[inspic=35,left,,thumb] Recently, when I was surfing the internet seeking for newly emerged blogs on Uzbekistan, I came across to the blog From the Trenches of Adoption, kept by the Riebens family, who were planning to adopt an Uzbek child with a rare birth defect known as phocomelia of the legs. In the blog, they write about ups, downs and in-betweens of their adoption journeys to Uzbekistan. Since I found their blog, I have been closely watching it and supporting the Riebens in the adoption process. Today, the process is over and the Riebens, after having gone through complicated adoption process, finally achieved their goal –adopted an Uzbek child, who will be named Joshua Steve Ortyk Rieben.

The blog is very interesting and it would be a really good handbook for those who want to adopt a child (children) in Uzbekistan.

[inspic=34,left,,thumb] Most of you must have already heard of the recent murder in Osh city, Kyrgyzstan. Alisher Saipov, a prominent journalist, was shot dead on October 24, 2007. As Kyrgyz TV news (NBT) reported, Alisher Saipov was shot three times. One of the bullets hit Saipov’s head, which resulted in his death.

TOL (Transitions Online) is creating Alisher Saipov’s profile. This profile will cover how Saipov got into journalism, the work he did and stories he wrote, the challenges and dangers he faced during his short, but active life. This is an open call for people who knew, worked with, or admired Alisher Saipov to leave a comment about him – any information about Alisher’s personal and professional life, about his personality, his family, his future plans. If you had an honor to know Alisher, please, help us to create his profile that will contribute to immortalization his memory. We appreciate your help!

Editorial of Neweurasia expresses deep sympathy and condolence to Alisher’s family. This is surely a great loss.

[inspic=33,left,,thumb] Shocking news: Alisher Saipov, a famous journalist based in Osh city, southern Kyrgyzstan, is killed! According to Ferghana.ru News Agency (RUS) , where Alisher Saipov had worked for many years, the murder happened today, October 24, near the communal services center (Dom Byta) of Osh city at about 19:30 according to local time. Ferghana.ru reports that Alisher Saipov was shot three times from a gun, either pistol or submachine gun. Alisher was accompanied by his fellow Ikbol Mirsaitov, a member of the Institute for Strategic Studies under president. According to different sources, Ikbol Mirsaitov was not hurt, but deeply shocked of the murder.

I had a great honor to know Alisher Saipov personally. He was well-know not only in Kyrgyzstan, but in whole Central Asia for his excellent work as a journalist. Alisher Saipov was a great journalist, a wonderful person and a cool chap, who was always happy to help people, especially friends, and who never gave up in the face of obstacles. He always stayed loyal to his principles. And his principles were truth, honesty, honor and courage. As a journalist, Alisher Saipov achieved a lot. For many years he worked at Ferghana.ru News Agency. He has also contributed to online news and analytical sites, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Uzbek Service), Voice of America (Uzbek service) and from recent times at Uznews.net Information Service.

Alisher Saipov was a citizen of Kyrgyzstan. However, in his analytical articles and reports, he mainly covered Uzbekistan and Uzbek minority group in Kyrgyzstan, as he was an ethnic Uzbek. Alisher was a severe critic of Uzbek government after the Andijan massacre happened in May, 2005, and published several articles about slaughter. According to the Uzbek Services of BBC and Voice of America, Alisher did not hide the fact that he had been watched and traced by political circles and government security services. Therefore, many people believe that the murder may be ordered.

Police has already launched the investigation. According to Ferghana.ru News Agency, all the roads leading outside of the city are blocked and every car is checked. Whoever killed Alisher Saipov must be found and must take a stand in a trial.

[inspic=32,left,,thumb] Yesterday, to my great surprise and pleasure, I found out that blogs on the platform Blogspot.com are now accessible to internet users in Uzbekistan. Before, the platform was shut down due to the Uzbek government’s assiduous attempts to control the internet, especially blogs, as blogs are commonly used by dissidents and opposition to criticize the current regime in the country.

However, there are still some problems. One can open and read blogs on Blogspot, but its home base, where one can easily (in three steps) create a blog, is still shut down. It seems to me that Uzbek censors are playing a game “watch, but don’t touch.� But still, if it is not a show for some western delegation, which is currently visiting Uzbekistan with serious mission, opening access to the blogs on Blogspot is a huge step towards the freedom of speech.

To this day, only Livejournal blog platform was accessible and most active in the Uzbek blogosphere. The reason for accessibility, I guess, is that it is very rare when a livejournal blog discusses about politics of Uzbeksitan. The Uzbek livejournals are mostly devoted to more social or personal affairs.

