KHUJAND, Tajikistan — Some school principals in northern Tajikistan say they are under pressure to attract new members to President Emomali Rahmon’s ruling National Democratic Party of Tajikistan (NDPT), RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

School principal Fayzullo Fayziev, who also heads the Sughd provincial branch of the opposition Democratic Party of Tajikistan, told RFE/RL on August 15 that the local education board has asked all school principals to recruit from five to 10 new party members, all of whom must have a university degree.

But Anvar Jalilov, an NDPT activist in Khujand, told RFE/RL that party membership is voluntary. He challenged those who claim people are being forced to join the NDPT to produce evidence to substantiate those allegations.

Tajik experts said such orders are usually issued verbally and are difficult to prove.

Tilav Rasulzoda, a local expert on politics, told RFE/RL on August 15 that the ruling party is afraid that educated people may join opposition parties if they are given the choice.

Analyst Mardon Hojipoor said the NDPT wants to have the largest and best-educated membership of any party.

The NDPT is currently the largest party in Sughd, with about 48,000 members, some 20,000 of whom reportedly have graduate degrees.

Of the remaining members, about 14,000 are said to have bachelor degrees while some 14,000 are high school graduates.

The main opposition party in Sughd is the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, which says it has about 13,000 members.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_ruling_party_reportedly_pressuring_principals_for_recruits_/24297

TASHKENT — A rights activist in central Uzbekistan says she was detained on August 15 for an article criticizing the government requirement that citizens use state-issued bank cards for cash withdrawals or purchases, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.

Saida Kurbanova told RFE/RL she was summoned to the Pakhtakor district police station in JIzzakh Province where she was «dragged up the stairs» by officers, including the district deputy chief of police. She was released after several hours.

A member of the Pakhtakor police who declined to give his name denied any force was used on Kurbanova.

Kurbanova said police told her she is being sued for libel over the article she wrote and posted on the Internet in March about the difficulties faced by people using the state-issued cards.

Police told Kurbanova one of the women mentioned in the article filed the libel suit against her on August 4.

Kurbanova told RFE/RL she denies the charge and believes the woman was coerced into making the complaint.

Many in Uzbekistan have complained about the «plastic card» method of making payments, saying not all merchants have the necessary machines and that the service charge for transactions conducted via these machines can be 20 to 30 percent of the price of items being bought.

Kurbanova is the head of the Pakhtakor district branch of the nongovernmental organization the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan.

In the past, she has worked to highlight the plight of farmers in Jizzakh.

In May 2007 the head of the Pakhtakor district, Ergash Soliev, called Kurbanova a «traitor to the motherland.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbek_activist_detained_over_article_critical_of_bank_cards_system/2429

It’s a sunny day in central Bishkek as instructor Natasha Yefimova greets her small group of summer-school students, all young journalists from across Central Asia.

With some gentle prodding, she manages to get them animatedly discussing the subject of conflict, an issue that has a special resonance throughout the region.

From land and water disputes to last year’s ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan, many of the problems that plague Central Asia are the result of neighbors who see each other more as rivals than allies.

But institutions like the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, which co-funds the summer school along with German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, are trying to reverse that trend by providing rigorous educations for future politicians, entrepreneurs, and civil-society workers, while also encouraging them to think beyond their national borders by considering the Eurasian region in its entirety.

Yefimova’s class are undergoing an intensive 10-week program in which they study the basics of TV, print, and radio journalism, together with meaty issues like consumer rights, health, and the importance of local media.

The idea is to help these working journalists examine their responsibilities and rights as the newest generation of Central Asian news-gatherers.

As a center for specialized post-graduate studies based in the Kyrgyz capital, the OSCE Academy is part of a growing group of programs and institutions — including the University of Central Asia and the American University of Central Asia — that some observers are hoping will build a new generation of bright, engaged, and regionally minded Central Asians at a time when the post-Soviet Eurasian neighborhood is increasingly plagued by rising nationalism and ethnic resentment.
Now in its second year, much of what the summer school offers is strictly tool-kit journalism, which helps students learn how to write a reader-grabbing lead, for example, or when to trust a source.

But, according to Yefimova, much of the class’s value comes in the rare opportunity it offers Central Asians from across the disparate region to come together in a single room and begin looking beyond their usual borders.

«You had a girl from Tajikistan writing a story about the border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and how it affects regular people,» she says.

«A girl from Uzbekistan was writing about selective justice after the June events in Kyrgyzstan and how it was particularly hurtful for Uzbeks.

«Another Uzbek girl was writing about Uzbek-language schools in Kyrgyzstan. So there was this idea of trying to bring events in one of the Central Asian countries closer to your own home readership.»

Creeping Nationalism

The Soviet Union, with its «friendship of nations» ideal, created innumerable opportunities for its nationalities to mix, using universities, sports schools, and even the army to diversify its ranks and tamp down any creeping nationalism in the process.

