Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Tajikistan acting as route for Turkey to send Uighurs to China -media

DUSHANBE/JULY 26 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan is acting as a secret channel for Turkey to deport Uighurs to China where they are interned in so-called re-education camps, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The newspaper quoted lawyers in Turkey and family members of deported Uighurs who said that China was making hundreds of demands on Turkish authorities to deport Uighurs and that they were now using third countries, such as Tajikistan, to deport them.

The Telegraph documented how 59-year-old Uighur widow Aimuzi Kuwanhan, who had fled China for Turkey, had disappeared suddenly.

“A lawyer hired by her family subsequently discovered that she had been extradited to Tajikistan, despite having never lived there or having held Tajik citizenship. Sources who knew Kuwanhan say from there she was sent to China,” the Telegraph reported.

Turkey has denied the reports and Tajikistan has not commented but there has been an increase in the number of media and online reports from Istanbul of Turkish police and authorities detaining known Uighur activists this year.

Turkey, like Tajikistan’s neighbours — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan — has a sizeable ethnic Uighur population and it would have been politically impossible to deport them directly to China. Tajikistan, though, has close connections with China but no ethnic Uighur population. The plight of the Uighurs, and other Muslim minorities, in China’s Xinjiang province is not a major discussion point in Tajikistan.

This means that while Turkey has a policy of not sending Uighurs back to China, under pressure from various bilateral agreements that it has signed with Beijing, it could send them to Tajikistan. The authorities there would be able to send them on to China.

Over the past decade, Tajikistan has developed close relations with China relying on cheap loans from Beijing to upgrade its Soviet-era infrastructure and give its towns and cities facelifts. These loans have come with major political influence too and Tajikistan can now be relied upon by China to act as a loyal ally.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Feted Kyrgyz human rights activist dies in prison

Leave a Reply

BISHKEK/JULY 25 (The Bulletin) — Azimzhan Askarov, one of Kyrgyzstan’s most high-profile prisoners, died in his cell aged 69.

The death of Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek human rights activist considered by the West to be a political prisoner but by most Kyrgyz to be a troublemaker, will damage Kyrgyzstan’s already battered reputation for minority rights.

Announcing Askarov’s death, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Kyrgyz authorities had wanted him to die.

“They had every opportunity to end his wrongful imprisonment, but each time they flouted their obligations,” said Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at HRW. “They intended for him to die in prison, and so he has.”

The US and Western human rights groups had been calling on Kyrgyzstan to release Askarov from prison on humanitarian grounds. He had been ill for several years and had been given only a few months to live earlier this year.

But the Kyrgyz Supreme Court said that Askarov was a dangerous agitator who helped to whip up inter-ethnic tension in 2010 that led to fighting around Osh and Jala-Abad that killed several hundred people. He was imprisoned in 2010 for murdering an ethnic Kyrgyz policeman during the violence after a trial that human rights activists said was riddled with violations. They also said that Askarov had been tortured in prison.

In 2016, the UN asked Kyrgyzstan to release Askarov and re-run his trial and the US gave Askarov a prestigious human rights prize.

A Bulletin correspondent based in Jala-Abad, south Kyrgyzstan, said that while the death of Askarov had sparked some interest, there had been no protests. Most Kyrgyz agree that he was a troublemaker and ethnic Uzbeks don’t want to rock fragile ethnic relations.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakh court imprisons activist for insulting ruling party

Leave a Reply

JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — A court in Almaty sentenced an opposition activist to “three years of limited freedom” for insulting the governing Nur Otan party. Alnur Ilyashev’s crime was to describe on various Facebook posts Nur Otan as a bunch of “crooks and thieves”. The judge declined to give him the prison sentence that government prosecutors had asked for but he will have to serve 300 hours of community service and is banned from political activity for five years.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgian MPs to vote on improving workers’ rights

Leave a Reply

TBILISI/JUNE 21 (The Bulletin) — A draft bill set to be debated this week by MPs in Georgia gives the country the chance to set an example on how to improve workers’ rights across the region, activists said.

They said that if Georgia wanted to be taken seriously as an aspirant member of the European Union it had to improve safety and rights for workers.

In a statement, Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that a lack of oversight was putting thousands of workers at risk. “Parliament should do the right thing and adopt reforms urgently needed to stop abusive practices and improve workers’ health and safety,” she said.

