Weekly news wrap

Courts in Uzbekistan on Thursday gave heavy jail sentences to another 41 people found guilty in two new closed trials for taking part in an uprising in May in the town of Andijan, Reuters reported the Supreme Court as saying. Uzbek courts started holding closed hearings after stinging criticism by human rights bodies of the first trial of 15 Uzbek men jailed last month over the 13 May rebellion, in which up to 1,000 civilians may have died when troops shot into crowds of protesters. International human rights watchdogs said it was "a show trial" staged to cover up the truth about Andijan. The latest series of trials brought to 114 the total number of those sentenced over the uprising in the eastern Uzbek town. Officials say 187 people - mainly "terrorists" - died in Andijan. Critics say the uprising was triggered by a trial of 23 local Muslim businessmen widely seen as unfair. The Czech Republic has granted asylum to 15 Uzbek citizens who took part in the Andijan disturbances, thus approving the request of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which provided them with refugee status, the Interior Ministry's press department announced in Prague on Monday. The Uzbeks, mostly small businesspeople, are now undergoing health checks in the admission centre in Vysne Lhoty, north Moravia. "We do our best to quicken the [admission] process," the ministry's spokeswoman Radka Kovarova said. A number of the Uzbek activists originally fled to refugee camps in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan but some were returned to their country where they may face torture or death sentences, according to human rights groups. A Kazakh court has stopped an opposition newspaper from printing because it allegedly insulted the president, a senior editor told AFP on Thursday. Zhuma-Times' deputy editor Bakhtygul Makenbai said that a printing press refused to print the weekly paper's latest issue on Wednesday because of a court order. She said that the court decision was taken in the absence of the paper's representatives. Zhuma-Times has been critical of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and supported his main challenger Zharmakhan Tuyakbai in the 4 December presidential election, which Nazarbayev won with 91 percent of the votes. Makenbai said that the court would consider the prosecutors' appeal against closing the paper on Friday. Nazarbayev is credited for the nation's post-Soviet economic progress, but faces criticism for antidemocratic policies. Kyrgyzstan is to hold a referendum next year that will ask its citizens if they want to weaken the powers of the presidency in favour of parliament, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Wednesday. A council in charge of constitutional changes, which is chaired by Bakiyev and includes lawmakers, ministers and civic activists, backed the president's proposal to hold the referendum to define what form of government citizens favoured. Bakiyev said people in the ex-Soviet republic would be asked if they wanted a presidential, presidential-parliamentary or a parliamentary republic. No date has yet been set. Currently, most power in the impoverished Central Asian nation belongs to the president. Bakiyev came to power following a March uprising that ousted Soviet-era leader Askar Akayev. Bakiyev won the July presidential election, pledging to curtail presidential powers and give more power to parliament - a move that would require changes to the constitution. And Tajikistan and NATO are set to boost cooperation in the region, AFP on Monday reported a high-ranking NATO official as saying during a recent visit to Dushanbe. The official commended the Central Asian state for its fight against the inflow of drugs and terrorists from neighbouring Afghanistan. "We both agreed on the importance of the increasing cooperation between NATO and Tajikistan. We look forward to ways to increase the number of activities in partnership," the NATO secretary general's special representative for Caucasus and Central Asia, Robert Simmons, said. Authorities in Tajikistan, a frequent transit point for Afghan heroin bound for the European and Russian markets, have seized 2.7 mt of Afghan narcotics since the beginning of the year and have arrested hundreds of traffickers. Turkmenistan's leader, who has been declared president for life, on Wednesday celebrated 20 years at the helm of this gas-rich desert Central Asian state. Saparmurat Niyazov came to power in 1985 when Turkmenistan was still part of the Soviet Union. Since gaining its independence in 1991, he has developed a massive personality cult around himself. Festivities to mark his two decades in power began Tuesday in Niyazov's home Akhal region where citizens were offered shows, concerts, sports competitions and food. Golden statues and busts of Niyazov are scattered across the country, and his portrait is on every banknote and coin. Niyazov, who turns 66 in February, has banned all opposition in the nation of six million people and controls all branches of government and the media.