The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) says it will not send observers to Turkmenistan's presidential election in February, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports.
Given that fundamental freedoms continue to be restricted, that the choice between competing political alternatives is limited, and that progress still remains to be made in bringing the legal framework in line with OSCE commitments for democratic elections, the OSCE/ODIHR NAM does not consider that the deployment of an election observation mission, even of a limited nature, would add value at this point in time.
Yet "mindful of the declared interest of the authorities of Turkmenistan to maintain a dialogue," ODIHR says it plans to send an Election Assessment Mission -- not to be confused with an observation mission. The mission will limit itself to reviewing laws and visiting some regions to gain insight into the electoral processes.
These fine points immediately got lost, intentionally or unintentionally, in the Turkmen and regional press. The Azerbaijani news service trend.az reported the story as "UN, OSCE and CIS to Observe Turkmen Elections."
Turkmen officials also made no distinction between "observation" and "assessment" and lumped together all foreign observers. The United Nations and Commonwealth of Independent States will also be sending observers, says trend.az.
The muddle about OSCE's limited assessment happened before, as an alleged US diplomatic cable dated October 15, 2008 and published by WikiLeaks revealed.
A police academy graduate died in jail under mysterious circumstances, Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reported, citing human rights activists.
Almardon Ruzikulov, 28, was detained on suspicion of stealing a cow. His relatives say that he died from torture while interrogators were trying to extract a confession from him. Interior Ministry officials maintain, however, that Ruzikulov hanged himself in his jail cell.
The human rights group Ezgulik (“Goodness”) reported that Ruzikulov, a resident of the village of Korakiya in the Chirakchin district of Kashkadarya region, died on November 20. He was a graduate of the Interior Ministry Academy of Uzbekistan.
According to Ezgulik, when police received a statement about the theft of the cow, they made a number of detentions and interrogations. Ruzikulov was among them, and was eventually charged with theft. His 82-year-old father continues to go the Interior Ministry, seeking information about his son’s death.
Anvar Holyorov, a district detective who investigated Ruzikulov’s case, told Radio Ozodlik that he committed suicide. He further noted that torture was prohibited and “contradicted his professional and human duty.” He added that if there were no wounds on the body, and no evidence of torture, then the accusation shouldn’t be made. He said officers found the body of Ruzikulov hanging in his cell, and that officers on duty would be accountable. “An investigator doesn’t have responsibility for this,” said Holyorov.
While Facebook penetration in Uzbekistan is only a tiny 0.38% of the country's population and 2.26% of Internet users, usage grew by more than 23,480 in the last 6 months to a total number of 105,920. A particular jump is visible just in the last month. (To keep it in perspective, this figure is higher than Chad but lower than Guinea.)
The state communications agency reports that 7.9 million of Uzbekistan's 28 million people have Internet access. One in five has mobile Internet access, with 500,000 registered in the last year.
Alexander Suchkov, editor-in-chief of the Infocom web magazine based in Tashkent told IWPR, "Numerous blogs have appeared… in which young people talk about modern Uzbekistan. I know these young enthusiasts, and they obviously want to change things."
Some observers feared that a hoax perpetrated through social media last month involving a false claim of a young girl's suicide following police detention might dampen Internet usage.
But given the lack of penetration of the Internet and blocking of alternative sites like fergananews.com, it's not clear if many Uzbek Internet users even knew about the story.
There's a tendency to look at a surge in numbers like this hopefully, as perhaps an indication of the "Arab Spring" that has proved so elusive in Central Asia.
In an unusual but indirect acknowledgement of responsibility for torture of prisoners, Uzbekistan’s Interior Ministry has admitted that police officers under its supervision beat and raped two women in pre-trial detention, Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, citing Uzbek human rights groups.
Rayhon Soatova, an Uzbek woman arrested in 2009 along with her two sisters and sentenced in 2010 to seven years for assault in a domestic altercation, was raped by as many as a dozen police officers, human rights defenders reported at the time. Later, Soatova gave birth prematurely to a daughter in prison and continued to claim police were responsible.
While an Uzbek prosecutor finally opened an investigation, officials first suspected Rayhon’s male acquaintances and relatives, collecting DNA samples from them and only later law-enforcers. Abdusumat Soatov, Rayhon’s brother, continued to insist on a probe. Ultimately, police said the DNA analysis was “inconclusive” for a trial and charges against 12 policemen were dropped. Yet, say human rights activists, authorities tacitly admitted they were at fault. Rayhon was moved from a labor colony where conditions are stricter, to a work settlement for the remainder of her sentence.
A second case involved Muhayyo Odilova of Kokand, whose father was the former head of the Interior Ministry of Ferghana region, who was arrested on fraud charges. A corrections official first admitted that Odilova was raped by a police officer while in custody. Then during a parliamentary hearing in November, Deputy Interior Minister Abdukarim Shodiev acknowledged that Odilova was raped in 2006 by a police officer, the Human Rights Alliance reported, citing unnamed sources. The hearing was evidently not covered by the state media or confirmed by independent press.
Louise Arbour, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group writes in Foreign Policy that Central Asia may be in a list of "Next Year's Wars." Tajikistan faces both local and external insurgencies with little ability to cope with them, and relations with neighboring Uzbekistan have deteriorated over wate
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, foreground, December 23, 2011, Moscow
The Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP) was the main topic of talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Moscow, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported December 23.
