DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a new report, the media freedom lobby group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Azerbaijan as one of the worst 10 countries in the world for locking up reporters and editors the authorities dislike. Media and human rights groups have criticised Azerbaijan throughout the year for its heavy handed treatment of journalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested Anar Mammadli, a relatively high-profile election monitor who had criticised the government, for tax evasion illegal entrepreneurship and falsifying vote results.
A government crackdown on dissidents has characterised the last few years in Azerbaijan and opposition leaders were quick to describe the arrest of Mr Mammadli as political.
They could also have described it as clunky.
A few days after police arrested Mr Mammadli, foreign dignitaries, including Britain foreign minister William Hague were in Baku to witness the final signing of a new investment project by a consortium of foreign energy companies led by Britain’s BP to develop the second phase of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea.
Human rights groups didn’t miss an opportunity to criticise Western countries for buying energy from Azerbaijan.
Mr Mamadli was head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center which receives funding from the US’ National Democratic Institution. His supporters said that the government has been trying to silence him for years.
The day before his arrest, the Azerbaijani authorities sanctioned a seemingly anti-government rally. It was attended by a few hundred people in a square on the outskirts of Baku. They demonstrated against rising prices and shouted support for pro-EU demonstrators in Kiev.
The authorities may have sanctioned the protest to show visiting foreign dignitaries that dissent has a voice in Azerbaijan. If that was their aim, the arrest of Mr Mammadli severely dents that perception.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps Uzbek President Islam Karimov plans to re-position himself as a defender of civil society. On Dec. 13 he signed a decree apparently aimed at promoting Uzbek non-government, non-profit organisations.
It’s, frankly, a curious agenda to push and the real reasons behind the drive to relax the burden on civil society are still to emerge. From Jan. 1 registration fees for local branches of NGO will be reduced.
It’s been hard for NGOs in Uzbekistan. They have routinely complained of inspections from tax officials which result in petty fines.
As for human rights groups, they’ve mainly been forced to leave. News agencies have been chased out too.
The list of problems that real NGOs and civil activists face in Uzbekistan is long, very long. This decree is likely to be window dressing. There is still a long way to go to strength civil society in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vadim Kuramshin, a Kazakh activist serving 12 years in prison for extortion, received an international award for human rights first given to Nelson Mandela in 1985.
The award by Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize to Kuramshin will likely irritate the Kazakh authorities. Kuramshin had been an increasingly prominent human rights lawyer in Kazakhstan until he was jailed in December 2012. Kuramshin’s supporters have said that the charges have been fabricated.
He specialised in defending prisoners’ rights. Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era prisons are notoriously dangerous. They are run by gangs and rioting is common.
The Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize was first awarded to former South African president Nelson Mandela when he was serving a life sentence in a jail in 1985.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Concerned that outside forces would influence its reporters, Uzbek state media banned its journalists from travelling abroad and from communicating with foreigners and diplomats in Uzbekistan. Media freedom and human rights lobby groups regularly criticise Uzbekistan as one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Labour Organisation (ILO) denied a report on the Uznews.net website which said it had not found evidence of child labour during its investigation of Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest. An ILO spokesperson said it was examining data and that it planned to issue a report in February.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General launched an investigation into possible child labour practices in southern Kazakhstan after it found 700 children picking cotton, media reported. International organisations have criticised Central Asia’s cotton industry, and in particular Uzbekistan, for using children to pick cotton harvests.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The media lobby group Reporters Without Borders handed its 2013 press freedom award to imprisoned Uzbek journalist Muhammad Bekzhanov. Bekzhanov edited an opposition newspaper until he was imprisoned in 1999 for plotting to a series of terrorist attacks.
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(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bobomurod Razzoqov, a 60-year-old human rights activist from Bukhara in Uzbekistan, started serving a four year prison sentence following his conviction in September of human trafficking. Rights groups said the charges were fabricated. Uzbekistan has one of the worst human rights records in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Torture in Uzbek prisons is widespread and systematic, the UN said in a new report. Human rights groups and the UN have said for years that Uzbekistan has one of the worst records on torture in the world. This new report, though, also said little was being done to improve prison conditions.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)