Weekly news wrap

An opposition leader was shot dead in Kazakhstan, together with his driver and bodyguard, international news agencies reported on Monday. The body of Altynbek Sarsenbayev, a leader of the opposition Nagyz Ak Zhol party, was found with two others in a car by the side of a road in the southeastern part of the country's commercial capital, Almaty, a spokesman for the provincial interior bureau reportedly said. Before joining the opposition in 2003, 43-year-old Sarsenbayev had been Kazakh information minister and secretary of the security council as well as ambassador to Russia. He briefly held a ministerial post in 2004, but resigned three months later to protest against a parliamentary election that he said was rigged by the president's supporters. Sarsenbayev was the second former senior Kazakh cabinet official to have been killed in recent months. Zamanbek Nurkadilov, former mayor of Alma Ata and former Emergencies Minister, was found dead with three gunshot wounds in November last year, less than a month before the 4 December presidential polls. On Tuesday, opposition parties accused Kazakhstan's secret police of the shooting of Sarsenbayev, AP reported. "This is clearly a political murder. There cannot be any other theories. This is the work of the special services," Bolat Abilov, another Nagyz Ak Zhol chairman who identified Sarsenbayev's body, told reporters. Police said that the investigation was being overseen by Interior Minister Baurzhan Mukhamedjanov. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered a thorough investigation into the mystery killing. An international think tank warned on Thursday that Central Asia's most populous state, Uzbekistan, could become a centre of instability in the region. The former Soviet republic is in a "woeful" state due to economic misrule and political repression, and there is a strong possibility of further unrest there, the International Crisis Groups (ICG) said in its report on the country. The report said Western governments should work out a plan to reduce the impact that possible instability in Uzbekistan would have on its neighbours. "Uzbekistan is well down the path of self-destruction followed by such countries as Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea, in which the elite prospers while the majority lives in worsening poverty," the report said. Staying in Uzbekistan, that country's press and information ministry told journalist that they should abstain from mentioning St. Valentine's Day, the Russian 'Mosnews' news website reported on Monday. The Uzbek government believes and has passed a resolution stating that the celebration of St. Valentine's day is unacceptable in Muslim countries, the report added. On Tuesday, an international media watchdog said that 2005 had been another terrible year for journalists, in particular those in places like Uzbekistan, which ranked fifth in the world with regard to the number of journalists jailed. In its annual Attacks on the Press survey, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the number of incarcerated journalists increased from 122 to 125. "From Iraq to China, Uzbekistan to Zimbabwe, 2005 was another terrible year for journalists in much of the world," said Paul Steiger, committee chairman and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. The clampdown on independent media in Uzbekistan increased after violent suppression of protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May 2005, in which upwards of 1,000 were killed by Uzbek security forces, according to rights groups. Many independent journalists had been arrested, convicted or forced to flee the country since then, analysts and rights maintain. On Wednesday, Ukraine deported 10 Uzbek nationals allegedly involved in the Andijan uprising who were detained last week on suspicion of illegal migration, AP reported. The Uzbeks were detained on 7 February in two Crimean cities as a part of an operation to fight illegal migration, said Maryna Ostapenko, spokeswoman for Ukraine's security services. On Tuesday, a local court ruled that the Uzbeks were on Ukraine's territory illegally and they were deported to Tashkent later that night, Ostapenko added. The reports of deportation sparked strong criticism from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The refugee agency said on Thursday it was appalled to discover that the asylum seekers had been forcibly deported back to their home country by the Ukrainian authorities and is seeking urgent clarification and further information on the fate of the deportees. "We deplore this action, which the authorities carried out in contravention of their international obligations," said Pirkko Kourula, Director of UNHCR's bureau for Europe. UNHCR is extremely concerned for the safety of the deportees, the UN agency said in a statement. Nine of the Uzbeks had earlier registered their asylum claims with the Ukrainian authorities in Crimea and received official certificates confirming their status as asylum seekers. The other two had also expressed their intention to claim asylum through a UNHCR partner but had not yet received the official documents to complete. In Kyrgyzstan, the country's top court on Thursday rejected an asylum claim by two UNHCR-mandated refugees from Andijan, paving the way for their extradition, Reuters reported. Uzbekistan has put pressure on Bishkek to send back refugees, while Western countries have urged Kyrgyzstan not to, saying they may face torture. Antonina Rybalkina, a senior court official, said after the hearing that Thursday's decision could not be appealed against. Hundreds of Andijan residents fled across the border to southern Kyrgyzstan after Uzbek troops suppressed an uprising in the city. UNHCR relocated 439 Uzbek refugees to Romania last year and wants to help the remainder to go to third countries. Bishkek wants the United States to pay more than 100 times the current fee for use of an air base in the ex-Soviet republic, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said in an interview on Wednesday. "According to our new calculations, they should pay US $207 million," Bakiyev said, apparently referring to an annual sum, in an interview published by Russia's Kommersant daily. The current rent paid by Washington for use of the Manas base near the Kyrgyz capital "represents a little over two million dollars," Bakiyev said. Manas, known by US forces as Ganci, is a staging post for operations in nearby Afghanistan. Its role has expanded since another base used by the United States in neighbouring Uzbekistan was closed last November on the orders of the Uzbek government. In Turkmenistan, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) with support from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Centre in Ashgabat held training on intercepting illicit drugs this week, media reports said. The week-long courses were conducted by German Customs Service experts, and included practical exercises as well as hands-on training on railway carriages and a vessel in the Turkmenbashy seaport in the west of the country.