MARCH 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh interrogated the city’s powerful former mayor Melis Myrzakmatov over his involvement with holding illegal rallies. Mr Myrzakmatov is considered a potential figurehead for opposition forces. Kyrgyz PM Jantoro Satybaldiev sacked him as Osh mayor in December.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For visitors to Kyrgyzstan’s main civilian airport, Manas, catching sight of US warplanes taking off in the distance used to be part of arriving in Bishkek. Not anymore.
As the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan continues these glimpses of the US military have become increasingly rare. It is quitting its airbase next to Manas civilian airport from where it has flown missions to Afghanistan since 2001.
Given Russian opposition to the facility, Kyrgyzstan’s leaders had few choices but to call time on the co-called Transit Center.
And this seems to suit locals.
“I have no problem with America but I don’t think we needed this base,” said Askar Bolotbayev, a Bishkek resident.
“It doesn’t provide us with electricity, it isn’t something we can export. We somehow survived before it and we will survive after it, too.”
Yet, with the centre worth roughly $200m to the anaemic Kyrgyz economy, Kyrgyzstan is keen to fill a hole by turning their main airport into something bigger and better.
Dair Tokobayev, an official at Manas airport, told local press that the government wanted to transform Manas into a regional transit hub.
But not without Russian backing, of course. Russian energy company Rosneft is reportedly considering buying a 51% stake in the airport.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The final US aerial re-fuelling tanker supporting military missions in Afghanistan took off from the Manas airbase outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the US military said. According to US data, re-fuelling tankers have flown 33,000 missions from Manas. The US military is quitting Manas this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)
FEB. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan said it would prosecute former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his two sons in absentia for the attempted murder of a British businessman in 2006. Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan after a coup in 2010. He lives in Belarus. Last year a court in Bishkek sentenced him to 24 years in jail for an assassination.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The governments of Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been warning for months that their own security is being compromised by the civil war in Syria.
Local Islamic radicals travel to Syria for training and combat experience, they have said, and then return home eager to attack and bomb government targets.
Now Kyrgyzstan, which has been fighting an increase in attacks by the Taliban-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) over the past few years, has said it captured six radicals who had recently returned from Syria.
The Kyrgyz National Security Council said that the six men were arrested in Osh in the south of the country and had been planning a series of attacks.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have also recently raised serious concerns about the flow of extremists into and out of Syria, and Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have said they are concerned about radicals linked to Afghanistan.
A few days earlier, the Kyrgyz national security council said five Kyrgyz men had been killed in Syria and that 50 or so were based in Syria full time. The inference from the Kyrgyz Security Council is that they may be dealing with this problem for some time to come.
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(News report from Issue No. 172, published on Feb. 19 2014)
FEB. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament ratified a deal to split control of the Kumtor gold mine 50:50 with Canadian miner Centerra Gold. The deal is vital to Kyrgyzstan as Kumtor is its single biggest economic asset. Protests over the ownership have forced Centerra Gold to cede increasingly large stakes in the mine to Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The second floor of a madrasah in southern Kyrgyzstan collapsed during a memorial service for a local imam injuring 49 people, local media reported. The accident highlights some of the poor building construction in rural Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Delegations from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan continued their discussions on how best to delineate their troublesome border. This was the second Uzbek-Kyrgyz border meeting in January. Last year tension flared between the two sides around a disputed border area.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz security forces killed 11 armed men who crossed its north-eastern border with China, media reported. Bandits and smugglers are relatively common along this border. The Kyrgyz authorities initially said the group was made up of ethnic Uyghurs who were looking to smuggle arms back into China.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report accusing police in Kyrgyzstan of deliberately extorting bribes from gay men. The HRW report accused the police of detaining, beating and raping homosexuals. The Kyrgyz authorities denied the allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)