Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Mirziyoyev orders closure of “torture” prison

Aug. 5 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered the closure of a notorious prison in an isolated part of the Karakalpakstan region which had become synonymous with torture under his predecessor, Islam Karimov. The jail, which was freezing in winter and boiling in summer, had earned the nickname ‘The House of Horror’. Pres. Mirziyoyev has been trying to improve Uzbekistan’s reputation since he took over from Karimov in 2016.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin

Kazakhstan halts roll out of internet ‘snooping’ software

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Aug. 7 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan halted the roll-out of an internet programme that had been heavily criticised as a surveillance system. After several international free speech and human rights organisations had complained that Kazakh telecoms companies were forcing users to install snooping software onto their browsers, Kazakhstan’s State Security Committee said that the rollout had been a test and was never meant to be comprehensive.
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— This story was first published in issue 418 of the weekly Bulletin

COMMENT — Kazakhstan and Georgia have a long way to go on human rights

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> Kazakhstan and Georgia need to treat the disadvantaged with more respect to truly develop, writes James Kilner

The Human Rights Watch report on how state-run institutions treat physically and mentally disabled children in their care makes for particularly grim reading.

It cites children, the loud and less obedient ones, as saying that they are often chained to their beds and drugged into a dreamless sleep that can last 24 hours. They are beaten; made to feel like unwanted prisoners, rather than disabled children. When they reach adulthood, they transfer to an adult version of their children’s institution, thus ensuring a life sentence.

There is often no escape.

The report also pointedly says that of the 2,000 disabled children in the 19 state-run institutions, most are not orphaned. Reading between the lines, it is easier for the Kazakh government to take these children out of society than deal with them in a more humane way.

And this is the real shame in it all. A society that can’t treat the disadvantaged with respect will always be held back. This goes for the poor too.

Last week a 16-year-old boy in Tbilisi fell down a liftshaft on the construction site that he was working on. He had been working on the 14th-floor of the building.

Media said that the boy had come from a poor background and that he had spent much of his early teenage years working jobs to support his mother in his town in regional Georgia. The construction job that killed him was just an extension of this way-of-life.

According to Georgian law, the boy was legally allowed to work aged 16 but he wasn’t allowed do hard manual labour until he was 18-years-old.

The dead boy has also become a statistic, one of several construction workers to die in Tbilisi this year. The Georgian government has allowed poor migrants from the regions to risk their lives on poorly regulated construction sites in Tbilisi for too long.

Both Kazakhstan and Georgia have aspirations to be taken seriously as developed countries but it is not enough to build glitzy airports, five-star hotels and successful sports teams. The true test of a country’s development is how they treat their least advantaged. By this measure, both Kazakhstan and Georgia must try harder.
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Kcell accused of spying on internet users

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ALMATY/July 22 (The Bulletin) — Free speech groups accused Kazakh telecoms provider Kcell of trying to strong-arm its customers into installing a piece of spyware that will allow the authorities to snoop on their internet activity.

Kcell responded by saying that the software was not mandatory and that it was designed to protect the end user rather than spy on them.

Internet users in Kazakhstan, though, have said that when they avoided installing the software they

have been redirected to webpages telling them that the internet will be limited without the extra Kcell software.

Advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in New York, Courtney Radsch, said: “Authorities in Kazakhstan have a long history of jailing, censoring, and harassing journalists, and this effort to protect citizens from ‘dangerous content’ should be viewed with the utmost scepticism.”
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Another construction workers dies in Tbilisi

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TBILISI/July 16 (The Bulletin) — Another worker in Tbilisi died on a construction site, at least the 13th construction worker to die in Georgia this year.

Reports said that 16-year-old George Beshkenadze fell down the liftshaft of a 14-storey construction building that he had been working on in central Tbilisi.

Campaigners have said that safety measures on Georgian construction sites are notoriously slack. At least six construction workers in Tbilisi have already died this year on sites and in January, seven men were killed in their sleep at the apartment they shared in central Tbilisi by a carbon monoxide leak.

The authorities have said that they will also investigate how the company managing the site where Beshkenadze died was able to hire a teenager.
The law doesn’t ban companies from hiring 16-year-olds, but they are not allowed to do hard manual job
until they are 18.
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— This story was first published in issue 417 of the weekly Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Kazakh court acquits woman of call for revolution

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ALMATY/Feb. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in west Kazakhstan surprised observers by acquitting a woman of using social media to promote the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan opposition party.

The acquittal of 39-year-old Aigul Akberdiyeva came five months after her husband 45-year-old Ablovas Zhumaev was sent to prison for four years on similar charges. Human rights activists had highlighted both their cases as evidence of Kazakhstan’s lack of freedom and how the security services were monitoring Facebook and other sites for anti-government comments.

It is rare in Kazakhstan for an accused person to be acquitted of their alleged crimes by a judge. The sentencing of her husband on similar charges makes it even more remarkable that Ms Akberdiyeva was allowed to walk away from the court a free woman.

The Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan is the party of opposition fugitive leader Mukhtar Ablyazov.

During her trial, Ms Akberdiyeva, a mother of four, said that she thought the social situation in Kazakhstan was dire and that she did not support the government. She argued, though, that she had not called for the overthrow of the government and that instead all she had done was express her opinion through Facebook.

And there were other signs this week that other ordinary Kazakhs agreed with Ms Akberdiyeva’s assessment of the economy in Kazakhstan and the quality of life for ordinary people. Media reported that several protests, rare in Kazakhstan, had broken out in cities across the country against the government’s attitude towards working parents after five young girls died in a house fire in Astana on Feb. 4 while both their parents were away working nightshifts.

Dozens of people attended the girls’ funerals the following day and on Feb. 6 hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Astana to demand the resignation of labour and social protection minister Madina Abylqasymova.

They also want more benefits for working mothers and were frustrated that no national day of mourning was called.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Tajik court jails policeman for torture

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FEB. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan jailed a policeman for 13 years for a series of crimes, including torture, in a rare case that highlights corruption and abuse of power in the security forces in Central Asia. AFP reported that a closed court in the northern city of Khujand jailed Shukhrat Shamsiddinov at the end of January for torturing and extorting money from Komil Khodjanazarov, detained in 2017 for belonging to a banned group. Khodjanazarov was released from detention but killed himself when he was summoned to return to the police station for questioning. Human rights activists say torture is rife in Tajik prisons.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Uzbekistan lifts an on studying political science

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JAN. 31 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has lifted the ban on studying political science at university, Reuters reported, another indicator of how the country has opened up under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The Reuters report said universities had dropped political science in 2013 as it was deemed to be promoting theories counter to then-President Islam Karimov’s “Uzbek model”.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Human rights groups say forced labour still exists in Uzbekistan

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FEB. 7 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two human rights groups said that forced labour in Uzbekistan was still a major problem despite assurances by the government that it had been eradicated in its cotton industry. Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Solidarity Center said in a report based on 260 interviews that teachers and other public sector workers were still expected to clean streets, plant trees and harvest wheat.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019

Woman charged over anti-China demonstrations

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JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kyrgyz woman has become the first person to be charged with a crime linked to anti-Chinese demonstrations that have grown in size in Bishkek over the past month. Radio Free Europe reported that Guljamila Saparalieva had been charged with inciting racial hatred. She was one of a dozen protesters who had gathered in Bishkek on Jan. 17 to protest against the growing number of Chinese migrants working in the country and also about China’s anti-Muslim policies in its northwest region. China is a key economic partner for Kyrgyzstan.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019