Weekly news wrap

A mission from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has completed inspecting preparations for parliamentary and local elections in Uzbekistan scheduled for December, the local media reported on Tuesday. Only pro-government parties have been registered to run, while opposition parties have been barred from the polls. It depends on the mission's conclusions whether the OSCE will send observers to the parliamentary election, a spokesman for the OSCE centre in Tashkent, told the Russian Interfax news agency. Religious minorities have been under attack from Uzbek authorities, Forum 18, the Norwegian-based religious freedom watchdog, reported on Thursday. In the latest of several attacks on Protestants, Uzbek security forces raided a prayer meeting of the Greater Grace church in the central Uzbek province of Samarkand, the group said. An Uzbek official allegedly claimed that religious meetings in private homes were illegal and all unregistered religious activity was banned and those involved could face heavy penalties. Begzot Kadyrov, an official of the government's religious affairs committee, denied that this violates the right to meet freely for worship with fellow believers, as guaranteed under international human rights agreements that Uzbekistan has signed. Tajik authorities are set to give 3.5 km strip of land to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan so that the road linking the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh with Isfana, centre of the southwestern Leylek district bordering Tajikistan, could be straightened, Kyrgyz media reported on Monday. The road will be constructed bypassing a couple of Tajik villages and will shorten the distance, along with eliminating transit inconveniences for Kyrgyz travellers, including border and customs checks. According to some estimates, the bypass will be constructed within six months, using funds from the European Union worth more than US $2 million. The recent move by Dushanbe could lead the way in resolving many of Central Asia's borders issues. Borders in the region were drawn during Stalin's rule and were simply administrative in Soviet times. There may be up to 800,000 labour migrants from Tajikistan in Russia, the Tajik Avesta news agency reported on Tuesday. According to non-official estimates, there are between 600,000 and 800,000 illegal labour migrants from Tajikistan in Russia, Igor Yunash, deputy head of the Russian federal migration service said. On Wednesday, the Kyrgyz government said it was blocking controversial plans to import nuclear waste from Britain and Germany for reprocessing. The government said in a statement it was banning imports of uranium-bearing graphite for reprocessing at the Kara-Balta ore reprocessing facility, about 30 km west of the capital, Bishekek. The announcement came after British media announced that British Nuclear Fuels would be sending 1,800 mt of such material from its first generation Magnox reactors to Kara-Balta. The ban also applies to a plan approved by a Kyrgyz government commission in June by which a German firm RWE NUKEM GmbH was to send 1,700 mt of a similar material for reprocessing at Kara-Balta. The decision was made due to an absence of guarantees concerning the safe-keeping of uranium-bearing material and in accordance with international security norms, the government statement read. Tajikistan needs $20 million in international assistance for the rehabilitation of 22 radioactive waste dumps, the Tajik media reported on Thursday. Zayd Saidov, Tajik Minister of Industry reportedly said that it needed to study conditions of radioactive waste dumps inside the country, eight of which are in the town of Chkalovsk in the northern Soghd region. Waste dumps in Tajikistan are a legacy of the Soviet Union; a uranium-reprocessing plant used to function in Chkalovsk and its waste was dumped around the town. Abduqodir Maskayev, head of the inspectorate for state control over the use and protection of land and the utilisation of waste, said they were concerned about the fact that, with the onset of rainy and windy weather, there was a danger of radioactive elements polluting the water, since some of the dumps were located on the banks of the Syrdarya river and water polluted by uranium could harm people's health and the environment. Meanwhile in Turkmenistan, the Russian-based Memorial human rights centre, reported that dozens of internally displaced residents from Darvaz village, some 200 km north from the capital, Ashgabat, were now living in tents. According to Memorial, earlier in June while flying to Dashoguz, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said he didn't like the view of the village houses and gave the order to demolish them. Darvaz inhabitants were given land from the government in some settlements some 100 km away from the capital, but no assistance to construct new homes.