Asia File

Once Soviet emigration controls relaxed, an exodus began from all the Soviet lands as Jews sought better economic and social conditions in Israel and the US. Ten years ago, both cities were home to thriving Jewish communities and many Jews lived elsewhere inUzbekistan and in the neighbouring republic of Tajikistan.

More than 12,000 Bukharan Jews lived in Bukhara city alone a decade or two ago. Now virtually all have left Tajikistan, torn apart by a post-Soviet civil war. In Uzbekistan, only about 700 Bukharan Jews still live in Samarkand and some 1,000 in Bukhara. Those who have gone are mostly professionals and wealthy merchants, leaving behind a small number of shoemakers, barbers, and photographers. “People are gradually leaving,” says Roman Tamayev, headmaster of a Jewish school that was opened in Bukhara in 1994 with Israeli sponsorship. “Their children go, so they are drawn there, too.” Communties of Bukharan Jews are now thriving in New York, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. At the current rate of emigration it seems likely that only a handful of Bukharan Jews will remain in Central Asia in a decade or so.

La Nina’s fault

Nearly 150 people have been killed in floods plaguing Bangladesh over the past three weeks as tens of thousands more were leftmarooned or homeless amid the seasonal monsoon, reports said on Saturday. The unofficial count was higher than 60 confirmed flood-related deaths, cited by Bangladeshi officials, who added that some 7.5 million people had been affected.

The Independent daily described the situation as “grave” with the country’s three major river basins — the Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna — under flood conditions. Heavy rainfall in the Himalayan foothills and high tides slowing discharge to the ocean have led flood forecasters to warn that worse was yet to come. The Disaster Management Ministry said the deluge had so far damaged 152,400 hectares of crops.

Relief Ministry officials said troops had been put on alert across Bangladesh to mount relief operations, as drinking water began to run short in some of the 33 affected districts. “The Army has been kept on stand-by for relief and rescue operations,” one ministry official earlier said. The latest flooding was triggered by the monsoon rains and torrentsgushing down from the hills along the border with India.

The Prime Minister’s Office has also reported that nearly 7,000 people were infected by diseases causing diarrhoea in the flood-hit areas, including low-lying suburban districts of the capital. Spokesman Jawadul Karim said 2,788 medical teams with 2,248 doctors were working in the affected areas.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed chaired a meeting of the National Disaster Management Council to review the flood situation and appealed for help from non-governmental organisations.

The premier also asked officials in affected districts to coordinate relief and rescue missions and to deliver food and essentials to people in remote areas. The deluge has also caused extensive damage to road networks, severing some links, while trains were running cautiously, officials said. Local scientists have blamed the calamity on the La Nina weather phenomenon, which follows El Nino as it did in 1987 and 1988, for the heavy monsoon.

TV thieves

Televisionthieves masquerading as Taliban religious police have forced the Muslim militia to stop night raids in the Afghan capital and set up a special helpline, official radio said. State radio also announced identification criteria so that anti-sin squads from the Ministry for Fostering Virtue and Suppressing Vice can be easily identified by concerned residents of the war-shattered city. “We have received complaints that armed and unarmed individuals in the guise of Taliban have been searching people’s houses taking away television sets,” state-run radio Shariat said.

“It is announced to the Kabul citizens and security officials that these individuals do not belong to the Ministry for the Fostering of Virtue and Suppression of Vice,” it asserted. “Nobody has the right to destroy or loot private property,” it said. The report also gave a set of criteria by which residents can identify the squads, noting that each team carries identification cards, wear special armbands and travel in vehicles decorated withflags and Koranic writing.