The Agonist - Asia: Central

Empires of The Silk Road

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:51:21 -0800

The publisher--they wanted me to review the book?!?-- recently sent me a copy of Christopher I. Beckwith's book, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. I've already read the book and have my own well worn, dog-eared, underlined and highlighted copy. So, the first person to email me at my personal email address--or a PM--I'll mail this copy to, if you are so inclined.

Book has already been claimed.

Another Outspoken Kyrgyz Journalist Attacked

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:14:30 -0800

Ryskeldi Satke | Bishkek,Kyrgyz Republic

http://english.ohmynews.com - Kyrgyz journalist Kubanych Djoldoshev suffered multiple injuries after being assaulted by unknown attackers at about 2 a.m. on November 1 in the southern city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan.
As Djoldoshev recalls, three men approached and beat him, resulting in a concussion and broken ribs.
The emergency staff at the local hospital described his condition as critical.
This is the latest incident in a series of hostile actions against freelance journalists and reporters in the country.
Djoldoshev has been working for the Kyrgyz branch of the RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) prior to his current assignment with a newspaper. The paper, Osh Shamy, has been critical of local authorities in the country's southern region.
The paper's chief editor, Turgunbai Aldakulov, said the beating was directly connected to material published by Osh Shamy on recent university student protests.
Aldakulov also said newspaper staff were threatened by associates of Osh city officials.
Colleagues of Djoldoshev -- fellow journalists from Osh Shamy and other news outlets -- gathered in front of the hospital where he was treated. They expressed their solidarity with injured reporter and voiced concern over current free-speech and safety issues in the Kyrgyz Republic.
There have been 58 registered cases of attacks against journalists since 2005 including two high profile murders of outspoken reporters and six who escaped Kyrgyzstan seeking asylum in Western Europe.

Who is seeing the real Afghanistan?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:20:48 -0800

Last week the Washington Post printed two letters from different sources who had spent time on the ground in Afghanistan that came to very different conclusions about the American presence there.

First, there is the letter from Matthew Hoh, the former Marine captain who had fought in Iraq and had recently taken a temporary foreign service assignment in Zabul province. One State department official referred to this area as, “one of the five or six provinces always vying for the most difficult and neglected.” Hoh had developed great misgivings about the war and had become so disillusioned that he chose to resign. Hoh wote in his resignation letter,

I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditure of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war…. The United States presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency.

Matthew Hoh has served his country bravely in combat and he has responded to a policy with which he disagreed by making the honorable choice to resign. His observations about the situation in Zabul province merit serious consideration. I wish that many others in the previous administration who had serious misgivings about policy but waited to reveal them until after leaving office had, instead, followed Hoh’s example.

Several days later, a letter to the editor appeared in the Washington Post from Benjamin Joseloff, an American serving as a fellow at the Afghanistan Legal Education Project. This initiative, started by Stanford Law students, is devoted to a helping Afghan universities improve the quality of their legal education. Joseloff writes....

continue reading Brian Vogt's post at http://blog.psaonline.org/2009/11/03/who-is-seeing-the-real-afghanistan/

Europe stoops to conquer the Uzbeks

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:17:11 -0700

M K Bhadrakumar | Oct 30

Asia Times - The worsening Afghan war has brought some good news for Uzbekistan. On Tuesday, the European Union announced it was lifting a four-year old arms embargo against Uzbekistan. The EU imposed wide-ranging sanctions in 2005 after Uzbek troops fired on civilians during an uprising in the city of Andizhan in Ferghana Valley, and Tashkent rejected calls by Western countries for an international inquiry into those killings.

Tuesday's decision completes an incremental process stretched over the past year or so on the EU's part to kiss and make up with Tashkent. The EU officials justified their decision with Tashkent's recently release of some political prisoners and abolishment of the death penalty. Amnesty International has promptly contradicted the claim with facts and figures.

Aside from the veracity of the EU claim, the reality is that Europe not only blinked first, it also bent its knees while doing so. Brussels kept a straight face, though, assuring the world audience that it would "closely and continuously observe the human-rights situation in Uzbekistan … [and] assess progress made by the Uzbek authorities."