The breakup of the USSR — which saw its genesis 20 years ago this week, with the failed coup attempt against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — brought an abrupt end to the orchestrated cross-pollination.

In Central Asia, as elsewhere in the former Soviet bloc, many countries have spent the past two decades eagerly rebuilding a notion of national identity.

The results haven’t always been pretty. Border disputes and the uneven distribution of water and wealth have sabotaged ties between many of the neighbors, three of which — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — are still lorded over by Soviet-era rulers eager to keep a lock on power. (A fourth, Turkmenistan, received its first post-Soviet leader in 2006, but has lost none of its repressive zeal.)

And it is Kyrgyzstan, once seen as the region’s sole emerging democracy, that in recent years has succumbed most dramatically to internal strife.

Last year’s clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the country’s south left more than 400 people dead and raised concerns about future violence in the restive Ferghana Valley, whose long-standing communities of Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz do not always cleave to Soviet-drawn borders.

‘A Very Turbulent Neighborhood’

Anna Matveeva, a visiting fellow with the Crisis States Research Center at the London School of Economics, recently worked as head researcher for the international inquiry commission investigating the Kyrgyz clashes. She describes Central Asia as a troubled region destabilized by even more troubled neighbors:

«It’s a very turbulent neighborhood,» she says. «Afghanistan, Iran on the southern borders of the region, of course, cause a lot of apprehension among the Central Asian states.»

«Then there are historical claims to territory and identity, and new claims in terms of sharing resources. Everybody wants to have their share of the cake in terms of transit and transport fees.

«So that makes it very tense between the neighbors, especially the neighbors in the eastern part of Central Asia.»
But not everyone is feeling the tension. Savrinoz Fayzova, a 24-year-old native of Tajikistan, has traveled outside her native country for the first time to attend the summer school in Bishkek.

A freelancer back home for papers like «Vecherny Dushanbe» and «Digest Press,» Fayzova believes her studies abroad have given her a professional step up as well as personal insight into an entire region populated by people whose concerns, it turns out, aren’t all that different from her own:

«We have a lot in common,» she says. «Each of the countries has the same problem — access to information…[At the summer school] I could see that the laws and restrictions we have [in Tajikistan] were the same things they were facing in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan as well.»

Nurturing Post-Soviet Elites

The Central Asian states may be slow to push through political reforms. But in many cases, they have been eager to nurture their first generation of post-Soviet elites. Very often, this means sending their best and brightest abroad.

Energy-rich Kazakhstan, in particular, has poured massive resources into scholarship programs, sending thousands of students to the United States and Europe for undergraduate and graduate-level studies.

Such moves are seen as shaping a new, contemporary leadership class — something that may, through attrition, gently deliver reforms to Central Asia that its current rulers are reluctant to impose.

Such programs are designed to return students to their home countries armed with an internationally competitive skill set but nationally minded loyalties.

By contrast, institutions like the OSCE Academy — which was founded in Bishkek in 2002 through an agreement between the Kyrgyz government and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) — are hoping to instill their graduates with a commitment to democratic principles, which can be applied not only locally, but within the neighborhood as a whole.

Counterbalancing Nondemocratic Forces

Academy organizers say the school — which offers a master’s degree in political science, as well as professional training in areas like human rights and public policy — is meant to feed the region’s government and civil-society ranks.

In so doing, supporters say such centers may also act as a counterbalance to the rising influence of nondemocratic forces in Central Asia — including radical Islam, China, and — most worryingly, says Academy director Maksim Ryabkov — deepening nationalism:

«The region is divided, not only by economic and inherited divisions, but also by simply not knowing each other and perceiving each other as unfair rivals,» he says.

«So there’s a lot of prejudice against your neighbor. I hope and believe that by having many students from different countries together, we’re building an elite that doesn’t have these prejudices, that is capable of overcoming them and somehow counteracting this trend.»

The Academy is small, usually taking on just several dozen graduate students in any given year, some from as far away as Afghanistan and Poland. But its enjoys a high loyalty rate, with as many as 89 percent of its alumni remaining in Central Asia, many going on to hold positions in government or NGOs.

Some of the center’s most successful graduates include Zahidullah Jalali, who has gone on to work in Afghanistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry; Atajan Yazmuradov, a native of Turkmenistan who now works in the UN’s department of political affairs; and Dildora Hamidova, a project coordinator for a minority affairs NGO in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. (One Academy publication describes the center’s goal as helping to create «highly competent, trans-regional, democratically oriented, and inter-ethnically friendly» networks of elites.)

Some instructors at centers like the OSCE Academy and the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), another Bishkek-based school, admit that many students are lured by the draw of a good education and the potential for a successful career, as much as by higher principles of regional good works.

