Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Central Asia Report 3/21/2011 5:40:58 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the five countries of Central Asia. For more stories on Central Asia, please visit and bookmark our Central Asia page .

 

Tajikistan Reimposes Electricity Rationing Tajikistan's state energy supplier has reintroduced electricity rationing on the eve of a major national holiday. More   Kyrgyz President Visits South Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva today started a weeklong visit to the southern regions hit by ethnic clashes last year. More   Hijab Now A Hot Topic In Kazakhstan The past two years or so have seen a conspicuous rise in female students and other young women in Kazakhstan who wear the hijab, and a spate of public disputes have even prompted the president to weigh in on the topic. More   Egypt's Military And Popular Sovereignty "Al-Masry Al-Youm" commentator Alaa al-Aswani tries to identify "five groups vis-a-vis the revolution" and posits key questions about the role and decisions of Egypt's armed forces along the way. It's hard not to be reminded of events in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, and Armenia. More   Ex-Kyrgyz Official Sues Over Report A Kyrgyz parliamentary deputy is suing the chairman of a commission that investigated last year's deadly ethnic clashes. More   Turkmenistan Claims Gain In Grain But Quiet On Cotton Turkmenistan has claimed another first, with an official report that it has joined the ranks of grain exporters. But will these claims of record harvests prove as inflated as earlier reports on cotton? More   Kyrgyz Defense Ministry To Extend Reserve Military Service The Kyrgyz Defense Ministry will continue the Reserve Military Service (PMR) scheme launched in 2008. More   Kyrgyz Government Launches Anticorruption Website The Kyrgyz government has launched a special website to enable citizens to report instances of corruption. More   Earthquake Rocks Northern Kyrgyzstan An earthquake hit northern Kyrgyzstan today. No casualties were reported. More   U.S. Ambassador Visits Tajik-Afghan Border The U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan has said the United States is working with Russia and the European Union to strengthen control over Tajikistan's southern border with Afghanistan. More   Podcast: Rumsfeld Reflects; WikiLeaks Speaks; Uzbekistan Declares War On Rock 'N' Roll More   Trial Of Kyrgyz Ex-Prez Resumes The trial of 28 former top Kyrgyz officials -- including ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiev -- resumed today in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek. More   Afghanistan 'Threat' To Central Asia The head of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said the ongoing instability in Afghanistan poses a serious threat to Central Asia and foreign troops need to stay in that country. More   'If You Mind Your Own Business, No One Pressures You' "What is past is past; I don't want to think about it now," says Rashid Bekjon, an Uzbek political prisoner who was recently released from jail after completing a 12-year prison term. More   'Missing' Defendant To Reappear At Bakiev Trial A former high-ranking Kyrgyz official who disappeared shortly after he went on trial with the country's former president is to appear in court when the trial resumes on March 18. More   Music And Muslims: The Cat Stevens Effect More and more singers in Muslim countries are abandoning their art to adopt a more pious form of Islam. Such career changes have heightened the debate over Islam's relationship to music and the direction the world's fastest-growing religion is heading. More   Hey, Obama, Rummy's Got Your Back! Our colleague Jamie Kirchick has just interviewed ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Here's an excerpt - plus a bit of Outpost snark. More   Kyrgyz Ex-Prez's Brother Trial Adjourned Akmat Bakiev went on trial in December on charges that include organizing mass unrest and violent attacks on law enforcement officials; extortion; illegal use of private land; illegal procurement and possession of weapons; illegal construction; and creating and participating in an illegal armed group during ethnic clashes in the south in May and June. More   Rumsfeld Reflects In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, the former secretary of defense talks about the Iraq and Afghan wars, the 2005 massacre in Andijon, and mistakes that were made. More   Turkmen Rockers Under Arrest -- Back To The Bad Old Days? Maksat Kakabaev -- best known by his stage name Maro -- and Murad Ovezov, just possibly the two most popular rock musicians in Turkmenistan, have run afoul of the state. And in Turkmenistan that's usually not a good thing. More   Kyrgyzstan Probe Targets Top Telco Experts from Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security, Interior Ministry, and financial police will make up the new investigative group that will look into the affairs of MegaCom, the country's leading communication services provider. More   Afghans Detain Alleged Foreign IMU Afghan Intelligence Service spokesman Lutfullah Mashaal said one Kyrgyz and two Ukrainians were apprehended in two separate operations. He said all three are members of the IMU, which he said is based in northern Pakistan. More   Kazakh Prison Director Sacked The warden at a maximum-security prison in Kazakhstan has been fired after reports of prisoner abuse when prisoners were made to lie face down en masse for a lengthy period. More   Kazakh Activist Jailed Over Homeowners' Protest The leader of a Kazakh NGO has been jailed for 15 days for organizing a protest that saw hundreds of disgruntled homeowners rally in the capital, Astana. More   Tajik Commander Describes 'Good' Prison Conditions A former Tajik opposition commander has described as "good" the conditions in the prison in Dushanbe where he served three years of a nine-year term prior to being amnestied last month. More   Tajik Official Rules Out Return Of Russian Border Guards A senior Tajik border guard official has ruled out the renewed stationing of Russian border guards along Tajikistan's borders. More   Hoodwinked Kazakh Investors Spurned The demonstrators are mortgage holders and investors in apartment projects who complain they have been double-crossed by banks and developers. More   Kyrgyz Plan New U.S., Russian Bases Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva says her country plans to host two new U.S. and Russian military training facilities in the south. More   Kyrgyz Protesters Say 'Keep Rights Activist In Jail' A prominent ethnic Uzbek rights activist jailed over last year's deadly violence in southern Kyrgyzstan says he was jailed for speaking the truth. More   Clashes Reported In Kyrgyz Jail Clashes in a maximum security prison in northern Kyrgyzstan have left several prison guards injured. More   Kazakh Inmate Maims Himself An inmate of a maximum security penitentiary in Kazakhstan's northern Aqmola Oblast has maimed himself to protest being held in solitary confinement. More   Uzbek Gov't Forces HRW Closure The global human rights group Human Rights Watch says Uzbek authorities have forced it to shut down its office in Tashkent, following years of harassment and pressure on representatives. More   Tajikistan Suspends Train Route To Khujand Tajikistan's railroad company has suspended trains traveling from the capital, Dushanbe, to the northern city of Khujand. More   Kyrgyz-Uzbek Newlyweds Get Cash A newly wedded Kyrgyz-Uzbek couple has become the first to receive a cash payment for people in mixed marriages in southern Kyrgyzstan. More   Chinese Traders Killed In Bishkek Two major markets in the Kyrgyz capital have been closed after the killings of two ethnic Chinese traders. More   Kyrgyzstan Gets Its 'Mt. Putin' Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin now has a mountain peak named after him in Kyrgyzstan, all for the sake of improved of bilateral relations. More   Official: No Troops Sent To Kazakh Jail A Kazakh prison official has denied a report that troops were deployed to a maximum-security jail. More   Baby Snatcher Nabbed In Kazakhstan A woman has been jailed for seven years for snatching a newborn baby from a maternity hospital in the Kazakh city of Almaty last year. More