ASIA: IRIN-ASIA Weekly Round-up 116 for 19 - 25 March 2007
25 Mar 2007 12:34:15 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 25 March 2007 (IRIN) - DUBAI, 25 March 2007 (IRIN)
- CONTENTS: AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR increases cash grant for repatriation
AFGHANISTAN: Floods and avalanches kill dozens and displace hundreds
AFGHANISTAN: Record numbers enrol in new school year AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Polio knows no borders
AFGHANISTAN: NATO evacuates 600 villagers stranded by floods
KAZAKHSTAN: Fighting tuberculosis remains a challenge
NEPAL: Underage marriages threaten
maternal health
NEPAL: Food insecurity hits remote villages in west
NEPAL: New security measures imposed in southeast
PAKISTAN: Quake survivors angry at government inaction
PAKISTAN: Landslides
kill at least 40 in quake area
PAKISTAN: Gov't to close all Kashmir quake camps by June
PAKISTAN: Emergency operation under way in landslide-hit Kashmiri village AFGHANISTAN: UNHCR increases cash
grant for repatriation Afghan refugees living in Iran and Pakistan will receive a six-fold increase in cash grants upon their return to Afghanistan, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency
(UNHCR). Each Afghan national who returns to Afghanistan in 2007 will receive US $100. This is in addition to transportation assistance which the UN agency provides to repatriating individuals. More
than two million Afghan refugees currently live in Pakistan and about 900,000 stay in Iran. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70781 AFGHANISTAN: Floods and avalanches kill dozens and
displace hundreds More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds displaced because of heavy rainfall, avalanches and floods over the past few days in Afghanistan's southern and south-western
provinces, officials say. In Uruzgan, Helmand, Badghis and Ghor provinces, more than 500 houses were destroyed or damaged by floods. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70815 AFGHANISTAN:
Record numbers enrol in new school year Schools in Afghanistan will open their doors to more than six million pupils at the start of the new academic year on 24 March - almost double the number of
the past five years. Girls comprise about two million of all students who will join school from Saturday. In an effort to ensure equal access to education, Afghanistan's Ministry of Education plans to
enrol 400,000 more female students in 2007. During the Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, girls were deprived of any formal education. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70844 AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Polio knows no borders Beginning on Sunday, a mammoth campaign to vaccinate close to 20 million children under five years of age will get under way in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
employing tens of thousands of vaccinators. According to WHO, the world's success in eradicating polio depends on four countries where the virus remains endemic – India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and
Pakistan. In 2006, there were 40 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan and 31 in Afghanistan. This year, there have been no reported cases of polio in Afghanistan but six in Pakistan. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70863 AFGHANISTAN: NATO evacuates 600 villagers stranded by floods NATO-led troops used helicopters to evacuate about 600 stranded villagers in
southern Afghanistan after floods destroyed their homes, AP reported on Tuesday. Despite bad weather and persistent rain, Dutch and US helicopters rescued people in the border regions between the
southern provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement late on Tuesday. KAZAKHSTAN: Fighting tuberculosis remains a challenge Kazakhstan
still faces a serious challenge in fighting tuberculosis (TB), despite infection rates dropping slightly in 2006, according to health officials. Figures from the national centre show that the rate of
TB infection dropped from 165 cases per 100,000 people in 2002, to 147 per 100,000 in 2005, to 132 per 100,000 in 2006. With 23,000 new cases of TB reported every year, officials say there is no room
for complacency. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70772 NEPAL: Underage marriages threaten maternal health In the remote villages of Accham, many girls aged between 12 and 15 marry
and have children. Most women, including underage mothers, deliver their children without any skilled birth attendant and are usually assisted by female relatives and neighbours who lack knowledge of
safe and hygienic practices. According to the government's Demographic Health Survey, more than 88 percent of deliveries take place at home and 8 percent of mothers deliver their babies with no
assistance. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70816 NEPAL: Food insecurity hits remote villages in west Low agricultural production and lack of effective food storage systems and
market access have hit thousands of poor villagers in north west Nepal. The situation deteriorated in 2006 when there was a severe drought followed by heavy snowfall in early 2007 and most of the
crops failed. More than 35,000 people are facing deteriorating food security in the area, according to the crop and food security assessment by the agriculture ministry, conducted with support from
the UN agencies. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70847 NEPAL: New security measures imposed in southeast The Nepalese government imposed mew security measures on Saturday to avert
more violence in the southeast, where 29 people were killed in clashes between an ethnic group and Maoists, AFP reported. The 29 leftists were killed in clashes with activists belonging to the Madhesi
People's Rights Forum, which represents the ethnic group who live in a fertile strip of land known as the Terai along Nepal's border with India. The clashes, the latest in a string of
deadly battles between the leftists and the Madhesis, have cast a cloud over last November's peace deal, which ended 10 years of civil war between Maoist rebels and the government. PAKISTAN:
Quake survivors angry at government inaction Across Pakistan-administered-Kashmir, the same rubble-strewn scene is repeated as irate locals allege that assistance from the government has been far
from forthcoming. Instead, they say, most of the population has been forced to fend for itself, with some help from non-government organisations. In the hamlet of Lashdahar, 50km from Muzaffarabad,
the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, most of 3,000 inhabitants continue to live in tents and a large number interviewed by IRIN said they had not received any assistance from the government
to rebuild their homes. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70820 PAKISTAN: Landslides kill at least 40 in quake area Landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least 40 people
across Pakistani-administered Kashmir, an aid official confirmed on Wednesday. Apart from the deaths caused by landslides, about 350 families have been left stranded in a remote village in Jhelum
Valley at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres. Many roads in the area have been blocked due to a series of landslides following heavy rains that started on Sunday evening. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70846 PAKISTAN: Gov't to close all Kashmir quake camps by June Authorities in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have announced plans to close by the end
of June all tented camps housing thousands of people displaced by a massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake in October 2005. About 30,000 quake-displaced people, comprising more than 5,000 families, continue
to live in about 44 makeshift settlements in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. More than 600 families living in camps are landless while another 1,700 households are categorised as vulnerable, including
orphans, the elderly and female-headed households, according to camp management officials. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70858 PAKISTAN: Emergency operation under way in
landslide-hit Kashmiri village At least six bodies were recovered from rubble in a landslide-hit village of Pakistani-administered Kashmir on Thursday, while Pakistani soldiers and local villagers
continued their search for another 20 missing people, aid officials said. A four-day long spell of torrential rains and snow, which stopped late on Wednesday, triggered landslides that hit hamlets on
the mountains and blocked already hard to access roads across the region - which was devastated by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake in October 2005. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70867
