Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan considers luxury bill

JUNE 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to raise cash to pull through a long financial downturn, Kyrgyzstan’s economy ministry has prepared a bill that would impose an additional tax on luxury cars and large and expensive apartments, media reported. The prospect of a so-called luxury tax is a fairly radical departure from the norm in Central Asia where the rich are relatively lightly taxed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyz Supreme Court is unlikely to release rights defender Askarov

BISHKEK, JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court may be set to review the case of imprisoned human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov but analysts have said that he is unlikely to be released in a process designed to appease the United States and the United Nations.

Askarov’s case is controversial because he was described as a political prisoner by the United States last year, angering Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz politicians view him as a troublemaker who has stirred ethnic tension in the south of the country.

Police arrested Askarov after ethnic violence in Osh killed nearly 400 people in 2010. Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek who investigated police brutality, was accused and convicted of inciting the violence and also being part of a gang that killed a policeman. His supporters have always said that he is a political prisoner.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee effectively weighed in on the row between Kyrgyzstan and the US earlier this year when it said that a Kyrgyz court should review the case.

And in a surprise move, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court said last week that it would do just this, raising hopes held by rights defenders that Askarov may be set free from his life sentence.

But Emil Juraev, a political analyst, said that although there were allegations of mistreatment, the UN can only pressure for a review of the case and not for a prisoner to be released.

“This time they called the Kyrgyz court to review the case, as they said it was not valid last time,” he said. “It’s likely, that the court will not change its decision.”

His sentiment was backed up by rights defender Aziza Abdirasulova.

“I worry that the court will only review this case as such and not follow demands to release Askarov due to violations during the process,” she told the Conway Bulletin’s Bishkek correspondent. “Besides, there is a risk that nationalist and radical groups will disrupt the process.”

The Supreme Court is due to consider the case on July 11.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan focused Manas moves into Africa

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Manas Resources said it bought a gold project in Tanzania, in an effort to diversify its operational portfolio. Thedeal, struck with an Italian private group, will cost Manas $2m cash and $2m in shares. Last week, Manas halted trading at the Australian Stock Exchange, ahead of its announcement of the deal. After the deal was announced, Manas’ share price doubled to 0.4 Australian cents.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Two Kyrgyzstani die in Istanbul attack

JUNE 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two of the 44 people who died in an attack on Istanbul airport by three suspected Islamic extremists were from Kyrgyzstan, media reported. Passengers for a flight to Bishkek were checking in when the three attackers opened fire on a terminal building and then detonated suicide bombs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Editorial: The SCO

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will expand next year to include Pakistan and India. Since its inception in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO has been led by China and Russia. It was formed to extend their influence over their shared near-abroad — Central Asia. SCO members include all the Central Asian states other than Turkmenistan.

Western analysts have previously referred to it as Russia and China’s version of NATO, mainly because of the very visible war games that it stages each year. But this is only one component of the SCO. More important, but less visible are the various social and economic projects conducted through the SCO apparatus. These have mainly involved China. Indeed it has given China a major footprint in the region and helped to extend its influence.

By opening up the SCO to Pakistan and India, the SCO is potentially changing its remit from a regional, Central Asia focused group to a far wider organisation that takes in the two most populous countries in the world. It may become less useful as an organisation to develop Central Asia and more useful as group for larger countries to discuss their problems.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyz Parliament approves BTA stake sale

JUNE 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Parliament approved the sale of a 15.4% stake in BTA Bank Kyrgyzstan to Kazakh investors. The stake previously belonged to Daniyar Usenov, former Kyrgyz PM, who fled the country after a revolution in 2010 toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The new Kyrgyz government took possession of his stake in BTA and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for abuse of power in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Currencies: Kazakhstan’s tenge, Azerbaijan’s manat

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Since mid-2014, a strong US dollar and downward pressures on oil prices have hit economies across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

Currencies in the region suffered and, despite all the efforts from Central Banks to keep the exchange rate steady by intervening in the market, the fall was inevitable.

Compared to two years ago, all currencies have lost between 15% to 50% of their value. Oil exporting countries (in green in the graph) have fared worse than oil importing countries (pictured in red).

The Kazakh and Azerbaijani Central Banks decided to abandon the currency peg to the US dollar in 2015, causing a plunge in the value of the tenge and the manat. In 2015, these two were among the worst-performing cur- rencies in the world, not just the region.

Oil importers have acted in the opposite direction. In Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, currencies stabilised in the second half of 2015 and Central Banks have tightly controlled exchange rates since.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 287, published on July 1 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Megacom bid fails

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An auction for Kyrgyzstan’s state- owned Alfa Telecom was declared invalid after failing to receive any bids, a sign that investors find the company unattractive. In May, the government had postponed an earlier auction. Alfa Telecom, which owns the Megacom brand, was nationalised in 2014. The government said that it wants to raise $19b som ($280m) from its sale.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

SCO leaders gather in Uzbekistan for summit

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan gathered in Tashkent to kick-start the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), together with their colleagues from Russia and China and Uzbek host, President Islam Karimov. The members are set to vote on June 24 to begin the membership process for India and Pakistan, currently observer countries.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court changes Askarov sentence

JUNE 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court said it would reconsider a life sentence levied against Azimzhan Askarov, a prominent human rights defender, on July 11. Police arrested Askarov in the aftermath of clashes in 2010 that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s government for inciting ethnic hatred. Pressured by US lobby groups, who have held up Askarov as a human rights champion, the Court had announced in April that it would revise the sentence.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)