OCT. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek migrants returning home from work overseas will now be required to fill out a questionnaire, media reported.The government has said it wants to find out how much migrants have been earning but analysts have said the questionnaire is linked to concern that Uzbeks have been joining the so called Islamic State group in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Visa free travel for citizens of 10 countries will be extended by three months to Oct. 15 2015, said the head of the Kazakh state tourism board, Rashid Shaikenov (Oct. 6). Mr Shaikenov also said the experiment, which started in July, had increased tourism by 13%.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
OCT. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s finance minister, Nodar Khaduri, said that he wanted to increase the monthly pension pay out next year by around 5%. Unlike many of its neighbours whose economies are suffering because of a slow-down in Russia’s sanction-hit economy, Georgia is experiencing something of a boom.
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(News report from Issue No. 203, published on Oct. 8 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Dushanbe sentenced on Sept. 26 two ethnic Uzbeks to nine years in jail for fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan.Tajikistan’s government has said it is increasingly worried about the spread north of Taliban fighters.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Bishkek ruled against plans by the government to increase fees on electricity and gas, media reported, argued for by reformers who have said that Kyrgyzstan needs to charge more for its utilities.The ruling is a blow for the government which has been working to modernise Soviet-era systems.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan lawmakers want to arm villagers living in disputed areas along its borders with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
A majority of Parliamentarians debating the plan say they want to help people defend themselves but the military has said the strategy will only worsen already tense cross- border relations.
The initiator of the legislation, Bakyt Torobayev of the Progress parliamentary splinter faction claims the initiative will save budget money. Paying a civilian that already lives on the border will cost less than housing, feeding and paying a soldier, he has argued.
Kyrgyzstan’s Defence Council issued a statement as parliament discussed the legislation. “(Arming) ordinary citizens without higher or military education and preparation for border service, can have consequences, including their potential participation in illegal migration, narcotics trafficking and contraband,” it said.
Medet Tiulegenov, a political science professor at the American University of Central Asia was also against the plan.
“This issue has been raised in the context of insufficient formal security on the border,” Mr Tiulegenov told The Conway Bulletin. He also said that security issues are beyond the parliament’s formal mandate.
“But when government itself lacks a clear vision on border issues and security in the country, MPs exploit that lack of clarity and try to make a name for themselves,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia stepped up its campaign against former president Mikheil Saakashvili after a court ruled the authorities could seize his property including houses and a vineyard, media reported. Georgia’s prosecutor-general has charged Mr Saakashvili with abuse of office. Mr Saakashvili lives in New York.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former BTA Bank official wanted in connection with fraud, to Kazakhstan for prosecution. Mr Kosaev was a colleague of Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently in a French jail. Kazakhstan wants to extradite Mr Ablyazov although rights groups have said that he wouldn’t face a fair trial.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – More news stories have emerged to suggest that Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has been charged with various economic crimes.
The most pressing of these are three photos allegedly showing Ms Karimova under house arrest in Tashkent. These were released by her PR agent in London.
In the photos, which are undated, three men in military style fatigues appear to be pushing and pulling a gaunt- looking Ms Karimova. Gone are her designer dresses, and expensive make-up. Instead Ms Karimova wears a tracksuit top and has her hair tied back in a simple bunch.
A statement alongside the photos said they showed that Ms Karimova was staving and that she wouldn’t face a fair trial in Uzbekistan.
“She [Gulnara] is willing to travel to any court where the rule of law is upheld so she can clear her name,” the statement said. “The fact that an Uzbek military court — which sits in secret — has already found her associates to be guilty makes it almost impossible for Gulnara tried fairly in the normal Uzbek judicial process.”
There is, no doubt, a kernel of truth in all this. It’s more difficult to see, though, who is going to come to the aid of Ms Karimova. She is reviled in Uzbekistan, where she was once touted as a successor to her father, and is liked hardly any more outside Uzbekistan.
Ms Karimova has been under house arrest for most of this year. Her close associates have already been jailed for a mix of crimes. Although it’s unclear exactly what Ms Krimova will be charged with, she is probably facing a prison sentence.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has opened another trial against Maksim Bakiyev, the son of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, media reported. Bakiyev lives in London. He fled Kyrgyzstan with his father in 2010. He has already been sentenced in absentia to 25 years in jail for corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
