AUG. 13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tolib Ayombekov, the warlord attacked by Tajik government forces last month, has surrendered, media reported. Nearly 50 people died in the fighting in the south-east of Tajikistan. The authorities accused men linked to Mr Ayombekov of killing an intelligence officer and drug smuggling. He denies the charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – After months of negotiations, Russian and Kyrgyz officials have agreed a deal to allow Russia to keep its bases in Kyrgyzstan, media quoted officials as saying. Russia maintains an airbase outside Bishkek, a communication station and torpedo testing site near Lake Issyk-Kul and a seismologist centre in the south of the country.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh police launched a murder investigation after discovering 11 bodies hacked to death in a gorge near Almaty, media reported. Amongst the dead were a well-regarded park ranger and his wife. This is the second mass killing in Kazakhstan this year. In May, 14 soldiers were found shot dead in their outpost near the Chinese border.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian soldier injured in a bomb attack in Afghanistan in January has died, media quoted Georgia’s Ministry of Defence as saying. The soldier was the 17th Georgian soldier to die in the US-lead war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Last year Georgia’s parliament voted to increase its deployment to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rebel fighters in south-east Tajikistan handed over hundreds of weapons in a cease-fire agreed with government forces after fighting on July 24 killed dozens of fighters and some civilians. Media reported, though, that although fighting had ceased, the main rebel commander, Tolib Ayombekov, has refused to give himself up.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officially at least 42 soldiers and rebel fighters died when Tajik government forces launched an assault against rebels in the south-east region of Gorno-Badakhshan.
It was the worst fighting in Tajikistan since 2010, when soldiers fought alleged Islamic militants along a valley in a different part of the country.
The government said the trigger for the assault was the murder of a military general three days earlier. Some analysts, though, have suggested the government may have been looking to launch this attack for some time.
Regardless, the fighting shows that government control over the fringes of Tajikistan is, at best, tenuous. President Emomali Rahkmon supposedly cemented his control over Tajikistan at the end of a civil war in 1997. The reality is that this authority, softened by the drugs trade and local factions, is often weak.
This is alarming for Central Asian states and Russia which need Tajikistan to act as a barrier against militant Islamists from Afghanistan. NATO is packing up and beginning to withdraw.
Despite pouring soldiers and helicopter gunships into Gorno-Badakhshan, government forces failed to dislodge the rebels, once again underlining the extent of central government’s power.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 20 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an election unrecognised by the international community, Bako Sahakian won a second term as president of the disputed region of Nagorno- Karabakh. The election increased tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reported sporadic gunfire and casualties along the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested an army officer for allegedly shooting two other officers during an argument, media reported. This year attention has focused on bullying within the Kazakh army after the murder of 14 soldiers at a remote outpost in May and, in a separate incident, the mass desertion by conscripts.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – One Kyrgyz border guard died in a shootout with Uzbek soldiers, media reported. The shootout, which occurred in a loosely demarcated border area in southern Kyrgyzstan, underlines both the fragility of peace in the region and the mistrust between the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
JULY 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources in the Tajik government told Reuters news agency that Tajikistan and Russia were on the brink of agreeing a new 49-year lease on Russia’s military base in the Pamirs. The source said Russia would not have to pay the $250m that Tajikistan had asked for and would instead pay with arms.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)
