WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 518 Part two, 5 December, 2007
KYRGYZ TV REFORM FALTERS AHEAD OF POLLS After most board members resign from the new-look national TV station, critics say the Kyrgyz leadership is obstructing the emergence of an independent broadcaster. By Gulnara Mambetalieva in Bishkek CRITICS BLAST PLAN TO RESTRICT RALLIES IN KYRGYZ CAPITAL The mayors decision to ban public meetings outside three designated spots in Bishkek has been criticised as anti-democratic by rights activists and opposition parties. By Jyldyz Mamytova in Bishkek TORTURE STILL CONDONED IN UZBEK JAILS Analysts say United Nations must pressure Tashkent to hold perpetrators to account. By IWPR staff in Central Asia VIRTUAL UNREALITY IN UZBEKISTAN Analysts say increased internet obstructions are making the news blackout worse in the run-up to the presidential election. By IWPR staff in Central Asia **** IWPR RESOURCES ****************************************************************** CROSS CAUCASUS JOURNALISM NETWORK. 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View at: http://www.iwpr.net/?p=trk&s=p&o=-&apc_state=henh RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** KYRGYZ TV REFORM FALTERS AHEAD OF POLLS After most board members resign from the new-look national TV station, critics say the Kyrgyz leadership is obstructing the emergence of an independent broadcaster. By Gulnara Mambetalieva in Bishkek Kyrgyzstan is going into a parliamentary election this month without the long-promised reform of the countrys state-run television station in place. As a result, civil society groups and media experts predict that the authorities will again be able to count on overwhelmingly favourable coverage from the only station that covers the entire territory of the republic. In October, President Kurmanbek Bakiev set up a new group called the Ak Jol Peoples Party which he clearly hopes will sweep the board in the December 16 election, in which the winning party will for the first time be allowed to form a government. Reform of the state-run broadcaster was a key pledge made by Bakiev when he was elected president just over three months after street protests forced a change of regime in March 2005. The plan was to turn the TV branch of the National Television and Radio Company, NTRC, into a public-service broadcaster which would be state-funded but independent of government, and which would therefore be in a position to provide unbiased coverage of political events. Last year, President Bakiev signed a decree outlining the transformation of NTRC into a public TV corporation, vesting control in a new 15-member supervisory board which was to elect a director general and exercise overall control of editorial policy. Shortly afterwards, parliament approved the 15 candidates nominated for the board, five of whom were picked by the president, five by legislators and the rest by civil society groups. It was hoped that the board would get down to the business of drawing up editorial policy and electing a chief executive. In the event, nothing of the sort occurred. Procedural and policy wrangles triggered the resignation of eight of the 15 members at one of the boards first meetings, held on October 25 this year with the intention of selecting NTRCs head. The resigning members did not explain why they had stepped down, but their dramatic action left the body paralysed as it cannot take decisions without a quorum. Gulnara Ibraeva, one of the surviving members, said the outcome was frustrating. We need to continue our work on such documents as the NTRCs regulations and developing an editorial strategy for the channel, she said. But unfortunately, we are unable to make valid decisions on these two issues. Ilim Karypbekov, director of the Media Representative Institute, a non-government watchdog organisation, concurred. The supervisory board is not working at the moment. The remaining members can work, but their decisions may not be recognised, he said. The board is today is a moribund institution; it has been disabled. Karypbekov blamed the defectors for deliberately causing this disruption, and hinted at behind-the-scenes political manoeuvring to derail the emergence of an independent TV station. It is the fault of those people whove resigned from the board. I think they have acted irresponsibly as citizens, he said. Their action means that Kyrgyzstan will never get a public television station now. The authorities have realised they made a mistake, and they will do their best to bring the NTRC back under their jurisdiction. Elvira Sarieva, another member who is still on the board, agreed that the mass resignation was a deliberate ploy to subvert public-service television. Those who left were followers of Bakiev, she said. This was the only way to hold up the boards work during the election campaign. Bakievs administration has denied any role in the resignations. Presidential spokesman Dosaly Esenaliev told IWPR he was not aware of why the board members had departed, but said they were within their rights if they had personal reasons for doing so. It seems the board members were guided by this provision when they decided to resign, he added. Media experts remain puzzled over the explanation for the apparently inexplicable resignation of eight members at once. But many take the same line as Karypbekov. Today we see the authorities ignoring the laws that they themselves drafted for the board, said media expert Elena Voronina. Supporters of a reformed NTRC fear that