Recently, this column examined some of the human rights problems that lawyers face in Azerbaijan, notably the likely damage to the legal profession from the imminent passage of a retrograde draft law on the advokatura. In addition, the Azerbaijan government has denied registration to some lawyers advocacy groups, thereby seriously damaging their ability to function and fund-raise.
The media law, whose passage was a condition for accession to the Council of Europe, enshrines the abolition of state censorship. This is a welcome step that the government already enacted on August 6, 1998. But individual provisions of the new law allow the government to regain most of that ceded ground in a step-by-step fashion.
The first two papers in this series examined the 1999 Spring Border Crisis between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and the various reactions and responses to it. This final article concludes the series by detailing developments in the autumn which centred around disputes over border demarcation.
The government's interests in the Barskoon incident are clear. Kumtor is a joint-venture between the Kyrgyz government and the Canadian gold mining company Cameco Corporation, with the government holding a two-thirds interest of the venture. Thus, it is understandable why the government has consistently sought to minimize the hazards associated with the spill.
With the formality of reelection behind him, Uzbekistan's leader, Islam Karimov, says he is setting his sights on improving the country's economic fortunes.
Official economic statistics in Uzbekistan paint an upbeat picture. In a New Year's address, for example, Karimov claimed that GDP increased 9.5 percent in 2007, with industrial growth reaching 12.1 percent.
Elections these days in Central Asia offer few real choices. And there is little reason to hope that existing regional patterns will change in the near future. The Uzbek presidential elections of January 9, 2000, will likely end in much the same manner as did the vote staged November 6 in neighboring Tajikistan, in which incumbent Imomali Rakhmonov received a farcical 96 percent of the vote.
The first article in this three-part series (posted 12/08/99) described the course of the Spring Border Crisis between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in early 1999, and examined the effects on the population of the Kyrgyzstani part of the Ferghana Valley and the response of the Kyrgyzstani political opposition.
The cause of the blaze is still unclear. The senior spokesman for the KIBHR and the fire's principal victim, executive director Evgenii Zhovtis believes that no explanation, however sinister or benign, should be ruled out.
Kyrgyzstan, a relatively sleepy and remote republic in the Soviet era, now finds itself at the epicenter of the global narcotics trade. How the Kyrgyz government, acting in concert with the international community, responds to the security threat posed by trafficking could have a significant impact on the region's development.
