Ferghana Information agency, Moscow

27 june 2017

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Central Asia news

Uzbekistan: mahalla waiting for President!

15.06.2017 22:50 msk Editorial Analytics Business Politics Uzbekistan

It has been exactly six months since the new head of Uzbekistan took office. Sadness from the death of the first and beloved leader of an independent country has not yet completely left the hearts of Uzbek people. But the expectations of a bright future under the tutelage of the new leader ease the burden of losing the old one. TV and in newspapers are saying only good things about Islam Karimov, while people, it happens, are swearing and cursing “the father of all Uzbeks” for the fall of the living standard, for stagnation and for the lawless tyranny of those who must monitor the enforcement of the law.

Bluff or ‘ram fighting’ from Arkadag? Anti-corruption fight gaining momentum in Turkmenistan

15.06.2017 19:28 msk Human Rights Politics Turkmenistan

A modern history of independent and neutral Turkmenistan has fixed a tradition: if the government does not succeed, for example, the treasury becomes empty and there is nothing to pay many months of salary debts to civil servants, or the intimidated people are on the verge of displeasure, the power impersonated by the president is frantically looking for scapegoats.

‘Our authorities never mistake?’ Practice of protection of persons accused of extremism

01.06.2017 12:31 msk Analytics Ferghana Valley Human Rights Politics Religious life Kyrgyzstan

For the past seven years, the number of convicts for extremism and terrorism in Kyrgyzstan has tripled. In 2009, according to the State Penitentiary Service (SSC), 51 people were convicted for such crimes, whereas today 185 people including 7 women are serving their sentences. Among this category of prisoners 22 people are accused of fighting in Syria, 97 - membership in Hizb-ut-Tahrir, 84 - committed their crimes for the first time. 38 people are kept in high security prisons. Who are these persons? How did they end up in the dock?

Kyrgyzstan major TV channel: Block Fergana and journalist Ulugbek Babakulov is enemy of people

29.05.2017 16:21 msk Human Rights Politics Kyrgyzstan Russia

In the evening on 27 May 2017 the major television channel of Kyrgyzstan aired an 8-minute report with the speaking name ‘Instigators,’ in which the Bishkek journalist Ulugbek Babakulov was accused of inciting ethnic hatred, and the website of the Fergana News Agency was called ‘biased’ and called to be blocked on the territory of the republic. The reason for the report was an article about nationalistic statements in social networks published by Fergana on 23 May this year. Reporters believe that Fergana ‘disseminates provocative materials,’ trying to present Kyrgyzstan ‘a fascist state, whose population is completely nationalistic.’ The news story of the Public Television and Radio Company (OTRK) contains some fragments of this article, and suggestions of calling to a ‘severe criminal liability,’ as well as comments by ‘experts.’ In their opinion, journalists need ‘to jam the critical moments,’ and not ‘to drag out some sort of analysis of the social networks.’

Russia, Central Asia, migrants. Where and how extremism threatens?

25.05.2017 12:54 msk Analytics Politics Religious life Migration Central Asia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

The recent terror act in the St. Petersburg metro on 3 April, in the organisation of which Russian special services suspect people from Central Asia, exacerbated issues related to migration processes from the countries of this region to Russia. Last week in Moscow, the Sakharov Center jointly with the Yegor Gaidar Foundation organised a discussion during which experts discussed whether there is any ground to say that it is among the migrants that recruitment of terrorists takes place, and if so, what causes migrants to join the ranks of radical Islamists, what role is played by large-scale corruption, typical of most Central Asian countries, and whether it is possible to oppose it.

Anticorruption campaign in Tajikistan or show?

19.05.2017 00:07 msk Analytics Business Politics Tajikistan

This April was full of spectacular action-packed detective series of dismissals and arrests of former high-ranking officials of the agency overseeing combating corruption with no precedents in modern history of Tajikistan. Many of them are relatives of high-ranking state officials. The editor-in-chief of the ‘Akhbor.com’ news website Mirzo Salimpur has prepared the material exclusively for Fergana telling what is behind the purge in the anti-corruption agency, and why this large-scale action in one of the most corrupt states of the world began right now.

Uzbek opposition leader Bakhodir Choriev: Change without political reforms is useless

17.05.2017 15:52 msk Analytics Business Politics Uzbekistan

There will be no economic growth and progress in Uzbekistan in the next ten years, since the new president Shavkat Mirziyoyev continues the path of his predecessor Islam Karimov ‘without political reforms,’ which the country needs as air. They must be carried out first; otherwise any other changes will be useless. It was stated by the Uzbek opposition people's democratic movement ‘Birdamlik’ (‘Solidarity’) leader Bakhodir Choriev.

Who owns media in Kazakhstan?

16.05.2017 21:58 msk Analytics Human Rights Business Politics Media Review Internet Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, most of the media owners are hiding behind their formal founders. But, as they say, if the secret is known to three – then everyone knows this. Having talked with experts Fergana News Agency made its own list of the true owners of the Kazakh media.

