JAN. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ethnic tension around the Uzbek enclave of Sokh in southern Kyrgyzstan is still running high, media reported. On Jan. 5/6 ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz clashed after an argument over the construction of new electricity pylons. Several people were injured.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ethnic tension around the Uzbek enclave of Sokh in southern Kyrgyzstan is still running high, media reported. On Jan. 5/6 ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz clashed after an argument over the construction of new electricity pylons. Several people were injured.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US paid Kyrgyzstan $200m last year for use of an airbase outside Bishkek to support their military in Afghanistan, US assistant secretary for Central Asia Robert Blake told media in Bishkek. The US rental fee makes the Manas airbase one of Kyrgyzstan’s biggest foreign income earners.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps hinting that a new border dispute is looming, Tajik foreign minister, Hamrohon Zarifi, said he had requested Soviet-era documents from Russia that showed the demarcation of borders with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, media reported. The three countries dispute various borders in the Ferghana Valley.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps hinting that a new border dispute is looming, Tajik foreign minister, Hamrohon Zarifi, said he had requested Soviet-era documents from Russia that showed the demarcation of borders with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, media reported. The three countries dispute various borders in the Ferghana Valley.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US paid Kyrgyzstan $200m last year for use of an airbase outside Bishkek to support their military in Afghanistan, US assistant secretary for Central Asia Robert Blake told media in Bishkek. The US rental fee makes the Manas airbase one of Kyrgyzstan’s biggest foreign income earners.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
DEC. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved an ambitious economic plan for 2013 that relies on cash from Chinese, Russian and Western investors, Reuters reported. The Kyrgyz economy is hugely reliant on the Kumtor gold mine, owned by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, which reduced output last year, forcing GDP to drop.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
JAN. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The hard facts may be sketchy but a sense of fragility has returned to southern Kyrgyzstan after brief fighting between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz broke out last week.
Ethnic divisions have fractured society in southern Kyrgyzstan for generations. In June 2010 violence broke out in and around Osh, the main city in the south. Around 400 people died in the fighting and thousands of ethnic Uzbeks fled across the nearby border to Uzbekistan.
Since 2010, there have been sporadic reports of flare-ups, but generally the situation has been controlled. Tense but controlled. The reports from Sokh, an enclave within Kyrgyzstan that belongs to Uzbekistan, were different though. According to media reports, clashes broke out after an altercation between Kyrgyz border guards and Uzbek residents of Sokh on Jan. 5 over the construction of new electrical pylons.
Accounts then differ, but the basic premise was that there was some sporadic fighting, shots were fired and hostages were taken on both sides. Some cars and property were also destroyed.
Media organisations estimated that hundreds of people had been involved in the fracas. The exact number is still not clear. What is clear, however, is that ethnic divisions in southern Kyrgyzstan are as dangerous as ever.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
DEC. 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s energy monopoly, Gazprom, bought Kyrgyzstan’s national gas company for $1 in what appeared at a first glance to be a simple bargain buy.
Strategically, though, Gazprom’s buyout of Kyrgyzgaz is far more than just a drive to increase its customer base. The buyout has also strengthened the Kremlin’s leverage over Kyrgyzstan where Russia is battling with the US and China for influence.
Russia and the US have airbases in Kyrgyzstan while China has won favour by funding infrastructure projects. Influence over Kyrgyzstan is considered key to influence over Central Asia.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet Union, relying on remittances and a handful of mines to prop up its economy. Its, mainly Soviet-built, infrastructure is crumbling, including the gas system.
Thousands of Bishkek residents have had to shiver through this winter after neighbouring Kazakhstan cut gas supplies over Kyrgyzstan’s unpaid debt. This is dangerous for Kyrgyzstan’s leaders as energy shortages tend to bring people out on to the streets and even trigger revolutions. They needed a solution and turned to Moscow.
In return, Russia’s control over Kyrgyz gas potentially gives it enormous power.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In what is perhaps a sign of hardening Islamic sentiment, senior Muslim clerics in Kyrgyzstan have called for New Year celebrations to be scrapped as they are “un-Islamic”, media reported. Most people in Kyrgyzstan are Muslim, although religion does not dominate public life.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)