Fw: Reporting Central Asia No. 121

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Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 4:14 PM
Subject: Reporting Central Asia No. 121


> WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 121, May 24, 2002
>
> KYRGYZSTAN: PROTESTS TO CONTINUE DESPITE RESIGNATIONS  The resignation of
> the Kyrgyz government over the deaths of demonstrators in Aksy is unlikely
> to ease tensions in the country. Kubat Otorbaev reports from Bishkek
>
> KAZAK JOURNALISTS FACE BRUTAL INTIMIDATION Unidentified "hooligans" wage
> reign of terror on opposition journalists. Joldas Babaev reports from
> Almaty
>
> KAZAKSTAN: NAZARBAEV'S GAMBLE  Astana hopes support for US strategic goals
> will prompt Washington to turn a blind eye to flagrant persecution of
> opposition groups. Tolganai Umbetalieva reports from Almaty
>
> TAJIKISTAN FACES ADDICTION CRISIS  Access to some of the world's cheapest
> and purest heroin has seen addiction rates soar. Saida Nazarova report
> from Dushanbe
>
> UZBEKISTAN: MIGRANTS SUFFER RUSSIAN HUMILIATION  Uzbek migrant workers are
> prepared to put up with rough treatment in Russia to escape the economic
> misery of their homeland. Malik Mansur reports from Yekaterinburg
>
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> KYRGYZSTAN: PROTESTS TO CONTINUE DESPITE RESIGNATIONS
>
> The resignation of the Kyrgyz government over the deaths of demonstrators
> in Aksy is unlikely to ease tensions in the country.
>
> By Kubat Otorbaev in Bishkek
>
> The government of Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev resigned this week, in
> an effort to defuse protests over the deaths of six demonstrators in March
> in the south of the country.
>
> But Adakhan Madumarov, the leader of the Kyrgyz opposition, says the
> protesters are unlikely to call off their action, which recently
> culminated in a blockade of strategic north-south highway, until President
> Askar Akaev resigns.
>
> Some opposition figures say the demonstrations might have calmed if the
> government had acted swiftly to prosecute all those responsible for the
> Aksy deaths on March 17-18 and acquit the opposition deputy Azimbek
> Beknazarov, whose arrest had sparked the unrest.
>
> Soon after the killings, the authorities made a vain attempt to appease
> the protesters by releasing Beknazarov on bail.
>
> Speaking after the resignation of the government, Akaev blamed the tragedy
> on "irresponsibility... and a deficiency in the democratic qualities of
> state agencies and the law enforcement system".
>
> But the president also pointed the finger at "cynical politicians" who
> were "deliberately inciting the people of the Aksy region to disorderly
> behaviour".
>
> Bakiev said his government was not directly responsible for the Aksy
> incident, but admitted making some mistakes, particularly in failing to
> keep closer control over the law enforcement agencies. He said he resigned
> in order to force those directly responsible for the bloodshed to follow
> suit.
>
> Although Akaev had harsh words to say about his administration, he
> defended the former interior minister, Temirbek Akmataliev and the ex-head
> of the national security service, Kalyk Imankulov, who had only been in
> their jobs a few months when the tragedy occurred.
>
> Imankulov admitted that his department was not fully briefed on the
> situation in the Akys area prior to the fateful demonstrations. He said
> only one security official had been working in the region, which is home
> to some 130,000 people, and that no informers were in place.
>
> Akaev was clearly hoping the resignation of the government on May 22 will
> be enough to calm the situation, apparently believing that the
> demonstrators' main demands have now been met. "The Aksy residents wanted
> the government to fall, not the president, " said one parliamentary deputy
> close to the authorities.
>
> Protests continue, however, and it seems Akaev's move may be too little,
> too late. Opposition parliamentary deputy Bektur Asanov said he had
> visited demonstrators in the south with Madumarov.
>
> "Thousands of protestors there assured us they intend to stay until Askar
> Akaev steps down - the resignation of the government will not stop them,"
> Asanov said.
