RFE/RL Central Asia Report
10/3/2011 6:24:39 PM
A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about the five countries of Central Asia.
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![]() Authorities in Uzbekistan are reportedly ordering clerics, school teachers, police officers, and others to pick cotton. More ![]() An RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan is to go on trial for allegedly urging a relative to attempt suicide, in a case his family says is retaliation for his journalistic activities. More ![]() Some 400 protesters blocked a highway in southern Kyrgyzstan on October 3 to demand the immediate release of four local policemen detained over the death of a Russian citizen in August. More ![]() Striking oil workers in western Kazakhstan are seeking an apology from the president's son-in-law for describing them as a messy bunch led by repatriates. More ![]() Dozens of Kyrgyz rights activists and their supporters have held a protest in Warsaw to demand the release of a prominent rights activist jailed in Kyrgyzstan over last year's ethnic violence. More ![]() Parents of inmates at a notorious jail in central Kazakhstan for convicts with tuberculosis held a protest at the prison today to demand their sons are not moved elsewhere. More ![]() Nearly one-quarter of the mosques in Kyrgyzstan's southern region of Osh face closure because they are not officially registered. More ![]() The first Kazakh cosmonaut has said ahead of the 20th anniversary of his space flight that it was an event "appreciated by the Kazakh people. More ![]() As ties between the United States and Pakistan continue to sour, speculation is mounting that Uzbekistan may become a new ally of convenience in the U.S. war on terror. Is Washington willing to overlook Islam Karimov's record on torture and child labor? More ![]() Manhattan, London, Tokyo, Dushanbe? When surveying the world’s most expensive real-estate markets, Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe (population: 700,000) doesn’t immediately come to mind. More ![]() Casinos throughout Kyrgyzstan face closure under a controversial new law that foresees the country designating a single area where gambling will be permitted. More ![]() The upper house of Kazakhstan's parliament has approved a measure to restrict the registration of religious organizations and prohibit unauthorized religious activities, clearing it for signature by the president. More ![]() The White House says U.S. President Barack Obama has telephoned President Islam Karimov to congratulate Uzbekistan on its 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. More ![]() Tajik authorities have said they will offer financial help under a reintegration program to former prisoners who were recently amnestied. More ![]() Officials from Afghanistan and Kazakhstan have met in Kabul to discuss expanding economic and political ties, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports. More ![]() In the 20 years since the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union became independent, the influence of the Russian language has been declining in these countries. More ![]() Inmates at an maximum-security prison in central Kazakhstan severely cut and maim themselves to protest alleged beatings and the strict regime in the notorious labor camp. More ![]() Kazakhstan is about to adopt a new law on religion, which stipulates strict control over the activities of religious institutions. The bill was hurriedly drafted after the country witnessed several terrorist attacks this year -- including its first known suicide bombing -- blamed on underground Islamic groups. The draft law is seen by many as Astana's response to what officials call a growing threat of religious extremism in Kazakhstan. But it has its critics. More ![]() Jailed Kazakh journalist Ramazan Esergepov says he will start human rights defense activities after his scheduled release in three months. More ![]() A court in northern Tajikistan has sentenced eight men for the murder of a bazaar administrator last year. More ![]() The jailed lawyer of striking oil workers in western Kazakhstan lost her appeal today and will remain in prison. More ![]() Kyrgyzstan's new ban on foreign-media broadcasts in the country during the presidential-election campaign has caused mixed reactions. More ![]() Tajik authorities are checking reports that children in the southern part of the country are being used as forced labor. More ![]() Exiled Uzbek businessman and opposition People's Movement of Uzbekistan official Fuad Rustamkhojaev was shot several times in the head and chest in front of his home in western Russia. More ![]() Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's address to the UN General Assembly on September 23 was as notable for its indecipherable language than for anything substantive contained in the speech itself. More |