if the board continues without a quorum, the authorities will try to discredit it entirely with a view to watering down the legislation governing public-service broadcasting. To make sure this does not happen, the remaining members have urged President Bakiev to permit new nominations to fill the vacant seats. Karypbekov doubts this will take place before the December 16 election, and it will be the new parliament that approves any future board members. Gulnara Mambetalieva is an IWPR contributor in Bishkek. CRITICS BLAST PLAN TO RESTRICT RALLIES IN KYRGYZ CAPITAL The mayors decision to ban public meetings outside three designated spots in Bishkek has been criticised as anti-democratic by rights activists and opposition parties. By Jyldyz Mamytova in Bishkek The recent decision by Bishkeks new mayor, Daniyar Usenov, to confine public meetings to a handful of designated areas on security grounds has gone down poorly with opposition politicians, non-government organisations and civil rights groups. A visit to one of the three proposed areas, on the edge of the capital, helps explain their lack of enthusiasm. Bishkeks Youth Park is not only far from the city centre, but derelict and unpleasant. Empty vodka bottles, old syringes, urine-soaked clothes and piles of rubbish lie scattered around wrecked concrete monuments from the Soviet era and the now distinctly un-child-friendly playground. No one was to be seen there that mid-afternoon except for a single tramp staggering along the path, clutching a blanket and carrying his belongings on his back. Speakers Corner it wasnt. Its hard to think of an area less resembling Britains famous symbol of free speech, located in Londons central Hyde Park. Despite complaints by parties and civic groups, Bishkeks city council approved the mayors decision on November 30. As a result, from now on all protests and demonstrations must be confined to the Youth Park, to another park near the statue of Maxim Gorky, and to one central location, the Old Square next to parliament. The desolate Youth Park location is to be improved, officials say, by putting up a special platform to act as a stage. Mayor Usenov was unrepentant about the decision. Describing Bishkek as a metropolis with a million-strong population, he insisted its day-to-day life must not be paralysed by rallies. Many locals side with the mayor, saying they are tired of mass demonstrations in the city centre and the resulting inconveniences. During these mass parades, the crime rate is said to rise, public transport is held up and many people are delayed. When demonstrations take place in Bishkek, it is difficult and even frightening to walk the streets, said Bishkek resident Vadim Mishin. Many of the protestors are drunk and use obscene language, and we are also late for work. A local government official, who did not give his name, agreed. During demonstrations the likelihood of mass disorder rises and we have to be the alert, he claimed. Bishkek residents have become increasingly familiar with and apparently weary of political protests in recent years. In spring 2005, the then president Askar Akaev was deposed after weeks of mass rallies by opposition groups angry at what they said were rigged elections. The new administration that replaced him was in turn the focus of a series of mass protests which blocked the central square in front of the main government building, known as the White House. The last such protest, in April 2007, ended in tumult when police used force to disperse participants rally. Police said they intervened only after serious disturbances erupted in the crowd. Critics insist the mayors latest initiative is a violation of peoples constitutional rights and an attempt to stifle criticism of the authorities. Edil Baisalov, deputy chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, said his party strongly opposed the mayors move, adding that its members on the city council had voted against the resolution. On November 30, while Bishkek city council was discussing the issue, human rights activists protested in front of the mayors office, saying they would appeal against the decision through the courts. The Citizens Against Corruption group kept this promise, and on December 3 wrote to the prosecutor generals office urging it to overturn the ruling on the grounds that Usenov had acted contrary to the constitution and to international conventions that Kyrgyzstan has signed. Tursunbek Akun, head of the State Commission for Human Rights, which operates under the presidency, conceded that the idea of designated protest sites might be unnecessary, not least because the public has had enough of protests. People themselves are tired of these demonstrations, because they understand that not much can come of them, he told IWPR. Aziza Abdirasulova, head of the Kylym Shamy human rights centre, took issue with the mayor for different reasons, raising fears that restrictions on protests in the capital might have a knock-on effects in the countryside. Experience shows that whenever there are attempts to restrict the citizens rights to free expression in the capital, demonstrations are brutally suppressed in the regions, she said. Recalling the March 2002 tragedy in the Aksy area of southern Kyrgyzstan, when law-enforcement officers opened fire on a peaceful demonstration, killing six and wounding dozens, Abdirasulova said, There, the police simply shoot at protestors. Jyldyz Mamytova is an independent journalist from Bishkek. TORTURE STILL CONDONED IN UZBEK JAILS Analysts