news digest june 30th - july 6th

Good news for Turkmenistan’s pensioners this week, as the law restoring pensions suspended by the late President Niyazov came into effect. On Wednesday, President Berdymukhammedov published another new law setting out his powers and duties as president: a step towards greater transparency, but one which enshrines the president’s command over all branches of government.

On Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai travelled to Turkmenistan for two days of trade talks. He and President Berdymukhammedov discussed the prospects for a pipeline to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. Berdymukhammedov pledged to provide Afghanistan with electrical power worth $300,000 at no cost. It was also announced this week that Turkmenistan would join Kazakhstan and China’s natural gas pipeline project. 

Continuing the rounds of diplomacy, Croatia’s President, Stjepan Mesic, began a three-day trip to Kazakhstan this week, negotiating new deals for Croat-financed construction in the country as well as discussing energy transportation. Further new deals were signed by Russia and Uzbekistan, who established four new agreements on labour and migration, and likewise discussed new possibilities for the transport of natural gas, with Gazprom keen to consolidate its investment in Uzbekistan. 

Kyrgyzstan’s opposition leader again mooted the idea of a union with Russia similar to that between Russia and Belarus, but the idea remains only a distant possibility.
The Afghan government claimed to have arrested seven members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, classified by the US and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as a terrorist group; the Uzbek government warned of an increasing terrorist threat.  RFE/RL notes in the same report that some observers argue Central Asian governments exaggerate the risk from terrorism, using it to justify repression of their own citizens. Highlighting human rights violations in Uzbekistan, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting this week analyses the country’s ranking as a ‘failed state’. 

The Tajik government announced the release of over 650 Islamic militants as part of its new prisoner amnesty. At the same time, campaigning website Forum 18 expressed concern at proposed new legislation in Tajikistan that would restrict non-Islamic religious activities.

This week sees a UNESCO conference in Tajikistan on the development of free and open source software in the region.

In the run-up to Kazakstan’s August parliamentary elections, the Moscow Times reports that the president’s daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva was removed from her party’s list of candidates, though her divorce from exiled husband Rakhat Aliyev had been seen as clearing her path to succeeding her father. London’s New Statesman offers an analysis of the country’s ruling family. 

The European Union welcomed last week’s abolition of the death penalty in Kyrgyzstan, whilst Uzbekistan took steps in the same direction. 

Stay tuned to Central Asia Now for weekly news digests. Keep an eye out for our fortnightly analysis slots by regional experts.

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