Tag Archives: society

Georgia aims to improve its prisons

MARCH 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prisons in the former Soviet Union have a reputation for being notoriously tough places; human rights groups routinely criticise them for being over-crowded and Georgia had been no exception.

Statistics showed that Georgia had one of the highest prison populations in the world compared to the size of its population.

The Georgian authorities, though, had a solution and since January they have released nearly half the inmates in its prisons in a mass amnesty.

The amnesty reduced Georgia’s prison population to 11,107 from 19,349 in December, according to local media. These were mainly people convicted of robbery and crimes which didn’t involve violence.

But like many aspects of Georgian life, the amnesty was also politically highly charged.

Georgia’s politics is split between supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili and supporters of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili. Mr Saakashvili declined to sign off on the amnesty bill, forcing it back through parliament where enough of his MPs sided with his opponents to pass it.

Even with the prison amnesty it’s still unclear what’s more important, the humanitarian gesture or the politics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)

Tree planting begins in Turkmen desert

MARCH 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nearly 500,000 public sector employees in Turkmenistan picked up shovels and headed out to the desert to plant trees as part of their annual anti-desertification strategy. Turkmenistan has been pursuing an anti- desertification programme since the late-1990s.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 127, published on March 15 2013)

Government criticise Kazakh health system

FEB. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A government report in Kazakhstan criticised the country’s health system for not producing enough local doctors, allowing essential equipment to fall into disrepair and for ambulances often arriving late.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

Kazakh government report criticises health system

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

Uzbek hackers attack Kyrgyz government websites

FEB. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek hackers attacked the websites of various Kyrgyz government ministries and state-owned companies leaving the message “We’re against racism!”, media reported. Tension between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz has been growing in the south of the country since the beginning of the year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)

Political divide in Georgia worsens

FEB. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was forced to change the venue of his annual state-of-the-nation address after scuffles between his supporters and supporters of rival, PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, broke out in front of the national library. The political divide in Georgia appears to be worsening.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 124, published on Feb. 15 2013)

Cash ban complicates ordinary life in Uzbekistan

FEB. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Feb. 1, Uzbekistan banned buying foreign currencies with cash. Officially, the ban was imposed to stamp out Uzbekistan’s burgeoning black market. Unofficially it appears to be another form of control over ordinary people.

A black market for US dollars in Uzbekistan has been vibrant for years because of heavy currency controls imposed by the government. These controls made it far cheaper to buy US dollars under the counter at the back of a carpet shop than it did in a bank.

But reports from Tashkent already suggest that strategy of banning currency transactions in cash to quash the black market, if this was the real aim, may have backfired. Despite the crackdown US dollars are still being traded. According to Eurasianet, the effect of the currency restrictions was to limit supply of US dollars and push prices up by roughly 40%.

The restrictions on US dollars may also effect wider sales. US dollars are often used in Uzbekistan to buy cars or houses as using sum, the local currency, in a large cash purchase is practically impossible because of the piles of notes needed.

Uzbek officials will point out that if you have a bank account you can, electronically, still buy US dollars. The worth of this, in a cash based economy, is, though, highly questionable.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)

Azerbaijani capital protests in support for Ismayilli

JAN. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riot police in Baku detained roughly 40 people at a demonstration in support of protesters who had clashed with police two days earlier in the provincial town of Ismayilli, media reported. The authorities have poured in hundreds of reinforcements to quash the protesters in Ismayilli, roughly 200km north of Baku.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)

Azerbaijan’s police detains protesters

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)

Uzbek CBank bans dollars

JAN. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s Central Bank has banned the cash exchange of foreign currencies, mainly US dollars, from Feb. 1, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The Central Bank said it needed to ban the exchange of dollars to clamp down on Uzbekistan’s burgeoning black market. Dollars can still be bought electronically.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 122, published on Feb. 1 2013)