DEC. 8 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian border guards opened their first new outpost in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia since agreeing in 2009 to guard Abkhazia’s borders, Russia’s ITAR-TASS news agency reported. Russian and Georgian soldiers fought in Abkhazia during a brief war in August 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 10 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Armenia would recognise the independence of Nagorno- Karabakh if Azerbaijan ever threatened to retake the disputed region with force. No country has recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state since it broke away from Azerbaijan with Armenia’s support after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 8 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan established a new government-run company to supply fuel to the US airbase outside Bishkek. An opaque firm
registered in Gibraltar with links to the son of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had previous controlled lucrative contracts to supply fuel to the base, which is vital to NATO operations in Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)
DEC. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia will help equip and train Tajik special forces to hunt down Islamist militants they have been fighting for two months in the east of the country, Russian interior minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said after meeting Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon. News agencies quoted Tajik officials saying that on Dec. 1, three security officers died in a clash with rebels.
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(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)
DEC. 1 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the
United States delegation to the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan and then visited Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan before heading off to Bahrain. In Tashkent, Ms Clinton said Uzbekistan needed to improve its human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)
NOV. 24 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh sentenced 17 ethnic Uzbeks to life in prison and two more to 25 years for the murder of 16 Kyrgyz during rioting in June. About 370 mainly ethnic Uzbeks died in the ethnic violence. Human rights groups have said Uzbeks are being blamed unfairly for the violence.
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(News report from Issue No. 17, published on Nov. 29 2010)
NOV. 28 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A confidential cable written by the US ambassador in Bishkek in Feb. 2009 to her bosses in Washington quoted Kyrgyz officials saying that China had offered Kyrgyzstan $3b to close down the US airbase outside Bishkek. The cable was one of 291 published so far by WikiLeaks.
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(News report from Issue No. 17, published on Nov. 29 2010)
NOV. 25 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – The heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member states met in Dushanbe to discuss increasing humanitarian and economic cooperation. They were candid about the results other than to say they had agreed to boost regional aid. Founded in 2001, the SCO consists of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran hold observer status and attended the meeting.
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NOV. 29 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – WikiLeaks has released 291 out of a promised 251,287 US diplomatic cables.
Of those 291 documents, five originated from Astana, two from Bishkek and four from Ashgabat. Perhaps the most inflammatory revelation is the Feb. 2009 cable from the US ambassador in Bishkek who confronted the Chinese ambassador over Kyrgyz claims that China had offered them $3b to close the US airbase outside Bishkek.
The base is vital for resupplying NATO forces in Afghanistan. According to the leaked cable, the Chinese Ambassador’s denial was unconvincing.
A cable from Jan. 2010 documented a lunch between the U.S. ambassador in Astana and the vice president of Kazmunaigas, Maksat Idenov, who named the men he thought were closest to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
They were Chief of the president’s staff Aslan Musin, the Chief of administration of the president’s office Sarybai Kalmurzayev, foreign minister Kanat Saudabayev, PM Karim Masimov and Mr Nazarbayev’s son-in-law Timur Kulibayev.
A cable from Kazakhstan in April 2009 written by the US ambassador on Kazakh officials said: “they’re stealing directly from the public trough”, another cable detailed the elite’s drinking habits and another cable described a fractious meeting between executives from Chevron and Kazmunaigas.
One cable also gave a detailed account of a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Astana and his views on Central Asia, China’s energy policy in the region and his description of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili as “not a mature statesman”.
From Ashgabat, a cable described an arms find at the border with Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 17, published on Nov. 29 2010)
NOV. 18 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and the US finished decommissioning a nuclear reactor in eastern Kazakhstan and securing highly enriched uranium and plutonium capable of making 775 nuclear weapons. In Georgia, officials said they arrested four people carrying radioactive material which could have been used in a dirty bomb.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)