JAN. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik security forces battled more militants linked to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which has ties to the Taliban, President Emomali Rakhmon told media. In the firefight in the north of the country, one IMU militant died and nine were arrested. There had also been a shoot-out with the IMU last week.
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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps hinting that a new border dispute is looming, Tajik foreign minister, Hamrohon Zarifi, said he had requested Soviet-era documents from Russia that showed the demarcation of borders with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, media reported. The three countries dispute various borders in the Ferghana Valley.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps hinting that a new border dispute is looming, Tajik foreign minister, Hamrohon Zarifi, said he had requested Soviet-era documents from Russia that showed the demarcation of borders with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, media reported. The three countries dispute various borders in the Ferghana Valley.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry said police had arrested three suspected members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IUM) after a shoot-out in the east of the country near the border with Uzbekistan, media reported. One policeman died in the shoot-out. The IMU is linked closely with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry said police had arrested three suspected members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IUM) after a shoot-out in the east of the country near the border with Uzbekistan, media reported. One policeman died in the shoot-out. The IMU is linked closely with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
JAN. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan stopped supplying gas to neighbouring Tajikistan, media reported quoting Tajik officials, during their annual gas price negotiations. Tajikistan is reliant on Uzbekistan for gas. Each year the two countries negotiate a new price for the gas, prompting Uzbekistan to briefly turn it off.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
DEC. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities flirted with blocking up to 131 websites ahead of a presidential election at the start of the year, media reported. An order to block the websites, mainly news and social media, was circulated on Dec. 20, only to be cancelled a week later. Tajikistan periodically blocks websites.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps it was just scare-mongering, but Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s National Security Council and a close adviser to president Vladimir Putin, said that his staff were monitoring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan for signs of any re-emergence of the so-called colour revolutions, Russian media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
DEC. 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – It is dry, that’s for sure, but Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index is also a decent benchmark of how countries are dealing with corruption in their systems — an issue that foreign investors, local businessmen, politicians and economists follow closely.
The 2012 edition makes for interesting reading on Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Topping the table for the region is, again, Georgia at 51st place in the 176 country list. Armenia is next at 105th position, alongside the likes of the Philippines and Mexico.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan occupy 133 position with Russia and then follows Kyrgyzstan (154) and Tajikistan (157). Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan prop up the table in 170th position. Behind them lie only Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar.
And the big changes from last year? Well, Georgia continues to rise through the ranks, it was placed in 64th position last year, and Armenia has also jumped forward, from 129th in 2011. Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan have also improved their rankings, slightly.
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have remained fairly consistent.
By comparison, though, the biggest faller from the Central Asia and South Caucasus region was Kazakhstan which fell 13 places in the rankings from 120th position in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 116, published on Dec. 7 2012)
DEC. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities unblocked Facebook, a social networking website, and the website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a US-funded news service. Tajikistan worries the internet may spread unrest and has periodically blocked access to websites. Facebook and RFE/RL had been blocked for about a week.
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(News report from Issue No. 116, published on Dec. 7 2012)