All the same, the EU decision is a good thing. It underscores a new degree of realism often lacking in Western policy towards the strategic Central Asian region. The West has been far too prescriptive towards a region whose civilization dates back several centuries further than Europe's. Besides, the dogma regarding democracy and "regime change" was alien to the steppes and somewhat irrelevant at this point in time.

Are we seeing the end of the "regime change" ideology? The signals are tentative. Statements made by United States Vice President Joseph Biden during his tour this month of Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, hark back to the former president George W Bush era. But then, Biden was grandstanding in front of people upset over President Barack Obama's reversal on the Anti-Ballistic Missile system deployment in Central Europe.

....The fact that EU was making an exception that it isn't ready to contemplate yet for China should drive home the fact that the Afghan war is hitting the European capitals where it hurts.

As one Moscow commentator put it, Biden's mission was to "provide comfort to the distressed ... to heal the wounds of upset allies", by explaining "that the US would abandon neither its defense commitments ... nor the strong friendship … there will just be a political order in which Russia's interests hold more weight than under the Bush administration".

Indeed, the first detailed articulation of the Obama administration's Central Asia policy, as available from the major speech made by the US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns in Washington, DC, a fortnight ago, all but threw the "Great Central Asia strategy" that the Bush administration proclaimed out of the window. Burns's speech almost made Tuesday's decision on Uzbekistan at Brussels inevitable.

Burns paid no attention to "regime change" or democratization and instead the emphasis was on "a focus on mutual interests" with the Central Asian states "in a spirit of mutual respect, which means that we [the US] won't pretend to have a monopoly on wisdom, or seek to impose our system or to preach or patronize".

He explained this "blend of mutual interest and mutual respect" in terms of energy cooperation, increased trade and security ties and "practical cooperation" was based on the recognition that the countries of the region are "unique, independent, sovereign states, each with its own distinctive national cultures, experiences, people and economies".

All the same, Burns stressed the high priority the Obama administration attaches to the region and revealed that Washington has initiated "an effort to construct high-level mechanisms with each Central Asian country, featuring a structured, annual dialogue." True, he sidestepped Biden's combative tone toward Russia but then he implicitly suggested that the Obama administration wouldn't accept the thesis of "sphere of influence". Burns made not a single reference to Russia in his entire speech.

Arguably, therefore, the EU's decision on Uzbekistan has been taken in a holistic spirit taking into account many factors such as the Obama administration's new approach to the region, the promise of "reseting" US-Russia relations, energy security, trade and investment, and China's surge in Central Asia.

All the same, it should be traced first and foremost to the imperatives of the Afghan war, and only reminds us how far the war has transformed as a "bleeding wound" - to borrow former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's unforgiving words.

... as Afghan war beckons

As US seeks closer ties with Turkmenistan, government cracks down on students

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:05:30 -0700

Robin Forestier-Walker | Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan | Oct 28

CSM -

Turkmenistan has prevented dozens of students from travelling abroad to study at a US-sponsored university, and has harassed some that have come home.

The United States has in recent months sought to improve relations with Turkmenistan, the secretive former Soviet possession that is home to rich oil and gas deposits and straddles a strategically vital central Asian location, sharing borders with both Iran and Afghanistan.

But those efforts are being complicated by a government campaign against students seeking to study at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Some students have been barred from travelling abroad to the school and others have been subject to surveillance and harassment when they come home.

"What do you study, how do they teach you, and why do you study it?," are some of the routine questions that one student from Turkmenistan, who asked not to be identified to protect herself, is peppered with by Turkmen KBG officers every time she returns home from the AUCA in neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

She has been fortunate enough to make it back to campus. More than 100 of her Turkmen peers enrolled at the Bishkek-based institution are still trapped in their home country, denied permission to travel abroad.

The US State Department has recently taken up these students cases, but is coming up against a wall of post-Soviet intransigence.

Kazakhstan not a nuclear threat, official says

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:29:31 -0700

Peter Grier | Washington | Oct 20

CSM - A US intelligence report on concerns about Kazakhstan's nuclear deals is misleading, said the Kazakh government Monday.

