JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A draft report by the World Bank appears to give a green light for Tajikistan to build its controversial Rogun dam which Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon hopes will provide much need electricity. Human rights workers have said that the giant dam will force 42,000 people from their homes.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has tightened entry rules for Tajik migrants, media reported, threatening a major source of Tajikistan’s income. Tajik citizens will now only be allowed to enter Russia on their official passport and not ID cards. Remittances from Russia make up 50% of Tajikistan’s GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and Pakistan have agreed on a price for electricity, a diplomatic source told Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper, clearing a major obstacle for the CASA-1000 project. CASA envisages Tajikistan supplying Pakistan with electricity. Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif visited Dushanbe earlier this month.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik officials arrested Alexander Sodiqov, a 31-year old Tajik academic affiliated to the University of Toronto in Canada, and accused him of spying.
Mr Sodiqov was carrying out research in the Tajikistan’s restive Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) when Tajik security agents detained him.
Tajik officials are traditionally jittery about anyone asking awkward questions in GBAO, where Dushanbe’s authority is weak. Badakhshanis fought against government forces during a five-year civil war in the mid-1990s that President Emomali Rakhmon, eventually won.
Ever since, though, peace has been fragile. In July 2012, around 50 people died in fighting when the authorities tried to arrest a local chief who they accused of drug trafficking. Earlier this year more violence killed three people in Khorog, the regional capital and the scene of Mr Sodiqov.
Human rights groups and the British and Canadian governments have all said they are concerned about Mr Sodiqov’s well-being.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – US defence spending in Central Asia — and in particular in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — has been slashed by more than 90%, media reported quoting figures released by the Pentagon. The US is withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan and winding down operations in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan have blocked access to both YouTube and Facebook, betraying their fear of the web.
With Tajikistan’s major internet providers offering inconsistent explanations for the connection breakdown, many people reached the conclusion that the state’s communications service is behind the block.
It’s a tactic they have used previously.
Tajikistan blocked YouTube when violence broke out in the eastern province of Gorno-Badakshan in 2012, and again last year when a clip of President Emomali Rakhmon singing drunk at his son’s wedding went viral.
Umrana, 23, a Tajik blogger now living in Bishkek said that despite internet penetration of less than 10% in Tajikistan, its appeal to the aspirational middle class is what worries the government most.
“There is a legend that an Austria-Hungarian Emperor wouldn’t allow construction of railroads because he thought it would transport the French revolution. Our emperors are the same,” he said. “When they think of YouTube, they think of movement, unrest, threats.”
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of migrants entering Russia for work has fallen by 20% this year because of strict new rules, Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, said. This is important to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan whose economies rely most heavily on remittances from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Dushanbe arrested 505 women for prostitution, AFP reported, a move that highlighted Tajikistan’s illegal sex industry. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported a 25% increase in women working as prostitutes this year. Most of these women, RFE/RL said, were driven to prostitution by poverty.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif flew to Tajikistan for a two day trip that is seen as vital in pushing through joint energy projects. One proposal is the CASA-1000 project which would allow Pakistan to import electricity from Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – YouTube is partly inaccessible in Tajikistan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Asomuddin Atoev, chairman of Tajikistan’s Association of Internet Service Providers, told RFE/RL that some of the country’s internet providers had blocked YouTube. The Tajik authorities have previously blocked websites.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)