Tag Archives: human rights

Kyrgyz civil leaders criticise crackdown on Facebook as an “invasion of human rights”

BISHKEK, JAN. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rights groups and civil society leaders in Kyrgyzstan have criticised the government for moves to monitor Facebook for comments critical of the president.

The row centres on the Kyrgyz National Security Committee’s (GKNB) move to identify and monitor 45 Facebook users who have criticised President Almazbek Atambayev. Facebook in Kyrgyzstan is one of the few mediums ordinary people use to express political opinions.

But Klara Sooronkulova, a former judge of the Constitutional Court who was sacked in 2015 because of a disagreement with Parliament over the use of people’s biometrics data said the move was wrong. “It is invasion of privacy and violation of human rights,” she told The Conway Bulletin.

A Bishkek analyst who preferred to remain anonymous said politics may be motivating the clampdown.

“The next presidential elections are coming [ in October],” he said. “They are taking measures to control chaos by trying to control who criticises the President.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Kyrgyzstan keeps Uzbek activist locked up

BISHKEK, JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Kyrgyzstan reiterated a life sentence against ethnic Uzbek rights activist Azimjan Askarov for stirring racial tension in the south of the country in 2010.

Kyrgyzstan has been under pressure from the United States, the United Nations and various human rights groups to free Askarov, but the judge in the court in Bishkek rejected the notion that the original conviction had been unsafe.

Human rights groups said the decision had been politically motivated and that the government was looking for scapegoats for ethnic violence in 2010. Askarov had been arrested in the aftermath of riots in 2010 focused on the southern city of Osh between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that killed several hundred people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Ex-security chief in Turkmenistan dies in jail

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tirkish Tyrmyev, the former head of Turkmenistan’s National Security Committee, has died in prison, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. RFE/RL said that Tyrmev had been sent to prison in 2002 for abuse of power. It also said that shortly before he was due to be released in 2012, a court extended his sentence by seven years for apparently attacking a prison guard. Turkmenistan is one of the most secretive country’s in the world and has a poor human rights record.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Azerbaijan’s court jails activist

JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Azerbaijan sentenced Elgiz Gahraman, a 31-year-old opposition youth activist, to 5-1/2 years in prison for drug-related offences. The New York- based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that in August 2016 Gahraman had been taken by police to a station in Baku, beaten and forced to sign a confession that he had been carrying heroin and intended to sell it. HRW has accused the Azerbaijani authorities of using bogus charges to imprison people it considers to be troublemakers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

EU criticises Azerbaijan over human rights

DEC. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU and human rights groups criticised Azerbaijan for sentencing to 10 years two anti-government activists who said they were tortured by police. The day before, a court had sentenced Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov on drug related charges. They were detained earlier this year for graffiting anti-government slogans on a statue of former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev. The drug-related charges were added later and their supporters say they have been made up to increase prison sentences.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Witness recants statement in Kyrgyz court

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — One of the key witnesses in the trial against Kyrgyz human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov recanted her testimony against her former colleague saying that she had been threatened by the police. Under pressure from the UN and the US, in July Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial of Askarov’s case. He was given a life sentence in September 2010 after being accused of inciting ethnic hatred in a revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier that year. Human rights lobby groups say the accusation were fabricated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kyrgyz court starts re-trial for Askarov

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz court started a re-trial of Azimzhan Askarov, a human rights activist jailed for life after being accused of stirring ethnic hatred during the 2010 revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Under pressure from international human rights lobby groups, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial in July. At the first hearing, Askarov pleaded not guilty.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Uzbekistan bans forced labour

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has ratified the International Labour Organisation’s convention on the ban on forced and child labour, the ministry of labour said in a statement. Every year, during the cotton harvest, human rights organisations denounce dozens of cases of child and forced labour. Cotton is an important commodity for Uzbekistan’s economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Tajik officials target activist families

SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US-based Human Rights Watch said that police in Tajikistan had detained around 50 family members of activists who staged a protest at a OSCE meeting this week. Around 20 activists from Tajikistan living in exile in Europe staged a silent protest against the government during an OSCE conference on human rights in Warsaw. Protesters wore T-shirts showing photos of jailed journalists and opposition members.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)

Council of Europe criticises Azerbaijan referendum

SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional experts working under the Council of Europe, criticised the upcoming referendum in Azerbaijan, which calls for an extension of presidential terms from five to seven years and other laws which it said would consolidate power in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev.

In a statement, the Venice Commission said that the proposed legal amendments will effectively allow Mr Aliyev to rule indefinitely.

“Many proposed amendments would severely upset the balance of power by giving unprecedented powers to the president,” the lawyers of the Venice Commission said in a statement.

Azerbaijani officials said that the Commission was out of line in judging the proposed amendments which will be voted on in a referendum on Sept. 26.

“The referendum doesn’t expand presidential powers, this is about improving governance,” Shahin Aliyev, head the Presidential Administration’s law unit, told local media.

Mr Aliyev has already tinkered with Azerbaijan’s constitution when he scrapped a limit on presidential terms in 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)