Field Reports

On the night of May 7, a terrible natural disaster occurred in the Kulyab region of Khatlon province in the south of Tajikistan. A flash flood took tens of lives and left thousands homeless. The Government reports that at least forty people were killed in the disaster. The mudflow and flooding continued in other districts of Tajikistan. In total the disaster destroyed houses and belongings of 4,500 people in the town of Kulyab.

On May 17, inhabitants of the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border areas reported increasing protection of the border from the Uzbek side. In turn, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s border service reported that Uzbekistan strengthened the protection of its border in response to recent events in the south of Kyrgyzstan, patrolling certain areas in military vehicles. It should be recalled that Uzbekistan closed its checkpoints with Kyrgyzstan in the beginning of April in the immediate aftermath of the revolutionary events in the country and the following riots. On May 13-14, an armed conflict between supporters of the current interim government and proponents of former president Kurmanbek Bakiev occurred in the immediate vicinity of the Uzbek border, in the cities of Jalal-Abad and Osh. While closing and strengthening the protection of the border is a matter of national security for Uzbekistan, prolonged border closure poses a serious threat of economic crisis to Kyrgyzstan.

Supporters of the ousted President Bakiyev in southern Kyrgyzstan demand dividing the country into two autonomous states. The Interim Government condemned the initiative pointing at the absurdity of the idea, while law enforcement bodies promise to take “harsh measures within the law” against the instigators. Despite the fact that such a scenario is highly unlikely, it might gain wider support from the public in light of the new government’s failure to stabilize the situation in the southern region, experts say.

Tajikistan’s first toll road was opened on the route of the Dushanbe-Chanak highway on April 1, 2010. The road connects the capital city Dushanbe with Soghd province in the northern part of Tajikistan and ends at the border between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The tolling mechanism will be implemented by the company “Innovative Road Solution LTD”, from which all tolling equipment for the Dushanbe-Chanak road is rented by the Government of Tajikistan.

On May 1-4, 2010, the 43rd annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) board of governors took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. More than three thousand participants attended the meeting, including heads of government, chairmen of central banks, ministers of finance, representatives of business and science, and journalists. Tashkent was satisfied with the outcomes of the meeting in general, as they signed four credit contracts of over US$ 1.15 billion. In addition to a substantial financial package and in spite of certain controversies with the human rights situation in the country, the ADB authorities showed that they are interested in the stability of Uzbekistan, assuming that this is an essential condition for stability in the whole region.

The ruling coalition parties in Armenia’s parliament have started decriminalization of libel and insult provisions in an attempt to regulate relations between media and public officials. The amendments to the Criminal and Civil Codes, passed in the first reading on March 18, abolish criminal liability for defamatory statements and set pecuniary compensation for victims of libel and insult. If passed, Armenia will join only a small number of countries in wider Europe that had decriminalized defamation – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and the UK. The amendments place the burden of proof on the defendant, stipulating its transfer to the plaintiff if unreasonable efforts are required to prove the truth by the defendant. The highest fine that can be imposed by courts on media outlets for disseminating defamatory information is 2000 times the minimum salary - around US$ 5,000.

On March 10, the World Bank regional director for Central Asia, Motu Konishi, announced in Dushanbe that the bank has found the funding for carrying out a feasibility study and environmental assessment of the controversial Rogun hydropower station project on the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan. Konishi’s statement came almost one year after the bank agreed to finance the study with a particular focus on the potential regional implications of the Rogun dam. It will take 18 months to complete the impact study and, if the project proves financially and environmentally sustainable, Konishi said the World Bank will “assist the Tajik government to create an international consortium to build it.” In the meantime, the Tajik government will continue building the dam with the bank monitoring the works.

On April 22, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan issued a decree whereby the ratification procedure of the Armenia-Turkey protocols on normalization of relations between the two countries is “suspended”. Accordingly, on April 26, the bill on ratification of these protocols was withdrawn from the agenda of the National Assembly. In a televised message on April 22, Sargsyan declared that this decision was made due to the policy of Turkey “to protract time” aimed  at undermining the process of ratifying the protocols “in a reasonable time and without preconditions”, as previously agreed. In an interview with Armenian Public TV on April 26, Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian commented this move as a refusal of Armenia “to continue the process for the sake of process only”.

Mass disorder in the Maevka village near Bishkek led to lootings and the death of several people. Attempts by unknown land squatters to illegally seize land that belonged to the ethnic Turks of Maevka resulted in tensions between the titular nation and members of the ethnic minority. A number of attacks on the property and rights of the minority are seen as increasing the risk of violent inter-ethnic conflict, especially in light of the weak Kyrgyz government. However, some claim this possibility is exaggerated and, in some cases, artificially stirred up.

On April 19, 2010, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan arrived to Moscow for a two-day visit. Several observers related the visit to the recent events in Kyrgyzstan, as if Uzbekistan was seeking support of Russia in an unstable situation in the region. However, the visit was planned back in December, but postponed due to the cooling of relations between the two states. The visit had several positive outcomes and shed light on the parties’ positions on certain issues; even though some observers argue that no important problems were resolved.