Jon Mahoney, an associate professor of philosophy who spent a semester teaching at AUCA on a Fulbright grant, maintains that many of his students were distinctly apolitical — a sign, he says, of the post-Soviet contempt for government that lingers in many Central Asian states.

But even as they balked at the notion of public service or a political career, Mahoney claims many of his students were troubled by increasing tensions between the states in the region, and the apparent unwillingness of their leaders to address it.

«I certainly get the impression that they have a sense that there’s an option for dealing with problems in Central Asia that isn’t being pursued,» he says, adding that the students realize this alternative approach is «detached from squabbles about ethnic identity or squabbles about regionalism or going back to some kind of nationalistic forms of identity.»

Pan-Eurasian Unity

Many students, meanwhile, have found their own ways of addressing the social and economic problems they see mounting in Central Asia.

Nadezhda Pak, an AUCA student in business administration, in 2010 helped found the Unity Fund, a humanitarian group focusing on child-welfare issues in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Pak, an ethnic Korean born in Uzbekistan, resettled in Kyrgyzstan as a teen. But she says it was her experience as a high school student while on a foreign exchange in the United States that made her aware of the importance of ethnic tolerance and diversity.

Until then, she says, she was focused on a career in business. But after living in the U.S., with its enormous mix of nationalities, she says she was deeply affected by the ethnic clashes in her own country last year.

The fund, which provides material aid and support to orphanages and children’s hospitals in the south, is almost entirely run by young volunteers from Central Asia, China, South Korea, Macedonia, Britain, and the United States.

Pak, who is currently completing a work-exchange program in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, maintains that while the Unity Fund got its start in Kyrgyzstan, it hopes to broaden its reach to include countries like Afghanistan in the near future:

«Our fund is really diverse,» she says. «The co-founders are from Kyrgyzstan and from China. The girl from China is one of the most motivating people in our fund.»
«We’re just a group of people who couldn’t stand aside and just be indifferent to things. I couldn’t say it’s because of the nationality thing in particular; it’s just the personality of each person.»

Efforts to forge a kind of pan-Eurasian unity raise difficult questions at a time when many post-Soviet citizens feel that after 70 years in the USSR, they have finally earned the right to put national concerns before regional or even global ones.

It’s a conundrum that Bakyt Omurzakov, a Kyrgyz studying international affairs as a Muskie fellow in the United States, understands perfectly. At 36, Omurzakov — who hopes to work on migration and development issues once he returns home — is both old enough to recollect a time when his identity was not Kyrgyz or Central Asian, but Soviet:

«[E]veryone — not only Kyrgyz, but all nationalities, all ethnicities — thought of themselves as Soviet people,» he says. «There was no southern Kyrgyz, northern Kyrgyz, or any of these other minorities and ethnicities. Our identity was pretty much determined for us.»

Omurzakov, who hopes to receive his master’s in political science from Kansas State University this December, says he also remembers the joy he felt at being free to explore Kyrgyzstan’s rich history once the Soviet Union collapsed.

«Our minds and our vision changed completely with independence,» he says. But at the same time, he claims that many of the Kazakh, Tajik and Uzbek students he has encountered during his studies agree on the importance of moving toward better cooperation between the Central Asian states. «We need it,» he says. «Everyone feels it.»

Kubat Kasymbekov of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service contributed to this report from Bishkek

By Daisy Sindelar, RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/building_a_new_generation_of_central_asians_to_remedy_regional_ills/242

Dozens of popular websites in Uzbekistan have suffered from intermittent bouts of inaccessibility over the past week, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.

Many users of the websites have blamed the monopolist state Internet service provider for blocking the sites, but Uzbek officials have refused to comment on the issue.

Since most of the inaccessible websites were available via proxy servers, many users concluded that someone has been blocking access to the sites.

On August 3, the ca-news website and the Russian news agency Regnum were inaccessible. On August 9 it was impossible to view virtually any of the country’s most popular websites, even via mobile devices.

The high point of the blackout coincided with an annual festival celebrating Uzbekistan’s «.uz» Internet domain, which is controlled by the government.

Even then the most-visited «.uz» domain websites such as 12.uz and uzdaily.uz were inaccessible.

Users were most angered by the loss of access to all officially sanctioned Islamic websites during the holy month of Ramadan, which began in early August.

The most popular such site is Islom.uz, which is operated by Sheikh Muhammad Sodiq Muhammad Yusuf, a moderate Muslim leader.

The site’s administrator, Abu Muslim, told RFE/RL on August 11 that users in Uzbekistan have experienced access problems for the past two days, but the site is now fully accessible.

He said he believes the website blackout was caused by a major technical problem because he said some government sites were also inaccessible.

Internet users in Uzbekistan are also complaining that the speed of Internet has dropped drastically recently. They say even popular search engines such as Russian-language Yandex and Rambler are sometimes inaccessible.

