Ian Cobain | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | April 29

The Guardian - British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Leila Saralayeva | Osh, Kyrgyzstan | April 9

AP - Not long ago, she was a wife, mother and teacher. Now Dilfuza Mustafakulova is HIV-positive and has lost her husband and her job. Mustafakulova's baby son was among 72 children infected with the virus at two Kyrgyz hospitals. Sixteen mothers also have contracted it - in some cases by breast-feeding their children.

The scandal has led to charges of negligence against 14 medical workers in the impoverished former Soviet republic, where investigators suspect the children were infected by tainted blood and the reuse of needles.

Anna Hill | Norwich, UK | March 13

BBC - Scientists say poorer populations in vulnerable countries could starve if a disease called Ug-99 hits yields hard enough to push up wheat prices.

There is already a global wheat shortage and UN agencies are concerned about the impact of high food prices.

I can't help but to agree with Joshua here:

While I have become something of a broken record on Afghanistan, this is just appalling. Other countries in the region are incredibly important in the long term—and not just Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan is slowly gaining some warmth from the U.S. as it grants yet another cycle of amnesty, however temporary, to its human rights activists (a sad cycle we never seem to learn from). Kyrgyzstan has quite recently demonstrated a galling lack of security for radioactive materials—especially when headed for Iran. Speaking of Iran, they’re quite cleverly using the unbelievably cold weather in Tajikistan to slither into deeper defense ties with Dushanbe—right along the border with Afghanistan. And so on.

So what’s the deal, Washington? Mr. Bush? Why are you shorting a strategic region, and stomping on some of the little American goodwill left in the world?

This is why I write so little on international relations anymore because Iraq, as predicted by so many, has sucked the air out of any realistic discussion of what our real interests are.

Olga Tutubalina | Dushanbe, Tajikistan | January 29

AP - With electricity reserves depleted, officials in impoverished Tajikistan - where residents are enduring one of the coldest winters in 25 years - said Tuesday they would be forced to cut power to much of the country.

Supplies already have been cut off in many rural areas and are severely rationed in the capital, Dushanbe. Some residents are being limited to one to two hours of electricity a day, and the state-owned power company warned of more cuts.

Widespread shortages are a recurrent problem in Tajikistan, but a sharp drop in water levels at the Nurek reservoir, which powers a key hydroelectric plant, triggered the current crisis. Tajikistan is rich in water resources, but the unusually cold weather has frozen rivers flowing into the Nurek reservoir

My my my Admiral William Fallon kissing some Karimov butt. I guess the Andijan massacre of May 2005 was just a figment of Western imagination.

January 21

BBC - India has successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit, officials at the Sriharikota space station in southern India say.

The Israeli press is reporting that the satellite will improve Israel's ability to monitor Iran's military activities.

Indian officials that given these sensitivities, the operation was secret and carried out under tight security.

The Tecsar satellite - sometimes referred to as the Polaris - was put into space on Monday morning.

'Sinister tie-up'

Tecsar is said to have enhanced footage technology, which allows it to transmit images regardless of daytime and weather conditions.

Tsolmon's camp

Tsolmon's family are nomads, like 48% of the Mongolian population.

Towards the end of autumn, they camp in the steppes to the west of Ulan Bataar.

Tsolmon, his wife Bazar and Saruul and Erdene - the only two of their children still at home - live together in one yurt. Tsolmon's mother, Shuren, lives in the next door one.

Two other daughters live in Ulan Bataar - one is working, while the other is studying. more at BBC

Luke Harding | Tashkent | Dec 24

The Guardian - · Law flouted as leader prolongs rule yet again
· Dissidents condemn EU inaction over regime

Uzbekistan's autocratic ruler Islam Karimov yesterday tightened his grip on power, when he was re-elected president in an election condemned by opposition activists as illegal and a "farce".

Karimov won an overwhelming victory despite being ineligible to stand as a candidate, having already served two consecutive presidential terms.

Election officials claimed that Karimov's first term began in 2000 - despite the fact that he has ruled Uzbekistan for 18 years, first as a Communist party boss, and then, after independence, as president.

His government is among the most repressive in former Soviet central Asia. Uzbekistan, the region's most populous country, is at the hub of an energy-rich region that is the subject of rivalry between Russia, the US and China.

Dec 20

BBC -
Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have signed a landmark deal to build a gas pipeline.

The pipeline will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asian energy export routes, analysts said.

It also deals a blow to European Union hopes of securing alternate routes that would bypass Russia.

The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia via Kazakhstan and will be built by the end of 2010.

The trilateral agreement was signed in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.

Jen Skerritt | New Dehli | December 15

Ottawa Citizen - Canada's export of chrysotile asbestos to developing countries is "criminal" and is killing workers in India, medical experts in New Delhi warned this week.

