Weekly news wrap

Protests continued in southern Kyrgystan this week against what demonstrators said was a flawed parliamentary poll on 27 February. Thousands of opposition supporters demanded President Askar Akayev resign as they protested over alleged election violations, local media reported. The protests began a week ago after opposition candidates alleged widespread fraud in the polls. The vote was criticised by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as falling short of democratic standards. About 1,000 people rallied on Wednesday in front of the regional government building in the provincial city of Jalal-Abad, which had been occupied by more than 100 protesters for a sixth day, said Orozaly Karasartov, spokesman for the regional administration. The protesters refuse to recognise their candidate's election defeat, saying it was a result of fraud and they demanded he be allowed to stand in the 13 March run-offs. About 1,000 people also protested in front of the district administration in the town of Ozgon, 20 km southwest of Jalal-Abad calling for Akayev to resign and demanding free elections, according to police and human rights activists. About 400 people demonstrated in front of the regional administration building in the provincial capital of Osh on Wednesday, also demanding Akayev's removal from power, said the coalition of civic groups for Democracy and Civil Society. On Tuesday, the OSCE's Bishkek office criticised the protesters for occupying government buildings and blocking roads. ``The election shortcomings may not be a reason for occupying government buildings and blocking roads," OSCE Ambassador, Markus Muller, said in a statement. While Tajik opposition leaders, like their Kyrgyz counterparts, complained bitterly about voting irregularities in the parliamentary poll there, also held on 27 February, efforts to protest the results petered out this week. In the days immediately following the vote - which according to OSCE monitors featured ballot-stuffing and other improprieties - leaders of the main opposition political parties tried to organise public protests and a parliamentary boycott. But the call to protest has not been heeded by the Tajik public. An article on the Eurasianet news website attributes the apathy to the fact that the country is still recovering from the effects of the 1992-97 civil war and that an overwhelming majority appear anxious to avoid any type of disturbance that could provoke political violence. In other developments, regional border sensitivities were highlighted this week with reports of the arrest and detention of a Kazkh police officer by Uzbek border guards. The incident happened on 4 March, according to the press service of the Kazakh interior ministry. Police Captain Ayan Bekenbetov intervened in a dispute between Uzbek border guards and two women on the border. The Uzbeks allegedly "strayed four metres into the Republic of Kazakhstan" and forcibly escorted the Kazkh policeman across the border where he was placed under arrest for 24 hours. Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, making the first visit by a Pakistani head of state for almost a decade, was in Central Asia this week. Musharraf arrived in Uzbekistan on Saturday, where he signed an agreement on joint efforts to fight international terrorism. During talks in Tashkent, Musharraf and Uzbek President Islam Karimov discussed efforts to hunt down militants in Waziristan on the Pakistani border with Afghanistan. Musharraf went on to met Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev on Monday in the capital, Bishkek, to discuss electricity exports to Pakistan, cooperation in education and the reconstruction of post-war Afghanistan, said Akayev's spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev. On Tuesday, the two leaders signed three agreements and a joint statement on cooperation, exemption of visas for diplomatic and official passport holders, education, as well as cooperation between state news agencies. Pakistan has long expressed interest in building road and rail links with the energy-rich countries of Central Asia, though plans to build a pipeline to carry gas from Turkmenistan has been on hold due to instability in nearby Afghanistan. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has been sacking government officials again. On Monday, Niyazov signed a decree dismissing Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov from the post of deputy prime minister, the presidential press service told Interfax. Earlier, at a cabinet meeting, he criticised the Foreign Ministry for lack of consistency and a principled approach to the tasks it is facing. Niyazov demanded that Meredov show a more responsible attitude to the criticism and dismissed him from the post of deputy prime minister.