ASTANA (TCA) — The European Parliament on March 14 adopted a resolution urging Kazakhstan to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

The European Parliament called on the Kazakhstan authorities to “put an end to all forms of political repression, since the number of political prisoners in Kazakhstan has increased, and the right to freedom of association remains largely restricted in the country”. Taking note that last year the Kazakh authorities banned the “peaceful opposition movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan,” European Parliament members urged the government to end such actions.

They also called on the government of Kazakhstan to repeal its Criminal Code provisions on prohibiting ‘spreading information that is known to be false’, since they are used to charge and imprison civil society activists and journalists. The European Parliament members finally demanded an end to the Kazakh government’s harassment of and reprisals against journalists critical of the government and to the blocking of access to information both online and offline.

The European Parliament’s resolution welcomes the early release from jail of opposition politician Vladimir Kozlov in 2016 and other political prisoners, but insists that “all activists and political prisoners currently in jail” should be fully rehabilitated and immediately released, RFE/RL reported.

The resolution demands that Kazakh authorities end their crackdown on independent labor unions and lift restrictions on their activities.

“All forms of arbitrary detention, reprisals and harassment against human rights activists, civil society organizations, and political opposition movement” should stop, it adds.

The European Parliament also asked the EU diplomatic service to “proactively engage in trial observation missions, in order to monitor politically sensitive trials and politically motivated prosecutions and verify that the right to a fair trial applies to all.”

KABUL (TCA) — A senior Afghan official accused the U.S. special envoy to his country, Zalmay Khalilzad, of “delegitimizing” the Kabul government by excluding it from peace negotiations with the Taliban and acting like a “viceroy,” RFE/RL reported.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Deadly violence has broken out for a second consecutive day along a disputed section of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border after Kyrgyzstan restarted construction work on a controversial road in the area, RFE/RL reported.

An official in Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry told RFE/RL that one villager from Tajikistan’s Vorukh exclave in the Ferghana Valley was killed by gunfire on March 14 and two other Tajik villagers were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry says a Kyrgyz police officer was wounded by gunfire that was exchanged during the incident.

Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov’s press service says Jeenbekov and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon agreed during a March 14 phone conversation to push forward with talks on delineating their disputed borders and to launch a joint investigation into the shootings.

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev and his Tajik counterpart Kohir Rasulzoda also discussed the border tensions in a separate phone call on March 14, the Kyrgyz government’s press service announced.

The violence came a day after a Tajik villager was shot dead at the same location during a clash between residents of the Kyrgyz village of Ak-Sai and the Tajik village of Mehnatobod.

The villager slain on March 14 was named by Tajik officials as 37-year-old Rafouddin Teshaev.

The main directorate of the Tajik Border Guards said 43-year-old Tajik villager Husein Hakimov was shot dead on March 13 in a clash that left 11 other Tajik citizens hospitalized.

It said the March 13 clash began when dozens of Kyrgyz and Tajik villagers confronted and threw stones at each other near the construction site.

Tajik authorities said violence escalated quickly and gunshots were fired after a storage shed of a Kyrgyz villager and a flour mill belonging to a Tajik villager were set ablaze.

Kyrgyzstan said one Kyrgyz villager from Ak-Sai was hospitalized on March 13.

Kyrgyzstan has been attempting to build a new stretch of road in the area for years, stopping and restarting construction work repeatedly while negotiators from the two countries try to reach a formal border-delineation agreement.

Tajikistan insists the proposed path of the road cuts through disputed territory, and that the road should not be built until a deal is reached on the exact location of the border.

Officials from both countries said that construction work on the road had, once again, been halted while negotiators discuss the situation.

Many border areas in Central Asian former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.

KABUL (TCA) — The first shipment from landlocked Afghanistan through the Iranian Chabahar port has arrived in India, marking a new beginning of trade ties between the two countries, bypassing Pakistan, Sputnik news agency reported. The cargo arrived at the Mumbai and Mundra port on March 13 under the TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) Convention that enables shipments to pass through countries without being opened at borders.

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BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan is a faithful supporter and an active participant of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in various areas, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov said on March 13 during a meeting with newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Du Dewen, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — The civil aviation agency of Uzbekistan on March 13 said that the country has decided to suspend Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 aircraft into and out of its airports until further notice, after the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

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