Dr. T.K. Joshi, head of India's occupational and environmental department, said at least 100,000 factory workers and millions of construction workers across India inhale chrysotile asbestos every day. It's a toxic material that causes lung inflammation and, in some cases, cancer.

Canadian chrysotile asbestos accounts for one-third of all the asbestos in India and is used to make everything from concrete water pipes to metal roofing. The rest is imported from Zimbabwe, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Christian Caryl reviews Colin Thubron's new book, Shadow of the Silk Road, in the most recent New York Review of Books. In it he makes an excellent point on what it takes to travel the Silk Road today:

If you want to travel the modern-day Silk Road and live to tell the tale, then, it's a good idea to be on your guard against certain temptations. You'll need the gift of illuminating the achievements of the route's ancient civilizations even while deflating the myths they so easily encourage. You'll have to digest a huge, intimidating layer cake of history and cultural knowledge that encompasses the religion, economics, and art of long-dead societies as well as the subtleties and quirks of existing ones. You should succumb to the mystique of the artistic and historical fragments that remain while refusing to idealize the world from which they come. If you want to travel the whole way, moreover, you'll need a certain toughness, a bracing insistence on getting the story no matter how adverse the conditions. Command of several of the relevant languages certainly won't hurt. Be sure to stay on your guard, always ready to hold your own against curious customs officials or greedy cops. And above all, resist the urge to dismiss a messy pres-ent in favor of the traces of the past.

Many people have asked me, "why is it taking you four years to write this book?" Or this one: "why are you reading so many different and diverse books, like the Shi Ji or a History of Iran? Or the Shahnameh for crying out loud?" And my favorite: "why do you keep going back?"

Read the above paragraph again and you'll start to understand the extent of the enterprise I've embarked upon.

Tom Bissell wrote a wonderful book about Uzbekistan, one I enjoyed immensely.

He's a skilled storyteller, a natural raconteur. But his book lacked what the above paragraph calls for. Sure, he told the tale of Stoddart and Conolly, but everyone knows that one.

Why stop there when there are so many other examples, anecdotes and stories, more illuminative and fascinating and unsentimental.

As my father once said to me while we were in Shahkrisabz, Uzbekistan, the home of Tamerlame: "It makes you just want to keep going, on to the next destination, over the next mountain range, just keep going." It's a seductive place and only by traveling it do you come to know it.

The creation of settled life and the extension of it on the steppes was not simply a process of wave after wave of invader displacing one group and pushing them further down the line as most scholars present it. There is no doubt that this occurred, multiple times over the millennia, but it was much more complex than a simple wave washing over the vast empty spaces of Central Asia. And though it is a fascinating and largely true description if limited to Trans-Oxiana, my journey--and my dreams--was not limited to the land between the ancient Oxus and the Jaxartes, the modern Amu Darya and Syr Darya. My journey took me from the heart of the Byzantine Empire and the imperial capital of the Turks, Istanbul, along the southern shores of the Black Sea, through the Caucasus, across the oily Caspian, into Trans-Oxiana, heartland of the Timurids, and the first transmission site between East and West of paper, through the Ferghana Valley, breadbasket of Central Asia and birthplace of the first Mughal Emperor Babur, over the Torugart Pass into old Kashgar, skirting along the northern borders of the Taklamakan Desert to Dun Huang and the Jade Gate, the end (or beginning) of the Silk Road.

... well, any day, really. But I found today's post particularly interesting. The Giffen trial drags on slowly and scant news or discussion can ever be found. Steve LeVine puts more meat on that bone, and CA generally. -ww

Six Questions for Steve LeVine, Author of ‘The Oil and the Glory’

Scott Horton | November 7

Harper's - No Comment, which has been reporting from Central Asia for most of the last week, has taken a close look at Steve LeVine’s terrific new book The Oil and The Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea just out from Random House. The book is the result of a more than decade-long labor of love by Steve LeVine, now the Wall Street Journal’s star reporter for the oil industry. Steve manages to make a business tale read like a cross between Doctor Zhivago and a gothic novel. And he gives a great interview to boot.

1. Your book reads like a history of the development of oil in the Caspian Basin, from the first wells near Baku to the current large-scale international consortium projects in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. But you present it as something close to a gallery of rogues, in which some gain luster with distance and time. The play for the region’s riches looks to be a three-way affair in which established multinationals vie with sharp-elbowed rogues (the Deusses, Kozenys and Giffens) and the region’s political leaders. What is it about the Caspian region that has made it so attractive for the rogue business element?

It’s a pleasure to talk to you Scott. I’ve followed your blog since its launch as an emailed newsletter, and it’s superb.

