The fate of Baikonur: Will Russia's space gates Open?

by Olga Zakutnyaya
Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Jan 31, 2013

The current uncertainty surrounding space activities at Baikonur in 2013 may be eliminated on Wednesday when Kazakh prime minister, Kairat Kelimbetov, visits Russia to discuss several issues, including the famous cosmodrome. Meanwhile, officials are already working hard to assure the media that the situation is still a long way from being a crisis. The apparent scandal around the spaceport had been exaggerated, said Russian officials on Friday.

The fate of Baikonur, which is, without question, uncertain, may in fact, according to Russia's foreign affairs minister, Sergey Lavrov, be far from the disaster that many think.

Last week a new controversy around Russia's main cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, hit the headlines. The Izvestia newspaper published a note from the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry announcing the Kazakh Government's decision to cut the number of Proton launches in 2013 to 12 instead of the 17 requested by Russia. It went on to suggest that the move might threaten other joint Russian-Kazakh projects, such as the Baiterek and Dnepr programs.

Anyone eagerly watching the situation for further developments may now feel a sense of disappointment, as tensions over the issue began to ease towards the end of last week.

Both Russian officials, and their Kazakh counterparts, were quick to point out that the Baikonur controversy would not affect relations the two states. There is also a further Kazakh visit coming up on January 30 which should bring even more clarity to the situation, this time by the vice minister who also co-chairs the Baikonur committee.

This is not the first, and almost certainly not the last, time that Baikonur has been at the heart of apparent, or even actual, disputes between the two Nations.

Previously both sides have always successfully resolved disagreements to their mutual satisfaction; there can be little doubt that this occasion will be any different, because of the underlying truth that Baikonur is essential to both.

On the other hand the status quo cannot be maintained indefinitely. With the construction of Russia's new Vostochny cosmodrome underway, Baikonur will inevitably lose its long held status as the centre of Russia's space program, if indeed it keeps a role at all.

With annual rent for the site topping the $100 million mark, the Kazakh space base represents a significant burden on the state budget, essentially double the future cost of the new cosmodrome.

However forecasts of Baaikonur's demise may be a little premature as no launches from Vostochny have yet been scheduled, and the primary rocket launcher it is intended to host, namely Angara, has yet even to make its maiden flight.

Then there is Proton, the heaviest Russian launcher available, which, despite its toxic components, can only blast off from Baikonur, which is also the primary facility delivering cosmonauts and cargo to the International Space Station. Hence, the Baikonur launch pads remain vital to the majority of Russian activities in space.

An imperfect equation with many unknown quantities, the Baikonur problem is unlikely to be solved by simple solutions. Several coming events will affect it greatly, such as, for example, the South Korean launch scheduled on January 30. That lift-off will essentially be driven by the first stage of Angara, so it will also make an important contribution to Russian space developments.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/The_fate_of_Baikonur_Will_Russias_space_gates_Open_999.html.

Central Asian migrants change the face of Moscow

December 30, 2012

MOSCOW (AP) — Timur Bulgakov has a black belt in karate, two university degrees, a powerful SUV and a small yet thriving construction company. The 28-year-old's success is impressive for a Muslim migrant from Uzbekistan whose first job in Moscow 10 years ago was as a delivery boy.

But his story is no longer that unusual. The old Moscow, populated largely by Slavs, is rapidly giving way to a multi-ethnic city where Muslims from Central Asia are the fastest growing sector of the population. And they are changing the face of Moscow as their numbers rise and they move up the career ladder, taking on more visible roles in society.

Muslim women wearing hijabs are a growing sight on the capital's shopping streets. Bearded men sport Muslim skullcaps and hang trinkets with Koranic verses in their cars. Many more are non-practicing Muslims who blend in with secular attire, although their darker skin, accented speech and foreign customs often provoke frowns from native Muscovites. Meanwhile, their children — some born and raised in the capital — throng kindergartens and schools.

Russia's Federal Migration Service estimates that about 9.1 million foreigners arrived in Russia to work in 2011. More than a third came from three impoverished Central Asian countries that were once part of the Soviet Union: About 2 million from Uzbekistan, 1 million from Tajikistan and more than 500,000 from Kyrgyzstan. Local experts say the number of Central Asian arrivals is at least twice as high. And hundreds of thousands of Central Asians have already acquired Russian passports and are off the migration services' radar.

The Central Asian migration has been the driving force in boosting Russia's Muslim population to more than 20 million, from some 14 million 10 years ago — a phenomenon experts call one of the most radical demographic makeovers Russia has ever seen.

"Today, we're standing on the verge of a powerful demographic explosion, a great migration period equal to the one that took place in the first centuries A.D.," said Vyacheslav Mikhailov, a former minister for ethnic issues and a presidential adviser on ethnic policies.

Muslims are expected to account for 19 percent of Russia's population by 2030, up from 14 percent of the current population of 142 million, according to the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council report on global trends published this month.

"Russia's greatest demographic challenge could well be integrating its rapidly growing ethnic Muslim population in the face of a shrinking ethnic Russian population," the report said. The changing ethnic mix "already appears to be a source of growing social tensions."

By the most conservative estimates, 2 million Muslims now live in Moscow, a city of nearly 12 million. Polls show that nearly half of Russians dislike migrants from Central Asia and Russia's Caucasus — another source of Muslim migration. They have become the bogeymen of Russian nationalists, accused of stealing jobs, forming ethnic gangs and disrespecting Russian customs.

"If you build a mosque in downtown Moscow, slaughter sheep on your holiday and impose your traditions on us, no one will want you as a neighbor," said Dmitry Demushkin, a veteran Russian neo-Nazi skinhead who heads a nationalist party.

Central Asian labor migrants for years have filled the lowest paying jobs, working as janitors, street cleaners, construction workers, vendors at outdoor markets and unlicensed cab drivers whose run-down cars are popularly known as "jihad taxis." Many live in trailers on construction sites, in squalid basements and overcrowded flophouses or sleep inside their cars. The uncertain legal status of many of the migrant workers has left them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation from employers. They also have fallen victim to xenophobic attacks.

But in recent years, they are increasingly becoming more established members of the work force. And a significant minority, like Bulgakov, now run their own successful businesses. The undisputed star among Russia's Central Asian business figures is ethnic Uzbek Alisher Usmanov: His interests in mining, telecoms and Internet startups have made him one of Russia's richest men, with a fortune estimated at $18.1 billion, and he is the co-owner of British soccer club Arsenal.

Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, who was born in Kazakhstan and educated in Uzbekistan, has directed some of Russia's most top grossing movies. Recently he moved to Hollywood, directing this year's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and before that "Wanted," a 2008 action flick with Angelina Jolie.

Uzbek native Mirzakarim Norbekov has penned half a dozen bestsellers based on the medical teachings of Muslim medieval scholar Avicenna, who was born in what is now Uzbekistan. His medical training center in Moscow charges hundreds of dollars for short healing courses.

And while the Central Asian influx has caused frictions, there are also abundant signs of non-Muslim Muscovites embracing things seen as quintessentially Central Asian. Uzbek restaurants, fast-food joints and clay-oven bakeries that churn out round flat-cakes and meat pies have become ubiquitous; fashionistas sport oriental silk scarves and pashminas that resemble hijabs; and many ethnic Russian housewives buy halal meat believing it to be healthy and devoid of chemical preservatives.

The trend may have deep roots in Russian history: Unlike most West European capitals, Moscow has absorbed Muslims into its population for centuries. The principality of Moscow emerged as a regional power some 700 years ago, when the Golden Horde, a state dominated by Mongols and Muslim Tatars, controlled parts of what is now southern Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. As Moscow took over the Horde's territories and invaded lands that once had been conquered by Arabs, Persians and Turks, Muslim nobles became part of the Russian elite and Muslims were free to practice their faith under the czars.

Novelist Vladimir Nabokov proudly wrote that his aristocratic family descended from Nabak, an illegitimate son of Genghis Khan. Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and writer Mikhail Bulgakov were the offspring of Tatar nobles.

"Muslims are not newcomers here, and all the current problems are temporary," said Vladilen Bokov, a devout Muslim and member of the Public Chamber, which advises the Kremlin on social issues. The Central Asians are far from a homogeneous group: Kyrgyz are proud of their militant nomadic heritage, while Uzbeks and Tajiks extol their cultures that produced poets and scholars who contributed to medieval Muslim civilization.

Czarist armies finished the conquest of Central Asia by early 20th century and Stalinist purges decimated their elites. The Soviet era reshaped their economies and agriculture and made "Russification" a key to success for several generations of their best and brightest. In the 1980s, Central Asian conscripts became a majority in the Soviet Army as birth rates among ethnic Russians plummeted.

Communist Moscow tried to win sympathies of Central Asians — and uproot their Muslim traditions — by building schools and universities. Their graduates are still qualified to work as bank clerks, computer engineers, artists and medical doctors in Russia. Employers often praise them for their hard work, career ambitions and indifference to alcohol — Russia's proverbial scourge.

The 1991 Soviet collapse was followed in their overpopulated republics by ineffective economic reforms, political unrest a resurgence of Islamic traditions and a gradual loss of Soviet mentality. But the number of Russian speakers remains high. They visit Russia visa-free and can stay here for up to three months, or longer if they get work or residence permits.

Construction company owner Bulgakov has faced his share of hardships. Square-jawed and burly, he recalled over a cup of steaming tea how he stole some undercooked buckwheat from a dormitory kitchen several days after losing a job. He lost another job after beating up his supervisor for calling him a "churka," a pejorative term for Central Asians. Bulgakov said that during a hospital visit he heard a doctor reproaching his ethnic Russian wife for failing to "find a decent Russian man."

After several years of selling construction paint, Bulgakov started his own company. Now his company renovates apartments of affluent Muscovites and works on occasional contracts with the Defense Ministry. He also has joined Kremlin's United Russia party and wants to run for office in the Moscow suburb of Ivanteevka where he lives with his wife and two children.

Bulgakov, who sports a white-gold ring with a sparkling diamond, has this advice for fellow Central Asians seeking a better life in Moscow. "If you want to work, just work," he said, "If you don't, you'll find a thousand excuses — 'I am being oppressed, abused, beaten.'"

Russia, Tajikistan agree to military base deal

October 05, 2012

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — Russia and Tajikistan agreed Friday to extend the presence of Russian troops in the ex-Soviet nation on Afghanistan's northern border until 2042.

An aide accompanying Russian President Vladimir Putin on a visit to the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, said Moscow would be assured use of the facility "virtually free of charge." Central Asian nations are apprehensive at the prospect of the NATO coalition's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 and have expressed fears that violence could spill over, prompting them to see security guarantees from their Russian and U.S. partners.

"The Russian base in Tajikistan is an important factor in stability in this republic, with which we are bound by special, brotherly and very close strategic relations," Putin said. Tajikistan is believed to have sought large rental payments from Russia for use of the base, but those requests appeared to have been successfully resisted.

"We are talking about certain sums, but we are getting this base virtually free of charge," said Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov. The current base lease is due to expire in October 2014. The Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division deployed in Tajikistan numbers around 7,000 servicemen and is the largest current deployment of Russian troops abroad. It is based in three garrisons — near Dushanbe and in the southern cities of Kulyab and Kurgan-Tube.

Russia's military presence played a part in negotiating an end to the five-year civil war that devastated Tajikistan in the 1990s. Tajikistan economy is heavily reliant on the money sent home by the roughly 1.1 million migrant laborers working across Russia. Remittances from Russia in 2011 totaled around $3 billion, equivalent to around half Tajikistan's gross domestic product.

Putin and President Emomali Rakhmon reached an agreement Friday to relax bureaucratic procedures for Tajik migrant laborers seeking to work in Russia, many of whom are frequently compelled to work illegally due to the complications of registration. Under the new terms, migrants will be granted work permits valid up to three years from one year, as currently.

"This will positively impact on the state of the labor market in (Russia) and enable the citizens of Tajikistan to form their life plans on a more solid basis," Putin said.

Kyrgyz PM to resign to run for president

Sat Sep 24, 2011

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev has announced that he plans to resign in order to run for president.

On Friday, Atambayev said that he would hand his duties over to Deputy Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov to run in the October 30 presidential election, the Associated Press reported.

Atambayev's main challenger seems to be Ata-Zhurt nationalist party leader Kamchibek Tashiyev, who served as a minister under former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Bakiyev was unseated in a popular uprising in April 2010.

“Our government has been working for nine months and three days. In this time, we have seen a trend of economic growth, which is also an indicator of our efforts,” Atambayev said.

Candidates must win more than 50 percent of the vote in October's election to avoid a runoff between the top two vote-getters.

