NOV. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In probably her last main act as Kyrgyzstan’s president, Roza Otunbayeva launched a campaign to reduce bride kidnapping which affects an estimated 15,000 women a year. Bride kidnapping is the traditional term for the abduction of women who then, under pressure, often agree to marry their kidnapper. Ms Otunbayeva leaves office on Dec. 1.
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(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
NOV. 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia completed its first ever jury trial when a 12-person panel convicted a man for a triple murder in 1994. The introduction of juries is considered an important step for modernising Georgia’s justice system. Currently, juries can only be used in murder trials.
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(News report from Issue No. 66, published on Nov. 23 2011)
NOV. 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan rejected criticism last week from human rights group Amnesty International that it unfairly cracked down on protests earlier this year. Instead, Azerbaijan’s government said it has increased political tolerance in the 20 years since independence from the Soviet Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 66, published on Nov. 23 2011)
NOV. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a 47-page report entitled “The Spring that never blossomed”, Amnesty International criticised Azerbaijan for its excessively harsh crackdown on anti-government protests this year inspired by the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa. The Azerbaijani government has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in October, Uzbek security services told the country’s leading artists, writers, musicians and film makers that religious references were banned from their work, the opposition uznews.net website reported. Uzbekistan is one of the most repressive regimes in the world. It is especially wary of radical Islam.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan sentenced 28 people to jail for supporting militant Islamic groups, local media reported. Tajikistan’s authorities are trying to quell a strengthening Islamic insurgency. Courts in Tajikistan periodically sentence large groups of people to jail for supporting insurgents.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
NOV. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia needs more democratic reforms before it can join NATO, the organisation’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting in Tbilisi. Under President Mikheil Saakashvili Georgia has pushed hard to join NATO. According to local media, Georgia has nearly 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan fighting with NATO forces.
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(News report from Issue No. 65, published on Nov. 16 2011)
OCT. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen authorities released a local Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter after one month of a five-year sentence under an amnesty to mark 20 years of independence. Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev was jailed in October for encouraging a family member to attempt suicide. His supporters said the charges were fabricated.
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(News report from Issue No. 63, published on Nov. 1 2011)
OCT. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the northern Tajik town of Khujand convicted a local BBC reporter, Urunboy Usmonov, of illegal links to an Islamic group and sentenced him to three years in jail. Under a general amnesty decreed in September, the judge immediately released Usmonov. The BBC said Usmonov had been tortured.
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(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)
OCT. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan sold cotton worth $550m at its annual cotton fair, local media reported, despite increasing scrutiny over allegations it uses children to pick the harvest. This is roughly the same amount as last year. Local media reported that none of the companies that signed deals at the fair in Tashkent were from Europe or the US.
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(News report from Issue No. 61, published on Oct. 18 2011)
