Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia the BBC reported that anti-government feeling is still running high in Uzbekistan's markets and bazaars after an unprecedented outbreak of violence in the republic last month. In early November, merchants in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan's most populous region, set fire to cars and chased customs police out of bazaars after officials tried to impose a series of new trading restrictions. Now some voices in the international diplomatic community warn that the anger in the markets could spread. Markets and bazaars are a key part of economic activity in Uzbekistan. Yet the government is not about to give in, insisting that the restrictions it is imposing on trading in the bazaars are part of an effort to eradicate the black economy. Uzbekistant is among the poorest of the countries in the Russia-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), with annual income per head averaging about US $400 and, according to World Bank estimates, nearly 30 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Tajikistan's four main opposition parties on Tuesday criticised Europe's security organisation for ignoring the government's alleged crackdown on dissent in the country. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has failed to respond to authorities' recent moves to shut down opposition newspapers and persecute opposition leaders, said a statement from the Democratic, Social, Islamic Rebirth and Social Democratic parties. The independent newspapers Ruzi Nav and Nerui Sukhan, as well as the opposition Najot newspaper, were forced to shut in August after authorities closed their printer for alleged tax violations. The Jiyonkhon printing house was the only one that had agreed to print the papers. Authorities also recently launched probes into leaders of the Democratic and Development parties, steps that the opposition said were part of a government crackdown on dissent ahead of parliamentary polls in February. The acting head of the OSCE office in Tajikistan, Andrei Shugurov, said on Tuesday the absence of ``loud'' statements from the organisation did not mean it was silent on the matter. In August, the OSCE criticised the closure of the Jiyonkhon printing house and said that other recent setbacks to Tajikistan's independent media marked ``a worrying backward step.'' President Emomali Rakhmonov has maintained a tight grip on Tajikistan since he first came to power in 1994. And with elections in other republics due early in 2005, 43 candidates from the opposition Popular Movement of Kyrgyzstan will be participating in the elections scheduled for February 27, 2005, said party leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Tuesday. "We decided to nominate 43 candidates for 43 out of the 75 polling districts. At the same time, we will support candidates from movements holding similar positions," he said. He believed that the elections will be held in two rounds. "Judging by a great number of candidates, one can assume that there will be two rounds," Bakiyev said. He did not rule out "a situation when none of the candidates wins, in which case parliament can extend the powers of the president for another two years to enable the government to prepare a new leader." Other political organisations are likely to join the Popular Movement, Bakiyev added. The Popular Movement comprises nine opposition parties, including the Communist Party, Republican Party, Asaba (Banner) Party, Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan, Freedom Party, and Free Kyrgyzstan Party, and totals 93,500 members. In other election news from the region, a total of 139 people will run in Turkmenistan's 19 December parliamentary elections, the republic's Central Elections Commission told Interfax on Friday. About 1,610 polling stations have been set up in the country's 50 electoral districts. Turkmenistan's rubber stamp parliament is composed of 50 seats. The election commission, at a Thursday session, voted to approve the composition of the country's observer mission, which will be led by the presidential institute for democracy and human rights. Turkmenistan has not invited international observers to the polls, but the Central Elections Commission is ready to consider any applications from international organisations and foreign countries, the commission said. The World Bank said on Wednesday it was giving Kyrgyzstan US $38 million in loans and grants for agricultural, education and infrastructure projects. The funds approved by the bank's board of directors on Tuesday will help develop the country's agriculture market and increase sales of farm goods at home and abroad, the bank said in a statement. The money will also be used to publish new textbooks for primary and secondary schools, improve the country's education and improve infrastructure in small towns, the bank said. The World Bank is one of the impoverished ex-Soviet republic's major donors and has so far committed US $718 million in loans to Kyrgyzstan. Officials from the European Commission (EC) and the OSCE said on Wednesday that they are concerned about possible violations of human rights in Kazakhstan if a bill on preventing extremist activities and amendments to certain laws on extremism are enacted in their present shape. The Kazakh parliament is currently considering the bills. The head of the EC delegation to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Alan Waddams, told a forum on extremism in the capital Astana that although the EC recognises the legitimate purpose of these documents, the bill is composed of vague provisions. While agreeing that the state must have the right to protect itself and its citizens, Waddams said it is necessary to provide a balance between the government's efforts in fighting terrorism and excessive restriction of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The head of the OSCE centre in the Kazkh commercial capital Almaty, Ivar Vikki, told the forum that the OSCE believes the bill must enable the state to provide proper protection for its security and the rights of its citizens. Moscow announced on Tuesday that it planed to set up a regional centre to step up the fight against the drug threat coming from Afghanistan. "We are planning to set up a Central Asian regional information and coordination centre, which might become an important component in anti-drug 'security belts'," Deputy Director of the Federal Service for Drugs Trade Control Aleksandr Fedorov said. Fedorov was speaking in Moscow at the 6th meeting of the countries which have signed the Central Asian memorandum on mutual understanding on regional cooperation in drugs trade control. A day later Russian border guards announced they had prevented over 50 attempts of drug trafficking on the Tajik-Afghan border and seized over three mt of drugs this year, Director of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev said. Patrushev added that Russian border guards in Tajikistan had 21 armed clashes with people attempting to cross the border and came under fire six times. As a result two of them were killed and two more wounded. More than 75 percent of the drugs seized were heroin.