Kyrgyz officials escape attack in Bishkek
11 June
Two senior Kyrgyz officials were attacked by a crowd of young Kyrgyz in Bishkek today, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports. Interim government Deputy Chairman Temir Sariev and Deputy Interior Minister Kubanychbek Kadyrov were trying to persuade a group of young people not to travel to the southern city of Osh, where at least 37 people were killed in clashes [1] between Kyrgyz and Uzbek youths. Several of the group's members then tried to assault the two men. An RFE/RL correspondent who was at the scene reports that security guards and police managed to protect the two officials and helped them to escape into the parliament building. The group of young Kyrgyz men was demanding that the interim government provide them with a bus to travel to Osh. RFE/RL correspondents report that young Kyrgyz from different parts of the country are trying to reach Osh, while the interim government is trying to prevent what leader Roza Otunbaeva called "the flow of people" from reaching the city. (RFE/RL)

Uzbekistan closes border with kyrgyzstan stopping the refugee flow
15 June
Uzbekistan on Tuesday stopped the reception of refugees from the south of Kyrgyzstan – ethnic Uzbeks who are fleeing for safety fearing violence. The Uzbekistani authorities have already registered 45,000 refugees (only adults, as there are no exact data on children). “We have no place for them anymore,” local media quoted Vice Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov as saying. According to him, Uzbekistan in connection with the inflow of refugees needs help from international organisations. The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was opened for refugees on June 12. Camps for their temporary accommodation were organised in Uzbekistan. They are supplied with food products, and medical aid is provided. According to Uzbekistan’s Health Minister Adkham Ikramov, the number of wounded and ill refugees from Kyrgyzstan in medical establishments of the Andijan region of the republic has reached 735 people, 134 of them have gunshot wounds. Ikramov also said that 77 female refugees have been taken to a maternity hospital and seven of them have given birth to children. The 2010 south Kyrgyzstan riots are ongoing clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, primarily in the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad, in the aftermath of the ouster of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Escalating from protests that began as early as April, violence broke out on 9 June in Osh with the majority Kyrgyz rioting through the streets attacking minority Uzbeks and burning property. By 12 June the violence had spread to Jalal-Abad, requiring the Russian-endorsed interim government led by Roza Otunbayeva to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to take control of the situation. So far it is reported that 170 people have been killed, over 1,700 injured and 100,000 displaced, of which at least 45,000 have fled into neighbouring Uzbekistan. (Itar-Tass)

Kazakh-Chinese energy ties deepen
15 June
China and Kazakhstan have reached agreement to build and finance jointly a natural gas pipeline and strengthen atomic energy [2] cooperation. The agreements were reached during a 1-day visit Saturday to Kazakhstan by Chinese President Hu Jintao, his second this year, RTTNews reported Tuesday. Kazakhstan's KazMunaiGas natural gas company and the China National Petroleum Corporation will construct a 870-mile natural gas pipeline spur across Kazakhstan to link with an existing pipeline already running between China and Central Asia, with the two nations equally sharing the spur's $3.5 billion construction cost. A second agreement, the specifics of which weren't released, provides for the state-run Kazakh Kazatomprom nuclear firm to supply uranium to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation [3]. Last December, Kazatomprom announced it passed Canada and Australia to become the world's largest miner of uranium in the world, increasing its 2009 output by 63 percent to 13,900 tons, roughly 30 percent of the world's output, with a projected 2010 output of 18,000 tons. (UPI)

