Weekly news wrap

A new torture death of a man in police custody in Uzbekistan on Tuesday was the fifth such death documented since May 2003, when Washington last certified that the country had been making sufficient progress in human rights to qualify for US assistance, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. In the coming weeks, the US State Department is due to again evaluate the Uzbek government's eligibility. Andrei Shelkavenko, 36, allegedly died while in detention at the Buston District Police Precinct in Gazalkent, near the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "The government claims to be making progress on torture, but Shelkavenko's death unfortunately shows otherwise," said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia Division. Police arrested Shelkavenko on the night of 23 April on suspicion of murder. In a sign that Tashkent's post-terror attack clamp down was continuing, Radio Free Europe reported on Thursday that several members of Uzbekistan's Erk Democratic Party and at least one member of the Birlik movement had been arrested or threatened with arrest during the last week. Another opponent of the government, Husniddin Nazarov, has disappeared and - according to one Uzbek opposition website - is also under arrest. Neither Erk nor Birlik is officially registered with Uzbek authorities, though both groups hope to compete in parliamentary elections this December. The recent arrests represent a serious setback to their registration efforts. Gulomjon Kholmatov, from Uzbekistan's eastern Namangan region, was one of the Erk leaders to be arrested. He is facing charges of illegal opium cultivation. Atanazar Aripov, another Erk leader, says two other party members have been warned during the past several days that they, too, could face charges, this time for their activities with Erk. Heavy rains sent floodwaters surging across Tajikistan, killing four shepherds in the country's north and washing away roads in the south, officials said on Thursday. The shepherds were tending about 2,600 goats and sheep in Sughd province when the rains hit on Wednesday, and they drowned in high water, said Emergency Ministry spokesman Lt Col Sirojiddin Mulloev. Only 580 of their animals were saved, he said. In the southern region of Khatlon, floodwaters washed out the road between Shibanai village and Sovet town, while flood walls along the banks of two rivers were destroyed, Mulloev said. The capital, Dushanbe, was also hit on Wednesday by strong rains that sent water surging through the main streets. Heavy rains that cause floods are common in mountainous Tajikistan, the poorest of Central Asia's former Soviet republics. Kyrgyzstan's leading opposition parties announced on Thursday that they had set up a group to seek free and fair elections, appointing a senior government official as its head. The Civic Union for Fair Elections will oversee compliance with election laws in the run-up to and during the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005, said opposition lawmaker Adakham Madumarov. The new group's chairman, Misir Ashirkulov, who also heads the country's Security Council, said he supported the opposition leaders' initiative because the authorities were interested in fair elections. "We don't want a revolutionary transition of power,'' he said. "There will be no Georgian scenario if the elections are fair,'' he said, referring to last year's so-called 'rose revolution' in Georgia when protesters forced President Eduard Shevardnadze to step down. Kyrgyzstan's president on Wednesday also pledged that national elections next year would be 'free and fair,'' according to a visiting European official. President Askar Akayev ``stressed his unequivocal commitment to do whatever in his power to ensure that the upcoming elections are free and fair in accordance with international standards,'' Slovenia's Janez Lenarcic told reporters. Lenarcic was one of five ambassadors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) visiting Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan is seen as the most liberal country among the ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia. The elections in 2005 are expected to be a democracy test for Akayev, who has been criticised in recent years for trying to tighten control. Kyrgyzstan's previous parliamentary and presidential polls in 2000 were internationally criticised as neither free nor fair. In Kazakhstan, fifteen new AIDS cases were registered between January and March 2004, the State Statistics Agency has told the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency on Tuesday. In all, 176 new HIV-positive people were also registered in January-March this year, which is 94.1 percent up on the same period of last year. Most of the cases were registered in the commercial capital Almaty. AIDS activists in Central Asia estimate true HIV/AIDS infection rates to be roughly ten times official figures. On Thursday, the same news agency reported that AIDS had been detected in a child for the first time in southern Kazakhstan, quoting the chief doctor of the regional AIDS centre, Suleymen Bekuzhanov. According to the interlocutor, four cases of children infected with HIV have been registered in South Kazakhstan Region in the last three years. Bekuzhanov emphasised that the boy's treatment, including the antiretrovirus therapy, would be free Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has invalidated foreign education certificates in a move putting hundreds of people at a risk of losing government jobs, officials said on Monday. Under Niyazov's order, state organisations can no longer employ people who were educated abroad after 1992 unless they pass a special test, Education Ministry officials said. The tests include questions on Niyazov's own book titled ``Rukhnama,'' the history of Turkmenistan, and the government's national development programme. About 650 people with foreign academic titles, diplomas and degrees must pass the tests to keep their positions, the ministry said. Niyazov called foreign education standards "dubious" and ordered the Education Ministry to prevent organisations offering training in foreign countries from recruiting in Turkmenistan. Human rights activists say the government is deliberately attempting to keep people ignorant in an effort to strengthen Niyazov's rule. Educational standards have declined steeply since the former Soviet republic became independent in 1991, and many Turkmens seek schooling elsewhere. The advance of human rights and democracy across Central Asia was mixed in the past year, the State Department said in a report on Monday. The survey said violence and human rights abuses continue in Turkmenistan. "An authoritarian regime, it continues its highly repressive and capricious policies." the report noted. Torture remains a problem in much of the region, the report added. "The United States is particularly concerned about continued reports of deaths in detention in Uzbekistan,'' the survey said, "and is waiting to see progress made there on UN recommendations for legal reform, including the right of habeas corpus". The report also criticised some governments for restricting press freedom. With important elections coming up in Central Asia, the report said, the US is urging governments to take adequate measures to ensure the entire election process, including campaigns meets international standards.