A Kazakhstan government official says that, contrary to recent reports, his country is not looking to do nuclear deals with countries that have a mixed record on proliferation.

Roman Vassilenko, chairman of the Committee for International Information at Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says that his country does see itself as a potential nuclear power – but a "peaceful and responsible" one that has no interest in nuclear weapons or nuclear commerce with potential proliferators.

On October 15, The Christian Science Monitor published an article on a US intelligence report that expressed concerns about the geopolitical implications of some of Kazakhstan's nuclear deals.

Both the article and the report "seem utterly misleading", says Mr. Vassilenko.

Kazakhstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, returned 1,000 nuclear weapons soil to Russia following the dissolution of the USSR. It shut down a former weapons test site where the Soviets detonated 650 nuclear bombs, points out Mr. Vassilenko in an e-mailed response.

"Kazakhstan has clearly seen enough of nuclear horrors to be firmly committed to peaceful nuclear energy," he says.

Police brutality led to death of a freelance journalist

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:51:08 -0700

Ryskeldi Satke | Bishkek,Kyrgyz Republic | 09/28/2009

The Young Turks - Shocking case of slain outspoken journalist Almaz Tashiev reflects a current trend with human rights in Kyrgyz Republic which turned into a totally hostile environment for independent journalists and reporters as well as for ordinary citizens.Small country of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia has become a little known around the world since 2005 "Tulip Revolution".

Most experts in the region believed that "Tulip Revolution" was sponsored and supported by US State Department during G.W.Bush presidency through various local based NGO's and programs funded by US although americans had no significant problems with past kyrgyz president Askar Akaev.As Akaev brought down,the presidency in Kyrgyzstan was handed over by the opposition to Kurmanbek Bakiev who promiced sweeping reforms in the country including changes to a Constitution.Since then Kyrgyz state transformed from "Island of Democracy" in Central Asia to a notorious regime backed by russian political establishment of the Kremlin.

Kyrgyz journalists have been routinely intimidated,harassed,beaten and in some cases injured or killed under strangely similar circumstances.Attacks on independent reporters created a fear pattern in journalistic society that many outspoken minds had to leave the country seeking refuge elsewhere.For instance, in Western Europe.

Almaz Tashiev,32, was known as freelance journalist working for a few news outlets and kyrgyz language newspaper "Agym".He died in the hospital on July 12th.Doctors tried to save his life but due to unsustainable massive internal brain and body injures Tashiev has been pronounced dead after unsuccessful surgery.

On July 4th Tashiev and his friend went to the local police department in the Nookat county (Tashiev's home district) where he applied for replacement of lost passport that is a regular procedure in the Kyrgyz Republic.Further development described by witnesses of Tashiev's severe beating outside police station can only be called as an "absolute bacchanalia".

Radio Free Europe reported that Tashiev has been repeatedly beaten by group of 5 to 6 police officers.Some of the policemen were drunk as bystanders recalled.Kyrgyz newspaper Aki Press reports that policemen continued alleged beating of unconscious journalist for another 16 hours.

Tashiev was delivered to the local district clinic on July 5th at 9.35 am. Emergency workers described his injures as extremely life threatening.Victim suffered internal brain bleeding,heavy brain injury and concussion which 7 days later ultimately caused his death.He was treated at the clinic emergency room for four days after which on July 10th his condition dramatically worsened.Clinic personnel transferred journalist to the regional hospital where surgery took place.Two days later Tashiev passed away while being in coma.

Spokesman for the Internal Affairs Ministry of the Kyrgyz Republic announced discharge of the Nookat district police chief and open case investigation with arrests of two police officers allegedly involved in beating.

Relatives of died Tashiev demanded an arrest of all policemen who participated in crime. Residents of the town where beating scene took place are completely terrified by local police actions,says Cholpon Satybaldieva,one of the witnesses who owns a small grocery shop near police station.Satybaldieva says that locals have been avoiding any seens around police station and one of her friends told her to keep quiet or otherwise the shop will be burned down by accident.

