DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will release 92,000 prisoners, mainly the young and old, in one of its annual mass amnesties, media reported. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted a senior parliamentarian as saying the amnesty showed Uzbekistan was serious about reform. Reducing mass overcrowding in its prisons is a more likely trigger for the amnesty.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested Anar Mammadli, a relatively high-profile election monitor who had criticised the government, for tax evasion illegal entrepreneurship and falsifying vote results.
A government crackdown on dissidents has characterised the last few years in Azerbaijan and opposition leaders were quick to describe the arrest of Mr Mammadli as political.
They could also have described it as clunky.
A few days after police arrested Mr Mammadli, foreign dignitaries, including Britain foreign minister William Hague were in Baku to witness the final signing of a new investment project by a consortium of foreign energy companies led by Britain’s BP to develop the second phase of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea.
Human rights groups didn’t miss an opportunity to criticise Western countries for buying energy from Azerbaijan.
Mr Mamadli was head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center which receives funding from the US’ National Democratic Institution. His supporters said that the government has been trying to silence him for years.
The day before his arrest, the Azerbaijani authorities sanctioned a seemingly anti-government rally. It was attended by a few hundred people in a square on the outskirts of Baku. They demonstrated against rising prices and shouted support for pro-EU demonstrators in Kiev.
The authorities may have sanctioned the protest to show visiting foreign dignitaries that dissent has a voice in Azerbaijan. If that was their aim, the arrest of Mr Mammadli severely dents that perception.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps Uzbek President Islam Karimov plans to re-position himself as a defender of civil society. On Dec. 13 he signed a decree apparently aimed at promoting Uzbek non-government, non-profit organisations.
It’s, frankly, a curious agenda to push and the real reasons behind the drive to relax the burden on civil society are still to emerge. From Jan. 1 registration fees for local branches of NGO will be reduced.
It’s been hard for NGOs in Uzbekistan. They have routinely complained of inspections from tax officials which result in petty fines.
As for human rights groups, they’ve mainly been forced to leave. News agencies have been chased out too.
The list of problems that real NGOs and civil activists face in Uzbekistan is long, very long. This decree is likely to be window dressing. There is still a long way to go to strength civil society in Uzbekistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — UNESCO agreed to include Manas, the epic Kyrgyz national poem, on its cultural heritage list. The decision is a victory for Kyrgyzstan which sees the poem as a bedrock of its national identity. Streets are named after Manas which tells the story of 13 Kyrgyz tribes uniting to form one nation.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the end, despite, Iranian objection, Azerbaijan got its way. It can now celebrate a decision by UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, to decree the game of chovqan as originating in Azerbaijan, media reported.
Chovqan is similar to polo. Other examples of past-times and hobbies that UNESCO has given special national status to include Japanese Washoku cooking and Georgian wine making.
But Azerbaijan’s drive to have UNESCO infer special status on chovqan has upset its neighbour Iran which said the game was pan-regional. Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have become increasingly strained.
And there are people in Baku who also agree that Azerbaijan’s priorities in pushing for special UNESCO recognition of chovnaq is wrong.
Local media quoted Rahman Badalov, a Baku-based philosopher and art critic, as saying that this was “the latest example of the government misusing budget resources”.
Still, for Azerbaijan’s officials this is an important victory that helps to build its national heritage.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A growing inequality divide is fuelling an increase in polygamy in Kazakhstan, Bloomberg News reported. The Bloomberg story quoted an Almaty-based socialite as saying that it has become fashionable for wealthy Kazakhs to have more than one wife. Polygamy was popular in Kazakhstan before it became part of the Soviet Union.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of people using the internet in Uzbekistan has grown by 18% over the past year to around 7.1m people, media quoted Uzbek President Islam Karimov as saying. As a democratic tool, though, the internet is severely limited in Uzbekistan as the authorities heavily monitor users. The population of Uzbekistan is 30m.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in Osh, in the worst violence in the south of Kyrgyzstan since fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 2010. The protesters were angry at the arrest of a southern Kyrgyz MP for alleged corruption. Reports said the protesters briefly captured a government building.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Often dubbed reclusive and authoritarian, Turkmenistan took the rare step of inviting 80 foreign sports journalists to look around its new sports stadium built to host the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Turkmenistan’s main objective, however fanciful, is to host the Olympic Games, one day.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
DEC. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Labour Organisation (ILO) denied a report on the Uznews.net website which said it had not found evidence of child labour during its investigation of Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest. An ILO spokesperson said it was examining data and that it planned to issue a report in February.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)