The Kyrgyz presidential campaign is being watched by the international community, and especially the United States and Russia, which both have strategically important air bases in the country.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.com/detail/200847.html.

War against Islam: Tajiks forced to hold European wedding ceremonies

14 September 2011

The war of the Rakhmonov's regime in Tajikistan against Islam intensifies. The Tajiks are now forced to hold the European-style weddings.

A resident of Tajikistan applied to the leader of puppets Rahmonov asking "to permit to hold my wedding in accordance with national and religious traditions."

The request contains in an open letter by Abdurozik Odinamatov, a resident of the district Asht Sughd. In his letter, the Muslim says that local authorities forbade him to hold his wedding ceremony in accordance with such traditions.

"They told me that I should hold my wedding in an European way. That means that both men and women should be staying in the same room, and I was told invite pop singers to the wedding.

I studied for three years in an Islamic madras, and religious traditions are dear to me, therefore I cannot hold my wedding", the author of the letter complains.

"In addition, local officials require that I do not invite representatives of opposition parties and bearded men", says the resident of the Asht region.

Earlier, media reported that local officials banned the residents of the district Asht from reading the Koran at the weddings.

Local human rights organizations openly report that the Rakhmonov's regime actively fights Islam under a pretext of fighting so-called "terrorism and extremism".

In particular, women and boys under the age of 18 are forbidden to visit mosques. The Tajik police detain men with beards and force them to shave them off.

In addition, the authorities prepared a list of issues and texts for sermons during the Friday prayers. During the last two years, the authorities have forcibly returned home more than 2,000 young people who had been studying in Islamic schools abroad.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/09/14/15123.shtml.

Soyuz spacecraft lands safely in Kazakhstan

July 01, 2012

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multinational crew touched down safely Sunday on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station.

Around a dozen recovery helicopters zeroed into the vast uncultivated land mass, where NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Andre Kuipers landed in the Russian-made capsule.

Russian space officials quickly surrounded the craft, which performed a perfect upright textbook landing, and erected ladders to begin the process of pulling out the astronauts. The voyage from the space station started 3 -1/2 hours earlier, when it undocked and began a slow, gentle drift away. It made a perfect landing in the still and summery weather at 2:14 pm local time (08:17 GMT), right on schedule.

Commenting on the landing, NASA TV reporter Rob Navias described it as "a bullseye." Kononenko was the first to be extracted from the descent module. He looked pale and tired, but medical staff announced him healthy. Pettit, second out of the module, was heard to say: "It's good to be home."

The three men were hoisted into recliners and posed for photos for a number of minutes before being carried into a tent for further checks. Writing on his NASA blog on the eve of his departure from the space station, Petit write: "I only hope that my small efforts here, perhaps adding one grain of sand to the beach of knowledge, will help enable a generation of people in the future to call space 'home.'"

Petit and his colleagues were part of the team that handled the arrival to the space station last month of the privately owned SpaceX Dragon capsule. That became the first private delivery to the International Space Station.

The retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet has left Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft as the only means to deliver crews to the orbiting laboratory. Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba are expected to remain onboard the orbiting space station for a further three months.

They will be joined later this month by NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Russia's Yury Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide, who are set to take off on a Soyuz spaceship from the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan.

Turkmenistan holds presidential elections

Sun Feb 12, 2012

In Turkmenistan, people have gone to the polls to cast their ballots in the Central Asian country’s presidential elections.

Eight candidates are running against the country’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who is expected to win a landslide victory.

Berdymukhamedov, 54, won almost 90 percent of the vote in the 2007 presidential election.

With another eight hours left to vote, nearly 48 percent of the electorate had cast their ballots. Turkmenistan has less than three million eligible voters.

The election is the country’s third since its post-Soviet era.

Some analysts say the election is an attempt by the government to present an image of democracy in Turkmenistan.

Berdymukhamedov came to power after the death of Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.

In 1992, Niyazov, being the only candidate, was elected as the country’s first president. Later in 1999, the parliament declared him president for life.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/226315.html.

Caspian Sea States sign deal to enhance responses against oil pollution

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) — The five countries bordering the Caspian Sea have undertaken the commitment to strengthen regional responses to oil pollution in the world’s largest enclosed body of water, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) announced on Monday.

High-level representatives from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan met last week in the Kazakhstan city of Aktau for the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 3) to the Tehran Convention, a legally-binding agreement signed by all parties on the environmental protection of the Caspian region, to which UNEP provides the Secretariat.

“The adoption of the Protocol Concerning Regional Preparedness, Response and Cooperation in Combating Oil Pollution Incidents by the five Caspian States marks a historic milestone in their determination to protect and preserve the Caspian Sea environment against the threats posed by oil pollution,” UNEP said in a statement issued on Monday.

According to UNEP, once the five signing countries ratify the Protocol, it will see the introduction of an emergency response system to deal with oil pollution incidents as well as enhance monitoring measures across national borders.

Over the last two decades, the Caspian Sea has become increasingly exposed to the risk of pollution from oil and gas exploration, exploitation and transport, with the transport of oil or oil products accounting for some 10,000 shipping movements annually.

The countries have also agreed on an environmental impact assessment by establishing a set of common rules that include notifying one another of planned activities which may cause any damage to the marine environment.

The specific characteristics of the Caspian basin such as its climatic and salinity gradients have created a unique ecological system with more than 400 endemic species.

The biodiversity of the site includes 115 species of fish, among them the caviar-bearing Caspian sturgeon and the rare freshwater seal, which are endangered by over-exploitation, habitat destruction and pollution, the UNEP report stated.

“Improving knowledge about potential environmental impacts is the very backbone of international environmental cooperation and good inter-State relationships,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said during the Aktau meeting. “Addressing concerns related to potential adverse environmental trans-boundary impacts is the best recipe for preventing such impacts and safeguarding peace and stability.”

Monday, August 15th, 2011

Source: WireUpdate.
Link: http://wireupdate.com/wires/19479/caspian-sea-states-sign-deal-to-enhance-responses-against-oil-pollution/.

Kyrgyz presidential bidders line up

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The Kyrgyz prime minister entered the race to become the country's next president in elections scheduled for October, his party said Monday.

An April 2010 coup in Kyrgyzstan forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee his stronghold in the south of the country to Belarus. Since the 2010 coup, the country had parliamentary elections and formed a unity government under Roza Otunbayeva.

Otunbayeva is ineligible to seek the presidency after her interim tenure expires Dec. 31. Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev was introduced by the country's Social Democratic Party as its candidate for president, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.

