APRIL 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku extended a prison sentence against former Azerbaijani health minister Ali Isanov by seven years for allegedly harbouring drugs in prison and scuffling with guards. Isanov, who has been in prison since 2005 said that the new charges had been fabricated. He was imprisoned for plotting a coup.
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(News report from Issue No. 326, published on April 28 2017)
MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A lawyer working on a human rights case in Tajikistan has fled the country fearing for her safety, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, just the latest in a series of anti- government activists who have moved into self-imposed exile. RFE/RL said that they had spoken to Muazzama Qodirova who was now in Germany where she hoped to apply for asylum. She had been working on defending jailed human rights lawyer, Buzurgmehr Yorov. Free speech and human rights groups have complained of the Tajik government’s increasingly dictatorial approach to governing.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> What is the International Crises Group and why is it important to discuss its report on the first 100 days of Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s rule in Uzbekistan?
>> The International Crisis Group, or ICG, is a think tank based in Brussels. It draws most of its funding from Western governments and reports on some of the world’s long-running problem areas. It is influential. One of the areas it reports on is Central Asia and this report, on Mirziyoyev’s first 100 days as Uzbek president, is one of the first major efforts to evaluate his influence over the region’s most populous country.
>>How does the ICG view Mirziyoyev?
>>Essentially, positive with a strong dose of caution. Like others, the ICG welcomed moves by Mirziyoyev to improve relations with neighbours and has also said there are signs he wants to change the economy which has operated under a pseudo-Soviet centrally controlled system since the 1992 break up of the USSR. But the report’s authors also sounded a serious, and wise, note of caution. They pointed out that Mirziyoyev had been PM under Islam Karimov when the current system, designed to protect the elite, was devised.
>> Got it. What, according to ICG, are the most serious issues facing Mirziyoyev?
>> To start with, the ICG said that Mirziyoyev needs to shore up support within the ranks of the Uzbek elite. Without this support he will fail to update the system. It pointed to a government reshuffle at the start of the year which had improved things but said that he still needed to patch up his differences with Rustam Azimov, an ex-finance minister, and Rustam Inoyatov, the head of the National Security Service.
>> What about ordinary Uzbeks? Does ICG have any insight on how they view their new president?
>> Only a smattering of anecdotal evidence that suggests that Mirziyoyev is going about things the right way and that he has started out with a degree of popularity. ICG quoted a 55-year-old teacher in the Fergana Valley saying: “Mirziyoyev is a person who knows Uzbekistan’s real picture, he can make things better.”
>> And to sum up?
>> The ICG broadly welcomed Mirziyoyev’s first 100 days in office, although it also said that more is needed. It did urge foreign powers to work more closely with Uzbekistan under Mirziyoyev to ensure reforms that have been hinted at come through and don’t become early-day regime hubris.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
MARCH 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tajikistan extended by two years a jail sentence imposed on human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov who was imprisoned in October 2016 for 23 years for allegedly calling for a coup. At his trial, Yorov called the allegations against him politically motivated. He then read out a verse from a poem likening officials to fools, leading to a charge of contempt of court and the additional two year prison sentence which have now been passed down.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The influential New York-based Human Rights Watch described the imprisonment of Azerbaijani blogger Mehman Huseynov for slander in February as a “new low even for Azerbaijan”. Rights groups have been complaining that the Azerbaijani authorities have been crushing dissenting voices for years using slander and libel laws. Azerbaijani officials have refuted this and said instead that the West was intent on fomenting a revolution in Azerbaijan. Huseynov was well- known for reporting on official corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan detained human rights campaigner Elena Urlaeva, Reuters reported quoting a video message she posted on the internet. In her video message, Ms Urlaeva said that she had been detained, beaten and taken to a psychiatric unit in Tashkent. She is best known for campaigning against forced labour in the cotton industry. She had been due to meet with the World Bank to discuss forced labour violations.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
FEB. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan released opposition activist and journalist Muhammad Bekjanov from prison after 18 years. Mr Bekjanov, considered one of the longest serving political prisoners in the world, was sent to prison in 1999 after a trial linked to a car bomb in the capital, Tashkent. His supporters have always said that he is innocent.
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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)
FEB. 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The New York-based Human rights Watch said that the authorities in Kazakhstan have been harassing two local human rights groups by falsely alleging that their tax receipts were wrong. HRW said that International Legal Initiative Foundation and Liberty had both faced tax audits. The Kazakh authorities have not commented. Rights groups have previously accused Kazakhstan of using official channels to close down groups that it finds a nuisance.
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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)
FEB. 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that its journalist Khudayberdy Allashov and his mother, Kurbantach Arazmedova, had been released from prison and given a three-year suspended sentence for carrying chewing tobacco. Human rights activists cheered their release from prison, as they feared that a custodial sentence was likely. Under the terms of his release, though, Allashov is banned from using communication equipment, making it impossible for him to return to work as a journalist.
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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)
FEB. 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have released Rustam Usmanov, who once owned a bank and a string of other business, after 19 years in prison, RFE/RL reported. RFE/RL quoted a relative of Mr Usmanov as saying that he was released on Feb. 13. The move may be part of a general softening of tone in Uzbekistan after the death of Islam Karimov, ruler for 25 years, and the emergence of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Mr Usmanov is credited with setting up Uzbekistan’s first bank in the early 1990s. The 69- year-old was convicted of fraud in 1998.
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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)