Tajikistan Asks Kyrgyz Officials To Explain 'Tajik Involvement' In Unrest
17 June
Tajikistan's National Security Committee has sent a letter to the Kyrgyz interim government asking it to explain media reports that say Tajik citizens are involved in the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Tajikistan's parliament tasked the country's National Security Committee with sending the letter.
Kubat Baibolov, Kyrgyzstan's deputy security minister and the commandant of the southern city of Jalal-Abad, was quoted by Russia's ITAR-TASS as saying the conflict between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Jalal-Abad and Osh was ignited by a group of Tajiks hired by relatives of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiev who killed Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in order to provoke the ethnic unrest. But Baibolov told RFE/RL in an interview on June 16 that the ITAR-TASS report is untrue. He said despite some information that citizens of a third country had operated among the gangs that attacked Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, there is no evidence about their nationality. He added that he never said they were Tajiks. Similar to the ITAR-TASS report, Ekho Moskvy radio station correspondent Arkady Dubnov reported on June 15 that some former fighters from the 1992-97 Tajik civil war were hired through the Tajik Embassy in Moscow to destabilize the situation in Kyrgyzstan. The Tajik Foreign Ministry issued a statement on June 15 calling the reports about the participation of Tajik citizens in the unrest "baseless," adding that "the people who are involved in these inhuman activities in Osh and Jalal-Abad have no nationality and country of origin." The ministry expressed the hope that Kyrgyz authorities will reject such "unfriendly" statements. (RFE/RL)

U.N.: Kyrgyz refugee count at 400,000
17 June
A U.N. agency says the Kyrgyz-Uzbek ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan have driven some 400,000 people from their homes, far more than earlier estimates. Quoting governmental and non-governmental organization figures, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said about 300,000 of the refugees fleeing the weeklong clashes in the southern part of the Central Asian nation have been displaced internally, while an estimated 100,000 more have sought refuge in neighboring Uzbekistan. The UNHCR said in a news release Kyrgyz authorities are seeking to restore law and order. The clashes so far have claimed the lives of 180 people and another 1,900 have been injured. The unrest comes after the violent uprising in April that saw the ouster of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. "The situation in Osh and nearby villages appears to be volatile," the agency said, noting many families have left Osh, the country's second largest city, for Bishkek, the capital. The U.N. agency planned to airlift about 80 tons of relief material from Dubai this weekend to aid the refugees. Aid to those in Uzbekistan has already begun. The Washington Post reported the latest U.N. figures, which doubled the previous refugee estimates, come as the Kyrgyz military [4] appeared to face difficulty in restoring order in a region with a population of more than 2 million, even as conditions appeared to be improving. Aid workers distributing food faced sporadic gunfire. The Post said the Uzbeks are particularly critical of the army [5] and police, who are mostly Kyrgyz, accusing them giving free rein to Kyrgyz mobs. The report quoted a Human Rights Watch researcher as saying testimony he has collected thus far indicated Kyrgyz troops at the minimum ignored the attacks on Uzbek neighborhoods. (UPI)

Russian-led security group says no peacekeepers in Kyrgyzstan
17 June
Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) says it will not deploy peacekeepers to Kyrgyzstan but may send security "specialists." CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha provided no further details about what he called security "specialists" but suggested they could be used to track down those behind the five days of clashes between majority Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks that has killed a confirmed 191 people and injured many hundreds of others. Kyrgyzstan's interim leader, Roza Otunbaeva, appealed last week to Russia for military assistance to bring the ethnic fighting in the south of the country under control. The CSTO's members are Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. (RFE/RL)

Turkmenistan, China agree on building second segment of gas pipeline
18 June
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and He Guoqiang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee and head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, have coordinated terms of the construction of the second segment of a transboundary gas pipeline. The gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and China was commissioned in December 2009, and Ashgabat pledged deliveries of up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas to China in the next 30 years. The delivery of six billion cubic meters is planned for this year. (Itar-Tass)

Russia, Kazakhstan near nuclear deals
19 June
The head of Russia's atomic energy company said Saturday Russia is close to signing nuclear cooperation agreements with Kazakhstan. "A wide range of documents are on the deciding stage and the 'last leg' of these documents will be finished in a short period of time," Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Rosatom, said while at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. Kiriyenko was not specific about documents [6] were being finalized, RIA Novosti reported, but he said the areas in which Russia and Kazakhstan are cooperating include the construction of a nuclear power plant and the development [7] of uranium mining. Kiriyenko was in Kazakhstan Thursday where he discussed the two nations' cooperation in the nuclear sphere. (UPI)

