Weekly news wrap

World Media Freedom Day was marked in Central Asia this week amid reports of recent attacks on journalists. Human Rights Watch, an international rights watchdog, wrote to Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev on Monday urging him to halt the continued harassment of independent journalists in the country. In April, Chingiz Sydykov, the 21-year-old son of Zamira Sydykova, a former political prisoner and editor-in-chief of the independent Respublica newspaper, was attacked by four unidentified assailants who made no attempt to rob him. Sydykov suffered concussion and serious injuries. "We urge you to put a stop to undue government pressure on Kyrgyzstan's independent media outlets, to ensure that journalists can work in safety, and to reform criminal libel and civil defamation laws, which are too often exploited for political ends," said Rachel Denber, acting executive director for HRW's Europe and Central Asia Division. The HRW letter followed comments by the British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, one of the most outspoken diplomats on human rights in the country, who slammed the Uzbek media on Sunday, saying that it was not telling the truth to the people but serving as official propaganda, AP reported. Censorship was officially abolished in Uzbekistan in 2002, but all editors have been warned about deviating from the official line. On Thursday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a world media freedom watchdog, deplored the attack on Mukhamed Berdiyev, the Moscow correspondent of the Turkmen service of the US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), who was beaten up last week. He lay badly injured in his apartment for three days without being able to call for help. He suffered injuries to his head, eyes and ribs. RSF said that the simple fact of working for RFE/RL's Turkmen service was sufficient reason for harassment by the Turkmen authorities, urging Russian prosecutor-general Vladimir Ustinov to intervene. "We believe the Turkmen security services could be behind this attack on Berdiyev and we urge you to open an investigation to find those responsible and punish them in an exemplary fashion," RSF said. Earlier this year, RFE/RL journalists Rakhim Esenov and Ashyrguly Bayryev were arrested by agents of the Turkmen national security ministry in the capital, Ashgabat. The authorities warned them to stop working for the radio, before releasing them. Turkmenistan was recently named one of the 10 most dangerous countries for journalists to work in by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Still in Turkmenistan, President Saparmurat Niyazov has agreed to allow international observers into the country's prisons, a Western diplomat was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday. The Turkmen leader said there were no obstacles to giving international observers access to prisons, the diplomat said. However, according to Dutch consul Vitali von Riessen, President Niyazov's offer did not include access to the dozens of people convicted of attempting to assassinate the president in November 2002. "We won't let anybody to visit those involved in terrorist activity," von Riessen quoted Niyazov as telling diplomats on Wednesday at the end of military exercises at the Kelyata military range, 60 km west of the capital, AP reported. In Uzbekistan, the US government handed over equipment worth more than US $500,000 to the Uzbek Defence Ministry, border troops of the National Security Service and State Customs Committee, the Uzbek media reported on Saturday. Specialised equipment was delivered to Uzbekistan within the framework of the Export Control and Related Border Security Assistance (EXBS) and Aviation and Interdiction Project (AIP) programmes, financed by the US Department of State. Uzbekistan has received assistance worth around $7 million since the launch of EXBS in the country in 2000. In Tajikistan, representatives of Central Asian states and Russia gathered in the capital, Dushanbe, on Monday for a four-day event to check the degree of preparedness for joint actions to eliminate the aftermath of a devastating earthquake modelled by means of computers, the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported. Islom Usmonov, the deputy Tajik minister of emergency situations, said the seminar would prompt Central Asian states to step up operational collaboration in the event of a real emergency on a national or regional scale. Central Asia is prone to various natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides and floods. Russia is planning to pull its main military force out of Tajikistan, the Russian Ekho Moskvy radio said on Monday. Mikhail Margelov, head of the Committee of International Affairs of the upper house of the Russian parliament, said that the division which has been deployed in Tajikistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union could now be withdrawn as Tajik security forces were able to handle the challenges on their own. "It is evident that the Tajik security forces and the sub-units that are tasked with combating drug trafficking have grown in strength over the past few years," he said. Meanwhile, in Kazakhstan, a new political party that grew out of Kazakhstan's leading opposition movement has been formally registered with the authorities, AP reported. The Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan party received a registration certificate from the Justice Ministry on Tuesday, the party's leader, Asylbek Kozhakhmetov, said. "We are now going to claim our right to take part in the election process," he said. The DCK is the 10th officially registered political party in Kazakhstan, five of which support President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The DCK seeks to curtail presidential powers and establish a parliamentary democracy. Also on Tuesday, Kazakhstan's political parties pledged to ensure ethical and fair campaigning ahead of this year's parliamentary elections. The country's then nine registered parties signed a charter on Tuesday committing themselves to abide by the law and avoid smear campaigns before the poll, which is scheduled for later this year, though no exact date has yet been set. The parties, including the pro-presidential ones, also pledged not to use government funding and other state resources in their campaigns. "Pro-government parties have the entire administrative resource on their side, but having signed the charter they assume moral responsibility not to use it," the leader of the opposition Ak Zhol party, Bolat Abilov, was quoted by AP as saying.