Outspoken journalist Almaz Tashiev was buried on July 13th in his home town.

Summit may reshape Caspian bloc

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:25:26 -0700

Sept 11

Asia Times/IWPR -

A summit of Caspian states this weekend could foreshadow the emergence of a new regional economic grouping, according to Central Asia commentators.

On September 11-13, the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan will meet in the Kazakh city of Aktau, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The fifth country with a Caspian coastline, Iran, will not be represented.

Kazakhstan's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Serik Primbetov, told a press conference in Baku that the four presidents will discuss border issues and regional cooperation, the Caspian Energy website reported.

Analysts say that one of the main topics for discussion is likely to be Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to set up the Caspian Economic Cooperation Organization.

He first floated the idea last October, but after some initial interest, no further progress was made. Medvedev revived the plan at a meeting on Caspian issues in early August.

Experts say one of the Kremlin's motives for creating a regional bloc is to forestall plans by Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to export oil and gas to the West without it going through Russia.

Are US taxpayers funding the Taliban?

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:44:44 -0700

By Jean MacKenzie | KABUL | September 2

GlobalPost - KABUL — The United States Agency for International Development has opened an investigation into allegations that its funds for road and bridge construction in Afghanistan are ending up in the hands of the Taliban, through a protection racket for contractors.

Selected quotes from the article:

- "USAID’s Inspector General has only one investigator in Afghanistan and two auditors tracking the billions of tax payers’ dollars that go to NGOs in that troubled country."

- "One source, with direct knowledge of such payments, estimated the Taliban can take upwards of 20 percent from many contracts awarded in unstable areas, which would include about half of the country."

- "Precise amounts are almost impossible to pin down, but it is, according to those knowledgeable of the process, a conservative estimate that the amount going to the Taliban is in the tens of millions of dollars a year. If the allegation that the Taliban takes 20 percent off big contracts is true, it is possible the Taliban is receiving as much money from the billions of dollars in assistance funds as it does from what traditionally has been its leading source of income: drugs."

Oil stirs conflict on Black Sea

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:39:01 -0700

Roman Kupchinsky | Sept 1

Asia Times - Pipelines running along the bed of the Black Sea are the frontline for Russia in its attempt to impose its energy policies on the European Union. Now nationalism and alleged corruption over hydrocarbon resources beneath the seabed highlight energy anarchy on the EU's frontier.

There are still people in Kyrgyzstan who feel threatened by human rights organizations

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:07:32 -0700

Ryskeldi Satke | Norway | 08/28/2009

http://www.theyoungturks.com/s - Interviev with Ivar Dale,head of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Central Asia.

Ryskeldi Satke - On October 12 2008 you were turned back by Kyrgyz Border Control at the Manas airport in Kyrgyzstan refusing to grant entry into the country. There were no grounds presented by Kyrgyz Government officials to such move explaining reasons for ban.What's your side of the story?

Ivar Dale - When I arrived at Manas Aiport from Moscow on 12 October 2008, I had already been living in Kyrgyzstan for 2 years, and had an apartment and an office in Bishkek. As normal, the consular services issued a visa without any problems. However, when I went through passport control, I was told by the border guards that I was denied entry for 10 years, and would not be let out of the airport. A representative of the Presidential Administration came to the airport, but was unable to resolve the situation. The decision had been made by the security services a few weeks before, on the same day as I left Kyrgyzstan for a short vacation in Norway.

I spent 23 hours at Manas. Throughout the day, my lawyer came to the airport, and many of my Kyrgyz relatives. The border guards were kind enough to let me speak briefly to them. The next day, I was forced to board a plane to Istanbul. Later, I received a letter from the Kyrgyz State Security Service, where they declined to give any explanation why I was denied entry. They say this is “standard procedure in all countries”. This of course, is not true. Since then, the United Nations, Norwegian authorities, the European Union and the US State Department have all written to Kyrgyz authorities, asking that the ban be lifted. Unfortunately, none of them have received any kind of answer.

