Tag Archives: human rights

US embassy denies it is plotting a coup in Azerbaijan

JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Relations between the United States and Azerbaijan appeared to have sunk to a new low after Azerbaijani media accused US ambassador Robert Cekuta of inciting a revolution.

The US embassy published a rare statement refuting the allegations, saying that meetings with opposition groups and media were part of its ongoing mission to listen to all sides of Azerbaijan’s community.

“The Ambassador also continues meeting extensively with top figures in Azerbaijan’s government,” the US embassy statement said.

“The US Embassy is not plotting a coup in Azerbaijan. Nor is it instructing or financing any political party in the country.”

Relations have nose-dived in the past year over Azerbaijan’s crackdown on civil society. Azerbaijan has responded to criticism by accusing the US and Europe of mounting a smear campaign.

The US Peace Corps, a US- government funded organisation which sends teenagers and young adults abroad to live and teach English, has quit Azerbaijan, as has the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The US has also criticised Azerbaijan for jailing opponents of President Ilham Aliyev.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Senators write to Azerbaijani president

JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sixteen US senators have written to Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev calling on him to improve human rights in the country, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Mr Aliyev has previously accused the West of mounting a smear campaign against Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Ban Ki-Moon gives speech in Turkmenistan

JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon wrapped up a trip to Central Asia with a speech to university students in Ashgabat in which he warned that democracy and human rights in the region were being increasingly marginalised.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Azerbaijan’s President opens European Games

JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a lavish ceremony in the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev opened the inaugural European Games.

The focal point of the $95m opening ceremony celebrations was a haunting rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine by Mr Aliyev hosted a handful of global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. The leaders of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Serbia also attended.

And the glitz and the glamour couldn’t displace all the criticism of Azerbaijan and its record on human rights over the past few years.

Irish band U2 used a concert in Montreal to call for the release of a number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In a strongly worded statement, Rupert Colville, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, heavily criticised Mr Aliyev and the authorities in Azerbaijan.

“These cases are indicative of a shrinking democratic space in Azerbaijan,” he said.

The Games themselves haven’t been without controversy either. Police arrested a bus driver who ploughed his coach into a group of Austrian swimmers walking on a pavement in the Olympic village and a partisan Azerbaijani crowd booed Armenian athletes at the Opening Ceremony.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Improve rights, says UN to Uzbekistan

JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Tashkent, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said the Uzbek authorities should stop using forced labour to pick cotton and also improve prisoners’ rights. Clothing companies have boycotted Uzbek cotton.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Azerbaijani activist flees to Switzerland

JUNE 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Swiss embassy in Baku organised for Emin Huseynov, an Azerbaijani dissident and critic of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration, to fly out to Switzerland with Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter. Mr Huseynov had been sheltering in the Swiss embassy since mid-August when police had tried to arrest him on drug-related charges.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

UN criticises Kazakhstan on freedoms

JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Maina Kiai, a United Nations Special Rapporteur, said the freedom to assemble and freedom of expression were compromised in Kazakhstan. Mr Kiai was reporting on a trip he made to Kazakhstan in January.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

UN chief challenges Kyrgyzstan on 2010 fighting

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a stopover in Bishkek as part of a wider tour of Central Asia and its capitals, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said Kyrgyzstan should hold an impartial investigation into the death of 400 people during fighting in the south of the country in 2010.

Most of the people killed during fighting around the city of Osh in south Kyrgyzstan in 2010 were Uzbek.

“Kyrgyzstan has ambitious plans to promote interethnic harmony and to protect the rights of all, including minorities,” Reuters quoted Mr Ban as saying at a press conference in the city.

“But it’s important for these policies to be put into practice. Root causes must be addressed fully and impartially investigated and prosecuted.”

The inference is clear. Any Kyrgyz investigations since 2010 have been skewed to clear ethnic Kyrgyz of blame for the fighting which drove thousands of ethnic Uzbeks over the border into Uzbekistan.

Although lying inside Kyrgyzstan’s borders, Osh and the surrounding towns and cities have always been heavily populated by ethnic Uzbeks.

Human rights groups have accused Kyrgyzstan of a cover up over how the fighting in 2010 started by convicting local Uzbek leaders for starting the fighting.

Relations between the two communities living around Osh continued to be strained and the peace fragile.

Mr Ban was visiting Bishkek as part of a Central Asia tour, his second since 2010.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Azerbaijan prepares to open European Games

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under the glare of international media and the scrutiny of the human rights lobby, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev prepared to open the inaugural European Games in Baku on June 12.

Mr Aliyev and Azerbaijan have been building up to this moment for years and view the Games, which last until June 28, as a chance to promote the country.

But the Games have also drawn major criticism of Azerbaijan’s recent human rights record. It has imprisoned journalists and locked up opposition activists.

One of the most high profile prisoners is Khadija Ismayilova, an investigative journalist who is in pre-trial detention. She is accused of goading another journalist into a suicide attempt.

On the eve of the Games, the New York Times published a letter from Ms Ismayilova.

“Azerbaijan’s best and brightest have been locked up, tucked away for the European Games. They didn’t want you to see or hear us and our inconvenient truths,” she wrote. “The truth is that Azerbaijan is in the midst of a human rights crisis. Things have never been worse.”

The Azerbaijani authorities have countered these allegations by accusing the West of an anti-Azerbaijan campaign.

Away from the rehtoric the build up to the Games has been fraught. A fire tore through a block of flats last month killing at least 15 people. It spread quickly because of foam stuck to the side of the building to beautify it for the Games. And earlier this week, a bus hit a group of Austrian athletes in the Olympic Vil- lage, badly injuring one of the synchronised swimming team.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Uzbek authorities imposed new travel restrictions

JUNE 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Uzbekistan have imposed new restrictions on foreign travel, media reported. From now on, people with debts will be barred from leaving the country. Uzbekistan is considered to be one of the most repressive countries in the world.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)