Volodymyr Campaign

Amnesty Christmas card campaign

2005-12-04T09:49:00.000Z

Every year, Amnesty International asks supporters to send Christmas cards to selected political prisoners around the world. This year, several prisoners from the former Soviet Union are on the list:

We encourage our readers to send cards to one or more of these prisoners. Addresses and further instructions can be found at the links above.

Please follow Amnesty's directions carefully. In particular, please do not mention politics or any political organisations, as this can put the recipient in danger.

Censorship in English-language reports from Russia?

2005-12-03T17:27:00.000Z

At A Step at a Time, David McDuff calls attention to a disturbing phenomenon:

From time to time there are significant and apparently increasing discrepancies between English-language and Russian-language newswire reports that emanate from the Russian Federation. This was obvious in the Interfax accounts of remarks by Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller, who visited Moscow for talks in the middle of last month, on November 14. While the Russian-language report - giving a more or less complete of Meller's Izvestia interview - talked frankly about the issues that still surround Katyn and their implication for Russian-Polish relations, the English-language report amounted to little more than an oblique precis of what Meller actually said. His remarks were also presented in selective fashion, and rearranged from their original sequence and out of their original context.

Read the whole thing.

Jehovah's Witnesses denied registration in Uzbekistan

2005-12-03T17:25:00.000Z

From Forum 18:

The latest instance known to Forum 18 News Service of a religious minority being barred from gaining state registration – thus rendering its activity illegal – is a Jehovah's Witness community in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Following open hostility against the community from the head of the city's Yaksarai district, a subsequent meeting of local residents (the Mahalla committee), presided over by the local Mullah (Islamic clergyman), reversed a decision to allow a Jehovah's Witness congregation to apply for state registration. Under Uzbekistan's complex registration procedure, which institutionalises obstacles to religious minorities, the approval of both the Mahalla committee and the head of the district administration is necessary before a religious community can even apply for state registration from the Ministry of Justice. The Mahalla committees, theoretically independent but in practice under state control, are used to maintain controls over religious believers of all faiths.

Yabloko rally demands Moscow mayoral elections

2005-12-03T17:21:00.000Z

From MosNews:

Activists of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party have held a rally in the center of Moscow demanding the return of mayoral elections.

Deputy chairman of the party, the leader of the Moscow branch of the party, Sergei Mitrokhin, said at the rally that “Moscow is deprived of rights more than any other city in the country. All other cities have the right to elect their power.”

According to the electoral reforms introduced by President Vladimir Putin last September, the heads of Russia’s regions are no longer elected but proposed by the president and later approved by regional legislations. The city of Moscow has the status of a federal subject, which is why its mayor is regarde as a regional governor.

Kazakhstan shuts Kyrgyz border

2005-12-03T17:18:00.000Z

From the Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor:

On November 29 Kazakhstan imposed new restrictions along the state border with Kyrgyzstan "to prevent possible penetration into Kazakhstan of unwanted elements" ahead of presidential elections on December 4 (Kazinform, November 30). Dozens of Kyrgyz traders were not able to cross the busy Kyrgyz-Kazakh Qordai customs point, and some 230 Kyrgyz citizens were arrested and deported from Almaty, according to Kubanychbek Isabekov, head of the Kyrgyz parliamentary committee on labor migration (Akipress, November 30). Besides the economic implications of tightened control on the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border, the move also carries strong symbolic undertones.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev had persistently declared that a democratic "color revolution" is not possible in Kazakhstan, hinting that the March 24, 2005, Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan brought instability and chaos to that country. The Kazakh media have focused solely on negative events such as looting in Bishkek, the numerous demonstrations, and political assassinations in the wake of the new political regime in Kyrgyzstan.

The closure of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border and deportation of migrants had no advance warning. The first explanation was the alleged involvement of Kyrgyz citizens in setting fires at four large bazaars in Almaty last week. The fires caused an estimated loss of $5,000-$400,000 per stall and overall damage ran into millions of dollars. But the Kazakh Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Umurzak Uzbekov, rejected this version of events, saying that different security reasons had guided the border shutdown and noted that Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tajik migrants were deported as well (Akipress, November 30). However, it was clear that Kyrgyz citizens were the main targets.

The Kazakh border will remain closed to Kyrgyz citizens until around December 8-10. The International Organization for Migration is providing the deported migrants, who come from different parts of Kyrgyzstan, with shelter in northern Kyrgyz cities and small sums of money (Akipress, November 30).

Repressive 'security' bill passed in Belarus

2005-12-03T16:59:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

The lower house of the Belarusian National Assembly, the Chamber of Representatives, has passed in its second reading a tough new security bill that, among other things, would make it a criminal offense both to discredit Belarus's standing abroad and to train people to take part in street demonstrations. Deputies approved the bill by a majority of 97 to four. Human rights activists say the amendments to the criminal law contained in the bill are politically motivated and aimed at undermining the opposition in the run-up to next year's presidential elections.

More demonstrations in Armenia

2005-12-03T16:57:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

Yerevan, 2 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Armenia's opposition supporters rallied again in Yerevan today to protest against official results of the recent referendum on constitutional changes.

Our correspondent says an estimated 2,000 demonstrators took part in the peaceful protest. The leader of the opposition, Aram Sarkisian, said that police detained several of his party activists following the rally.

Kazakhstan returns refugees to Uzbekistan

2005-12-03T16:53:00.000Z

From Human Rights Watch:

Kazakh authorities have forcibly returned ten persons who had fled persecution in Uzbekistan, in violation of Kazakhstan’s international commitments, Human Rights Watch said today. A second group of Uzbeks missing in Kazakhstan are feared to be at risk of “disappearance” and forcible return. The forcible returns took place days before Kazakhstan is scheduled to hold presidential elections on December 4. The men were sought by Uzbekistan on charges of “religious extremism.” Human Rights Watch called on Kazakhstan to stop the forcible return of Uzbeks who face a risk of torture in Uzbekistan.

A Tashkent defense attorney told Human Rights Watch that ten men forcibly returned to Uzbekistan are now in the custody of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tashkent. According to the lawyer, Kazakh authorities arrested the men on November 28 in Shymkent, in southern Kazakhstan, and handed them over to the Uzbek authorities at the border between the two countries later that same night (3 a.m. on November 29). It did not appear that the Kazakh authorities followed any official extradition procedure or that there was any judicial review of the cases before the handover. One of the ten men forcibly returned to Uzbekistan is Nozim Rakhmonov, an asylum-seeker who had registered his application with UNHCR prior to being detained.

Kazakhstan’s arrest of Uzbeks seeking protection from repression at home comes as Kazakhstan’s own rights record is under scrutiny. Ahead of the December 4 elections, the government has cracked down on independent media and the political opposition. The pre-election environment has been marred by the detention of opposition activists on trumped up charges, violations of freedom of assembly, and allegations of physical attacks on relatives of opposition leaders. Local groups charged that the Nazarbaev government has illegally seized opposition newspapers and denied the opposition equal access to the media.

Uzbek oppositionist's husband shot

2005-11-30T21:52:00.000Z

From ferghana.ru:

Marat Zakhidov, Chairman of the Committee of Individual Rights (an organization denied official registration by the Uzbek authorities) maintains that the husband of Nigara Khidoyatova, leader of the oppositionist Ozod Dekhkonlar or Free Peasants, was assailed and shot in the head in the city of Sarygvach, Kazakhstan, on November 28 night.

Orifzhan Oidin, citizen of Turkey of Uzbek origin, was deported from Uzbekistan in early 2005. Oidin has lived in Kazakhstan since then, running a business there. The attackers fired seven shots but only one bullet hit Oidin the head. When he came to, Oidin suggested that the attack had been organized by the men he worked with in Uzbekistan in the past. Uzbek law enforcement agencies were informed of his suspicions.

Moscow chief rabbi's visa cancelled

2005-11-30T21:47:00.000Z

From Forum 18:

Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is still in Israel, after his Russian visa was annulled without explanation at a Moscow airport in September. But his wife, Dara, told Forum 18 News Service that he may return to the Russian capital next week. "With God's help, we think the situation will be resolved shortly," she told Forum 18. Dara Goldschmidt, who is in Moscow with the couple's seven children, told Forum 18 that she had returned without problems from a visit to Israel in October and that she had no idea why her husband's visa had been annulled. Tankred Golenpolsky, editor of the Moscow-based International Jewish Newspaper, told Forum 18 that Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres had raised the issue of Goldschmidt's deportation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on 27 October. According to Golenpolsky, "Lavrov said that it sounded like a technical thing they could solve in several minutes." Swiss-born Rabbi Goldschmidt leads Moscow's Choral Synagogue and has lived in Moscow since 1989.

Thousands protest Armenian referendum

2005-11-30T21:43:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

Almost 10,000 people attended a rally in Yerevan on 29 November to protest the perceived falsification by the authorities of the outcome of the 27 November referendum on a package of constitutional amendments, Noyan Tapan and RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Aram Sargsian (Hanrapetutiun) and Stepan Demirchian (People's Party of Armenia), gave the authorities 72 hours (until Friday 2 December) to annul the outcome or risk mass popular protests that they hope will force the present leadership to step down. Also on 29 November, the Armenian NGO It's Your Choice unveiled the findings of its monitoring of the 27 November vote, which its leaders characterized as failing to meet international standards for democratic elections, Noyan Tapan reported.

Lawyer: Kazakh politician's death not suicide

2005-11-30T21:41:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

A lawyer for the widow of Kazakh opposition figure Zamanbek Nurkadilov, who was found dead on 12 November, is disagreeing with the official finding on Nurkadilov's death -- that it was suicide.

The official investigation says that Nurkadilov first shot himself twice in the chest before putting the gun to his head and firing a bullet into his brain.

Serikkali Musin, a lawyer for Nurkadilov's wife, says he does not believe that Nurkadilov killed himself. He says findings of the probe -- for example, that a pillow was used to muffle the gunshots -- indicate foul play.

Nurkadilov was a former mayor of Almaty and government minister. He later joined the opposition and accused the government of corruption.

New arrest warrant for Yukos lawyer

2005-11-30T21:39:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

A Moscow court today issued a fresh arrest warrant against Dmitrii Gololobov, the chief lawyer of Russia's Yukos oil company.

Russian media reports say the new warrant was issued on money-laundering charges.

Gololobov is already wanted in Russia for allegedly having illegally taken control of shares in the Russian Eastern Oil Company that are worth more than 3 billion rubles ($105 billion). Four other Yukos employees have been arrested in connection with this case.

Gololobov reportedly lives in Britain.

Belarusian bill to ban criticism

2005-11-30T21:38:00.000Z

From Radio Free Europe:

On 25 November, the Belarusian lower chamber of parliament passed amendments to the Criminal Code that would make it a crime to discredit the country. They would also increase penalties for "public appeals for...forcible change of the constitutional system."

The bill is still pending in parliament.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights said in a statement on 30 November that the "vague wording" of the proposed amendments will allow Belarusian authorities to interpret legitimate human rights activities as illegal attempts to harm the state.

Observers barred from Andijan trials

2005-11-30T21:33:00.000Z

From Human Rights Watch:

The Uzbek government has blocked international observers from monitoring two trials related to the May 13 events in Andijan, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to uphold fair trial standards, including the right to a public hearing, by allowing trial monitors into the courtroom.

At least two trials related to the Andijan events are underway in cities near Tashkent, with unconfirmed reports that others are also taking place. The police guarding the courthouses denied Human Rights Watch access to both of the known trials.

One of those trials, of at least 15 defendants, is taking place in the Orta Chirchik (Center Chirchik) district court in Toitepa. According to local residents of the town, the trial has been underway for three or four days. When a Human Rights Watch representative arrived in Toitepa on November 28, the road to the court was blocked and the courthouse was guarded by three soldiers. The Human Rights Watch representative observed as a bus and two trucks arrived at the courthouse. Approximately 15 soldiers and one dog jumped out of the bus. The policemen took 15 men, apparently the defendants, one by one from the trucks into the courthouse. The men had their hands bound behind their backs, and the policemen held them by their necks, forcing their heads and torsos down. Fifteen minutes later a bus arrived with people believed to be the defense lawyers; they were accompanied by unidentified people in plain clothes. At least one of the lawyers had also participated in the recent Supreme Court trial related to the Andijan events.

A second trial is ongoing in the Yurqora Chirchik (Upper Chirchik) district court in Yangibazar. On November 29, a Human Rights Watch representative tried to attend the trial and was also denied access.

Policemen outside the Orta Chirchik demanded that Human Rights Watch obtain written permission from the Supreme Court to monitor the trials. When Human Rights Watch attempted to get permission from the Supreme Court, a person in the secretariat of the chairman of the Supreme Court who did not identify himself on the telephone told Human Rights Watch to write a letter to the head of the respective district court. According to him, the Supreme Court is not in charge of trial monitoring.

The Supreme Court and the police outside the courthouses refused to reveal the names of the defendants, lawyers and judges as well as any information regarding the charges against these defendants or information about other trials related to Andijan that may be underway.

On November 14, the Uzbek Supreme Court handed down a guilty verdict for all 15 defendants in the first Andijan-related trial. Human Rights Watch had serious concerns. that the trial did not comply with international fair-trial standards. According to official reports, more than 100 people were detained and charged in relation to the Andijan events and are currently awaiting trial.

HRW: Migrants to Ukraine in danger

2005-11-30T21:18:00.000Z

From Human Rights Watch:

Ukraine regularly subjects migrants and asylum seekers to abuse, including extended detention in appalling conditions, violence, extortion, robbery and forced returns to face torture or persecution, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today on the eve of the EU-Ukraine summit.

The European Union is exacerbating these problems by pressing Ukraine to prevent migrants from entering the European Union and to accept the return of those who do reach EU territory. Migration is expected to be high on the agenda of tomorrow’s summit in Kiev.

