The alleged killer of Medet Sadyrkulov has been found dead in his prison cell, AKIpress reports. A former Bakiyev confidant and chief-of-staff, Sadyrkulov was killed in a fiery, late-night car accident last March. He was returning to Bishkek from Almaty, where he reportedly met with opposition members.
Police said Omurbek Osmonov crashed into Sadyrkulov’s car. The ensuing fire burned the bodies of Sadyrkulov, his driver, and policy adviser Sergei Slepchenko beyond recognition. Mysteriously, Sadyrkulov's driver was found in the passenger seat. Forensic investigators later confirmed their identities.
Further fueling rumor, the car was found on a road far from the Almaty-Bishkek route.
Osomonov, who was serving a 12-year sentence for the deaths, was found with 11 stab wounds on April 17, his lawyer said. At the time of his arrest and confession, many thought he was a pawn in an elaborate cover up.
Opposition politicians say the suspicious circumstances surrounding Sadyrkulov’s death suggest that he was likely the victim of a political assassination.
Sadyrkulov, who was known as "the gray cardinal" of Kyrgyz politics, resigned as chief-of-staff in January. Opposition leaders said he had been planning to support their campaign to remove Bakiyev from office.
Turkmen civil society activists are suffering for collaborating with foreign agent provocateur Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), says the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, CIVICUS. MSF closed its last Turkmenistan programs in December after ten years of frustrations and government obstructions. Earlier this month, MSF released a report criticizing “Turkmenistan's Opaque Health System” for refusing to confront the reality of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
During its ten years providing medical care in the country, MSF has witnessed how people’s lives are put at risk by everyday medical negligence and widespread hazardous medical practices, with blood transfusions frequently performed without screening for HIV or Hepatitis C. Healthcare workers are operating in a culture of fear with critically ill patients being turned away so as not to negatively impact sensitive statistics on maternal or infant mortality, or communicable disease. People in Turkmenistan are being failed by a healthcare system more concerned with its image abroad than with tackling the real threat to public health posed by infectious disease.
CIVICUS says that, since the report was released, authorities have begun interrogating anyone who may have helped MSF and has closed organizations – such as the Central Skin and Venereal Diseases Hospital, Center for Tuberculosis Prevention, National Center for prevention of AIDS – that were once linked to MSF.
There's been a lot of recent insta-analysis about how Uzbekistan's president Islam Karimov may be seeking closer ties Russia as a result of the revolution in Kyrgyzstan in Uzbekistan, along with the nonstop speculation about what would happen to the U.S.'s Manas Air Base. But almost none of this analysis has discussed the situation in southern Kyrgyzstan, where both the U.S. and Russia were in the process of seeking new military installations: Russia, a CSTO rapid reaction force base in Osh, the U.S. an anti-terror training center in Batken.
Of these proposals, Uzbekistan was definitely more concerned about the Russian base. IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia has some useful analysis about how that has factored in to the Uzbek reaction to the "Roza revolution":
NBCentralAsia: How well-founded are Uzbek authorities’ fears about a possible deployment of more Russian forces in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan?
Tolipov: They are as well-founded as the need for this deployment is unfounded. Militarising the region is clearly inappropriate, and there’s clearly a geopolitical context to decisions like these. The first indications of what was termed Russia’s second military base in Kyrgyzstan, to be located in the south, came after agreement was reached to maintain the United States military airbase at Manas airport, albeit under a new name. [In 2009, the Kyrgyz authorities announced that the US base was to close, but a deal was later reached for it to remain, renamed a “transit hub”, apparently to save face.]
An Azerbaijani newspaper has a new take on the cancellation of the U.S.-Azerbaijan military exercises. Most media accounts -- and Azerbaijani analysts -- interpreted the move as Baku's signal to Washington that it was unhappy with the U.S.'s involvement in the Armenia-Turkey reconciliation process. But the Baki Xabar newspaper (via BBC Monitoring) suggests that it is not a cancellation, but merely a postponement, and that it may have had to do with Russian pressure on Azerbaijan:
The daily quoted Milaz news agency's report that talks with the USA on conducting the "Regional Response 2010" exercises are still under way. "Defence Minister Safar Abiyev and US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy discussed the matter on 17 April and agreed to continue bilateral cooperation". Milaz quoted an anonymous source in the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence as saying that the exercises are likely to be held in June or July 2010.
Meanwhile, the Doktrina journalistic centre for military research says that the root of the problem lies in Russia's opposition to signing the second stage of the working plan between Azerbaijan and the USA, Baki Xabar reported. "There is serious pressure from Russia to prevent Azerbaijan from signing the document and this leads to certain problems for Azerbaijan's military cooperation with the USA," Casur Sumarinli, director of the Doktrina centre, said. He added that the second stage of the working plan envisages setting up radar stations along Azerbaijan's border with Russia and Iran. "I believe that the Azerbaijan-USA military exercises envisaged for 2010 will go ahead, but signing the second stage of the working plan remains questionable," Sumarinli told the newspaper.
