Tag Archives: human rights

Azerbaijan releases opposition figure

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani authorities released from prison opposition activist Natig Jafarli, of the Republican Alternative Movement, arrested for financial crimes on Aug. 12. Before his arrest, Mr Jafarli’s organisation had won a grant from the US-based National Democratic Institute. The leader of Republican Alternative, Ilgar Mammadov, remains in prison. He was arrested in 2013 on charges of inciting mass violence. Human rights lobby groups, the US government and the Council of Europe have called repeatedly for his release.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

New Georgian TV drama depicts prison torture under Saakashvili

TBILISI, SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Herokratia, a fictional TV series based on prison tortures and government crimes that occurred under the government of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, started broadcasting on prime time television, barely a month before Georgians vote in an acrimonious and bad-tempered election.

In the series, Mr Saakashvili, who is now the governor of the Odessa region in Ukraine, is portrayed as a megalomaniac living a life of opulent luxury while beatings are handed out casually, and brutally, in prisons.

The producer Goga Khaindrava, is known as a vocal opponent of Mr Saakashvili.

He said it was important to document the abuse.

“The main idea of this film is for people to really acknowledge what kind of disaster we went through,” he was quoted by journalists as saying. “People don’t know what kind of hell some people went through.”

The series has been paid for by former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and Mr Saakashvili’s sworn opponent, and is being broadcast on his son’s TV stations.

Mr Ivanishvili has previously commissioned documentaries on brutality in prison under Mr Saakashvili’s administration. The timing appears designed to undermine the remnants of his UNM party ahead of a parliamentary election in October.

Ketino, the owner of a bakery shop, said that during Mr Saakashvili’s period in power people lived in constant fear.

“It is necessary to show what this beast did, as it was necessary after WWII to show what the Fascists and the Nazis did in order not to forget,” she said.

Lasha, a 35 years old resident of Tbilisi, said the beatings were commonly known among people.

“Everybody knew what was going on in our prisons and still, the Americans sand the EU did nothing,” he said.

Mr Saakashvili is perceived in Georgia as being too pro-EU and US and too anti-Russia.

He was blamed for taking Georgia into a disastrous five-day war against Russia in 2008.

Investigations have shown that beatings did take place in prisons under Mr Saakashvili’s administration. Some officials have been imprisoned and the authorities have said that they want Mr Saakashvili to stand trial.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

World Bank finances Uzbek textile factory

SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Labor Rights Forum published a report corroborating claims that the World Bank could be inadvertently financing a textile factory involved in forced labour practices. The report, which follows a petition in July sent by human rights activists directly to the World Bank, targets specifically an Uzbek-Indonesian joint venture, Indorama Kokand Textile. The World Bank had previously denied the allegations, saying it only deals with forced labour-free companies.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Turkmen president to fly to Berlin

AUG. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was due to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, a rare European trip for Turkmenistan’s leader. The visit is likely to focus on potential gas supplies to Europe from Turkmenistan but human rights groups have been piling pressure on Ms Merkel to bring up their various human rights grievances with Mr Berdymukhamedov.

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(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)

Kazakhstan frees opposition activist

AUG. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan released on parole one of its most prominent opposition politicians from prison after almost four years, drawing praise but also demands to release more dissidents.

Vladimir Kozlov, head of the Alga! party, walked out of prison after Kazakhstan’s highest court decreed that he should be freed early. He had been the most high profile activist arrested after an oil workers’ strike in the western city of Zhanaozen turned into a riot with police which killed at least 15 people in December 2011 after a strike lasting several months.

He was sent to prison for 7-1/2 years for inciting social discord, although his supporters have said that he was only trying to help the oil workers promote their cause.

Speaking at a press conference after his release, Mr Kozlov said that pressure from the European Union and other human rights groups had led to his release.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted Mr Kozlov as saying that the EU had helped him “remain a human being” while in prison,

And the EU put out a brief statement too.

“The release on parole of the prominent Kazakh activist Vladimir Kozlov, who was imprisoned following the Zhanaozen events of 2011, is positive news,” it said.

“Further steps should now follow, leading to the full rehabilitation and release of all those civil society activists currently detained or under restriction of movement in Kazakhstan, in line with the country’s international commitments.”

Human rights groups have criticised Kazakhstan for cracking down on media and opposition groups heavily over the past few years. The Kazakh government has accused Mr Kozlov and others of being linked to coup plots.

