AUG. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 12 Uzbeks extradited by Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan earlier this year have gone on trial accused of religious extremism, local media reported. Human rights groups had protested the extraditions of the 26 Uzbeks. Uzbek human rights group Ezgulik said two of the accused have already been sent to jail.
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(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tashkent jailed the former chief metallurgist of British miner Oxus Gold for 12 years for spying. Oxus said that Said Aushurov, a Tajik, was innocent and that the Uzbek government was using him as a pawn in its drive to take control of a gold mine.
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(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)
AUG. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan blocked access to a number of western news websites during the London riots apparently to stop the images from reaching its own people. Russian media quoted Uzbek president Islam Karimov saying the websites were blocked to protect the country’s youth from “negative Western influences”.
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(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)
AUG. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has returned control of its prisons to its interior ministry, which operates its own army, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The ministry of justice had controlled the prisons since 2002 but a series of breakouts and riots undermined its authority. US human rights group Freedom House criticised the decision as a step backwards.
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(News report from Issue No. 52, published on Aug. 10 2011)
AUG. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move aimed at stopping the spread of radical Islam, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon banned youths from mosques, news agencies reported. A batch of new laws entitled “parental responsibility” also banned people under the age of 20 from going to nightclubs or getting a tattoo.
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(News report from Issue No. 52, published on Aug. 10 2011)
AUG 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The abrupt end of a spy row involving four Georgian photojournalists left many wondering if a Russian plot had been foiled, or whether the Georgian Interior Ministry was just plain paranoid.
On July 22, 15 days after being arrested and charged with spying for Russia, the Georgian photojournalists, including President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer, signed plea deals and were released on conditional sentences.
The plea deal means evidence against the photographers will never be heard and if the photographers talk about the case they will be sent to prison. Georgian authorities said the deal was struck in return for information about other Russian agents but conditional sentences are almost unheard of in Georgia where spies usually get the maximum sentence.
Many observers put the deal down to the embarrassment the case caused. Local journalists have held daily rallies, Western diplomats have been perplexed and the international media has extensively covered the case.
Some journalists in Tbilisi believe the photojournalists were released so that the case did not overshadow the visit on July 26 of Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
After being released, Giorgi Abdaladze, one of the arrested photographers, gave a guarded, tantalising interview to the New York Times. “I saw things I have never seen before. Something I couldn’t imagine,” he said. An obscure insight, perhaps, into an obscure case.
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(News report from Issue No. 51, published on Aug. 2 2011)
JULY 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon announced an amnesty for 15,000 prisoners to mark the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union on Sept. 9. Mr Rakhmon has previously granted amnesties but this is the largest and for the first time includes former Islamic fighters captured during Tajikistan’s civil war in the mid-1990s.
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(News report from Issue No. 51, published on Aug. 2 2011)
JULY 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov invited exiled opposition groups to return to the country for a presidential election scheduled for next year. Since becoming president in 2006, Mr Berdymukhamedov has said he wants to open up the authoritarian state although opposition groups said they doubted his invitation was genuine.
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(News report from Issue No. 48, published on July 12 2011)
JULY 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – An arms depot exploded in a town near Ashgabat killing dozens of people, Turkmen human rights groups quoted eye witnesses as saying. The government at first said fireworks had triggered the explosions in the town of Abadan and that casualties were light. Later it admitted that an arms dump had exploded.
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(News report from Issue No. 48, published on July 12 2011)
JULY 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Georgia arrested four high profile photo-journalists, including President Mikheil Saakashvili’s personal photographer, and charged them with spying for Russia. The photographers deny the accusations. One of the group said he is being punished for selling photos of a violent anti-government protest in May.
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(News report from Issue No. 48, published on July 12 2011)