WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 462, 26 August, 2006 ANDIJAN REFUGEES SENT BACK TO UZBEKISTAN The Kyrgyz government stands accused of trading refugee rights for a better political relationship with Tashkent. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek for IWPR
UNBLOCKING TAJIKISTAN'S GIANT DAM PROJECT Tajik officials complain Russia's RUSAL firm is not moving ahead fast enough on a major hydropower project. By Ramzan Sharipov in Dushanbe TURKMENISTAN: TESTING TIME FOR TEACHERS Niazov puts new squeeze on education spending by making it harder for teachers to get pay increases. By IWPR staff in London ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/rca/rss.xml FREE SUBSCRIPTION. Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** ANDIJAN REFUGEES SENT BACK TO UZBEKISTAN The Kyrgyz government stands accused of trading refugee rights for a better political relationship with Tashkent. By Taalaibek Amanov in Bishkek for IWPR International groups have voiced concern that the Kyrgyz authorities is quietly returning refugees and asylum-seekers to Uzbekistan in contravention of international law. Kyrgyzstan won international plaudits last year for allowing 440 people who fled following the May 13 violence in the Uzbek city of Andijan, where journalists and human rights groups reported hundreds of civilians killed by security forces. Now it appears to be buckling to pressure from its bigger neighbour to deliver people wanted for questioning, even if they are technically entitled to the Kyrgyz government's protection as holders of or applicants for refugee status. The Bishkek office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, issued a statement on August 24 saying it was worried about the fate of five individuals based in the city of Osh, four of whom disappeared last week. All five had applied for refugee status. UNHCR said it had received credible information that at least two of them were now in custody across the border in Andijan. "UNHCR regrets the obvious erosion of the Kyrgyz asylum system, which until recently was an exemplary one in Central Asia," the statement concluded. The US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch named the four asylum-seekers detained most recently as Ilhom Abdunabiev, Bakhtiar Ahmedov, Valim Babajanov, Saidullo Shakirov, while Isroil Kholdorov, an Uzbek opposition activist, disappeared on July 10. "We're afraid these men have been handed over to Uzbek authorities and that their lives are in danger," said Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia director Holly Cartner, referring to the four most recent cases. "Kyrgyzstan is responsible for the safety of refugees and asylum seekers in its territory, and it must find these men." The previous day, the United States embassy in Bishkek expressed concern at the detention and likely return to Uzbekistan of two registered refugees, and urged Kyrgyzstan to respect international conventions on refugee rights and torture. The embassy statement referred to members of an earlier group comprising four registered refugees - Jahongir Maksudov, Rasul Pirmatov, Odiljon Rahimov and Yakub Tashbaev - and asylum-seeker Fayezjon Tajihalilov, who were extradited to Uzbekistan on August 9. In the latest case, Kyrgyz authorities have responded by denying everything. Police in Osh say they were not involved in any detentions, while the prosecutor general's office said it had not received any Uzbek requests to extradite people who had applied for refugee status. That claim is disputed by Aziza Abdrasulova, the director of Kylym Shamy, a human rights centre, who said the Uzbek authorities have informed their Kyrgyz counterparts of 26 people they want to have detained. "At present, the [Kyrgyz] state is not fulfilling its obligations with regard to refugees, and is in fact violating these obligations through such actions [as secret detention and extradition]. I think that if Kyrgyzstan cannot or does not wish to fulfil its international obligations, it must revoke them. Then the whole world will know... and refugees will not come here," said Abdrasulova. Khurnisa Makhardinova, a lawyer with the Adilet human rights group, which works on refugee rights, said disappearances were now a regular occurrence, "It is becoming the system, and has reached the point where many refugees want to return home because they're scared they may be forcibly and secretly extradited." Makhardinova attacked the authorities' response - or rather failure to respond - calling it "a policy of silence". "They pretend nothing is happening, even though this is above all the responsibility of the authorities," she added. Tursunbek Akunov, the chairman of Kyrgyzstan's official human rights commission, told IWPR his agency was looking into the matter, and blamed police chiefs for ignoring Kyrgyzstan's own laws and pandering to Uzbekistan. "The Kyrgyz authorities place insufficient value on the UN convention on refugees, while our secret services carry out the bidding of their Uzbek colleagues," said Akunov, alleging that unless action was taken against the officers concerned, Kyrgyzstan would face international ignominy. Political analyst Nur Omarov is in no doubt why the government of President Kurmanbek Bakiev, which swept to power on a wave of pro-democracy hopes in March 2005, now appears to have dumped its concern for human rights. Uzbekistan is a large and irascible neighbour, and the Kyrgyz depend on it for energy supplies. The leadership in Tashkent was alarmed by the March revolution, in which Askar Akaev was summarily removed as Kyrgyz president, and angered by Bishkek's decision to allow 400-plus refugees to go abroad, since the implication was that it was unsafe for them to go back to Uzbekistan. Bakiev is due to visit Tashkent at the end of September, and a few swift extraditions may improve relations beforehand. "By doing this, Kyrgyzstan has decided to show loyalty to Uzbekistan," said Omarov. "The aim is to restore the economic and political partnership before winter sets in. Kyrgyzstan is reliant on Uzbek gas supplies, so extraditing refugees may be a step to prevent possible hitches during the negotiations on gas supplies and debt payments." Meanwhile, the remaining refugees and