Weekly news wrap

This week in Central Asia was dominated by pre-election news from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the two neighbouring countries where parliamentary polls are scheduled for Sunday. Following decisions by local courts to withdraw some parliamentary candidates from the contest in Kyrgyzstan, thousands of their supporters continued to protest in various parts of the country on Friday for the fifth day running, Kyrgyz media reported. The clampdown on opposition candidates in Kyrgyzstan coincided with growing pressure on independent media in the country. The state-run Kyrgyz telecom company took most broadcasts of the Prague-based Radio Liberty's Kyrgyz service off the air on Thursday, muzzling one of the only sources of independent news to much of the former Soviet republic days before the polls. The station has around half a million listeners - about a tenth of the population. Many live in remote parts of the country and tune in on a VHF frequency available on Soviet-era radio sets. The move came as independent media say they are under increasing pressure. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the poll, has already criticised the lack of any independent TV and radio stations. President Askar Akaev, who has pledged to step down ahead of a presidential vote in the autumn, threatened to sue the leading opposition paper, Moya Stolitsa Novosti (MSN), for libel earlier this week. MSN's Wednesday edition could not be published because of a power cut at a US-supported independent printing press. The international rights watchdog Freedom House, which set up the printing press that publishes MSN and other papers, on Wednesday condemned the power cut as politically motivated. In Tajikistan, apathy is reigning in the country, where many voters and opposition leaders see the election as a pre-scripted victory for supporters of President Imomali Rakhmonov, who had been running the country since 1992, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The political scene is dominated by the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) headed by Rakhmonov. The PDP and its allies hold 61 seats in the 63-member lower parliament. Sunday's election is expected to further consolidate the president's tight grip on the state apparatus. The free press is muzzled, several independent journalists have been beaten by unidentified assailants recently and two opposition leaders have been jailed in the run-up to the election on what Rakhmonov's opponents say are trumped up charges, the report maintained. In Kazakhstan, an exiled former prime minister urged the country's troubled opposition groups on Tuesday to form a united movement to challenge authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev in elections expected early next year. Akezhan Kazhegeldin appealed for unity in a letter published on the independent Navi news web site and demanded feuding opposition leaders overcome differences to create a single party, For Fair Kazakhstan. His plea followed the closure last month by authorities of the Democratic Choice party for alleged extremism and a major rift between the leaders of the Ak Zhol party. Democratic Choice and Ak Zhol are Kazakhstan's main opposition groups. On Wednesday, Nazarbayev proposed the formation of a Central Asian Union based on the European Union (EU) model. "In the region, we share economic interest, cultural heritage, language, religion, and environmental challenges and face common external threats," Nazarbaev reportedly said. Four Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization together with Russia and China. Moreover, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Belarus and Russia form the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The same countries except Armenia make up the Eurasian Economic Community. In Uzbekistan, the state-run Halk Suzi newspaper reported on Sunday that the country's economy grew by 7.7 percent in 2004 and that living standards in the country had improved "a great deal". However, many international analysts doubt official statistics saying that Central Asia's largest nation's economy has been stagnating over the past few years, with living conditions worsening.