>
> Kubat Otorbaev is an independent journalist
>
>
> KAZAK JOURNALISTS FACE BRUTAL INTIMIDATION
>
> Unidentified "hooligans" wage reign of terror on opposition journalists.
>
> Joldas Babaev in Almaty
>
> A government crackdown on the opposition press has taken a new and
> sinister turn. Unidentified attackers have firebombed one newspaper
> office, sent a funeral wreath to the paper's editor and tied a decapitated
> dog to the publication's window bars.
>
> On May 22, an unidentified group of assailants lobbed petrol bombs into
> the offices of PR Consulting, publisher of Delovoye Obozrenie Respublika
> (Republic Business Review), destroying the premises.
>
> "This is what happens when you start criticising the president, his family
> members or his policy," said one nervous journalist, there to examine the
> damage. PR Consulting director Guzel Baidalimova who was clearly shaken by
> the incident, said, "We've lost at least two million tenge (13,000 US
> dollars) in the bombing."
>
> The Republic Business Review is an opposition publication owned by former
> minister Mukhtar Abliazov, arrested recently along with the ex-governor of
> Pavlodar region, Galymzhan Zhakianov. Both are leaders of the opposition
> party, Democratic Choice of Kazakstan, DCK, set up last year by a number
> of government officials and Kazak businessmen.
>
> Two days before the firebomb attack, journalists found a decapitated dog
> outside the publication's office. A note had been nailed to the animal
> with a screwdriver. It read, "There will be no next time." Editor-in-chief
> Irina Petrushova subsequently found the dog's head outside her house, with
> a similar note nailed to its skull. A few days later she was sent a
> funeral wreath.
>
> Republic Business Review is not the only paper to come under attack. In
> recent weeks, equipment at Tan TV, an important opposition mouthpiece with
> connections to Abliazov, was damaged during a gun attack; and in Atyrau,
> western Kazakstan, a private printing house was burnt to the ground in an
> arson attack.
>
> On May 21 four men broke into the offices of SolDat, another opposition
> newspaper in Almaty. SolDat is linked to ex-prime minister Akezhan
> Kazhegeldin's opposition Republican's People Party. Correspondents
> Bakhytgul Makinbai and Kenje Aitpakiev said the assailants beat them,
> stole property and threatened to return if the paper continued publishing.
>
> Adil Soz, a campaign group concerned with freedom of the press, reports
> violations of press freedom on an almost daily basis nowadays.
>
> This latest wave of repression started soon after President Nursultan
> Nazarbaev rounded on the opposition media in a speech on February 11.
> "Look at our media," he said. "All they do is vilify everything. Our
> prosecutors won't budge if you don't prod them. What are we paying them
> for?"
>
> Government agencies reacted swiftly. Inspectors, auditors and court
> bailiffs came knocking on every opposition newspaper door. "Over the past
> couple of months, the government has been waging an all-out war on those
> journalists who are bold enough to tell the truth," said statement by the
> Democratic Choice of Kazakstan.
>
> The besieged media have been scrambling to protect themselves. Tan TV, for
> example, has set up a community watch group. Old ladies from the
> pensioner's Pokolenie (Generation) movement stand guard outside the
> building everyday. Other publications have buckled under the pressure and
> are now operating under self-censorship.
>
> But pensioner Zinaida Petrova is unconcerned by the latest crackdown.
> "Everyone knows what's going on," she said, "but freedom of press will not
> be stifled. If something really important happens and the media doesn't
> cover it, we will find out anyway through the grapevine, just like in
> Soviet times."
>
> The authorities, meanwhile, are refusing to comment on the situation. All
> government agencies contacted by IWPR declined to be interviewed. Senior
> police officers attributed the attacks on independent media premises and
> journalists to "hooligans".
>
> Interestingly, these "hooligans" have so far failed to attack any
> pro-government media outlets or employees.
>
> Joldas Babaev is the pseudonym of an Almaty-based journalist
>
>
> KAZAKSTAN: NAZARBAEV'S GAMBLE
>
> Astana hopes support for US strategic goals will prompt Washington to turn
> a blind eye to flagrant persecution of opposition groups.