The 77–page report, “On the Margins - Ukraine: Rights Violations Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the New Eastern Border of the European Union,” documents the routine detention of migrants and asylum in appalling conditions, including severe overcrowding, frequently inadequate bedding and clothing, and little or no access to fresh air, exercise and medical treatment.

The report also documents the physical abuse, verbal harassment, robbery and extortion suffered by those in detention. Migrants and asylum seekers in detention often have no access to a lawyer and are unable to apply for release. The asylum system is barely functioning, leading to the forced return of people to countries where they face persecution or torture.

Asylum seekers from Chechnya are particularly vulnerable, both to abuse at the hands of the Ukrainian police and forced return to Russia, despite the risk of persecution they face in that country. Although Russian citizens do not require visas to enter Ukraine, Chechens are routinely denied access at the border unless they pay bribes. Chechens detained in Ukraine trying to enter the European Union are denied access to asylum. In fact, no Chechen has been recognized as a refugee in Ukraine. A Chechen woman told Human Rights Watch, “They don't consider us human beings.”

The report is based on interviews with more than 150 migrants and asylum seekers in Ukraine and its EU neighbors, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. It concludes that Ukraine cannot be considered a safe country for the purpose of returning migrants who are foreign nationals and failed asylum seekers unless Ukraine shows a significant improvement in its human rights and refugee-protection capacity.

Beslan mothers ask for foreign help

2005-11-30T19:05:00.000Z

From MosNews:

The organization Voice of Beslan has asked the leadership of the United States and the European Union to help investigate the bloody school siege in the city that took place in September 2004.

In a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency, the organization, which is made up of members from the Beslan Mothers’ committee, asked the U.S. leadership to publish satellite photographs of the school made during the siege. The organization asked for those photographs to be presented to local citizens at the trial of the suspected attacker, Nurpashi Kulayev.

“We also address the European Union and the European Parliament whose members spoke publicly about their intentions to hold an international investigation of the Beslan terrorist attack. We cannot demand, but we ask for support for our efforts to investigate the terrible crime that took the lives of our relatives,” the statement read.

Russian-Chechen Friendship society faces more harassment

2005-11-30T19:00:00.000Z

From the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, via A Step at a Time:

Legal Harassment Against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
An Update

Vienna, 29 November 2005. The legal harassment against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) continues. While the efforts of the Registration Department of the Justice Ministry to deregister the RCFS were turned down by the court in Nizhny Novgorod, the criminal proceedings against Stas Dimitrievsky, the head of the RCFS, are proceeding, as well as the procedure at the arbitration court regarding the decision of the tax inspection that the RCFS has violated the Tax Code and has to pay profit tax and a fine totaling 1.001.561 Rubles (around 28.200 Euro).

The next hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for 7 December 2005. The next hearing of the Arbitration Court is tomorrow, 30 November 2005, 14:30.

1. Judicial case against the Pravo-zashchita newspaper. Justice Ministry / Prosecutors Office use Criminal Persecution under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (“Inciting ethnic hatred”)

On 3 November, the hearing on the criminal case against Stas Dimitrievsky (as being responsible for Pravo-zashchita newspaper), ended with the decision to reject two appeals of the RCFS. The case was postponed to the 16 November, which is the same day, when there is the hearing at the arbitration court regarding their tax issue.

On 15 November, the British human rights lawyer Bill Bowring, en route to observe the trial proceedings in Nizhny Novgorod was denied entry to the Russian Federation. Despite being in possession of a valid multiple-entry visa and letters of accreditation as a trial observer from the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and from the NGO Frontline Defenders, he was held without explanation by border officials for six hours at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 airport before being put on an airplane back to the UK. Professor Bowring had visited Nizhny Novgorod already on 16-18 June 2005, when he monitored the situation of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, and made a detailed report on his observations of the situation.

On 16 November, the first main hearing in the criminal case against Stas Dimitrievsky took place in the Nizhny Novgorod Sovetsky district court. Two lawyers are defending Dimitrievsky in court, Yury Sidorov (Nizhny Novgorod), and Leyla Khamzaeva (Moscow). Several members and staffers of the RCFS and the Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights were interrogated as witnesses for the prosecution. They stated to the court that they are absolutely sure that the publications used to
incriminate Stas Dimitrievsky are aimed at establishing peace in the Chechen Republic as they contain calls to political reconciliation of the armed conflict there. Then, the next hearing was fixed for 25 November 2005, but was later postponed for the 28th November.

In the hearing of 28 November, Sergey Kovalev, former Russian human rights ombudsman and former State Duma deputy, Lydia Jusupova, a member of chamber of lawyers of the Chechen Republic and staff member of the “Memorial” Human Rights Center, and Laila Amirkhadshieva, inhabitant of Chechen village Katyr-Jurt, were questioned as witnesses of the defense. They were invited by the defense to acknowledge the actual circumstances in Chechnya, to which the appeal from Aslan Maskhadov to the European Parliament referred, which is one of the two bases of the indictment.

Additionally, the author of the linguist expert opinion, Larisa Teslenko – expert of the Privolzhsky Regional Center of Legal Expertise at the Ministry of Justice, ordered by the chief investigator of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the FSB, on which the indictment is based - was questioned. While firmly insisting that the incriminated materials raise racial, national and social enmity “between Russian and Chechens”, Teslenko refused to give an answer to most of the fifty questions, explaining that they were beyond her competence. She refused, for example to define the terms “race”, “nationality” and “social group”, declaring that on these questions the sociologist, instead of the linguist should answer.

During the trial, about thirty members of the patriotic youth movement “Nashi” (“Ours”) held a picket outside the court building with a poster “A terrorist cannot be a human rights defender".

The next hearing of the case was scheduled for 7 December 2005.

2. The fiscal harassment of the RCFS, threatening the continuation of its activities.

On 16 November 2005, the Arbitration court of Nizhny Novgorod region, to which the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society lodged their complaint about the actions undertaken by the tax inspection of Nizhny Novgorod, decided to postpone the main hearing of the case to Wednesday, November 30, 2005.

Judge Evgenia Belyanina took this decision to postpone the hearing as a result of the alleged illness of two of the staff members of the tax inspection, despite the fact that for a juridical person illness of any of its staff members can't be an obstacle to present the position of the organization in court, creating the impression that the tax inspection was deliberately trying to retard the consideration of the complaint.

A young staff member of the tax inspection appeared in court by proxy. He appealed to the judge to postpone the hearing in connection with the illness of one of the two staff member who had dealt with the case before. Asked about the other one, he answered that she was likely to have fallen ill too. Asked why he was not able to represent the interests of the tax inspection himself, he explained that he was unaware of the details.

On 15 August 2005 the tax inspection of Nizhegorodski district had made Resolution #25 claiming that the RCFS had violated the Tax Code, and that they have to pay profit tax for grants to implement specific human rights projects in the period from 2002 to 2004 from three foreign donors. Additionally the tax inspection ordered them to pay a fine. The total amount of the claims is 1.001.561 Rubles (around 28.200 Euro).

3. Efforts by the Justice Ministry Registration Department to Deregister the RCFS

After having decided on 1 November to postpone consideration of the de-registration-case against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) for an indefinite period of time, judge Samartseva unexpectedly changed her mind and scheduled the main hearing for 14 November 2005. This hearing turned out to be the final one. Judge Samartseva made a ruling, in which she refused the Nizhny Novgorod Main Registration Department at the Ministry of Justice in its civil action to liquidate the RCFS, after considering the documents and debates between the sides. As this decision was not appealed by the Justice Ministry within the 10 days period, in which this would have been possible, the judgment is final.

Unknown Persons Broke into the Flat of Dimitrievsky on 28 November

On 28 November, unknown persons broke into the flat of the family of Stas Dimitrievsky in Nizhny Novgorod. When his wife came home at 17:30 she found things scattered on a floor and boxes opened. There were no broken doors, and it seems that nothing was stolen.

See also:
IHF statement, “British Lawyer Barred From Entering Russia to monitor trial of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society in Nizhny Novgorod, 15 November 2005
IHF statement, “The ‘Russian-Chechen Friendship Society’s Under Severe Risk of being Destroyed by Russian Authorities. Its Director Stas Dimitrievsky Faces a Prison Term, 2 November 2005
IHF statement, "Russian Federation: Nizhny Novgorod Authorities Launch Final Crackdown on Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Today’s Protest Picket Dissolved after Five Minutes – Participants Detained", 2 September 2005.
IHF statement, “Continuing Persecution of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Its Partner Organisation Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society Closed Down by Authorities”, 10 June 2005
IHF statement, “”We Fear for the Safety of our Colleagues in the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society… Russian Human Rights Organization Threatened”, 19 March 2005
IHF statement, “FSB Raids the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society”, 20 January 2005
IHF/NHC Report, The Silencing of Human Rights Defenders in Chechnya and Ingushetia, Sept. 2004
For further information:
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
In Vienna: Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-1-408 88 22 or +43 -676-635 66 12; Henriette Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-676-725 48 29
In Moscow: Tanya Lokshina, +7 -916-624 19 06
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Stas Dmitrievsky, Oksana Chelysheva, +7-8312-171 666 or +7-920 015 9218 (mobile)

Fingers pointed in kidnapping of Georgian boy

2005-11-30T18:13:00.000Z

Geno Petriashvili, the eleven-year-old boy kidnapped in South Ossetia three months ago, was freed unhurt on 25 November. Since then, the government of the breakaway republic and officials in Tbilisi have been trading accusations about his abduction.

From The Messenger:

Separatist authorities in South Ossetia claim their law enforcers succeeded in freeing the boy, Genadi Petriashvili, and returning him to his family.

In Tbilisi the Georgian Minister of Internal Affairs Vano Merabishvili countered that the release was simply staged by official Tskhinvali.

Shortly after the release, the ministry went on to condemn the separatist government as a criminal empire and published a flowchart implicating its leadership as well as the head of Russian peacekeepers in the region in criminal activity.

The South Ossetian and Georgian authorities differ on many aspects of the case, including where the boy was held hostage. The Head of the de facto South Ossetian Press and Information Committee Irina Gagloeva said that the boy was being held in a Georgian village in the conflict zone. Minister Merabishvili as well as the boy himself say he was held captive in the Java region of South Ossetia.

Gagloeva reported the leader of de facto republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoiti led the rescue operation himself. She added the boy has already testified to South Ossetian law enforcers.

Georgian authorities, however, claim that a criminal group with links to South Ossetian authorities as well as to Russian peacekeeping forces abducted Petriashvili.

"Kokoiti [Eduard Kokoiti, the self-proclaimed president of South Ossetia] perfectly knew from the first day who kidnapped Petriashvili," Merabishvili said on Friday. He claimed that the kidnappers had negotiations with Ossetian authorities and then together staged the release operation.

Kidnapping has long been a problem in the South Ossetian conflict zone. Eleven-year old Petriashvili told journalists he was kept in a pit for some of the time with his arms bound. The boy could not identify the names or origin of his kidnappers, but said that his capturers spoke Georgian and Russian.

Prime News reports that the South Ossetian government has issued a response:

In return, the de facto Foreign Affaires Ministry stated that the “slanderous tricks by the Interiors Ministry of Georgia are related to the brilliant operations by the South Ossetian law enforcers at the Georgian territories. Owing to those operations Geno Petriashvili, 11, kidnapped by the crime group in the Georgian –South Ossetian conflict zone three months ago, was released and returned to his parents”.

According to the statement, Vano Merabishvili, Georgian Interiors Ministry switched to direct menace against the South Ossetian top officials when “personally guaranteed to make them bear responsibility or die”.

“It was clear that the Georgian party seriously discusses ways of murder of the South Ossetian top officials instead of its widely advertised Peace Plan”, the statement goes.

Geno Petriashvili is the son of a prominent businessman who had dealings with both Georgians and Ossetians.

Update

2005-11-18T20:08:00.000Z

As some of you might have guessed, we have been reconsidering the future of this blog. However, we think we've decided that we're going to continue. We're hoping that regular updates will resume at the end of November.

Thanks for your support!

Walk for Belarusian Democracy

2005-10-17T08:28:00.000+01:00

(Picture coming soon; Blogger is once again having trouble uploading photos.)

Three of us made it the 12 km to the Belarusian embassy in London. Although ours was one of the smaller walks taking place that day, our signs and our old-style Belarusian flag attracted a lot of notice. We got a lot of support from people who recognised our flag, and we were approached by several others who wanted to know more about why we were walking.

Many thanks to the participants, and to visitors to this site for all your good wishes.

Belarus walk tomorrow

2005-10-14T23:44:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the big day! We hope to meet as many of our readers as possible outside the Kyrgyz Embassy (119 Crawford St W1H 1AD) at 11.30 am. So far we are expecting a small group, but remember that this will be only part of a worldwide effort.

We've heard from the Metropolitan Police concerning the walk and have confirmed with them that our planned route is OK. The walk will go ahead rain or shine.

Hope to see you there!

Three days till walk for Belarus

2005-10-12T23:15:00.000+01:00

There are just three days to go until the London walk for Belarus on Saturday, 15 October!

If you're travelling to the site of the walk by Tube, please remember that there will be engineering works on the District and Piccadilly Lines. Fortunately, all other lines should be running normally.

Azeri opposition 'to protest every day'

2005-10-12T23:10:00.000+01:00

From Baku Today:

Major opposition Azadlig (Freedom) bloc may embark on unsanctioned protests on a daily basis, chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) has said.

The PFPA chairman said the opposition will continue its protests but the date of the next rally is yet to be determined.

“The authorities won’t be able to intimidate opposition supporters, who have been struggling for democracy for 10 years. Our goal is to hold peaceful protest actions. We do not maintain that our rallies must take place in the city center alone.”

