Tag Archives: human rights

Azerbaijan prepares to open European Games

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under the glare of international media and the scrutiny of the human rights lobby, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev prepared to open the inaugural European Games in Baku on June 12.

Mr Aliyev and Azerbaijan have been building up to this moment for years and view the Games, which last until June 28, as a chance to promote the country.

But the Games have also drawn major criticism of Azerbaijan’s recent human rights record. It has imprisoned journalists and locked up opposition activists.

One of the most high profile prisoners is Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist who is in pre-trial detention. She is accused of goading another journalist into a suicide attempt.

On the eve of the Games, the New York Times published a letter from Ms Ismayilova.

“Azerbaijan’s best and brightest have been locked up, tucked away for the European Games. They didn’t want you to see or hear us and our inconvenient truths,” she wrote. “The truth is that Azerbaijan is in the midst of a human rights crisis. Things have never been worse.”

The Azerbaijani authorities have countered these allegations by accusing the West of an anti-Azerbaijan campaign.

Away from the rehtoric the build up to the Games has been fraught. A fire tore through a block of flats last month killing at least 15 people. It spread quickly because of foam stuck to the side of the building to beautify it for the Games. And earlier this week, a bus hit a group of Austrian athletes in the Olympic Vil- lage, badly injuring one of the synchronised swimming team.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Uzbek authorities imposed new travel restrictions

JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan have imposed new restrictions on foreign travel, media reported. From now on, people with debts will be barred from leaving the country. Uzbekistan is considered to be one of the most repressive countries in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Tajikistan lifts Facebook ban

JUNE 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan lifted a ban on Facebook and YouTube imposed after a police chief defected to the radical group IS in Syria last month, the AFP news agency reported.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijan orders OSCE to close office in Baku

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan ordered the OSCE to close its office in Baku and barred Amnesty from visiting the city, triggering fresh criticism of its civil rights record shortly before President Ilham Aliyev opens the inaugural European Games.

Azerbaijan and the West have been locked in an acrimonious row over civil rights which has threatened to damage their fragile relationship.

Now the OSCE, as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe is more commonly known, said that the Azerbaijani authorities had ordered it to close its Baku office.

“The government of Azerbaijan has notified the OSCE of its intention to close the organisation’s office in Baku,” AFP quoted the spokesman for the OSCE Baku office, Rashad Huseynov, as saying.

This takes relations between Europe and Azerbaijan to a new low. Among other roles, the OSCE is Europe’s democracy watchdog. It evaluates elections against European democratic standards.

Azerbaijan already has form, though. At the end of last year it raided and closed the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

London-based Amnesty also said it had cancelled a trip to Baku after the Azerbaijani authorities said that its delegation was not welcome to visit until after the European Games.

It’s a delicate relationship between Europe and Azerbaijan. While it may not like Azerbaijan’s attitude towards dissenters, Europe wants to buy its gas.

For Mr Aliyev, these are frustrating times.

He wants to increase the profile of Azerbaijan through sport and had hoped that the European Games, set to open on June 12, would act as the perfect launch.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

UN criticises Azerbaijan ahead of Games

JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Games, due to start in Baku on June 12, may turn out to be more of curse for Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev than a blessing.

The Games have shone a spotlight on Azerbaijan and it is not a pretty sight, according to many Western politicians and activists.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Michael Frost, was the latest high profile figure to criticise Azerbaijan on its civil rights record.

“As preparations are in full swing for the Baku Games, the Azerbaijani authorities stepped up their efforts to harass, jail, and surveil human rights defenders, as well as ban them from travel and freeze their assets,” he said, according to the UN website.

Many of the journalists and activists arrested over the past couple of years have been sent to prison on drugs and arms related charges. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been chased out of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani officials dismissed Mr Frost’s statement as part of the anti-Azerbaijan narrative that has been put forward over the last few years.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Uzbek activist complains of abuse

JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A human rights campaigner in Uzbekistan told the eurasianet.org website that police sexually abused her when they detained her last month for photographing forced labour in cotton fields. The UN and other organisations have complained of torture and sexual abuse in police custody previously.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

HRW wants more pressure on Azerbaijan

MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch said EU leaders should do more to pressure Azerbaijan into releasing journalists, human rights defenders and critics of the government from prison. Azerbaijan has detained and imprisoned dozens of opposition activists over the past few years.

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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Drop NGO law, UN tells Kyrgyzstan

MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rupert Colville, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Kyrgyzstan should drop a draft law that will make cooperation between local and foreign NGOs more complicated. “This vague wording may put at risk numerous organisations working to deliver services or conduct human rights advocacy,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Police in Azerbaijan question another businessman

MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan questioned businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov over an outstanding loan from the state-linked International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), media reported, the second high-profile Azerbaijani company owner to be hauled into a police station in a week.

Turan news agency reported that Mr Ibrahimov took a loans $57m, but sources in IBA told the news agency that the sum was actually $850m.

Last week police detained Nizami Piriyev, head of Azerbaijani Methanol Company. He was charged with financial fraud. Mr Piriyev is also charged with not repaying bank loans.

Natiq Cafarli, economist and executive director of ReAL opposition movement said in an interview with faktxeber.com that he does not expect the oligarchs to stay in jail for a long time. He said that the government just wants to recover its money.

“The ruling party does not need a lot of news around famous people,” he said. “They will be released soon.”

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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijani President ditches plans to travel to EU summit

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Seemingly in a fit of pique, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev said he will not attend an EU summit in Riga later this month designed to bring countries that ring Europe closer to the group.

APA news agency, which is linked to the Azerbaijani authorities, quoted the deputy head of the presidential admitstration, Novruz Mammadov, as saying that Mr Aliyev blamed the EU and the US for mounting an anti-Azerbaijan campaign in the media.

“The expansion of the black PR campaign against Azerbaijan, in close collaboration with some western powers which claim to be interested to develop strategic partnership ties with Azerbaijan, on the eve of the first European Games has triggered a reasonable uproar,” APA reported.

The West has criticised Azerbaijan for what it has said are retarded steps on civil rights. Courts in Azerbaijan have imprisoned journalists lawyers, opposition leaders and activists who have been critical of the government.

For Azerbaijan, this is a particularly sensitive time. Next month it hosts the inaugural European Games and it desperately wants to both put on a good show and also to present itself in a good light.

By ditching plans to visit the EU summit in Riga, Mr Aliyev is aligning himself more closely with Russia and away from Europe.

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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)