RFE/RL CENTRAL ASIA REPORT
03.12.2012
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 . |
 Slain Reporter's Brothers Attacked In Bishkek Three brothers of slain Kyrgyz independent journalist, Alisher Saipov, have reportedly been attacked and beaten in Bishkek. More  Former Kyrgyz Minerals Chief Arrested A former chief of Kyrgyzstan's Geology and Mineral Resources Agency, Uchkun Tashbaev, has been arrested on corruption charges. More  Tajiks Unblock Facebook, RFE/RL The Facebook social network is available again on the Internet in Tajikistan, along with the website of RFE/RL's Tajik Service. More  Interview: HIV-Positive Tajik Woman Says 'I Try To Banish Negative Thoughts' It's been nearly two years since 26-year-old Tahmina Haidar found out she was infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. After losing her husband and child to AIDS-related illnesses and leaving her home for the capital, she talks to RFE/RL about how she has learned to live with the virus and look "at the bright side" of her situation. More RFE/RL's Tajik Site Blocked In Tajikistan The website of RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Ozodi.org, has been blocked on the Internet in Tajikistan since late on November 29. More  Kazakhstan Marks Day Of The First President For the first time, Kazakhstan is marking the Day of the First President on December 1 to commemorate the election of Nursultan Nazarbaev in 1991. Among the many events leading up to the holiday was an exhibition to mark the inaugural Day of the First President in the Central National Museum in Almaty. More  Kazakh Newspaper Issues Seized Police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, have confiscated copies of a newspaper that published material from a suspended periodical. More  Qaddafi Got The Nuclear Snub From Kazakhstan According to a former Kazakh foreign minister, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi contacted Nursultan Nazarbaev's government through “diplomatic channels” in an attempt to procure the country’s nuclear arsenal. More  Global AIDS Crisis Eases, But Not In Former Soviet Union Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, the United Nations released a cautiously optimistic report suggesting the epidemic has begun to stabilize or even shrink in nearly every part of the world. But the countries of the former Soviet Union are an exception to the trend. More  RFE/RL Tajik Site Appears Blocked The website of RFE/RL's Tajik Service appears to be blocked on the Internet in Tajikistan. More  Gulnara Karimova Takes The Fight To Twitter (UPDATED) Gulnara Karimova has weathered criticism of her lifestyle, her father's record on rights, and everything in between -- often expressed on social media by activists and journalists. But this week she took off the digital gloves. More  Another Kazakh Paper Suspended A court in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, has suspended another newspaper. More  EU To Press Russia, Kazakhstan On Rights The new EU special representative for human rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, has vowed to raise human rights issues in his meetings with Russia and Kazakhstan. More  Videos Spark Election Scandal In Kyrgyzstan Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have launched an investigation into videos in which a candidate appears to be familiarizing party faithful with ways to engage in the kind of vote fraud that sparked a revolution there less than a decade ago. More  Kazakh Newspaper's Brochures Seized Police in Kazakhstan's largest city have confiscated all copies of a suspended opposition weekly. More Domestic violence remains socially acceptable in Tajikistan, where calls to eliminate it are often dismissed as "foreign" meddling. Here's what some married men and women in the capital, Dushanbe, had to say on the subject. More  EU Foreign Policy Chief Due In Uzbekistan The European Union's foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton is now in Uzbekistan, the second stop of a tour of Central Asia. More  Harnessing The Streisand Effect: RSF Kick-Starts Effort To Kill Censorship The press watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has just launched an exciting new project that could help spread information in places where the media is severely shackled. More  Kyrgyz Ruling Coalition Head Quits The leader of Kyrgyzstan's ruling coalition, Feliks Kulov, has stepped down from his position to protest what he called electoral fraud. More  Ex-Officials Jailed For Kyrgyz Political Murders A Bishkek garrison court has sentenced five former Kyrgyz officials for their roles in a high-profile political assassination that was initially ruled a traffic accident.More  Ashton Begins Central Asian Tour EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton has arrived in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, for the first stop of a tour that will take her to four of Central Asia's five former Soviet republics. More  A Ringside Seat To A Kazakh Success Story It's a punch that makes even the most grizzled, seen-it-all boxing fans wince the first time they see it. More  Kazakh Opposition Groups Suspended The Kazakh authorities have suspended the activities of an unregistered opposition party and an opposition newspaper. More  Tajikistan Blocks Facebook Again A number of Internet providers in Tajikistan have blocked access to the Facebook social network. More  EU's Ashton Visiting Georgia, Central Asia Catherine Ashton is scheduled to hold meetings in Georgia on November 26, before visiting Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. More |
