Weekly news wrap

The week in Central Asia started with reports of Kazakh authorities placing jailed opposition leader, Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, into a punishment cell for allegedly refusing to do prison work. The AP reported on Saturday that the move against Zhakiyanov came as his Democratic Choice party battles its court-ordered closure earlier this month for extremism - an allegation denied by the party. Zhakiyanov was convicted in 2002 on corruption charges, which his supporters and international rights groups contend were politically motivated. Observers see the closure of Democratic Choice as part of a fresh crackdown by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on the opposition to ensure his re-election after his current seven-year term expires in January 2006. Staying in Kazakhstan, it was reported that there was a shortage of tuberculosis (TB) vaccines in the country. A total of 85,000 children have not been vaccinated against TB since December 2004, according to the Kazakh health ministry. The vaccines are expected to arrive in February as Russian-made vaccines that had been used in the country earlier were banned after failure to comply with Kazakh standards. The World Bank is expected to grant US $25 million for the implementation of the first regional project on HIV/AIDS in Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, regional World Bank Director for Central Asia, Dennis De Tray, said on Wednesday in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty. "The proposed regional project to prevent HIV/AIDS epidemic in Central Asia is an important step to control its spread and avoid the huge costs an epidemic would bring,” said De Tray. According to the bank's “Central Asia AIDS Study”, regional countries are highly vulnerable to a serious HIV/AIDS crisis over the next 20 years. Without concerted action, there could be the rapid development over four to five years of an HIV/AIDS epidemic concentrated among injecting drug users and achieving very high prevalence levels in this group, followed by a generalised epidemic developing over 15-30 years, with sexual transmission as the predominant mode. The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) and Astana on Thursday signed five projects aimed at fighting the illegal narcotics trade and drug addiction as part of the fourth special meeting of the UN Counter-terrorism committee (CTC). The total amount of the projects is some $9 million. In Kyrgyzstan, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed an agreement on Monday to provide Bishkek with a $32.8 million loan to reconstruct a road that links the former Soviet republic with China. The loan will be used to finance the reconstruction of a 124 km section of the road that links the southern Kyrgyz town of Osh with northwestern China, the bank said. The same road also connects Kyrgyzstan with neighbouring Uzbekistan. The loan has been provided for 31 years, the government's press service said. The landlocked country has been looking for ways to expand access to regional markets and enhance trade with regional neighbours. In Turkmenistan, Ashgabat called on Wednesday for the five Caspian Sea countries in dispute over how to divide the resource-rich sea to seek international arbitration or United Nations help. In a written statement, the Turkmen foreign ministry hinted that talks over the 14-year dispute between the Caspian countries, including Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, were getting nowhere. The Caspian descended into a virtual legal free-for-all when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The dispute has held back development of the region's enormous energy resources, while poaching of the endangered beluga sturgeon, prized for its caviar, has gone virtually unchecked, observers say. In Tajikistan, some 70 observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Russian Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing Dushanbe's Central Elections Commission (CEC). Around 400 observers from international organisations and foreign countries, and 6,000 national observers are expected to monitor the Tajik parliamentary pools. The 63 deputies of the lower house of the Tajik parliament are to be elected on 27 February, while elections to the upper house, comprising 33 senators, will take place on 24 March. The US and Tajikistan signed food aid agreements that would benefit some 400,000 in the Central Asian country, the US-based Counterpart International, a non-profit development organisation, reported on Wednesday. The document would allow the Food Aid Consortium for Tajikistan (FACT), comprising Counterpart International, CARE, Mercy Corps and Save the Children US, to improve the lives of beneficiaries through the shipment and sale of food commodities to finance life-changing humanitarian and developmental activities. FACT's member organisations will use the wheat flour and vegetable oil to fund their continuing work in community health, nutrition and sanitation. Some of the goods will also be sold to generate funds to support work in irrigation and sanitation systems rehabilitation, as well as the improvement of agricultural production.