The report adds there are 70 people, ranging from the country's envoy to Kazakhstan, journalists and farmers, who've added their names to the list of presidential candidates.

To run, candidates need to collect more than 30,000 signatures in support of their bid for president by Aug. 25 and raise about $2,500.

After the coup, at least 400 people were killed during June 2010 violence between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the southern regions of Osh and Jalal Abad. Human rights groups note Kyrgyzstan has a long way to go before ethnic rifts are mended.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/15/Kyrgyz-presidential-bidders-line-up/UPI-19781313423979/.

Ethnic tensions linger in Kyrgyzstan

NEW YORK, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- An ethnic Uzbek accused of having ties to ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 died after he was allegedly tortured by police, Human Rights Watch said.

A Kyrgyz investigation, looking into ethnic violence that gripped parts of southern Kyrgyzstan after an April 2010 coup led President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the country, blamed Uzbek leaders and Bakiyev backers for the conflict.

At least 400 people were killed during June 2010 violence between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the southern regions of Osh and Jalal Abad.

Human Rights Watch reported that Osmonjon Khalmurzaev, a Russian citizen, died Wednesday, two days after he was arrested and later released in connection to the June 10 violence.

Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement said police tried to get $6,000 from him for his release, adding Kyrgyz officials should conduct an investigation into the use of torture.

"Khalmurzaev's torture in police custody and his subsequent death are harrowing examples of the extent of corruption and impunity in Kyrgyzstan's law enforcement," he said.

Human Rights Watch in March said refusal by Kyrgyz authorities to investigate claims of torture is a "serious violation" of law.

A separate inquiry investigating the violence found both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks were responsible for atrocities committed in southern Kyrgyzstan after the coup.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/08/12/Ethnic-tensions-linger-in-Kyrgyzstan/UPI-33911313167211/.

Bloody Kazakhstan's regime killed or wounded almost 1,000 protesters and increases terror against Muslims

22 December 2011

An amateur video clip has been posted on YouTube. It was shot in Zhanaozen on December 16, the day of the popular uprising. The video was made by a local resident from a window of a house in the town center, reports the Kazakh Section of the US Congress radio RFE-RL, Azattyk.

The Nazarbayev's regime claims that 14 people were killed and more than 80 others wounded during the dictator's slaughter in Zhanaozen on December 16. According to unofficial data, the number of victims was much higher. Independent sources report about 70 peaceful oil workers killed and 800 wounded.

The state of emergency was proclaimed in Zhanaozen until January 5, 2012.

The ringleader of Kazakh puppets Nazarbayev said at a gathering of his "security council" in the capital of Astana that his puppet security services "were putting things in order" in Zhanaozen, and acted "within their authority under the law".

Thus, according to Nazarbayev's law, about 1,000 peaceful oil workers were killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch called the beastly dictator Nazarbayev to stop violence against the Kazakh Muslims.in an official statement, posted on its website,

The organization reports about tortures of captured oil workers in Zhanaozen.

***

In a strange Democratic way of thinking, the HRW human rights activists call the Nazarbayev's regime for an investigation into the crimes of Nazarbayev's regime which committed these crimes.

The Human Rights Watch indicates that in order to conceal their atrocities, the Nazarbayev's puppets disconnected telephone line and closed all access to Zhanaozen.

The human rights activists talked to people who knew the detainees. All of them told about beatings and tortures. Journalists who visited Zhanaozen said that many residents could not find their relatives, kidnapped by the puppets. People are scared.

A correspondent, Elena Kostyuchenko, told the Human Rights Watch that she talked to a man in Zhanaozen whom the puppets tortured for 24 hours, during the detention in the prison cell and the interrogation room.

Kostyuchenko said that the man had his nose and ribs broken, two bruises in the kidney area, and that he had been coughing blood for two days and had blood in his urine.

According to the man who survived the Nazarbayev's tortures, the puppets broke legs and arms of many inmates the cell. He said he saw prisoners whom the dictator's police forced to lie face down on the ground and put their feet in heavy police boots on the back of their heads, apparently breaking the noses.

Mrs. Kostyuchenko said that two young men had been beaten so hard by the dictator's police that an ambulance had to be called for them.

Another prisoner said that he had been detained by Nazarbayev's puppets on December 19 and released later that day. He said that he was beaten in a police truck on the way to a police station and inside the station, where riot police held his arms behind him while other agents punched him in the stomach.

It is to be recalled that earlier, a correspondent of a Russian newspaper Kommersant reported about traces of blood on the walls and floor of police departments in Zhanaozen.

When asked about the blood on the walls, a member of Nazarbayev's police with a Slavic face lied: "We killed a sheep. There was a holiday, you know".

Meanwhile, the death toll in Zhanaozen is still unknown. Townspeople say that 70 people were killed by dictator's police last Friday.

Perhaps, the death toll is much higher, but it is impossible to find out the exact numbers. The morgue and the city hospital in Zhanaozen are guarded by Nazarbayev's special gangs as if they were important sensitive government agencies. All entrances and exits to local health facilities are staffed by dozens of puppets in full armor.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/12/22/15530.shtml.

Kazakh riots create oil market jitters

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Disruptions in oil production in Kazakhstan could have a similar impact as the Libyan war though the prospects for major violence is low, analysts say.

More than a dozen people were killed in riots in western Kazakhstan last week in the worst outbreak of violence since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.

Kazakhstan in 2010 produced around 1.7 million barrels of oil a day compared with 1.6 million bpd in Libya, statistics from a world energy review from BP show. Disruptions in Libyan crude production from this year's war sent jitters across global energy markets and analysts worry about a similar impact with Kazakhstan.

David Wech, an analyst at JBC Energy in Vienna, told Bloomberg News a complete stoppage in Kazakhstan would be "quite similar" to the effects seen in Libya, with European markets feeling the brunt of the halt.

Other analysts said the riots in Kazakhstan are especially troubling consider the sanctions pressure put on Iran, one of the top producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Kazakhstan's state-run energy company KazMunaiGas said last week its production wasn't curtailed by the rioting because its employees weren't involved. Zhanar Nazkhanova, an equity analyst at the country's Visor Capital, told Bloomberg news the prospects for major violence were low, however.

"This is a tribal issue that is specific to the western part of the country," he said.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/12/22/Kazakh-riots-create-oil-market-jitters/UPI-89581324562631/.

