Weekly news wrap

The early part of the week was dominated by reports from Uzbekistan's parliamentary poll that took place on Sunday, 26 December. European election monitors condemned the elections, saying they did not meet international standards. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which sent 21 observers to Uzbekistan, said the vote was neither competitive nor transparent in a contest where all opposition parties had been banned from taking part. "Regrettably, the implementation of the election legislation by the authorities failed to ensure a pluralistic, competitive and transparent election," said Lubomir Kopaj, who headed the OSCE observation mission. It said the five parties taking part were so similar that voters were deprived of significant choice. All of them supported President Islam Karimov, the powerful leader who has run Uzbekistan for almost 20 years. In contrast, Uzbek TV news said the Russian observer mission had pronounced the elections free, fair and transparent. "Observing the Uzbek elections I see that the polls are progressing in line with democratic principles and voters do not face any obstacles," a Malaysian observer with Moscow's mission was quoted as saying, in an interview. Russian observer Yuriy Kashlev said that everything was "in great order". The vote ended a year of growing public discontent over lack of freedom and a gloomy business climate, as well as a series of deadly attacks blamed on radical Islamic groups. A branch of the Soros Foundation in Kazakhstan on Thursday strongly denied charges of tax evasion by the authorities, describing the allegations as politically motivated. "It seems that the Kazakh government wants to close down the foundation," Dariusz Zietek, head of the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan (SFK), told IRIN from the commercial capital, Almaty, on Thursday. "The whole story is politically motivated." His remarks follow this week's announcement by Kazakh financial officials that a criminal investigation had been opened against the acclaimed foundation funded by billionaire American financier George Soros, which has been active in Central Asia's largest nation since 1993. Kazakh officials maintain the Soros Foundation failed to pay some US $400,000 in back taxes it owned since 2001, plus some $200,000 in penalties. But according to Zietek, the taxes in question remain a source of debate, although they actually paid the bill in full before an appeal was lodged this autumn. A Kazakh prosecutor demanded on Wednesday that a court close down one of the country's main opposition parties, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK), saying it had breached state security, according to a Reuters report quoting DCK. The party, along with opposition allies, had accused President Nursultan Nazarbayev of stealing victory in parliamentary elections in September, in which the DCK was not credited with a single vote. The party said the prosecutor had filed the suit at a court in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty in an attempt to avenge that criticism. ``The reason is a political declaration adopted at the party's last session, which summarised the results of dishonest and unfair elections to the Mazhilis [lower chamber] of parliament,'' the DCK said in a statement. The DCK is led by Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, a former governor of Pavlodar province who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2002 for abuse of power. Over 900 Afghan refugees living in the Tajik capital Dushanbe and the northern city of Khujand will move to Canada for permanent resettlement between the second part of January and mid-2005. They have successfully passed an examination held in Dushanbe and Khujand from September to October 2004 by representatives from the Canadian embassy in Moscow, a representative of the Tajik office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR), Galiya Gubayeva, told Asia-Plus on Monday. She said currently the process was under way to prepare exit documents for the refugees. She said the emigration of Afghan refugees to Canada was taking place under a relevant programme implemented by the UNHCR and the Canadian government. There are 2,500 Afghan refugees currently residing in Tajikistan, Gubayeva added. A UPI report on Monday said Kazakhstan has joined the international Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the law allowing the central Asian country to join the convention. The Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, signed in Vienna in 1979, and in New York a year later, obliges contracting countries to ensure protection of nuclear material within their territory or on their ships or aircraft during international transport. The convention provides a framework for international cooperation in protection, recovery and return of stolen nuclear material, as well as the application of criminal sanctions against anyone who commits criminal acts involving nuclear material. The sale, theft and smuggling of nuclear material is an issue of growing concern in Central Asia where all five former Soviet republics have nuclear facilities in various states of decay. The United States on Monday signed a food aid deal with Tajikistan that is expected to help nearly 400,000 people in this impoverished nation, the US embassy in Dushanbe said. Under the deal, Washington will supply wheat flour and vegetable oil to a consortium of aid groups working in Tajikistan. The Food Aid Consortium for Tajikistan, which is made up of CARE, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and the Counterpart Consortium, will distribute the aid to pregnant women and new mothers. Some of the supplies will be sold to raise funds for irrigation, domestic water supply and agricultural projects, the statement said. Tajikistan is one of the poorest ex-Soviet republics. It is still struggling with the aftermath of a civil war in the mid-1990s between the Moscow-backed secular government and the mostly Islamic opposition. In other developments, Astana announced on Wednesday it would start building a rail link connecting Southeast Asia with the European Union, Transport Minister Kazhymurat Nagmanov said. The 3,000 km link is estimated to cost between US $3.5 billion and US $4 billion and is to be completed within 15 years. It will connect China via Kazakhstan with Turkmenistan and Turkey. The link is designed to be an alternative to the Trans-Siberia railway in Russia's far east, which also connects Asia with Europe, as well as to ocean shipments. Kazakhstan and Russia foresee that freight transit between Europe and Asia will be very lucrative. Once built, the Kazakh link will have an advantage over the Russian alternative: the Kazakh railway will be of international gauge, while the Russian rail system is 12.7 cm wider, designed to slow down an enemy during the world wars of the 20th century.