Weekly news wrap

The trial of 15 men accused of plotting to overthrow the Uzbek government in the eastern city of Andijan entered its second week in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Upwards of 1,000 civilians may have been killed in Andijan on 13 May, according to some rights groups, when security forces opened fire on protesters demonstrating against the government of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has ruled Central Asia's most populous state since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991. Despite international pressure, Tashkent has rejected all requests for an independent international inquiry, placing the official death toll at 187. The 15 men have pleaded guilty to trying to overthrow the Uzbek government and create an Islamic state in a violent uprising that prosecutors maintain was stoked by Western media. More than 100 people face charges that include murder, fomenting mass arrest and an attempted coup. On Monday, three defendants testified they had trained at military camps in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, further backing Tashkent's claim of a conspiracy that included foreign fighters and funding, one AFP report said. "We were given money by the US embassy to achieve our goals," Tavakkalbek Hojiyev, one of the alleged insurgents, reportedly told the court. But human rights groups, who have repeatedly called for international pressure, maintain the well orchestrated trial was merely a concerted effort to bury the truth. On Thursday, the European Union (EU) answered those calls by announcing it would impose "smart sanctions" on Tashkent following its refusal to allow for an international inquiry. The decision, to be approved by EU foreign ministers on Monday, marks a hardening stance by the international community against Tashkent, Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported. Criticism of the Uzbek authorities from Washington has already led to the US being ordered to remove its airbase at Karshi-Khanabad, in the southeast, the report added. Once a staunch ally in America's wars against terror, relations between the two countries have soured over Andijan. On Monday, the US vowed not to trade democratic principle for continued use of the base, the AFP reported. EU diplomats reportedly said the sanctions would include redirecting EU funds from the Uzbek government to grassroots organisations, banning senior Uzbek government figures from visiting European countries and halting the sale of weapons. Moving to Tajikistan, Tajik President Emomali Rahmonov on Tuesday told a conference on coordinating donor aid to protect the Tajik-Afghan border that the situation with regard to drug proliferation was in hand. Despite a lack of military equipment, Tajik border guards had proved they could protect their 1,206 km border on their own, following the departure of Russian troops in the area in June, the president claimed. The country has become a major route for drugs smuggled to Europe and Russia from Afghanistan. One day earlier, US Ambassador to Tajikistan Richard Hoagland and Minister of Foreign Affairs Talbak Nazarov signed a Letter of Agreement for US $9 million to assist the country's border guards. According to an embassy statement, the funding would provide infrastructure improvements, border outpost development, transportation and other necessary equipment for the guards. The funding is part of the US Department of State's Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs continuing support for Tajikistan's border guards, the Tajik Drug Control Agency and the Ministry of Interior. Since December 2004, Washington has provided or is in the process of providing over $16 million worth of assistance to the former Soviet republic's law enforcement agencies. Staying in Tajikistan, Tajik authorities on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of a Russian citizen who allegedly belonged to the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the AP said. Blamed for a series of armed incursions into Uzbekistan in 1999-2001, as well as other attacks, the IMU has been designated by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation, the report added. Kyrgyzstan's parliament on Tuesday turned down six of 16 candidates proposed by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to form a new cabinet, including his close ally Roza Otunbayeva, who was nominated to head the foreign ministry. According to the AP, many lawmakers, many of whom were holdovers from the era of Bakiyev's ousted predecessor, Askar Akayev, also rejected the appointment of Bakiyev's nominees for the cabinet's chief of staff as well as culture, labour and transport ministers and the head of the migration service. On 1 September, parliament approved Felix Kulov as prime minister. Kulov was a former security chief who had been jailed by Akayev for alleged corruption, the reported said. Meanwhile in Kazakhstan, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday condemned the action of the Kazakh printing press Vremia Print in unilaterally terminating contracts to print seven opposition newspapers without explanation on Monday. "It is unacceptable that the Kazakh public is being deprived of independent and opposition news in the run-up to the 4 December presidential elections," the press watchdog group said. "We call on President Nursultan Nazarbayev to respect press diversity, especially at such a crucial moment in the country's political life." Print media had proven the only source of independent news in Central Asia's largest state, as all TV stations were controlled by Nazarbayev associates, RSF claimed. Lastly in Turkmenistan, the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights announced that all Russian schools which used to operate had been transformed into Turkmen schools. Yet, one class with Russian as the language of instruction would remain in each of the schools. With Russian schools being closed and demand for Russian instruction exceeding available places, only those children whose parents held Russian citizenship or a migrant status to Russia would be allowed to attend, the Vienna-based group noted on Tuesday.