Mujahideen of Jund al-Khilafah promise revenge on Kazakhstan's dictator for massacre of peaceful workers

18 December 2011

A video statement of the Mujahideen of the Kazakh Islamic Brigade Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate in response to Friday's massacre of peaceful oil workers by beastly local dictator Nazarbayev in southwestern Kazakhstan's town of Zhanaozen, in which, according to preliminary data, up to 1,000 Muslims were beastly killed or wounded, has been posted on the Islamic internet forum Shamikh al-Islam.

To suppress the protests, the Kazakhstan's dictator Nazarbayev sent gangs of his riot police, internal troops, special forces, armored vehicles and aircraft. In addition, the gangs of special forces of Belarus dictator Lukashenko were air-lifted from Minsk to help Kazakhstan's dictator Nazarbayev.

The massacre of peaceful striking oil workers by the troops of the two dictators continued until Saturday. On that day, dictator Nazarbayev introduced the state of emergency in Zhanaozen.

In connection with the bloody events in southern Kazakhstan, the Mujahideen issued the following statement:

***

"In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful!

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, peace and blessings be upon the Prophet, after whom there will be no other prophet.

And then ...

The massacre, which took place in the town of Zhanaozen, killing dozens of civilians, shows us that the Nazarbayev's regime is fighting not only the Mujahideen, but also peaceful people of Kazakhstan.

They did not stop robbing and killing people, they also now decided to prohibit the worship to Allah.

Oh the people of Kazakhstan! Your blood is our blood, your soul is our soul. And we, with the help of Allah, shall not leave this case without consequences.

We encourage you to continue to protest against the Nazarbayev's regime, whose goal is to destroy the values ​​of the Kazakhs.

Today we demand not only the abolition of the law on religion, but also the chasing of Nazarbayev and his sycophants. Allahu Akbar!"

It is worth mentioning that it is not the first appeal of the Kazakh Mujahideen with a warning to Nazarbayev and his clique.

Earlier, the Mujahideen warned the bloody dictator of the implications of his law "On religious activities", which prohibits compulsory five-time prayers in state institutions.

Just a few days ago, the Mujahideen staged 2 explosions in the city of Atyrau near the buildings of Nazarbayev's administration, secret police and "prosecutors".

Moreover, on December 8, the Brigade Jund al-Khilafah took responsibility for the battle that occurred in southern Kazakhstan on December 3. The Mujahideen confirmed the martyrdom (Insha'Allah) of 5 Mujahideen during the fightings with Nazarbayev's puppets in the village of Boraldai.

Previously, after the first appeal of Jund al-Khalifah, the puppet "mufti of Kazakhstan" Absattar Derbisali said that Nazarbayev's puppets were "not take these threats seriously".

As the time has shown, the Nazarbayev's "mullah" was seriously mistaken.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/12/18/15520.shtml.

Oil strikes prompt emergency in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Protesters in western Kazakhstan expressed solidarity with striking oil workers under what one demonstrator said was the watchful eye of security forces.

At least 13 people were killed and another 86 were wounded in clashes between striking oil workers and national police, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev last weekend imposed a state of emergency in the western oil city of Zhanaozen and blamed "hooligans" for the violence.

Police, he said, opened fire on demonstrators to "protect themselves and local citizens and preserve order."

Oil workers have protested since May, calling for better pay and the right to organize independent labor unions. Clashes escalated Friday as the country celebrated its 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union.

Protesters during recent clashes set fire to a hotel and the regional office of state-run oil company OzenMunaiGaz. The company, RFE/RL reports, said oil production wasn't impacted greatly because of the strikes.

Oil workers continued their strike last weekend despite the government crackdown. One worker, who gave his name to RFE/RL as Esbol, said workers wanted an investigation into the police response.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/12/19/Oil-strikes-prompt-emergency-in-Kazakhstan/UPI-64231324303854/.

Beastly puppet regime in Kazakhstan slaughters peaceful oil workers

18 December 2011

At least 14 people killed since the puppet regime in Kazakhstan started violence on Friday against peaceful protesters on Friday. The local dictator declared the state of emergency.

The violence started after the protesting oil workers toppled a Christmas tree and sound equipment

Police in Kazakhstan's central city of Shetpe have opened fire and killing one person, raising the death toll since violence erupted on Friday to 14.

A statement from the illegal "prosecutor general's office" said on Sunday the violence occurred on Saturday in Shetpe, in the same region as the city of Zhanaozen where 13 workers were killed by police two days earlier.

Zhanaozen has been the site of a sit-in by oil workers seeking higher wages. Many of those workers were fired over the summer.

The prosecutor general said a group of people in Shetpe, a train station about 100km from the regional center Aktau on the Caspian sea, stopped a train with 300 passengers and called for support of mass protests.

Police opened fire, wounding 12 people, the statement said. The total number wounded since the violence began is estimated to be around 100.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the bloody Kazakh dictator, has declared a 20-day state of emergency in Zhanaozen. The thug tolerates little dissent and puts stability of his illegal regime before Democratic freedoms.

On Sunday morning, around 500 angry protesters gathered near Concord Square of Aktau, a city of 160,000 people on the Caspian sea, some 2,600km southwest of the capital Astana.

Braving biting frost, they faced a large force of black-clad riot police holding shields, a Reuters correspondent reported from the scene. Some policemen were armed with automatic rifles. "Take the troops out of Mangistau!" read a long banner in Kazakh held by a dozen protesters.

One protester, Sarsekesh Bairbekov, said he had been fired by oil firm Karazhanbasmunai (KBM) in May. "I worked there for 20 years. I was a welder and lost an eye," the 58-year-old said.

His wage was $ 810 before he was fired. KBM is jointly owned by London-listed KazMunaiGas Exploration Production and CITIC, China's biggest state investment company.

"We want them to take away the troops," Bairbekov said, referring to the state of emergency imposed in Zhanaozen after the riots. "They killed local people," he added, still wearing maroon-and-blue KBM overalls.

Many protesters called into question the official death toll announced after the riots in Zhanaozen.

One oil worker, who declined to be named, said he had just visited a blood donor center in Aktau. "It is working round-the-clock. If only 10 people were killed, why is it working round-the-clock?" he asked, referring to the initial death toll.

Nurlan Mukhanov, deputy chief doctor at the Mangistau regional hospital in Aktau, said the "majority" of victims had "gunshot wounds". "We should be ready for any situation," he said.

The clashes have soured national celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of independence from Russia and unnerved a government focused on stability of its bloody regime.