There are Giffens and Deusses all over the world, in every type of business, and oil, because of the magnitude of the profit involved, has attracted more than its share throughout the history of the industry. Giffen and Deuss for instance had their forerunner in the 1920s in Henry Mason Day, a New York entrepreneur who bounced into Baku after the Bolshevik revolution and ended up as the personal trade representative for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. Lenin invited him to replenish the oilfields ruined by civil war, and, tromping all over the oilfield rights held by Shell’s Henry Deterding, Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and others, Day took the money and helped to revive Baku’s oil. And, like Deuss and Giffen, Day had his problems with the law. He had his demise in a little case called Teapot Dome, imprisoned for jury tampering.

Joshua Kucera | Oct 17

Eurasianet - And the square itself, which had been littered with the bodies of hundreds of townspeople killed by Uzbek security forces during a protest, is now just a pleasant small town scene with groups of teenagers talking quietly and families with children on bicycles and babies in strollers lingering under the soft electric lights. The City Hall, which was badly damaged in the attack, is completely restored. The movie theater, which was destroyed, has been rebuilt.

The Andijan tragedy in 2005 helped cause a rupture in relations between the United States and Uzbekistan which, while formalized in a strategic cooperation agreement, were already rocky because of Uzbekistan’s poor human rights record. After Washington demanded an independent investigation into the Andijan events, Uzbekistan shut down the airbase in Karshi-Khanabad that US forces had used as a logistics hub for operations in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Nevertheless, it’s apparently a common belief in Uzbekistan that the United States provoked the attacks in Andijan that led to the violent government response. Most people who are even lightly challenged on this point quickly acknowledge that it doesn’t make much sense. The initial justification that the Uzbekistan government gave for its harsh response was that the attacks were by religious extremists bent on installing a radical Islamist government – hardly the sort of thing that Washington supports. But the logic of conspiracy theories is usually convoluted, and this one is no exception. As one person explains: "If the religious extremists take over the government in Uzbekistan, then we’ll develop badly and be weak and then the United States will be able to take our resources."

The Uzbek government appears to be encouraging the circulation of such theories. A government-published book on display at my hotel in Andijan, called "Andijan Today," includes an account of the events that implicitly blames the United States.

Nicholas Birch | Oct 15

Eurasianet - Barely a decade ago, the city of Kars had to fight hard to ensure it was connected to a new improved railway line stretching east across Turkey from Ankara. Now it is set to be a transit hub connecting southern Europe to China, via the Caspian.

Given the go-ahead early this year by the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, after 15 years of hesitations, the $600 million Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line is expected to be completed by 2009.

In late September, 14 Turkish companies including construction giants Nurol and Tekfen presented bids for the 70 kilometer section of track due to connect Kars to the Georgian border. Turkey has ear-marked $300 million for the work. Gas-rich Azerbaijan has already given Georgia $40 million of a $200 million loan – to be paid back over 25 years at 1 percent interest – to finance its part of the project.

Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoglu sees the railway as a crucial lifeline for the city, one of Turkey’s five poorest. “Not so long ago, people joked about selling Kars off for a handful of lira”, he says. “Now we can look to the future with hope.”

Marina Kozlova | Tashkent, Uzbekistan | Oct 15

TOL - Uzbek migrants have few defenses against forced labor and abuse in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Farkhod Rakhimov needed help – and fast. The Uzbek national sent a letter to the Ezgulik human-rights group, the organization reported in September, saying he and several fellow countrymen had been compelled to work in Atyrau, a city in western Kazakhstan. There the Uzbeks, who worked as laborers to renovate a restaurant, were being held captive by a local resident.

“Two more Uzbek guys were brought here recently. They were caught [on their arrival in the city] and beaten; their passports were taken away,” Rakhimov wrote.

Vasila Inoyatova, Ezgulik’s chairwoman, told Transitions Online that the men are now free and that Kazakh prosecutors are dealing with that case. But Rakhimov’s situation is just the latest in a series of similar ones. Many Uzbek nationals leave their families and homes because of high unemployment rates and low wages in their native country and head to other former Soviet republics seeking work. What they find, however, is slavery.

Bishkeke, Kyrgyzstan | Oct 8

TOL/EurasiaNet - Some police officers in Kyrgyzstan find a ready market for their wares among the drug users they arrest.

Sitting on a bench near Bishkek’s largest needle-exchange site, a local drug user describes how five years ago he was busted by the police for possession of heroin. Instead of going to prison, though, he found a new dealer: the officer who caught him.

The police officer gave him his phone number and suggested the user buy from him. In the years since, this officer has been the user’s source for the 3 to 4 grams of heroin he goes through each day.

"They’ll bring it right to me," the man said.

According to a recent survey of drug users in Bishkek, 36 percent of respondents said they regularly buy illicit drugs from law enforcement officers. The survey of 250 drug users was conducted by Right to Life, a Bishkek civic group that supports people with chemical dependency. Respondents answered questions about different aspects of their habit, including who their suppliers were. [Right to Life has received funding from the Open Society Institute. EurasiaNet operates under OSI’s auspices.]