Kasparov news conference stopped for 'safety exam'

2005-10-12T23:08:00.000+01:00

From MosNews:

Fire safety inspectors in Russia’s Siberian region of Kemerovo have closed down the Davydov Tavern chosen as a venue for a news conference that was to be held Tuesday by prominent liberal politician and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Authorities said the tavern would be closed for five days pending a regular examination by the local fire inspectorate, the Gazeta.Ru news website reported.

Igor Panin, the owner of the tavern, reported that he had learned of the decision on Tuesday morning from local journalists and Garry Kasparov. Panin believes that by ordering the closure, the local government sought to disrupt the meeting planned by the opposition leader.

Dushanbe's Jews face loss of synagogue

2005-10-12T23:06:00.000+01:00

From Interfax:

Mikhail Abdurahmanov, Rabbi of Tajikistan, declared that if the synagogue in the capital city is pulled down he will in protest leave his post and repatriate to Israel.

Dushanbe Mayor’s Office insists that the community should rent another building or accept a plot of land on which to build a synagogue in the future. But the community has no means to rent facilities, even more so to build anything.

If the official proposal is accepted, Dushanbe will be left without a single synagogue, Rabbi Abdurahmanov said as cited by the Jewish News Agency.

Tajibaeva on hunger strike

2005-10-12T23:03:00.000+01:00

From ferghana.ru:

Mutabar Tajibayeva, leader of the Fiery Hearts Club that promotes human rights in the city of Ferghana, an organizer of the movement Civil Society, went on a hunger strike as a protest against illegal arrest.

Tajibayeva was arrested on the eve of departure for an international conference of human rights activists in Ireland. She had told journalists on October 7 that she was leaving for Tashkent that very evening.

"I'm scheduled to go to Tashkent today but I do not know if I make it or not. I'm under surveillance now. Several cars tail me constantly. No, I'm not afraid of detention. Deputy Prosecutor General Anvar Nabiyev said at the trial in Tashkent that I support the opposition and that I called for armed action. He was lying."

Journalists warned about Andijan trial coverage

2005-10-12T23:00:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry warned journalists today about their coverage of the trial of 15 alleged Islamist extremists accused over an uprising in the eastern province of Andijon.

In a statement, the ministry denounced a report that the defendants had been tortured prior to the Supreme Court trial that began on 20 September, when the men all pleaded guilty to leading an armed insurgency.

It said that the Interior Ministry is calling on journalists to strictly abide by journalistic ethics and principles and to wait until the decision of the court.

Narodnaya Volya editor appeals to parliament

2005-10-12T22:57:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Iosif Syaredzich, editor in chief of the opposition daily "Narodnaya volya," has appealed to the Chamber of Representatives, Belarus's lower house, to help stop what he sees as the persecution of his newspaper by the authorities, Belapan reported on 11 October. Belsayuzdruk, Belarus's state monopoly operator of a national network of press kiosks and newsstands, terminated a contract last month for the distribution of "Narodnaya volya," while a Minsk-based printing plant annulled its contract for printing the daily. "Narodnaya volya" is now printed in Russia and distributed through the state postal service Belposhta (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 October 2005). In addition, Chamber of Representatives deputy Volha Abramava has sent a letter to Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakevich asking him to explain the reasons for the termination of the distribution and print contracts with "Narodnaya volya."

Polish ambassador returns to Belarus

2005-10-12T22:54:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Poland's Foreign Ministry said today the country has sent its ambassador back to Belarus three months after recalling him amidst diplomatic problems between the neighboring countries.

The ministry said Ambassador Tadeusz Pawlak started work at the Polish Embassy in Belarus on 11 October.

Poland withdrew its ambassador in a sign of protest over what the Polish government said were violations of democratic principles and human rights by the Belarusian government.

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksander Checko said earlier this week that the temporary withdrawal had sent the intended message.

Checko also noted that following European criticism, the opposition in Belarus was able to nominate a candidate for next year's presidential election.

Russia, Armenia practice putting down protests

2005-10-12T22:46:00.000+01:00

From Armenia Liberty:

Russian and Armenian special forces practiced quelling an anti-government uprising at a joint exercise in southern Russia on Monday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

In a mock-up of a real protest around 50 demonstrators led by "provocateurs" converged on a square in front of a government building demanding their wages be paid and the authorities' resignation, the spokesman told AFP. Special forces officers intervened as demonstrators burst into the building and took a number of hostages.

The exercises come amid signs of nervousness in the Russian administration following popular uprisings in the three former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

Yushchenko Q&A

2005-10-12T22:38:00.000+01:00

Viktor Yushchenko will be answering questions from the public on the BBC's Talking Point programme later this month. You can submit a question via the BBC's website.

Khodorkovsky's whereabouts still unknown

2005-10-12T22:28:00.000+01:00

From BBC News:

Confusion and mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of oil giant Yukos who was found guilty of tax evasion and fraud.
When lawyers for Mr Khodorkovsky went to meet their client, they were told he had been moved from a Moscow jail to finish his sentence at another prison.

Authorities declined to give details, and speculation has been rife as to where the troubled tycoon will end up.

After being held in Moscow, the pair have been sent to a penal colony to serve out the remainder of their sentences.

Newspaper reports have claimed that the two men are heading for Siberia, while others have asserted that they will be held in prisons closer to Moscow.

Russia's Federal Prison Service said that relatives would be contacted by mail - which is the normal procedure - when Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev arrive at their final destination.

Radio Free Europe has more.

Kazakh police permit first unsanctioned rally

2005-10-11T20:17:00.000+01:00

From ferghana.ru:

Deputy of the parliament Zauresh Batalova met with her voters in the center of Alma-Ata on October 8. Russian media outlets seem to have missed importance of the event entirely but Ferghana.Ru news agency is convinced that it may be remembered in history of Kazakhstan as the first successful action staged by opponents of the regime. Navi.Kz reports nearly 2,000 participants of the impromptu rally in Alma-Ata. Representatives of practically all parties and movements of the opposition addressed the rally.

"Zauresh as such does not matter," a protester told Ferghana.Ru. "What counts is that the opposition staged an unauthorized action. And the cops, they proved unable to do anything about it. Or did not want to? In any case, this is the first time something like that is happening in Kazakhstan. As a rule, actions off this sort end in dispersal, administrative trials, and 15 days in a detention cell. But not today!"

Acting legislation permits deputies of the parliament to meet with their voters. Organizers of the rally applied for official authorization and were denied it on the pretext that the rally would "interfere with traffic". Suspecting that the ban would unlikely stop the determined opposition, city fathers promptly arranged some sort of a kid festival in the square where the rally was to be held and posted police units all around it.

Speakers at the rally (prominent opposition leaders Batalova, S. Abdildin, B. Abilov, O. Zhandosov, G. Yergaliyeva, A. Kozhakhmetov, A. Kosanov, I. Savostina, T. Tokhtasynov, and others) demanded release of dissenter Galymzhan Zhakiyanov from prison and an end to harassment of independent media outlets.

Rights activist arrested in Uzbekistan

2005-10-11T20:14:00.000+01:00

From Arena:

Renowned Uzbek human rights activist Mutabar Tajibaeva was arrested, Paris-based Central Asia newspaper reported.

In the night of 8 October, Tajibaeva was supposed to leave for Dublin together with Tolib Yakubov, chairman of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan (HRSU), to participate in the international conference on protection of human rights defenders.

On that night, the house of Tajibaeva was surrounded with police. More than 20 law-enforcement officers with militia officials, six special force agents in masks, entered the house with submachine guns and bludgeons and searched there.

Tajibaeva is a chairwoman of the Ardent Hearts Club in the Uzbek city of Ferghana. She is also one of the founders of the national movement Civil Society. In the recent years, the authorities have persecuted Tajibaeva for her political views and open civil position.

Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, is urging his readers to write their government representatives and ask them to intervene in Tajibaeva's case.

Armenia: Murder suspect re-elected mayor

2005-10-11T20:06:00.000+01:00

From Armenia Liberty:

The mayor of a small town near Yerevan who was arrested late last month after reportedly shooting dead a local rival has been reelected for another three-year term, election officials said on Monday.

Official results of Sunday’s election showed Armen Keshishian winning nearly 50 percent of the vote, against 41.5 percent polled by his sole challenger for the post of Nor Hajn mayor. It is the first time that a jailed person wins an election in post-Soviet Armenia.

Keshishian has been under police custody since a September 24 bitter argument with the head of the local power distribution network, Ashot Mkhitarian, which resulted in the latter’s death. Witnesses, among them two police officers, said the incumbent mayor fired several gunshots at Mkhitarian from an almost point-bank range.

Government plants 'gay' supporters in opposition

2005-10-11T20:01:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Members of Belarus's democratic opposition were bracing for some kind of provocation to take place during their congress in early October. They were, however, taken aback by the form that this action took. A group of young people dressed in colorful clothing carried signs declaring that members of Belarus's sexual minority support democrats, "Kommersant-Daily" reported on 3 October. Before cameras from Belarus's national television stations, they expressed their hope that upon coming to power, the opposition would legalize same-sex marriage. The leader of Belarus's registered movement of gays and lesbians said his group had nothing to do with the rally. The "gay" theme was nevertheless the main focus of Belarusian television broadcasts on the congress, according to glavred.info.

It is too early to say what effect this "performance" will have on the rating of the opposition's new candidate, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, but organizing such rallies by previously unknown groups of "gays and lesbians" has a long history in political campaigning in the former Soviet Union. It remains among the main weapons in the arsenal of "black PR," or dirty tricks.

The whole article is very interesting -- and appalling. There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start.

Peruvian student killed in Russia

2005-10-11T19:43:00.000+01:00

From The Moscow Times:

A group of young men stabbed and beat one Spanish and two Peruvian students in Voronezh in what appeared to be the latest in a series of xenophobia-related attacks. One of the Peruvians, an 18-year-old first-year student, died on the way to the hospital.

Prosecutors in Voronezh, a city of 1 million located 580 kilometers south of Moscow, called the Sunday evening attack an act of hooliganism, and the region's governor concurred that it could not be considered a hate crime because a Russian student was also injured.

The three foreign students were walking with a Russian student near the Olimpik Sports Complex on the outskirts of Voronezh at around 6 p.m. Sunday when they were attacked by 15 to 20 young men carrying knives and "blunt metal and wooden objects," Galina Gorshkova, a spokeswoman for the Voronezh regional prosecutor's office, said by telephone Monday.

Peruvian national Enrique Arturo Angeles Hurtado, a first-year student at the Voronezh State Architecture and Civil Engineering University, died as he was being taken to the hospital, Gorshkova said. He had suffered several blows to the head and two stab wounds in the hip, she said.

The other Peruvian national, Alexander Manuel Navarro Ayala, 18, was hospitalized with a concussion and was in stable condition Monday, said Egorov Ramirez Hinojosa, consul-general at the Peruvian Embassy in Moscow.

Spanish national Mario Potino Rodriguez, 30, an intern in the Voronezh State University's philology department, was hospitalized with a concussion and bruises and also was in stable condition,

Gorshkova said the Russian student suffered minor injuries but was not hospitalized.

Voronezh prosecutors said they were investigating the incident as an act of hooliganism, rather than a racially motivated attack, a distinction under Russian law that would mean a lighter prison sentence if any attackers were convicted.

Sunday's attack was the latest in a series of apparently racially motivated attacks in Voronezh. Over the past five years, 13 foreign students have died in racially motivated slayings, said Gabriel Kotchofa, president of the Foreign Students Association in Russia.

Khodorkovsky moved - but to where?

2005-10-11T19:18:00.000+01:00

From Kommersant:

Yesterday, the Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) announced that Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev were transferred from the Matrosskaya Tishina prison into the penitentiary of low security, where they going to spend eight years. The place of their incarceration most likely will become known today. The sources in FPS say that both prisoners will not be doing their time far away from Moscow because the General Prosecution Office is ready to come up with new charges. The attorneys of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev think the both their clients could still be in Matrosskaya Tishina.

It was not known until the very last day that inmates Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, sentenced to eight years in prison, are being readied for transfer. Moreover, the fact of their transfer to the prison labor camp was doubted even by the General Prosecution Office.

The head of the Matrosskaya Tishina Fikret Tagiev confirmed to Kommersant that he does not have anymore prisoners with names Khodorkovsky and Lebedev (they had to be transferred 10 days after the verdict was enforced and the temporary prison received the copy of the court’s decision). Tagiev suggested asking for further comments from the FPS of Moscow and Moscow Region.

“Honestly, I did not pay much attention to that,” Vladimir Davydov, head of the Main Department of FPS told Kommersant. “On Sunday we had large scheduled transfer – several dozen inmates were sent to their final destinations, where they will be doing their prison terms.”

Then, General Davydov asked to call back in five minutes and said that Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were among the transferred prisoners. “We did not make any exclusion for them,” the General reported. “They went through the same procedure as the rest of the prisoners. And that is how it happens usually. The prisoners are not told in advance about the time and date of transfer. Right before the departure, the warden walks into the cell, calls the name of the prisoner and asks him to walk out of the cell with personal belongings. The prisoner is given time to gather the things. Then, he is placed in a special automobile, which delivers him to the train.

Both officers from FPS explained Kommersant that the place where Khodorkovsky and Lebedev would be doing their time will become known on Tuesday, when one relative chosen by each prisoners himself would receive a notification by mail from the head of the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison.

Belarusian and Polish posters

2005-10-10T23:59:00.000+01:00

Thanks to reader Andrzej Nowojewski, we now have Polish and Belarusian translations of our slogans for Saturday's walk. You can download posters with the translated slogans here:

Вымірыючыя гатункі? (Belarusian, 'Endangered species?')
Д’ябал схаваны? (Belarusian, 'Devil in disguise')
Арыштаваны за праўду (Belarusian, 'Locked up for truth')
Zagrożone gatunki? (Polish, 'Endangered species?')
Diabeł w przebraniu? (Polish, 'Devil in disguise')
Zamknięty za prawdę (Polish, 'Locked up for truth')

Many thanks to Andrzej for his help.

