“The FBI has charged a Philadelphia man with threatening to shoot Sen. Joseph Lieberman.”

Would this headline interest you if it happened to be a random story about another crazy guy who decided to shoot a politician, as much as it would catch your attention if you knew that the guy was an ex-pat from Uzbekistan?

Dmitry Dyatlov, 23, blogged a violent message about Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. Special Agents went to his apartment after being alerted by the U.S. Capitol Police of a blog Dyatlov had posted a day earlier, threatening to murder Lieberman, according to court documents, reports NBC Connecticut.

Screen shot by TheBlaze.com.

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UK Embassy in Tashkent’s member of staff Leonid Kudryavtsev, who was found guilty by Mirzo Ulugbek Criminal Court of Tashkent, appealed to court’s decision in the same instance. As it was expected the court upheld the decision, reports Harakat.net.

A month ago, on July 15, Kudryavtsev was charged with “violating the order of holding meetings, rallies, marches or demonstrations,” (Article 201 of the Uzbek Administrative Code), found guilty and fined 80 times the minimum wage (UZS 3,978,800 or USD 2,300).

Plaintiffs, local human rights activists Olga Krasnova and Konstantin Stepanov, claimed that trainings, meetings and other kinds of events at the UK Embassy with participation of human rights activists were intended to train future extremists and God-knows-whom.

Court’s decision to upheld the first one can be a bold signal to Brits to re-think their position regarding criticism towards Uzbek authorities.

Even UK Minister for Europe David Lidington’s concerns regarding court’s decision on July 15, didn’t play any role in making the fine lighter.

“This is a revenge for British ambassador’s remarks during Queen’s birthday celebration this year,” says neweurasia’s source in Prosecutor General’s office. Read the full story »

Translator’s Note: Translated from Mashrab’s post (RUS).

The first days of Ramadan in Uzbekistan have started with large-scale arrests of the believers, reports Surat Ikramov, the Chairman of the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders (IGIHRD).The arrests have been reported in Bukinskiy rayon of Tashkent oblast.

According to IGIHRD’s press-release, Rano Shokirova, a mother of five from Bukinskiy rayon, appealed to their organization for help.

She told that on July 25, her husband Holmurod Shokirov, a religious person, had been arrested and taken to the militia station of Bukinskiy rayon and had been kept in the temporary isolation unit. In order to get the court’s sanction for Shokirov’s arrest, they had fabricated the charge. The mission involved the local militiaman Uktam Ibragimov and the officer from the Tashkent oblast’s Department of Internal Affairs – Ulugbek Mamasoliev.

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neweurasia.net (neweurasia.net)
Fergananews.com (fergananews.com)
Uznews (uznews.net)
UzMetronom (uzmetronom.com)
BBC (bbcuzbek.com)
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (rferl.org and Uzbek page ozodlik.org)
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (iwpr.net)
Reporters Without Borders (rsf.org)
Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj.org)
Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)
Amnesty International (amnesty.org)
StopDictatorKarimov (stopdictatorkarimov.com)
“Birdamlik” (Solidarity) Oppositional Movement of Uzbekistan (birdamlik.info)

… and the most recent to be added to the long list – even though they are both politically correct and not harshly oppositional:

Central Asian News Service (ca-news.org)

and

Russian Informational Agency Regnum (regnum.ru)

And the list goes on – of websites that are blocked inside Uzbekistan. Facebook was even once on that list – check out neweurasia’s Abulfazal’s story “Faceless government and bookless users”.

At a time the country prepares to host it’s most liberal and modern and connected of contests – “Best Internet café” (for neweurasia’s coverage, click here) – the Internet has again proven its fate in this restricted country and the censors have shown their colors yet again. Read the full story »

United Kingdom-based think tank, Maplecroft, issued the Terrorism Risk Index compiled by respected analysts.

According to the authors of the research, it has rated the new nation of South Sudan in the top five countries most at risk from terrorist attacks after Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The latest Terrorism Risk Index (TRI), released by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft, rates 20 countries and territories as ‘extreme risk,’ with Somalia (1), Pakistan (2), Iraq (3), Afghanistan (4) once again topping the ranking. The ‘extreme risk’ category also includes: South Sudan (5), Yemen (6), Palestinian Occupied Territories (7), DR Congo (8) Central African Republic (9), Colombia (10), Algeria (11), Thailand (12), Philippines (13), Russia (14), Sudan (15), Iran (16), Burundi (17), India (18), Nigeria (19) and Israel (20).

While Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are ranked “low risk”, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan were judged to be at “medium risk” of an attack (see the map).

To remind, earlier this year Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were included onto DHS’s list of “specially designated countries (SDCs) that have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members”. Read the full story »

A contest for the ‘strongest, richest and most desirable’ house coffee blend in Uzbekistan? No, not that sort of café – but yes – they could have had anyone fooled.

