Jamshid Karimov, a nephew of Uzbek President Islam Karimov who was abducted and forcibly incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital in 2006, has reportedly been released, the independent website uznews.net reported.
Bakhtiyor Hamrayev, a member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, reported that members of his group saw Karimov back in his native city of Jizzak on November 6. After years of being subjected to psychotropic drug treatment in confinement, his psychiatric health has suffered. Three years ago, when his wife visited him, she found him mentally ill, Elena Urlayeva of the Human Rights Aliance told uznews.net
Jamshid Karimov had been held in a psychiatric hospital for five years in retaliation for his critical reporting for various web sites. Authorities initially obtained a court-ordered confinement for a period of six months, but then Karimov continued to be held without any psychiatric exam or court review. His case has been repeatedly raised with Uzbek authorities, including during Karimov's trip to Brussels last year to meet with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.
Hamrayev believes Karimov was released in conjunction with the visit to Tashkent October 22 of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was believed to have quietly mentioned some cases of political prisoners. Another political prisoner, Norboy Kholjigitov was released before her trip this year after serving 6 years of a 10 year sentence, and last year, Farkhad Mukhtarov, a human rights activist who had served less than half of a 4-year sentence, was paroled after her trip.
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, at Oil and Gas Turkmenistan conference, Ashgabat, November 2011.
Remember how President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov surprised everyone last summer by seeming to invite the opposition to take part in next year's presidential elections? His alleged invitation came right in the middle of the Turkmen leadership's struggle to cope with the aftermath of the explosion of a munitions depot in Abadan. People protested the lack of news from the government and the apparently high casualties that officials seemed determined to cover up.
The sudden announcement that exiled opposition leaders might be welcome in the heavily-controlled elections seemed at the time as a kind of distraction from the government's inability or unwillingness to respond to the needs of civil society in the post-explosion crisis. It was as if Berdymukhamedov sensed that he could suffer a huge blow to his prestige from the anger erupting over the government's mishandling of the disaster, and offered a sop to far-away political dissidents whom he never really intended to accommodate. In August, when the elections were announced, nothing was said about any permission for exiles to return.
Well, now as the February 2012 elections draw closer, it turns out that the old adage applies; "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov at annual meeting of Asian Development Bank, 2010.
Dmitry Tikhonov, a human rights defender in the city of Angren, has appealed to Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov to stop breaking the law and end the exploitation of children in the cotton harvest, cottoncampaign.org reported, citing the independent website uznews.net.
“I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No.207 of 12th September 2008,” Tikhonov told uznews.net.
Earlier this year at the start of the cotton harvest, Angren authorities posted flyers around the city stating that the use of forced child labour was against the law, uznews.net reported.
But the leaflet also carried a propaganda twist — it denounced the “mendacious insinuations and misinformation” of foreign media about allegations of widespread forced labour.
In fact, through the efforts of monitors this season, once again massive use of forced child labour has been documented throughout Uzbekistan.
The flyer carried a threat — “any attempts to force children to work, whether by threatening reprisals against the children themselves or their parents, will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of Uzbekistan.”
Parents said the flyer was too little, too late. By the time it was posted, their kids were already out in the fields.
The Uzbek railroad is continuing to accept cargo intended for Tajikistan, although a line has been closed since November 17 when reportedly a bomb blew out the supports for a rail bridge, the independent news site fergananews.com reported
Now 270 freight cars have piled up on the Termez-Kurgan Tyube line destined to Tajikistan, interfering with the railroad’s expedition work, Uzbek rail workers said. They proposed to their Tajik counterparts transferring cars through the international crossing at Kudukli in the center of Tajikistan, for delivery to the south of the country.
According to a report from the independent Tajik news service Asia-Plus, Vladimir Sobkalov, a Tajik rail official, said his rail company had suffered major losses organizing a pick-up from Dushanbe of all the passengers stranded by the blast.
Sobkalov rejected the proposal of his Uzbek colleagues to send the freight to the center of Tajikistan, saying the Tajik rail did not have the capacity to accept freight in Dushanbe and then re-route it to the south, as this would incur major costs for trucking the loads through mountain passes.
He also said that for the last six days, Tajikistan has not heard any further news from Uzbekistan about the details of the explosion. Officials cordoned off the area and police were not letting anyone through. Nothing more was learned about the extent of damage to the bridge.
There’s nothing that gets President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov more crazy than stray dogs and cats – whenever he spots them around the capital, especially if they run across his motorcade, he orders subordinates to have them destroyed.
Maybe he’s obsessed with cleanliness in his sparkling white-marbled city; maybe he’s spooked at the recollection of the coup attempt nine years ago this month on the motorcade of his predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov.
As we know from WikiLeaks, in what has got to be the most bizarre cable from Ashgabat, the Turkmen leader has even fired military officials when a cat crossed his path.
The frequent presidential orders to exterminate dogs and cats has led many people to lose their pets, and they're getting fed up.
Earlier this month, a man was walking his dog late at night near the Puppet Theater. Suddenly, police surrounded him, forced his arms behind his back and hauled him off to the police station, along with his dog.
It turned out that the president’s motorcade had just happened to be speeding by at that moment. The man, whose name was not provided, was held for several hours in the police station. Police told him that they had received orders: either his dog would have to be shot, or he would have to serve 15 days in jail.
