This week in Central Asia, two Uzbek asylum seekers missing in Kyrgyzstan are reportedly being held in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, according to Cholpon Jakupova, the chairwoman of the Adalet (Justice) human rights organisation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on Saturday.
Valijon Bobojonov, 40, and Saidullo Shokirov, 38, who were taken from their homes in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on 16 August, had sought refuge in Kyrgyzstan after the May 2005 unrest in Andijan where, according to observers, upwards of 1,000 protestors were killed by Uzbek security forces. The government puts the death toll at 187.
Staying in Uzbekistan, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) condemned on Tuesday the beating of Uzbek human rights defender Bakhtiyar Khamroev and demanded that the Uzbek authorities open an impartial and thorough investigation.
On 18 August, 20 women burst into Khamroev’s apartment while he was in a meeting on seeking appraisal of the human rights situation in Dzhizak, some 200 km southwest of Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Khamroev called the local police who reportedly did not intervene until one of the women hit Khamroev in the head with a metal object, IHF’s statement read.
According to the watchdog group, these kinds of attacks are widely thought to have been orchestrated by Uzbek officials in order to distract the public’s attention from the events in Andijan last year.
Also in Uzbekistan, a court ruled to close the representative office of the US NGO Crosslink Development International on Wednesday, a Russian news agency reported. The NGO, which has developmental projects in Central Asia, was reportedly closed on the charges of not providing information about its programmes and carrying out educational projects without a licence.
Over the past six months, Uzbek authorities have expelled the Eurasia Foundation, Freedom House, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the American Bar Association, Counterpart International and RFE/RL.
In other news, police officials in Uzbekistan have detained the internationally wanted leader of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, Abdurakhim Tukhtasinov, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on Wednesday.
The party, linked with violent attacks and terrorist plots, is banned in many Arabic countries, Germany, Russia and throughout Central Asia. Islamic extremists are highly active in the troubled Ferghana valley between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Service on Monday called on Islamic militants in Osh to lay down their arms by 1 September or face “severe punishment”, AP reported. The service said those who surrender would be guaranteed a fair investigation and would offer 100,000 som (US $2,421) to anyone who provided them with information on the whereabouts of suspects.
The call, carried out by most media in the former Soviet republic, was part of the ongoing security crackdown in southern regions that followed the attacks in mid-May on a Kyrgyz and Tajik border post, killing nine people.
Staying in Kyrgyzstan, more than 9,000 ethnic Russians have applied for repatriation from Kyrgyzstan, Yury Yermolayev, head of the Bishkek branch of the Russian Federal Immigration Service, told a Russian news agency, RFE/RL reported on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently unveiled a national programme under which all those ethnic Russians who live in ex-Soviet republics and beyond would get cash, social benefits and citizenship when returning.
In Turkmenistan, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday called upon Ashgabat to immediately and unconditionally release a RFE/RL journalist and two other people who have been held in detention for the past two months, RFE/RL reported.
Annakurban Amanklychev, Sapardurdy Khajiev and Ogulsapar Murdova were detained without charge in June and their trials, scheduled to be held in Ashgabat, are reportedly imminent. RSF said it was appalled by the attitude of the Turkmen authorities, who they said were flouting the basic rules of justice and human rights with impunity.
AJ/DS
Valijon Bobojonov, 40, and Saidullo Shokirov, 38, who were taken from their homes in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on 16 August, had sought refuge in Kyrgyzstan after the May 2005 unrest in Andijan where, according to observers, upwards of 1,000 protestors were killed by Uzbek security forces. The government puts the death toll at 187.
Staying in Uzbekistan, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) condemned on Tuesday the beating of Uzbek human rights defender Bakhtiyar Khamroev and demanded that the Uzbek authorities open an impartial and thorough investigation.
On 18 August, 20 women burst into Khamroev’s apartment while he was in a meeting on seeking appraisal of the human rights situation in Dzhizak, some 200 km southwest of Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Khamroev called the local police who reportedly did not intervene until one of the women hit Khamroev in the head with a metal object, IHF’s statement read.
According to the watchdog group, these kinds of attacks are widely thought to have been orchestrated by Uzbek officials in order to distract the public’s attention from the events in Andijan last year.
Also in Uzbekistan, a court ruled to close the representative office of the US NGO Crosslink Development International on Wednesday, a Russian news agency reported. The NGO, which has developmental projects in Central Asia, was reportedly closed on the charges of not providing information about its programmes and carrying out educational projects without a licence.
Over the past six months, Uzbek authorities have expelled the Eurasia Foundation, Freedom House, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the American Bar Association, Counterpart International and RFE/RL.
In other news, police officials in Uzbekistan have detained the internationally wanted leader of the Hizb ut-Tahrir party, Abdurakhim Tukhtasinov, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on Wednesday.
The party, linked with violent attacks and terrorist plots, is banned in many Arabic countries, Germany, Russia and throughout Central Asia. Islamic extremists are highly active in the troubled Ferghana valley between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Service on Monday called on Islamic militants in Osh to lay down their arms by 1 September or face “severe punishment”, AP reported. The service said those who surrender would be guaranteed a fair investigation and would offer 100,000 som (US $2,421) to anyone who provided them with information on the whereabouts of suspects.
The call, carried out by most media in the former Soviet republic, was part of the ongoing security crackdown in southern regions that followed the attacks in mid-May on a Kyrgyz and Tajik border post, killing nine people.
Staying in Kyrgyzstan, more than 9,000 ethnic Russians have applied for repatriation from Kyrgyzstan, Yury Yermolayev, head of the Bishkek branch of the Russian Federal Immigration Service, told a Russian news agency, RFE/RL reported on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently unveiled a national programme under which all those ethnic Russians who live in ex-Soviet republics and beyond would get cash, social benefits and citizenship when returning.
In Turkmenistan, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday called upon Ashgabat to immediately and unconditionally release a RFE/RL journalist and two other people who have been held in detention for the past two months, RFE/RL reported.
Annakurban Amanklychev, Sapardurdy Khajiev and Ogulsapar Murdova were detained without charge in June and their trials, scheduled to be held in Ashgabat, are reportedly imminent. RSF said it was appalled by the attitude of the Turkmen authorities, who they said were flouting the basic rules of justice and human rights with impunity.
AJ/DS
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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