Analysts blame the government for the slowdown and access problems, as Uzbek authorities have a history of blocking opposition and independent websites that focus on Uzbekistan.

Many say the government is clamping down on Internet access in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the country’s independence, which is on September 1.

The Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders added Uzbek President Islam Karimov to its list of «enemies of the Internet» for blocking sites and persecuting independent journalists.

An Uzbek parliament deputy proposed last month the tightening of control over social-networking sites in the country. But no action has thus far been taken against such sites as Facebook or Twitter even though dozens of other sites are inaccessible.

http://www.rferl.org/content/dozens_of_websites_in_uzbekistan_experience_access_problems/24295316.ht

OSH, Kyrgyzstan, — A younger brother of slain journalist Alisher Saipov has been badly beaten in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Osh Interior Ministry spokesman Zamir Sydykov told RFE/RL on August 11 that Shakhrukh Saipov is currently in the hospital following an assault on August 10 and refuses to talk to local police. Sydykov said the incident is being investigated.

Saipov’s father, Avaz Saipov, confirmed to RFE/RL that his son was badly beaten and has been hospitalized.

Shakhrukh’s brother, Alisher Saipov, a Kyrgyz citizen of Uzbek origin who was chief editor of the «Siyosat» (Politics) newspaper, was shot dead near his office in Osh on October 24, 2007.

Alisher Saipov, who had also worked for Voice of America’s Uzbek Service and RFE/RL, often wrote about the political and social affairs in neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

His colleagues and human rights activists say he was killed for his critical articles about Uzbek officials.

Shakhrukh Saipov, 26, reportedly owns his own online news portal.

http://www.rferl.org/content/slain_journalists_brother_beaten_in_southern_kyrgyzstan/24293940.html

BISHKEK — A Turkish journalist wanted on suspicion of terrorist links has been extradited to Turkey from Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.

Talant Konokbaev, a spokesman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office, told RFE/RL that Ali Osman Zor was extradited on August 3.

Zor, 43, was detained by Kyrgyz police in Bishkek on May 2. Turkish officials suspect him of involvement in a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda that wants to create an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East.

Last month, Kyrgyzstan’s Labor and Migration Ministry rejected as without basis the arguments put forward by Zor and his lawyers in support of his claim to refugee status.

Zor’s lawyers said Turkey’s case against him was politically motivated.

Kyrgyz human rights activists had called on the authorities not to extradite him to Turkey.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kyrgyzstan_extradites_turkish_journalist/24293931.html

A military court in Uzbekistan has sentenced a Tajik citizen to 12 years in prison on espionage charges, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

Obloqul Rizoev told RFE/RL by phone from the northern town of Panjakent that his brother, Saidqul Ashurov, had been sentence in a closed trial.

Rizoev said Ashurov was detained in March and accused of violating Uzbek laws relating to state secrets. Rizoev said his brother is a gold-ming professional with experience working in South Africa but is not a spy.

Ashurov was employed by the British company Oxus Gold, which has a joint venture called Amantaytau Goldfields in which Oxus Gold and the Uzbek side each hold a 50-percent stake.

Until his arrest, Ashurov was employed as Amantaytau Goldfields’ chief metallurgist at its mining operations in Zarafshan, Uzbekistan.

Oxus Gold’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said the conviction of Ashurov is a clear violation of human rights by the Uzbek authorities, and there is no legal basis for his arrest.

Suhrob Ismoilov, a human rights activist and legal adviser to Oxus Gold, said Uzbek authorities have assessed as «classified» certain information found on a flash disk and Ashurov’s personal computer. But he said the information is publicly available on Oxus Gold’s website and is not classified.

Ismoilov said the only classified information found in Ashurov’s possession was a 2009 document about transporting gold. Ismoilov said the information is no longer of any relevance.

He suggested two motives for jailing Ashurov: an ongoing dispute between Oxus Gold and the Uzbek authorities for control of the company or the so-called «spy war» between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The two countries have in recent years detained several of each other’s citizens and charged them with espionage.

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan_tajikistan_espionage/24294386.html

DUSHANBE — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has signed a law that bans most children under the age of 18 from attending regular Friday Prayers in mosques, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reports.

The controversial law, which was proposed by Rahmon in December and adopted recently by parliament, holds the parents of underage children attending Friday Prayers legally responsible for allowing them to do so.

The law does allow children and teenagers who study at state-run religious schools to attend mosques and join religious associations. But other teenagers may pray at mosques only on religious festivals and at funerals.

Officials have said the law aims to prevent children from falling prey to Islamic radicalization.

The law was published in the country’s state-run print media on August 2, which brings it into force.

One prominent critic of the law, religious leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, told RFE/RL that teenagers need to attend prayers regularly from the age of 12-18 in order to learn how to live their lives.

