Tag Archives: human rights

Berdymukhamedov bans black cars

JAN 2 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a man known for his autocratic ways and snap decision-making, ordered police to fine people still driving black cars. Quoting an opposition website, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that Mr Berdymukhamedov had ordered a blanket ban on dark coloured cars. Mr Berdymukhamedov is given to grandiose statements and displays of power. In 2017 he was filmed giving his government a gym session and teaching special forces how to attack IS militants. He has also been filmed giving his subordinates a dressing down and he has said that he wants an outright ban on smoking by 2025.

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— This story was first published on Jan. 5 2018 in issue 356 of The Conway Bulletin

Mirziyoyev tells forced cotton labourers to go home

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TASHKENT/SEPT. 22 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered forced labourers working in the country’s cotton fields to return home, taking a step towards banning the practice altogether.

A Conway Bulletin correspondent said that the order for forced labourers — mainly teachers, medical staff and students — to leave the fields didn’t impact the wider mass mobilisation of the workforce to pick Uzbekistan’s cotton, a mobilisation that is characterised by low wages and poor conditions.

The Conway Bulletin, through its Silk Road Intelligencer newswire, had been one of the first news agencies to the report the news. The next day, on Sept. 23, Uzbek PM Abdulla Aripov confirmed the order.

“It’s forever,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying. “Students should study, state employees should work.”

The use of forced labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields has infuriated human rights groups who successfully lobbied for Western clothing companies to stop buying Uzbek cotton.

In the last few years, though, Uzbek officials and officials from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) have said that the use of forced labour has been cut back.

Human rights groups have published evidence that dispute this.

Under Pres. Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has appeared to lurch towards a more free and open society, rejecting the authoritarian tendencies of Islam Karimov who ruled from the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union until his death in Sept. 2016.

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— This story was first published in issue 344 of The Conway Bulletin, now called the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Sept. 24 2017.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2017

Human Rights Watch criticises Turkmenistan

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SEPT. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the eve of the opening of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Human Rights Watch criticised the various Asian Olympic committees for ignoring abuses in Turkmenistan. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is intent on using the Games as a propaganda tool but rights activists say Turkmenistan has one of the world’s worst human rights records.
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— This story was first published in issue 343 of The Conway Bulletin on Sept. 15 2017

Azerbaijan release newspaper editor from pre-trial detention

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SEPT. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan released Mehman Aliyev, head of the Turan news agency which is described as the country’s only remaining independent media outlet, from pre-trial detention but said an investigation into alleged tax avoidance was ongoing. Mr Aliyev’s detention last month has enraged human rights groups and Western governments who have said the allegations are fabricated. Azerbaijan has been accused of cracking down on free media.
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— This story was first published in issue 343 of The Conway Bulletin on Sept. 15 2017

Uzbek authorities scrap live TV show

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AUG. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan scrapped broadcasting live TV shows, programming that had been considered essential for displaying the country’s new era of openness under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that PM Abdulla Aripov wrote to journalists earlier in August explaining the policy change without giving specific reasons. Uzbekistan has looked to open up under Mr Mirziyoyev and has started broadcasting a 24-hour news channel.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbek authorities take 16,000 people off terror blacklist

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SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have removed 16,000 people from a blacklist of 17,000 people with alleged links to extremist groups, media reported. Analysts said the move was another attempt by Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to pursue more liberal policies and to create a clear departure from Islam Karimov, who ruled the country as an authoritarian dictator.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Georgia court convicts priest of attempted murder

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TBILISI, SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A judge in Tbilisi convicted Archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze of trying to murder the secretary of Patriarch Ilia II, a case that has grip the nation for the past eight months.
Mamaladze was arrested in February trying to board a flight to Berlin, where the Patriarch and his entourage were staying, carrying cyanide. Initially, it was thought the poison was meant for the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church but later it emerged that Mamaladze had intended to poison his secretary Shorena Tetruashvili because of a grudge he held. Ms Tetruashvili is the influential confident of the 84-year-old Patriarch.
Ilia II is one of the most powerful people in Georgia. He has been in this position since 1977.
The bearded and bespectacled Mamaladze has denied the charges and said that he will contest the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights. He chose not to be present in the court when the verdict was read out by the judge. There was no jury in this case. His lawyers stormed out, though, saying that the judge had been pressured into making this decision.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Aliyec sues French reporters for libel

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SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev started a libel case against two French journalists and a broadcaster for describing him as a dictator.

The libel claims focus on a report broadcast in 2015 from Azerbaijan by France 2 called: ‘My president is travelling on business’. Introducing the report, presenter Elise Lucet called Azerbaijan a “dictatorship” and reporter Laurent Richard described Mr Aliyev as a “despot” and a “dictator”.

The image-conscious Mr Aliyev is looking for a symbolic 1 euro in damages but also wants sanctions on the broadcaster and two reporters. His lawyers have said that the report was sensationalised and not based on fair reporting.

Azerbaijan is considered one of the worst countries in the world for media freedom. It has rowed with both the EU and the US over the past few years because of what free speech activists have said has been a systematic clampdown on journalists.

In 2011, the youngest daughter of former Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, lost a libel case against French website rue89.com for calling her a “dictator’s daughter”.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbekistan frees former UN staff member jailed in 2006

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AUG. 22 (The Conway Bulletin) — The United Nations said that Erkin Musaev, a former staff member who had been running a joint programme with the European Union in 2006 in Tashkent when he was arrested trying to leave Uzbekistan, has been freed. Musaev was imprisoned for various crimes, including embezzlement and espionage. The UN has always said that the crimes have been fabricated. Under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan has released several political prisoners.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Azerbaijan detains head of last independent news agency

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AUG. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turan news agency, described as the last independent news outlet in Azerbaijan, said it would close on Sept 1 after its director and owner was detained on tax evasion charges.

Human rights groups said that the charges levelled at Turan’s director, Mehman Aliyev, were false and should be dropped. He was detained and officially charged with tax evasion on Aug. 24.

“Who at this point can seriously believe that this is not a politically motivated case to silence a strong, independent voice in Azerbaijan’s deserted independent media landscape,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Turan and Aliyev, no relation to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, are accused of owing around $21,500 in unpaid taxes from 2014/16.

Azerbaijan has one of the worst records for independent media in the world. It has clashed with the European Union and the US, who accuse the Azerbaijani government of a systematic campaign to subvert the media, over the past few years.

And the US released a strongly worded statement describing the arrest of Aliyev, considered to be one of the post-Soviet pioneers of journalism in Azerbaijan, as an “Assault on media freedom”.

“These actions by the government of Azerbaijan to curtail freedom of press and to further restrict freedom of expression are the latest in a negative trend that includes the government’s May decision to block access to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other independent media websites,” the statement said.

“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Mehman Aliyev, and all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms, in accordance with its international obligations and OSCE commitments.”

The Azerbaijani government has not commented.

There are dozens of Azerbaijani journalists in jail for various reasons including various financial crimes, drug smuggling and gun possession.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)