JAN. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The personal envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chen Zhili, travelled to Bishkek to meet new Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev. Ms Chen pledged to strengthen relations between China and Kyrgyzstan. Through diplomacy and finance, China has been boosting its influence in Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
DEC. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyzstan Airlines plane carrying 86 people crashed on landing at Osh airport. The Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-134 flipped over, injuring 31 people. Nobody was killed. Kyrgyzstan has a poor air safety record. In Aug. 2008, 65 people died when a plane bound for Iran crashed after taking off from Bishkek.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Led by the Social Democrats, four parties formed a new government coalition in Kyrgyzstan. The Social Democrats are the party of new president Almazbek Atambayev although the new PM will be Omurbek Babanov from Respublika. Excluded from the coalition is Ata-Zhurt which represents Kyrgyz from the south.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Britain opened a new embassy in Bishkek, 20 years after Kyrgyzstan’s independence from the Soviet Union. Britain’s foreign ministry is cutting less important postings to find a 10% budget saving but it has also said it wants to boost its presence in strategically important areas such as Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan inaugurated Almazbek Atambayev as its fourth post-Soviet president, a ceremony that completed the first peaceful transition of power in Central Asia’s 20 years of independence. Mr Atambayev pledged to heal the country’s north-south divide.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
DEC. 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev’s first full day in his new job the government coalition in parliament collapsed, highlighting the fragility of the country’s politics. The Social Democratic Party withdrew from the three-party coalition because of disagreements on judicial, economic and political reforms.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
NOV. 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rafiq Tagi, a 61-year-old widely respected Azerbaijani journalist, died of stab wounds in a Baku hospital on Nov. 23, four days after an unknown assailant attacked him.
He wrote articles critical of both the state and hard line Islam. Muslim extremists, though, are suspected of organising Tagi’s murder.
Whether or not the authorities or Muslim extremists are the main threat, for local journalists the former Soviet South Caucasus and Central Asia states are often both difficult and dangerous to report on.
In Turkmenistan police this year tracked down and imprisoned journalists who reported on an explosion at an arms depot. In Uzbekistan most local correspondents from international news agencies have been chased out and in Tajikistan the BBC’s reporter was jailed.
Southern Kyrgyzstan remains dangerous for ethnic Uzbek journalists and in Kazakhstan in October attackers armed with baseball bats and a gun beat a camera crew covering protests in the west of the country against the state oil company.
A 2010 press freedom index compiled by the US-based NGO Reporters Without Borders scored the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia poorly. Armenia, Georgia and Tajikistan ranked slightly better but Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were in the bottom quarter of the index.
The report card for 2011 may well be even worse.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
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.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 67, published on Dec. 1 2011)
NOV. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in St Petersburg, PMs from the six countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) said they wanted to set up a development bank. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are members of the SCO which is lead by Russia and China. Many analysts see the SCO as a bulwark against western interests in the region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
NOV. 8 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite predictable accusations from the losing candidates that a presidential election in Kyrgyzstan on Oct. 30 2011 won by PM Almazbek Atambayev was unfair, opposition protests and marches failed to gather momentum. Dodging post-election violence was vital for Kyrgyzstan to shake off its image as Central Asia’s most volatile country.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 64, published on Nov. 8 2011)
