With the whole region gearing up for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek on 16th August, Kyrgyzstan can look forward to its first ever visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao. Hu will also be touring Kazakhstan and Russia during his SCO summit trip. This week in Turkmenistan, which will be joining SCO talks for the first time, it was announced that President Berdymukhammedov has been elected leader of the only political party in the country. And on Turkmenistan.ru, the first pictures of the planned Caspian Sea tourist zone.
The Bishkek summit has begun to excite a good deal of comment in the Western press. The Guardian focuses on the motives of the two great powers involved: Russia and China. The Times looks at the significance of the joint military exercises which are accompanying the talks.
The Guardian also carries a story on arms exports to countries with a poor record on human rights. British MPs have apparently called for closer scrutiny of arm fairs after Land Rover Defender vehicles were apparently used during violent clashes in Andijan, Uzbekistan, in 2005. Uzbekistan was also the centre of a visa scandal this week. UN official Vyacheslav Manokhin has been accused of conspiring to sell US visas to Uzbek nationals for $15,000 each.
On Wednesday in Tajikistan two former Guantanamo Bay detainees, members of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), were put on trial. Last month Tajikistan detained several members of the IMU, whom they accused of plotting to bomb the capital Dushanbe. Tajikistan’s religious crackdown continues, with Imams likely to face government tests to prove their competence.
Reuters AlerNet carries a piece on the return of ethnic Kazakhs to Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union. Meanwhile Astana signed up to increased cooperation with Azerbaijan in trans-Caspian oil and gas transportation and with the parliamentary elections looming, Kazakh opposition leaders have complained about the government’s hypocrisy as it attempts to secure OSCE chairmanship.
Across the border in Kyrgyzstan, the body set up in 2005 to deal with government corruption has asked for new powers. And an attitudes survey finds a fall in the number of Kyrgyz people satisfied with the direction their country is taking.
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