According to Kommersant's source in the Russian government, Medvedev planned to offer an increase in gas purchases from Ashgabat, to deflect Turkmenistan's participation in the European-backed TCP. Berdymukhamedov will likely refuse the offer because the potential volume of gas would come with a lower price, Kommersant believes.
The two leaders haven't talked very frequently -- the last substantial meeting was in Turkmenbashi in October 2010, although there were a few conversations on the margins of multilateral meetings. Of all the Caspian leaders, Berdymukhamedov seems to be the least frequent guest in Moscow. No agreements were anticipated, but "during the [Turkmen president's] trip we are counting on getting a clear answer to the question of whether Turkmenistan will take part in the Trans-Caspian pipeline," Kommersant's source said.
In fact, it's an answer not even the European Union has been able to obtain definitively -- Ashgabat has put off the issue for development by a joint commission.
Russia was hoping to scuttle the TCP formally at the November 2010 summit of the littoral sites by signing a convention on the Caspian Sea's legal status to mandate equal participation of all the countries in every project. But the agreement never came together and now the next summit is not until later next year.
At a summit meeting in Moscow on December 23, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov were cordial but did not sign any agreements or make any announcements.
The editor of Turkmenistan's Russian-language daily, Neitral'nyi Turkmenistan has been fired by President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Russian wire service Interfax reported.
Vladimir Gubanov, who was both the editor of Neitral'nyi Turkmenistan and the chairman of the Mejlis (parliamentary) committee on science, education, and culture, was dismissed on December 27. No reason was provided.
A search through recent weeks of the newspaper didn't yield any indication of articles that may have been controversial. They are the usual boiler-plate state-approved pieces extolling Berdymukhamedov's various initiatives in construction, agriculture and foreign policy, discussing trade with Turkey, and enthusiastically covering the heavily-controlled elections campaign.
The president's chronic unhappiness with media has often led to sudden firings in the past.
The dismissal comes several days after the Turkmen leader's visit to Moscow, where he discussed the situation of Russians in Turkmenistan, pressured now to give up their dual citizenship and opt for Turkmen passports or be forced to leave the country.
Irina Stolbunova, the deputy editor, has now been made the acting editor.
The newspaper, published since 1924, has a circulation of about 50,000, and comes out daily except Sundays .
Woman casts vote in Turkmenistan's February 2007 elections, under the gaze of a bust of past dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.
With less than two months before the February 12 presidential elections in Turkmenistan, 14 rival candidates have now appeared on the scene in the last week, following the announcement of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's nomination December 15.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the opposition website gundogar.org have reported on these predictable figures selected from reliable ministry bureaucrats, provincial government administrators and factory managers to compete against the incumbent:
-Kakagedli Abdyllayev, managing director, Mary Oil Refinery Turkmengaz
-Saparmurat Batyrov, director, Geoktep Cotton Spinning Factory
-Rejep Bazarov, deputy mayor, Dashoguz velayat (region)
-Begench Borjakov, mayor, Gurbansoltan-edje district in Dashoguz velayat
-Myrat Charykulyev, managing director, Mary-Ozot chemical company
-Esendurdy Gayipov, head of Lebapgurlushyk manufacturing association, Ministry of Construction
-Myratgeldi Jumageldiyev, mayor, Halach district
-Aydogdy Kakabayev, mayor, Baba Dayhan District
-Gurbanmamed Mollaniyazov, manager of a trust of Turkmennebit (state oil)
-Yagmur Orazov, director of Scientific Research Institute for Cotton Cultivation
-Yarmuhammed Orazkuliev, Minister of Energy and Industry
-Nikita Rejepov, managing director, Turkmen Oil Geophysics Company
-Rozygeldi Rozgulyev, acting director, Lebab Water Ways
-Annageldy Yazmuradov, Minister of Water Management
All of them were nominated by state-controlled industrial or civic groups. The State News Agency of Turkmenistan has maintained enthusiastic coverage of this simulated of democracy with declarations like this:
A local Uzbek government official has apparently ordered the closure of stores displaying and selling lingerie, offended by the view -- and thinking of the children.
The Kremlin-sponsored web site and television channel Russia Today (rt.com) writes yesterday:
Women in the Uzbek Capital Tashkent will have to buy their underwear ‘under the counter’ from now on. Local media say Otabek Sadykov took a walk through a local market and was shocked by the sight of bras and panties on sale. He immediately issued an order putting a stop to the display of women’s lingerie in shops.
The story may have come from semi-official uzmetronom.com, a Russian-language Tashkent-based site which often leaks from government sources and covers various scandals of the day.
According to information from our readers, in Sergeli district of Tashkent, all shops selling underwear are closed, and it has disappeared from the shelves of specialized departments in other stores. Now underwear is being sold underground. According to merchants who were forced into the underground, the ban on the sale of underwear in the district was imposed by the new khokim (the head of the local administration).
The article goes on to speculate sarcastically that next, recommendations from the commission on spirituality and education will be issued to regulate even the design of underwear and when, where, and how it can be worn -- and purchased only with a husband or wife or close relative present.
