May 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atamabayev signed a law that will criminalise libel.Under the new law, the authorities in Kyrgyzstan can send people to prison for up to five years for libel. A statement by Mr Atamabayev’s office sad that the new law would not impact on freedom of speech.
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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)
MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Bishkek said they had arrested four policemen for extorting cash from foreigners by falsely accusing them of rape. Media reports said that a female accomplice would set up dates with foreign men and then accuse them, falsely, of rape.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan said that Uzbekistan was still restricting gas supplies to its southern city of Osh. Osh has reportedly been without gas for a few weeks, generating some social tension. Uzbekistan’s Soviet era gas system supplies southern Kyrgyzstan with gas. Relations between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are strained.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government said that it had drafted a road map for its entry into the Russia-led Customs Union (CU). The economic union also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus. Armenia also plans to join this year. Kyrgyzstan’s membership of the CU should also allow Tajikistan to join.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An on-off border row between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has flared up again, according to media reports.
Around 60 people were injured in a fight between villagers on each side of the border. Various cargo and trucks were destroyed.
This is a potentially dangerous issue and could destabilise the restive southern edge of Kyrgyzstan and the wider Ferghana Valley region, the most densely populated area of Central Asia.
Talks between the two governments over the delimitation of the 300km-long disputed border have been moving, at a sluggish pace, through out the year.
In January, a shootout between opposing forces injured several soldiers. As with many parts of Central Asia, the borders around southern Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan appear to have been draw up to generate strife and problems. Communities of different nationalities intersect each other; enclaves generate flashpoints.
As well as adding to the daily inconveniences experienced by communities living close to the border, the clashes hurt big business. In March South-Kyrgyz-Cement reported that sales had fallen as a result of Kyrgyzstan’s closure of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, which lasted over two months after the Jan. 11 shootout.
A Kyrgyz-owned gas station and containers carrying cement and coal were among the property burned during in the most recent conflict.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to have triggered a minor international row by snubbing a meeting of a former Soviet military group in favour of talks with a senior US diplomat.
Mr Nazarbayev had been due to travel to Moscow for a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military group that includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
Instead he decided to meet with the US deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, in Astana.
Officials were quick to deny there was a problem even though all the other CSTO leaders turned up in Moscow for a meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Nazarbayev was conspicuous by his absence.
Back in Astana, to make the situation even more uncomfortable for Mr Nazarbayev, diplomats told journalists that Mr Burns had asked Mr Nazarbayev to try and use his influence with Mr Putin to relax Russia’s pressure in eastern Ukraine.
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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Inflation in Kyrgyzstan in the first three months of the year measured 7.1%, media quoted the Kyrgyz Central Bank as saying. The Central Bank said that a fall in the value of the Kyrgyz som, it fell in line with most currencies in Central Asia, had increased inflation above expectations.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
ARSLANBOB/Kyrgyzstan, MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In rural Kyrgyzstan, walnuts are important. Ilhon sighed as he leaned in and explained the significance of the walnut to the local economy of this small village in the Jalalabad region, south Kyrgyzstan.Surrounding the village is a 60,000 hectare walnut forest, providing a crop of about 1,000 tonnes each year.
In a country as poor as Kyrgyzstan, walnut crops can make up around a third of the average annual salary. The walnut season also provides a trickle-down effect on employment.
As well as the farmers, who lease the state-owned land to collect the walnut, other people are employed to shell walnuts and drivers to transport it to local markets. Most of the walnuts are then sent to Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
Still, it is just seasonal labour and when the season finishes its time to find fresh work.
Just like most of Kyrgyzstan, Ilhon and his brother look to Russia for help.
They head north to find casual labour, sending home most of what they earn. It’s tough and the pay isn’t great, but at least is does pay.
“Life is more difficult in winter,” Ilhon said of the drop in employment once the walnut season ends. “There is very little work around Arslanbob. Many of the men here go to Russia.”
There is another problem for Ilhon and others living and working in the walnut forests of south Kyrgyzstan. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the forests have been increasingly poorly managed. These forests are the largest walnut forests in the world but they are also under threat.”
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gunmen shot a relative of Osh’s popular but controversial former mayor, Melis Myrzakmatov, at his home near the southern capital, sparking fears that a turf war may be brewing.
Jenish Sadiev, 39, to whom the Kyrgyz National Opposition Movement refer to as Mr Myrzakmatov’s nephew, died in hospital on May 2.
Once considered the most powerful politician in the country’s ethnically fragmented South, Mr Myrzakmatov’s whereabouts has been unknown since he failed to win a mayoral election in January.
The former Mayor, accused of stirring ethnic tension in 2010 that triggered violence which killed hundreds, nevertheless retains strong networks in and around the city especially among ethnic Kyrgyz. He is considered a potential opposition figurehead to the central government in Bishkek.
But a mix of politics, organised crime, ethnic division and family loyalties mean that few things are simple in Kyrgyzstan.
Suyin Omurzakov is the chief of police for Osh city. He also happens to be a political rival of Mr Myrzakmatov. He denied that Sadiev, the dead man, was related to the Mr Myrzakmatov and also rejected any government role in the shooting.
Whatever the truth tension is rising in Osh, already a tinderbox of divided loyalties and discontent.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Kyrgyzstan flew to Moscow to discuss joining the Russia-led Customs Union either later this year or next year, media reported. Armenia is looking to join the economic bloc, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, this year but Kyrgyzstan has stalled slightly.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
