1. Home
  2. Americas
  3. Canada

Weekly news wrap

Voters in Kyrgyzstan go to the presidential polls on Sunday in what many see as a new era of openness and hope in the former Soviet republic. Thousands of protesters ousted ex-president Askar Akayev and his government in March following flawed parliamentary polls. While five candidates for the country's top job will contest the polls, analysts agree that the likely winner will be Kurmanbek Bakiev, prime minister, acting president and a clear frontrunner in the polls. The reports about the plight of Uzbek asylum seekers in Kyrgyzstan - particularly a group of 29 held in custody - raised concerns again this week, with Kyrgyzstan's chief prosecutor, Azimbek Beknazarov, saying on Thursday that Uzbek asylum seekers who have been charged with terrorism and religious extremism would be returned to their home country. Beknazarov did not say how many would be returned or when, AP reported. More than 426 Uzbeks fled to Kyrgyzstan seeking asylum following a violent crackdown by government troops during a May protest in eastern Uzbekistan. Authorities detained the group of 29 at the request of Uzbekistan, which claims at least 14 are members of an extremist religious groups and had allegedly killed police officers. Kyrgyzstan is under pressure from the international community and rights groups, who say the asylum seekers could face torture in Uzbekistan if returned. Torture is believed to be widespread in Uzbek prisons. In Kazakhstan, security forces detained a human rights activist and witness to this May's killings in Uzbekistan after he sought refuge in the Kazakh commercial capital of Almaty, AFP reported on Tuesday. Lutfullo Shamsuddinov, an activist with Uzbekistan's Appellatsia advocacy group, was arrested on Monday evening in Almaty by immigration police following a request from the Uzbek authorities, Narasimha Rao, an official with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said. The UN refugee agency officially recognised Shamsuddinov as a refugee, along with six members of his family, on 24 June, UNHCR said in a statement. Some of the family members are thought to have been briefly detained and then released. "UNHCR is extremely concerned at the arrest of a refugee under its mandate and is urging the Kazakh authorities not to forcibly return Mr Shamsuddinov to Uzbekistan," the statement read. The New York-based Human Rights Watch also voiced concern over the fate of the Uzbek rights activist. On Wednesday, John Ordway, the US Ambassador to Kazakhstan, urged Astana not to send Shamsuddinov home because he risks prosecution in his home country for criticising a recent bloody government crackdown on protesters. "We have very great misgivings," said Ambassador John Ordway about Shamsuddinov's arrest. "He has been registered by the United Nations as a refugee and in accordance with the international refugee convention, Kazakhstan is obligated not to return him to his country of origin." On the same day, a spokesman for Uzbekistan's National Security Service (NSS), Alimjan Turakulov, called the UN demand not to extradite Shamsuddinov unjustified. He said Uzbek authorities would insist on his deportation on charges of terrorism and 'disseminating information that aims to cause panic.' Uzbekistan has been seeking the return of asylum seekers who fled to neighbouring countries after the May violence in the eastern town of Andijan, claiming they are `common criminals'. Uzbek authorities said 176 people died and denied firing on unarmed civilians. Human rights groups say troops may have killed up to 1,000 people in and around Andijan, mainly unarmed civilians. An Uzbek court convicted 20 men on Thursday and jailed them for terms of between five and 17 years for belonging to an underground radical Islamic organisation, AFP reported citing lawyers. The defendants, aged between 21 and 29 and all from the same Tashkent neighbourhood, were found guilty of infringing the constitutional order. "The ruling was too severe. The judge never took our petition into account," lawyer Rustam Rakhmatulayev said. The verdicts prompted angry scenes among relatives, who were kept away from the tightly protected court by a cordon of police. The trial was the first major court hearing since the jailing of 23 men in Andijan prompted an insurgency in May that ended when security forces intervened. Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Dimitrij Rupel, called for a comprehensive strategy to strengthen democracy and stability in the countries of Central Asia on Saturday. It would build on the Organization's active assistance programme to Kyrgyzstan, ahead of the presidential election on 10 July, he said. "I believe that we should be ambitious and follow up our considerable engagement in Kyrgyzstan with a more comprehensive strategy for assisting all the states of Central Asia on their path to full democracy," Rupel told the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Washington on Friday. The 55-nation security organisation has five participating states in the region: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Chairman-in-Office renewed his call to the Uzbek authorities to allow an independent international investigation into the events in Andijan on May 13, in which security forces are reported to have killed unarmed civilians, possibly numbering hundreds. In Tajikistan, the government appealed for international aid on Thursday after floods killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes, AP reported. Flooding during May and June in the impoverished, mountainous Central Asian country killed 38 people and destroyed bridges, newly planted crops, roads and nearly 4,000 homes and other buildings, foreign ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov said. Damage was estimated at more than US $20 million, a figure expected to rise as more reports come in, Sattarov said in a statement. The floods, caused by melt waters following heavy snowfalls, were some of the worst to hit Tajikistan in recent years.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join