UN official deplores rights abuses in Armenia
19 June
A senior United Nations official accused Armenian authorities of restricting civil liberties and banning dissenting viewpoints from the airwaves as she ended a fact-finding visit to Yerevan on June 18, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. Margaret Sekaggya, the special UN rapporteur on human rights defenders, met senior government and law-enforcement officials, judges, lawmakers, as well as opposition leaders and civil society representatives during the five-day trip.  Speaking at a news conference at the conclusion of her trip, Sekaggya expressed concern about Armenia's human rights record and, in particular, "significant constraints imposed on the exercise of freedom of peaceful assembly in Armenia." Sekaggya went on to deplore periodical physical attacks on journalists and rights activists. "These cases would seem to illustrate an apparent culture of impunity in Armenia which impinges upon the work of human rights defenders," she said. Sekaggya's meetings with opposition representatives in Yerevan focused on the fate of more than a dozen members and supporters of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), who were arrested after the 2008 presidential election and remain in prison. She was careful not to describe the jailed oppositionists as political prisoners. She emphasized to Armenian officials the need for "prompt and transparent investigations" into deadly street violence that was sparked by the 2008 presidential election.
Sekaggya further endorsed strong domestic and international criticism of newly enacted amendments to a law on broadcasting. "I would like to add my voice to those who have already expressed serious concerns about the amendments to the Law on Television and Radio," she said. Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his loyal parliamentary majority pushed the amendments through the National Assembly last week despite serious objections voiced not only by local media groups but also by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United States, and Human Rights Watch. (RFE/RL)

Five troops killed in Nagorno-Karabakh clash
19 June
Armenia's Defense Ministry says four Armenian soldiers have been killed in fighting in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The ministry said in a statement that the deaths were the "result of fighting with an Azerbaijani armed reconnaissance group." Reports say one Azerbaijani soldier was later found dead on the battlefield. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian blamed Baku for the overnight action in Nagorno-Karabakh's Martakert region, calling it "a pre-planned action" intended to scuttle peace negotiations. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeman Elkhan Polukhov, responding to Nalbandian's statement said, "It was not within the authority of Mr. Nalbandian to comment on matters, the cause of which lies in the continuing occupation of Azerbaijani lands." The fighting follows a meeting between the presidents of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan that took place in St. Petersburg on June 17 on the sidelines of a major economic forum hosted by the Russian city. (RFE/RL)

New violence erupts in Kyrgyzstan
21 June
New violence in southern Kyrgyzstan left two dead and dozens injured as Kyrgyz armed forces swept through an Uzbek neighborhood, observers said. The bloodshed came a day after Kyrgyz soldiers tore down barricades erected by minority Uzbeks in the ethnically divided southern city of Osh, The New York Times reported Monday. Witnesses say residents of a neighborhood near the border with Uzbekistan were beaten by police demanding information about the assassination of Osh's police chief, the newspaper reported. Authorities said the violence began when someone allegedly opened fire on the troops from within the neighborhood. "The special forces returned fire," a press spokesman said. "This caused the death of one person. There was further resistance and several more shots were exchanged. As a result of this a second person died on the way to the hospital." Residents said the removal of the barricades had left them unprotected from attacks by Kyrgyz mobs. Uzbeks said the Kyrgyz military and police were still maintaining checkpoints in Uzbek neighborhoods around Osh, and that they were being regularly harassed, the Times reported. (UPI)

