ANKARA, 15 December (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN-INDIA: Afghan Sikh refugees want a slice of globalising India AFGHANISTAN: Action plan for justice launched CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap NEPAL: Peace agreement leads to improved school security PAKISTAN: Race is on for quake zone winter migration PAKISTAN: Monitoring of school feeding programme begins PAKISTAN: Afghan registration gathers momentum PAKISTAN: The long wait at a quake camp PAKISTAN: Over 2 million children immunized in special cross-border campaign

PAKISTAN: Afghan registration quickens ahead of deadline PAKISTAN: Focus on forgotten quake victims of Kala Dhaka

AFGHANISTAN-INDIA: Afghan Sikh refugees want a slice of globalising India

Manmeet Kaur was four years old when her family fled Afghanistan. Today, this 18-year-old Afghan Sikh refugee calls Delhi her home, avidly watches 'L'il Champs' – a hugely popular show on one of India's myriad satellite television channels for young, aspiring singers - and dreams of carving out a niche for herself. "Here, you have freedom! I would like to establish my own identity, achieve something in life and be self-reliant," she said. Manmeet is one among the 9,000-odd Afghan refugees in India, 90 percent of whom belong to Hindu or Sikh faiths - religious minorities in Afghanistan.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56732 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN-INDIA

AFGHANISTAN: Action plan for justice launched

In an effort to bring justice to tens of thousands of victims of decades of civil war and internal strife in post-Taliban Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai launched a three-year action plan on Sunday. The project, known as the "Action Plan on Peace, Reconciliation and Justice in Afghanistan" contains five key elements: acknowledgment of the suffering of the Afghan people; strengthening state institutions; finding out the truth about the country's bloody past; promoting reconciliation; and establishing a proper accountability mechanism.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56702 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN

CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

Central Asia's two most populous and largest countries - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - head the global list for prevalence of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), AFP reported on Friday, citing a study to be published shortly in The Lancet, the UK-based medical journal. After a survey of 76 countries, researchers led by the World Health Organization found that Kazakhstan had the highest prevalence, with 14.2 percent of TB cases having MDR strains, followed by Uzbekistan (13.8 percent).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56753 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=CENTRAL_ASIA

NEPAL: Peace agreement leads to improved school security

Smiling behind her desk, school teacher Sabita Adhikari is thrilled to see all 40 of her fourth grade students in class. "Nobody is absent anymore. It's because children feel safe to travel from their villages to attend class," said Adhikari who teaches at Sri Bal Mandir Secondary School in Nilkanta village in Dhading district, nearly 100 km south of the capital. Until November's peace agreement, which brought a decade-long conflict to an end, many rural children were afraid to come to school for fear of being abducted by Maoist rebels for 'indoctrination' training, or being forced to shoulder a rifle in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56712 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=NEPAL

PAKISTAN: Race is on for quake zone winter migration

As the snow falls in the mountains of quake-stricken northern Pakistan, the race is now on to provide support in the valleys below for thousands of families driven from their homes by severe weather. Up to 60,000 people could swell the existing population in tented camps across the quake zone in the weeks ahead to almost 100,000, who will see out the winter under canvas or corrugated iron sheets in the valleys.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56752 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Monitoring of school feeding programme begins

A unique satellite-based monitoring system has been installed in 15 Pakistani educational institutions in order to improve information gathering in a school feeding project. "The system permits authorised and trained schoolteachers to directly input monthly data pertinent to their school, which will then be transmitted via the ARGOS global satellite system to WFP [World Food Programme] and other authorised officials for analysis," WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal said in Jauharabad in Punjab province, 170 km southwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56714 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Afghan registration gathers momentum

As the Afghan refugee registration campaign nears its end on 31 December, participation is gathering momentum particularly in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), UN officials said on Wednesday. "The pace [of Afghan registration] has increased exponentially, especially in NWFP where more than 20,000 people are getting registered daily through 19 static registration centres and mobile vans in the province," said Indrika Ratwatte, Assistant Representative at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islamabad.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56731 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: The long wait at a quake camp

Abdul Koayyum's life was shattered by falling debris the day of the earthquake. His home collapsed, killing his wife. His leg was smashed. More than a year later Abdul's leg is still healing, pinned along its length after a series of operations. But life goes on for the 38-year-old carpenter and his four children, waiting for the second winter under the canvas of a tented village at Jaba, near Balakot, in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56713 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Over 2 million children immunised in special cross-border campaign

Tens of thousands of under-five children have been immunised against polio along both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan common border in a special three-day polio vaccination campaign which concluded on Thursday. "Large scale population movements and security issues stand in the way of reaching every child in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas with polio vaccine.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?

ReportID=56749 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Afghan registration quickens ahead of deadline

As the campaign to register those Afghans seeking temporary legal status in Pakistan draws to a close on 31 December, participation is gaining momentum particularly in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), to secure official identification cards validating their stay in exile. To date, more than 836,000 Afghan refugees have registered with Pakistani authorities, including over half a million living in NWFP, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56743 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN: Focus on forgotten quake victims of Kala Dhaka

More than a year after a powerful earthquake devastated northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir there are still communities that had been left out in the quake zone. The isolated tribal area of Kala Dhaka in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was badly affected by the last year's disaster but such is the remoteness of this 'forbidden' corner of North West Frontier Province that no coordinated international aid effort ever came there.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56733 and SelectRegion=Asia and SelectCountry=PAKISTAN

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