Marinich's son calls for Day of Solidarity

2005-10-10T21:39:00.000+01:00

From Charter 97:

“Today we need solidarity. The events of recent days oblige us to unite. It has become evident by the example of the arrest of Zubr coordinator, Mikita Sasim, and by the example of today’s trial of Anatol Lyabedzka. The number of political prisoners is to grow, and the regime is to step up repressions. The Belarusian society needs coming together, and I call upon everybody to take part in the Day of Solidarity on October 16,” said the son of the political prisoner Mikhail Marynich, a coordinator of the civil initiative “Freedom to political prisoners”, a member of the Council of Civil Initiatives ”Free Belarus” Pavel Marynich.

Representatives of civil society of Belarus have offered to announce October 16, 2005 a Day on of Solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners, disappeared oppositionists, their families, independent journalists, with everybody who fight for freedom and democracy in Belarus.

One of the Zubr coordinators Mikita Sasim, the head of the civil initiative “We Remember” Iryna Krasouskaya and a well-known journalist Iryna Khalip called upon the Belarusians to switch off the light in their apartments on October 16 at 8 p.m. and to light a candle by their windows in solidarity with the victims of political repressions.

The international walk for Belarus is actually being held the day before, since many people find it easier to participate on a Saturday. However, we would also encourage our readers to light a candle at 8 pm Minsk time on the 16th. (To see what time this will be in your city, check the World Clock.)

Zubr coordinator arrested for second time

2005-10-10T21:37:00.000+01:00

From Zubr:

Zubr coordinator Mikita Sasim is not granted freedom. Mikita Sasim was arrested on October 7 in Minsk for handing out leaflets with the call to take part in the Day of Solidarity on October 16. Today he has been sentenced to three days of arrest on a frame-up. As the three days of arrest have expired, he was released. After the trial he went to police department of Tsentralny district of Minsk, and there he was detained again. It’s impossible to communicate with him at the moment. According to preliminary information, Zubr coordinator would be escorted to the military enlistment office of the town of Baranavichy where he is registered.

Today the court of Tsentralny district of Minsk has sentenced the coordinator of Zubr movement Mikita Sasim to three days of imprisonment. The Zubr coordinator was arrested in Minsk on October 7 for handing out leaflets with the call to participate in the Day of Solidarity with victims of the regime on October 16. Since that time he was kept in a remand prison of Interior Affairs Department of Minsk city executive committee. The oppositionist allegedly used indecent language in a public place. Judge Alyaksei Bychko found Mikita Sasim guilty of violation of the Article 156 of Administrative Code (petty hooliganism). This situation reminds of the trial over Georgian activists of Kmara movement, Luka Tsuladze and Giorgi Kandelaki. They were accused of hooliganism and sentenced to 15 days of arrest for fear of possible contacts with Belarusian activists.

Policemen are capable of anything in order not to see Sasim at the streets of Minsk, including sending him to the army. As we have informed, recently Mikita Sasim signed out from a hospital, where he had spent a week with a brain injury caused by beating up by riot policemen.

Rice to stay away from Uzbekistan

2005-10-10T21:27:00.000+01:00

From MosNews:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided no to visit Uzbekistan during her coming trip to the Central Asia.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs, Daniel Fried, quoted by RIA-Novosti news agency said it was a “wise decision not to go” to Uzbekistan.

The reason of this cancellation was that the United States is concerned over clashes in the Uzbek city of Andijan in May and over the current policy of the Uzbek authorities.

Prosecution claims Andijan protesters on drugs

2005-10-10T21:26:00.000+01:00

From The Moscow Times:

A witness at the trial of 15 men charged with involvement in a May uprising in Uzbekistan said Friday that he saw militants carrying several syringes in government building seized by rebels.

The testimony by a building guard identified only by his last name, Boyboyev, echoed Uzbek state media claims that the suspected militants had been using drugs.

Rights groups say defendants' testimony in the carefully orchestrated trial was coerced through torture.

In St. Petersburg, Uzbek President Islam Karimov thanked President Vladimir Putin on Friday for supporting his country following the Andijan uprising and called for the countries' relations to be strengthened.

Karimov turned to Moscow for support after the United States and other Western nations publicly criticized Uzbekistan for the government suppression of the uprising and joined demands for an international investigation.

Russia, as well as China, responded with a strong show of support.

"The events in Andijan have show again who is who," Karimov said Friday in televised comments. "The time has come not only for a strategic partnership but for the relations of allies."

Another rally broken up in Baku

2005-10-10T21:23:00.000+01:00

From RIA Novosti:

Police dispersed an unsanctioned opposition rally in the Azerbaijani capital Baku Sunday.

The rally was organized by the Azadlyg bloc including the Azerbaijani People's Front, the Democratic Party and the Musavat (Equality) party.

The opposition demanded the authorities to ensure free, just and democratic parliamentary elections due on November 6.

Some people were injured in clashed with the police.

Reuters AlertNet has more:

Police hauled away some protesters at the demonstration, being held without official permission, while others retreated holding handkerchiefs to bleeding heads.

"This blood will be on the conscience of the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev," Ali Kerimli, one of two leaders of the main opposition bloc in the Caspian Sea state, said.

The opposition said up to 30 people were seriously injured, including three journalists. "But all the same we will continue our peaceful actions," Kerimli told reporters.

EU imposes sanctions on Uzbekistan

2005-10-04T20:52:00.000+01:00

From The International Herald Tribune:

The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan, seeking to punish the Central Asian nation for its refusal to allow an international investigation into the bloody crackdown on an uprising in May in the northeastern city of Andijon.

The sanctions impose an embargo on exports to Uzbekistan of arms and equipment that might be used for internal repression, and suspend meetings between the union and Uzbekistan designed to accelerate the former Soviet state's rapprochement with the West. They will also forbid the travel of Uzbek officials directly involved in the crackdown to the 25 European Union states.

Uzbek Protestants under police surveillance

2005-10-04T20:49:00.000+01:00

From Forum 18:

Andijan Protestant pastor Bakhtier Tuichiev has told Forum 18 News Service that, since the violent crushing of the Andijan uprising in May, he has – along with other local Protestants - been placed under NSS secret police surveillance, and has regularly been threatened with arrest if he does not shut down his unregistered Pentecostal church. Since the Andijan crackdown, Uzbekistan has increased attempts to isolate religious believers from the support of local and foreign journalists and human rights activists. For example, Tuichiev was told by police that "We are not going to let foreign human rights activists into Uzbekistan any more. It's payback time – we've already dealt with Igor Rotar and now we've come for you." Rotar, Forum 18's Central Asia correspondent, was deported from Uzbekistan, apparently as part of a wide crackdown on independent media and human rights activists. Repression and attempts to isolate religious communities – including the unconcealed censorship of international post - are continuing.

Narodnaya Volya shut down

2005-10-04T20:42:00.000+01:00

From The Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor:

Belarus's main opposition newspaper, Narodnaya volya, did not appear on the streets of Minsk on October 1. On September 20, its assets were seized by the Lenin district court in Minsk, and the printing house and factory responsible for distributing the newspaper annulled their agreements on the grounds that Narodnaya volya had published materials that contradict the laws of the Republic of Belarus, specifically the law "On the Press and other Mass Media." On September 28, the directors of Belsayuzdruk and Mingorsoyuzpechat (M. Padhainy and I.V. Dudich) issued separate resolutions canceling agreements with the newspaper, and on the same day, the Chyrvonaya Zorka (Red Star) publishing company followed suit, declaring that the newspaper had failed to pay off its outstanding debts (Narodnaya volya, September 29).

According to one of the paper's writers, the ruling regime became irritated with the newspaper at the time of the 2004 referendum on whether President Alexander Lukashenka could be eligible to run for a third term in office.

Edited by Iosif Syaredzich, Narodnaya volya is the most important socio-political newspaper of the opposition in Belarus. It sells approximately 150,000 copies per week, publishing on five days, and it runs articles in both Belarusian and Russian.

According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, state officials chose to annul the agreements between the services that printed and distributed the newspaper and Narodnaya volya. It described the actions as lawless and calculated to destroy the only independent newspaper at a time when the Congress of Democratic Forces was assembling at the Palace of Culture in the Minsk Automobile Factory to elect its candidate to oppose Lukashenka in the 2006 presidential election (Narodnaya volya, September 30). By preventing distribution of the newspaper at kiosks in Minsk, the authorities thus ensured minimal publicity about the Congress, which elected its single candidate on October 2.

Borys' brother fired

2005-10-04T20:33:00.000+01:00

From Radio Polonia:

The brother a Polish minority leader in Belarus has been dismissed from work. Andzelika Borys, the democratically elected president of the organization of ethnic Poles, had been kicked out of her post under orders from the controversial Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko. Borys says she had received threats against herself and her family, believed to be coming from the Belarussian KGB.

EU threatens to downgrade Belarus trade status

2005-10-04T20:24:00.000+01:00

From Business Week:

The EU warned Belarus Monday it would withdraw preferential trade rates unless it reforms its labor rights rules.

Belarus has 14 months to make changes guaranteeing trade union independence or it will face paying an extra 3 percentage points in trade tariffs.

In a September 2004 report, the International Labor Organization said that Belarus had "seriously infringed" on the basic civil liberties of its independent trade union leaders and called for guaranteed freedom of action for unions that have suffered interference in their internal affairs.

12 days till Walk for Belarus

2005-10-03T22:51:00.000+01:00

There are just 12 days to go till our Walk for Belarus on 15 October. Don't forget to e-mail us if you plan to participate!

Uzbek activist speaks from mental hospital

2005-10-03T22:11:00.000+01:00

From BBC News:

A human rights worker arrested and held in an Uzbekistan psychiatric hospital has said authorities are trying to make her declare herself mentally ill.

Yelena Urlayeva was arrested a month ago for distributing leaflets bearing a political cartoon.

She is now confined in Republican Psychiatric Hospital Number Two on the edge of Tashkent.

Neither lawyers nor relatives are allowed to visit her. But a reporter seeking information in the hospital grounds saw her at a barred window.

Speaking rapidly for fear of being caught, Ms Urlayeva said she had been beaten because the authorities wanted her to declare herself mentally ill. She said she had refused.

They want to transfer her to another part of the hospital where she said there were many political prisoners. And she said that if she was caught talking to anyone she feared she would be beaten again.

After her arrest, Ms Urlayeva was sent for psychiatric tests, but was declared to be in good mental health. The state prosecutor's office then used its prerogative to send her to the more severe Hospital Number Two, for further psychiatric tests.

EU mulls doing something about Uzbekistan

2005-10-03T22:07:00.000+01:00

From CNN:

The European Union is set to impose an arms embargo on Uzbekistan Monday and cut financial aid to punish the country for refusing to investigate last May's violent suppression of an uprising.

The EU foreign ministers, who will hold talks in Luxembourg, may also ban Uzbek officials from traveling to Western Europe, officials said.

Report on Georgian by-elections

2005-10-03T21:23:00.000+01:00

Georgia's main election-monitoring group, The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, has issued a preliminary report on Saturday's by-elections:

Despite some irregularities, there is a compelling reason for stating that the October 1 parliamentary rerun
and by-elections were fair. On Election Day, the election administration showed a will to ensure the
implementation of voting procedures as prescribed by the law.

Nevertheless, we would like to point to those irregularities that accompanied the administration of October
1 elections:

Although the accuracy of voter lists was one of the pre-election period priorities, and some work was
undertaken to improve them, it must be noted that voter lists remained to be the main problem in October
1 elections.

The problems associated with voter lists can be divided in three categories:

Ø Dozens of voters were absent from voter lists in various election precincts. Thus, these citizens
could not exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Ø Voters who belonged to various election precincts were wrongly entered in the lists of different
election precincts;
Ø Voters were registered in the lists of an election precinct twice; other inconsistencies regarding the
voters’ data was also note in the voter lists.

Difficulties in the implementation of voting procedures were also prompted by the problems related to the
Election Code. The sporadic changes to the law have created a situation where the implementation of
various voting procedures is impossible; also, there are mutually exclusive definitions, as well as
ambiguous clauses, which allow for multiple interpretations. Therefore, it is clear that The Unified
Election Code of Georgia requires comprehensive amendments and refinement.

Yushchenko to investigate attack on journalist

2005-10-03T21:12:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has ordered an investigation into an attack on the car of a journalist allegedly planning a photo expose on the president's teenage son.

Yushchenko today asked Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to assume personal control of the probe into an incident Friday in which the journalist's car was damaged by a homemade fire bomb in the Ukrainian capital.

The press watchdog Reporters Without Borders cites Walid Harfouch, editor of the celebrity tabloid "Paparazzi," as saying he believes the attack was linked to his plans to publish vacation photographs of Yushchenko's son, Andriy, and his girlfriend.

Presidential spokeswoman Irina Gerashchenko denied the link, and said Yushchenko learned about the photographs only after the attack on Harfouch's car.

She said the president considers free speech an "immutable" principle.

Sorry for spam

2005-10-03T20:51:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the spam comments that have appeared here recently. Blogger has been down for maintenance a lot over the past few days, so we were not able to clean this up as quickly as we would have liked. We've now added word verification for comments, which should keep some of the spam out.

Apologies also for the infrequent updates, which have been caused partly by Blogger and partly by the maintainers' busyness with other events.

Kazakh opposition office torched

2005-09-27T08:19:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

An arson attack last night destroyed a campaign support office of a leading Kazakh opposition presidential candidate, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai of the For a Fair Kazakhstan bloc, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported.