WordPress is still shut down. It is, of course, bad, but I think, it is still a good indicator for Neweurasian blogs that they discuss the real problems that government has been neglecting in state controlled mass media.

Recently, US military publicized the new list of most wanted terrorists in Afghanistan. The list does not include Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who, according to US, are undoubtedly first rated terrorists. One of five listed with the top reward of $200,000 was a leader of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an ethnic Uzbek, who is now a prominent Al-Qaeda operational commander, warlord Tahir Yuldash (Tahir Yuldashev).

In Uzbekistan, Tahir Yuldash has a very bad reputation. He is known as a real “bad guy� always with a Kalashnikov machine-gun in his hands and with bunch of his followers with green bands on their heads with Arabic writings, who want to create a chaos in the country. This is all due to the information that mass media of Uzbekistan dispersed about IMU leaders, namely Juma Namangani and Tahir Yuldash, after the February bombings in Tashkent in 1999, when abovementioned IMU leaders allegedly made attempts to assassinate president Islam Karimov and then build a caliphate in Uzbekistan. Even though there were not clear evidences proving connection of IMU to the terrorist acts, Tahir Yuldash and Juma Namangani were portrayed in mass media as bad guys in Hollywood films, who were allegedly the reasons to all bad things happening in the country.

With the support of media, the government of Uzbekistan tried all possible ways to fight IMU, which to that time was already considered by UN as a terrorist organization. As a result the IMU leaders had to flee the country and base in the territory of Afghanistan, where they joined different local military groups, who had been fighting with each other for a long time. It is said that after the death of Juma Nanamgani, Tahir Yuldash took over commanding of IMU troops in Afghanistan, who later were involved in serious terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.

According to SWA Travel blog, ‘sixteen militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord [Tahir Yuldash] with a $200,000 bounty on his head were killed in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan’. It says that one militant was captured during the fighting. The captured told that ‘the militants from Uzbekistan and Chechnya were fighting under Yuldash’.

So, if you know where Tahir Yuldash is, I advise you either immediately contact US officials, get your money and ask for asylum somewhere in the west or just keep silence, as gangsters like to say in the movies – “you know too much…”

Some people in the west may think that Uzbekistan is a third world country where people still use horses and donkeys for transport needs. But it is not true. Uzbekistan is the only country in Central Asia that has automobile manufacturing plants – DAEWOO. Though, the tax on imported cars are really high, world’s famous brands like Mercedes Benz, BMW, Toyota, Audi, etc are very common too. The following video will show you what kind of cars Uzbeks like to drive :)

20 days have already passes since the murder Mark Weil, a legendary artistic director of the famed Ilkhom Theatre, who was reportedly killed by two young men near his house. However, police still does not have any substantial results of the investigation.

Police is reportedly doing its best in finding the murderers. As it was said before, people gave two possible reasons for his murder. First, political – Weil’s murder has to do with upcoming elections and his refusal to support the president’s daughter. Second, it might be an anti-Semitic attack, as Weil was a Jew and showed progressive ideas in his theater. However, police did not make any official statements about the reasons of the murder. Yet, according to Ferghana.ru News Agency, ‘detectives representing the prosecutor’s office, Interior Ministry, and National Security Service have concentrated on the domestic crime hypotheses’.

And here are the identikits of the murderers provided by police:

[inspic=30,left,fullscreen,150] [inspic=31,right,fullscreen,135]

I personally do not think that these pictures will be of much help. You can find a lot of people who have such face features. Moreover, I do not think that these identikits are real. They maybe fabricated, because the police had to feed the public with positive information. Otherwise, their competence would be questioned by people.

The most possible scenario, I guess, is that in near future police finds couple of guys with criminal backgrounds and claims their alleged guiltiness. And of course, they will admit their guilt and will be sentenced from 10 to 20 years of imprisonment. But what if they are not guilty at all and admitted their “guilt� under tortures, which happens quite often in Uzbekistan? Uzbek police is very good in finding ways out from delicate situations…

[inspic=29,left,fullscreen,140] If you have been closely following the news around the world for the past months, you must have already heard of the name Alisher Usmanov. A ferrous metal and mining tycoon, Russia’s 18th richest man, Alisher Usmanov seems to change the world by purchasing everything he can. Being one of the leaders of Gazprom, which has very shady reputation in business world, having a capital of $ 5.5 billion and having a 6 years prison term, Usmanov is one of the leading figures in Russian economic life and have very strong influence to the politics both inside and outside Russia. There are rumors that it is Alisher Usmanov who plays a role of a link between Uzbekistani and Russian governments, as Usmanov is ethnic Uzbek and was born in Uzbekistan (Namangan, Chust).

