Local NGOs say that missionaries from radical religious organisations, drug barons and various criminal groups are preying on
young poor people, while chronic unemployment and galloping poverty, along with sharp income disparities, are paving the way to radicalism. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70010 NEPAL: Maoists return to camps demanding better living conditions More than 2,000 fighters, including 150 women, fled their camp in the cantonment of Chitwan, 300km south of the capital, Kathmandu,
last week in protest at the government's neglect. They sought food and shelter in nearby villages. Ravi, a young Maoist soldier, was so desperate to leave the camp where he had been confined for the
past two months that he ran away. He was one of more than 2,000 fighters, including 150 women, who fled their camp in the cantonment of Chitwan, 300km south of the capital, Kathmandu, last week in
protest at the government's neglect. They sought food and shelter in nearby villages. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70410 NEPAL: Bhutanese refugees and locals clash over resources Bhutanese refugees in Nepal are concerned over their security after violent clashes involving refugees and the local community took place for the first time in 16 years. Bhutanese refugees in Nepal
are concerned over their security after clashes involving refugees and the local community. One refugee was killed and several others were badly injured. The locals called for an indefinite strike,
demanding that the authorities close the refugee camp and refugees no longer "encroach" on their forest. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70432 NEPAL: Maoists and Madhesi activists
clash in Terai At least two civilians were killed on 27 Ferbruary in street clashes between supporters of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPNM) and the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) in
the western part of the Terai region of Nepal. A 14-year-old, Khohade Kori, was killed during the latest violence in Nepalgunj, the largest city in southwest Nepal. Another civilian, 55-year old Kohle
Kori, also died. Surya Dev Ojha, an MPRF leader in Nepalgunj, told IRIN that the party blamed the Maoists for the death of the student and demanded protection from local authorities. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70464 PAKISTAN: Religious leaders fight vaccine propaganda Muslim and community leaders are seeking to counter the disinformation surrounding polio
vaccinations in parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas. The move followed a three-day vaccination campaign supported by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO)
targeting 14.5 million children in 49 high-risk districts. Polio immunisation refusals have been an issue in NWFP and tribal areas close to the Afghan border, fuelled by misconceptions about the
effects of the drops - that they could lead to infertility and form part an anti-Islam agenda. During the January 2007 polio immunisation campaign, 24,000 refusals were reported in NWFP. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70421 PAKISTAN: Quake trauma could haunt children forever Thousands of children who survived the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan and
Pakistani-administered Kashmir may suffer from trauma for the rest of their lives, specialists say. Shaheen Mir's son is one of tens of thousands of children still recovering after a 7.6-magnitude
earthquake ravaged the area on 8 October 2005, killing more than 80,000 people and leaving millions of others maimed, injured, or homeless. According to Zahida Manzoor, a UNICEF child protection
officer in Muzaffarabad, in the initial phase, up to 60 percent of children in the area that UNICEF saw were found to be suffering from stress and trauma caused by the quake. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70444 PAKISTAN: Young Afghans reluctant to go home Young Afghans living in Pakistan are reluctant to return to their home country as required by a new
order from the Pakistani government. More than 2.1 million Afghans have been registered by Pakistani authorities in a four-month countrywide campaign that ended on 15 February 2007. More than 75
percent of them are younger than 30, mostly born during their parents' exile, the exercise revealed. Since the registration process, Pakistani authorities have announced that all Afghans will have to
be repatriated by the end of 2009. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70505 PAKISTAN: Young people caught in an extremist web An increasing number of young people in Pakistan, to the
dismay of their Westernised parents, are turning to extremist Islamic groups and identifying with the often violent causes they promote. Many young people across the country are being drawn into these
groups, lured by the promise of an identity, and revenge for the attacks that the West has carried out on Muslim and Middle East countries. The rise in the number of young people joining extremist
organisations has traditionally been spurred by a high unemployment rate and a lack of job prospects for those from an underprivileged background. However, the reasons for adopting extremist
ideologies is spreading across class, ethnicity and educational borders, leading to a conclusion which for the time being cannot be predicted. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70035 PAKISTAN: Wealth gap blamed for surge in crime The crime rate in Pakistan's port city of Karachi has increased rapidly in recent years. Car and cellphone theft are among the most common crimes
committed. According to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), cellphone theft rose 60 percent in 2006, and car thefts rose nearly 18 percent in the same period. These crimes are committed by
young offenders. This rise in crime is being blamed on the increasing gap between rich and poor. According to the latest figures from Pakistan's Ministry of Youth Affairs, 36 percent of the country's
youth (15-29 years) live in urban areas. The literacy rate is just 49 percent. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70036 PAKISTAN: No help for addicted women Aasia does not fit the
image of a typical drug addict. She does not come from a disadvantaged or troubled background, she is not male, and she is not unemployed. Aasia is among the rising number of young women in the
country addicted to drugs. Official figures suggest that just three percent of Pakistan's four million drug addicts are women; however, many believe the actual figure is much higher. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70033
