NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — US car maker GM will add production of the Chevrolet Gentra to its plant in Uzbekistan later this year, media reported. The plant is a major component of Uzbekistan’s car industry. Media also quoted a senior official at Uzavtosanoat, the state-linked car production company, saying the industry was now worth $3b a year.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a review of torture allegations, the UN Committee Against Torture said mistreatment of prisoners, illegal detentions, forced exile of human rights activists and the use of child labour were continuing in Uzbekistan. An Uzbek delegation said the allegations were politically motivated.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a reference to a power struggle in Uzbekistan, Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, accused Rustam Inoyatov, head of the national security service, of harbouring presidential aspirations. Ms Karimova has thinly veiled presidential aspirations herself.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Despite assurances to the contrary, media groups continued to publish reports which said there was a shortage of fuel in Uzbekistan. US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that the worst shortages were in the eastern Ferghana Valley.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting just how sensitive the Uzbek authorities are towards the Andijan killings of 2005, prosecutors charged Tashkent-based newspaper Novosti Uzbekistana with promoting terrorism after it published a photograph from the day. Rights groups say hundreds of people died in Andijan after police opened fire on anti-government demonstrators. The authorities say a military operation killed terrorists.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has a broad ranging resume. She has been a diplomat, a pop singer, a fashion designer and a business leader.
More recently, though, she appears to have taken on the role of social activist, an unlikely part for somebody at the centre of a money laundering scheme and whose father is accused of imprisoning his enemies.
Even so, Ms Karimova, an avid Twitter user has been handing out advice on a range of topics.
In one such Tweet, Ms Karimova accused the head of the much-feared National Security Service (NSS), that’s modern Uzbekistan’s version of the Soviet-era KGB, Rustam Inoyatov, of lining himself up for the presidency.
Succession is a major issue in Uzbekistan. Islam Karimov, Ms Karimova’s father, has been president since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. He is now 75, rumoured not to be in great health and without a clear successor.
Ms Karimova would be an obvious choice, but she is loathed in Uzbekistan and various corruption scandals have tainted her reputation.
Now, perhaps, Mr Inoyatov has entered the frame. He has been head of the NSS for two decades and is one of the most powerful people in the country. Media reports said that he had prepared a dossier of Ms Karimova’s illegal financial dealings to blacken her image further.
After reading the dossier, Mr Karimov, according to local media, initiated investigations into various companies linked to his daughter, leaving her to vent.
It’s too early to say that a struggle for the presidency has started in Tashkent. What is clear, though, is that a personal power struggle between Ms Karimova and Mr Inoyatov is underway with potentially turbulent results.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov said Uzbekistan had picked 3.35m tonnes of raw cotton this year, media reported. This is the same amount of cotton gathered in last year’s harvest. Uzbekistan’s cotton industry has attracted increased scrutiny over the past few years for allegedly using child labour.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan is the most difficult former Soviet state to do business in, the World Bank said in an annual report. It ranked Uzbekistan in 146th position, up slightly from last year, alongside Tanzania and Nigeria. The biggest problem with doing business in Uzbekistan, the World Bank said, were its tightly controlled borders.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200m loan to help build houses in rural Uzbekistan, media reported. ADB’s loan underscores the need for better housing outside Uzbekistan’s main cities. The loan is part of $500m tranche agreed between ADB and Uzbekistan in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tax police have started an investigation into the finances of The Forum of Culture and Art of Uzbekistan, a charity linked to Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, media reported. The investigation may be aimed at unsettling Ms Karimova, part of a wider power struggle in Uzbekistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)