Weekly news wrap

Washington confirmed on Tuesday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to Central Asia between 10 and 13 October with stopovers in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The trips aims at advancing bilateral and regional cooperation on security issues, promoting freedom through democratic and market-oriented reform, and strengthening security in the region, including cooperation on counter-terrorism. According to a US State Department statement, Uzbekistan - which denied calls for an international inquiry into a violent government crackdown on protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May - was not on the list of the countries that Rice was scheduled to visit. Human rights groups say as many as 1,000 people may have died in Andijan, mostly unarmed civilians fired on by soldiers. The Uzbek government says the death toll is 187. A senior NATO official said on a visit to neighbouring Kyrgyzstan that the US base near the capital, Bishkek, would be reinforced after US forces leave Uzbekistan, the Kyrgyz Kabar news agency reported on Monday. The use of the air base at Ganci, at Manas airport, would be intensified, Robert Simmons, the special representative of the NATO secretary general for Central Asia and the Caucasus, reportedly said. In July, Tashkent ordered the US Khanabad-Karshi air base in southern Uzbekistan, often called K-2 and used to support its anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, to be closed within six months. On Wednesday, in a move meant to send a message to Tashkent, the US Senate voted to block the payment of US $23 million for past use of the K2 air base, the AP reported. The legislation, approved by voice vote, was added to the $440 billion military spending bill for the fiscal year that began 1 October. Many interpreted the decision as payback for Tashkent's refusal for an international investigation into Andijan events. On Monday, the European Union (EU) imposed an arms embargo on Uzbekistan, cut aid and suspended a cooperation accord to punish the country. In Kazakhstan, police broke up a demonstration in the west of the country in support of a jailed opposition politician, AP reported on Monday, citing an opposition alliance. About 50 opposition activists tried to march on Sunday in the city of Atyrau in a bid to put pressure on authorities to release Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, who had become eligible for early release on that day, the 'For a Fair Kazakhstan' alliance said in a statement. The demonstrators were blocked by police in central Atyrau and forcibly dragged into police cars. Police detained 24 protesters and charged them with staging an unauthorised demonstration, the statement read. In September, opposition groups accused the authorities of attempting to prevent the release of Zhakiyanov, leader of the disbanded Democratic Choice party, until after the December presidential election. Western countries criticised Zhakiyanov's jailing in 2002 on corruption charges as politically motivated. Two days later, the police raided the office of a pro-democracy youth group in what the group's leaders said was part of a government crackdown on the opposition ahead of the presidential polls. About a dozen police officers on Tuesday night searched the office of Kahar, or Hero, in the commercial capital, Almaty, on suspicion of anti-government activity. Also on Tuesday, Kazakhstan's electoral commission said it was considering 13 applications for the right to stand in the polls, promising equal media access for all candidates. A total of 18 people had submitted the necessary paperwork by Monday night, of whom five had been disqualified for failing to meet the Kazakh language requirement, the commission's secretary, Vladimir Foos, said. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is seeking re-election in the 4 December vote, has drawn accusations of authoritarianism during his 16-year rule in the oil-rich nation. His main challenger is Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, a former parliament speaker who leads 'For a Fair Kazakhstan'. In Tajikistan, the leader of an opposition party had been sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges relating to terrorism and embezzlement, the BBC reported on Wednesday. Makhmadruzi Iskandarov, head of the Democratic Party, was found guilty on multiple charges, including terrorism, illegal weapons possession and embezzling while he headed the state gas utility between 2001 and 2003. But critics described the verdict as politically motivated, intended to remove a likely challenger to President Emomali Rakhmonov at the next presidential poll, due in November 2006. Party activists urged Rice on Thursday to raise the jailing of its leader during her visit to the former Soviet republic next week. The party said in a statement released on Wednesday that Iskandarov's conviction was unfounded as his guilt had not been proven. The US had voiced concern that Iskandarov was denied regular and free access to his lawyers after his arrest and had urged a fair trial. Meanwhile in Turkmenistan, that country's life-time President Saparmurat Niyazov ordered the country's highest legislative body, the People's Council, to consider a bill paving the way for elections when it reconvenes on 24 October. The order published by the official press on Wednesday followed Niyazov's pledge earlier this year to hold elections and step down in 2009. The council is a hand-picked assembly of more than 2,000 top officials and elders that Niyazov uses to endorse his most important decisions. No details of the bill were given. The ex-Soviet republic currently has no law governing presidential elections. During his 20-year iron-hand rule, Niyazov has created a vast personality cult around himself and isolated the nation of 6 million from the outside world.