Turajonzoda said the fact that Rahmon signed the law «on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan adds to the frustration and anger [felt] by Muslims in Tajikistan.»

Parliament Deputy Muhiddin Qabirov, from the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan said that even though the law is in force, ordinary people will most likely ignore it and continue to allow their children to pray in mosques, as Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim country with a long Islamic history.

Qabirov said police will have to go to every mosque in order to look for illegal underage worshippers.

He added that instead of stepping up their efforts to protect the population, police will be «fighting with young children and their parents in mosques, which is ridiculous.»

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajik_president_signs_law_banning_children_from_mosques/24285911.html

In July 2011, the NANSMIT Monitoring Service received 24 reports. Seven of them describe the factual situation in the media in the light of socio-legal and political environment and seventeen reports describe direct violations of rights of media professionals.

I. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL CLIMATE IN THE COUNTRY DEFINING THE FACTUAL SITUATION IN THE MEDIA

1. Public speeches and statements of superior officials defining the factual situation in the mass media

14 July
Sukhrob Sharipov, Strategic Research Center under the President’s Office, Dushanbe
On 14 July, Sukhrob Sharipov, the director of the Presidents Strategic Research Center told the media at a poress conference in Dushanbe that the arrest of the BBC correspondent Urunboi Usmonov by the National Security Committee can seriously undermine Tajikistan’s image on the global level.
“This issue has gone out of the framework of jurisprudence gaining political coloration, and the President himself is closely watching the investigation”, — he said.

18 July
Khamrokhon Zarifi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dushanbe
At a press conference in Dushanbe on 18 July in Dushanbe, the Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi made comments on the arrest of Urunboi Usmonov, correspondent of the Uzbek service of BBC in Sughd province.
The Minister stressed that Tajikistan is a secular state and any citizen must bear responsibility for any violation of the national law. “This is how it works anywhere in the world. The security and law enforcement bodies must conduct an investigation. We cannot ignore the requirements of law and order for the sake of prestige of our country”, — said the Minister.

2. Negative impact of amendments and changes in the legislation on the media

21 June
All media
The Tajik senators have supported the amendments to the Tajik Criminal-Procedural Code proposed by the government. According to these amendments, materials published in the media can become a ground for initiating a criminal investigation.

Nuriddin Saidov, a member of the upper chamber of the Tajik parliament explained that “such materials must contain powerful evidence of violation of the law to become a legal ground for investigation”. Some experts say that these changes in the legislation are conducive for “settling of accounts” between rivals who might wish to use the media or journalists in their “games”. These changes make the media more vulnerable.

3. Factual situation in the media and the freedom of speech

8 July
All media, Dushanbe“Legal actions against journalists and the media undermine the good image of the Tajik government and its judicial bodies”, — said Nuriddin Karshiboev, chairman of NANSMIT at the round table in Dushanbe on the issues of “The media and protection of honor, dignity and business reputation”.

Karshiboev also stressed the necessity of changing the government decree dated 4 June 1992 “On practical application of the law in protection of honor, dignity and business reputation in courts”.

The growing number of applications in courts and complaints by public officials against journalists and media outlets, as well as their demands to terminate activities of correspondents and the media for the period of litigation are the evidence of persecution of media professionals in Tajikistan.
Six legal cases against eight media were registered in 2010-2011; the total amount the complainants claimed from defendants is $1,845 million. In February 2011, two media outlets paid complainants $67 thousand; the other cases are still pending in courts.

The Tajik Criminal Code has articles and provisions establishing responsibility for defamation, insult, public insult of the President, and insult of public officials. At present, three Tajik journalists are being persecuted for their professional activities.

Media experts say that the current situation makes the media vulnerable and leads to self-censorship among media professionals.

8 July
All media, Dushanbe
On 8 July, NANSMIT and Internews Network conducted a round table in Dushanbe on the topic “The media and the problems of protection of honor, dignity and business reputation”. The event was organized within the framework of a legal project supported by USAID.
Participants developed recommendations for the parliament, the government, judicial and law enforcement agencies and media organizations.

25 July
All media
The Union of Journalists of Tajikistan and the Tajik branch of Internews Network have released a manual on legal linguistic expertise of disputable texts investigated in courts. The project was sponsored by the USAID.
The necessity of releasing such brochure is caused by the growing number of lawsuits and legal complaints against the media accused of libel, insult and extremist statements.

The authors of this manual are Konstantin Brinev, a leading expert of the Association of Linguists and Professors “Lexis”, Russia, and Kirinshoh Sharifzoda, professor of the Tajik National University.

28 July
All media
NANSMIT and Internews Network have released a brochure titled “How to avoid defamation in the media?” The brochure sponsored by USAID is published in Russian and Tajik languages. The release contains thematic materials from the round table “The media and protection of honor, dignity and business reputation” and supplemented by quotes from the Tajik legislation regulating media activities.

