Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 16:29:56 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs, 9 January [2010109]
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CENTRAL ASIA: IRIN News Briefs, 9 January 2001

CONTENTS:

AFGHANISTAN: UN appeal push targets displaced 
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban declares death to converts
TAJIKISTAN: Uzbek landmines claim another life
IRAN: Major drop in income levels since 1980
KAZAKHSTAN: Severe cold hits country


AFGHANISTAN: UN appeal push targets displaced

The United Nations is planning to back up its US $229 million Consolidated
Appeal for the year 2001, launched in November, with an initiative to
encourage donors to pledge money quickly to meet burgeoning emergency
needs in the country. "We are very concerned about the IDPs scattered
across Afghanistan," the spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, Stephanie Bunker, told IRIN on
Tuesday. "Due to inadequate shelter, many of the displaced people are
suffering from exposure due to severe cold. They are in immediate need of
shelter, clothes and warm blankets," she said. Bunker made particular
mention of those internally-displaced people (IDPs) in the western city of
Herat, where some 80,000 people have recently arrived fleeing severe
drought in the adjacent provinces of Ghor and Badghis. 

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban declares death to converts

The supreme leader of the ruling Taliban Islamic Movement of Afghanistan,
Mullah Mohamed Omar, has declared that any Muslim converting to another
faith would face the death penalty, the BBC reported on Monday.  According
to the edict issued, strict Islamic law, or Sharia, would apply to any
Afghan Muslim who was caught professing Christianity or Judaism, or
distributing literature promoting non-Islamic faiths. In addition, it
cited what it described as attempts by enemies of Islam to win over
Muslims to Christianity and Judaism. Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Abdul
Hai Mutmain said that foreigners in Afghanistan were secretly trying to
convert Afghans to Christianity, the report added.

The Taliban, which controls an estimated 90 percent of the country,
follows a strict interpretation of Islam, barring women from most jobs and
insisting that men and women follow a strict dress code. In those parts of
the country it controls, it has introduced Islamic punishments for crimes,
including execution and the amputation of limbs.

TAJIKISTAN: Uzbek landmines claim another life

One man was killed and two injured after stepping on a landmine along
Tajikistan's mountainous border with Uzbekistan, AFP reported on Monday. 
According to the report, some 20 civilians, including women and children,
have been killed, and many others seriously injured, while walking along
the border area between the two countries to collect firewood or herbs
near their villages.

The latest incident highlights what is fast becoming a major source of
political contention between Dushanbe and Tashkent, with Tajik officials
continually sending letters of protest about the landmines to their Uzbek
counterparts. Uzbek border guards mined the ill-defined border area
between the two countries in an attempt to discourage any potential
intrusions, via Tajikistan, by members of the radical Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, the report said.

IRAN: Major drop in income levels since 1980

Iran has witnessed a doubling of its population over the past 20 years and
the average income of Iranians plummeted by 30 percent over the same
period, the 'Iran Daily' reported on Monday.  According to the
BBC-monitored report, Iran's population has risen from 37 million to just
under 65 million people in 20 years, a rate of increase which has not been
matched by economic growth.  Analysts said Iran was still beleaguered by
the same problems it faced during its revolution and the Iran-Iraq war,
"with poor performance due to low economic growth, a dependence on oil
revenues, a stagnation of non-oil exports, persistent inflation, and a
reliance on food imports", the report said.

Poor economic performance has had a direct and prolonged effect on
families, it added. A survey in 1997-'98 estimated that Iranian families
were allocating a disproportionate amount of their household income on
foodstuffs. In rural areas, in particular, families were reported to have
spent nearly half their monthly income on food supplies; families in
developed countries typically allocate less than 15 percent of household
income to food, the report said.

KAZAKHSTAN: Severe cold hits country

At least three people died over the weekend in Kazakhstan after
temperatures dropped to as low as minus 52 Celsius (minus 61.6
Fahrenheit), Reuters news agency reported on Sunday. According to
government officials, the deaths occurred in the eastern Ust Kamenogorsk
region, near the meeting point of Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia. 
Temperatures in the new Kazakh capital, Astana, located in the middle of
the windswept Central Asian steppe are below minus 20 Celsius (minus four
Fahrenheit) for much of the winter and deaths due to extreme cold are
reported every year, the report said.

[ENDS]


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