>
> By Tolganai Umbetalieva in Almaty
>
> The Kazak decision earlier this month to allow the US to use three
> airfields for "non-civilian" purposes is yet another sign of the growing
> ties between the two countries.
>
> The deal was announced in the first week of May after a meeting between
> President Nursultan Nazarbaev and the US Secretary of Defence, Donald
> Rumsfeld. The airfields are located in Almaty and the south Kazak towns of
> Shymkent and Lugovoye.  Under the agreement, American planes may only use
> them for re-fuelling.
>
> The move is part of American attempts to exert a greater influence in
> Central Asia.
>
> The US needs Kazak support to extend its economic interest in the region,
> as the country is an important source of energy and plays a key role in
> the transport of oil.
>
> At the same time, Washington wants to weaken Russian influence in the area
> by prising Astana away from Moscow.
>
> An important factor bringing the two together is a long shared border and
> Kazakstan's large ethnic Russian population. Despite substantial
> emigration since the mid-1990s, the minority still accounts for 30 per
> cent of the population, making it the largest Russian diaspora in Central
> Asia.
>
> The US is also keen to bolster its military presence in the region, in
> part, to counter the Shanghai Organisation for Cooperation - an alliance
> of countries in the region addressing local security concerns.
>
> Although American officials insist they do not aim to stay in Central Asia
> for long and are not planning to establish permanent bases, their actions
> suggest otherwise.
>
> Kazakstan has already begun to benefit from closer ties with Washington. A
> local news agency reported that it has become the first country in the CIS
> to have it market reforms approved by Washington - which will enhance
> Astana's bid to join  international financial institutions and attract
> foreign investment.
>
> Kazak opposition groups suspect the government is playing along with
> America's strategic goals to solve its own internal political
> difficulties. Nurbolat Masanov, a prominent opposition activist, says the
> authorities hope their support for the US will prompt Washington to turn a
> blind eye to the government's oppressive actions.
>
> One former minister Mukhtar Ablyazov is already in prison, accused of
> abuse of power while in office. Another former top official, Galymzhan
> Zhakiyanov, facing similar charges, is under house arrest. The real reason
> for their punishment is thought to be their public criticism of the regime
> and support for the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakstan movement.
>
> Tolganai Umbetalieva is a political analyst at the Kazak Institute for
> Strategic Studies
>
>
> TAJIKISTAN FACES ADDICTION CRISIS
>
> Access to some of the world's cheapest and purest heroin has seen
> addiction rates soar.
>
> By Saida Nazarova in Dushanbe
>
> Flooded with high quality narcotics from neighbouring Afghanistan,
> Tajikistan is facing a growing heroin addiction crisis.
>
> As of January 1, 2002, there were 6,250 officially registered addicts,
> 4,713 of them heroin abusers. And the director of the Republican Clinical
> Centre for Narcotics Users, Andrei Onishchenko, estimates that the actual
> number exceeds this official figure by a factor of eight to 10.
>
> The deputy commander of the Russian border guards in Tajikistan, Major
> General Ramazan Jafarov, says intelligence indicates that 5,000 tons of
> assorted drugs, half of it heroin, is currently stockpiled on the Afghan
> side of the frontier ready for shipment - before this year's harvest of
> the opium-bearing poppies that are the raw material for heroin even
> begins.
>
> Afghanistan's poppy fields, which decreased in the last year of Taleban
> rule, have been expanded again since the movement was driven from power.
> United Nations drug experts believe the harvest will yield 1,900 to 2,700
> tons of opium, marking a return to the levels of the late 1990s.
>
> Tajikistan's proximity means that, unlike Europe, drugs are easily
> affordable with a kilo of heroin selling for 2-3,000 US dollars, compared
> to 8-10,000 dollars in Moscow. The purity, of what is considered the most
> potent heroin in the world, is also usually much higher than in the West
> where it is often diluted.
>
> Thus inundated, Tajikistan has been slowly turning from a transit country
> to a drug consumer. The republican centre last year treated 1350 patients,
> 964 of them for heroin addiction. Most  were young people aged 18 to 25
> and 75 per cent of them were women, who tend to form a habit faster than
> men.