asylum-seekers in southern Kyrgyzstan fear they will be used as currency in the transaction between the two governments. "I am so tired of being a refugee that I sometimes think that if I get this status, I will hand myself over to the Uzbek authorities," said one young man who is an asylum-seeker in Osh. He is well aware of the consequences - his younger brother was recently extradited to 13 years in prison after being extradited from Kyrgyzstan. "I am scared of being followed, so I try to stay inconspicuous. There are rumours among the refugees that the Uzbekistan secret services kidnap refugees and take them across the border by force. The recent disappearances confirm this," he said. A human rights activist who came to Kyrgyzstan eight months ago said he knew of 14 people who had disappeared, most likely abducted by the Uzbek secret police. "We thought Kyrgyzstan was a more democratic country that Uzbekistan, and until recently we felt fine here. But recent developments show Kyrgyzstan is gradually turning into a totalitarian state where dissent is crushed," he said. "It is frightening to go out of doors because you don't know whether you'll be kidnapped by the Uzbek secret services. We hide in our rented apartments like trapped animals." Taalaibek Amanov is the pseudonym of an IWPR contributor in Bishkek. (The names of interviewees have been withheld out of concern for their safety.) UNBLOCKING TAJIKISTAN'S GIANT DAM PROJECT Tajik officials complain Russia's RUSAL firm is not moving ahead fast enough on a major hydropower project. By Ramzan Sharipov in Dushanbe The Tajik government is trying to recruit the Russian government to help speed up construction of a giant hydroelectric power scheme, but analysts say the tactic could backfire. At a July 21 press conference in Dushanbe, Tajik energy minister Abdullo Yerov reported that a phone conversation between presidents Imomali Rahmonov and Vladimir Putin had resulted in a verbal agreement that the Russian government would provide direct funding for the work needed to complete the dam, which if it reaches a planned 335 metres will be the world's highest. If this report is confirmed and Moscow goes ahead with the funding, it could unblock a process that appears to have run into trouble following the initial optimism that surrounded a deal with Russian aluminium giant RUSAL. A two billion US dollar package agreed by RUSAL in 2004, covering the Rogun dam and aluminium production, gave rise to hopes that the troubled construction project would be resurrected at last. RUSAL's main interest is in generating electricity for its investment in the giant Tajik aluminium plant at Tursunzade, with a possibility that it will also build a new smelter close to the dam. Aluminium production is notoriously energy-hungry, and a mountainous country like Tajikistan is ideally placed to power the industry. The dam turbines could generate sufficient electricity to run the smelters, meet much of Tajikistan's domestic needs, and sell power to neighbouring countries. Work on the Rogun hydroelectric scheme, on the Vakhsh river in southern Tajikistan, began back in the Seventies, but remained incomplete by the time the Soviet Union broke up in 1991. Tajikistan, the smallest and poorest Central Asian republic, quickly descended into civil war and economic collapse, and for the next decade there was no prospect of the project resuming. But nearly two years on, officials in Tajikistan are complaining that the Russian company has not started practical work. First Deputy Energy Minister Pulod Muhiddinov reported on July 24 that the Russian firm was still assessing the state of the structure left at Rogun, which has been battered by years of neglect and flooding. This should be completed by the end of August, but Muhiddinov complained that his ministry was unsure how matters would proceed after that. "Perhaps RUSAL will wake up and start construction," he said. RUSAL counters that the Tajik position is a complete misreading of the facts, and an unhelpful one at that. Its office in Dushanbe was quick to respond, rejecting suggestions that it was deliberately holding up the work. It said part of the problem was that many of the enquiries on technical matters it had addressed to the Tajik government were simply ignored. "Tajik officials have put words into Vladimir Putin's mouth which he did not say," said Konstantin Zagrebelny, RUSAL's man in Dushanbe. "The irresponsible interpretations that Tajik officials have made of phrases or words used by the Russian president cause only bewilderment among Russian members of the intergovernmental commission and the Russian [government] departments involved in this project." Apart from the slow start-up, Tajik officials are also unhappy about the technical plans RUSAL has come up with. The Russian firm wants to build the dam up in stages, eventually reaching a height of 280 metres, while the Tajiks are insisting on the original specifications laid down in 1978 which would make the structure 55 metres higher. There is also disagreement about the materials to be used. According to Rasul Sattarov, an independent economist, the dispute is also due to the diverging interests of RUSAL, which wants to power its aluminium projects, and the Tajik government, which needs to satisfy a growing demand for electricity in the rest of the economy as well. The suspicion is that RUSAL would be happy with a lower and thus cheaper dam which would be adequate for its own needs, but Sattorov said this would not be in Tajikistan's interests. "That is why the government is trying to put pressure on RUSAL via the Russian government," he said. However, Sattorov cautioned that this could be a miscalculation - RUSAL is a major player by any standards, and is also seen as close to the Kremlin. "Given the friendly relations between Putin and [RUSAL chairman Oleg] Deripaska, the Russian government may not react in Tajikistan's favour," he said. Meanwhile, the Tajiks appear to believe government-to-government contacts are the right way to proceed. "Tajikistan and Russia intend to resolve the dispute surrounding the construction of this major Central Asian hydroelectric station at state level," an anonymous source in the Tajik government told IWPR. The next