DUBAI, 14 May 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: Gov't questions effectiveness of foreign aid billions AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child labourers in eastern province deprived of education AFGHANISTAN: UN to step up staff security after recent killing AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid NEPAL: Food aid for Bhutanese refugees in jeopardy NEPAL: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution NEPAL: Widespread disappearances still unresolved despite peace PAKISTAN: Over 34 million children vaccinated against polio PAKISTAN: Islamic extremists attack aid workers PAKISTAN: Hundreds missing in conflict-torn Balochistan SRI LANKA: Over 120,000 affected by severe flooding in west SRI LANKA: Economic, social and psychological impacts of conflict SRI LANKA: US diplomat renews calls to halt rights violations TAJIKISTAN: Disaster-prone communities need to be moved

AFGHANISTAN: Gov't questions effectiveness of foreign aid billions

Billions of dollars spent by the international community on war-ravaged Afghanistan's reconstruction and development have had a limited impact on the country's economic growth, Afghan officials said. Since the ousting of the Taliban regime in late 2001, donors have spent some US$13 billion on various rebuilding and development activities in the country, of which only 12 percent has been channelled through the government, the country's Finance Ministry said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72002

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child labourers in eastern province deprived of education

From dawn to dusk black smoke rises from the towering chimneys of brick-making factories in the Sorkhroad district of Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar. According to Save the Children (Sweden), there are up to 5,000 child labourers working in brick factories in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar. Seven-year-old Rahatullah works with his father and elder brother, Habibullah, aged 12, in a brick factory for over 12 hours a day.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72062

AFGHANISTAN: UN to step up staff security after recent killing

The killing of a United Nations driver on Tuesday is the latest in a spate of attacks and kidnappings by insurgents deliberately targeting aid workers and journalists in Afghanistan, local and international observers say. According to UN officials, Sadequllah, 38, was shot dead on his way to work in the southern province of Kandahar by unidentified men on a motorbike. Police are now looking for the assassins.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72086

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of IDPs still need aid

A year after the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan ended relief operations in the Mukhtar camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), the majority of its inhabitants still endure many hardships, according to camp residents and specialists. Since 2002, more than 20,000 displaced people have been living in tents and mud huts in Mukhtar camp, 5km north of Lashkargah, the capital of the volatile southern province of Helmand. Camp residents interviewed by IRIN complained about poverty and inadequate medical and educational facilities in the camp.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72121

NEPAL: Food aid for Bhutanese refugees in jeopardy

Food assistance for over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, one of the most protracted refugee situations in Asia, is now under threat unless donor assistance is forthcoming soon. According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), US $5 million is needed to secure food supplies for the refugees for 2007. WFP spends approximately US $1 million a month to feed Nepal's Bhutanese refugees.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72016

NEPAL: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution

For the past three years, 25-year-old Sita Maskey has been fighting a court battle in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, to punish alleged trafficker Rekha Karki, who she says tricked her into forced prostitution in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Maskey trusted Karki who had come to visit her family in her remote Ledang village of Morang district, nearly 600km east of the capital, and told her about job opportunities in Saudi Arabia - where she had already sent many girls from several villages - as well as Sharjah and Dubai.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72037

NEPAL: Widespread disappearances still unresolved despite peace

Thousands of families of missing persons have said that they will begin a nationwide demonstration for an indefinite period starting on Monday as they are frustrated by what they say is the government's apathy and negligence towards them. According to local NGO the Society of the Families of the Disappeared, there are more than 5,000 people still missing after their forced disappearances during the country's civil war, which lasted for more than a decade.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72118

PAKISTAN: Over 34 million children vaccinated against polio

More than 34 million children in Pakistan were successfully immunised against polio during last week's national vaccination round, health officials have said. The WHO national campaign cell reported nationwide coverage of 97.7 percent, with 34.1 million children under the age of five successfully vaccinated, a result praised by UNICEF, one of three partners involved in the immunisation effort, along with WHO and the Pakistani government.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72026

PAKISTAN: Islamic extremists attack aid workers

The United Nations has temporarily suspended its activities - and closed its offices - for two weeks in quake-affected Bagh sub-district in Pakistani-administered Kashmir following a spate of security incidents involving members of the humanitarian community. The move follows an escalation of security incidents in Bagh, an isolated rural and conservative community in Pakistani-administered Kashmir badly damaged in the 8 October 2005 earthquake.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72048

PAKISTAN: Hundreds missing in conflict-torn Balochistan

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), hundreds of people in Balochistan have disappeared since the attacks in the US on 11 September 2001 brought changes in global anti-terror policies. Activists say security and intelligence forces are using the anti-terror climate to tackle any form of dissent.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72078

SRI LANKA: Over 120,000 affected by severe flooding in west

Torrential rains on 3 and 4 May flooded much of western Sri Lanka, affecting more than 120,000 people. In Colombo, the capital city, routine commerce and most vehicular traffic, including some railway lines, came to a standstill and a large sinkhole developed in one of the city's main corridors, the Galle Road, causing massive traffic delays and diversions. The Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) reported that the government's Disaster Management Centre (DMC) is leading efforts to assess, respond to, and mitigate the effects of, the floods. The immediate needs were for equipment to clear canals, water pumps and various non-food items.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72003

SRI LANKA: Economic, social and psychological impacts of conflict

The effects of the conflict between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and of the massive displacements in the north and east of Sri Lanka since late November 2005, are having a telling impact on the victims as well as on local economies. The regions worst hit by the fighting, the north and east, recorded annual growth rates of 12.6 per cent and 10.1 per cent in 2002 and 2003, respectively, before the recent fighting set in, according to the World Bank. However, the Bank, in its 2007 Poverty Assessment Report, warns that the situation may have deteriorated.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72022

SRI LANKA: US diplomat renews calls to halt rights violations

A senior US diplomat expressed concern on Thursday over worsening human rights violations in Sri Lanka and renewed pressure on the government to deliver on its promises to curb abuses. US State Department official Richard Boucher, ending a three-day visit to the island, said he was troubled by the deterioration since his last visit in October.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72085

TAJIKISTAN: Disaster-prone communities need to be moved

The lives of thousands of families who live in natural disaster-prone areas in rural Tajikistan are made miserable by the disasters, residents and officials say. Up to 12,000 settlements are located in disaster-prone areas and need to be resettled, Gulsara Poulatova, a senior adviser for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Central Asia, based in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, said.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71999

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