>
> Drug-taking is not exactly a new phenomenon in Tajikistan. Even in Soviet
> time, Tajiks added cannabis to their food. Gradually, however, harder
> substances, such as ephedrine, a stimulant found in many over-the-counter
> medicines, grew in popularity.
>
> Drug addiction really took off during the 1992-1997 civil war in
> Tajikistan. "Many of us used drugs to be braver, to be able to kill and
> forget about it, and sometimes to suppress our hunger," confesses Mirzo, a
> former opposition guerrilla-turned-government security officer.
>
> After the war, Mirzo started a family and gave up drugs, but not without
> difficulty. "I went to see a doctor in Bishkek. My mother sold all her
> jewellery to pay for it. I had a terrible time of withdrawal, but I held
> out for the sake of my wife and son. I think I'm completely over it now.
> Drugs symbolize the war and all its atrocities to me," he said.
>
> Drugs have also been used to coerce girls into prostitution and enslave
> them - while other sex workers turn to them to escape grim reality.
> Farida, who has long since married and abandoned prostitution, said a
> "friend" tricked her into using heroin, saying the substance in the
> syringe was caffeine.
>
> It turned out that her supposed friend had been on a mission to recruit
> girls for a brothel and new users for her drug supplier.
>
> Farida was one of the lucky ones, meeting her husband-to-be who got her
> out. He had also started using drugs but both successfully beat the
> addiction - although doctors have said that they will never have children.
>
> "Rumour has it they have enslaved at least 10 more girls over the past two
> years, mostly from poor rural families," continued Farida, having recently
> seen her former brothel-owner and the person who tricked her on the
> street.
>
> Drugs are easily available in most schools in Dushanbe, with boys and
> girls from both impoverished and affluent backgrounds falling prey to the
> habit. Dealers get people hooked by offering the first dose for free or
> for token amounts - and in turn receive a cash bonus or a free dose from
> their "masters". For many people, a single dose is enough, with narcotics
> specialists reckoning dependency is formed after two hits in 55 per cent
> of young men who try heroin and 82 per cent of young women.
>
> A few years ago, President Emomali Rakhmonov launched an initiative to
> create a so-called "anti-drug" belt around Afghanistan. The plan was
> backed by neighbouring Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Iran, as well as major
> international donors and the UN, with an agency for narcotics control
> formed with government money under Rakhmonov's personal auspices.
>
> The effort to stop the flow of drugs included equipping Russian and Tajik
> border guards with vehicles, night vision devices, walkie-talkies and drug
> testers. In 1999 a group of international narcotics experts even visited
> Tajikistan.
>
> But it appears to have come to little, and in the end many feel that the
> country has been left to combat the influx of drugs from Afghanistan on
> its own. "A year has gone by in which we have not received any assistance
> whatsoever, apart from words of encouragement," said Jafarov.
>
> With poppy harvesting about to begin the human tragedy looks set to soar
> again.
>
> Saida Nazarova is the pseudonym for a journalist in Tajikistan
>
>
> UZBEKISTAN: MIGRANTS SUFFER RUSSIAN HUMILIATION
>
> Uzbek migrant workers are prepared to put up with rough treatment in
> Russia to escape the economic misery of their homeland.
>
> By Malik Mansur in Yekaterinburg
>
> A powerless and humiliating position, dirty work and harassment from the
> local population; this is what working migrants from Uzbekistan endure in
> Russian towns. "We Uzbeks can't live here," said young man from Tashkent
> now working in Yekaterinburg. But the Uzbeks are still coming. "It's worse
> at home and here we can earn some money," they say.
>
> At the private bus station in the Kazak town of Saryagash, close to the
> border with Uzbekistan, two buses pull up to transport men from Uzbekistan
> to work in Russian towns.
