Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan extradited four Uzbek refugees and one Uzbek asylum seeker on Wednesday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said that the UN refugee agency was shocked by the decision. "We fear for their safety. This refoulement [forced return] is an extremely serious violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention - which Kyrgyzstan has ratified - under which no refugees should be forcibly returned to their country of origin," Guterres said in a statement. The four Uzbek refugees, recognised under UNHCR's mandate, had been held in detention in the southern Kyrgyzstan town of Osh since their arrest more than a year ago following an extradition request from Tashkent. They had arrived in Kyrgyzstan after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan in May 2005. They were part of a group of some 500 asylum seekers, all of whom were later recognised as refugees. "What is even more disturbing is that we had secured resettlement places in different countries for the four refugees months ago and had been asking the Kyrgyz authorities to allow us to transfer them," the UN refugee chief added. All other refugees in the group were transferred to Romania by UNHCR in July and September last year. The vast majority have now been resettled in third countries. The European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), along with major international human rights watchdogs criticised the extradition, urging Uzbekistan to respect the rights of those extradited. Uzbek authorities have opened a criminal investigation into an US-funded international aid group after its office was shut down last month for publishing a book that allegedly distorted Islam, AP reported on Monday. The Tashkent prosecutor's office said the management of Winrock International will be investigated for unlicensed publishing activity. The case against Winrock is linked to its publication of the book "Islam and Women" under a project to improve conditions for women in rural areas. Uzbek authorities said the book distorted Islam and traditional Uzbek values. Over the past eight months, Uzbek authorities have expelled a series of foreign NGOs, including the Eurasia Foundation, Freedom House, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the American Bar Association, Counterpart International and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Tashkent has grown increasingly wary of international organisations operating on its soil, following last year’s bloody crackdown in Andijan. A court in Tajikistan, had sentenced an Uzbek national to 15 years in prison for spying, AFP reported on Monday. Eri Yakubov, 43, was accused of spying, handing secret economic and political information to Uzbek security services, an official from the court in the northern Tajik city of Sogd told AFP. The case is the latest in a series of spying scandals over the past few months between the two neighbouring former Soviet republics engaged in a diplomatic cold war. Last month, Uzbek security services announced they had arrested a Tajik spy who was reportedly preparing to commit "acts of subversion" in Uzbekistan. Tajikistan, for its part, has sentenced three Uzbeks to between 13 and 15 years in prison for espionage and accuses Tashkent of sheltering individuals responsible for terrorist attacks on Tajik territory.