Party officials say the attack late last night destroyed a support office in the northern town of Kostanai. Computers and other equipment were lost in the blaze. No one was hurt.

Police say the arsonist climbed onto the building's roof and used Molotov cocktails to set the blaze before running away.

The incident comes as Kazakhstan prepares for a 4 December presidential election. Tuyakbai, a former parliament speaker, and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev are considered to be the leading candidates.

Uzbek activist barred from court

2005-09-27T08:10:00.000+01:00

From ferghana.ru:

Tashkent human rights activist Surat Ikramov has been blocked by security agents since the trial over Andijan events participants started on 15 September. This has successfully prevented him from monitoring the court process, Ikramov told journalists in Tashkent.

“Since morning of 20 September – the day when the trial over 15 accused started – I started receiving phone calls from law-enforcement officers, which asked me not to go to the court. When I went out of my house, I saw people in civilian clothes coming out of cars. They recommended me no to go to the court, citing an order ‘from above’,” the activist said.

“The secret services still don’t let me come to court, guarding my house 24 hours per day and following my car when I am in the city. And they always warn me that I can’t go to the court.”

“I was in the list of monitors of this court process, provided to authorities by Human Rights Watch,” Ikramov told Arena.

Police beat, arrest Baku protesters

2005-09-27T08:08:00.000+01:00

From MosNews:

Police in the former Soviet Azerbaijan republic have beaten and arrested dozens of protesters during a rally in the capital, Baku. Opposition parties held the rally despite a warning from Interior Minister Ramil Usubov who said police would break up the protest, The Associated Press reported.

Opposition supporters defied the authorities and tried to hold the demonstration ahead of parliamentary elections set for November. Thousands of supporters from the Caspian Sea nation’s largest opposition, Azadlig, marched through Baku.

All across the city centre, groups of protesters tried to make their way through the police cordons. On one of the streets, they raised their hands to prove that they were not armed. Many held flowers to show their protest was peaceful, the BBC reported.

But as soon as they began to chant anti-government slogans, the police moved forward. They chased the demonstrators down the streets, beating them with batons.

The chief of Baku police, addressing media after the event, denied reports of injuries and said the organizers had been warned well in advance not to proceed with the unsanctioned rally.

Groups warn of further Uzbek press crackdown

2005-09-27T08:04:00.000+01:00

From IRIN Asia:

Media watchdog groups warn of a further crackdown on press freedom as the trial of 15 men charged with trying to overthrow the Uzbek government in the southern city of Andijan last May enters its second week.

"We are deeply concerned about the escalating crackdown on journalists by the Uzbek authorities," Pascale Bonamour, head of Europe desk for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said from Paris on Monday.

As the trial began, Uzbek prosecutor Anvar Nabiyev said Western aid groups, human rights organisations and foreign media had launched an information war against the Uzbek government, accusing them of bias and of having planned the events in Andijan, along with militant Islamic groups.

Collaborating that further, in what appeared like well rehearsed statements, the 15 alleged leaders, all of whom pleaded guilty on 20 September, accused the Western media of organising the revolt.

RSF is not alone in its concern. On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Karimov to stop scapegoating the press and to end his government's campaign of intimidation and repression against the independent media. The government crackdown, which had targeted several international news organisations in dozens of incidents over four months, was part of a broad effort to obscure the full extent of the 13 May massacre in Andijan, the New York-based group said.

In the months since, retaliation against journalists had been severe, CPJ research showed, with some journalists requesting that the watchdog group refrain from publicising abuses they had encountered out of fear they may face further retribution.

Journalists working for the Uzbek service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) have been threatened, detained, searched, and assaulted, the news organisation noted, while some had been placed under surveillance and had their belongings confiscated, a CPJ statement said, adding journalists' families had been threatened and harassed as well.

In all, RFE/RL has documented more than 30 cases of attacks on its journalists. On 19 September, an appeals court in the northeastern city of Namangan upheld the recent conviction of Nosir Zokirov, a journalist for the Uzbek service of RFE/RL. Zokirov was sentenced to six months in prison on a charge related to his reporting on Andijan.

Meanwhile, three of the defendants on trial described on Monday how they had trained at military camps in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, further collaborating the government's claim of a conspiracy that included foreign fighters and funding.

According to the AP report, the testimony by the three, all ethnic Uzbek citizens of Kyrgyzstan, opened the second week of the carefully choreographed trial. Tashkent hopes the trial will refute accusations of a massacre by government troops, supporting its claim that extremist Islamic groups from abroad were responsible.

Another candidate to run in Khodorkovsky's place

2005-09-27T08:03:00.000+01:00

From The St Petersburg Times:

Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s campaign team said Monday that they would name another candidate later this week for a State Duma by-election in Moscow’s Universitetsky District in December.

Khodorkovsky, the jailed Yukos billionaire, was barred from running for the seat after the Moscow City Court on Thursday rejected his appeal to a lower court’s conviction on fraud and tax evasion charges.

“We will decide on the back-up candidate by the end of the week,” Khodorkovsky’s campaign chief, Ivan Starikov, said at a news conference. “But I can say that several potential candidates are sitting at the table with me.”

Seated at the table were well-known journalists Sergei Dorenko and Vladimir Kara-Murza, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, writer and human rights activist Alla Gerber and two little-known activists from the liberal Union of Right Forces party, or SPS.

New posters for walk

2005-09-25T23:27:00.000+01:00

We've created three A4 posters to promote the walk for Belarus on 15 October:

Download as .wps file
Download as .wps file

Download as .wps file

If you're in Greater London, it would be extremely helpful if you could distribute these in your neighbourhood. They can also be used as the basis for placards for the walk.

Please let us know if anything doesn't work properly (pictures not coming through, etc.).

Azeri opposition to defy protest ban

2005-09-23T08:21:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Azerbaijani Interior Minister Ramil Usubov today warned that authorities will break up any unsanctioned anti-government rally ahead of the 6 November legislative election.

Usubov's comments came as the Azadliq (Freedom) opposition coalition said it would defy a ban from Baku city authorities and hold a protest march in the center of the Azerbaijani capital on 25 September.

Usubov today also warned former parliament speaker Rasul Quliyev that he will be arrested as soon as he enters Azerbaijan.

Ukrainian diplomat detained in Azerbaijan

2005-09-23T08:19:00.000+01:00

From AzerNews:

Ukrainian representatives, who visited Azerbaijan to attend an international conference on the so-called second stage of democratic reforms in Belarus and Azerbaijan, were detained at the airport. One of the detainees - coordinator of the "People's advocate" social programs, citizen of Estonia Andrey Popov - was released later, unlike the adviser for the Ukrainian foreign minister Sergey Yevtushenko, who is also a member of the Pora civic organization. Yevtushenko was released and deported to Ukraine on Sunday. Pora considerably contributed to the soft change of power that swept Ukraine late last year. Chairman of major opposition Musavat Party Isa Gambar told a news conference on Friday that the State Border Service detained the Ukrainian representatives without any grounds. "The attempts by Musavat representatives, who were greeting the visitors, to get any reasonable explanation were unsuccessful… I am ashamed for the country.
It is time for Azeri authorities to start acting in accord with international norms."

Human rights reporter banned from Belarus

2005-09-23T08:17:00.000+01:00

From Human Rights House:

A UN special reporter was banned entry to the country because his mission is to collect information about the human rights in Belarus. Instead, he will visit the Baltic states where he is going to meet representatives of the government and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Adrian Severin, a special reporter of the UN Committee for human rights, is going to visit Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in September, 18-24 to collect information about the human rights situation in Belarus.

Mr. Severin, the former Foreign Minister of Romania was appointed a special UN reporter for human rights in Belarus in July, 2004. However, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Belarus officially refused to cooperate with the special reporter and forbade him the country.

Kyrgyz parliament deputy murdered

2005-09-23T08:14:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Kyrgyz lawmaker and businessman Bayaman Erkinbaev was shot dead last night [Wednesday] in Bishkek. Erkinbaev, who was for a brief time among the country's presidential contenders earlier this year, had alleged connections to criminal groups in the southern Osh area. He is the second parliament deputy to be killed since June. His murder comes after a warning by Kyrgyzstan's ombudsman that contract murders were on the rise in the country. The Kyrgyz parliament today held an emergency session on the murder, with both President Kurmanbek Bakiev and Prime Minister Feliks Kulov in attendance.

Controversy seemed to follow the lawmaker since a previous murder attempt against him last April. At the time, Erkinbaev said the attack was linked to his presidential bid.

"With full responsibility I declare that this [assassination attempt] is a political order which I believe is linked to my decision to run for president," Erkinbaev said.

But there may have been other reasons -- Erkinbaev's alleged criminal ties among them.

In June, violence broke out in his native Osh region when guards shot guns into the air to disperse a crowd of angry protesters gathered outside an Osh hotel believed to be owned by Erkinbaev. The protesters were primarily merchants from the Kara-suu bazaar, one of the biggest such markets in Central Asia.

Erkinbaev allegedly held large financial interests in the Kara-suu bazaar. Several recent articles in the Kyrgyz press and on the Internet accused Erkinbaev of being involved in a number of illegal business ventures, including some linked to the market.

Khodorkovsky's appeal rejected

2005-09-23T08:12:00.000+01:00

From The Moscow Times:

The Moscow City Court late Thursday rejected Mikhail Khodorkovsky's appeal in a marathon 11-hour session, cutting short his campaign for a State Duma seat before it even began.

The three-judge panel reduced his sentence -- and that of his business partner Platon Lebedev -- from nine years to eight.

"The punishment will come into force," Chief Judge Vyacheslav Tarasov said. "The hearing is over. I ask the guards to take the convicted man away."

Later, in the darkness outside the heavily guarded courthouse in northeastern Moscow, Boris Khodorkovsky quietly remarked, "From nine to eight. ... I won't live that long."

It was not immediately clear where Khodorkovsky, 42, would be sent next. Under Russian law, once an appeal is exhausted, a prisoner serves the rest of his term in a prison colony. Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt said his client would be sent to a prison not far from Moscow.

Azerbaijan takes a lesson from Andijan

2005-09-23T08:05:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

As campaigning for the 6 November parliamentary elections gets under way, the Azerbaijani authorities are directing their efforts toward ensuring that the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party, together with ostensibly independent but loyal candidates, retains control of the new parliament. While such efforts are not unexpected in light of previous tainted elections, the Azerbaijani government's blatant disregard for the international community's insistence on electoral fairness and transparency is surprising. Moreover, this apparent disdain for world public opinion is at odds with -- and signals a retreat from -- initial moves apparently aimed at reversing the country's record of election "illegalities."

One factor driving the Azerbaijani government's disregard for international reaction to its tactics over the past six weeks may be its inferences from Western -- specifically the U.S. -- response to two other developments.

The first test case for Azerbaijan was what Baku perceived to be the lukewarm Western reaction to the May unrest in Uzbekistan. Not only did Uzbek President Islam Karimov's bloody response to the violent events in the southeastern town of Andijon, his government's dubious definition of the events as an uprising by Islamic extremists, and the repressive handling of the victims and witnesses not result in international sanctions, most importantly, the Uzbek case was a direct and blatant challenge to U.S. credibility.

The second key development was Washington's praise for Egypt's presidential election earlier this month. That praise may have been construed in Baku as signaling that the United States would be content with even the most modest progress toward greater democracy.

Meanwhile, the Polish ambassador to Azerbaijan has dismissed rumours that the Polish government has been planning a coup with opposition members.

Azerbaijan opposition plans rally for 25 September

2005-09-21T08:32:00.000+01:00

From today.az:

The “Azadlig” bloc appealed to the Baku city Executive Power for holding mass action in Baku city on September 25.

It was decided to hold the action in the center of the capital. The administration of the city was appealed for determination of any of the central squares.

F.Hajiyev informed that the bloc does intend to hold the action in other than the places mentioned above: “if the Baku city Executive Power does not determine one of these territories, the administration of the bloc will chose one of these territories and hold the action there”.

Russian politicians seek support from football fans

2005-09-21T08:26:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Russian politicians' love affair with youth movements continues to deepen with the emergence of new youth groups seemingly every other month. Parallel with this trend has been a growing -- but less visible -- cooperation with soccer fan clubs.

At the formal level, a Moscow city government committee approved a decree last week providing an estimated $3.5 billion rubles ($123 million) in 2006 for the creation of an association of fans of various sports clubs, the Civil Transition patriotic youth movement, and a youth TV channel. At an informal level, the pro-Kremlin youth movements Walking Together and its successor Nashi have been linked with various soccer fan clubs, whose members they reportedly use for security and other purposes.

With their courtship of soccer fan clubs, Russian political authorities may be stepping where earlier counterparts feared to tread. In the early 1980s, Soviet law-enforcement officials were so alarmed by the growing zeal of Russian soccer fans and their adoration of British soccer hooligans that they started to crack down on any emotional displays by audiences during games. According to "Novye izvestiya" on 15 April, during matches, fans were banned not only from chanting or singing songs, but even applauding too fervently. Young people wearing the scarves of the clubs they favored were immediately under suspicion by the law-enforcement agencies. The disintegration of the Soviet Union helped dampen any remaining passion for soccer until the mid-1990s, when fan clubs experienced a rebirth.

One of the first Russian political leaders to see the political possibilities for an alliance with soccer fans was Vladimir Zhirinovskii, head of Liberal Democratic Party of the Russia (LDPR). Speaking on the basis of anonymity, a young Moscow-based soccer hooligan identified only as Vasilii told "Komsomolskaya pravda" on 20 December 2004 that Zhirinovskii's team actively courted devotees of Dynamo Moscow. "They financed trips for out-of-town matches, published several fan books, paid for parties," Vasilii said. "LDPR figured that attracting Dynamo fans to their enterprise would raise their party's rating among youth." Vasilii said that LDPR never tried to use the fan club to provide security, although Walking Together did.

