Tag Archives: society

Kerry heads to Kyrgyzstan at start of Central Asia tour

OCT. 27 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — US State Secretary, John Kerry, was due to fly to Kyrgyzstan on Oct. 31 for the start of his first tour of Central Asia, a stopover considered vital to repair relations with an ally that has drifted towards Russia over the past couple of years.

In Bishkek, Mr Kerry will hold bilateral discussions with senior Kyrgyz officials, including President Almazbek Atambayev, and open a new campus for the American University of Central Asia.

Top of Mr Kerry’s agenda will be the growing influence of Russia as well as a draft bill banning so-called gay propaganda and a law that bans local NGOs from foreign funding.

Marat Kazakpayev, a Bishkek analyst, said US investments and security would be discussed.

“They will discuss security in the region, including situation in Afghanistan and Syria, as well what to do to counter terrorism,” he said.

The US operated an airbase from the Manas airport outside Bishkek for 13 years until 2014 when it was wound down alongside military operations in Afghanistan.

For Mr Kerry and the US, this is an important trip to Central Asia.

It has ceded influence in the region to Russia and China. Russia has the historical, political and cultural links; China has the financial firepower.

In contrast, with the scaling down of military operations in Afghanistan, the US and the West have appeared to disengage with Central Asia. Mr Kerry’s main mission will be to re- assure the region’s leaders that the US is still interested in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Turkmenistan evicts for Games

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has forcibly evicted around 50,000 people from their homes in and around Ashgabat ahead of the 2017 Asian Indoors and Martial Arts Games, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report.

Researchers at Amnesty studied satellite images which they said showed evictions and demolitions between March 2014 and April 2015 in two Ashgabat neighbourhoods.

Ashgabat will host the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, a relatively minor Olympic event. It wants to impress visitors with a $2 Olympic Village and an extensive PR campaign on its readiness to open up to the world after decades of isolation.

Denis Krivosheev of Amnesty International said: “Instead of using the Games as an opportunity to clean up Turkmenistan’s human rights record, local authorities there have only succeeded in worsening living conditions for residents.”

Amnesty’s allegation, which the authorities have not refuted, will irritate the Turkmen government and further damage its image, just as it is trying to show the world a softer and more open side.

Analysis focused on Choganly and Shor, two so-called “dacha neighbourhoods” designated for holiday houses. More recently, though, Amnesty International said evictions were taking place in a suburb of Ashagbat too.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Georgia Healthcare Group sets price range for London IPO

OCT. 25 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia Healthcare Group set a price range for shares at its IPO in London later this year of between 215p and 315p, an IPO that will give investors a rare chance to buy into the South Caucasus region.

This share price range gives Georgia Healthcare Group, the largest healthcare provider in Georgia, a value of between £257m – £347m ($400m – $535m).

Georgia Healthcare Group wants to raise $100m in the IPO to give two hospitals it owns in Tbilisi a makeover.

With economic conditions across the region slowing, various planned IPOs for companies from Central Asia and the South Caucasus have been cancelled or postponed.

Georgia Healthcare Group owns 42 hospitals in Georgia, giving it a 27% share of the hospital beds in the country. It used to be part of Bank of Georgia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tajiistan rations electricity

OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s state-owned utility Barqi Tojik said it imposed seasonal rationing of electricity on rural areas on Oct. 18. Tajikistan wants to become a regional exporter of electricity but issues with its own power grid and growing consumption have curbed its ambitions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgians protest against Gazprom

OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tbilisi against a potential deal with Gazprom to supply gas to Georgia. The demonstration was a response to a meeting last month between the Georgian government and Gazprom. Georgia and Russia fought a war in 2008 and relations are still strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Kyrgyz prisoners escape

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police captured a group of criminals who escaped last week from a prison outside Bishkek. Five of the nine fugitives died, two in clashes with the police and three in custody. Families and human rights groups have asked for an investigation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Security colonel steals artwork in Uzbekistan

OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A former colonel in the Uzbek security services stole 32 pieces of art from the state museum in Tashkent, media reported. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has previously accused members of the security services of stealing artwork. She has been under house arrest since March last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Georgia’s court acquits 4 of anti-gay attack

OCT. 23 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi acquitted four men of organising a violent attack on a gay rights march in 2013 that injured 28 people, pitting Georgia’s pro-rights lobby against a strong traditionalist group.

The four men, including one priest who was photographed carrying a wooden stool at the 2013 march apparently as a weapon, were accused of being the ringleaders behind the homophobic attack in central Tbilisi.

Human rights groups have accused Georgia of homophobia in the past but traditional values hold sway – the Church is still very powerful and has spoken out strongly against gay rights, – and the court’s verdict will have resonated with many people.

One user on the kavpolit.com website said: “Gay parades are not for the Caucasus. Well done to the priests and the judges. Let them go to Western Europe.”

In 2014, a poll in Georgia found that only 24% of people thought that protecting gay rights was important.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Tajik baby dies in Russia

OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian authorities declined to take responsibility for the death of Umarali Nazarov, a five-month old Tajik boy who died in police custody in St. Petersburg nine days earlier. Nazarov had been separated from his parents who were also detained. Tajikistan has lodged an official complaint about Nazarov’s death.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Turkmen President presents 2016 budget

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov confirmed that the government will increase by 10% all salaries for state employees from next year.

In an official announcement in the state’s Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper, Mr Berdymukhamedov presented his budget for 2016.

“The State budget was drafted with consideration of the Decree on the President of Turkmenistan on a 10% increase in wages, pensions, state benefits and scholarships on January 1, 2016,” Neutral Turkmenistan reported.

Turkmenistan devalued its manat currency by 20% on Jan. 1 this year, hitting people’s real wages. Earlier this year Mr Berdymukhamedov said that he would go some way towards compensating people by raising government salaries but there had previously been no official confirmation of how or when this would happen.

And in a budget clearly designed to ward off a drop in economic growth linked to low energy prices, Mr Berdymukhamedov said he would fund the salary rise by selling off some state assets.

“The revenues of the State budget are to be replenished through the privatisation of state-run objects and enterprises and dwelling houses from the state housing stock and the distribution of the bonds of the state fund,” Neutral Turkmenistan said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)