So to save his pet, the man decided to opt for the jail time. He was allowed one phone call , and asked his relatives to come and pick up the dog.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and German Foreign Minister Guido Westervelle, Ashgabat, November 2011
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle travelled to Ashgabat last week to attend the Oil and Gas Turkmenistan conference in a major show of support for cooperation with Turkmenistan from a leading economic power in the European Union.
Germany has long been a visible partner of Turkmenistan in energy, science and education projects. RWE, Germany's gas giant, is leader of the Nabucco consortium and has been drilling offshore in the Caspian Sea for years. German doctors stood at the elbow of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, trained as a dentist, when he performed surgery on a patient at a German-supported medical clinic in Ashgabat.
Touring around lavish marble palaces and parks studded with fountains, Foreign Minister Westerwelle remarked, "“Ashgabat is a wonderful, magnificent and very neat city that certainly impresses the Germans. It appears that we share an approach to life," the State News Agency of Turkmenistan (TDH) reported him as saying.
Germany's largest daily Suddeutsche Zeitungwas less impressed, calling Westerwelle's visit a "trip to another galaxy," and describing the ostentatious marble architecture in Ashgabat as "a gleaming mixture of Stalin and kitsch," remarking that President Berdymukhamedov had "turned gas into reinforced concrete."
Interestingly, unlike US leaders, who have tended to avoid public mention of human rights problems or leave them to lower-level officials, the German foreign minister spoke forthrightly after his meeting with Berdymukhamedov, "“I have also addressed the necessity of plurality in civil society, the necessity of protecting human and civil rights during this visit." The state media did not cover his remarks.
The annual Oil and Gas Turkmenistan (OGT) Conference wrapped up November 17, with less people in attendance this year (500) by contrast with last year (700), from energy companies and governments.
An interesting side drama at the annual Oil and Gas Turkmenistan conference was Turkmenistan's very cautious step toward rapprochement with Russia, following months of strained relations, mutual recriminations, escalating militarization in the Caspian, and outright conflict over the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP).
On November 16 at the conference, Bayramgeldy Nedirov, Turkmenistan's minister of oil and gas industry and mineral resources, met with Yury Sentyurin, Russia's deputy ministery of energy, the opposition website gundogar.org reported, citing the Russian ministry's website.
Nedirov said that Turkmenistan was interested in "the active involvement of Russian companies in investment and also innovation projects in Turkmenistan." He then touched upon the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Indian (TAPI) pipeline, noting that by the end of this year, the project would be ready for "implementation in the framework of a consortium with the participation of interested companies." That was quite a bit warmer than the frosty response last year, when Russian Deputy Vice Premier Igor Sechin seemed to jump the gun assuming Gazprom would be involved, and then got slammed by irate Turkmen Foreign Ministry officials who felt the Russians were being too presumptuous.
The annual Oil and Gas Turkmenistan (OGT) Conference wrapped up November 17, and as noted, it was less attended this year by contrast with last year, with about 500 delegates from energy companies and governments. No dramatic new announcements were made, although Turkmen gas officials emphasized yet again how large Turkmenistan's reserves were (estimates have been revised upwards to 71.21 billion tons of fuel); how much Ashgabat intends to diversify its delivery routes; and how it will sell gas at the border, i.e. let foreign partners concern themselves about further pipelines.
Interestingly, Turkmen ministers said they were now hoping to receive international help to build the East-West pipeline within the country, which will help boost capacity for exports to Europe, Reuters reported. When the East-West project was first envisioned two years ago, Turkmenistan announced an international tender, then revised the deadline, then unexpectedly cancelled it and said it would do the construction itself.
According to Reuters, Amanali Khanalyev, chairman of the state gas firm Turkmengaz, said the 800-kilometer East-West pipeline would enable Turkmenistan to supply 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year to Europe by delivering gas from the South Yolotan fields to the Caspian shore -- where it would presumably link up to an undersea route, presumably the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP).
A former correspondent for the state-run newspaper Neitral'niy Turkmenistan has suffered an attack of his home, Chronicles of Turkmenistan (chrono-tm.org), an independent news site, reported.
On November 11, vandals threw rocks into the home of Annamamed Myatiev, breaking a window and a mirror in his bedroom. Police are investigating the incident.
Myatiev believes the attack was directed at him, as he lives in a five-story building with many apartments and three stones were aimed at just his windows.
On October 26, an unknown young man in sunglasses came up from behind Myatiev on the street, punched him in the face, and ran away. He suffered a split lip, but didn't go to the police at the time.
Now with the rocks thrown through his windows, he is concerned that the authorities may be trying to send him some kind of "message," possibly suspecting him of ties to foreign media. His wife told chrono-tm.org that he fears for his life and health.
In June 2010, Annamamed was supposed to fly to the Netherlands for an eye operation, but he and his wife were not permitted to leave the country. At that time, human rights defenders, including the late Russian human rights leader Elena Bonner, protested and he was finally allowed to leave. He later returned home to Turkmenistan.
Myatiev worked for 30 years as a journalist, and was dismissed from the state newspaper in 2009 ostensibly for health reasons, although he had not submitted a resignation.
Another reporter, Gurbansoltan Achilova, who worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, suffered a very similar attack in December 2010.