say United Nations must pressure Tashkent to hold perpetrators to account. By IWPR staff in Central Asia Human rights activists in Uzbekistan are calling on the international community to exert greater pressure on the government to eradicate torture from the criminal justice system. Following damaging reports from the United Nations Committee Against Torture and from local and international human rights groups, which concluded that torture is still a serious problem in Uzbekistan, activists say the only way to bring the government into line is to increase international pressure on it. Physical abuse remains widespread both in pre-trial detention often as a way of forcing confessions and in the penal system. Despite being a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, the Uzbek government has failed to act on the problem. In 2003, the UNs special rapporteur on torture published a report following a visit to the country and concluded that torture was widespread and systematic. A damning review released by the United Nations Committee Against Torture, CAT, on November 23 suggests that little has changed. The document expressed concern at the numerous, ongoing and consistent allegations concerning routine use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment committed by law enforcement and investigative personnel or with their instigation or consent, often to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings. The report came out of the CATs regular review of Uzbekistans record on torture, required of signatories of the UN Convention against Torture, which took place earlier this month. At the hearings in Geneva on November 9-13, the Uzbek government submitted its own account of how it is implementing the convention. Introducing the national report, Deputy Justice Minister Yesemurat Kanyazov said that since its last submission in 2002, Uzbekistan had improved the situation by halving the number of people detained and imprisoned, and by amending the criminal code to explicitly outlaw torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in line with the international convention. However, the CAT said it was disappointed that the few individuals investigated following allegations of abuse received mainly disciplinary penalties, and sentences passed under the new criminal code provision were not commensurate with the gravity of the offence of torture. Human-rights groups agree that despite the legal amendment, those accused of torture are not held accountable for their actions. On November 7, the international watchdog Human Rights Watch, HRW, published a 90-page report in which it found that torture and ill-treatment were ignored and overlooked by investigators, prosecutors, and judges, and generally hushed up by the media and the government. Uzbekistan wants to make its multilateral partners believe that it has put an end to torture, said Holly Cartner, HRWs Europe and Central Asia director, in a press release. But official statements simply dont square with reality. This is no marginal problem, said Cartner. The CAT needs to recognize that ill-treatment in Uzbekistan is endemic to the criminal justice system and not just a problem caused by a handful of rogues. In its report, HRW documents cases where police beat detainees with truncheons and bottles filled with water, administered electric shocks, asphyxiated them with plastic bags and gas masks placed over their heads, and subjected them to sexual humiliation. In the cases it documented, HRW said no one was held accountable. During one trial monitored by the group, a defendant told the court why he had not complained until then. I never had a confidential meeting with a lawyer. I know that the pressure would have increased if I had complained. I am a human being. I am not made of iron. Even animals scream when you beat them. I was scared. That is why I did not complain, he said. Local rights groups are also raising concerns about the prevalence of torture. On November 12, the Tashkent-based Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists, IGIHRA, reported that Tohir Nurmuhammedov, who had been convicted of membership of the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, had died in prison in Andijan, in the east of the country. A Radio Liberty report from November 24 said Nurmuhammedov and Fitrat Salohiddinov, convicted of the same offence, died after being tortured in custody. Local rights activists told RFE/RL that both bodies showed marks indicating torture when they were released to the families. IGIHRA also reported allegations that 25 convicts were tortured in a prison camp in the northwestern city of Navoi, and of widespread instances of physical abuse in another camp at Zeravshan also in the west of the country. The group prepared its own report for the CAT as an alternative to the government document. It was illustrated with about 200 photos of people who have died in custody within the last five years and who IGIHRA says were tortured. We have hard facts that the situation is getting worse. The international community will be informed about torture, and it will then start pressuring the government, said Surat Ikramov, the head of IGIHRA. It is very important to us for the UN committee should decide what pressure and sanctions need to be applied against this repressive government. Although Uzbek legislation on torture conforms to international standards, said Ikramov, those responsible are not being held accountable. We have incontrovertible evidence. All the cases