Tag Archives: security

Georgian officials arrest car-bomber

OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian police said that they had arrested one man and put out an arrest warrant for another linked to a bomb attack on the car of United National Movement (UNM) MP Givi Targamadze shortly before a parliamentary election this month. Police did not release details of the arrested man. The car bomb, in the centre of Tbilisi, injured four pedestrians.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Nine die in crash in east Uzbekistan

OCT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nine people, including six soldiers, died in a helicopter crash in east Uzbekistan, media reported. The helicopter that crashed was a Mi-171, a Soviet-built troop transport. Uzbek media described the crash as an accident but didn’t give any more details. There have been several accidents involving the Mi- 171 over the past few years.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

US & UK embassies warn of attacks in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, OCT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US and British embassies in Kyrgyzstan issued a warning that a terror attack was likely, barely six weeks after a car bomb was rammed into the Chinese embassy.

The warning will frustrate the Kyrgyz authorities who recognise the damage it will do to the country’s reputation as both a place to do business and as a tourist destination. Local media quoted the Kyrgyz National Security Committee as saying that they had no information on potential terror attacks.

In a statement, though, the US embassy said a terror attack was likely. “The US embassy has received information indicating the possibility of terrorist attacks, which may potentially involve kidnapping and hostage taking, targeted against local authorities and foreign diplomats during the month of October,” it said.

The warning didn’t give any specifics on who posed the threat or where the information came from but Kyrgyzstan, and other countries in Central Asia, have been dealing with a recruitment drive by the extremist IS group and other affiliated Islamic radical groups which want to destabilise the region. The separatist Uyghur group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, was also blamed for the car bomb against the Chinese embassy on Aug. 30. Only the driver of the car bomb was killed.

Kyrgyzstan has been marketing itself to Western tourists as the Switzerland of Central Asia, with snow- capped mountains and Alpine lakes. It also wants to attract more foreign investors. In 2012 Kyrgyzstan became the first country in the region to scrap visas for citizens of most Western countries.

Warnings of potential terror attacks and hostage-taking, though, will dent these drives to attract tourists and business.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)

Uzbek court jails drug-traffickers

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan sentenced five residents of the Tashkent region to between three and eight years in prison for drug trafficking. The court said that the group, which worked seasonally in Kyrgyzstan, repeatedly smuggled drugs into Uzbekistan. Police found around 10 kilos of opiates in their apartments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Uzbek FM pays visit to Tajik capital

SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Abdulaziz Kamilov, Uzbekistan’s foreign minister, paid an official visit to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon in Dushanbe in an effort to boost cooperation. Mr Kamilov and Mr Rakhmon held talks on joint efforts to combat terrorism and on water and energy issues that still divide the two countries. Uzbekistan has maintained strong opposition against Tajikistan’s decision to build a major dam and hydropower plant because it would affect downstream water supply.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

S Ossetia officials arrest Tajik IS recruiter

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Security Services of South Ossetia, the breakaway region of Georgia, arrested a Tajik man, Umarjon Ismonov, for allegedly attempting to recruit Central Asian migrant workers into the ranks of the IS extremist organisation, Russian media reported. In recent years, the Caucasian mountain range has become a fertile recruiting ground for extremist Islamic organisations.

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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Kyrgyz court sentences islamists

SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee said a court in Osh jailed four alleged members of the extremist IS group. The two Kyrgyz and two Uzbek citizens, whose names were kept secret, received sentences of between 10 and 18 years in prison for planning terrorist attacks in the country. In August, a suicide bomber drove a car through the Chinese embassy gates in Bishkek injuring several people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

China to build guard posts on Tajik-Afghan border

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China said that it would build a network of 11 guard posts and one border guard training camp on the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, a physical statement of its growing power and influence in Central Asia.

This is the biggest investment yet in Central Asia’s security by China. Earlier in the year it said it would build one guard post on the 1,345km border. Tajik soldiers will man the guard posts.

Raffaello Pantucci, an analyst at the RUSI think tank in London said that China was increasingly worried about Central Asia’s porous borders and especially the threat from Afghanistan were Uyghur separatist fighters have become allied to the Taliban.

“This is interesting because this is not a border with China. They are worried about Afghan security and how security affects China, especially the Uyghurs,” he said.

China has increasingly imposed itself on Central Asia, funding major infrastructure projects, building gas pipelines and buying up metals and energy companies but, other than war games through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which China heads with Russia, it has always avoided a direct military link.

Its soldiers will not patrol the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border once the guard posts are built but it still embeds China deeper into the military psyche of Central Asian states.

When NATO withdrew from Afghanistan, the West pulled out of Central Asia. Russia has, in contrast, invested in its bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Mr Pantucci, the RUSI analyst, said China’s move was not meant as a challenge to Russia in Central Asia.

“I don’t think the Chinese would be doing anything in Central Asia without the tacit support of the Russians,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

China to close border with Kyrgyzstan

SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chinese authorities said they would shut border crossings with Kyrgyzstan for three days at the beginning of October because of a national holiday. It is not uncommon for countries to close off their borders in connection with national holidays, but this decision seems to be tied to worsening security between the two countries. China and Kyrgyzstan blamed on Uyghur separatists an attack to the Chinese embassy in Bishkek in late August. China has not said it will close any other international border during this hoilday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijan proposes talks with Armenia

SEPT. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said his country is ready to hold more talks with Armenia to settle the long-lasting dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Mr Mammadyarov spoke with OSCE special representative Lamberto Zannier on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. In April, four days of fighting between Azerbaijan’s army and Armenia-backed forces punctured a fragile 1994 UN-organised ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)