Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, a small demonstration in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, was broken up by plainclothes police on Saturday. The protesters demanded that President Islam Karimov be called to account on the first anniversary of the violent government crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005, AFP reported. In Moscow, many more protestors were seen outside the Uzbek embassy, claiming Karimov was a murderer and slamming Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support for him. In London and New York people also gathered to call for more pressure on the Uzbek regime and for increased international action to isolate Tashkent. Rights groups claim that upwards of 1,000 civilians may have been killed in the bloody clampdown in Andijan last year, while the government claims the total number killed was 187 – Islamic militants and security force personnel. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised to maintain pressure on the Uzbek government to improve its human rights performance, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Monday. It was the British presidency of the European Union (EU) that pushed for an arms embargo and visa ban on senior Uzbek officials after andijan. EU foreign ministers decided on Monday the arms embargo and other sanctions on Uzbekistan will be renewed in October in response to the Andijan uprising and Tashkent’s continued refusal to allow an independent international enquiry into the killings. The Uzbek government said on Wednesday that they had closed two Protestant churches in the city of Samarkand, accused of “regular violations” of the law on religious organisations and illegal proselytising among local residents, AP reported. Following the regime’s crackdown last year, Uzbek authorities have ousted several foreign-funded organisations and prevented many religious groups from worshiping. In Tajikistan, nine female activists from the banned Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir party have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from five to 10 years by the Khujand city court in the north of the country, the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Monday. They were convicted of stirring up ethnic, racial and religious enmity, being members of an extremist religious group and publicly calling for the forcible overthrow of the constitutional order in the country. Tajik president Emomali Rakhmonov said on Monday from the capital, Dushanbe, that the smuggling of illegal drugs from Afghanistan through Central Asian countries might increase due to instability in Kyrgyzstan, Reuters reported. Kyrgyzstan has been unstable since the ouster of former president Askar Akayev in March 2005. And with Afghanistan, being the world’s largest opium and heroin producer, sharing a long porous border with Tajikistan, Rakhmonov said the international community should make concerted efforts to prevent drug trafficking through Central Asia. The Kyrgyz parliament voted on Tuesday against a bill on amnesty to mark the anniversary of the 24 March 2005 revolution, a Kyrgyz news agency reported. Only 28 of 55 members of the parliament voted for it, meaning 185 prisoners will not be pardoned. Under the bill, 5,800 convicts would have had their prison terms reduced, mainly men over 60, women over 55, those with disabilities, pregnant women and mothers of more than two children. On Monday, foreign ministers from four Central Asian republics, China and Russia began talks in Shanghai on regional security amid continuing tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme, AP reported. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are members, has begun to build ties with Teheran, while Russia and China reportedly offered Iran full membership last month. Kazakhstan sentenced an opposition member on Monday to a five-year jail term for insulting the personal dignity and honour of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, RFE/RL reported a day later. Alibek Zhumabaev, from the opposition For A Just Kazakhstan party, was also accused of calling for a revolt during last year’s presidential campaign. Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov opened an ice arena outside the capital, Ashgabat, on Thursday and remarked that all top officials in the desert nation should learn to ice skate, a Tajik news agency reported. The arena is located five km from Ashgabat and linked to the capital by a cable car. It is the latest of Niyazov's pet projects, which also include huge sports complexes, parks and mosques. Niyazov, who has led Turkmenistan since 1985, has established a cult of personality around himself and is fond of elaborate projects.