 RFE/RL Central Asia Report 10/6/2009 5:23:19 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 . |
 Rakhat Aliev's Father Returns To Kazakhstan Mukhtar Aliev, the father of former Kazakh presidential son-in-law Rakhat Aliev, has returned to Almaty from London in the hope of his wife being allowed to leave Kazakhstan for medical care, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Is Region Developing Armies Of The Underprivileged? Central Asia's military call-up season conjures up images of appalling living conditions, inadequate food, and endemic bullying of young conscripts. It also sparks widespread draft evasion. Now some countries in the region are trying reforms to boost compliance. More  Kyrgyz MPs Oblige Citizens To Sing National Anthem Kyrgyzstan's parliament has adopted legislative amendments that oblige the country's citizens to sing the national anthem during official performances. More  Galoshes In, Jeans And Hejab Out School dress codes and grooming standards are the talk of the day for educators in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. More  Like Father, Like Daughter Tajik President Emomali Rahmon's daughter, Ozoda Rahmonova, was appointed deputy foreign minister after two years in the ministry's consular division. More  OSCE Official Says Dialogue Best Way To Spread Democracy Michael Haltzel, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, heads the U.S. delegation at the OSCE's "Human Dimension" workshop taking place in Warsaw on September 28-29. In an interview with RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas, he says engagement remains the best way to tackle difficult regimes. He also says he hopes to see gradual progress in those post-Soviet nations where human rights abuses remain regular and democratic standards have yet to take root. More  Banned Islamist Group Attracts More Kyrgyz Women A year ago, a police crackdown on Hizb ut-Tahrir in southern Kyrgyzstan shone a spotlight on that banned Islamist group's few female members. Now a new report by the International Crisis Group indicates that Kyrgyz women -- disenfranchised by their low social status and limited opportunities -- are turning to Hizb ut-Tahrir in unprecedented numbers. More  Russia Plans To Revive Rare Persian Leopard Russian authorities and conservationists are going ahead with a project to restore a population of Persian leopards to Sochi, where the most intense activity has otherwise focused preparations for the looming Olympics. More More  Effects Of Nuclear Tests Felt Decades Later During the Cold War, both U.S. and Soviet scientists explored using nuclear explosions for "peaceful" purposes. Decades later, residents near a test site in eastern Kazakhstan say authorities are ignoring their complaints of serious health effects. More  State TV Primes Uzbeks For Homegrown Drama At least six domestically produced Uzbek soap operas are currently being prepared for release on the country's two major state television channels in hopes of supplanting hugely popular foreign ones. Preparations have been accompanied by televised promotions and national appeals for "fresh faces" and capable screenwriters to join the effort. More RFE/RKL's Kazakh Service has contributed a video glimpse into the plight of villagers living near the site of an "atomic lake" in northeastern Kazakhstan. The 100-meter-deep lake was created in the 1960s when Soviet scientists were testing grand plans to harness the power of the "peaceful atom" for infrastructure and other megaprojects. More  Video: Kazakhstan's 'Atomic Lake' In the 1960s, the Soviet Union pursued its own version of the ill-fated U.S. "Operation Plowshare," in which scientists hoped to harness the atom for major infrastructure and other types of projects. Soviet officials used a peaceful nuclear explosion to blast out a lake in Kazakhstan. Far from being a benefit to the local residents, as RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports, many fear that the so-called atomic lake has contaminated their environment. More  Kadeer: 'Entire Turkic-Speaking World Rallied To Support Us' Rebiya Kadeer, the U.S.-based head of the World Uyghur Congress, is a controversial figure in her native land. Once held up as a hero an example in China, in 2000 she was found guilty of endangering state security and spent two years in solitary confinement and was handed over to U.S. custody in 2005. More  EU-Central Asia Cooperation Gathers Pace Relations between the European Union and the countries of Central Asia are going through the warmest spell since their inception in the 1990s. Participants of the second EU-Central Asia Ministerial Conference, which took place in Brussels, were unanimous in seeking to minimize their differences. More  Islamic Party Leader Says He Supports Secular System Tajikistan's Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), the only officially registered Islamic party in Central Asia, wants to boost its two-seat presence in the Tajik parliament in the next elections, scheduled for February 2010. To achieve that goal, the party is seeking to shrug off its old image of a conservative rural party, recruiting many women and young technocrats. RFE/RL correspondent Farangis Najibullah recently caught up with IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri on the sidelines of the 19th Economic Forum in Krynica, Poland. More  EU-Uzbek Ties Deepen, As Rights Issues Sidestepped The European Union and Uzbekistan appear to have normalized their relationship a year after the EU dropped its sanctions against Tashkent, imposed in the wake of the mass killings of protesters in Andijon in May 2005. After a routine meeting of senior officials in Brussels, both sides sought to downplay differences and focus on pragmatic cooperation. More  Scientist Renowned In Former Soviet Union Dies Norman E. Borlaug -- a Nobel Prize-winning plant pathologist credited with starting the "Green Revolution" that dramatically increased food production in developing countries -- has died at the age of 95. More |
