Tag Archives: human rights

Former Turkmen spy dies in jail

AUG. 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — Akmurat Rejepov, former Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov’s spy chief, has died in prison 10 years after he was arrested for corruption and tax evasion, human rights groups said. Rejepov had been Niyazov’s security chief and had supposedly been influential in promoting Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as his replacement when he died in 2006. He was arrested and imprisoned in May 2007.

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(News report from Issue No. 340, published on Aug. 20 2017)

Video shows Kazakh police brutality

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AUG. 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — A CCTV camera on a building in Pavlodar, northern Kazakhstan, captured a near 4 minute-long incident that human rights activists said showed just how brutal Kazakh police are. In the video, three unarmed men appear to resist arrest by at least five policemen. After a tussle, the men are wrestled to the ground beaten with a truncheon, kicked in the head and abdomen and are sprayed in the face with an unknown substance.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Moscow court halts Uzbek reporters extradition

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AUG. 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Moscow suspended the extradition of Uzbek journalist Khudberdi Nurmatov after he said that he would be tortured and killed if sent back to Uzbekistan. Mr Nurmatov is openly gay, a crime in Uzbekistan. He was detained by police in July for allegedly breaking immigration rules. He has lived in Moscow since 2011 and has been trying to claim asylum. Uzbekistan has one of the worst media freedom records in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Wife of detained Kazakh businessman claims torture

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JULY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Jamilya Aimbetova-Tokmadi, the wife of the detained Kazakh businessman Murathan Tokmadi, said that her husband had been beaten and forced to sign a testimony that his injuries were linked to a fall from a pull-up bar. The arrest of Mr Tokmadi for various financial crimes in mid- June surprised commentators. The owner of a major glass-making factory in Almaty had appeared on good terms with the authorities before his arrest. The authorities have not commented on the claims.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

Tajikistan targets opposition activist

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JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee accused the Tajik authorities of intimidating 10 relatives of anti- government activists who had taken part in a conference in Germany earlier in the month to mark the anniversary of the the end of the civil war 20 years earlier. HRW said that local officials had threatened the activists with having their property confiscated and banned them from leaving the country.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Ex-ILO official accuses WB of wilful ignorance on Uzbek forced labour

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TASHKENT, JULY 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a letter to the FT, Elaine Fultz, a former director for the Central Asia office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), accused the World Bank of turning a blind eye to forced labour at its projects in Uzbekistan.

She was writing after the World Bank refuted a report last month from Human Rights Watch that forced labour was being used on its projects. The World Bank rejected the accusations and said that the ILO had investigated forced labour accusations in 2016 and concluded that the practice had been stopped.

But Ms Fultz, head of the ILO’s Central Asia office from May 2007 until January 2009 and now a consultant at US-based JMF Research Associates, said that the ILO team that toured Uzbekistan had been too small, too inexperienced and also been accompanied by a group of trade union officials who acted as government minders.

“Under these conditions, the ILO’s failure to detect forced labour in World Bank project areas is hardly surprising,” she wrote. “So why did the World Bank commission the ILO to report on the state of forced labour in Uzbekistan? We must conclude that it did so because it knew precisely what sort of report it would get.”

The issue of forced labour has haunted the Uzbek cotton sector. Over the past seven years Western companies have boycotted garments made from Uzbek cotton because of its association with forced labour.

In its report of June 27, HRW said that the World Bank invested over $500m into Uzbek agriculture in 2015/16 and that it would be impossible for its projects not to be tainted by forced labour.

A World Bank spokesperson told media that it condoned any use of forced labour in Uzbekistan.

“We continue to voice our strong concerns on labour issues to the government of Uzbekistan and we have been working with the International Labour Organisation to put in place a robust monitoring programme,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

HRW may return to Uzbekistan

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TASHKENT, JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Taking its era of openness to new heights, the Uzbek government said it may allow Human Rights Watch to re-open its office in Tashkent, six years after it was effectively expelled.