are confirmed, and so far I have not come under pressure from the government [saying] that the information is inaccurate, he said. At the same time, Ikramov said the Uzbek government was responsive to his allegations and had even acted on them, up to a point. They read my reports, and based on the findings, a special prosecutor goes to the prisons and they remove the butchers from their positions. However, there has not been a single case when someone has been held to account for inflicting torture. Another Uzbek human rights activist, who declined to be named, told IWPR that eliminating torture in the criminal justice system would take political will on the part of the authorities. But so far, pressure from the international community had failed to produce the required change in mindset. Its hard to believe that UN hearings and reports from human rights activists will affect the situation with torture, because despite all the criticism and reproaches over many years, the government keeps on condoning the use of such methods of punishment, he said. Another Tashkent-based observer said the authorities could safely disregard UN recommendations because no sanctions would be applicable if it did nothing. However, Acacia Shields, a human rights expert who worked for a long time in Uzbekistan, said the international community had failed to use all the instruments at its disposal to improve the situation. Last month, activists were left angry and disappointed at the European Unions decision to relax sanctions against the country despite the evidence of continuing human rights abuses. The EU sanctions were first imposed when President Karimov refused to allow an independent enquiry into the violence at Andijan in May 2005, when security forces fired on demonstrators, leaving hundreds dead. Shields believes there is a lot more that the CAT could be doing to inform the world community of the true situation in Uzbekistan, rebuff the justifications the government puts forward, and call for an end to torture. Vyacheslav Abramov, who runs the website of Voice of Freedom, a network of Central Asian human rights activists, believes that while international pressure has had little effect on preventing torture so far, the lobbying must be sustained. Alternative reports from Uzbek human rights activists and statements by international organisations create pressure, and the government can do nothing but tell lies or admit there is a problem and try to solve it, said Abramov. The Uzbek government will not be able to ignore those demands infinitely, and it is quite possible that it will start taking measures to resolve the problem, even if initially these are fairly unsubstantial. (Names of some interviewees have been withheld in the interests of their security.) VIRTUAL UNREALITY IN UZBEKISTAN Analysts say increased internet obstructions are making the news blackout worse in the run-up to the presidential election. By IWPR staff in Central Asia With presidential polls only weeks away, internet users in Uzbekistan report that access to sites carrying independent news websites and reflecting opposition viewpoints is becoming more and more restricted. Even the proxy servers through which banned sites can be seen are now blocked. Observers warn that these internet restrictions mean voters will have even less access than before to coverage of the December 23 election. Media in Uzbekistan are owned and tightly controlled by the state. Although censorship is outlawed by the constitution, no news goes out without being carefully vetted. There are no domestic sources of independent information, so the internet offers a lifeline. Few people inside the country have access to the web, though; official figures quoted by the BBC say there were just 1.7 million internet users in 2007, out of a population of nearly 28 million. Most people go online at work, in educational establishments and in internet cafes. On November 21, the Central Electoral Committee registered four candidates for the election current president Islam Karimov, nominated by the Liberal Democratic Party; Diloram Tashmuhammedova of the Adolat party; Akmal Saidov, the head of a government human rights agency who is standing as an independent; and Asliddin Rustamov from the Peoples Democratic Party. Campaigning began the following day, and speeches by the candidates are to be carried by national radio, television and newspapers. Analysts say the presidents four challengers all back him and are standing only to create the illusion of choice. Karimov, one of Central Asias most authoritarian leaders, has stifled all forms of opposition in the country. Following events in Andijan in May 2005, when foreign media organisations reported on the violent suppression of a peaceful demonstration in the eastern city by authorities, the Uzbek government launched a crackdown on foreign media organisations. The BBC, Internews and IWPR were all forced to close their operations in Uzbekistan down, while the correspondent for Germanys Deutsche Welle was refused accreditation early in 2006. According to the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders, RSF, all local service providers have been forced to work with the state-controlled telecoms operator Uzbektelecom since November 2005, giving the regime greater control. Sites blocked since 2005 include those of banned opposition parties Erk and Birlik, those of human rights organisations, and also news sites with a Central Asian or specifically Uzbek focus, such as Uznews.net, Arena, Tribuna.uz, Fergana.ru