Weekly news wrap

This week started with a bang when car outside the Tajik Emergency Ministry in Dushanbe exploded on Monday, killing the driver and injuring passers-by. Despite initial speculation that the blast was the work of terrorists in the lead up to parliamentary elections on 27 February, others attributed it to a simple gas leak. But by Wednesday, this theory had been largely discounted, suggesting the explosion had been deliberate, although a motive remained unclear. Democracy and upcoming elections dominated the news throughout much of the region, particularly in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev reaffirmed his government's opposition to any interference in its own parliamentary elections slated for the same day as Tajikistan's. "It is very important for us that the general elections should pass in a democratic way, openly and honestly and what's the main thing - under conditions of peace and stability in the republic," the premier reportedly said. According to the Russian Itar-Tass agency report, leading Kyrgyz politicians regard the coming parliamentary elections as a dress rehearsal for the presidential elections slated for October. Later in the week, the BBC reported Kyrgyz opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva as saying the country was ripe for democratic change, similar to events that had swept away authoritarian Soviet-style regimes in Ukraine and Georgia. "We are not talking about a revolution, but a peaceful, orderly and constitutional transfer of power," she reportedly said. On Thursday, Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev accused the opposition of seeking support from Washington in the elections by encouraging the US to quarrel with Moscow over the former Soviet republic. "Often I have an impression that our opposition tries to bring the United States and Russia against each other in Kyrgyzstan," the Associated Press (AP) quoted the president as saying. However, speaking at a meeting with ambassadors from the member nations of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Tuesday, Akayev said he was confident that international election observers would be neutral in their work in the country, another AP report said. Growing concern over a possible Ukraine or Georgia-type 'velvet revolution' had earlier prompted Kyrgyz authorities to disqualify leading opposition candidates from participating in February's ballots, as well as proposing new legislation banning all non-sanctioned public gatherings. Akaev has repeatedly warned that unrest would be met with full military force. Kyrgyz rights activists on Monday called on the OSCE to review its assistance to law enforcement agencies in the country, believing Bishkek should only receive financial aid as long as human rights were being observed in the country. "The activities of Kyrgyzstan's police structures do not correspond with the demands and standards of democracy, which is why the OSCE should review its rules on providing financial assistance to law enforcement structures," human rights campaigner, Tokekan Ismailova, reportedly said. On Tuesday, Tashkent said it was trying to wipe out torture in the country, described by a 2002 UN report as "systematic" in its jails. While Foreign Minister Sadyk Safayev acknowledged that a man had been tortured to death in prison just two weeks earlier, he maintained significant steps had been taken over the last year to implement the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Theo van Boven's 2002 report. "We continue to think that serious steps to complete elimination of human rights abuses in penitentiary institutions are essential for the further humanisation of Uzbek society," he said. Human right activists have long denounced what they call an appalling human rights record in Central Asia's most populous state, the Reuters report added. And in Kazakhstan, about 2,000 opposition activists on Saturday protested at the closure of that country's Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK) party in Almaty. The DCK was ordered closed by a 6 January court ruling following accusations of extremism, as well as calling for the overthrow of the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a charge the party has flatly denied. "The authorities' moves against the DCK are aimed at the complete elimination of political opposition in Kazakhstan," the AP reported party chairman Asylbek Kozhakhmetov as saying. On Tuesday, the Coordinating Council of Opposition Democratic Forces of Kazakhstan announced it was setting up a working group to establish a new national movement. In conditions of growing political and administrative pressure on civil institutions, the council considered it necessary to set up efforts to try and unite all progressive forces in the country, the Russian Interfax news agency reported a committee statement as saying. The council was founded by three opposition parties - Ak Zhol, the Communist Party, and the DCK - in October 2004, the report added. Meanwhile in Turkmenistan, autocratic leader Saparmurat Niyazov on Wednesday insisted that presidential elections must eventually be held in the largely desert, energy rich state, despite repeated decisions by loyal legislators pronouncing him president for life. Speaking on national television, the AP quoted Niyazov as saying that voters must be able to choose a president from three or four candidates, falling short of offering a possible date. Niyazov, who was declared president for life in 1999, has single handedly ruled the hermit like state since it gained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.