Source: Agencies

Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/12/18/15518.shtml.

UZBEKISTAN: Authorities try to stop children attending meetings for worship

8 December 2011

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

The authorities in Uzbekistan's city of Angren have warned local religious communities not to be involved in unspecified "proselytism" and "missionary activity", as well as not to allow children and young people to take part in meetings for worship, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Saidibrahim Saynazirov, Deputy Head of the Administration, made these demands at a meeting of representatives of a variety of religious communities. He also demanded that the communities provide him with lists of their members. Many at the meeting do not want to do this, as one put it to Forum 18, for fear of pressure by the authorities against individual members. When asked what legal basis he had for his demand for membership lists, Saynazirov told the meeting "it's not in the law but we recommend that you do it". He adamantly denied to Forum 18 that he had demanded that communities provide lists of their members. "I did not demand such lists," he insisted. But he admitted that he "only asked" for them. However, the city's Catholic community hope that they will at last be allowed to be legally registered.

The authorities in Angren, a city 110 km. (70 miles) east of Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, have warned local religious communities not to be involved in unspecified "proselytism" and "missionary activity", as well as not to allow children and young people to take part in meetings for worship. On 2 November Saidibrahim Saynazirov, Deputy Head of the Administration, addressed representatives of the Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Presbyterian, Seventh-day Adventist and Baptist churches, at a meeting he called, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The only communities present were those with registration somewhere in the country, which the state allows to exist. All unregistered religious activity is a criminal offense, in defiance of the international human rights agreements Uzbekistan is a party to.

Also present at the meeting were the chairpersons of local mahalla (residential district) committees. Mahalla committees, in theory locally-elected but in practice state-appointed, are a key part of Uzbekistan's structures of control and oppression. They are for example used as part of the state apparatus to restrict the numbers of Muslims allowed to make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, as part of the total control the state has over all aspects of officially-permitted Islam.

Saynazirov of the local administration also demanded that religious communities give the authorities a list of all their members, as well as copies of their state registration documents, a source from Angren who asked to remain unnamed for fear of State reprisals told Forum 18 on 30 November.

Two weeks before the meeting, Saynazirov and local police raided the local Baptist church's Sunday morning meeting for worship. Two schoolgirls present were later called t a police station and pressured to write statements against the Church's Pastor Vyacheslav Gavrilov, and to stop attending the Church (see F18News 5 December 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1643). As of 7 December no charges have been brought against Gavrilov.

Threats

Saynazirov claimed to the meeting that on his initiative the authorities closed a mosque which was attended by school pupils for Friday prayers, and the Imam of the Mosque was fined. He did not identify the mosque or imam, or when these human rights violations took place.

Asked by Forum 18 on 7 December which mosque's imam was fined and why, Saynazirov derisively said "I don't understand Imam-Shimam". He then said that he did not wish to talk more to Forum 18. "Please, come to my office or send your representative, and we will discuss the rest of your questions here." He then put the phone down.

Dmitry Tikhonov, an independent human rights defender in Angren told Forum 18 on 8 December that he had not heard of any recent closures of mosques. "Ten unregistered small Muslim communities were closed down by the city authorities in 2010, just before the new year", he told Forum 18 on 8 December.

Saynazirov also claimed that he was responsible for Angren's then permitted Pentecostal Church being banned for unauthorized religious activity. The Church's Pastor, Askhad Mustafin, had previously been twice prosecuted for leading the Church.

Human rights defender Tikhonov suggested that the examples of the mosque closure and the church ban was to scare the communities, to "make them cooperate" with the authorities.

Can children and young people attend meetings for worship?

Various religious communities at the meeting told Forum 18 that Saynazirov demanded that children and young people be stopped from attending. In other contexts, he has apparently demanded that this happen even if the required written parental consent has been obtained. During the 16 October raid on Angren's permitted Baptist Church, Furkat Boltayev, Deputy Chief of the town's police Criminal Investigation and Struggle against Terrorism Division, confiscated written consent letters of parents allowing their children and young people to attend the Church.

Saynazirov was told at the meeting by some that they will not stop children and young people from attending meetings for worship, "especially if they are coming with their parents or with their written consent". "Why should we stop teaching our children our faith," some asked.

Asked by Forum 18 whether children and young people can attend Christian meetings for worship, Saynazirov stated that "children can attend with their parents outside the school hours". He would not respond on whether children and young people can attend mosques.

In other parts of Uzbekistan, the authorities have bullied and harassed school pupils who attend places of worship including mosques and Christian churches.

Stop "proselytism" and "missionary activity"

Saynazirov also told the meeting that those present must stop "proselytism" and "missionary activity". Some present at the meeting told Forum 18 that it appears he meant any activity that could be described as sharing their faith with others. Saynazirov himself refused to comment on what exactly he meant. "I do not understand what exactly you mean by proselytism", was the only comment he would make on this to Forum 18.

The Code of Administrative Offenses' Article 240 Part 2 ("Attracting believers of one confession to another (proselytism) and other missionary activity") imposes punishment for this "offense" of either fines of between 50 and 100 times the minimum monthly salary, or administrative arrest for up to 15 days. However, there is no legal definition of what exactly "proselytism" or "missionary activity" is, leaving much room for arbitrary official interpretations.

Membership lists

Saynazirov also demanded that the communities provide him with lists of their members. Many at the meeting did not want to do this, as one put it to Forum 18, "for fear that the authorities will watch them individually and persecute them" - as in the very recent case of the two schoolgirls present when Angren's Baptist Church was raided.

Followers of all faiths are subject to National Security Service (NSS) secret police surveillance, which can often be highly intrusive including microphones bugging meetings and open filming of those who attend meetings for worship. The NSS also tries to recruit informers inside religious communities.

When asked what legal basis he had for his demand for membership lists, Saynazirov told the meeting "it's not in the law but we recommend that you do it".

Saynazirov adamantly denied to Forum 18 that he had demanded that communities provide lists of their members. "I did not demand such lists," he insisted, "who am I to demand the names of their members." But he admitted to Forum 18 that he "only asked" for them.

He went on to maintain that he "did not demand anything". He claimed to Forum 18 that he "only asked them for copies of registration documents, which we do annually". Asked why he wanted every year to receive copies of documents the authorities already have, Saynazirov said that he could not comment on this.

Will Angren's Catholics be legally registered?

