Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, Kazakh authorities barred an opposition leader, recently released from prison, from leaving the country on Monday, AP reported. Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, a leader of the ‘For a Fair Kazakhstan’ alliance, was to meet with European Union officials in Brussels but border control officials did not allow him to board a flight from the Kazakh commercial capital, Almaty. A Kazakh journalist was beaten unconscious in Almaty, AP reported on Wednesday. Sunday evening’s attack was the third time 32-year-old Kenzhegali Aitbakiyev had been beaten in four years. The editor of the paper for which the beaten man writes for, Ermurat Babi, said the attack appeared to be linked to Aitbakiyev’s work. Reports on harassment of opposition media and journalists are common in the former Soviet republic. Kazakh officials say 530 illegal migrants have been detained near the Kazakh border with Uzbekistan. The majority, nearly 500, carried Tajik passports. Others carried Uzbek, Russian or Kyrgyz documents, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Wednesday. Two Kazakh citizens have also been detained, accused of helping the migrants to cross into the country. Also in Kazakhstan, the death of poultry from bird flu was reported in the village of Krasnaya Niva in central Kazakhstan on Wednesday by the regional emergency situations department. However, on Thursday, the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture said that the deadly H5N1 strain of virus had not been confirmed in the dead poultry, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. A senior US State Department official said Washington wants to organise a giant regional energy project, moving power from Central Asia across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, AFP reported on Thursday. Oil and gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and hydropower from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan would supply a regional power grid from Almaty to India’s capital New Delhi. The US embassy in Tajikistan handed over special equipment for detecting narcotic substances and illegal border crossings to the Tajik Drugs Control Agency, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on Tuesday. The 32 sets of equipment and training worth over US $500,000, is part of continuing support for anti-drug initiatives in the Central Asian country. Most of the Afghan heroin that ends up in Europe and Russia transits through Central Asia. Turkmenistan’s “Iron Lady”, Gurbanbibi Atajanova, appeared on Turkmen state television on Monday begging president Saparmurat Niyazov for mercy after being accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes and money confiscated from former officials. As a prosecutor-general, she was one of the most feared officials, but retired a few weeks ago for health reasons. Meanwhile, Canada is urging Uzbekistan to release one of its citizens, Huseyin Celil, who was arrested in Uzbekistan last month, RFE/RL reported on Wednesday. The Canadian prime minister’s parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, said Ottawa was using all possible diplomatic avenues to press for Celil’s release. The arrested man faces deportation to China, where he originally came from, he was jailed there years ago while working as a rights activist for Muslim Uighurs. The minority Uighurs have been hounded by Beijing who accuse them of fomenting nationalism in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.