Uzbekistan: Activists pay tribute to Andijan massacre victims in Tashkent

15.05.2017 16:58 msk Analytics Ferghana Valley Human Rights Politics Religious life Uzbekistan

Activists of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan (PAU) held a traditional action in the centre of Tashkent at the foot of the ‘Courage’ monument on 13 May to commemorate the hundreds of peaceful Andijan residents, who died during the shooting of the rally 12 years ago. To the surprise of the participants, this time the event passed without any interference by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Security Service (SNB).

Tajikistan: Time to privatise hills and meadows?

15.05.2017 10:54 msk Business Politics Tajikistan

Every year, the cattle breeders of the border regions of northern Tajikistan face the same problem with the onset of spring. They are puzzled by what pastures to drive out their livestock in the spring-summer period, so that their herds return to them in the same amount that they gave to the shepherds. The matter is that the territories allocated for pastures in these areas are limited, and local residents at their own risk are forced to trust grazing animals to Kyrgyz shepherds.

Uzbekistan: How visit by UN High Commissioner benefits?

15.05.2017 08:49 msk Human Rights Politics Uzbekistan

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has been in Uzbekistan since 10 until 12 May 2017. Human rights defenders and civil society activists both at home and abroad were eagerly awaiting this important event. It was the first trip of the UN official to this country and to Central Asia in general. And it should be noted that none of its six predecessors visited Uzbekistan at this high international level before.

About imprisoned human rights activists and unsound optimism in Uzbekistan

11.05.2017 13:59 msk Analytics Human Rights Politics Uzbekistan

This year in March, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karakalpakstan (an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan) upheld the sentence on extending the term of imprisonment to five years for 39-year-old human rights activist Azam Farmonov. Azam Farmonov has been confined in Jaslyk prison for eleven years (since June 2006), which the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Theo van Boven back in 2002 recommended to close it down because of its location in an ecologically impoverished zone. At a time of unsound optimism about Uzbekistan, and when the new president has begun to talk about the problems accumulated in the country winning universal love, I wish to recall about people who had not been afraid to criticise power at the time of the Karimov swamp, and who still remain in custody.

Other news

News briefs

27 june

14:45 New York Gay Pride waved flags of Uzbekistan and other republics of Central Asia

14:15 Uzbekistan: Shavkat Mirziyoyev visits Tashkent Psychiatric Hospital

10:08 Human rights defenders: No independent bodies in Central Asia to investigate complaints of torture

26 june

14:21 President Atambayev told about U-turn of Presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on water resources use by Kyrgyzstan

13:11 Kazakhstan: Eurasian media forum participants are called to help in release of journalist

13:08 Kazakhstan: Civil rights activist on hunger strike faces deadly danger

13:04 Migration: 55 thousand visitors from Uzbekistan work in South Korea

24 june

10:27 Human rights defenders described how their illegally convicted colleague Nuraddin Jumaniyazov had been dying in custody

22 june

23:25 Uzbekistan: Any entrepreneur can sell vegetables and fruits abroad (President's decree)

23:23 Five typhoid cases reported in southern Tajikistan - due to lack of clean drinking water

17:50 Afghanistan: Army fighting with ISIS in ‘Uzbek’ areas bordering with Turkmenistan

16:44 Entrepreneurs of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan waiting for visa regime abolition and new checkpoints on border

16:42 Russia: 17 federal regions withdraw from resettlement programme

16:41 UN Special Rapporteur criticises unprecedented pressure on dissent in Tajikistan

21 june

10:14 Human Rights Defenders: Supreme Court of Uzbekistan is sabotaging reforms of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev

20 june

22:22 World Bank: 13% of population lives below the poverty line in Tajikistan

20:40 UN called to immediately release Mr Avakyan, who was convicted for extremism

14 june

11:58 Copy of restrictive court decision reached Fergana News Agency

13 june

06:51 Uzbekistan: Attempted suicide in President's Office in Tashkent

12 june

16:15 Fergana News Agency official statement: on blocking and criminal case against journalist Babakulov

11:06 Fergana News Agency blocked in Kyrgyzstan by court order

8 june

16:25 Kyrgyzstan: Fergana freelance journalist Ulugbek Babakulov sued

7 june

18:04 Kyrgyzstan: social network users that fomented inter-ethnic enmity face criminal proceedings

16:19 UN Secretary General António Guterres tours Central Asian countries and even goes to Osh and Nukus

6 june

18:42 Kyrgyzstan: lawyer Renat Medetbekov forcibly taken to psychiatric hospital

18:39 Uzbekistan: Rustam Azimov dismissed as deputy prime minister

5 june

18:38 Updates on Jasurbek Ibragimov case: Six medical college students are interrogated

14:48 Tajikistan downgrades OSCE mission status

2 june

15:51 Delimitation Protocol signed by Tajikistan and Uzbekistan covered disputable sections of common state border

09:54 Kazakhstan: President to be buried in the National Pantheon

09:48 OSCE network on monitoring inter-ethnic relations in Kazakhstan terminated its work

09:20 CPJ: Kyrgyz journalist Ulugbek Babakulov receives death threats

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