NOV. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Homosexuals in Kyrgyzstan are considering leaving the country when a law banning gay propaganda is adopted, Reuters reported. The so-called anti-gay law is similar to one already adopted by Russia. “The entire atmosphere is getting more threatening,” one man told Reuters.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia sentenced former defence minister Bacho Akhalaia to 7-1/2 years in prison for abuse of power and torture.
Akhalaia is the most high-profile member of the former government of Mikheil Saakashvili to be sent to prison. The current government, headed by members of the Georgian Dream coalition, has said it has to pursue former ministers on various corruption and abuse charges although Mr Saakashvili and his allies have called the charges a witch hunt.
The European Union and the United States have both warned the current government of using its powers to pursue personal vendettas. The US repeated its warning after the imprisonment of Akhalaia.
“We continue to stress to the Georgian Government the importance of due process and rule of law and of conducting investigations with transparency to avoid even the perception that the judicial system is being used for political retribution,” a US State Department spokesman said.
The big risk for the Georgian government is that it is undermining the country’s positive image with the West.
Akhalaia was already held in pre-trial detention. His conviction dates back to the torture of four inmates in 2006 when he was head of the Georgian prison service. He was also a former interior minister.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Barely a week after Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed a first reading of a law banning the promotion of gay propaganda, more proposals restricting civil rights have surfaced.
Media reported that Kyrgyzstan wants to restrict NGOs receiving financial support from overseas, forcing groups to submit to tighter auditing and control.
Perhaps most importantly the law is similar to one brought in by Russia in 2012. The anti-gay law was also similar to a law introduced in Russia underlining the increased influence that Russia has over Kyrgyzstan.
The London-based lobby group Institute for War and Peace Reporting wrote: “Many Kyrgyz groups work on civil and political rights, democracy-building, and corruption, and could soon find themselves as beleaguered as their Russian counterparts.”
Kyrgyz officials have defended the new law as essential to monitor groups that could potentially be used to undermine Kyrgyz democracy.
Perhaps, although, similarly to the anti-gay law, the real reason could be Kyrgyzstan’s need to cosy up to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Playing the role of the great benevolent master, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon granted amnesty to 10,000 prisoners in Tajikistan to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s constitution. Mr Rakhmon, president since the mid-1990s, regularly uses amnesties to relieve over-crowding in prisons which human rights groups criticise.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s Council of Elders, a sort of perfunctory rubber-stamping chamber of deputies which confers some sort of plurality on President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s decisions, declared 2015 at the Year of Neutrality.
The declaration itself is fairly standard but it is important as a reminder that Turkmenistan follows a strictly neutral policy.
This means that while other countries in former Soviet Central Asia are becoming increasingly involved in the Russia-led Customs Union — Kazakhstan is already a member, Kyrgyzstan is on the brink of signing up and Tajikistan is eager — Turkmenistan won’t be joining them.
It also, according to the doctrine, will prevent Turkmenistan from taking sides over potential disputes over ownership of the Caspian Sea and its riches. This is important as tension between the Caspian Sea littoral states has been rising over the past few years.
And then there is also the small matter of the Taliban to consider. They have been increasing their activity around the borders of Central Asia recently, pressuring
Turkmenistan, even, into strengthening is border security.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted to pass a law that bans so-called gay propaganda, seemingly playing to Russia which has passed a similar law already and against the United States which called the new legislation an attack on democracy. Kyrgyzstan is increasingly leaning towards Russia in world affairs.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh lower house of parliament ratified an extradition treaty with Italy, media reported, part of a process by Kazakhstan to update its legal treaties. Last year, Kazakhstan illegally transferred the wife of the then fugitive businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov from Rome.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The United States criticised moves by Kyrgyzstan to make so-called “gay propaganda” illegal as being harmful to democracy. The laws are similar to those introduced by Russia. The US embassy put out a rare harshly worded statement which said: “Sweeping limits on civil society harm democracy.”
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Controversial anti-gay legislation carbon-copied from Russia, is sailing through parliamentary reviews in Kyrgyzstan, triggering concerns about Moscow’s influence over Bishkek.
Parliament’s committee for human rights accepted the bill last week and the education committee was also expected to approve it. Advocates say the law, which will fine or jail citizens promoting “a positive relationship to homosexuality” in the media or around children, is designed to preserve traditional family values.
The law and its justification bear a strong resemblance to one passed in Russia in the summer of last year. Another bill being considered by the parliament, on recognising NGOs as foreign agents, echoes legislation voted through Russia’s State Duma in 2012.
Critics argue that parliamentarians are courting Russia’s favour, important to any politician with serious ambitions in Kyrgyzstan.
Writing in the New York Times, Masha Gessen, a former editor of RFE/RL’s Russian service said pro-Russian publications have infiltrated the Kyrgyz media space over the past few years and that Kyrgyzstan was a perfect lab rat. “It is small and poor and extremely susceptible to Russian pressure,” she wrote.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s allies have given it another warning not to pursue political revenge through the courts.
This time the warning came from the European Parliament.
“Georgia will have to overcome the antagonism, polarisation and sense of revenge still present in order to continue its democratic development,” the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said, according to a Reuters report, in a resolution on Georgia.
The US and other European powers have previously handed out similar warnings.
Since relinquishing power last year, Mr Saakashvili has lived in New York. He has been charged in absentia with various misdemeanours. Other members of his cabinet have been charged and found guilty.
There is no love lost between the former government of Mr Saakashvili and the current government led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. The two leaders hate each other.
Tension is, it appears, beginning to bubble over in Tbilisi over the issue too.
News reports from the Georgian capital said that extra police have been deployed around the centre of the city to stop rival gangs of youth from clashing.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