The brochure is developed for heads and founders of the media, journalists, lawyers and university students.

II. VIOLATION OF PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS

1. Arrest of a journalist

5 July
EU Delegation to Tajikistan, Dushanbe
The EU Delegation to Tajikistan welcomes the reported decision by Tajik authorities to drop charges relating to BBC journalist Urunboy Usmonov’s alleged membership of “Hizb-ut-Tahrir”. The EU Delegation remains nevertheless deeply concerned by the fact that charges are, however, still being brought against Mr Usmonov, especially since these charges are related to practices which are generally accepted to be standard journalistic activity. The EU Delegation encourages the relevant Tajik authorities to review these additional charges, and requests that Mr Usmonov be released from detention immediately.

The European Union fully recognize the efforts of the Tajik Government to ensure stability and security within the country, but would also continue to stress the importance of media freedom in Tajikistan, and of adhering to transparent international judicial standards.

1 July
OSCE, Vienna
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) representative on freedom of the media has urged Tajik authorities to release detained BBC reporter Urunboy Usmonov.

Dunja Mijatovic said she was still awaiting an official response on Usmonov’s case.

Mijatovic on June 16 sent a letter to Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi in which she called the arrest of Usmonov an attempt to censor reporting on sensitive issues.

Usmonov, who has worked for the BBC Central Asian Service for 10 years, was arrested on June 13 for alleged membership in a radical organization.

12 July
Sherkhon Salimzoda, prosecutor general, Dushanbe
Prosecutor general of Tajikistan Sherkhon Salimzoda told the media that the investigation of the case of Urunboi Usmonov by the Stet Security Committee has been finished and passed to the prosecutor of Sughd province. The official added that his subordinates compile a detailed report on this case for the president of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon.

Salimzoda applied to the Tajik media requesting to restrain from premature conclusions.

13 July
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the release of Urinboy Usmonov, a reporter for the BBC’s Uzbek-language service in the northwestern province of Sughd, who has been held by the Tajik security services for exactly a month on suspicion of links to a banned Islamist group.

Prosecutor general Sherkhan Salimzad announced yesterday that the investigation has been completed and that the case been passed to the Sughd provincial prosecutor’s office.

“The fact that a ‘summary’ of the prosecution case has been sent to President Emomali Rakhmon suggests that all the appeals by journalists and the international community have been noted,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The justice system should nonetheless remain in charge of the case, and we hope that the completion of the investigation leads quickly to an impartial resolution that respects the rules of international law.

“As the investigation is now over, there is nothing to prevent this journalist’s conditional release. This should take place without delay. The justice system’s credibility would be greatly reinforced if all the judicial irregularities that have occurred since Usmonov’s arrest were also the subject of a serious investigation.”

Usmonov was arrested on 13 June because of his alleged links with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist party that is outlawed in Tajikistan. He had been covering a trial of members of the party for the BBC.
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=710

14 July
BBC Statement on the continued detention of Urunboi Usmonov
It is now a month since our colleague Urunboy Usmonov was detained by the security services in Tajikistan.

The Tajik authorities have now confirmed that their investigation has been completed and the results have been handed over to the regional prosecutor’s office.

We also note that the Prosecutor General of Tajikistan has requested a summary of the case to be passed to the head of state, President Emomali Rakhmon for information.

The BBC hopes that this process will come to a speedy conclusion and lead to the release of Urunboi Usmonov and the clearing of his name.

The BBC has been clear that it regards the allegations linking the BBC reporter to Hizb ut-Tahrir as completely unfounded.

We believe that meetings and interviews with people representing all shades of opinion are part of the work of any BBC journalist.

We also remain deeply concerned about Urunboi Usmonov’s well being. BBC colleagues have been able to visit and found him to be frail and frightened.

It is now essential that our colleague is released as soon as possible, so that he can return to his family and his work as a respected journalist and writer.
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=711

15 July
Urunboi Usmonov, BBC correspondent, Sughd province
On 14 July, the BBC correspondent Urunboi Usmanov was released from the Interior Ministry detention center in Khujand, Sughd province. At present, Usmanov stays at home restraining from communication with the media.

15 July
NANSMIT, CPJ, US Embassy
The Tajik National Association of Independent Mass Media (NANSMIT), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the US Embassy in Dushanbe and a number of other organizations and diplomatic missions appreciate the decision of the Tajik authorities on the release of Urunboi Usmanov, the BBC correspondent in Sughd province.

Detailed information is available at:
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=714
http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/news/?id=713

20 July
Abdurakhim Kahhorov, Minister of Interior, Dushanbe
On 20 July, at a press conference in Dushanbe, the Tajik Minister of Internal Affairs Abdurakhim Kahhorov told the media that “the innocence of the BBC correspondent Urunboi Usmonov has not been proven, and he is released on parole”.