The reason why Alisher Usmanov’s name is constantly appearing in media is because of his recent three big purchases. First, Usmanov bought a right for the use of a collection of old Soviet cartoons and donated it to the newly emerged Russian TV channel for kids. Usmanov did not declare the cost of the bargain, but specialists say that it is not small number. Second, Alisher Usmanov brought back the famous collection of Rostropovich from France to Russia reportedly paying £20 million purchasing it before the auction. Third, Usmanov bought a 14.6 per cent stake in Arsenal for £75 million from David Dein, the club’s former vice-chairman. Don’t you think it is too much for the past two months?

There is another reason why the whole world, especially European blogging community, often talks about this shady figure. It is all because of the case when a blog of Craig Murray, a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, was censored and closed after he put very controversial post about Alisher Usmanov in his blog. In his post, Cragie Murrey accused Usmanov of being a ‘vicious thug, criminal, racketeer, heroin trafficker and accused rapist’, which of course caused a negative reaction from Usmanov’s side. The actions of the London law firm Schillings that specializes in media, internet, new media and particularly defamation law, and reportedly controlled by Usmanov, resulted in taking offline Murray’s and some other peoples blogs.

Bloggers of the whole world reacted to this very negatively. Everyone is talking about the human rights and freedom of speech. There is a blog especially designed with the sole purpose of debating on this issue.

The accusations that Craig Murray wrote in his post against Alisher Usmanov have shifted from online discussion to real politics, as Tom Wise, Member of European Parliament publicly said:

Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he [Usmanov] served a six year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Usbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rachimov, described as Usmanov’s mentor.

While foreign bloggers and politicians continue accusing Alisher Usmanov of being very shady person, Uzbek internet users support him (RUS). The reason is, first of all, him being Uzbek and secondly, him being a link between Uzbekistan and Russia, a relationship that is very important for Uzbekistan. In general, Usmanov has pretty good reputation in Uzbekistan. Moreover, there are rumors that Usmanov and president Karimov are close friends and bound by many common experiences.

Editor’s note: This post is part of neweurasia’s cross-blog survey about humour in Central Asia.

[inspic=27,left,,120] In 2006, I accompanied my Indian friend Salim who was doing food-stuff business in Uzbekistan during his visit in small village Osmat in Jizzak region.

During the lunch time we were quite free, and to make the passing of time interesting – he told that he is a professional Chiromancer (palm-reader, fortuneteller). Suddenly one lady in the café came and begged to foretell her future. To my surprise, Salim was telling the correct things about how much money she has got in her pocket, with which numbers they start and finish, her age, number of family members, etc.

In 15 minutes there were a big crowd to get her/his future foretold. Salim whisperingly expressed his surprise to see Uzbek people superstitious (he thought we are Muslims & would never ever allow foretelling).

Here he wanted to make fun of the teller and see people’s reactions to the lies . He started to tell to almost everyone that danger was coming close to his/her family. In answer to their question what should they do to prevent it, he told them to buy 10 lepyoshka (Uzbek bread) and spread to the poor people. He told this to every single visitor, there were about 20 people (among them were some Russian speakers who were Christians; he told them also to buy bread – not lepyoshka, but loaves of bread, because they are Christians)!

After half an hour there was a long queue of people standing in the not so big bakery of small village. In two hours all the bread were sold, all the loaves were purchased. People were so glad to be able to buy enough bread and stop the danger.

By the end of the day, after finishing business, we were returning to Jizzak city center. You know in small villages how people know where are you , what you’re eating, chewing, doing, etc? So, while leaving the house (from where Salim purchased 10 tons of nakud/high-quality yellow beans for export), a crowd of people met us and requested that we take their bread, give them to poor people on the way to Tashkent. They said there were no poor people wishing to take the bread, and they were so worried about the danger coming! Of course we said we cannot, but people started getting angry and said we had to take their bread. Salim looked at me, I looked at Salim. You imagine our faces. We had no choice. We had to take about 200 lepyoshkas and loaves of bread with us to Tashkent! :)

Have you ever seen Islam Karimov dancing? Probably not. Here is an exclusive video where Karimov dances to traditional song. Enjoy Mr. President’s dance, though he is obviously not a good dancer :)