Weekly news wrap

The plight of hundreds of Uzbek refugees who fled to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed protests in the eastern city of Andijan two weeks ago continued to dominate the news. Early in the week, some senior Kyrgyz government officials reportedly said that they might be sent back home. But Adakhan Madumarov, deputy prime minister, maintained on Friday that none of the 500 Uzbek refugees would be deported from Kyrgyzstan by force. "Kyrgyzstan will follow its obligations to the United Nations on the issue of refugees," the Kyrgyz national news agency Kabar quoted him as saying. Staying in Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday, Europe's top security organisation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), launched an observer mission to monitor the 10 July Kyrgyz presidential elections. The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said it would "assess the entire election process in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections and national legislation." A re-run of the disputed parliamentary poll was one of the main demands of protesters who overthrew former president Askar Akayev's government in late March. The OSCE mission consists of 15 election experts based in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, and 26 long-term observers deployed to various regions of the country. About 300 short-term observers will join the mission just before the polls, the OSCE said. The presidential election is seen as a major test for the new Kyrgyz leadership, with acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev seen as the front-runner. Washington said on Thursday it had placed the Islamic Jihad Group (IJG) on its list of international terrorist organisations, saying the group had carried out several bombings in the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. "This is a group you might not be familiar with, but it's active in Central Asia. It broke away from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMU], and it is responsible for coordinated bombing attacks," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reportedly said. Boucher said that the IJG had been behind the bombings of the US and Israeli embassies in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent as well as the office of the Uzbek prosecutor general that killed at least two people and wounded nine in July 2004. "The IJG claimed responsibility for these attacks and indicated that future attacks are planned," Boucher said in a statement. The group "continues to target Americans and US facilities overseas and is a dangerous threat to US interests," he added. In March and April 2004, IJG suicide bombers attacked a popular bazaar and other locations in Tashkent, resulting in the deaths of more than a dozen police officers and innocent bystanders, as well as dozens of serious injuries. The attacks, which included the use of female suicide bombers, targeted local government offices, killing approximately 47 people, including 33 terrorists. In Tajikistan, the European Commission (EC) said on Thursday it had approved a six million-euro (about US $7.5 million) humanitarian aid package for vulnerable communities in the impoverished Central Asian nation, media reports said. According to the European Union's (EU) executive arm, the assistance provided would focus on three main areas of intervention, including health, drinking water and sanitation, and food. The EU has been providing aid for humanitarian work in Tajikistan since 1992 with allocations of over $190 million. Under the projects, around 13,000 people will receive food aid, over 15,000 children under five will receive supplementary feeding and a further 2,500 rural households will benefit from cash-for-work projects. Access to drinking water and sanitation facilities will be improved for some 200,000 people through the rehabilitation or construction of over 200 water and sanitation systems, while the whole Tajik population stands to benefit from improved access to primary health care. Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in Central Asia, with 64 percent of the population living on less than $2 per day. Meanwhile, in Turkmenistan, a media workshop on children’s rights, jointly organised by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Turkmen government, ended on Wednesday after two days of discussion and practical work looking at the rights of children and the role of the media in raising awareness of child rights and the importance of international agreements relating to children.