>
> A quick glance reveals there is not enough room in the bus for everyone
> but the Kazak drivers don't let that bother them. With the arrival of
> spring, the number of people from Uzbekistan wanting to work in Russia has
> mushroomed, and none expects a comfortable ride or an easy life when they
> get there. They are prepared to travel for more than five days in
> overcrowded buses to earn a crust by doing any kind of work.
>
> The bus station in Saryagash is one of many assembly points for Uzbek
> citizens crossing into Russia. The fact that migrants have to resort to
> this mode of transport is another sign of the catastrophic decline in
> living standard in Uzbekistan. "Seasonal workers from Uzbekistan used to
> be able to afford plane tickets but now even the train is a luxury," said
> a man from Andijan who plans to work in Novosibirsk.
>
> Uzbek workers, like workers from other Central Asian countries of the CIS,
> are in demand in Russia to do the hardest and most unpopular jobs. The
> workforce is extremely profitable for Russian employers who can pay them
> rock-bottom wages and not take any responsibility for work conditions and
> safety.
>
> Natalya Tagiltsevaya, head of the Ural Foundation for Migrants, says the
> stream of migrants to Russia increased since spring, when the Russian
> government said the country needed more workers, partly because of the
> worsening demographic situation among ethnic Russians.
>
> Tagiltsevaya says there is no precise data on the number of migrants from
> Central Asia. Unofficial records suggest about 2 million temporary workers
> came to Russia in 2001.
>
> Most Uzbek migrants come from the Fergana valley and the provinces of
> Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya. They say growing despair over the Uzbek
> economy drove them to Russia, along with the hope of getting decently
> paid.
>
> "I could find work in Andijan planting cotton but I know I would be paid
> very little," said Zakirjon, a man in his mid-30s from Andijan. "I don't
> want to be a slave. You can't feed your family that way."
>
> Once they have agreed to take on the heaviest and dirtiest work in Russia,
> Central Asian migrants face other problems, police intimidation, employer
> exploitation and racist who call Uzbeks and Tajiks "blacks".
>
> Sobirjon, an Uzbek from Namangan selling fruit at a market in
> Yekaterinburg, said, "In the past Russians respected us but now we're all
> 'blacks' to them."
>
> Mukhammad, from Fergana, said most insults come from young men and
> pensioners. "Young guys like to harass us, while pensioners tell us
> straight out that we 'blacks' should go home and we have no business in
> Russia."
>
> He said that when he needed an injection at a hospital, even the medical
> staff were hostile, "They told me people should be healthy when they come
> to Russia, and that there were enough sick people here already."
>
> Fear of competition in the labour market is one factor behind the
> hostility of many local residents. Many Russians believe the increase in
> migrant workers has boosted the unemployment rate.
>
> When they come to Russia, migrants must first purchase a temporary permit
> for 20 US dollars, giving them the right to stay for three months. But
> Mukhtar, a Tajik migrant, said that if a policeman wanted to bother them
> and take their money, no document or registration paper would be of any
> help.
>
> The migrants have special cause for concern when the police launch one of
> their periodic campaigns to expel foreign nationals without registration
> papers, as brute force is often used against them.
>
> But those who have worked in Russia before say it is not worth worrying
> about harassment and that police intimidation is something they must live
> with. Zakirjon, from Andijan, told IWPR he wanted to go home to his family
> but needed to earn money first. He said the treatment he could expect in
> Uzbekistan was no better.
>
> "I am a 'black' here but who am I in Uzbekistan?" he asked. "I can't even
> travel from Andijan to the capital because the police will want to check
> my documents and take all my money. In Russia at least they leave you some
> of it."
>
> For many migrants, the fact that it is impossible to earn decent wages in
> Uzbekistan is far scarier than Russian racism. The number of people
> wanting to leave for Russia seems certain to grow rather than decrease.
>
> Malik Mansur is the pseudonym of an Uzbek journalist
>
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>
> IWPR's Reporting Central Asia provides the international community with a
> unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local
> journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central
> Asia on a weekly basis.
>
> The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty,
> Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and
> encourages better local and international understanding of the region.
>
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>
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>
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>
> Copyright (c) 2002 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
>
> REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA No. 121
>
>
>
>