Left: Bukhara Tower of Death, Right: Militsia or Policeman

BUKHARA. I’m in Bukhara and staying at the Bukhara Palace which does not make a good first impression. A pile of concrete, it is conveniently located within easy walking distance of nothing. The service at the front desk is as charming as the architecture—a real taste of the total indifference which was the hallmark of Soviet service. The rooms look like they were decorated by the guy who failed to win the contract for Marriott’s Hot Shoppes cafeterias back in the 1970s.

David Trilling | Oct 3

Eurasianat - The road connecting Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, with the northern Fergana valley and the country’s second city, Khujand, is closed much of the year due to snow in the Anzob Pass. During that time, the route is only accessible by air, which is too expensive for most Tajiks, and thus inhibits trade.

In Soviet times, the main road connecting the cities wound through what is now Uzbekistan. Deteriorating relations between the neighbors has made this passage all but impossible in recent years. Thus, Tajikistan is split in two for several months every winter.

But an Iranian-funded project has promised to change that. Resurrecting Soviet plans dating from the 1970s, Iran has invested US $31 million in a tunnel that bypasses the Anzob pass, ensuring the North-South road can stay open all year. Construction of the project started in 2003. Contracted to Sobir International, an Iranian firm, the project is expected to cost $110 million.

Where the remainder of the construction funds comes from is anyone’s guess. From a look at the tunnel, it appears to have been built on the cheap.

The Iranians’ involvement is not solely a gesture of magnanimity to their Tajik ethno-linguistic kin. It is also connected with the geopolitical contest for influence now playing out in Central Asia. The maneuvering manifests itself in the construction of roads, bridges, power cables, and, most of all, pipelines. China, Iran, Russia, the United States and others are all vying for influence in the volatile region with strategic transportation routes and energy reserves. Photo Story and a bike riders risky ride: video

SAMARKAND. Even the most jaded tourist should find it hard not to be moved by Samarkand. The Registan (pictured above) is one of the great architectural wonders of the world. The city should be overrun with tourists, like Florence is every summer. While many cities have to invent reasons to entice visitors, Samarkand is an ancient city with fabulous buildings and history.

TASHKENT. The State Department sent me to Ubzekistan to speak about U.S. elections and the role of political parties. This week, I'll be writing about what I saw. The Ubzekistan government tracks the internet and attempts to block sites with unfavorable information about the government, so I thought I'd make it a little harder for them to find these diary entries by misspelling the name of the country.

It's not meant as as insult to the many people of this very interesting Central Asian country who were so hospitable and welcoming in their country. I should also mention that no one at the State Department or the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent asked me to do this. They were quite emphatic in response to my queries on this point, telling me that "You're an American. Let it rip. Write what you want."

The State Department recently sent me to the Central Asian county of Uz'bekist@n to speak about American elections, civil society, and democratic processes. Over the next week, I hope to post a series of diaries about my trip there.

Uz'bekist@n is a former Soviet republic and the apple has not fallen far from the tree. The odd spelling used for the country reflects my desire to make it a tad harder for their government, which follows the internet closely and sometimes tries to block critical sites, to track my posts. Additionally, I hope it will minimize difficulties for individuals and groups still operating within the country. I would appreciate if any links to these articles would do the same.

M K Bhadrakumar | Sept 28

Asia Times - Turkmenistan, the energy-rich gas powerhouse of Central Asia, was all but in Moscow's pocket, having agreed to allow Russia almost exclusive access to its vast reserves and exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin was poised to deal a death blow to Western plans to bring Turkmen gas to the European market bypassing Russian territory. Almost overnight, Turkmenistan appears to be responding to desperate US and European Union moves to recover lost ground. With Iran and China pulling in other directions, the great game has taken a dramatic twist.

Clive Nigel | Dushanbe, Tajikistan | Sept 18

TOL - Some observers wonder whether the president formerly known as Imomali Rahmonov is a cultist or a reformer.

Locals cynically call him “papa,” or praise him as their “king.” Some expats, meanwhile, call him “big head.” Whatever the moniker applied to him these days, Tajik President Imomali Rahmon is showing himself to be a man full of surprises.

This spring, the president unexpectedly launched a reform drive that aims to overhaul Tajik society, introducing new rules that extend into the farthest reaches of Tajiks’ private lives. Decrees mandated austerity and sought to substantially strengthen the Tajik national identity, mandating, for example, that all newborns be registered without the Russian suffixes, “ov” or “ova,” attached to their names. Rahmon led by example, dropping the “ov” from his own name.

Given the attention being paid to name changes and social engineering, many outside observers worry that Rahmon is taking Tajikistan in the same direction as Turkmenistan, where the former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov built a far-reaching cult of personality. Helping to buttress these fears is the fact that Rahmon, despite his insistence that others cut back on opulent displays, is building a massive official residence for himself.