1. Home
  2. Americas
  3. Canada

Weekly News Wrap

This week in Central Asia started with the International Fresh Water Forum that ended on Monday in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, adopting an appeal to declare 2005-2015 the decade of water for life. Assessing results reached at the Forum, Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov noted that no country was in a position to address challenges and risks in water issues alone. According to the UN's new World Water Development Report, launched in March, more than 2.2 million people die each year from water related diseases and poor sanitation. By the middle of this century, at worst seven billion people in 60 countries will be faced with water scarcity, at best 2 billion in 48 countries, depending on factors like population growth and policy making, the report warns. Tajik media reported on Tuesday that the Japanese government had provided no-strings aid worth US $1 million to carry out 17 small projects in Tajikistan's healthcare and education sectors. On the Japanese embassy's initiative, the government of Japan has given Tajikistan no-strings aid worth US $3 million since January 2002 to carry out 74 small and medium-sized projects. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said on Tuesday, after having arrived in Dushanbe one day earlier, that China and Tajikistan had agreed to jointly fight terrorism, extremism and separatism both as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - regional security grouping that involves China, Russia and four Central Asian nations - and on bilateral level. "We shall together fight separatists from the East Turkestan movement for the sake of our peoples' peace and for the development of both Chinese and Tajik economies," Li reportedly said after meeting President Rahmonov. He also met the Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov and his Tajik counterpart Talbak Nazarov. The human rights situation in the region was also highlighted this week. Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concern over the attack on Surat Ikramov of the Independent Group for Human Rights Defenders in Uzbekistan, who was abducted and assaulted last week by unknown attackers. "Ikramov has been a fearless critic of the Uzbek government," said Rachel Denber, deputy director of the international rights watchdog's Europe and Central Asia Division, adding that there might be more to this incident than mere criminal thuggery. Staying in that country, foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members are meeting in the Uzbek capital Tashkent starting on Thursday to discuss a number of issues related to the consolidation of the organisation. It is expected that the participants would consider setting up main SCO bodies on 1 January 2004, namely the secretariat in Beijing and the headquarters of a regional anti-terrorist agency in Tashkent. Li Zhaoxing, Chinese Foreign Minister, met his Uzbek counterpart Sadyk Safaev on Thursday and the ministers discussed issues of trade and economic relations, as well as situation in Afghanistan, the local media reported, adding that the sides noted similarity of views of Uzbekistan and China on security and stability in the world and region, fighting terrorism and other international issues. An inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism was signed as a result of the meeting. On Thursday a man accused by the Uzbek authorities of blowing up eight people in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan confessed his guilt and membership in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) at a news conference. The practice of getting alleged criminals confess with media coverage is common in the country, whose justice system has been widely criticised by rights groups especially for alleged systematic use of torture. "In October 2001 I left Afghanistan and travelled via Iran and Turkey to (Kyrgyzstan) where I was given US $20,000 dollars to blow up the US embassy," Azizbek Karimov reportedly said, adding that he had subsequently decided not to attack the heavily guarded embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek but had carried out the bombing of a market which killed seven people in December last year and a bomb attack on a currency exchange in the second city Osh in May, which killed one person. The IMU carried out a series of cross-border insurgencies in Central Asia from bases in Afghanistan until it was crushed by US-led forces in 2001. Meanwhile, in neighbouring Turkmenistan, the region's most reclusive state, four Ministry of Internal Affairs agents seized Sazak Begmedov, 77, on Sunday in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabad, and forced him onto a flight for Dashauz, near the border with Uzbekistan, sending him into an internal exile. The incident occurred 12 days after Begmedov’s daughter, Turkmen exile Tajigul Begmedova, founded the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation, a new human rights group based in Bulgaria to address human rights abuses in the ex-Soviet republic, HRW said in a statement on Monday. Sazak Begmedov, a former deputy prosecutor general, has spent the past year challenging the legality of the government’s actions against his family. Going north to Kazakhstan, amendments proposed to the national election law were facing criticism from non-governmental organisations, who put forth that the Kazakh government wanted to reduce the ability of independent observers to monitor 2004 parliamentary elections. The draft law can affect the ability of local NGOs to mount election monitoring efforts. Under the proposed amendments, those organisations and NGOs that receive external financial support would not be prohibited from deploying election observers or publishing polling data. Natalia Chumakova, head of the Centre for Democracy Support, a local NGO based in Almaty, country's commercial capital, reportedly said that many civic society groups in Kazakhstan depended on assistance from international organisations. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported that delegations representing 18 religious confessions were expected to attend a congress of world and traditional religions in the Kazakh capital Astana on 23 and 24 September. "The congress will discuss burning issues such as overcoming the crisis of civilizations and world religions joining efforts to resolve conflicts," the report said. In the neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, the removal of a statue of the Bolshevik, leader Vladimir Lenin from the centre of Bishkek on Wednesday prompted opposition communist members of parliament to schedule a vote of no confidence in the Kyrgyz government for later this week. Kyrgyzstan's Communist Party leader Absamat Masaliev reportedly told journalists that the ex-Soviet republic owed its establishment to the Soviet powers and Lennin, rejecting the government's reported explanation that the statue was incompatible with celebrations of the 2,200th anniversary of the emergence of the Kyrgyz people. The six-metre 17 mt bronze statue of Lennin stood in the central square of the capital until last month, when it was moved to a nearby park.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join