According to Vasilii, fans of CSKA (Central Sporting Club of the Army) participated for money in the riot that occurred in central Moscow in June 2002 following Russia's loss to Japan in the World Cup. The riot happened just before the first reading in the State Duma of the law on political extremism. "The media was full of talk about youth extremism. And suddenly before the second reading there was disorder on Manezh Square with attempt to break into the State Duma building," Vasilii said.

Of course, Vasilii, if he indeed exists, was speaking anonymously, but suspicions about the violence have been voiced from any variety of different people.

Meanwhile, officials from the Nashi youth movement and its predecessor, Walking Together, deny having any connection to soccer fans at all. Konstantin Lebedev, press secretary for Walking Together, told "Komsomolskaya pravda" in December 2004 that his organization "does not cooperate with any kind of fan grouping." However, Aleksei Mitrushin, leader of the CSKA fan group Gallant Steed, has been identified in a number of articles as the director of the northeast branch of Walking Together and as a Nashi coordinator ("Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 27 April, "Komsomolskaya pravda" on 14 March, and "Ekspert," on 5 September).

From its very beginning, stories about Nashi have been heavy with references to brawny soccer hooligans, and activists at competing organizations have been more than willing to name names. Sergei Shagrunov, head of the Motherland party's youth group ,and Vladimir Abel, a top official with the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), both identified Roman Verbitskii, the head of Spartak Moscow's Gladiator fan club, as the head of Nashi's regional-development department in articles in "Kommersant-Daily," "Moskovskii komsomolets," and "Vedomosti." "Ekspert" reported on 5 September that Verbitskii and another leader of the Gladiators, Vasilii Stepanov, aka Vasya the Killer, have attended meetings at the Kremlin with other Nashi members. However, Nashi press secretary Ivan Mostovich told "Kommersant-Daily" on 31 August that he does not know any Roman Verbitskii.

According to most detailed accounts of the Russian soccer fan clubs, the young men share certain prejudices, such as a hatred for persons from the Caucasus, but they lack any broader political agenda. Their role models are British soccer hooligans. Bill Buford, an American journalist who went undercover with fans of Manchester United's Red Devils, suggested that British hooligans seek an ecstatic, sex-like release from mass violence. Similarly, "Komsomolskaya pravda" wrote that Russian soccer fanatics "are directed not by political convictions but by the search for strong sensations." In their search for an adrenaline rush, they aren't likely to be easily controlled by anyone -- regardless of their bureaucratic rank within the Kremlin or without.

Route for Belarus walk

2005-09-20T10:59:00.000+01:00

We can now announce the route for our walk in support of Belarusian democracy in London on Saturday, 15 October. Our walk starts with the embassies of Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Georgia -- the three former Soviet republics that have recently had 'colour revolutions' -- and passes the embassies of several other ex-Soviet countries before ending up at the Belarusian embassy.

The walk will begin at 11.30 am sharp.

At the suggestion of Students for Global Democracy, who are organising the walks worldwide, the overall length of the walk will be approximately 12 km to symbolise the 12 years Lukashenka has been in power. If you don't think you can manage the whole distance, you are welcome to walk as far as you can or to join us at any of the points along the way.

SGD's original idea was to provide all participants with T-shirts and to charge each walker US$15, which would cover the cost of the shirt as well as a donation to pro-democracy groups in Belarus. However, we have since learned that the shirts cannot be shipped overseas from America. Furthermore, we at Volodymyr Campaign don't feel it would be appropriate to make people pay to participate in our demonstrations. Participation in the walk is therefore free, although we will be happy to provide information about giving directly to pro-democracy groups in Belarus.

We're asking that participants bring a homemade sign if possible -- we'll be posting a few ideas over the next couple of weeks.

If you would like to take part in the walk, please e-mail volodymyrcampaign@btinternet.com as soon as possible.

The route

11.30 am: Begin at Kyrgyz Embassy, 119 Crawford St W1H 1AD
Turn right onto Wyndham Place
Turn right onto Crawford Street
Continue straight until Crawford Place
Turn right onto Edgware Road
Turn left onto Sussex Gardens
Turn left onto Westbourne Street
Continue straight to Lancaster Terrace
Continue straight to Ukrainian Embassy, 60 Holland Park, W11 3SJ
Continue on to Holland Park Avenue
Turn onto Holland Road
Turn left onto Russell Gardens
Proceed to Georgian Embassy, 4 Russell Gardens, W14 8EZ
Turn right onto Holland Road
Continue to Addison Road
Turn right onto Warwick Gardens
Turn left onto Slip Road
Continue straight to Cromwell Road
Turn right onto Thurloe Place
Turn left onto Thurloe Square
Proceed to Kazakh Embassy, 33 Thurloe Square, SW7 2SD
Turn right onto Thurloe Place
Turn right onto Cromwell Road
Turn left
Turn right onto Exhibition Road
Turn left onto Imperial College Road
Continue to Queen's Gate
Turn left onto Elvaston Place
Turn right onto Gore Street
Turn left onto Petersham Place
Turn right onto Petersham Lane
Turn left onto Queen's Gate Terrace
Turn right onto Victoria Grove
Turn left onto Victoria Road
Turn right onto Cottesmore Gardens
Turn left onto Stanford Road
Turn right onto Kelso Place
Turn left onto St Margaret's Lane
Turn right onto Marloes Road
Continue to Cheniston Gardens
Proceed to Armenian Embassy, 25a Cheniston Gardens W8 6TG
Turn left onto Wright's Lane
Turn right onto Kensington High Street
Turn left onto Kensington Palace Gardens
Proceed to Russian Embassy, 13 Kensington Palace Gardens W8 4QX
Turn left
Turn right onto Palace Avenue
Turn left onto Kensington Road
Turn right onto Palace Gate
Turn left onto Queen's Gate Mews
Proceed to Estonian Embassy, 16 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DG
Turn right onto Gloucester Road
Turn left onto Canning Place
Turn right onto Canning Passage
Turn right onto Victoria Road
Turn left onto Prince of Wales Terrace
Proceed to Belarusian Embassy, 6 Kensington Court W8 5DL

Third Yeni Fikir member arrested

2005-09-15T08:24:00.000+01:00

From International Relations and Security Network:

Azerbaijan on Wednesday detained a third opposition youth leader allegedly involved in anti-government activities, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Murad Gasanly, a spokesman for the Azadlyq opposition bloc, said police had detained Ramin Tagiev, a leader of the Yeni Fakir (New Idea) youth movement. The arrest comes two days after the detention of another of the movement’s members, Said Nuri, who has since been hospitalized with apparent liver problems, according to RFE/RL. In August, the police arrested Yeni Fakir leader Ruslan Bashirli, who was implicated in an alleged anti-government plot.

Activists beaten in Georgia

2005-09-15T08:22:00.000+01:00

From Civil Georgia:

Three activists from the opposition Conservative Party were reportedly attacked and beaten up by a group of unknown men on September 13 in Batumi, Adjara Autonomous Republic.

The attack occurred while the activists were hanging posters of Jumber Tavartkiladze, who plans to run for MP in Batumi's single-mandate constituency.

MP Koba Davitashvili, the leader of Conservative Party, accused the local authorities of attempting to thwart the opposition party’s election campaign in Adjara.

MEPs criticise broadcasts to Belarus

2005-09-15T08:12:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

The European Commission's plans to fund independent radio and television broadcasts into Belarus were met by harsh and sometimes scathing criticism in the European Parliament's foreign-affairs committee today.

Many members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were particularly scathing about the commission's perceived preference for Russian over Belarusian as the main language for the planned broadcasts.

Former Lithuanian President Vytatutas Landsbergis was one of a number of MEPs from former communist countries who warned the commission it risks complicity in Russia's longstanding ambitions to "Russify" its neighbors.

Some Western European MEPs pointed out that more than 60 percent of the population of Belarus considers itself ethnically Russian. Their appeals to pragmatism were drowned by protestations from representatives of smaller, Eastern European member states.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an Estonian and a vice chairman of the parliament's foreign-affairs committee, noted that indigenous languages, not Russian, had served as the main vehicles for democratic change in Eastern Europe.

Most speakers also dismissed the 2 million euros earmarked by the commission for two years' TV and radio broadcasts as by far insufficient. The commission's tendering rules, requiring applying media organizations to demonstrate an annual turnover of 3 million euros, were described as designed to exclude companies from neighboring Poland and Lithuania.

The strategy also appears to sideline the 500,000 ethnic Belarusians living in Poland and the three Baltic States, who a number of MEPs said would be best-placed to reach out to their compatriots.

Reporters removed from Khodorkovsky court

2005-09-15T08:07:00.000+01:00

From Interfax:

Police on Tuesday forced all those who had gathered in the territory of Moscow's Meshchansky court, which is to hear former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev's appeals, out of the court premises.

Policemen ordered reporters and all other visitors to leave the court premises without explaining the reasons and saying only they had been ordered to do so, an Interfax correspondent reported.

Russian journalist a prisoner in his city

2005-09-15T08:04:00.000+01:00

From The Boston Globe:

It is well past closing time at the small cafe where this small city's hip young men and women often meet for an after-dinner espresso. The waitresses are steering patrons out the door, but Yuri Bagrov waves them off.

''Don't worry," he tells his guests, settling in again over his tea. The waitresses smile indulgently. Bagrov is what you might call a man about town -- he hasn't left Vladikavkaz, in the Caucasian republic of North Ossetia, in more than a year.

The brash, 29-year-old journalist is engaged in a war of nerves with Russia's Federal Security Service, and so far, the agency is ahead. Agents confiscated Bagrov's internal travel documents in August 2004, leaving him a virtual prisoner of the city.

''This is really getting tough to bear," said Bagrov, known for his often-controversial stories for US-funded Radio Liberty and, formerly, the Associated Press, in Russia's troubled north Caucasus region.

Bagrov said his problems began after a series of stories he wrote about smuggling and corruption. The most sensitive, he said, was a piece he wrote for the Associated Press describing the disappearance of a local prosecutor who had been investigating possible links between the FSB and the disappearance of dozens of young men in the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia.

Not long after, he said, 10 FSB agents arrived at his doorstep at 8 one morning and searched his house, car, and office. The warrant said they were looking for materials used to forge official documents, as well as weapons, drugs, and ammunition. But they took every piece of paper in the house.

''At 4 p.m., I was taken to the FSB," Bagrov said. ''The investigator told me to write an explanation of how I'd gotten Russian citizenship."

Bagrov was born in Tbilisi, which became capital of independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He carried an old Soviet passport long after he moved to Vladikavkaz, his mother's hometown, in 1992. He exchanged it for a Russian passport in 2003, but authorities said there was no registered court record of the new document, fined him the equivalent of $526, and briefly threatened him with deportation.

Then scarier things started to happen.

''There were phone calls to my wife, who was pregnant," he said. ''The caller would say, 'May I speak to the widow of Mr. Bagrov?' It was more than once that this happened."

With no identity documents, Bagrov was unable to leave Vladikavkaz or apply for new press accreditation to do his job. He missed the biggest story of his career when militants attacked a school in Beslan, 10 miles away.

Pro-government hecklers drown out Khodorkovsky rally

2005-09-14T08:32:00.000+01:00

From Kommersant:

The partisans of jailed oligarch were muffled by soccer horns. The activists from the movement "We Are with Khodorkovsky!" and "For Human Rights" tried yesterday to have a demonstration of support for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Despite the fact that action was sanctioned by the authorities, it was interrupted by the young activists from "Eurasian Youth Union." The human rights activists claim that they were interrupted by the members of state sponsored "United" movement. Their opponents rejected the claims and called themselves simply "politically active youth."

The demonstration, organized by the movements "We Are With Khodorkovsky!" and "For Human Rights", started about 6 p.m. Approximately 100 people gathered next to A. Pushkin monument and put up the posters with slogans like "Scoundrel Authorities - Scoundrel Decisions!," and "Better to be in jail than to be humiliated by the scum!" In the mean time, the young people in white t-shirts with lettering "Khodorkovsky to jail!" started to assemble in the other side of the monument. "We gathered here to express our solidarity with political prisoners Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev before the court hearings on Sep.14," Ivan Felyushin, activist of the movement "We Are with Khodorkovsky!', told Kommersant. Then, he took a worrying look to another side of the fence, where the young people in white t-shirts started to form the row. When Lev Ponomarev, head of the movement "For Human Rights," tried to open the demonstration with a speech, the youth in other side started forcefully to blow the horns, which are widely use by soccer fans during the matches. Despite the amplification equipment, the noise was so loud that only activists who were standing within three yards of the Ponomarev could hear him.

When Yuri Samodurov, Director of Sakharov Museum, came up to the microphone, he was immediately interrupted by two young men, who pushed themselves into the crowd screaming: "Khodorkovsky needs to be finished in outhouse!"

This is apparently a reference to one of Putin's statements concerning Chechnya: he vowed to 'rub out the bandits in the crapper.'

"The same colors of t-shirts and the same flags are signs that these people are associated with authorities," Alexei Sidelnikov, activist of "It's time!" movement, told Kommersant. "It is time!" had also participated in pro-Khodorkovsky demonstration. "Most likely the organizers of this hooligan act are the youth movement "United". It is against the law, anyway, and we will sue," Sidelnikov complained. “We got the permission papers earlier," Alexei, the leader of the anti-Khodorkovsky demonstration, said. "So our meeting is perfectly legal." "We got two papers with permissions several days before. For that reason the both actions are legal “the police officer, who was guarding the demonstration, told Kommersant. He refused to give his name.

