Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Ex- Kyrgyz President accuses US

SEPT. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ex-Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev lodged accusations of drug smuggling against NATO forces that used the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan for their mission in Afghanistan. US forces agreed to lease the Manas airbase in Dec. 2001 and left in June 2014.Mr Akayev served as president of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 to 2005, when he was unseated during a revolution.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan worry about terrorist

BISHKEK, SEPT. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The sizable Uyghur community in Kyrgyzstan’s capital is increasingly worried by being labelled as terrorists after a suicide bomb against the Chinese Embassy this month.

Local state authorities described a suicide bomber as a member of the so-called Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkestan which wants independence for China’s eastern province of Xinjiang. Now local Uyghurs have said that they are worried about the impact the suicide bomb will have on relations with ordinary Kyrgyz.

“Honestly, I did not understand what the reason for this terror act was,” Malika, 23, a Uyghur working in a Bishkek market, told The Bulletin. “It’s bad that people think of Uyghurs as terrorists.”

There are more than 60,000 ethnic Uyghurs living in Kyrgyzstan, most working in trade and business. They are generally well regarded with a reputation for staying out of politics and producing good food. Many Uyghurs work in local bazaars where they sell fabrics from China.

There are also significant Uyghur communities in Kyrgyzstan’s east which borders China and in Kazakhstan.

The Chinese have blamed Uyghurs for a series of attacks in Xinjiang province over the past few years but this is the first attack against a Chinese target in Central Asia.

There have not previously been indicators that the Uyghur community in Central Asia was particularly militant and the suicide attacks appeared to have shocked and surprised them as much as they did the Kyrgyz authorities.

“Why? What is the reason for this attack? All my relatives are talking about it right now,” said Ikhtiyar, 22, with a note of exasperation.

“I do not think that attitudes to Uyghurs will be changed now. Right- minded people understand that terrorism does not have nationality.”

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Court charges with espionage former Kyrgyz PM’s son

SEPT. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Bishkek sentenced Altynbek Muraliyev, son of former Kyrgyz PM Amangeldi Muraliyev, to 22 years in prison for treason and espionage, toughening its previous sentence of 12 years in prison. Muraliyev was arrested in November 2014, while attempting to flee Kyrgyzstan. The National Security Service said he had given classified information to foreign governments.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Kyrgyz court jails IS recruitors

SEPT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz court sentenced two women to six and seven years in prison after they tried to recruit another woman to join the IS extremist group in Syria. The prosecutor also said that the brother of one of the women was currently fighting in Syria. Kyrgyzstan and other countries in Central Asia are increasingly worried about a rise in IS recruitment in the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)

Kyrgyzstan blames Uyghurs for Chinese embassy attack

BISHKEK, SEPT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — – Kyrgyzstan’s Security Service accused Uyghur militants of organising an attack on the Chinese embassy in Bishkek in last month.

Specifically the Security Service said the Uyghur group that financed the attack was based out of Syria, suggesting a potential link with the extremist IS group.

The attacker, the only casualty of the attack, was identified as an Uyghur with a Tajik passport who was linked to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) separatist group.

Chinese officials said they were satisfied with Kyrgyzstan’s findings and that they consider militant Uyghurs, an ethnic group based mainly in China’s western region of Xinjiang province, to be a terrorist organisation.

“I want to stress that East Turkestan terrorist forces representing ETIM have planned and carried out many terrorist incidents targeting China inside and outside the country and committed bloody crimes,” Reuters reported Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying as saying.

Uyghur groups have said that they are now worried that China will use the attack in Bishkek to crackdown on Uyghurs. They say that the Chinese repress them and their culture.

There are significant Uyghur groups living in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A Canadian diplomatic report in 2012 said that 50,000 lived in Kyrgyzstan.

Last week, a suicide bomber drove a car through the gates of the Chinese embassy in Bishkek, the first direct attack against China’s diplomatic missions in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

The Security Service said that the support network for the attacker was local, as the car belonged to an ethnic Uzbek with a Tajik passport living in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Pakistan wants Turkmenistan more involved in CASA-1000

SEPT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pakistan said it wanted Turkmenistan to be more involved in the CASA-1000 electricity transmission project and drop plans to build an alternative electricity supply route. CASA-1000 is a World Bank-backed $1.2b plan to bring electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Turkmenistan has pledged to either join the project or supply electricity to Pakistan via alternative routes.

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(News report from Issue No. 295, published on Sept. 9 2016)

Kyrgyz president snubs predecessor

AUG. 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva walked out of a speech being delivered by the current President Almazbek Atambayev, her protege and successor, after he criticised her for approving a constitution which he has said is flawed. The rare public putdown of Ms Otunbayeva, who ruled as an interim president after a revolution in 2010 until 2011, was delivered at a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan is to hold a referendum later this year on tweaks to the constitution which Mr Atambayev is said are essential.

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(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Kyrgyz court jails opposition leader

AUG. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kyrgyz court sentenced opposition figure and IS sympathiser Nurlan Mutoyev to seven years in jail after he was found guilty of terrorism and inciting ethnic hatred. In May, Mutoyev was arrested after a rally in Bishkek. He stands for the establishment of the strict Islamic Shari’a law in Kyrgyzstan. His arrest was triggered by his open support for the IS group during the rally.

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(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Suicide bomber hits Chinese embassy in Bishkek

BISHKEK, AUG. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An unidentified suicide bomber drove a car through the Chinese embassy gates in southern Bishkek, blowing up the front of the diplomatic compound and injuring three Kyrgyz workers, in what analysts have described as the first terror attack on a Chinese diplomatic post in Central Asia.

China’s foreign ministry urged an investigation and suspended visa services for Kyrgyz nationals seeking to enter China. In a statement Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, urged the Kyrgyz government to quickly track down the perpetrators of the attack.

“(I) asked the Kyrgyz side to find out the truth as soon as possible, punish those responsible and avoid a reoccurrence of such attacks,” he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Some analysts said that Kyrgyzstan’s small community of Uyghurs, which call for independence for China’s western Xinjiang region may have been behind the attack.

Others said that the radical IS group, which has strengthened its recruiting network in the region, were behind the attack.

China has followed the US over the past few years and has increasingly pulled its embassies out of busy city centres towards suburban sites which can fit a larger premises and can be more easily protected.

In 2010, the Chinese embassy in Bishkek was expanded and moved to one of these new style compounds built on the edge of the city.

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(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)

Fire in Moscow factory kills 17 Kyrgyz migrant workers

AUG. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fire in a printing warehouse in northeast Moscow has killed 17 migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan, the Russian authorities said.

The fires once again raise concerns over safety standards for migrant workers from Central Asia in Russia. In January, 12 migrant workers died in a clothing factory in Moscow.

Emergency services said that the fire at the printing warehouse was started by a faulty light on the first floor. Smoke spread quickly through a lift shaft to the fourth floor where the workers were sleeping. Most of the workers died in their sleep through smoke inhalation and another died later in hospital.

Unconfirmed reports also said that the factory mainly hired women.

Russia remains a major source of employment for workers from Central Asia and the S.Caucasus although there have been accusations of substandard working conditions.

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(News report from Issue No. 293, published on Aug. 29 2016)