The BBC has also posted an advert for an Uzbek language journalist to be based in Tashkent, suggesting that it too was also preparing the ground for a return to Uzbekistan.

In comments reported by official media, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said: “Our cooperation with Human Rights Watch underwent something of a pause, some time in 2010. But this does not mean that we have definitively suspended relations or that we do not want to cooperate.”

The human rights lobby was told to leave Uzbekistan in 2011. The BBC and other media had been thrown out of the country six years earlier after reporting on the deaths of hundreds of people in the town of Adijan after government soldiers opened fire.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has looked to open up the country since taking over as president in September 2016, promising to give ordinary Uzbeks more freedom.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Uzbek rights activist dies

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JUNE 22 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek human rights activist Nuraddin Jumaniyazov has died in prison of tuberculosis, the New York based Human Rights Watch reported by quoting his wife. Jumaniyazov had been arrested in 2014 for human trafficking, charges that his supporters said were politically motivated. Access to Jumaniyazov was limited and his wife said that he died at the end of 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Comment: Ignore the corporate feel, EXPO-2017 is worth a visit

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — After a build-up lasting five years, Kazakhstan has finally opened EXPO- 2017. If you’re in Astana between now and mid-September when it closes, you should go. It feels excessively corporate and you’ll probably come out of the EXPO-2017 site none-the-wiser on what exactly its Orwellian-tinged ‘Future Energy’ means, but don’t dwell on this — it’s not the real point of the exposition.

EXPO-2017 is a source of national pride and a must-do event for most ordinary Kazakhs this summer, at least for the ones who live in and around Astana. And this pride and sense of fun is evident throughout EXPO-2017. The dozens and dozens of uniformed guides are courteous, speak excellent English and are genuinely helpful. The student volunteers beam with joy and are relishing the internationalism of the whole event.

As for the visitors, when I was there it must have been 95% Kazakh. These were groups of families and friends touring the pavilion, drinking in each country’s take on EXPO- 2017. This ranges from Britain’s glowing yurt to Iran’s focus on promoting its carpets.

The visiting Kazakhs, armed with selfie sticks and aging smartphones, weren’t the super rich who travel effortlessly around the world, these were Kazakhs who may never have left Central Asia, or been on a solitary trip to Europe. EXPO-2017 feels as if it has returned the international exposition series to its original mid-19th century Victorian era roots of bringing the world to a particular city.

The human rights lobby draws visitors’ attention to Kazakhstan’s poor record for tolerating dissent and media freedom, and there have been widely documented corruption issues around EXPO-2017, but push this aside for now and enjoy the spectacle.

And make sure you don’t miss out on the Caribbean pavilion, the least scripted section. The women from Belize, Haiti and Dominica will tell you how they are coping with four months in Kazakhstan, a country they hadn’t heard of until earlier this year.

By James Kilner, Editor, Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Comment: Don’t ignore Kazakh rights abuse

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan sees EXPO-2017 in Astana as a “showcase to the international community”.

The country has come a long way economically since 1991 but with President Nursultan Nazarbayev in power for 25 years, it has not had an election that could be considered free and fair by independent monitors. The government restricts fundamental freedoms and has become increasingly intolerant of any sort of display of discontent.

In recent years, Kazakh authorities have increased their heavy-handed response to peaceful protest, imprisoned activists and journalists on politically motivated charges, and shut down critical media outlets.

Foreign investors – many of whom recognise the importance of upholding international labour standards – should note that while the government claims it promotes social partnership, it has decimated Kazakhstan’s independent trade union movement and drawn repeated criticism from the International Labour Organisation.

Kazakhstan aspires to be one of the top 30 most developed countries by 2050 and to join the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development (OECD). No one can fault Astana for seeking out opportunities like EXPO 2017, but the government’s rights-violating policies are an impediment to such aspirations.

By Mihra Rittmann, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)