In his first appearance in Belarusian exile, former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has denied he quit last week, AP reports:
He told reporters Wednesday in Minsk that he is still "the legitimate president of Kyrgyzstan," and described the interim government controling Bishkek as a "gang of imposters."
As the interim government struggles to exert control, Bakiyev's defiance may stoke more instability, especially in his home region of Jalal-Abad where his supporters say they have appointed their own pro-Bakiyev governor.
Bakiyev was run out of Bishkek in a wave of violence that claimed at least 85 lives on April 7. Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva says he faxed a letter of resignation last week. See the letter here.
A Kyrgyz government official could not confirm the arrest, but interim government Chief of Staff Edil Baisalov told me this morning that, "We knew he was here in Bishkek until very recently. Obviously he is wanted by Italian authorities, but he is also wanted by us and he is a US citizen, so it is a very complicated situation."
Gourevitch is wanted in Italy for conspiring to defraud a telecoms company of $2.7 billion. He is close to Maxim Bakiyev, the former president's son. The two are accused of embezzling millions of dollars from the state Development Fund.
Azerbaijan has canceled upcoming joint military exercises with the U.S., in apparent protest of the U.S. role in negotiating better relations between Armenia and Turkey. Reuters:
Azerbaijan did not specify who cancelled the exercises planned for May, or why, but the U.S. embassy said it suggested "that the question be posed to the government of Azerbaijan".
An Azeri Defence Ministry spokesman told Reuters: "The exercises are cancelled, but the reason is not known."
APA has a roundup of Azerbaijani political analysts who speculate on the reason, though, and they all agree that it is all about an alleged pro-Armenian bias in Washington.
Last year's exercise took place under NATO auspices with several other countries taking part. In addition to the U.S. Bulgaria, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine were there. The exercise covered:
...the plans of checkpoint control, road security, preparation of confined documents, supply and materials, coordination, seizure and search of buildings, battle involving rules, preparation of regular and detailed reports.
One wonders: if Baku is cutting off these ties with the U.S. because it's brokering the deal, are they going to do something commensurate with Turkey, which is actually taking part?
Meanwhile, the CSTO anti-terror exercise in Tajikistan is proceeding:
An anti-terror drill for the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) Central Asian group, dubbed Rubezh-2010 (Frontier-2001), has opened in northern Tajikistan today.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to protect Russian citizens and property in Kyrgyzstan, as violence returned to the Central Asian republic after a bloody uprising this month.
Medvedev instructed Serdyukov “to take measures” as incidents of looting increase, the Kremlin said on its Web site today, without elaborating.
Wine being ladles out of a kvevri, a clay vessel used to age Georgian wine
CNN's website has a report by correspondent Ivan Watson that takes a look at both the past and promising future of Georgian wine. Georgia, of course, is considered by many -- Georgian in particular -- to be the birthplace of wine. After going through a rough patch in recent years after an embargo was put in place by Russia, once the main export market for its wine, Georgia is now trying to market its wine in other parts of the world, with boutique wineries and improved methods.
You can find Watson's report, which includes a visit to one of the several new small-scale wineries that have recently opened up in Georgia, here.
Jan Agha, a baker in Taloqan, Takhar, Northern Afghanistan
This wonderful image of a young Afghan baker was a recent winner in an ongoing photo contest that being run by Istanbul Eats (you can find a larger version of the photo here).
The photographer, Chris Strickland, is currently working in Afghanistan with The HALO Trust, which is removing mines and unexploded ordinances in the north of the country.
I wrote Chris asking him to provide more details about the baker and the photo. This is what he said:
The Photograph was taken in Taloqan, Takhar, Northern Afghanistan. The baker is called Jan Agha and is a 22 year old Tajik from Taloqan.
In a country where many still rely on subsistence farming to survive, bread is the main part of the Afghan staple diet and is a part of every meal. Afghanistan's agriculture is predominantly rain-fed 'lalmi' land and the main crop is wheat. A good winter and spring rainfall is essential for a good harvest which in turn keeps food prices for essentials such as bread at an affordable level.
I was drawn to the bakery because it was actually a dark uninviting room, but I could smell the bread and hear the activity, and as a curious photographer, I naturally popped my head in. I was then of course presented with an inviting bakers oven and there was a lovely shaft of light coming through from a vent in the roof.
Afghans being Afghans bought me some tea and a chair, and I hung around for half an hour or so, and just before I left I took this image.
The patterns on the bread, the cloak about to be placed to protect the bread, and of course the light bringing it all to life.
