Tag Archives: politics

Cracking situation in Georgian prisons effects elections

SEP. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliamentary election on Oct. 1 was always going to be a close run affair. The United Movement Party, the party of President Mikheil Saakashvili, has found its most dogged and well-funded opponent yet in the Georgian Dream, the party of the country’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Now, though, after the broadcasting of a leaked video from inside a prison showing guards raping inmates with truncheons, it’s become even more fraught.

Hundreds of people poured out onto the streets of Tbilisi to protest against the videos shortly after they were aired on Sept. 18. A junior cabinet minister resigned immediately and then, a couple of days later the interior minister, Bacho Akhalaia, also quit.

The damage may have already been done, though. It’s not clear yet what impact the video will have on voters’ intention but it does feed into the feeling, shared by many Georgians, that not far below the glossy surface lies a more unsightly side of the current government.

The video, broadcast by two pro-opposition TV channels and apparently timed to have maximum impact on the election, may have had its desired effect.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)

Tajik President visits Khorog

SEP. 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon visited the town of Khorog in the south of the country for the first time since fighting between government forces and rebels in July killed dozens of people. He blamed rebels for triggering the fighting by killing a senior intelligence officer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)

Tajiks protest over market fire

SEP. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a rare outpouring of public anger, hundreds of people in Dushanbe protested against the slow official response to a fire that had burnt through a large market a day earlier. The crowd marched towards the centre of the city and only broke up after meeting Dushanbe’s mayor.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)

Kyrgyzstan creates new coaltion

SEP. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz parliamentarians patched together a new coalition, quashing fears of instability after the Ar-Namys and Ata-Meken parties quit government nine days earlier. The Social Democratic party’s Jantoro Satibaldiyev, a former chief of the presidential staff, is the new PM. Ar-Namys and Ata-Meken are part of the 3-party coalition.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)

Military leaves Tajik city

AUG. 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Government forces began leaving Khorog, southeast Tajikistan, one month after they moved into the town, media reported. The military started to pack up after hundreds of people protested at their presence. Soldiers had moved into Khorog in July to capture a rebel commander accused of killing a security officer.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)

Kyrgyz President asks for coalition

AUG. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev asked his political party, the Social Democrats, to try to form a new governing coalition in parliament after the collapse last week of a four-party group over corruption allegations, media reported. The Social Democrats have 15 days to form a government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)

Violence rises in Tajikistan

AUG. 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Soldiers in the town of Khorog, south-east Tajikistan, opened fire on a crowd demonstrating against the murder of a local opposition commander, lightly injuring several people, media reported. The shooting raises tension in the region a few weeks after government soldiers and rebel forces fought a battle that killed around 50 people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)

Turkmenistan introduces political party

AUG. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan introduced a second political party for the first time in its 21-year post-Soviet history. The Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan is likely to officially end the one-party state after parliamentary elections in 2013. In reality, though, it will not be a genuine opposition party.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)

Tajik court jails drug officials

AUG. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Dushanbe sentenced Ravshanbek Mirzoakhmadov, a senior Tajik anti-drug smuggling official, to 18 years in jail for drug smuggling, media reported. The sentence highlights just how invasive drug smuggling has become through Tajikistan’s bureaucracy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)

Georgia’s richest man to run for PM

AUG. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, officially declared himself the PM candidate for the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, at parliamentary elections on Oct. 1, media reported. The day before president Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing United National Movement party, said current PM, Vano Merabishvili, would be its PM candidate.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)