AUG. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s parliament will consider legislation that will force couples to take a series of health tests for HIV and other infections before they marry, media reported. A number of countries already insist on these tests, including some parts of Russia. Human rights groups criticise the tests as invasive.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
SEPT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch, the New York-based lobby group, accused Azerbaijan’s government of “a deliberate, abusive strategy to limit dissent”. It also said that this campaign against dissenters and opposition activists was intensifying in the run up to the Oct. 9 election.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
AUG. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unknown assailants attacked and beat Igor Larra, a reporter who has written stories critical of government officials in the city of Aktobe, west Kazakhstan, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said. The attack raises questions, again, of journalists’ safety in Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 149, published on Aug. 26 2013)
AUG. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is on the verge of signing a deal to send 200,000 tonnes of cotton annually to Bangladesh, media reported. Bangladesh already imports cotton from Uzbekistan for its garment-making industry but this deal should smooth the process. Human rights groups accuse Uzbekistan of using child labour to pick cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 147, published on Aug. 12 2013)
AUG. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged France not to extradite former Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov to Kazakhstan where he is wanted on various charges including stealing billions of dollars and plotting a series of bomb attacks. HRW said Ablyazov was at risk of ill-treatment. French police arrested Ablyazov earlier this month.
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(News report from Issue No. 147, published on Aug. 12 2013)
AUG. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — So, in the end, he hadn’t gotten very far. After nearly 18 months, police found the 50-year-old Mukhtar Ablyazov hiding in a luxury villa near Cannes on France’s sun drenched southern coast.
Kazakh prosecutors want to charge Ablyazov with trying to overthrow President Nursultan Nazarbayev and planning a series of bomb attacks in Almaty. He had moved to London to escape the Kazakh authorities but has been on the run since fleeing a court that convicted him of perjury. That was back in February 2012 during Ablyazov’s protracted case with BTA Bank, the Kazakh bank he used to be chair, which had accused him of embezzling billions.
Now Kazakhstan needs to work out how to get Ablyazov back to face prosecutors.
The problem for Mr Nazarbayev is that France can’t extradite him directly because Kazakhstan is not a member of the Council of Europe’s Extradition Convention.
This could have been a problem except, conveniently, Ukraine, which is a member of the extradition convention, has issued an extradition request for Ablayzov to face fraud charges. From Kiev, Ablyazov could then be sent on to Kazakhstan.
It promises to be a protracted extradition battle with human rights groups already warning the French government that Ablyazov is unlikely to get a fair hearing.
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(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)
JULY 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — US pop diva Jennifer Lopez reportedly earned $10m for a private performance last month in front of Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his guests. Ms Lopez sang happy birthday for Mr Berdymukhamedov. Turkmenistan has a woeful human rights record. Human rights lobbyists criticised her performance.
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(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human rights lobby group Amnesty International released a report accusing the Kazakh government of using torture on prisoners. The report focused on people detained during the 2011 clashes between protesters and police in Zhanaozen, west Kazakhstan. The Kazakh government has previously refuted allegations of torture.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British PM David Cameron completed a two-day trip to Kazakhstan. This was the first trip to Kazakhstan by a serving British PM and concluded with reportedly $1b worth of deals between the two countries. Human rights groups said that Mr Cameron should have done more to press concerns on Kazakhstan’s rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JUNE 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Whatever the deals signed between British PM David Cameron and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan will emerge as a winner.
Persuading Mr Cameron to visit Kazakhstan is a PR coup for Mr Nazarbayev and will have other countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus looking on enviously.
Mr Cameron is the first serving British PM to visit Kazakhstan, although, as one of Mr Nazarbayev’s advisers, ex-PM Tony Blair is a relatively regular visitor to Astana.
Kazakhstan has spent deeply on a small army of Western lobbyists, including the well-connected London-based Portland, and tasked them with improving its image.
Most of Europe’s leaders had already made the journey east to Astana. The EU, France and Germany have develop strong ties with Kazakhstan. Britain, though, had stood aside.
It was only a matter of time, though, before this changed.
Wealthy Kazakhs increasingly look to London as a fulcrum for their international business and lifestyle ambitions. As well as multiple business links, the Kazakh elite are sending their children to top English boarding schools and the government has been sponsoring a new generation of lawyers and civil servants through British universities.
Travel connections between London and Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial centre, have also improved this year when British Airways finally opening a direct flight from Heathrow.
For Mr Cameron, the trip is trickier. He will want to develop economic ties with Kazakhstan but will have to tread carefully around the inevitable human rights questions to avoid upsetting his hosts. Britain also needs help from Kazakhstan to pull its military kit out of Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 141, published on July 1 2013)