Iran wants better Caspian oil deals
21 June
Tehran is working to negotiate for better terms for oil swap deals after four measures with Caspian producers weren't renewed, officials said in Iran. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi said Tehran needed to preserve Iranian national interests when pursuing oil swap deals with producers operating in the Caspian Sea, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reports. His statements come as oil swap deals with Select Energy Trading, Dragon Oil, Vitol and Caspian Oil Development weren't renewed.Swiss oil trading giantVitol announced in March that it would stop dealing with Iran, presumably because of U.S. pressure over Iran's controversial nuclear activity. Shirazi added “negotiations are under way to calculate a real formula and fee for oil swaps.” Tehran has oil swap deals with its Caspian neighbors Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. "In oil swaps, national interests must be protected," the deputy minister added. (UPI)

Kazakhstan prepares for major privatizations
21 June
Kazakhstan is ready to cut stakes in key companies to modernise the economy, and is looking to sell banks and energy assets in the next five years, the head of the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna said. "We are in discussions. A political decision is pending. For many large companies linked to Samruk-Kazyna there is talk of IPOs within 3-5 years," Kairat Kelimbetov, chairman of the fund, whose holdings exceed $70 billion (47.2 billion pounds), told Reuters in interview. He singled out KazMunaiGas and its subsidiaries as possible privatisation targets, and said the fund was in talks with Russia's BP venture, TNK-BP, regarding a stake in Kazakhstan's largest oil refinery, Pavlodar. Major banks, in which Samruk-Kazyna received stakes in exchange for supporting the battered sector during the recession, are also on the list. These include Kazkommertsbank, Alliance, Halyk and BTA. Talks over the sale of BTA to Russia's biggest lender Sberbank could start after September 5, Kelimbetov said, with the acquisition potentially progressing gradually from a 10 percent holding to the fund's whole stake. (Reuters)

Uzbek refugees head back to Kyrgyzstan
22 June
Ethnic Uzbeks started leaving refugee camps in Uzbekistan for the restive southern [8] regions of neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz officials said. Bektur Asanov, the governor of the southern Kyrgyz city of Jalal-Abad, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that more than 1,000 ethnic Uzbek refugees have left their camps Tuesday for Kyrgyzstan. Border guards in Kyrgyzstan said more than 35,000 Uzbeks have crossed the border on their way home to Kyrgyzstan.   [9]

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that ethnic conflict between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks has displaced 300,000 people within Kyrgyzstan and forced 100,000 others to flee the country. Interim President Roza Otunbayeva visited the south of the country amid heavy security last week promising to work hard so people can return home. Otunbayeva took power when an April coup deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The interim government [10] said there was a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of Bakiyev and other top government officials. His son, Maksim, was arrested last week on charges he was inciting ethnic clashes in the Kyrgyz south in an effort to return his father to power. At least 250 people have died in ethnic clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan. (UPI)

Armenian, Azerbaijani clashes continue in Karabakh
22  June
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Intense skirmishes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh continued on June 21, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. News reports said an Azerbaijani soldier was shot dead early today in what the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said was an Armenian attack on Azerbaijani Army positions in the Fizuli district southeast of Nagorno-Karabakh.  "The Armenians retreated, suffering losses," the Azeri-Press Agency said, citing the ministry. Karabakh Armenian military officials insisted their forces suffered no fresh casualties on June 21, in the worst Armenian-Azerbaijani cease-fire violations in over two years. The latest outbreak of violence began late last week. Four Armenian soldiers and one Azerbaijani soldier were killed in what authorities in Stepanakert and Yerevan described as an overnight Azerbaijani assault on a Karabakh Armenian army outpost in the northeastern part of the breakaway Azerbaijani region on the night of June 18-19. Exchanges of automatic and sniper gunfire along the main Armenian-Azerbaijani Line of Contact -- east and north of the disputed region -- appear to have intensified since then. The Defense Army of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) claimed on June 21 that Azerbaijani troops breached the cease-fire regime as many as 284 times since June 20. An army spokesman told RFE/RL that none of its soldiers was hurt as a result of the violations.  The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed, however, it was the Armenians who fired at its forces using automatic rifles and machine guns in various sections of the heavily fortified frontline.  The Karabakh military has also identified the four Armenian conscripts who were killed on the night of June 18-19. The incident occurred just over a day after the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in St. Petersburg for peace talks hosted by their Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.  (RFE/RL)

