Tag Archives: human rights

US gives military kit to Uzbekistan

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States will give Uzbekistan boats and vehicles to counter the drugs trade, media reported quoting its embassy in Tashkent.

The extra military kit, worth $6.2m, will irritate human rights campaigners. They say that Uzbekistan is one of the world’s worst human rights abusers. The US says it has to deal with Uzbekistan because Realpolitik demands it.

The US is withdrawing its military kit from Afghanistan mainly through Uzbekistan.

It has already said that it will leave behind surplus kit that it deems non-lethal. These are vehicles, trucks, body armour and night vision goggles.

“The goal of this Project is to assist law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Uzbekistan to develop investigative leads for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organisations involved in illicit trade of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors,” the US embassy in Tashkent said on its website.

As well as hitting the drugs trade, the US may also be planning to quietly help Uzbekistan bolster its border defences against incursions from the Taliban.

Central Asian states have said that they are worried about the spread north of the Taliban once NATO quits Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Azerbaijan spars with US

MAY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with local media, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov compared Azerbaijan’s sparring with the United States to a new Cold War.

Mr Mammadyarov’s comparison may highlight how relations between the West and Azerbaijan, a key energy provider, have worsened although the anti-US rhetoric may be designed to appeal to a local audience.

“Bearing in mind the growing media interest on Azerbaijan with regards to the first European Games some people are trying to exploit the current situation for their nefarious purposes with Cold War style propaganda,” Mr Mammadyarov said.

The main sticking point is the heavy-handed suppression of civic rights in Azerbaijan over the past couple of years. Free media has been all but chased out of the country, human rights defenders and opposition leaders have been locked up.

Azerbaijan is particularly sensitive to criticism from the West at the moment. Next month it hosts the European Games which it desperately wants to use to showcase the country.

Azerbaijan’s media has hit back, though. A Bulletin correspondent said progovernment media in Azerbaijan had posted a series of articles attacking the United States’ reputation.

But Zardusht Alizade, Baku based political analyst told RFE/RL the anti-America campaign is targeted at a local audience to show that the government is powerful enough to criticise the US. The row, he said, may not be that serious.

“I think the real politics between the two countries is still great,” he said. “Gas flows, oil flows and this is the real politics.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Azerbaijan’s jailed reporter wins award

APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Increasing pressure on Azerbaijan over its treatment of journalists, the Swedish National Press Club gave its Freedom of Speech Award to imprisoned Azerbaijani reporter Khadija Ismayilova. The award was set up in 2006 after the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Hollande visits Azerbaijan

APRIL 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After visiting Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande travelled to Baku to meet Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. According to reports he raised concerns about Azerbaijan’s human rights record. Importantly, French businesses have won a handful of lucrative deals in Azerbaijan

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)

Uzbekistan extends activist prison sentence

APRIL 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Uzbekistan may be lining up an extension to the prison sentence handed out to Uzbek activist Azam Farmonov. It said Farmonov had been due for release in a few days, after nearly a decade in jail on extortion charges, but that he has instead been moved to a punishment cell.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)

Azerbaijan’s court sentences activist

APRIL 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku sentenced Azerbaijani human rights activist Rasul Jafarov to 6-1/2 years in prison for tax evasion and embezzlement. Jafarov’s supporters say the charges are jumped up and the authorities are using the courts to crush opposition.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)

Azerbaijan’s press freedom remains low

APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is one of the top 10 most repressive states in the world for journalists, the New York-based lobby group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. Azerbaijan is the only former Soviet state to feature on the list.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)

Azerbaijan expells HRW activists

APRIL 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani officials expelled a Georgian activist working for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), media reported. The officials didn’t give any reason for expelling Georgi Gogia who had travelled to Baku to attend the trial of two activists. Relations between Azerbaijan and the West have worsened recently.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Azerbaijan releases two opposition activists

MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan released two opposition activists from prison, part of an amnesty ordered by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Orkhan Yeubzade, a youth activist, was arrested in October on drug related charges. Bashir Suleiman, head of an election watchdog, was convicted of hooliganism.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)

Aliyev blames the West for anti-Azerbaijan campaign

MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a public speech, President Ilham Aliyev blamed the international community for launching an anti-Azerbaijan campaign ahead of the European Games this summer.

This is important because analysts have been saying that Mr Aliyev has increasingly turned his back on the West. The United States and the EU have been increasingly vocal critics of his clampdown on civic society.

“This campaign, in fact, has never been stopped, but in the run-up to important international events this campaign becomes even uglier,” he said.

“We were faced with it three years ago in 2012, on the eve of the Eurovision contest. We are seeing it today, on the eve of the European Games. This is a well-coordinated anti-Azerbaijani campaign managed from one or several centres.”

The inaugural European Games, set to be staged in Baku in June, is a sensitive issue for Mr Aliyev.

He desperately wants to showcase Azerbaijan and to gloss over its more unsightly aspects such as a stalling economy and criticism over its human rights record.

According to the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Azerbaijan is spending $4b on the European Games.

In his speech Mr Aliyev stated that the main reason for the campaign is the current strength of the country. “

“It is also natural that the stronger Azerbaijan gets, the more pressure it comes under. Our independent policy is not to everyone’s liking though,” he said.

Erkin Gadirli of the ReAl oppositional movement said in an interview to Berlin-based Meydan TV that Mr Aliyev’s speech showed that he was increasingly paranoid about criticism in the international media.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)