News Digest

Polio outbreak in Tajikistan a concern
25 June
A polio outbreak in Tajikistan raises concerns the disease could spread to other regions in the world, an editorial in a Canadian journal says. The editorial, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says this is the first persistent outbreak of polio in a country that was previously certified to be polio-free and it is imperative that health agencies try to limit further spread by ensuring high vaccination rates. Cases are appearing in Russia and Uzbekistan. The current outbreak accounts for 75 percent of the world's polio cases and far exceeds that of India and Nigeria, which has had polio outbreaks. "Too many regions and communities have ceased to worry about polio," Dr. Paul Hebert, editor in chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, says in a statement with Dr. Noni MacDonald, public health editor. "As a consequence, vaccine uptake rates are all too often well below effective prevention levels." For example, in Ontario, childhood immunization rates are only in the high 70 percent to low 80 percent range -- comparable to rates in Tajikistan -- because of concerns about vaccine safety, anti-government views and religious strictures against vaccinations, the editorial says. (UPI)

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 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)

New Tajik Polio Outbreak Prompts Swift Measures From Moscow
29 May
The reemergence of an old disease in Tajikistan has led to an outbreak of a "polio war" between Moscow and Dushanbe. The dispute erupted after news emerged in April that the viral disease, which primarily spreads in areas with poor sanitation and can cause paralysis within hours of contraction, had returned to Tajikistan in a big way.  Two deaths resulting from polio have been confirmed in the Central Asian country, although Russian officials have placed the number as high as 15. Some 104 cases of wild poliovirus have been confirmed, and nearly 440 cases of acute flaccid paralysis, the most common sign of polio, have been recorded. In Russia, where hundreds of thousands of Tajik migrant workers trek for seasonal work, suspected cases have appeared among young children of Tajik migrant laborers in hospitals in Moscow and thousands of kilometers away in Angarsk, Irkutsk Region. These illnesses have led officials to introduce a number of measures to prevent the disease from spreading.  Tajik children less than six years of age, the most likely group to contract the virus, have been barred from entering the country and testing at border points has begun. In another move that threatens to further damage Tajikistan's already battered economy, imports of dried fruit were banned by Moscow. (RFE/RL)

Interim government opponents reinstate previous Osh governor
13 May
Supporters of former Osh region governor Mamasadyk Bakirov have occupied the local administration building in the city in southern Kyrgyzstan and have reinstated him as governor, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene. "We are not loyalists of the previous government," Bakirov told the media."We draw support from the people, who oppose the interim government and the current hectic reshuffling," he said. Police, deployed on the central square, are not intervening, according to the Interfax correspondent.  Several thousand Bakirov supporters have gathered on the city's central square. Sooronbai Zheyenbekov, the current governor, who was appointed by the interim government, is not inside the local government headquarters. He managed to leave the building, according to unofficial reports. (Interfax)

Georgian opposition, activists hold protests in Tbilisi
1 May
Georgian human rights activists and opposition members blocked a major street in central Tbilisi to demand the immediate release of political prisoners, RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus reports. The demonstrators first gathered on April 30 in front of the parliament building before blocking Rustaveli Avenue. The action was initiated by the nongovernmental organization Solidarity with Illegal Inmates.  Leading political opposition leaders attended the protest, as did Manana Archvadze-Gamsakhurdia, the widow of late President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. She considers her son, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, to be a political prisoner. He was recently sentenced to prison for attempted murder.
Opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze said there were at least 50 people in prison that the opposition considers to be political prisoners. (RFE/RL)

Karzai lashes out at West over Afghan elections
1 April
President Hamid Karzai accused the West on Thursday of trying to ruin Afghanistan's elections, intensifying a showdown with parliament over whether foreigners will oversee a parliamentary vote this year. Karzai's international reputation took a beating after a U.N.-backed fraud watchdog threw out a third of the votes cast for him in last year's presidential election. He is now wrangling with parliament and the United Nations over fraud protection measures for a parliamentary vote due in September."Foreigners will make excuses, they do not want us to have a parliamentary election," a defiant Karzai told a gathering of election officials. "They want parliament to be weakened and battered, and for me to be an ineffective president and for parliament to be ineffective." "You have gone through the kind of elections during which you were not only threatened with terror, you also faced massive interference from foreigners," Karzai told the officials. "Some embassies also tried to bribe the members of the commission." In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley rejected Karzai's accusations the West wanted to see the Afghan parliament weakened and for him to be ineffective. "We do not accept that judgment," Crowley said. What was important, said Crowley, was that Karzai be seen by his own people as governing effectively and that he take "measurable" steps against corruption. "Karzai has to step forward," Crowley told reporters. Karzai singled out Peter Galbraith, the American former deputy of the U.N. mission in Kabul, sacked after accusing his boss of turning a blind eye to fraud, and French General Philippe Morillon, head of an EU vote monitoring mission. "There was fraud in the presidential and provincial election, with no doubt there was massive fraud. This wasn't fraud by Afghans but the fraud of foreigners, the fraud of Galbraith, of Morillon and the votes of the Afghan nation were in the control of an embassy," Karzai said.He accused Galbraith of telling an election official he would be "digging himself an early grave" if Karzai was declared first round winner and said Morillon had tried to block the announcement of results to force Karzai to accept a political alliance. Galbraith told Reuters in a telephone interview that Karzai's accusations were "ludicrous." (Reuters) "It's preposterous of him to accuse me of fraud," said Galbraith, who also denied telling election officials anything except to follow published guidelines. (Reuters)