Weekly news wrap

The political situation in Kyrgyzstan remained one of the key issues covered by the media this week. The Kyrgyz parliament accepted the resignation of deposed president, Askar Akayev, on Monday following almost a week of discussion and dispute. The interim authority announced new presidential elections for 10 July. Also on Monday, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court acquitted Feliks Kulov, an opposition leader jailed under Akayev, of all corruption charges that he said were politically motivated, clearing the way for him to run for president in July. However, Kulov, seen as one of the strongest possible candidates along with prime minister Kurmanbek Bakiev, has not announced yet whether he would definitely run for presidency. "I need to consult with Bakiev before I make a decision [on that]," he said. On Saturday, the European Union said (EU) it would give Bishkek 25 million euros (US $32 million) in aid to help the former Soviet republic manage the political crisis sparked by the ouster of Akayev last month. The deputy director-general of the external relations department at the European Commission, Michael Leigh, reportedly said in Bishkek that the funds should be used to organise a fresh presidential election, reform the judiciary and fight corruption. In Kazakhstan, unknown assailants attacked protesters in the east in what the Central Asian state's opposition said was an official show of force after protesters removed Kyrgyzstan's leader, Reuters reported. A group of young men attacked opposition activists at a rally in the eastern town of Ust Kamenogorsk on Saturday, opposition leader Zharmakhan Tuyakbay said. He added that a group of opposition leaders were in the town to attend a rally for opposition movement 'For A Just Kazakhstan', a coalition of opposition groups formed in March. Within minutes of starting the rally in a residential area, young men pelted them with bricks and stones, he said. "Of course, all this was done to intimidate us and make us give up the political struggle," said Tuyakbay, appointed by the opposition as its single presidential candidate to run against veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev in a December 2006 presidential poll. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, has repeatedly emphasised oil-rich Kazakhstan's relative wealth compared to Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, saying there were no social causes for a revolution in the country of 15 million. But his rule has also been marked by violent attacks on independent media, corruption scandals and tainted elections. In an indication that Tajikistan is also concerned that events in Kyrgyzstan may be repeated there, the country's foreign ministry on Thursday ordered foreign embassies and aid organisations working in the mountainous Central Asian nation to report their contacts with political and civic activists to authorities. Authorities in other former Soviet republics, including Uzbekistan, have responded to recent events by trying to tighten controls and cracking down on some international aid organisations, alleging they had supported and funded the uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan that led to change of regime in those states. Diplomatic missions and international organisations accredited in Tajikistan are now asked to notify authorities of their planned meetings with representatives of political parties and civic groups in advance, the foreign ministry said. "Some representatives of political parties, civic groups and media use such meetings to distort the Tajik government's strategy and policies," the statement said. President Emomali Rakhmonov, who has led this impoverished nation of six million since 1994, tolerates no dissent. In 2003, he pushed through constitutional changes that could allow him to stay in power until 2020. Two landslides have claimed the lives of four people in central Tajikistan, the Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported on Monday. A landslide caused by heavy rains buried a 16-year-old resident in the village of Uzbek-Langar on Sunday and another landslide buried the house of a 50 year-old woman in the area a day earlier. The US military in Afghanistan is going to connect post-war Afghanistan with Tajikistan by building a bridge over the Pyanj River, the chief of US Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan said on Monday. "We recently made to award a contract for the construction of the Afghanistan-Tajikistan Bridge spanning the Pyanj River at Shir Khan in Konduz province. This bridge will serve as a vital link connecting the Central Asian region with outside markets," John O'Dowd reportedly said. Tajik state media reported on Thursday that one of the most difficult sections of the volatile Tajik-Afghan border - the Moskva border area - would be transferred on 16 April to Tajik border guards from Russian border guards that had been stationed there since the early 1990s. The transfer of the over 200 km section of the border is taking place in accordance with a Tajik-Russian agreement on handing over the Tajik-Afghan border, signed in Dushanbe in October 2004. Reclusive Turkmenistan refused to extend the licences of foreign postal companies on Monday, taking another step towards international isolation, Reuters reported. Monday's decision to exclude international courier firms from working in the ex-Soviet state will put postal traffic firmly in government hands. "The licenses of DHL, FedEx, ASE and other companies have been halted," said a government spokesman. "Turkmenpochta [the state postal service] remains and you can use its express service to more than 190 countries ... It is much cheaper and more reliable." Since the end of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan's "eternal president" Niyazov has replaced much education with the study of his own works, closed theatres and proposed shutting regional hospitals. Other edicts have banned beards and suggested that gold teeth be swapped for white ones. A court in Uzbekistan on Monday jailed nine people for between six and 13 years on religious extremism charges, prompting an angry demonstration outside the court, AFP reported. The nine people were convicted in two separate trials at Tashkent city court, one trial of seven men and a woman, and another trial involving one man, Rustam Tulaganov, a defence lawyer in both trials, said. All the defendants were found guilty of extremism and threatening constitutional order in the impoverished, mostly Muslim Central Asian country, Tulaganov said. But he said the evidence was flimsy. "I don't know how to describe these hearings, when a 20-year-old is jailed for seven years with the only proof of guilt being a Hizb ut-Tahrir leaflet stuffed in his pocket by the police," Tulaganov said, referring to a radical Islamic organisation that aims to peacefully create an Islamic state in Central Asia. Human rights activists have accused the Uzbek leadership of President Islam Karimov of jailing thousands of Muslims on inadequate evidence of taking part in extremist activities. Well over a hundred people were imprisoned last year in response to a wave of suicide blasts and shoot-outs with police that killed over 50 people. Tashkent executed a prisoner last month, bringing to at least 10 the number killed since a 2003 UN appeal for it to suspend the death penalty due to torture concerns, a human rights group said on Wednesday. Akhrorkhodzha Tolipkhodzhayev, a 25-year-old soldier, was executed by firing squad on 1 March, said Tamara Chikunova, director of rights group, Mothers Against Execution and Torture. She said there was evidence his confession was extracted under torture. In 2003, the UN Committee on Human Rights called on Uzbekistan to suspend all executions. Karimov, who tolerates no dissent in the mostly Muslim country and has outlawed opposition parties, said that ending executions was partly a matter of public opinion. He said 50 to 60 people were sentenced to death last year.