Ryskeldi Satke - Russian speaking blogs and media in Kyrgyzstan reported your activity associated with Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Kyrgyzstan as well as incidents around NHC office. Particularly, aggressive actions taken by Kyrgyz Law enforcement agencies against you. What's the background for kyrgyz authorities deep interest to your activity in Kyrgyzstan,your comment?

Ivar Dale - I think this question should be directed to the Kyrgyz authorities rather than to me. Nobody has ever explained to me why they went to such great lengths to force me out of the country.

My first trip to Kyrgyzstan took place in November 2006 to open a Representative Office for the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organization. As soon as I arrived, I went to speak to the Deputy Minister of Justice regarding our registration. He ensured me that there should be no problems for an organization such as ours. We held an opening conference, where the Minister himself participated, as well as many other Kyrgyz government officials. I felt welcomed in the country not only by regular people, but also by representatives of the authorities.

However, we soon ran into problems ? the list of required documents kept changing. I spent considerable time meeting with officials, and did absolutely everything in my power to ensure that everything was done exactly the way they wanted. One of the requirements to register a foreign organisation in Kyrgyzstan, is that you must present documents proving that you are renting an office space in the country. Hence, I rented an office in the center of Bishkek, and even used the guard service provided by the Kyrgyz police themselves. I made every effort to signal that the NHC only wanted to play a positive role in Kyrgyzstan.

In June 2008, the police and security services showed up at my office, saying it was illegal to have an office without registration. Obviously, there is a lack of logic here ?you can’t have an office without registration, but then you can’t register your organization without an office. This was the beginning of a very unpleasant string of events. I was brought in for questioning by the police repeatedly, and the security services started writing letters to various Ministries ? effectively making it impossible for them to deal with the situation in a sensible manner. I was threatened with deportation, and even got telephone calls asking me to come to interrogations on my wedding day.

Eventually, the police called me to the Sverlovskiy Regional Court in Bishkek, where I was accused of illegal work, and of having given “untrue information” in a visa application a year before. This last issue was particularly outrageous ? it was shown that someone with a poor knowledge of English had tried to imitate my handwriting. The court ruled that the document was a forgery and that I had done nothing wrong, and ordered that the case against me should be stopped.

We had hoped that this was the end of the story ? and officials in various Kyrgyz ministries also seemed happy that this mess had been resolved. Therefore, I was still more surprised when the security services decided to simply ignore the ruling of the Kyrgyz judge.

Ryskeldi Satke - What's the history of NHC work in Kyrgyzstan?

Ivar Dale - The NHC has been involved in Kyrgyzstan since 1998, reporting on human rights developments and supporting projects in that field. We also had election observers present during the Presidential election in 2005. In 2006, it was decided that we would open a Representative Office for Central Asia in Bishkek, and I was asked to lead this work.

One of our projects went on in the Colony Nr. 14 for Minors, where we had very good cooperation with representatives of the prison authorities (GUIN) and the Minsitry of Justice ? I myself was permitted to visit the colony several times and participated in fun activities for the young inmates on reading and writing. This is just one of many examples of how the authorities gave us extremely conflicting signals.

Ryskeldi Satke - Your look at human rights and free speech in Kyrgyzstan?

Ivar Dale - For a long time, Kyrgyzstan enjoyed a special position in Central Asia, as an ‘island of democracy’. Most observers agree that those times are over now. For whatever reason, it seems like Kyrgyzstan wants to fall into line with human rights practices in other Central Asian countries.

The development has been particularly negative over the past year, and I think we will see a further deterioration. Particularly worrisome are the new laws on peaceful assembly and the many arrests which have come as a result of that. Also, the continuous attacks on politicians, journalists and religious groups is a very bad sign. It’s pointing in a negative direction.

Ryskeldi Satke - Kyrgyzstan recently has received much of the attention in western world due to a massive fraud in presidential elections which was evaluated by OSCE as " dissapointment". What's your opinion on results of the July 23rd elections?

Ivar Dale - Since I am banned from Kyrgyzstan, I could not come to observe the elections myself. The NHC sent another representative from Norway. However, at the last moment, she was denied accreditation. The Central Election Committee wrote to us and said they had been told by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the NHC should not be accredited because we don’t have an office in Bishkek. This does not make any sense ? most international organizations that conduct election observation in Kyrgyzstan or any other country, don’t have offices there. There is nothing about this in Kyrgyz law either.