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(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)

Trial of journalists begins in Kazakhstan

AUG. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The trial of Seitkazy Matayev, head of Kazakhstan’s journalist union and his son, Asset, for embezzlement began. Mr Matayev had been the first press secretary to President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1991 and he had been presumed to be above a crackdown on the media this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)

Kazakh court frees opposition leader

AUG. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A judge in Kazakhstan ordered opposition leader Vladimir Kozlov to be released on parole, five years into a 7-1/2 sentence for trying to overthrow the government. Kozlov was the highest profile opposition figure to be imprisoned for trying to overthrow the government after clashes between oil workers and police in the west of the country in December 2011 that killed at least 16 people. The government has 15 days to act on the judge’s decision to free Kozlov.

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(News report from Issue No. 292, published on Aug. 12 2016)

World Bank denies Uzbek forced-labour accusations

JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Bank denied allegations that it was fuelling forced labour in Uzbekistan after local human rights campaigners complained about the indirect consequences of a loan from the World Bank’s financial arm to an Uzbek-Indonesian textile joint venture.

The complaint targets a $40m loan approved in December 2015 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to Indorama Kokand Textile (IKT), the Uzbek subsidiary of Indorama TBK, a Jakarta-based textile company.

The IFC said that it gave the loan to IKT because it has verified the company’s labour practices.

“[IKT] can trace its cotton supply to ensure it sources only from areas covered by third-party monitoring against child and forced labor,” IFC spokeswoman Elizabeth Price told Reuters.

IKT also refuted the allegations.

“Indorama Corporation has a strict policy of zero tolerance on use of any form of forced labor,” IKT spokesman Prakash Kejriwal said.

The claimants are three local human rights campaigners and one Uzbek alleged victim of forced labour. They said that this loan would reinforce the system of forced labour in the country.

“The IFC loan to IKT and support to commercial banks in Uzbekistan risks perpetuating the forced labor system,” the claimants said in their statement filed with the IFC.

The loan was issued to finance the expansion of the company’s textile plant in Kokand, east Uzbekistan.

The claim highlights the reputational problems of doing business in Uzbekistan for foreign countries. It will likely direct international attention to the issue of forced labour in the country’s cotton picking industry. Uzpahtasanoateksport, the state owned company responsible for the collection and the sale of cotton, is IKT’s sole supplier.

Since 2009, the United States has banned imports of Uzbek cotton and in 2013 it blocked a shipment of IKT cotton at the port of Los Angeles.

Indorama TBK owns 89.26% of IKT, while Uzbekistan’s Central Bank owns the rest.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Merkel makes trip to Bishkek, praises Kyrgyz democracy

BISHKEK, JULY 13/14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Angela Merkel became the first German leader to visit Kyrgyzstan when she landed in Bishkek on her way to a conference in Mongolia, handing Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev a major PR coup and making him the envy of his neighbours.

Standing next to Mr Atambayev inside the Presidential Residence, Ms Merkel, who had never before visited Central Asia in her 11 years as Germany’s Chancellor, praised Kyrgyzstan’s democratic progress.

“I am very pleased that we’ve now met in Kyrgyzstan, you have twice visited Germany,” she said.

“We have great respect for the path chosen by Kyrgyzstan since 2010. Kyrgyzstan has chosen the path of parliamentary democracy, and needs, of course, to be supported.”

Kyrgyzstan shifted power to parliament from the president in 2010 after a revolution and has since held three national elections — two parliamentary and one presidential — that Western election observers praised as reasonably free and fair. No other country in Central Asia has ever held an election praised by Western observers and commentators suggested Ms Merkel’s stop-over in Kyrgyzstan was a reward of sorts.

But as well as praising Kyrgyzstan for its relative democracy, Ms Merkel also warned Kyrgyz officials to respect the rule of law and human rights.

The day before her arrival, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial of Azimzhan Askarov, a prominent human rights activist jailed in 2010.

Mr Atambayev said that the two leaders had discussed a variety of subjects, including international terrorism and improving relations between Kyrgyzstan and the EU.

Posters welcoming Ms Merkel adorned Bishkek and most residents were excited about her visit.

Tamara, 59, a Bishkek resident said: “It is such an honour for Kyrgyzstan to host Angela Merkel because she is a great woman-politician, who promoted the idea of hosting Muslim refugees in Europe.”

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyz Supreme Court orders retrial for Askarov

BISHKEK, JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial into the sentencing of human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov in 2010 to life in prison for involvement in a murder and for inciting ethnic hatred.

The announcement disappointed human rights activists who have said that Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek, is a political prisoner who was made into a scapegoat after fighting between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Osh killed at least 400 people. They wanted the

Supreme Court to bow to pressure from the UN and US to release the 65-year-old Askarov.

Askarov’s case has strained relations between Kyrgyzstan and the US, which last year called him a political prisoner.

Analysts in Bishkek have told The Bulletin that the Supreme Court may give in to pressure to hold a retrial but that it would be, politically, very difficult for a court to come to a different outcome at a new trial.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)