Pakistani Taliban warns drivers against carrying NATO supplies
23  June
Taliban in Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency have warned truck drivers against carrying supplies for the U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports. The warnings were contained in posters stuck on the walls of several markets late on June 21. The markets are located on the road passing through the Khyber tribal agency to Afghanistan. The posters warn drivers and truck owners not to ship oil, food, or military materiel to the "foreign troops," locals said. "Truck and tanker drivers or people carrying goods and fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan or those guarding the freight terminals meant for NATO goods will be targeted," they read. Truck drivers told Radio Mashaal they feel vulnerable after the latest Taliban warning. They said the government should adopt measures to improve security along the road.  "The government should deploy troops to ensure our security," one driver who did not want to be identified for security reasons told Radio Mashaal. "[This] trouble is existing on the road. Even yesterday a bomb was planted on a fuel taker there. [Earlier], a Punjabi was hit with a bullet while sitting atop a fuel tanker and died." The posters carried a warning from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella group including several banned militant groups based in the lawless Pakistani tribal region. Khyber is one of the seven tribal agencies next to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. It was converted into a safe haven by the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements following the overthrow of the hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001. The 40-kilometer zigzag transit route, known as the Khyber Pass, crosses through the Khyber agency and is the most utilized route to transport NATO's civilian and military goods to Afghanistan. Taliban fighters usually attack the convoys, mostly fuel tankers, traveling on the road. In one such attack, on November 10, 2008, the Taliban attacked a convoy and seized 12 trucks full of food in addition to two armored vehicles. In another 2008 attack, more than 100 military vehicles destined for NATO forces in Afghanistan were burned when militants attacked a freight terminal in the city of Peshawar near the Khyber agency. (RFE/RL)

Georgia’s rebel region pulls out of security talks
23 June
Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region said on Wednesday it had withdrawn temporarily from security talks with Tbilisi, saying the negotiations were not producing results and that Western mediators were prejudiced.  Georgia has held talks in Geneva with its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since Russia recognised both as independent after its war with Georgia in 2008, aiming to prevent armed clashes along the regions' boundaries.
All three sides have complained of slow progress in the talks, which are co-chaired by the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union. "The Republic of Abkhazia has informed the office of the secretariat overseeing the five-party talks ... that it is temporarily withdrawing from future discussions because the sessions have not produced tangible progress," Nadir Bitiyev, the Abkhaz leader's senior aide, said in a statement. "We regret having to make this decision ... We have done so because co-moderators have consistently failed to facilitate the talks in a constructive and impartial manner." Georgian officials said they had not been officially informed about the decision of the Abkhaz side, but said such a move was unlikely to be taken without Moscow's approval. "We consider the Geneva talks as an important mechanism, despite many problems," Giga Bokeria, the head of the Georgian delegation, told Reuters. "We are interested in the continuation of this process." "Such an important decision (about withdrawal from talks), if confirmed, could be only made in Moscow," said Bokeria, who is Georgia's first deputy foreign minister. In a five-day war in August 2008, Russia crushed a Georgian assault on South Ossetia launched after days of clashes between Georgian and rebel forces and years of growing tensions between Moscow and U.S.-ally Tbilisi. Russian security forces control the de facto borders of both regions, which are dependent on Moscow for state aid and trade. A majority of their people hold Russian passports.
The latest round of the talks on June 8 brought no result as parties failed to compromise on a document on the non-use of force. Delegations of the rebel regions walked out of the negotiating room, saying their opinions had been ignored. The next round of the talks, which are aimed at reducing violent clashes and detentions along the regions' boundaries, is scheduled for July 27. (Reuters)