and Centrasia.ru. One journalist, who wished to stay anonymous, told IWPR that the number of blocked sites had recently increased substantially. The situation couldnt be worse, he said. The journalist reeled off a list of the sites that were now impossible to access in Uzbekistan - the sites of [Russian] Kommersant, [Kazakstans] Delovaya Nedelya and other newspapers which provide serious coverage of Central Asian politics, most of the news resources from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, all foreign news agency sites, international NGOs, and even online archives on the history of the Central Asian nations. Until recently, people were able to access many of these banned sites through proxy servers computers that take information from elsewhere on the web and make it available at a different URL address. Proxy servers and anonymisers are also used to conceal an internet users identity. All users accessing sites through a proxy appear to have the same IP (internet protocol) address, which makes it harder to track which individuals are accessing a given site. But while internet users have developed ingenious ways to work around the restrictions, government controls are becoming wider in scope and increasingly sophisticated. In 2002, the government established UzInfoCom, which is formally an IT development agency but is widely believed to be devising new ways of controlling access to the internet. Analysts say they suspect the governments IT specialists are now starting to block the proxy-servers that have sprung up since wide-scale blocking started in 2005. Since early November, many internet cafes have begun warning customers not to visit prohibited websites such as those which express opposition views or foreign sites covering the Central Asian region. A journalist in Kashkadarya, a region in southeastern Uzbekistan, said internet café staff were exerting tighter control over their customers. I was recently in an internet café and tried to go to the Fergana.ru site via a proxy server to read news about the Uzbek election campaign. An administrator came up to me immediately and asked why I was doing it, what I was reading and who I was, he said. A once frequent visitor to internet cafés in the western city of Bukhara said he stopped going to public places to surf the web after discovering that staff were monitoring him. An administrator forgot herself and started reading out my emails to her friend, he said. I know that these administrators are always instructed to watch out for suspect clients. Visitors to internet cafés around the country say they have to submit a written list of web addresses they have visited, and administrators also demand to see any material that a customer plans to write onto a memory stick. Others say the USB ports for memory sticks and other storage devices have been removed from computers, while word-processing packages have been tampered with to block toolbar buttons such as copy, save and send. An internet café manager in Bukhara insisted that most websites that are blocked contain pornographic material. We do block sites, but not those that carry news, he explained. Mostly its porn sites. If we blocked news sites, wed lose customers. It wouldnt be to our advantage. Other internet café staff said they had received instructions to keep closer watch on the internet to prevent the spread of computer viruses. One person in the northwestern city of Navoi, for example, said that if customers wanted to attach a file to an email, they had to hand over their memory stick to staff, who copied the file to their central computer and from there made it available to the users terminal. We dont know what they plan to send, so we keep a copy of the file just in case, he said. However, a internet café manager in the capital Tashkent admitted that staff had been ordered to restrict access to certain sites. The authorities send out emails to providers instructing them which sites must remain closed to visitors, and they have to comply for fear of losing their licenses. The most popular method of blocking sites in Uzbek internet cafes is to add the site address to a blacklist on the server, and then it becomes inaccessible, said the manager. Its also possible to replace the URL address so that instead of accessing the particular site the user wants, they will go to a completely different one - for instance, to some search engine. A member of a Tashkent-based human rights organisation suspects the authorities are also deliberately making general access to the internet more difficult. For the last six months, he said, he has finding it increasingly difficult to post material on his own site because the network goes down so often. I think the authorities are anxious to limit public awareness of the presidential election, he said. Our IT specialists are having to acquire new software and devise all kinds of IT fixes to speed up access to our site and post information on it. (Names of interviewees have been withheld in the interests of their security.) **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** 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. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Central Asia Editor: Saule Mukhametrakhimova; Project Director: Kumar Bekbolotov. IWPR Project Development and Support: Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Chief Programme Officer: Mike Day. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice. 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