To start, here’s a bit of background about Internet in Uzbekistan and the use of Internet cafés :

A large majority of Uzbeks don’t have in-home Internet access due to its hefty price. One can get a plan for as cheap as $15 USD per month, or spend over triple the amount and get fast 6 gig traffic for $50 USD per month. One can even use phone cards to pay for their Internet access. With UzTelecom, one can buy a card and use it both for Internet and phone calls, and though they come as cheap as $2 USD or $3 USD each, they are only good enough to last for a day or two. At Internet cafés in Uzbekistan, one hour of being connected online will cost a minimum of 1,500 UZS (Uzbek Soms). When converted, $1 USD is equal to roughly 2,500 UZS, at the black market rate.

Now back to the Internet café contest :

The Uzbek Agency for Communication and Information (UzACI) and UzbekTelecom are joining forces to promote entrepreneurship quality ICT development – all in the name of public Internet cafés. The two companies are introducing the “Best Internet cafe in Uzbekistan” competition.

And though the contest winner gets free Internet for one year – one must wonder with access to how many websites does it come with? Or does it even matter – considering so many websites are censored anyway? Read the full story »

News of Ulugbek Kadirov, a 21-year-old man from Uzbekistan, allegedly making multiple threats to assassinate President Barack Husseyn Obama added confidence that Uzbekistan’s inclusion to Department of Homeland Security list of “specially designated countries (SDCs) that have shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members” (p.5 of the Report) was a right thing to do.

Urmat thinks that this was “an excuse used [by the U.S.] to fight terrorism and bombard Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Now they want to bombard Central Asia and become a monopolist on terrorism.”

While zuchra says:

“I think that the main criterion of the “terrorism evaluation” is the openness of the society…. if international observers and other organizations are not allowed inside, it means that anything may happen there; and, of course, irremovability of the regimes and voiceless pretests of people.”

Tashkent has not publicly objected to the inclusion to “terror” list like Kazakhstan had.

Along with the yesterday news about young Uzbek, who illegally stayed in the United States and expressed his will to sacrifice himself for the purpose of killing President Obama, raised even more concers of Uzbeks. Read the full story »

According to reliable sources, the Uzbek government project on creation of so called “exemplary mahallas” in Tashkent city is turning into a campaign of forcing the local businessmen to involve in charity supporting of this project, Tashkent-based Expert Working Group (EWG) reports.

On the eve of the twenty year anniversary of the National Independence Day of the Republic of Uzbekistan the authorities have announced all over the country a launch of a national competence “The most exemplary mahalla with all proper amenities of the year”. The Main Department on Architecture and Construction of Tashkent has clarified that each district in the capital city will get two exemplary mahallas which will participate in the nation-wide competition (At present Tashkent city is made up of 11 districts. There are approximately 12 thousand mahallas around the country. Each mahalla contains from 150 to 1.5 thousand families or households).

EWG refers to a special Decree of Tashkent City Khokimiyat (Uzbek for Municipality) adopted on March 29, 2011 #175, which approved a list of 22 mahallas which will represent the capital city in the contest of “Exemplary mahalla”. The Decree in particular instructs the district hokimiyats (government executive body) to develop action plans on implementation of the “Exemplary mahalla” project. Read the full story »

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva recently issued a press release on her official website criticizing the French Court and Rue89 not for calling her the “daughter of a dictator” but on the basis of Western celebrity. She is mad that Rue89 made claims – wrongfully and falsely, in her opinion – that actress Monica Bellucci was paid to attend Lola’s event to “whitewash her country’s image” :

“Mrs Karimova-Tillyaeva would like to use this opportunity to strongly deny and condemn the absolutely groundless, false and preposterous claims repeatedly made by Rue89 over the alleged payment made for a celebrity’s presence at a charitable event hosted by Mrs Karimova-Tillyaeva in April 2009.”

For neweurasia’s coverage on Bellucci’s attendance at Lola’s event which cost the Karimov family some $300,000 USD: click here.
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Translator’s Note: The following piece has been originally written by Solomon Tihonov. If you have comments/questions directly to the author, please refer to the original (RUS).

It has now been more than year since the tragic events in the south of Kyrgyzstan that have shocked not only Central Asia and the former Soviet Union, but also the whole world. That was at least the case with the global media that have propagated all over the continents about ‘the inhumane atrocities of one ethnic group against another’.

Without going too deep into the details (as much has been already said), let us yet again mention the fact that national commissions of all possible levels have generally been blaming ‘separatist Uzbeks’, ‘Tajik mercenary combatants’ and, naturally, the supporters of the ex-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who ‘had attempted to take a revenge for the April Revolution and bring Bakiyev back to power’. The most common were the blames against the ‘separatists’, who wanted the autonomy, but for some reason, restless Kyrgyz young men took revenge against civilians for someone else’s desire to split the native land. Not a single blame was based on the evidence, while no one has obviously guessed to check with the V.I. Dal’s dictionary for the definition of the ‘autonomy’, which is defined as ‘the right to maintain state power or rule independently according to the constitution of any part of the state’.

Yet, can one reconcile Dal and the Ala-Too?
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