Tag Archives: security

11 policemen arrested in Georgia

FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — News reports from Georgia said 11 former and serving police men have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the 2006 murder of a man. A bomb killed the man’s father last month. The police are accused of a cover up and the case may rock the establishment. Georgia’s interior minister resigned last month.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

NATO plans training base in Georgia

>>Russia has warned Georgia about getting too close to NATO>>

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NATO plans to open training facility in Georgia by the end of the year, a move certain to irritate Russia which has previously warned the Georgian government not to get too close to the Western military alliance.

Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary-general, announced the opening of the base on a trip to Tbilisi.

For Georgia, the decision by NATO to open a training centre is a major diplomatic coup. It is desperate to join the alliance and has been a keen supporter of its mission in Afghanistan. Georgia still has soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

As for NATO, the move is more risky. It doesn’t want to antagonise Russia but it also needs to look strong.

Over Ukraine, Russia and NATO are already engaged in something of a proxy war. NATO accuses Russia of sending weapons and soldiers to help pro-Russian rebels fight the Ukrainian forces. It is also considering arming the Kiev government forces.

It’s not entirely clear what the NATO training centre in Georgia will look like or what it will actually do. Relations between Georgia and Russia have steadily been improving since a war in 2008.

During the war, Russia forces roamed parts of Georgia and occupied military bases. Placing a base, even a training centre, in Georgia will move NATO onto the frontline.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kyrgyz, not Tajiks, killed in Libya

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry confirmed that three Kyrgyz — a pilot and two flight attendants working for a private airline — died in an attack by masked gunmen on a hotel in Tripoli, Libya on Jan. 27. Initial reports from Libya mistook the Kyrgyz for Tajiks.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Russia ratifies alliance with Abakhazia

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian parliament ratified a new alliance with the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The deal will increase Russia’s military presence in the region. Georgia denounced the deal as aggressive. Russia also plans to sign a similar pact with South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway region.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Chechens living in Georgia feel marginalised

JAN. 28 2015, DUISI/Georgia (The Conway Bulletin) —- The Pankisi Gorge lies in Georgia in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. It has gained some infamy over the past decade as a redoubt for radical Islamists fighting Russia over the borther in Chechnya and Dagestan and also as the birthplace of Omar al-Shishani, also known as Omar the Chechen, who is a senior commander within the IS radical group.

Here the Muslim Kists, Georgia’s Chechens, represent a cultural oddity and a possible danger in a country already ridden by ethnic divisions and separatist movements.

Makvala Margoshvili sat in the shade of an arbour in her blooming garden. She slowly sipped her dark tea. This is her homeland. Makvala is the head of the Kist folk music ensemble Aznach, which means voice in English. Nazy, Makvala’s English-speaking niece, summed up the problems.

“For a Chechen is hard to be a Chechen without instilling fear in the others,” she said.

Within a wider Russophobic post-Soviet perspective, Georgia has always had a favourable attitude towards Chechen separatism in Russia. During two wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, a stream of refugees and fighters entered the country through its porous border with Russia’s North Caucasus bringing along so-called Arab friends and fundamentalist ideas.

Despite the relative harmony in the valley, the Pansiki Gorge’s reputation for rough and tumble remains. Poverty and segregation are a dangerous mix leading to radicalisation but in the Pansiki Gorge there has been little investment by the central government.

There is plenty of resentment directed towards the central government. Nazy said that people living in the Pansiki Gorge often felt marginalised.

“Even harder, however, is for the others to look at us for what we really are beyond the stereotypes of our troubled history,” she said.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Afghan president flies to Ashgabat

>>Regional links increasingly important>>

JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Afghan president Ashraf Ghani flew to Ashgabat for a two-day visit, an important trip focused on developing economic and transport links.

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are steadily improving their ties. They have plans to build a gas pipeline across the countries, connecting Turkmenistan with markets in Pakistan and India.

During the talks, media quoted Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as saying that business between the two sides reached $1b in 2014 and would double in 2015.

Turkmenistan, enriched by various energy deals, has become an beacon of wealth and stability in the region.

Turkmenistan, though, is increasingly concerned about the spread of Islamic militants north into Central Asia. It has placed its soldiers along the border with Afghanistan on high alert.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Kyrgyz police arrest IS fighters

JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The security forces in Osh, the largest city in south Kyrgyzstan, arrested six men they say had been trained at camps for fighters wanting to join the radical Islamic group IS in Syria. The authorities also uncovered a large cache of weapons with the men.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

US sends more military kit to Uzbekistan

>>US says that the vehicles are non-lethal>>

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US Defence Department started delivering to Uzbekistan 300 vehicles designed to withstand ambushes and mines, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, Daniel Rosenblum, told the Voice of America’s Uzbek language service.

This is controversial because it appears to go beyond a previous deal made between Washington and Tashkent which said that the United States would deliver non-lethal military equipment to Uzbekistan in exchange for help in withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan.

Ambush-resistant vehicles are, technically, non-lethal but these troop carriers can be mounted with machine-guns and are designed to be used during combat operations.

Uzbekistan has a dubious human rights record and activists have complained heavily about the US’ deal with Uzbekistan. Still, realpolitik meant that the US had to turn to Uzbekistan for help in extracting its kit from Afghanistan. Uzbekistan’s Soviet-era railway system is the quickest and safest way out of the country.

In the interview with Voice of America, Mr Rosenblum said Uzbekistan needed the vehicles to fight Islamic extremist groups and also for counter-narcotic operations.
“We consider them (the vehicles) to be non-lethal. They are intended to protect personnel, crews and passengers in areas that there might be explosive devices, mines, so on,” he said.

“Under those circumstances and for the purposes of counterterrorism and counter-narcotics, we thought that it was a legitimate request and decided to fulfil it.”
Technically Mr Rosenblum may be right. In reality, though, the line between so-called lethal and non-lethal equipment is becoming more blurred with this latest deal.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Tajiks killed in Libya hotel attack

JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Libya have said three Tajik nationals died in an attack by Islamic extremists on a luxury hotel in Tripoli. Altogether seven people and three attackers died during the raid. It’s unclear who the Tajik nationals were. The hotel was used by visiting business and political delegations.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Armenia and Azerbaijan row over N-K

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching a raid across its borders, another escalation of tension between the two neighbours over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The two sides disagreed on the number of casualties.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)