ASIA: IRIN-ASIA Weekly round-up 126 for 28 May – 3 June 2007
03 Jun 2007 12:42:08 GMT Source: IRIN
DUBAI, 3 June 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS: AFGHANISTAN: Dozens of girl
students hospitalised in northeast
AFGHANISTAN: Food aid trucks come under increasing attacks
AFGHANISTAN: Opium abuse harming women's, children's health
AFGHANISTAN: UN to track civilian
casualties more closely
AFGHANISTAN: UNAMA facing new humanitarian challenges
NEPAL: "Huge tragedy" looms as Bhutanese refugees stage "long march home"
NEPAL: Mountain communities fear melting
glaciers, flooding
PAKISTAN: Moves afoot to boost girls' primary school attendance
PAKISTAN: Cities teem with homeless, vulnerable people
SRI LANKA: Food shortages, fear of abductions - Jaffna
residents feel the pinch
SRI LANKA: Foreign donors pledge to uphold international standards in aid delivery AFGHANISTAN: Dozens of girl students hospitalised in northeast Forty students of a
girls' high school in Takhar Province, northeastern Afghanistan, have been admitted to hospital after drinking water from a contaminated well, local authorities said. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72470 AFGHANISTAN: Food aid trucks come under increasing attacks Dozens of commercial trucks carrying World Food Programme (WFP) food aid to vulnerable
communities in different locations in Afghanistan have been attacked by armed men over the past few months, the UN agency said on Wednesday. Over 500 tonnes of food aid worth about US$350,000 has
been lost in some 20 attacks to date, according to WFP. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72450 AFGHANISTAN: Opium abuse harming women's, children's health With some 1,600 mothers
dying per 100,000 births, Afghanistan has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, officials at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) office in Kabul said. Opium abuse
exacerbates the situation, specialists say. Women who consume opium during pregnancy lose much of their energy and become vulnerable to different diseases, the provincial health department reported. [This report is also available as a radio story on IRIN's Afghanistan Radio Page in Dari and Pashto.] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72419 AFGHANISTAN: UN to track civilian
casualties more closely The increasing number of civilian causalities in the armed conflict in Afghanistan has prompted the UN to set up a database of information on non-combatants affected by the
insurgency. "The database will be similar to the one already used by the UN in Iraq," Javier Leon Diaz, a UN human rights expert in Afghanistan, told IRIN on Monday. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72426 AFGHANISTAN: UNAMA facing new humanitarian challenges Daykundi is a mountainous and isolated province in central Afghanistan, home to the ethnic
Hazaras, and Shia by religion. In February, heavy rainfall and flooding washed away many roads between Daykundi and neighbouring regions impeding transport in and out of the province. "Prices of
foodstuffs and other commodities have already skyrocketed and if the roads do not re-open quickly we will face a famine and a humanitarian crisis here," said Sultan Ali Urozgani, the governor of
Daykundi. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72352 NEPAL: "Huge tragedy" looms as Bhutanese refugees stage "long march home" Two Bhutanese refugees have been killed and hundreds
injured in the past three days by India's border security force, which tried to prevent them reaching Indian territory, said local human rights activists. The two killed were among tens of
thousands of refugees who headed for Kakaribhitta, 700 km east of Kathmandu on the Nepal-India border, in what they called "The Long March Home". They have been trying to reach Bhutan via
India since Sunday. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72453 NEPAL: Mountain communities fear melting glaciers, flooding Pemba Sherpa looks fearfully at the huge Imjha glacier lake
which lies at an altitude of nearly 6,000 metres above sea level in the Everest region of eastern Nepal. "There were glaciers all around here. They have melted very fast over the past few
decades and formed this lake which has grown dangerously fast, something I witnessed as I was growing up," Pemba told IRIN, adding that he was concerned about what would happen if the lake grew
out of control. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72403 PAKISTAN: Moves afoot to boost girls' primary school attendance Like many girls her age in Pakistan's rural Sindh Province,
Sajeda may never realise her dreams after dropping out of school at a young age. "We couldn't afford for me to attend so I gave up," the demure 10-year-old said, sitting beside her father, Mir
Mohammad, in the simple mud-brick home she shares with her five brothers and sisters in Pakistan's rural Ghotki District. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72482 PAKISTAN: Cities teem
with homeless, vulnerable people Javed Ahmed, 27, looks out dreamily at the unexpected rain, which temporarily broke the blistering heat of May in Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province, where
temperatures of 42 or 43 degrees have persisted for several days. As he gazes out, Javed puffs on a cigarette butt and swigs tea from a cup. But he is not, like many others in the city, sitting atop
a breezy roof or terrace. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72424 SRI LANKA: Food shortages, fear of abductions - Jaffna residents feel the pinch Last year at this time 16-year-old
Jeevun Kumaraswamy, who lives on the isolated Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, was on top of the world. His school, Jaffna Central College, was competing against traditional rivals St. John's
College in the centenary game of their annual cricket match. Jaffna was decked-out in flags. The kids were dancing in the streets. This year there's anything but dancing for Jeevun and his friends:
Since all-out conflict began between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the climate has been tense - tense enough that even the big school cricket match had to be
cancelled. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72474 SRI LANKA: Foreign donors pledge to uphold international standards in aid delivery Foreign aid donors and international agencies in
Sri Lanka today released a set of "guiding principles" and pledged to work with transparency and impartiality to provide humanitarian assistance. The commitment comes amidst heightened criticism of
the humanitarian community by some government authorities and local media. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72441
