Weekly news wrap

Political stalemate continued this week in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country where opposition-led protesters ousted president Askar Akayev's regime on 24 March. Although Akayev signed his resignation and submitted it to a group of Kyrgyz parliamentarians at the Kyrgyz embassy in Moscow on Monday, the Kyrgyz parliament failed to accept his resignation this week due to disputes regarding the terms of the agreement. According to the document, the deposed leader retains all the privileges and guarantees laid down under Kyrgyz law - including immunity from prosecution for himself and members of his family. Some legislators claimed that if they were to accept the resignation under the current terms it could spark unrest in the country given that anti-Akayev sentiments are still strong in the former Soviet republic. On Friday, the legislators voted for some amendments to the law, cancelling immunity for president's family and his right to engage in political life, the Kyrgyz Akipress news agency reported. To become effecive the law, it needs to be signed by Kurmanbek Bakiev, the country's prime minister and acting president. The deputies postponed the discussion of Akayev's resignation until 11 April, the report added. Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted Felix Kulov, Akayev's long-time opponent who was freed by opposition supporters following the fall of Akayev's regime. Kulov, a former vice-president, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2001 on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power during his tenure as governor of the northern Chui region. Observers say both Bakiev and Kulov, major opposition leaders, would run for presidency. The polls were initially scheduled for 26 June by the previous parliament, but were later cancelled by the new legislative body and the date is yet to be announced. According to the country's constitution, the presidential elections should be held within three months of a presidential resignation. Unrest mounted in Kyrgyzstan's remote region of Naryn on Thursday as activists occupied the governor's building for a second day and also took control of the Naryn mayor's offices, AFP reported. Around 500 people occupied the office of the governor of this remote mountain region as well as the city mayor's office, said Guljamal Sultanaliyeva, regional director of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, an election monitoring body. The protestors are backing a parliamentary candidate close to ousted president Askar Akayev, Kargabek Samakov, whose win in controversial parliamentary polls was overturned by a district court on Wednesday. Samakov, who continues to work as a member of the parliament pending an appeal, said he had visited Naryn on Thursday, and had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the protestors to vacate the occupied buildings. Staying in Kyrgyzstan, the World Bank reaffirmed its support to the country in a statement on Wednesday. Dennis de Tray, the visiting World Bank Country director for Central Asia, said one of the biggest challenges for the new government was to demonstrate to the Kyrgyz people and the international community real results on the ground. “The World Bank will continue to assist the Kyrgyz Republic in these difficult transition times, and after the presidential elections. We are prepared to provide international expertise, technical assistance and financial support under the current assistance framework and to work with the next government to develop a new assistance strategy,” de Tray said. The World Bank invested more than US $700 million since it started operating in the country in 1992. Kyrgyzstan's annual GDP is close to $2 billion. In Uzbekistan, the World Bank launched a $40 million health project on Saturday, aimed at improving the quality of primary health care and outpatient services, as well as access to cost effective basic health care. The beneficiaries are the population of eight regions of Central Asia's most populous state. By the end of 2009, the number of pregnant women covered by prenatal care is expected to increase by 10 percent, as well as the number of newborns who receive hepatitis B immunisation, according to the project. This would significantly reduce child and mortality rates in Uzbekistan, making a critical contribution to helping the country achieve the Millennium Development Goals, the bank said. Also, 100 percent of pregnant women will have access to HIV testing and to treatment preventing Mother-to-Child transmission. Uzbekistan joined the World Bank in 1992 and the commitments of the international development body to the country total about $600 million as of March 2005. Local authorities in the central Uzbek province of Samarkand were put on alert by the emergency ministry this week prompted by the risk of spring floods and landslides following heavy rains over the past few days, the local Tribune-uz news site reported on Tuesday. According to the Uzbek emergencies ministry, residents of almost two dozen farms were vulnerable and the emergency workers temporarily evacuated them. Five houses in flood-prone areas collapsed after heavy rains in late March, and in February several landslides damaged some houses, with no casualties reported. In Tajikistan, rescue workers evacuated residents of the Kulpista village in Varzob district, 20 km north of the capital, Dushanbe, affected by a massive mudslide, the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Tuesday. According to the ministry, almost half of the farms in the village had been destroyed, with the rest under imminent threat of destruction. Development of a new programme to fight malaria was now under way in Tajikistan, a regional coordinator of the World Health Organization (WHO), Mikhail Yezhov, reportedly said on Monday. The main goal of the programme, to last until 2010, is to eliminate the most dangerous forms of the disease, including tropical malaria. More than 30,000 cases of malaria were officially registered in Tajikistan in 1997, the Tajik Avesta news agency reported. In 2004, the figure was 3,588, of which 130 were cases of tropical malaria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that a deal had been struck to make the planned withdrawal of Russian troops from the Tajik-Afghan border a phased process in order to prevent a larger inflow of drugs into Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Russian troops are guarding Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan under an agreement with the Tajik government. "There exists a danger of a decline in combating drug aggression from Afghanistan as a result of the withdrawal of the Russian border guards," Putin said in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi after talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov. Turkmenistan will hold presidential elections in 2008, with three to four alternative candidates to choose from, the country's autocratic ruler Saparmurat Niyazov said on Thursday. "In 2008 at the People's Council meeting there will be three or four candidates presented for the chief of state's post, and his election would complete the formation of a new structure of power," Niyazov was quoted by Turkmenistan's state information agency as saying. Thursday's meeting was the first government meeting in the reclusive country since a wave of massive protests toppled the government in Kyrgyzstan in outrage over what the opposition charged was electoral fraud. Niyazov, 64, was Turkmenistan's last Soviet-era leader and has clung to power ever since, crushing all dissent.