Bishop Jerzy Maculewicz, Catholic Apostolic Administrator of Uzbekistan, told Forum 18 on 8 December that one priest present was asked to prepare all the necessary documents for the registration of the community in Angren. Currently, Catholics have to travel to Tashkent to attend Mass.

"We have 40 community members in Angren, and the community there has existed for five years", Bishop Maculewicz said. "We cannot celebrate masses in Angren, as we are not registered there".

To gain state registration, communities must first have 100 adult Uzbek citizens willing both to be identified as founders and to supply their personal details to the authorities. Then, religious organizations must submit two letters of guarantee: one from the district hokimat (administration), confirming that the organization to be registered has a building which corresponds to public health and fire safety requirements; and one from the mahalla committee, stating that other mahalla residents do not object to the organization. Public health, fire safety and similar requirements are sometimes used to provide excuses to harass religious organizations.

Gaining state registration – or permission to exist - is a serious problem for Muslims, Protestant and Catholic Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and people of other faiths. Even those who want state registration face systematic obstruction, as this is often used as a weapon against people who want to exercise the right to freedom of religion or belief. Catholics in Angren have been trying to gain state registration for a number of years.

The necessary documents for registration were submitted to the authorities in Angren after the 2 November meeting, Bishop Maculewicz told Forum 18. "Now we are hoping that we can soon get registered".

No patriarchal visit for the Orthodox

A rescheduled visit by Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill to mark the 140th anniversary of the Church in Uzbekistan has still not taken place. It is thought that the authorities have blocked the visit because the Moscow Patriarchate in July changed its structures in Central Asia and appointed a new bishop to Tashkent without gaining the approval of Uzbekistan.

Russian Orthodox believers from Tashkent told Forum 18 on 7 December that, although Orthodox hierarchs and priests from elsewhere in Central Asia attended the ceremonies, "unfortunately neither Patriarch Kirill nor any priests from Moscow could attend".

Uzbek TV encourages intolerance of freedom of religion or belief

In the latest instance of state TV encouraging intolerance of people exercising freedom of religion or belief, Yoshlar TV channel aired a 40 minute program entitled "Jehovah Witnesses: The art of converting into zombies" on 21 November.

Claiming that Jehovah's Witnesses were conducting "illegal meetings and gatherings at some homes", the TV program cited two instances where it claimed that Jehovah's Witnesses had been prosecuted for their activities.

The documentary accused Jehovah's Witnesses of using lies in their teachings, and called on people to be vigilant. "Threats to our peaceful life are coming from people among us. (..) It is our human duty to be vigilant about people who want to damage our centuries-old national traditions and values, as well as our beliefs passed on to us by our grandparents", it concluded.

Uzbekistan's state-run TV often broadcasts programs encouraging intolerance of those exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief. For example, one entitled "In the clutches of ignorance" was shown before live coverage of the Euro 2008 football championship, to attract the largest possible audience. That film made some members of religious minorities "afraid to go out on the street where they live".

Source: Forum 18.
Link: http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1645.

'High Glaciers Safe From Warming'

By Christopher Pala

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Dec 15, 2011 (IPS) - Global warming will melt far less of the glaciers of Central Asia than of those in other mountain ranges, shielding the people who depend on them for water from the effects of climate change for several decades at least, scientists say.

The mountains in and around the Himalayas are so high, unlike in the Andes, the Alps or the Rockies, that even in summer, temperatures remain below freezing point and most of the glaciers don’t melt away at all, Richard Armstrong, a geographer at Colorado University’s National Snow and Ice Center, tells IPS.

"It doesn’t make much difference if it gets a little warmer up there because it’s still far below zero."

Glaciers are rivers of ice fed by snowfall at the top. As they flow downhill to warmer temperatures, they eventually melt, providing water in summer, when rainfall is usually lowest.

Since the end of the two-centuries-long Little Ice Age in 1850, the terminus point of most glaciers has been slowly retreating uphill. That retreat accelerated since gases like carbon dioxide emitted by coal burning and cars have been accumulating in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect that has raised global temperatures on average by half a degree Celsius in the past 30 years.

How much water a glacier produces each year is mostly determined by how much snow falls on their upper part, not at what point they end. So far there is no evidence that less snow is falling on their higher parts or that they produce more or less melt water, according to Armstrong and other scientists.

In the first comprehensive study of a part of what is called High Asia, the scientists found that 96 percent of the water that flows down the mountains of Nepal into nine local river basins comes from snow and rain, and only 4 percent from summer glacier melt. Of that 4 percent, says Armstrong, the lead author, only a minuscule proportion comes from the melting away of the end points of the glaciers due to global warming.

Armstrong said there is a lot of misinformation in the public arena regarding glaciers, including reports that glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than anywhere else in the world and that if this rapid melting continues, rivers are on track to first flood and then dry up. "Those reports simply are not true," says Armstrong.

"There is a lot of international interest in accurate water resource data from the High Asia region and what the water security consequences are, since water conflicts between countries can escalate rapidly," adds Mark Williams of the same university’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

Glaciers in other, lower parts of the world melt in summer over their entire course, so if temperature increases, they melt faster. If temperatures keep rising and that loss is not compensated by increased snowfall in winter – and in some of those glaciers it is – the entire glacier will eventually disappear, Armstrong explains. With it, the summer melt water prized by irrigation farmers, households and users of electricity produced by dams could also disappear.

"But High Asia is different because it’s so much higher," he says, referring to the Himalaya, Pamir, Karakoram, Hindu Kush and Tian Shan ranges that straddle parts of China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

"About half of the surface of the glaciers there is above 5,500 meters," he says, the point at which glaciers never melt. These glaciers include the longest in the world outside of the polar regions, the Fedchenko, which is 77 km long (the longest, the Lambert in Antarctica, is over 400 km long).

While melting ice from glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland is responsible for about two-thirds of the recent rise in ocean levels (the last third is because water takes up more volume when it gets warmer), the runoff from the melting of the lower glaciers of High Asia should not have much effect on ocean levels because little ends up in the oceans, the scientists say.

What does affect the third of the world’s population that depends on water from High Asia is where their water comes from – how much from rain, snow and glacier melting. "At this point we simply don’t know," says Armstrong.

This month, he traveled to Almaty to meet with other scientists and launch a four-year, 5.4 million dollar program funded by USAID to provide answers to those questions.

The program will use 10 years’ worth of satellite and weather data, augmented with local measurements, to determine with unprecedented exactitude across the whole region how much of the water that feeds the great irrigating rivers (the Amu and Syr Darya, the Ganga, Bramaputra and Indus) comes from snowmelt, how much from rain and how much from glaciers.

"This study should provide answers as to what is real and what is false," says Williams.

Such knowledge is commonly available in the U.S. and Europe. It helps people to plan the allocation of water: for instance, after a winter of light snowfall, knowing a river gets 25 percent of its water from glaciers melting in summer, you can figure out how much water you'll get that summer. Given that these rivers are major sources of irrigation, this knowledge will be very helpful.

While the retreat of the glaciers is too slow to be discernible with great precision with only ten years worth of data, Armstrong says that knowing how much water comes from summer glacier melt will allow planning for the effects of climate change, such as variations in snowfall and rain and the melting of the low-lying glaciers.

"Once we have a picture of recent and current conditions, we can go forward and run computer ‘melt models’ based on the temperatures at various elevations, giving us trends in snowmelt and glacier melt by region and time," says Armstrong. "That’s when we start to come up with water volumes for individual rivers and streams from both melting snow and ice."

Source: Inter-Press Service.
Link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106227.

Torture systemic in Kyrgyzstan, U.N. says

GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The new government in Kyrgyzstan needs to take measures to end impunity in cases of torture by law enforcement officials, a U.N. envoy said.

Juan Mendez, U.N. special envoy on torture, provided a briefing following his recent trip to the central Asian country.

Mendez said the aim of his visit was to investigate circumstances surrounding violence that followed an April 2010 coup, promote peace and reconciliation and ensure those responsible for the violence are held accountable.

An April 2010 coup led former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee to Belarus. Following the coup, at least 470 people were killed in ethnic conflicts near Osh and Jalal Abad.

Mendez found that torture in the country was widespread and systemic. He said it was common and committed as a way to extract confessions from detainees by authorities working for the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Almost all detainees indicated that they were subjected to mistreatment or beating since the moment of apprehension and delivery to a police station for the purpose of extraction of confessions by means of torture," he said in a statement.

Bishkek, he added, needs to revamp its system by creating a justice system that meets international norms.

His visit came at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, who took office in November.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/12/14/Torture-systemic-in-Kyrgyzstan-UN-says/UPI-64001323878301/.

Turkmen authorities admit to 15 blast deaths

Ashgabat (AFP) July 10, 2011

Authorities in reclusive Turkmenistan admitted Sunday that 15 people were killed in a series of blasts last week that left a village on the outskirts of the capital in ruins.

The toll was the first reported by the Central Asian republic's authorities since Thursday's accident and contradicted claims from the Turkmen opposition living abroad of up some 200 fatalities.

But the republic's strongman leader said in rare remarks that the village Abadan would have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

"In place of the old Abadan -- a satellite city of the Turkmen capital -- an essentially new city will be built," TDH quoted the republic's strongman leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as saying.

TDH said the toll included two servicemen and 13 civilians.

It added that the initial blast went off at a fireworks storage facility and that flying debris later hit a munitions dump "storing Soviet-era explosives and armaments that were awaiting dismantlement."

Members of the opposition said the village was home to a Soviet-era military air field used in the 1980s during the war in Afghanistan.

Satellite images of the area showed high-rise apartment buildings standing in close proximity to the military base.

The opposition Ferghana.ru site showed pictures of shattered houses and cited witnesses as saying that bodies littered the street in the initial hours after the blasts.

Turkmenistan filed a formal protest with Russian on Friday for allowing its media to report the opposition claims.

The incident in the energy-rich republic -- which the United States has described as an authoritarian state -- had been barely mentioned by the Kazakh authorities since it occurred.

But it prompted a series of unusual steps from the Berdymukhamedov that included a surprise offer for opposition figures living abroad to take part in presidential elections scheduled for February.

The president followed that up on Saturday by inviting his entire government and all senior media representatives to leave the capital and take a 10-day vacation.

Berdymukhamedov did not explain his move.

Sunday's state news report said the president had delivered a "sharp reprimand" to his defense minister and reduced his ranks to colonel. He also threatened to court martial military officials responsible for the munitions dump blaze.

But the statement that the life in the village was quickly returning to normal and basic communications had been restored.

The desert republic had been ruled until 2006 by a bizarre personality cult developed around Saparmurat Niyazov -- a despot who named months after family members and was accused of amassing a vast personal wealth.

Berdymukhamedov had taken gradual steps to remove some of the more striking features of Niyazov's rule and also indicated a readiness to mend ties with the United States.

He formally ended the single-party state era in Turkmenistan in 2010, but the move made no perceptible difference to his grip on power.

The leaders of the opposition now live abroad, in Western Europe and Russia, and one top foe of Niyazov told AFP on Saturday that he suspected 600 political prisoners were still locked up in Turkmen prisons today.

"It would be naive to listen to the promises of the president and to return to the country," Nurmukhammed Khanamov told AFP be telephone from Austria. "We would be thrown in prison."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Turkmen_authorities_admit_to_15_blast_deaths_999.html.

Kazakh Parliament Votes Down Troop Deployment To Afghanistan

6/9/2011

(RTTNews) - The Upper House of Kazakhstan's Parliament on Thursday refused to send four Kazakh officers to serve with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, three weeks after it was approved by the Central Asian country's Lower House.

A Taliban threat to attack Kazakhstan if it enforces the deployment to Afghanistan might have prompted the Senate to reject the controversial proposal, reports said.

The Lower House on May 18 approved the deployment for non-combat jobs in the ISAF. But any decision by the Lower House on troop contribution will be valid only if it is ratified by the Upper House. Another round of voting on the measure is expected later this month.

Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority nation, which is home to ethnic minorities with historic ties to Afghanistan.

Svetlana Zhalmagambetova, a member of the Senate, said before the vote that the decision to deploy Kazakh troops come at a time "the US is thinking about how to get its troops out of Afghanistan."

"Is it worth ruining our reputation as a peaceful country at the very last moment of the war?" she was quoted as asking.

The proposal has stirred wide discussion in Kazakh society and media, which are normally tightly controlled by the regime of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Energy-rich Kazakhstan has attempted to take a neutral position between Russia, the U.S. and China, all of which are pushing to increase their influence in Central Asia.

Although the Kazakh government approved last year the movement of NATO truck convoys through its territory to deliver supplies to IASF forces in northern Afghanistan, its military cooperates most closely with Russia.

Source: RTT News.
Link: http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1642874&SM=1.