Kyrgyzstan's Chechens Express Dismay and Disbelief
Region: KyrgyzstanResidents of Tsarnaev family’s home town say it’s wrong to hang blame on entire ethnic group. By Altynai Myrzabekova Zina Abdullaeva is a talkative, energetic woman who laughs as she describes how she and her husband have been inundated with requests for interviews about the Tsarnaev brothers, accused of carrying out the Boston bomb attack. The... more
Views: 666Kyrgyzstan’s Security Service to Monitor Websites
Region: Kyrgyzstan
By Timur Toktonaliev Media rights activists question wisdom of getting security agency to scour internet for hate speech. Observers have questioned the need for Kyrgyzstan’s security service to monitor websites to identify hate speech. The State Committee for National Security, or GKNB, is setting up a system to monitor the internet, with a particular focus on news sites with the .kg dom... more
Views: 1287Disenfranchised Youth Exploited By Kyrgyz Elites
Region: Kyrgyzstan
Political classes mobilize young people for their own ends. By Pavel Dyatlenko The weakness of central government in Kyrgyzstan has encouraged the growth of amorphous youth movements which are manipulated by sections of the elite trying to gain more power. Youth groups were at the forefront of Kyrgyzstan’s two revolutions, in which one president, Askar Akaev, was ousted in 2005 a... more
Views: 848Kyrgyzstan Government Authority Undermined By Opposition
Region: KyrgyzstanCentral authorities weak, vulnerable and barely able to manage provincial politics. By Timur Toktonaliev Kyrgyzstan’s recent history of springtime revolts, which in 2005 and again in 2010 led to presidents being ousted from office, created some trepidation about possible unrest this year. But a series of anti-government protests since early March have not ... more
Views: 1000Kyrgyzstan: Unchecked Nationalism Threat to Stability
Region: KyrgyzstanGovernment needs to take decisive action to contain ethnic tensions stirred by 2010 violence, leading rights activist warns. By Timur Toktonaliev Continued failure to enforce the rule of law risks will give the green light to extreme nationalists who could provoke further ethnic strife, according to Dinara Oshurakhunova, head of the Bishkek-based NGO Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society... more
Views: 1300Homophobia Endemic in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan
Region: KyrgyzstanPrejudic, abuse and fear of attacks keeps LGBT community in shadows. By Yevgenia Kim, Yekaterina Shoshina, Dina Tokbaeva, Umed Olimov, Olimbek Olimov, Mehrangez Tursunzoda When Alisher’s father discovered his son was gay, he beat him with an army belt, kept him at home for a month, then sent him from Tajikistan to a religious college in Iran to “knock th... more
Views: 3545Remaking Life in South Kyrgyzstan
Region: Kyrgyzstan
Eight months after their lives were torn apart by ethnic violence, people in and around Osh and Jalalabad in southern Kyrgyzstan are still struggling with the practicalities of rebuilding their homes as well as with the psychological trauma. These pictures, taken in February 2011, show scenes from the daily lives of Uzbek and Kyrgyz families who lived through the clashes in the sprawling city of Osh. An investigation... more
Views: 1212From Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Initial Coverage of the “Osh Massacre”
Region: Kyrgyzstan
On June 10, 2010, local clashes between the ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbek population in the Kyrgyz part of the Ferghana valley [EN] turned into a full-blown massacre and further exodus of the Kyrgyzstan-based Uzbeks [EN]. It seems that the conflict had been incited by the Kyrgyz organized criminal gangs in order to destabilize the region and might be connected with the revolutionary events in Kyrgyzstan two months ear... more
Views: 3050Cumpulsory Anthem Law Hits Wrong Note in Kyrgyzstan
Region: KyrgyzstanBy Anara Yusupova in Bishkek (RCA No. 592, 16-Oct-09) New legislation initiative making it compulsory for Kyrgyz citizens to stand and sing the national anthem whenever it is played has received an unenthusiastic response from the public. While the legislators who drafted the bill insist that the measure will increase patriotic feeling within the Central Asian republic, civil society leaders have dismissed it... more
Views: 1481Upsurge in Militant Presence in Kyrgyzstan
Region: Kyrgyzstan
Porous border makes country's south vulnerable to incursions, experts say. By Ainagul Abdrakhmanova in Bishkek and Abdraim Ysmanov in Jalalabad (RCA No. 582, 03-Jul-09) Kyrgyzstan’s porous southern border, compounded by the inability of its under-funded security forces to patrol it adequately, is helping make the country a destination for Islamic militants who are believed to be coming in from Afghanistan an... more
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