According to the Minister, investigation of cases related to extremist organizations, Hisb-ut-Tahrir are under the competence of the National Security Committee.

2. Impediments to professional activities

18 July
Shirinjon Safarov, correspondent, TV Safina, Khatlon province

In March 2011, Shirinjon Safarov, correspondent of TV Safina in Khatlon province applied to Mr. G. Afzalov, head of the administration to discuss cases of violations of journalists and the behavior of certain public officials.
Ever since, Afzalov’s administration has been ignoring requests from TV Safina; there has not been any official response.

3. Ungrounded limitation of access to information

27 July
Farazh weekly, Dushanbe
The antimonopoly service under the government ignores requests of journalists; it provides neither feedback nor comments on publications in media outlets.
During three months, the Farazh weekly published a series of articles requiring comments by the antimonopoly service. Authors of these articles, referring to the President’s Decree #622 obliging public officials to respond to publications containing criticism, addressed very explicit questions to the agency, but received no answer.

Farazh was expecting to get the answers at a press conference organized by the agency on 22 July. However, the head of the antimonopoly agency, Mr. Tagoimurodov told the journalists that “providing feedback on every publication is beyond their responsibilities”.

4. Censorship

22 July
Nigoh weekly, Dushanbe
On 21 July, the Nigoh weekly went out of the printing facilities in an “incomplete format” – one page was missing.

The chief editor Eraji Amon complains that he cannot find out what went wrong, and who was interested in having that page lost. The editor added that this incident is not the first of that kind.

This report is based on compiled materials from the media and private information presented by correspondents of the NANSMIT Monitoring Network

Coordinator of the Monitoring Service
Abdufattokh Vokhidov

Project Manager
Nuriddin Karshibaev

By Yovshan Annagurban

During March’s Norouz celebrations in Tehran, when Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov’s received a two-seater airplane from his Iranian counterpart, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, Jumageldi Mulkiyev made some odd scenes.

Upon the editor in chief of «Turkmen World’s» return from Iran, Mulkiyev was dismissed from his position and put into a psychiatric hospital in Ashgabat. He was then released after eight days.

At the time, 80-year-old pensioner and civic activist Amangelen Shapudakov was already sitting in another psychiatric hospital. Fortunately, thanks to international pressure, he was released after 43 days. According to his account, doctors did not force him to take any medication. But, when he returned home, several elders and the local village leader’s father came to his house to tell him to stop criticizing the authorities.

Both cases are demonstrative of a tried and true tactic of the Turkmen regime: sending critics to mental institutions.

Although both of the above incidents appear politically motivated, Mulkiyev’s «madness» is a bit different. He did not try to form a political party or criticize the government. To the contrary, he was a loyal adherent of former President Saparmurat Niyazov’s personality cult, becoming editor in chief of «Turkmen World» in the process. But it seems that he made a grave mistake in publishing his historical novels.

Under Niyazov, the publishing of Turkmen writers ceased completely because only one book was promoted, Niyazov’s own «Ruhnama» (Book of the Soul). However, thanks to his successor’s repeated demands for more readable books, Mulkiyev became one of the first writers to be published after the death of Niyazov in 2006. Nevertheless, one never knows what might trigger trouble in a lawless country.

Deputy Prime Minister Maysa Yazmuhammedova threatened Mulkiyev by saying that «he first got paid by publishing his novels in a state journal, and then later made money by publishing them in a state publishing house, and that his eyes will be opened in prison.»

According to Mulkiyev’s former colleague, after hearing this, he couldn’t sleep and made «madman’s» gestures during the Norouz celebration in Tehran. Some others say that Mulkiyev might have feigned insanity in order to avoid being sent to prison. After his release from the psychiatric hospital in Ashgabat, according to local journalists, Mulkiyev was taken to Mary province by his relatives to rest. As a Turkmen saying goes, «Stay away from the kicker» or «Bail out your head from the bad.»

Little Room For Dissent

Shapudakov has a different story. He traveled to Ashgabat to complain to the Interior Ministry about local corruption. As he told RFE/RL, police officers in the Kopetdag district of Ashgabat beat him up, drove him back to his home village of Garrygala, and told him that if he returned to Ashgabat again, worse would happen to him.

Sazak Durdymyradov, a civic activist from Baherden and the leader of the unregistered Advantage Party, was also forcibly put into a psychiatric hospital for two weeks in 2008.

Shapudakov and Durdymyradov, two «inconvenient» people, are known to international human rights groups, as they have been held in mental institutions for voicing their criticism ever since Berdymukhammedov came to power over four years ago. However, because Turkmenistan is a closed country, there are cases where people put into mental institutions or imprisoned for their opinions go unnoticed.

