Weekly news wrap

Westerns diplomats this week in Uzbekistan have pointed towards increasing poverty and political repression as forces likely to radicalise Uzbeks, whose average wages are just a dollar a day, media reports say. Their comments follows a spate of violence in late March and early April - including suicide bombings in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent - claiming the lives of at least 47 people. While government officials attribute the attacks to Islamic radicals and Al-Qaeda inspired terrorist cells, activists in Central Asia's most populous state warn of a further crackdown on human rights. On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Tashkent of arbitrarily detaining and harassing dozens of independent Muslim women, indicating a broadening of the government's crackdown on non-violent Muslims - many of whom were relatives of men currently imprisoned for their religious beliefs or practices. A staunch US ally in the war against terror, the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov has long been criticised for it human rights record and lack of political reform. Uzbekistan plays an important role on the US military map, extending the Pentagon's reach to the north of Afghanistan through a base in the desert close to the Uzbek-Afghan border. Washington sent troops into Afghanistan from the base in 2001 and later increased US aid to Tashkent 10-fold to almost US $90 million. On Thursday, the UN Commission on Human Rights, at its annual session in Geneva, adopted the second-ever resolution on Turkmenistan. In it, the Commission expressed "grave concern" over ongoing human rights violations and called on the authorities, to release all prisoners of conscience and "to submit reports to all relevant United Nations treaty bodies and to ensure full implementation of their recommendations." On Tuesday, the Turkmen Ministry of Justice rejected a request for registration by the independent Catena Ecological Club. The case was seen by many observers as a litmus test for Ashgabat's commitment to allow freedom of association and civil society activities. Also on Thursday, 18 human rights activists were arrested for attempting to march from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to the prison where jailed opposition leader, Felix Kulov is currently serving a 10-year sentence. About 200 people reportedly gathered in the capital for the march in an effort to draw local and international attention to the former vice president and interior minister, who was jailed in 2000 while running for parliament and president on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement. At the time, Kulov was considered the only viable challenger to Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev, who has ruled the former Soviet republic since the mountainous state gained its independence in 1991. The protest came one day before the prime ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) member countries met in the northeastern Kyrgyz resort town of Cholpan-Ata located on Lake Issyk-Kul to discuss the fight against terrorism, as well as illegal migration issues. Participants were looking for wider multilateral cooperation by the CIS member-countries in the economic and humanitarian areas, as well as further discussion around the Council's organisational and administrative issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry reportedly said. And in Tajikistan, some 150 people gathered in the capital, Dushanbe, on Thursday as part of a regional mine action conference. Sponsored by the Tajik government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the two-day event endeavored to highlight some of the issues of landmine usage in the region, as well as promote a greater understanding of the Ottawa Convention, which calls for prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personal mines and their destruction. Of the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are state parties to the Convention. Tajikistan needs $13 million for the clearing of its territory of mines within five years, Deputy Prime Minister Saidamir Zuhurov said. According to the Russian ITAR-TASS report, donors had issued about $1 million for the cause thus far. During Thursday's session, Chinese Ambassador to Tajikistan, Wu Hongbin suggested his country's willingness to finance mine eradication efforts in the region, another ITAR-TASS report explained, without giving exact details. Experts maintain some 16,000 anti-personal mines may still remain on Tajik soil following that country's bloody five year civil war from 1993 to 1997.