Tag Archives: society

Kyrgyz mufti resigns after scandal

JAN. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A secretly filmed sex video involving Kyrgyz Grand Mufti Rakhmatulla-Hajji Egemberdiev has rocked Kyrgyzstan’s establishment.

The video of Mr Egemberdiev having sex with a younger woman appeared on the internet on New Year’s Eve. His opponents accused him of adultery and organised street demonstrations, common in Kyrgyzstan, to force him to resign.

After a week of resistance, Mr Egemberdiev handed in his resignation. He blamed his opponents for setting up a trap and called on the government to intervene.

The whole tawdry episode means that Kyrgyzstan now has to look for its seventh religious leader in four years — a destabilising effect that even a more secure country would have problems dealing with. Mr Egemberdiev’s predecessor was sacked a year ago because of tax evasion issues.

It also throws up the issue of polygamy in Kyrgyzstan. This is technically banned but is still relatively commonplace in Kyrgyzstan and is accepted in the Sufi form of Islam.

Mr Egemberdiev’s defence was that the woman in the video was one of his additional wives.

The destabilising effect of losing another religious leader, the political in-fighting and open debate about polygamy means it’s been a messy start to the year for Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

Forced sterilisation is still widespread in Uzbekistan

DEC. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) –The forced sterilisation of women in Uzbekistan is still a widespread practice, media reported quoting a report by the US-based Open Society Foundations. The report, initially presented in New York on Dec. 13, said that doctors in Uzbekistan were under pressure to sterilise women to combat population growth.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

Man sets himself on fire in Azerbaijan

DEC. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — On Dec. 25, Zaur Ahmadov sat outside an Azerbaijani government ministry in Baku, doused himself in fuel and set himself on fire. He died of 70% burns four days later.

Mr Ahmadov, 42, was protesting at the perceived injustice of not receiving compensation for the bulldozing of his restaurant nearly 20 years ago by a pro-government official.

His frustration was the frustration of the little man. In Azerbaijan, like most places in former Soviet Central Asia and the South Caucasus, power and contacts often means immunity.

The World has seen this before — and with immense consequences.

Frustrated by bullying from government officials, in December 2010 in Tunisia Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight. He died a few days later. His immolation captured the attention of the Arab World, triggering street protests that ultimately changed regimes in North Africa.

Mr Ahmadov’s immolation last week also triggered small street protests and the authorities were predictably tough on the demonstrators. Police arrested 22 demonstrators when they tried to hold a protest immediately after Mr Ahmadov’s funeral. Six were imprisoned for a few days.

Mr Ahmadov’s frustrations are shared by many in Azerbaijan and it is important to monitor just how the authorities will react to dampen any signs of further discontent.

Importantly, the authorities clearly recognise the danger of the situation. After Mr Ahmadov died, the government paid his family around $125,000 in compensation. A Conway Bulletin correspondent in Baku also said the government had told Mr Ahmadov’s family not to politicise his death.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

Man dies after immolation in Azerbaijan

DEC. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Zaur Ahmadov, 42, set himself on fire outside an Azerbaijani government ministry. Mr Ahmadov, who blamed bullying government officials for destroying his business nearly two decades ago, died four days later. His death triggered protests.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)

NGOs in Azerbaijan must hire locals

DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A change in Azerbaijan’s law will mean that foreign NGOs working in the country will have to appoint a local Azerbaijani to be its deputy chief. The Azerbaijani government has become increasingly suspicious of foreign NGOs. It has blamed them for an increase in anti-government action.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Uzbekistan reduces child labour

DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under pressure from the international community, Uzbekistan has reduced its use of students and school children to pick its cotton harvest but instead has increased the number of older professionals forced into fields, the New York Times reported.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Kazakh president’s daughter goes against children

DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is a growing, some would say, looming, presence on Kazakhstan’s political scene.

Sidelined in 2007 after her husband, Rakhat Aliyev, fell out with her father, she has recently staged a comeback. From January 2012, Ms Nazarbayeva has been a member of Kazakhstan’s parliament and head of various committees.

Importantly for Kazakhstan-watchers, she’s also been spoken of in some circles as a potential successor to her 73-year-old father.

And that’s why comments she made on sex education in schools and the effectiveness of orphanages generated such a heated response. Kazakh media also reported that she described disabled children as “freaks” birthed from teenagers having premature sex.

“I think that from time to time children should be taken for excursions to orphanages, to institutions for disabled children, so that they see the results of a senseless, premature sex life,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted Ms Nazarbayeva as saying at a parliamentary committee.

“Show them these children, these disabled freaks, let them look at them.”

Twitter caught fire with plenty of venom directed at Ms Nazarbayeva. If Ms Nazarbayeva does have presidential ambitions she will have to learn to be more discreet.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Another fire hits market in Kazakhstan

DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yet another fire has destroyed a market on the outskirts of Almaty, media reported. Reports said this was probably the sixth major fire to destroy a market in Almaty since November. Tension is increasing as the market traders, often poorer Kazakhs and migrants from China, accuse the authorities of not doing enough to protect them.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Uzbekistan concedes mass amnesty

DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will release 92,000 prisoners, mainly the young and old, in one of its annual mass amnesties, media reported. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted a senior parliamentarian as saying the amnesty showed Uzbekistan was serious about reform. Reducing mass overcrowding in its prisons is a more likely trigger for the amnesty.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Azerbaijan arrests rights activist

DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Baku arrested Anar Mammadli, a relatively high-profile election monitor who had criticised the government, for tax evasion illegal entrepreneurship and falsifying vote results.

A government crackdown on dissidents has characterised the last few years in Azerbaijan and opposition leaders were quick to describe the arrest of Mr Mammadli as political.

They could also have described it as clunky.

A few days after police arrested Mr Mammadli, foreign dignitaries, including Britain foreign minister William Hague were in Baku to witness the final signing of a new investment project by a consortium of foreign energy companies led by Britain’s BP to develop the second phase of the giant Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea.

Human rights groups didn’t miss an opportunity to criticise Western countries for buying energy from Azerbaijan.

Mr Mamadli was head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center which receives funding from the US’ National Democratic Institution. His supporters said that the government has been trying to silence him for years.

The day before his arrest, the Azerbaijani authorities sanctioned a seemingly anti-government rally. It was attended by a few hundred people in a square on the outskirts of Baku. They demonstrated against rising prices and shouted support for pro-EU demonstrators in Kiev.

The authorities may have sanctioned the protest to show visiting foreign dignitaries that dissent has a voice in Azerbaijan. If that was their aim, the arrest of Mr Mammadli severely dents that perception.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)