Over the past few years, a few dozen people working on construction sites in Tbilisi have been killed. Dereguatation and a “profit first” approach to a construction boom triggered by an economic boom and a sharp rise in tourist numbers is putting lives at risk, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its statement.

Across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, deaths are reported on construction sites in most major cities. Labour unions are too weak to take on big business which is generally owned by powerful members of the elite who are linked closely with senior politicians.

In Georgia, HRW said that miners were working dangerous shifts lasting 12 hours for 15 days in a row and construction workers were having to cope with little or no safety protections.

“Years of deregulation have left Georgian workers without adequate protections,” HRW said.

Georgia is the most Western-looking of the states in former Soviet Central Asia and the South Caucasus. It sees its future as a member of the EU and of NATO.

Debating potential reform to the labour laws last year, Dmitri Tskhitishvil, chair of the Georgian Parliament’s labour code commission, referenced obligations under a Georgia-EU Association Agreement, signed in 2016.

“Much remains to be done,” he said. “There are still gross violations of workers’ rights and occupational hazards in different industries.”

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyz MPs debate increased punishments for domestic abuse

Leave a Reply

JUNE 19 (The Bulletin) — MPs in Kyrgyzstan debated increasing fines for domestic abuse after a video went viral of a woman standing with her hands tied behind her back as her husband poured cold water over her head and slapped her. Activists have said that Kyrgyzstan, a notoriously macho society, is too soft on domestic abuse. Reports said that police have arrested the man in the video.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Russia plot to kill journalist was foiled, says Georgian security services

Leave a Reply

JUNE 16 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s security services said that it had foiled a Russia-backed plot to assassinate a Georgian journalist who mimicked Russian President Vladimir Putin last year. The journalist, Nika Gvamaria, swore on TV when referencing Mr Putin last year, a tirade that the authorities said encouraged violent anti-Russia protests.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyz president sacks deputy PM and health minister over coronavirus response

Leave a Reply

APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — At least two people have now died with COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz health workers said. They both died in a hospital in Nookat in the south of the country, the epicentre of the outbreak in Kyrgyzstan. Officials have said that pilgrims returning from the Hajj in Mecca to their homes in and around Osh and Jala-Abad spread the coronavirus.

Looking to deflect criticism pf the government’s response to the spread of the coronavirus, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov sacked health minister Kosmosbek Cholponbayev and deputy PM Altynai Omurbekova (April 1). He said that they had been too slow to identify the source of the virus in the country and said that their work was “unsatisfactory”.

The state-of-emergency forced a court in Bishkek to postpone the trial of former president Almazbek Atambayev and 13 other defendants who are charged with inciting deadly clashes with the security forces in August 2019 (March 30).

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Radio Free Europe chiefs says Tajik officials hinder reporting on the coronavirus

Leave a Reply

APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan has not reported any cases of the coronavirus. It has closed its borders but there are no restrictions within the country on people’s movement. The Tajik football season is one of only four in the world — the others being Belarus, Nicaragua and Burundi — that are continuing to play league matches.

The head of the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news service, Jamie Fly, said that Tajik officials were deliberately obstructing the efforts of his journalists to report on the coronavirus.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijan frees journalist who says he was abducted from Tbilisi

Leave a Reply

MARCH 27 (The Bulletin) — Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist freed from prison in Baku last month, once again accused the Georgian government of colluding with Azerbaijan’s government over his abduction from Tbilisi and subsequent arrest in 2017. “If they admit that I really was kidnapped in Georgia and handed over to the Azerbaijani authorities illegally, that could result in the resignation of the Georgian government,” he told the GlobalVoices website. Mr Mukhtarli was jailed for crossing a border illegally, charges he said were actually linked to his critical journalism. He has fled to Tbilisi from Baku in 2014.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

New law in Kazakhstan will restrict protest rights, says HRW

Leave a Reply

MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s parliament passed the first vote of a new law that human rights activists said would restrict people’s rights to protest (March 26). “The bill still gives the authorities power to approve or reject requests to hold events depending on their form,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Government officials can propose alternative locations, times, and dates. If the organisers do not consent to the change, the event will be cancelled.” HRW also said, though, that parliament had voted against increased restrictions against journalists covering public meetings and protests.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin