From the WikiLeaks Cablegate release: here’s a description of Iranian national character in 1979. Alot of people are going to think it’s Orientalist but I think it’s got alot of truth and right to today. Maybe it can even describe the national character of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan today, too…

Read the full story »

Photograph by neweurasia's Mary Pole (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: Yesterday’s in southern Kyrgyzstan and today’s bombing in Bishkek have once again raised the spectre of Islamism over Central Asia’s “island of democracy”. But is there any substance behind the “Islamism” label? neweurasia’s Mary Pole sees something much more sinister at work. “The context of oppression and intimidation of the ethnic Uzbek minority in Kyrgyzstan,” she writes, “and the frequent use of the word ‘Islamist’ and ‘terrorist’ in justifying arrests and detention in many of these cases [are] indicative of a concerning trend.”

(This post was filed before today’s bombing in Bishkek, but we think it applies to that incident, as well.)

Despite widespread panic, Monday’s gun battle in Osh was localised and is reported to be due to a state security raid to arrest Islamic Militants. The State National Security Services are eager to state that they have the situation under control and that they ‘will not allow any massacres and clashes.’ It’s a shame they didn’t feel the same way in June.

While they may not be allowing any violence on the same scale as the mass killing and destruction earlier this year, yesterday’s events are part of a concerning pattern of intimidation and detention of ethnic Uzbeks in which combating ‘terrorism’ and ‘radical Islam’ is being used as a guise for the abuse of human rights.

Read the full story »

Uzbek citizens have been showing interest in the fate of ethnic Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan. The latest occurrence was reported by BBC when a Bukhara-based human rights organization has raised the issue of orphan children who lost their parents during the massacre in Southern Kyrgyzstan. Fergana.RU reported earlier that a group of human rights activists staged several rallies in Tashkent in support of their ethnic Uzbek colleague in Kyrgyzstan who was sentenced to life imprisonment. Uzbek President Islam Karimov told the UN General Assembly in September that an international inquiry was to be carried out into the June events. These were so far proposals to take action. Before that, Uzbek prosecutors’ offices were reported to have launched criminal investigations into the atrocities against ethnic Uzbeks while refugees were still in Uzbekistan. A well-known Uzbek singer, who was quite popular in Kyrgyzstan as well, condemned “the extermination of Uzbeks” in a song she sang in July. Read the full story »

Translation of Jamil’s post (RUS)

I recently had the “fortune” to speak with a man who spent many years working in Uzbekistan’s law enforcement. His story about what is understood and permitted at the Ministry of the Interior will not come as a surprise to those familiar with the human rights situation in our country.

Let’s call my interlocutor Zokir-aka, since it’s unlikely that such publicity would be of any benefit to him.

For over 25 years, Zokir-aka experienced both the day-to-day and the peculiarities of the service that has become an inextricable part of his life. We were able to have a short, private conversation during a tea ceremony in anticipation of a wedding between some mutual friends of ours, doing our best to look like we’re talking about “everything in general and nothing in particular,” rather than going through police memoirs.

“I eventually worked my way up to the position of district chief [district name omitted to protect identity]. In that time, I’ve been privy to many things: persecution, torture and the humiliation of ordinary citizens,” he confessed. Read the full story »

As expected, the Tashkent City Court’s decision to uphold the conviction against independent journalist Abdumalik Boboev was not a challenge for our Justice. Even a decision judges came up with 15-minutes does not seem like a huge surprise.

Voice of America’s Uzbekistan correspondent was incriminated the following charges under Uzbek Criminal Code: Slander, Insult, Illegal leaving abroad and illegal entrance to the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as Preparation and dissemination of information, Threatening the public safety and order.

In October Abdumalik had been fined several hundred minimum monthly wages, adding up to $11,000 (this is a sum that people in Uzbekistan earn in at least 3-4 years, by the way).

During the whole process that Abdumalik had been undergoing through his friends and colleagues stayed with him till the end. International campaign to stop the silly process against a talented journalist had an undoubted effect. On the governmental level, U.S. State Department decided to use its tools in helping Abdumalik out. One of the measures taken was Assistant Secretary Blake discussion of the case with the Uzbek officials while his recent visit to our country, and met Abdumalik in person.

Unfortunately, neither this high level ‘protection’ nor U.S. Government’s attempts to influence the process of suing Abdumalik and Statement on Media Freedom in Uzbekistan by its Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) led by Ambassador Ian Kelly to the Permanent Council in Vienna on September 23, 2010 affected our corrupted and marionette justice system. Read the full story »

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake visited Uzbekistan November 9-10, 2010, U.S. Embassy to Tashkent Press Service reports.

Assistant Secretary Blake’s visit to Uzbekistan is his third since taking up his current position. In Tashkent, Assistant Secretary Blake met with government officials to discuss a range of issues of mutual interests, including in the security, political, economic and human dimensions of the U.S.-Uzbekistan relationship, press-release says.

What is out of the classic U.S. officials visits to Uzbekistan format is that Assistant Secretary also met with Voice of America reporter Abdumalik Boboyev to discuss his ongoing case.

Read the full story »

Two reports from RFE/RL. First, the newly-elected parliament, about which I pondered last week and which was supposed to convene this past Friday, has now been scheduled to convene on 10 November. This appears to be due to ongoing complaints about the election results.

And second, Bakiyev is now set to be tried in absentia beginning 15 November. This is likely to develop into a huge story (notwithstanding, of course, the fact that it was originally supposed to start on 25 October). My own feeling is that it could potentially stir up some trouble between southern and northern Kyrgyz, with the latter generally in support of the action (considering the fact that they overthrew him).

If so, then there’s the possibility that Kyrgyz nationalism will increase, buttressed from some unlikely quarters, precisely because it would be useful to mend fences between the two groups. My fear is that minorities will suffer as a result due to their handiness as, well, scapegoats. But these are just my two soms, and perhaps simplistic ones at that. More importantly, I just hope that I’m wrong.

It’s not a big surprise when world stars visit Central Asia. Unfortunately, most of them perform at the very private events. neweurasia has already reported on them, and among examples of greed and indifference to their fans of a host-country are Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears.

Fortunately, there are popular bands willing to spread their message to the people of our region with a huge assistance of organizations and governmental bodies. Last year Uzbekistanis enjoyed few concerts by American bands sponsored by the U.S. State Department and different American NGOs.

This September the author of this post had a great time touring with Brazzaville, American rock band, while they were in Uzbekistan bringing their sound across Uzbekistan for series of concerts.

Before coming to our country they had already visited Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and headed to Armenia after visiting Uzbekistan.

This tour became a reality because of the support of the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent and Performing Arts Initiative that helps to develop an appreciation of American culture and values in foreign audiences, and through these programs, American performers also learn to value other cultures.

neweurasia is pleased to offer our readers an interview with David Arthur Brown, the founder of Brazzaville, about their Central Asian tour. Read the full story »

The way our government deals with independent media is more than a casual story in Uzbekistan. A week ago neweurasia reported on a ban of Facebook, the most popular social network in the world. Uzbek users had a chance to discuss this issue brought by Ferghana.Ru information agency which claimed that the ban might have been a response of the Uzbek government to the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Press Freedom Index 2010 report.

neweurasia’s staff and friends in Uzbekistan had helped us to get actual proofs of the ban. We got several comments from our readers and many other places of discussions. Read the full story »

Uzbek authorities have banned Facebook, Ferghana.Ru reports. I don’t have doubts on who gave such an order but I wonder if our government is really as sick as it seems from this decision to consider a social network as a serious threat to the regime.

First of all, people in Facebook cannot act anonymously. Had secret services thought about controlling “dissidents” they would have done it easily by scanning users’ IPs randomly. Seems like they have finally realized that everything is not as great and shiny in Uzbekistan as described by the official means of propaganda, and banning a social network popular with Uzbekistanis and those who don’t feel indifferent to its destiny will further strengthen the control of the informational flow.

Since Facebook is a network of millions and millions of people around the globe it’s one of the easiest ways to spread the word for civil activists if needed.

One of the reasons why government couldn’t stand the use of Facebook by Uzbek internet-users might be the side adds on network’s page one could see on how to avoid the ban of independent websites by just clicking on it. From my personal experience I could easily follow adds to access many websites banned in the country, including neweurasia. Read the full story »