Report says government protecting Gongadze's killers

2005-09-14T08:23:00.000+01:00

From IFEX:

Powerful political figures in Ukraine who authorised the assassination of investigative reporter Gyorgy Gongadze in 2000 are eluding justice, according to a new report by four journalists' organisations, including the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Published jointly by IFJ, the National Union of Journalists of Great Britain and Ireland, the Gongadze Foundation and the Institute of Mass Information, the report warns that an ongoing investigation into Gongadze's murder continues to be marked by serious negligence.

It points the finger at Ukrainian authorities, who it accuses of steering the investigation away from the powerful organisers of the crime and limiting it to the handful of individuals who took part in the killing.

The full report can be read here.

Georgian MP says government planned assault

2005-09-14T08:20:00.000+01:00

From The Messenger:

After two months of treatment in a Vilnius hospital following an attack on him in Tbilisi this July, Republican party member and majoritarian MP from the Khashuri district Valeri Gelashvili returned to Georgia on September 12.

The MP returned to Georgia without his family, because, he says, of safety problems. Nevertheless, he plans to continue his political and business activities in Georgia.

Gelashvili, who has not talked with investigators since his attack, said he would have his first questioning Monday evening.

Gelashivli was flown out of Georgia in a air ambulance after being assaulted by masked assailants carrying weapons. The assailants stopped the car he was driving near the Eliava Bazaar on July 14, smashed the windows and beat up the parliamentarian and his personal bodyguard.

At Monday's press conference Gelashvili claimed that he had recognized one Opel Vectra and one Ford car that had stopped him as belonging to special forces of the so-called seventh department of the Internal Affairs Ministry.

"Everything was planned beforehand. I was driving to my village and they could have made the attack there, but they chose a crowded place because they wanted to teach people a lesson to show that if anybody speaks out they will be beaten like Gelashvili," added the MP.

Shortly before the attack Gelashvili, a self-made businessman who lived in Lithuania until 1997, accused the government of failing to pay for work his construction firm had done on the new presidential palace.

Gelashvili also alleged local doctors conspired with attackers to cover-up the severity of his condition. "They thought I would die after that beating, but I did not," said Gelashvili "so they decided to kill me at the hospital. My lungs were full of water, though doctors claimed the situation was stable. But the doctors who came from Vilnius saved me by taking four liters of water from my lungs before my flight to Vilnius. Otherwise my heart would have stopped three or four hours later," he said.

Bekauri report airs on Georgian TV

2005-09-14T08:16:00.000+01:00

From Civil Georgia:

Tbilisi-based private television station 202 broadcasted on September 13 an investigative report, which incriminates Koba Bekauri, a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party, for illegal business activities.

The report is a major element in a scandal involving the detention of co-founder and anchor of the 202 TV, Shalva Ramishvili. Bekauri claims Ramishvili was extorting USD 100,000 in exchange for the latter killing the piece. Ramishvili says Bekauri has been intimidating him and fabricated the extortion charge.

Uzbekistan shuts another NGO

2005-09-14T08:15:00.000+01:00

From Reuters:

Uzbekistan, increasingly hostile toward foreign non-governmental organizations it accuses of fomenting revolution in the ex-Soviet state, has shut a second U.S. charity in four days, the charity said on Tuesday.

A worker for U.S.-based educational charity IREX, who did not want his name to be disclosed, told Reuters that Tashkent city court ordered the organization on Monday to suspend its activities for six months.

"The decision was motivated by IREX's refusal to provide information about Uzbek citizens who studied abroad, being supported by IREX," he said adding that other charges included the use of an unregistered logo.

Kazakh president: NGOs to be watched

2005-09-14T08:12:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev cautioned foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) yesterday that their activities will be closely watched. Nazarbaev is seeking re-reelection in presidential elections in December. The Kazakh president warned foreign NGOs not to interfere in the country’s politics and threatened to prosecute them if they meddled in the election campaign. But analysts say Nazarbaev is concerned about a repeat of the colored revolutions that have hit other former Soviet states.

Speaking to a gathering of civic groups in Astana yesterday, Nazarbaev devoted a good portion of speech to the work of foreign NGOs.

In particular, the Kazakh president emphasized the negative roles he said such groups played in recent changes of power in Georgia, Ukraine, and neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Nazarbaev said that in the wake of the so-called colored revolutions in those countries, Kazakhstan’s parliament has sought to pass new legislation placing strict guidelines on the work of foreign NGOs. The proposed law on the activities of NGOs in Kazakhstan was overruled by the Constitutional Council last month, but Nazarbaev said members of parliament were justified in seeking to further regulate the role of NGOs.

Turkmen Jehovah's Witness appeals sentence

2005-09-14T08:09:00.000+01:00

From Forum 18:

Jehovah's Witness Konstantin Vlaskin, beaten by police and imprisoned for 15 days in July on charges of hooliganism, is challenging the basis of his conviction. "The police claim I caused a disturbance, but this is untrue," he told Forum 18 News Service from Turkmenabad. "They wanted to cover up the fact they were punishing me for my religious activity." After the prosecutor's office upheld the charge on 31 August, Vlaskin pledged to take his case higher. He has since been threatened with a fine. After bringing in a local mullah, police insulted three other Jehovah's Witnesses in the city for "abandoning their [Muslim] faith", while another was beaten and accused of being a terrorist. In Ashgabad, Dmitry Krivets' vital 10-day medical treatment at a clinic was cut short after two days after its director received a phone call that he was a "sectarian". A Jehovah's Witness pensioner was threatened with deportation to a desert region of the country. Turkmenistan's Jehovah's Witnesses have not applied for official registration, saying they are still not clear whether it would be any help in being able to practice their faith freely. Registered faiths regularly suffer raids on religious services.

Marinich to appeal for early release 22 September

2005-09-13T08:24:00.000+01:00

From Charter 97:

A commission on the questions of early release of Minsk colony is not in favour of early release of former Minister and Ambassador Mikhail Marynich, his wife Tatsyana Marynich informed Radio Svaboda. She had a meeting with her husband in the colony from September 7 to 9. Tatsyana Marynich says that her husband is making efforts to change the decision of the commission.

“He was acquainted with the decision of the commission concerning possibility of his early release. He wrote his objection to the decision. Firstly, he follows all rules and has not committed any violations of the order, and secondly, he needs urgent treatment,” Tatsyana Marynich said.

According to information of Tatsyana Marynich, on September 22 a new session of the commission is to take place. It is to determine finally, whether Mikhail Marynich will be released. He believed that he completely meets conditions of the early release, as considering the amnesty he had served more than a half of the term in prison, and he is a pensioner.

On the days leading up to the commission meeting, it is vitally important that the international community keeps up pressure on Belarus to release Mr Marinich. If you haven't already sent a letter to the Belarusian government, now is an ideal time to do so.

Protests block Uzbek road

2005-09-13T08:17:00.000+01:00

From ferghana.ru:

Protesters blocked the road between Osh and Qorasuv for three hours on September 11. Participants of the rally in front of the Qorasuv prosecutor's office demanded the finding of murderers of Abdalim Zhunusov shot on September 5. Zhunusov had run the Qorasuv wholesale market once managed by deputy of the parliament Bajaman Erkinbayev, its previous owner.

At least 300 protesters, most of them Zhunusov's relatives and former subordinates, blocked the road carrying posters and placards "Azimbek Beknazarov is the attorney of criminals", "Trial for deputy Bajaman Erkinbayev", and "Away with Cholpon Bekoyeva". The protesters chanted slogans denouncing Prosecutor General Beknazarov and Bekoyeva of the Constitutional Court.

One of the protesters who insisted on anonymity told this correspondent that the population of the Qorasuv district of the Osh region is actively arming itself now. It is awaiting armed clashes among different factions of the underworld bent on redistribution of assets in the southern part of the country.

No representative of the authorities deigned to turn up at the protest rally in front of the Qorasuv prosecutor's office.

Yeni Fikir deputy arrested

2005-09-13T08:11:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Azerbaijani authorities have detained another opposition youth activist on suspicion of plotting against the state, according to a local news report.

Azerbaijan's independent Turan news agency quoted lawyer Yavar Huseyn as saying police today apprehended Said Nuri, the deputy head of the Yeni Fikir (New Thinking), movement.

Huseyn said Nuri was remanded in custody on accusations that he received money to prepare a coup.

Yeni Fikir Chairman Ruslan Basirli was arrested last month on similar charges.

Khodorkovsky to appeal Wednesday

2005-09-13T08:02:00.000+01:00

From The Jerusalem Post:

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil magnate whose empire was carved up in a politically charged campaign, was to appear in court Wednesday to appeal a nine-year sentence handed down in May after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion.

But as before his grueling 12-day verdict reading, lawyers for Russia's once-richest man suggested his chances of a reduced sentence were faint. According to analysts, Khodorkovsky's bid for parliament and his increasingly combative behind-bars criticism of President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin have ensured he will be kept in jail for years to come.

In an interview with Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung, posted Monday on his defense team's Web site, Khodorkovsky called the hearings at the Moscow City Court "a formality."

"They have been informed of the political decision right down to the formal writing of the verdict," he said.

Lawyers have said that if the appeal fails they will take their case to the Supreme Court; they have already filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights.

Yesterday, both supporters and opponents of Khodorkovsky rallied in Moscow. From Interfax:

Members of We Are with Khodorkovsky and Lev Ponomaryov-led Human Rights movements are rallying on Pushkin Square in Moscow. Opponents of Khodorkovsky are trying to disrupt the rally.

Metal barriers have been placed on Pushkin Square dividing it into sections occupied Khodorkovsky's supporters and their opponents, an Interfax correspondent reports.

Members of the Irina Khakamada-led Our Choice Party, the Union of Right Forces, the Oborona Youth Movement and a number of human rights activists are taking part in the rally. They are holding posters reading "Freedom to Russian Political Prisoners!", "Freedom to Victims of Espionage!" and "No to Political Reprisals! Freedom to Decembrists!".

Several dozen young people are wearing white T-shirts with a picture of prison bars and an inscription "MBK to Jail!" with about 50 protesters blowing soccer horns and holding anti-Khodorkovsky posters.

Independent papers vanish in Tajikistan

2005-09-12T08:21:00.000+01:00

From Radio Free Europe:

Over the past year, Tajikistan’s independent media have suffered one setback after another. All the major opposition newspapers have been shut down, and recently the editor of one of those newspapers was jailed on what many say are politically motivated charges. In the last week, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has expressed concerns about Tajikistan’s media environment.

There are fewer sources of information in Tajikistan these days. Independent media, especially newspapers, have been hit hard. Two dailies have simply vanished -- a fact that has been noticed by those selling newspapers.

“The popularity of newspapers like 'Ruzi Nau' and 'Nerui Sukhan' was high among our customers, but they have not been putting them out lately. I hope they start again,” one newspaper vendor says.

Readers agree the closings are unhealthy for the country’s political development. One reader in Dusanbe lamented the disappearance of “Ruzi Nau.”

“The newspaper 'Ruzi Nau' is very free and bold and wrote about serious issues and we read the paper with great interest," one newspaper buyer says. "If it were possible, I would ask the Tajik authorities to permit 'Ruzi Nau' to be published, and not only 'Ruzi Nau,' but other newspapers that worked independently and could openly express their opinions about the government. Let them be published! Let the people read! That would represent progress in political life.”

Miklos Haraszti, the representative on media freedom for the OSCE, this week sent a letter to Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov to express his concerns. Harasti’s senior adviser Alex Ivanko explained the case to RFE/RL: “The first time Mr. Haraszti raised this issue [independent media problems] was with the authorities in Tajikistan last year during the annual OSCE-Central Asia Media Conference. And after that on several occasions he has written to the Tajik authorities and now after a year he again wants to raise awareness of the fact that this issue has not been solved.”

Some say it is becoming worse.

In his letter, Haraszti mentioned four opposition newspapers and two printing houses that have been closed. Then, at the end of last month, Mukhtar Bokizoda, the editor of “Nerui Sukhan,” was sentenced to jail.

Baku: 2,000 rally for free elections

2005-09-12T08:11:00.000+01:00

From International Relations and Security Network:

More than 2,000 opposition politicians and their supporters, clad in orange, rallied in the Azerbaijani capital on Saturday, demanding President Ilham Aliev’s resignation and calling on the authorities to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections in November. It was the first in a series of rallies planned for the run-up to the poll, in which activists, children, and the elderly paraded through the streets of Baku, waving the opposition’s orange flags and shouting “Resign!” and “Freedom!” Observers are expecting more popular protests in the run-up to the 6 November elections similar to those that succeeded in overthrowing governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL reported. Azerbaijan, a Muslim nation of eight million people with large oil and gas reserves, has never staged an election judged free and fair by Western monitors.

Huseynov suspects 'arrested in Austria'

2005-09-12T08:09:00.000+01:00

From today.az:

There is information that Georgian citizens Tahir Khubanov and Teymuraz Aliyev who are accused in the murder of Elmar Huseynov were arrested in Vienna, capital of Austria 10 days ago.

The source informing APA about it reported that Khubanov and Aliyev were arrested during the operation conducted by Interpol. Though the law enforcement bodies of Austria do not announce the names of the imprisoned officially they confirmed that they are Georgian citizens who have been specialized on ordered assassinations.

The detained suspects are accused of a number of hired assassinations. As concerns which country claimed to search the imprisoned Georgian killers through Interpol, it is not announced. The law enforcement bodies told that, the imprisoned hired assassins are the members of organized criminal gang which is involved in illicit trafficking of drugs, kidnapping, banditry and ordered assassinations. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili has confirmed the fact of two killers of Georgian citizen supposed to be in Austria. He said that the personalities of the detained killers identified.

Internews thrown out of Uzbekistan

2005-09-12T08:00:00.000+01:00

From Internews:

In yet another blow to democracy and freedom of speech in Uzbekistan, Internews Network, a leading international media development organization, has been ordered by the Uzbek authorities to close its office in Uzbekistan. Internews plans to appeal the verdict.

