MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Ilia II called for people to mark a new day of “Strength of Family and Respect for Parents” on May 17, the same day as the International Day Against Homophobia. The Orthodox Church is regarded as anti-gay rights. Georgia has introduced a law protecting same-sex rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Almaty city filed a law suit in California against former mayor Viktor Khrapunov which it accuses of systematic corruption. Mr Khrapunov was mayor of Almaty between 2004 and 2007. He was briefly minister of emergencies before he fled to Switzerland. He is a resident of Switzerland and listed as one of its richest people.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Bishkek said they had arrested four policemen for extorting cash from foreigners by falsely accusing them of rape. Media reports said that a female accomplice would set up dates with foreign men and then accuse them, falsely, of rape.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – KazMunaiGas, the Kazakh state energy company, said it had found oil at an onshore site, media reported. The discovery was part of the Rozhkovskoye field near the north-western city of Uralsk. It’s currently unclear how large the discovery is.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s pension plan reform is still causing problems. It was one of the main contributing factors on the resignation last month of the previous government and is also top of the agenda for the new government.
To appease massive discontent over the proposed plan, the government dropped the most controversial part of it — imposing a mandatory 5% salary contribution towards people’s pension. Thousands of people had hated this concept and taken to the street to voice their anger.
Parliament has now heard the government’s new plans which called for an optional 5% salary contribution.
This is a rare concession from the ruling Republican Party but it still may not be enough. The opposition has said that the government has enough power to force companies to impose the 5% salary contribution on its employees.
It looks as if the new government will have to tackle the pension issue head on too.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate to 7.25% from 7.5% after data showed that inflation was within its target range, Reuters reported quoting the Central Bank. Annual inflation in April measured 4.4% within the 2.5% to 5.5% bracket.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the US and the EU to press Uzbekistan to allow an independent inquiry into the killings at Andijan, in the east of the country nine years ago. Officially 187 people died when soldiers fired on a crowd, although government critics have said the real figure is far more.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – For its global campaign against torture, Amnesty International has focused its attention on Uzbekistan.
Amnesty said that torture in Uzbekistan is widespread and that it often passes without being punished. It said that the Uzbek security services often beat detainees and sometimes rape them in order to get a confession.
One of Amnesty’s five global case studies was of an Uzbek women who fled the country in 2005 after police opened fire on a crowd of protesters. She returned five years later, was detained at the airport and then sent to jail for trying to organise a revolution. Eye witnesses, according to Amnesty, said the woman’s face was bruised and that she looked unusually thin at her trial.
None of this is new, but it is still worth highlighting. It’s also worth highlighting that most countries in Central Asia have a poor record on torture and human rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – For the third year in a row, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank won the award for the best-designed new banknote. This year a new yellow and brown 1,000 tenge note commemorating the historical warrior leader Kultegin won the prize. Kazakhstan views the award as a way of boosting its international status.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French president Francois Hollande started his tour of the South Caucasus in Baku. He discussed strengthening business and political ties. Human Rights Watch said Mr Hollande should have pressed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hard on rights abuses.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)