opportunity for this will come when an intergovernmental economic commission meets in September. Ramzan Sharipov is the pseudonym of an independent journalist in Dushanbe. TURKMENISTAN: TESTING TIME FOR TEACHERS Niazov puts new squeeze on education spending by making it harder for teachers to get pay increases. By IWPR staff in London The Turkmen president has taken another swipe at the country's hard-pressed education sector by setting tough new teaching grades to make it harder for teachers to qualify for higher salaries. Those who fall short of the requirements for the lowest grade retain their jobs, but are likely to be the first to go should the authorities choose to slash teaching numbers in future, analysts believe. The latest cost-cutting exercise by President Saparmurat Niazov, better known as Turkmenbashi, which comes on the eve of the new school year, has deepened the gloomy mood of a profession that has the experienced numerous blows over the last ten years. The introduction of new pay grades appears to have been prompted by Niazov's conviction, expressed in a July cabinet meeting, that teachers "were eating up" most of the government's budget. The president's assessment is hard to fathom as the education budget has been shrinking for over a decade. As a result, schooling has been cut from ten to nine years; the number of schools using Russian, Uzbek and Kazak minority languages has been reduced; and the number of subjects taught has been slashed. According to the new teaching requirements, which come into force this month, teachers will have to have taught pupils who've won school prizes to qualify for the lowest pay grade; and they will require a PhD and to have published academic papers and manuals to achieve the highest one. But, most controversially, to be considered at all for the new pay awards, a teacher will have to have published a number of articles in Turkmen newspapers, praising Turkmenbashi and his policies. Ashgabat Mathematics teacher Gozel Mamedova told IWPR that there was panic amongst his colleagues as it was nearly impossible to prepare articles and get them published in time for the new grading process, especially since there are only two daily newspapers in the whole country. A journalist in Ashgabat told IWPR how at the end of July and the beginning of August, newspaper offices were besieged by teachers. "They brought enormous articles. But we had to turn them into two paragraphs, because they contained nothing but praise for Turkmenbashi. "And they asked for written confirmation that the material would be published. The teachers were ready to pay simply to be published." The slew of articles written by teachers left many readers bewildered. "I don't understand what is going on," said Ashgabat pensioner Roza Narzullaeva. Not only have teachers been compelled to draft fawning articles about the president, but as part of the new pay award scheme they also have to take an examination that tests both their knowledge of the president's philosophical works and the country as a whole. Sayara Zaitova, a junior school teacher in Ashgabat, said she failed because she didn't know how much gas was produced in Turkmenistan annually. With the new school year fast approaching, teachers have been anxious to be assessed as quickly as possible - with unscrupulous education officials and newspaper staff demanding bribes to speed up the process. Raisa Odekova, a resident of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnvodsk), in the western Balkan region, fell victim to corrupt staff at the local education authority. "I have taught biology for a long time and according to all the criteria I should qualify for the highest teaching grade," said Odekova. "But at the city education board I was given a frosty reception, and they listed all these documents I would need to be considered. It took a whole month to gather them all together." However, Odekova said she soon found out that it wasn't the documents they were after, "They immediately told me that if I wanted the top teaching grade I would have to hand over 200 US dollars. I got angry, expressed my indignation and left." There have also been reports of editors taking advantage of teachers desperation to be published. Enegul Gubavea, from a village school close to the capital, told IWPR, " I went along to a newspaper [to present my article], but they said there was no space. Then I offered to pay and they agreed." The new grading process appears designed to make it harder for teachers to get pay rises. For instance, in Mary province in the south of the country, out of one hundred people who applied for the top pay category only eight achieved the required standard. The new procedure seems to have further demoralised the long-suffering teaching profession. A junior school teacher from Turkmenabat summed up the mood amongst colleagues, " We work long hours. After lessons there are always some events, marches, when we have to stand in line along the road for various high-ranking officials. In return, they not only make it hard for us to get certain grades, we don't even get a full salary - almost all teacher are on half pay." The names of those featured in this article have been changed out of concerns for their security. ****************** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net *************** IWPR's Reporting Central Asia provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. All our reporting services are also available via e-mail subscription. For further details on this project and other information services and media programmes, visit IWPR's website: www.iwpr.net Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Central Asia Programme Manager Saule Mukhametrakhimova; Editor in Bishkek Kumar Bekbolotov. IWPR Project Development and Support - Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Managing Director: Tim Williams. The Institute for War & Peace Reporting is a London-based independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change. 48 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050 The opinions expressed in IWPR's Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. ISSN: 1477-7924 Copyright © 2006 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA No. 462
