Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Ex-ILO official accuses WB of wilful ignorance on Uzbek forced labour

TASHKENT, JULY 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a letter to the FT, Elaine Fultz, a former director for the Central Asia office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), accused the World Bank of turning a blind eye to forced labour at its projects in Uzbekistan.

She was writing after the World Bank refuted a report last month from Human Rights Watch that forced labour was being used on its projects. The World Bank rejected the accusations and said that the ILO had investigated forced labour accusations in 2016 and concluded that the practice had been stopped.

But Ms Fultz, head of the ILO’s Central Asia office from May 2007 until January 2009 and now a consultant at US-based JMF Research Associates, said that the ILO team that toured Uzbekistan had been too small, too inexperienced and also been accompanied by a group of trade union officials who acted as government minders.

“Under these conditions, the ILO’s failure to detect forced labour in World Bank project areas is hardly surprising,” she wrote. “So why did the World Bank commission the ILO to report on the state of forced labour in Uzbekistan? We must conclude that it did so because it knew precisely what sort of report it would get.”

The issue of forced labour has haunted the Uzbek cotton sector. Over the past seven years Western companies have boycotted garments made from Uzbek cotton because of its association with forced labour.

In its report of June 27, HRW said that the World Bank invested over $500m into Uzbek agriculture in 2015/16 and that it would be impossible for its projects not to be tainted by forced labour.

A World Bank spokesperson told media that it condoned any use of forced labour in Uzbekistan.

“We continue to voice our strong concerns on labour issues to the government of Uzbekistan and we have been working with the International Labour Organisation to put in place a robust monitoring programme,” she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Georgia court paves way to deport ‘Gulenist’ teacher

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TBILISI, JULY 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in the Georgian capital rejected an asylum application by detained Turkish school manager Mustafa Cabuk, paving the way for his extradition to Turkey where he is he is accused of supporting terrorism and being a member of the banned Gulen organisation.

The case has been controversial because it has appeared to confirm that Georgia has bowed to pressure from Turkey to detain and extradite Turks linked to the Gulen movement. Turkish President Recep Erdogan has accused exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers of organising a failed coup last year.

Turkey has been pressuring allies in the South Caucasus and Central Asia to hand over businessmen and education officials linked to Gulen but until recently only Azerbaijan, its arch-ally, and Turkmenistan have acquiesced.

Georgia, though, has been trying to boost relations with Turkey and Mr Cabuk’s supporters have said that he is just a pawn in a bigger geopolitical game and that he faces being tortured if he is sent back to Turkey where thousands of Gulenists have been arrested. Georgia has also revoked the licence of a school in Batumi linked to the Gulen network and detained a Turkish businessman.

To the frustration of his supporters, the court ruled Mr Cabuk didn’t meet the requirements needed to be given political asylum and that his life would not be in danger in Turkey.

Cabuk was detained in May. He has worked in Georgia since 2002. His most recent job was as a manager for Demirel College in Tbilisi.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

HRW may return to Uzbekistan

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TASHKENT, JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Taking its era of openness to new heights, the Uzbek government said it may allow Human Rights Watch to re-open its office in Tashkent, six years after it was effectively expelled.

The BBC has also posted an advert for an Uzbek language journalist to be based in Tashkent, suggesting that it too was also preparing the ground for a return to Uzbekistan.

In comments reported by official media, Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said: “Our cooperation with Human Rights Watch underwent something of a pause, some time in 2010. But this does not mean that we have definitively suspended relations or that we do not want to cooperate.”

The human rights lobby was told to leave Uzbekistan in 2011. The BBC and other media had been thrown out of the country six years earlier after reporting on the deaths of hundreds of people in the town of Adijan after government soldiers opened fire.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has looked to open up the country since taking over as president in September 2016, promising to give ordinary Uzbeks more freedom.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kyrgyz court fines website $400k for insulting Atamayev

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BISHKEK, JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in the Kyrgyz capital ordered ProMedia which runs Zanoza, one of the most lively and well-respected news websites in the country, to pay President Almazbek Atamayev damages of $400,000 for offending his dignity in a case that has raised questions over Kyrgyzstan’s commitment to free speech.

Immediately after the verdict, one of the co-founders of Zanoza, Dina Maslova, said that the media outlet simply couldn’t pay the fine and that, unless an appeal court overturned the verdict, it would have to close down.

“We criticise the president if it is needed because this is our work,” she said. “This is an irritation for the political authorities just before a presidential election. But we are going to appeal the decision. This case mostly harms the reputation of the judicial system and image of the country.”

The other co-founder of ProMedia and Zanoza is Naryn Idinov. He is under a travel ban linked to the defamation charges.

The charges trace back to a series of articles published by Zanoza and the local language service of the US- funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 2015 and 2017 which quoted opposition activists describing Pres. Atambayev as corrupt and describing his lavish lifestyle.

The charges against Radio Free Europe were dropped after the head of the service, Tom Kent, flew in for talks with Mr Atambayev. In exchange for dropping the charges, Mr Kent replaced the head of the local language service.