The conclusions of the OSCE after the election came as no surprise. Particularly the repeated attacks on the opposition before the election were disturbing. Such attacks should not occur in a democratic society. It is in the interest of everyone ? including those who are in power ? that everyone are given the chance to state their opinion and run their political campaigns in peace.

Ryskeldi Satke - There's report that kyrgyz police has been threatening you if NHC continues to work in Kyrgyzstan. Your comment on that?

Ivar Dale - There was a verbal threat from some police officers, nothing I care to think about. I just would like to see this ban removed so that I can visit friends and family as normal.

Ryskeldi Satke - Any specific details of your job in Kyrgyzstan which caused Kyrgyz Government to react in such manner against you?

Ivar Dale - One can only speculate what the reason is. Perhaps there is a particular project they didn’t like, or perhaps one particular official decided he didn’t like us. Or it could be just part of a general trend in Kyrgyzstan now, that the authorities try to hinder the work of human rights organizations.

It is important to note that I am not the only person to be banned from Kyrgyzstan ?only this past year, the same has happened with citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan, USA, Poland and the UK , all people working on democracy and human rights. This is a very sad development ? that the security services damage Kyrgyzstan’s reputation abroad in this manner. I don’t think they realize themselves how unfortunate it is.

What is certain, is that there are people in all parts of the government who agree that this situation is unnecessary and wrong, but who feel unable to do anything to resolve it. Many officials say that they wish they could help, but who probably are worried that they themselves could have problems if they got involved. I understand their concern, of course.

Ryskeldi Satke - There are quite a few NGO's in Kyrgyzstan concentrating its attention on human rights. Why NHC was picked by Kyrgyz authorities among? Is there a political aspect placed beneath the surface?

Ivar Dale - We are a small organization, so perhaps they figured it would be easy to close our office. Besides, there aren’t really that many foreign organizations working on human rights in Kyrgyzstan, and Norway has no Embassy there that can provide support to such organizations if they have problems. My impression is that there is a general trend in Kyrgyzstan now, that the authorities and others want to go after NGOs. We have seen this in the proposed amendments to the law on NGOs, which certainly would cause great problems for Kyrgyz NGOs also.

Personally, I find it very strange that in 2009, there are still people who feel threatened by human rights organizations, who believe that human rights activist represent some kind of danger to society, or that people who work there are spies or criminals. Hopefully, such attitudes will disappear in time. Organizations like NHC wish to contribute in a positive way. Fortunately, regular people in Kyrgyzstan understand that.

Ryskeldi Satke - I know that there is a group of Kyrgyz citizens demanding from Kyrgyz Government in an open letter to lift ban placed on you. Can you provide a little more info on this movement?

Ivar Dale - Yes, it was a pleasant surprise for me. Some friends from Kyrgyzstan decided to start a petition, collecting signatures from other Kyrgyz citizens to ask the President that my ban should be lifted. I have not received any response to my own letter to the President. I hope that this letter with signatures from Kyrgyz citizens can have an effect. Either way, I am really moved that so many people already have wanted to sign the petition. It means a lot to me personally.

Ryskeldi Satke - What's your current project with NHC and are you in touch with human rights groups in Kyrgyzstan?

Ivar Dale - At the moment, some colleagues and I are working on a report on the situation for refugees in Europe. The NHC continues its commitment to promote human rights and democracy in Central Asia, of course ? we are involved in many projects in the region. In September, we have invited about 30 observers from former Soviet republics, including Kyrgyzstan, to follow the Parliamentary elections in Norway as international election observers. I am very much looking forward to this.

We are regularly in touch with human rights groups from all over Central Asia. I consider them my colleagues and friends. There are many brave individuals working to promote human rights in the region, and I am very glad that I had the chance to get to know them all.

Ivar Dale: "There are still people in Kyrgyzstan who feel threatened by human rights organizations"

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:02:10 -0700

Interviev with Ivar Dale,head of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Central Asia.