SEPT. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will buy gas from Kazakhstan at half the price it had been paying Uzbekistan, media quoted Kyrgyz acting deputy PM Omurbek Babanov as saying. In return, Kyrgyzstan has agreed to increase electricity supplies to southern Kazakhstan. There has been constant friction between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan over gas and water supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 29 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Overriding concerns about its human rights record, US President Barack Obama asked Uzbek President Islam Karimov to boost the capacity of a NATO supply line running through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan, media reported. The US is shifting supplies to the Northern Distribution Network, from Pakistan where its relationship with the government has soured.
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(News report from Issue No. 59, published on Oct. 4 2011)
SEPT. 27 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Silk Road is back in vogue, at least at the UN’s General Assembly last week.
On the sidelines of the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from Europe, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia were busy plotting a revival of the ancient trading route.
Media reports said the US sees the Silk Road as a way of boosting economic activity in Afghanistan from 2014 when NATO forces pull out of the country.
But if the Silk Road, which has always been a concept rather than a single physical route, is going to return to its glory days it requires a stable, prosperous and open Central Asia through which trade can flow.
Kazakhstan, with its anticipated economic growth of around 7% a year and increasingly open markets, is perhaps the only Central Asian state which fits that description. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are relatively closed and instability plagues Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Of course, a modern day trading system already straddles Central Asia. Lorries carry goods from China to Russia and on to Europe and pipelines pump oil from the Caspian to Western markets. It may not be the Silk Road with Afghanistan at its core that the US envisages, but it is a start.
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(News report from Issue No. 058, published on Sept. 27 2011)
SEPT. 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human rights groups have been celebrating a double victory over Uzbekistan this month, a regime they revile for its authoritarian manner and alleged use of torture and child labour. Uzbekistan denies the allegations.
Both successes came through the fashion industry.
First on Sept. 9 2011, under pressure from human rights groups, New York Fashion Week cancelled a show by Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
Then on Sept. 12/13, 60 of the world’s top clothing labels — including British fashion house Burberry, Swedish high street retailer H&M, jean maker Levi’s and sports brands Adidas and Puma — said they had signed a pledge not to buy cotton from Uzbekistan that has been picked by children.
Rights groups have documented how the Uzbek state forces children to leave their classrooms for a few weeks each autumn to harvest the cotton. They estimates that up to 2m children are affected. Alongside gold and gas, cotton is one of the regime’s biggest foreign currency earners.
On previous trips to Uzbekistan, the editor of The Conway Bulletin has met university students in the capital Tashkent who said that unless they picked their quota of cotton, they could not graduate.
New York Fashion Week’s snub to Ms Karimova, is just that — a high profile snub. The boycott by leading clothing brands is altogether more serious.
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(News report from Issue No. 57, published on Sept. 19 2011)
SEPT. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a major publicity coup for human rights activists, organisers of New York Fashion Week cancelled a show planned by Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Human rights groups accuse Karimov of blocking democracy and of torture. He denies the accusations.
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(News report from Issue No. 56, published on Sept. 12 2011)
SEPT. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon officially unveiled the new Sangtuda-2 hydropower station near Dushanbe, underlining the close ties between the countries. Tajikistan views new dams as vital for power but they have created tension with Uzbekistan, which is worried about water supply.
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(News report from Issue No. 55, published on Sept. 6 2011)
SEPT. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Against the backdrop of celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of independence in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Dushanbe also hosted the 20th summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Media reports said it was a rather fractious affair that ended with a vague declaration to improve regional trade.
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(News report from Issue No. 55, published on Sept. 6 2011)
AUG. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 12 Uzbeks extradited by Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan earlier this year have gone on trial accused of religious extremism, local media reported. Human rights groups had protested the extraditions of the 26 Uzbeks. Uzbek human rights group Ezgulik said two of the accused have already been sent to jail.
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(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak signed major deals during a trip to Central Asia, turning South Korea into one of the region’s biggest business partners. In Kazakhstan, South Korean companies will build two coal-fired power stations and a petrochemical plant worth $8b. In Uzbekistan, a South Korean company will build a $2.8b chemicals plant.
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(News report from Issue No. 54, published on Aug. 30 2011)
AUG. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tashkent jailed the former chief metallurgist of British miner Oxus Gold for 12 years for spying. Oxus said that Said Aushurov, a Tajik, was innocent and that the Uzbek government was using him as a pawn in its drive to take control of a gold mine.
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(News report from Issue No. 53, published on Aug. 17 2011)