One such instance is that of Nurmuhammed Agaev from the Kahka district, who has been held in a psychiatric hospital in Boynuzyn since 2006. The reason for his detainment was selling radio receivers that receive RFE/RL signals. One day, a man approached Agaev in the bazaar, asking for such radio receivers. When Agaev replied that he sold them, he was immediately taken to a madhouse.

The case of 69-year-old pensioner Kakabay Tejenov’s case is another untold story. On January 4, 2006, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for writing critical letters to the government. However, the following month, the Turkmen delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe claimed in a statement that Tejenov «has never been detained and he is not confined in any medical institution.»

This assertion was contradicted, however, when Gurbandurdy Durdygulyyev, another outspoken critic of the government, was released from the psychiatric hospital in Boynuzyn on April 11, 2006, and revealed that Tejenov was indeed being held there. (When Tejenov was released, he told RFE/RL that, as a side effect of medications he was given, his urinary tract was blocked and he was forced to undergo surgery at a urology department of the hospital in Turkmenaba).

Durdygulyyev had been forcibly confined to a psychiatric hospital in 2004, after asking President Niyazov for authorization to hold a peaceful political demonstration. He was only released after 54 U.S. congressmen wrote an open letter to Niyazov protesting his imprisonment.

…Or Political Opposition

The carting off of political dissidents to mental hospitals is not something that started with the detainment of Durdygulyyev seven years ago. In the mid-1990’s, Niyazov twice committed a senior teacher of Turkmenistan’s Polytechnic Institute, Durdymyrad Hojamuhammedov, to a psychiatric hospital.

Hojamuhammedov was the co-chairman of the Democratic Party, which attempted to gain official recognition in 1991 soon after Turkmenistan became independent. Hojamuhammedov’s second stay in hospital abruptly ended in April 1998, just before an official visit by Niyazov to the United States. At the same time, however, the Turkmen government was holding other dissidents such as Meretmuhammed Berdiyev, Valentin Kopisev, and Rufina Arabaova in psychiatric hospitals as well.

The other leader of the unregistered Democratic Party, Handurdy Hangeldiyev, had been put into a psychiatric hospital in 1982 for criticizing the government and the ruling Communist Party. But he was released three months later upon the death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Hangeldiyev’s freedom, however, did not last for more than a week, as he was recommitted to the hospital after criticizing the appointment of a local party official in the Gazanjyk district.

Hangeldiyev was told that the appointment was made not because of party machinations but because the «people had spoken.» Hangeldiyev replied: «Gazanjyk is my birthplace. If I start a campaign, perhaps people will elect me.» For this, was put back into a psychiatric hospital, and released after a month.

After his second release, he focused on writing scientific papers. However, he didn’t get a chance to defend his dissertation due to political obstacles that the authorities put in front of him. When he wrote complaints to the Kremlin, he was confined to a psychiatric hospital for a third time. Doctors released him after four months with a final warning that if he continued to dissent, he would be sent to a more rigorous mental institution in Tashkent.

Ultimately, Niyazov did not allow the recognition of Hojamuhammedov’s and Hangeldiyevs’s Democratic Party. But he borrowed one idea from them, renaming Turkmenistan’s Communist Party the Democratic Party and bestowing membership on almost all former communists.

‘A Home For The Sane’

In 1984, a young colleague of mine published a collection of poems by Annasoltan Kekilowa, who had been forcibly put into a psychiatric hospital, and where she passed away 12 years into her institutionalization. In the book, he presented a note written by doctors at the hospital: «The patient recovered, stopped writing complaints, and admitted that her former thoughts about our party’s mistaken policies and her involvement in politics were due to her own health issues.»

My old colleagues tell me that in the 1960s, another Turkmen poet also faced this kind of death. Payzy Orazov attempted to form the People’s Party and was consequently imprisoned in Moscow’s Butyrka prison. His rescue came in the publishing of a poem titled «Long Live Castro» in the «Izvestia» daily. In truth, he was released with the support of the editor in chief of «Izvestia» at the time, Aleksei Adzhubei (Nikita Khrushchev’s son-in-law). But he was subsequently put into a psychiatric hospital in Turkmenistan. Orazov ultimately had to move to Tajikistan after being released.

Finally, there is the case of Bazargeldi and Aydjemal Berdiyev, who got rich in the construction business and consequently attracted the attention of the regime. In late 1998, they were unlawfully detained, beaten, and their assets were unlawfully confiscated. Aydjemal, who was pregnant, suffered a miscarriage. Their search for justice, and their battle to retrieve their property, resulted in Aydjemal being placed into a psychiatric hospital as a result of her interview with RFE/RL.

Paradoxically, Turkmenistan’s mental institutions have become a home for the sane.

Yovshan Annagurban is a broadcaster with RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service. The views expressed in this commentary are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/commentary_short_distance_sanity_madness_turkmenistan/24280051.html