This option wasn’t available to Zanoza. Still, Ms Maslova, the co- founder, was defiant and said that if Zanoza was forced to close, they would simply open up another website under another brand.

For Kyrgyzstan, the damage to its image as the most liberal of the five Central Asian states was instant. Free speech campaigners said that they had been warning of a gradual erosion of rights for the past couple of years.

And ordinary people on the streets of Bishkek were also concerned about the implications.

“Other media agencies may be intimidated by such large fines and will strengthen their (self) censorship. The reader will be limited in his or her choice and will not trust the media, especially when they talk about the President,” said Begaiym Adzhikeeva, a Bishkek resident.

Some analysts have linked the defamation case against Zanoza to a presidential election scheduled for October.

Mr Atambayev is stepping down after a single term in office, as stipulated by the constitution, but his preferred successor is facing an increasingly acrimonious contest.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Georgian prosecutors ask for access to abducted reporter

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JUNE 26 2017 (The Bulletin) — Georgian prosecutors have opened a case described as “unlawful imprisonment” over the abduction of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli from Tbilisi in May, media reported. It reported that investigators have asked Azerbaijan for access to Mr Mukhtarli who has resurfaced in Azerbaijani custody. Azerbaijani prosecutors have charged Mr Mukhtarli with crossing the border into Georgia illegally.

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(News report from Issue No. 335, published on July 3 2017)

Uzbek rights activist dies

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JUNE 22 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbek human rights activist Nuraddin Jumaniyazov has died in prison of tuberculosis, the New York based Human Rights Watch reported by quoting his wife. Jumaniyazov had been arrested in 2014 for human trafficking, charges that his supporters said were politically motivated. Access to Jumaniyazov was limited and his wife said that he died at the end of 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Thin-skinned Kazakh officials dislike EXPO criticism

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JUNE 20 2017 (The Bulletin) — Often accused of being thin-skinned, Kazakhstan reacted with fury at an article published by the Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine which said the EXPO
2017 site was boring and had no visitors. Kazakh officials claimed that Foreign Policy journalist James Palmer had never even visited the site before he wrote the story. They then also blocked the Foreign Policy website.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Comment: Ignore the corporate feel, EXPO-2017 is worth a visit

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — After a build-up lasting five years, Kazakhstan has finally opened EXPO- 2017. If you’re in Astana between now and mid-September when it closes, you should go. It feels excessively corporate and you’ll probably come out of the EXPO-2017 site none-the-wiser on what exactly its Orwellian-tinged ‘Future Energy’ means, but don’t dwell on this — it’s not the real point of the exposition.

EXPO-2017 is a source of national pride and a must-do event for most ordinary Kazakhs this summer, at least for the ones who live in and around Astana. And this pride and sense of fun is evident throughout EXPO-2017. The dozens and dozens of uniformed guides are courteous, speak excellent English and are genuinely helpful. The student volunteers beam with joy and are relishing the internationalism of the whole event.

As for the visitors, when I was there it must have been 95% Kazakh. These were groups of families and friends touring the pavilion, drinking in each country’s take on EXPO- 2017. This ranges from Britain’s glowing yurt to Iran’s focus on promoting its carpets.

The visiting Kazakhs, armed with selfie sticks and aging smartphones, weren’t the super rich who travel effortlessly around the world, these were Kazakhs who may never have left Central Asia, or been on a solitary trip to Europe. EXPO-2017 feels as if it has returned the international exposition series to its original mid-19th century Victorian era roots of bringing the world to a particular city.

The human rights lobby draws visitors’ attention to Kazakhstan’s poor record for tolerating dissent and media freedom, and there have been widely documented corruption issues around EXPO-2017, but push this aside for now and enjoy the spectacle.

And make sure you don’t miss out on the Caribbean pavilion, the least scripted section. The women from Belize, Haiti and Dominica will tell you how they are coping with four months in Kazakhstan, a country they hadn’t heard of until earlier this year.

By James Kilner, Editor, Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Azerbaijan jails opposition activist

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JUNE 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced opposition activist Fuad Ahmadli to 16 years in prison for stealing people’s personal data when he worked at mobile phone operator Azerfon.

Ahmadli’s supporters have said that the allegations are fraudulent and part of a government crackdown against dissenters. Ahmadli was a activist for the main opposition group, the Popular Front Party.

European politicians have accused the Azerbaijan government of cracking down on opposition members and journalists. The Azerbaijani government has said that the EU is being naive and that it is rooting out people who are in favour of regime change.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kyrgyzstan should drop charges against journalist, says CPJ

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee should drop charges against Ferghana News journalist Ulughbek Babakulov that an article he wrote on a knife fight in May was designed to ignite racial hatred. Mr Babakulov has fled the country and has said that his reporting was based on Facebook posts of the fight in the south of the country between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks and that the security services were trying to cover up any suggestion of ethnic tension.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)