A Tashkent city court on Friday found Internews Network guilty of a number of violations of Uzbek law and told it to leave the country. The US-based non-profit organization began operations in Uzbekistan in 1995 where it has helped develop the country’s independent, private television stations through trainings, technical assistance and support of local news and information programming.

“They gave us one day’s notice about the hearing and then sped through the proceedings at an incredible rate," said Catherine Eldridge, Country Director for Internews Network in Uzbekistan. “The judge refused our request to call witnesses, denied all our petitions and was blatantly biased. This is obviously a politically motivated case.”

Eldridge added, “The closure of Internews Network sets a precedent for the Uzbek government to liquidate other foreign NGOs on the basis of biased court cases and trumped up or trivial charges. This case and the criminal case against our two employees last month were a terrible loss for independent media and human rights in Uzbekistan."

Journalist interrogated in Tashkent

2005-09-05T22:57:00.000+01:00

From Arena:

On Thursday, at about 12:00 Tashkent time, a female stringer of Tashkent bureau of the US-funded Ozodlik (Liberty) Radio, Robiya Mirzaakhmedova, was forcedly taken out of a taxi by security service agents. The agents, wearing civilian clothes, took her to the nearest police station, a source told Arena on the condition of anonymity.

Mirzaakhmedova is the only Ozodlik bureau employee wearing hijab, a headscarf that leaves only the face open.

At the police station, the young woman was searched in presence of the attesting witnesses. Her recordings were listened to over and over, by both police and the National Security Service staff, for several hours. The latter did not hide they represented the NSS.

The journalist was asked several times if she was related to the banned religious organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Her cellphone was taken away, and she was not allowed to telephone her colleagues to tell them about her whereabouts.

Turkmen activists' families threatened

2005-09-05T22:38:00.000+01:00

From Reuters AlertNet:

Rights activists living outside Turkmenistan say the Turkmen government has been intimidating their relatives and friends in Turkmenistan because of their own efforts from abroad to highlight the desert nation's poor human rights record.

"There has been systematic pressure on us since we established the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation [THF] in 2003," Tajigul Begmedova, head of THF, said on Wednesday from the Bulgarian resort city of Varna where the rights group is based. According to Begmedova, the Turkmen authorities have been harassing her relatives, who still live in her homeland, since THF was first established.

"My father was beaten by the police and sent into internal exile in the north of the country," Begmedova said. "He has heart problems and he needs to go to [the capital] Ashgabat for treatment but the authorities won't allow him to do that. Moreover, he contracted tuberculosis but they are not doing anything for his treatment," she alleged. She also claimed that her sister had been incarcerated on trumped-up charges and is now serving an eight-year prison sentence.

Begmedova is not the only activist to make such claims. Pressure on dissenters and their associates or families has long been a common factor in Turkmenistan according to Farid Tukhbatulin. He heads the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, another Turkmen rights group.

Nashi seek to ban Jehovah's Witnesses

2005-09-05T22:34:00.000+01:00

From the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union:

The missionary department of the Yekaterinburg Eparchy has started collecting evidence for a legal appeal to ban the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Sverdlovsk Oblast, uralpolit.ru reported on 30 August. The eparchy considers the group a sect, and the head of the missionary department, Father Vladimir Zaitsev, told the agency that a Moscow court decision last year banning the group from the city created a precedent for a similar action in his oblast. Zaitsev complained about sick people being pressured not to receive medical treatment for religions reasons and predicted that he will have enough materials for the legal case by December. Earlier in the month, some 500 protesters in Saransk from various youth organizations, including the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, called on Mordovian authorities to ban Jehovah's Witnesses.

Ramishvili arrest a warning to media, experts say

2005-09-05T22:16:00.000+01:00

From EurasiaNet:

The recent arrest of two executives from a Georgian television station often critical of the government could have far-reaching implications for the status of media in Georgia, observers are saying.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili has characterized the August 27 arrests of Shalva Ramishvili and David Kokhreidze on charges of extortion as the opening of an anti-corruption crackdown on Georgian media companies. But associates of the detainees, along with some human rights activists, accuse the government of orchestrating the pair’s arrest in an attempt to squelch media criticism ahead of parliamentary by-elections in October.

In an interview with EurasiaNet, Giorgi Kokhreidze, brother and business partner of David Kokhreidze, charged that the arrests, as filmed by the Interior Ministry, were "a provocation" against the 202 television station. "The show that he [Ramishvili] produced does not suit the government. It is an independent channel," Kokhreidze said. "There was a goal to scare not only journalists [on 202] but all journalists in Georgia."

The government has since indicated that these arrests are the beginning of an effort to crack down on corruption in the media. On the day of Ramishvili’s arrest, Merabishvili, the interior minister, remarked during his August 27 news conference that "along with the Customs Office, the Tax Department and other state agencies, the media must also be free of corruption." Merabishvili added that the ministry would be willing to work with "any interested party."

Giorgi Kokhreidze maintains that the arrests of his brother and Ramishvili, along with the sting operation, were designed to discredit 202. "A lot happened that was not shown [on the clip aired by Georgian TV stations from the arrests]," he said, including contradictory statements from Bekauri concerning the timetable of events and who exactly propositioned him [for money]."

Maia Mikashavidze, dean of journalism and media management at the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs in Tbilisi, commented that while it is still too early to say exactly what happened between Ramishvili and Bekauri, the situation is unsettling. "It is a very strange coincidence that this could happen to the person who was the most outspoken against the government," Mikashavidze said. "That is why it is creating fear in people."

Members of the ruling National Movement have also spoken out against the proceedings, arguing that the official investigation should also focus on Bekauri and his business dealings. A meeting of the party’s parliamentary faction is planned for September 4 to discuss the issue. One National Movement MP, David Zurabishvili, who had been increasingly at odds with the National Movement leadership, resigned from the party after he was criticized by fellow National Movement member and MP Giga Bokeria for publicly questioning Ramishvili’s arrest.

One civil rights activist, however, argued that the problem often lies with journalists themselves. The case against Ramishvili, said Giorgi Meladze, a program director at the Liberty Institute, is one of simple corruption, not government pressure against independent media. "We all saw what was happening," Meladze said. "There is clear evidence that this guy is taking money." While Meladze agreed that government pressure on the media does exist in Georgia, he said that this is not the case with Ramishvili and 202. "I just saw that a person has been arrested for taking a bribe. The station is still operating," Meladze said.

A high court has upheld Ramishvili's three-month detention before trial. Civil Georgia reports on new details of the case that emerged on Friday:

The Interior Ministry issued a statement unveiling the name of a person who acted as mediator between MP Bekauri and Ramishvili – Irma Stepnadze, spokesperson of the Georgian Railway Company. The Interior Ministry said that Ramishvili and MP Bekauri met in Stepnadze’s apartment in Tbilisi where Ramishvili received USD 30,000 from Bekauri – part of the USD 100,000, which Ramishvili was allegedly extorting from Bekauri in exchange for not airing a compromising story about the parliamentarian. Irma Stepnadze is a long-time common friend of both Ramishvili and Bekauri.

At a pre-trial hearing on August 29 Ramishvili said that he pinned hopes on the testimony of the apartment’s owner (Ramishvili then refrained from naming the owner), but eventually Stepnadze testified against Ramishvili and even said that the latter offered her USD 5,000, which she refused to take.

As a result, Stepnadze has become the second person, after MP Bekauri, to give evidence against the 202 TV co-founder, thus improving the investigators' case against Ramishvili.

In a response to the Interior Ministry’s statement and the testimony of Stepnadze, Shalva Ramishvili disseminated, through his defense lawyers, a letter on September 1 in which the 202 TV co-founder gave his version of the developments and also unveiled two new names who might also be questioned by the investigators.

Meanwhile, Georgia's Public TV channel has offered to broadcast the report that Bekauri was allegedly trying to suppress.

Evidence against Georgian editor 'fabricated'

2005-09-05T22:09:00.000+01:00

From Civil Georgia:

On August 2 criminal police in the Shida Kartli region of Georgia detained Revaz Okruashvili, editor of the newspaper "People's Newspaper" alleging the illegal possession and sale of narcotics. He was later sentenced by the court to three months of preliminary detention. The detention may trigger the first serious political crisis for the new administration, as human rights activists allege fabrication of evidence and speak about political persecution of Okruashvili from the governor of Shida Kartli - Mikheil Kareli. Interior Minister Irakli Okruashvili threw his weight behind the detention on August 3, stating that he personally ordered the operation.

The campaign to release the arrested editor is led by the influential Liberty Institute. This activist group had strongly criticized Eduard Shevardnadze’s government for human rights abuses and is considered one of the driving forces behind the November 2003 "Rose Revolution" that brought Saakashvili to power. The Liberty Institute convened a press-conference on August 3, announcing that "criminal practices of fabrication of evidence, including planting of the narcotics and weapons, continues at the Interior Ministry."

The family of the detainee argues that Kvemo Kartli governor Mikheil Kareli, as well as the police chiefs of Shida Kartli, were alarmed by publications in "People's Newspaper" that alleged the region's administration’s continued participation in illegal trade and smuggling via South Ossetia - a secessionist Georgian region bordering Shida Kartli. The newspaper also alleged that the governor deserted from military service. According to Revaz Okruashvili's wife, Badri Nanitashvili, formerly the owner of the local TV company close to the governor and currently an MP, has threatened to "bring up the narcotics charges" against her if the newspaper did not stop publishing compromising material against the governor. One of the leaders of Liberty Institute, Sozar Subeliani, tipped by President Saakashvili to become the Public Defender of Georgia, says pressure was placed on the newspaper. "The last issue of the newspaper was practically impounded [by the local authorities], it never went into circulation" Subeliani says.

No apologies for Beslan parents

2005-09-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

From The Moscow Times:

Meeting on Friday with mothers of children killed in the Beslan school a year ago, President Vladimir Putin promised a thorough investigation into how the crisis was handled, but told them that Russia was not able to protect its citizens against terrorism.

Members of the Beslan delegation, who have been fiercely critical of the investigation and the Kremlin's reluctance to assign blame for the botched handling of the crisis, expressed satisfaction at finally meeting with the president.

On Sunday, however, they said they had expected him to publicly apologize on Saturday for the deaths of 331 hostages, more than half of them children.

Putin, wearing a black suit, was visibly nervous Friday, shifting in his chair several times as he addressed the eight-person, black-clad delegation from Beslan at a large oval table.

"It's difficult to start this conversation. I won't make a secret of that," he said in televised remarks at the start of the meeting. The location of the meeting was not announced. Kommersant reported that it took place at "one of the government residences" in Moscow.

"The feelings that you are experiencing are understandable for any mother, any father, any normal person," Putin said.

None of the people from Beslan was shown speaking on camera. The broadcast lasted about two minutes and was limited to Putin's opening remarks.

"I must say immediately: I agree with those who believe that the state is not in a condition to provide for the security of its citizens to the extent necessary," Putin said.

He then attempted to deflect the blame by saying no government could fully protect its people from terrorism, pointing to Sept. 11, 2001, and the terrorist acts in Madrid and London.

"Developed, powerful governments with functioning economies and well-performing intelligence services are currently unable to prevent terrorist acts," he said. "To say nothing about our country, which sustained enormous losses during the collapse of the Soviet Union, economically and in the social sphere."

Putin also responded to criticism of the choice of Friday for the long-sought meeting with the mothers, who had to interrupt their mourning during the Sept. 1-3 anniversary to come to Moscow. Putin said he had wanted to wait for the investigation into the attack to produce sufficient information before meeting with them. Also, the meeting Friday preceded the national Day of Solidarity with the Victims of Terrorist Acts, on Sept. 3, which was declared last year in the aftermath of the attack, he said.

Putin wrapped up his opening remarks saying, "I am ready to answer all your questions." At that point, the broadcast ended.

Nashi organise Beslan rallies anonymously

2005-09-05T22:02:00.000+01:00

From The Moscow Times:

Tourists and students from the North Caucasus joined thousands of Nashi activists near Red Square to remember the Beslan school seizure with lit candles and a moment of silence on Saturday.

At least 7,000 people gathered on Vasilyevsky Spusk, alongside St. Basil's Cathedral, to take part in a silent rally organized by the pro-Kremlin youth organization Nashi, or Us, which had placed black posters on public transportation and elsewhere around the city urging Moscow residents to join. The posters made no mention of Nashi's involvement.

"I came here because I simply could not be anywhere else on this day," said Tatyana Kopylova, 46, of the Moscow region town of Elektrostal. As she spoke, tears rolled down her cheeks. She clutched four red carnations in one hand and a candle in the other.

Kopylova was not aware who organized the event and said she had learned about it from a poster in the metro.

Nashi organized similar silent rallies in 30 other cities across the country, including St. Petersburg, Volgograd and Yekaterinburg, group spokesman Ivan Mastovich told Interfax.

About 200 people on Friday held a demonstration organized by human rights and opposition groups, apparently hoping to counter the Nashi rally. Participants chanted "Shame!" and called for the resignation of Putin's top police and security officials.

Minsk church's land to be confiscated

2005-09-01T20:05:00.000+01:00

From Forum 18:

City authorities in the capital Minsk have told the embattled charismatic New Life church that the land it bought with its church building in 2002 is to be confiscated. The city claims the congregation is using the land on which the church stands "not in accordance with its designation", Forum 18 News Service has learnt. "Our members have paid 13,000 US dollars in taxes on it – they can't say that it's not ours," New Life's administrator Vasily Yurevich told Forum 18. At a 30 August meeting, church members decided to begin a round-the-clock prayer vigil, challenge the proposed confiscation in court and launch a campaign to keep their land. The church has been denied re-registration by the authorities which under Belarusian law, in defiance of international human rights agreements, renders all activity by the 600-strong congregation illegal.