TCA
BISHKEK (TCA) — The 30-strong Swiss delegation including representatives from parliament, cantonal governments and the private sector, headed by the Swiss Minister of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Mr. Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, visited Kyrgyzstan on July 13-15.
TCA
DUSHANBE (TCA) — Two media watchdogs have condemned a 12-year prison sentence against Tajik journalist Hairullo Mirsaidov and called for his immediate release, saying the charges against him for alleged financial crimes were politically motivated, RFE/RL reports.
In a July 16 statement, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the National Association of Independent Mass Media in Tajikistan (NANSMIT) said Mirsaidov’s sentence was “an extremely grave threat to press freedom in Tajikistan.”
Mirsaidov was sentenced by a Tajik court on July 11 after being found guilty of embezzling and misusing state funds, and of making false reports to police.
The 39-year-old Mirsaidov said the case against him was retaliation for his critical reporting about government corruption.
Mirsaidov’s arrest in December 2017 came shortly after he published an open letter accusing senior officials of corruption in Tajikistan’s northern province of Sughd.
“Despite the official denials, the extraordinary severity of this sentence shows that this trial was politically motivated,” said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
“We call for Hairullo Mirsaidov’s immediate release and for an impartial review of the case on appeal,” he said. “We also urge the Tajik authorities to guarantee the primacy of the law and the freedom to do investigative reporting on matters in the public interest.”
NANSMIT director Nuriddin Karshiboev said: “We followed Hairullo Mirsaidov’s trial closely and we saw how his criticism of corruption rebounded on him. This verdict has buried all hope of combatting corruption. No one will now dare to draw attention to corrupt behavior.”
Mirsaidov is an independent journalist and a former correspondent of Asia-Plus and Germany’s Deutsche Welle radio.
Mirsaidov also leads Tajikistan’s team for KVN, a stand-up-comedy competition that originated among university students in the Soviet Union and is still popular in many former Soviet republics.
His case has drawn international attention, with London-based Amnesty International describing him as “a prisoner of conscience who is being punished solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.”
In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said journalists like Mirsaidov “should be recognized for the important work they do, not locked up on bogus charges.”
TCA
TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan’s journalist Muhammad Bekjon has reunited with his family in the United States more than a year after being released by the government of the Central Asian nation, where he had spent almost 18 years behind bars, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reported.
Maria Levina
BISHKEK (TCA) — Considering that the World Nomad Games are to be held in 2018, it is expected that there will be a deficit of Kyrgyzstan’s state budget in the second half of the year, the Eurasian Development Bank said in its monthly macroeconomic review.
World Nomad Games
According to the Finance Ministry of Kyrgyzstan, it is planned to spend 306.3 million soms for the coming World Nomad Games (WNG) to be held from September 2 to September 8 on the Lake Issyk-Kul coast.
Earlier this month, the WNG organizers asked businesses and state organizations to provide voluntary financial support for the event. The State Ecological Inspectorate is still the only state agency that has allocated money for the Games. The Inspectorate’s employees transferred their one-day salaries to the account of the World Ethnic Sports Confederation in favor of preparations for the WNG 2018.
Meanwhile tickets for the third World Nomad Games are already on sale. Entrance tickets are strictly individual, with QR-codes. Tickets should be bought only for the opening and closing ceremonies (from 400 to 4.9 thousand soms). Entrance to other events will be free.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Tourism and Information Ainura Temirbekova believes that the upcoming competitions will outperform the past ones in 2014 and 2016.
At Kyrchyn jailoo, an ethno-town is being constructed. From 3 to 6 September, a cultural program will be held there including national songs and dances, clothing and food exhibitions, theatrical staging of Kyrgyz traditions and customs, yurt design and assembling, and folk crafts contests.
The WNG organizers will try to surprise and delight the guests. In 2016, the appearance of a thousand of komuzists at the arena of the hippodrome caused the spectators’ admiration. Komuz is an ancient Kyrgyz string instrument.
Foreign guests were more interested in customs and traditions of nomads than sports competitions. Therefore, this year the organizers decided to improve the cultural part of the program focused on both the external attributes of the nomadic life and the inner world and spirit of nomads.
However, the lofty intentions to hold a high-level international event are not fully implemented.
Scandalous road
Scandals are continuing around the construction of a ring road around Issyk-Kul Lake, on the shore of which the WNG will be held. Recently, the Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case related to the construction of the Balykchi-Korumdu road. According to the investigation, the Transport Ministry illegally used budget funds in attracting consulting services.
Construction of this road, estimated at 6.8 billion soms, is the only major project financed from the state budget. The construction project which began in 2015 and was due to be completed in December of 2017, was accompanied by corruption scandals.
In April of 2016, the scandal over this road led to the resignation of then Prime Minister Temir Sariev and Transport Minister Argynbek Malabaev.
The total length of the Balykchi-Korumdu road is 104 kilometers, and only a section from the 33rd to 104th kilometer has been completed.
Travel safety
The incident that took place on July 9 during rescuing tourists at the Southern Inylchek base camp of mountaineers revealed major shortcomings in the tourist sector in Kyrgyzstan. As a result of the helicopter crash, a mountaineer — a foreign citizen — suffered.
The Mi-8 helicopter, which belonged to the air defense forces of Kyrgyzstan, carried out a rescue operation. It had to evacuate climbers from the slope of the Khan-Tengri mountain peak. When landing, the helicopter fell on the port side due to a strong side wind.
The Khan-Tengri peak is located in the Issyk-Kul province of Kyrgyzstan, on the border with Kazakhstan and China, and belongs to the mountains of the northern Tien Shan. The South Inylchek base camp of mountaineers, from where the helicopter was supposed to evacuate the mountaineers, is at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level.
According the General Staff of Kyrgyzstan’s Armed Forces, a tourist company asked them to deliver help, medicines and food to tourists on the glacier. Helicopters of the Armed Forces should not be used to rescue tourists, this is the responsibility of the Emergency Ministry, but its only helicopter went out of order.
Losing image
Earlier this month, at a press conference in Bishkek, tour operators warned that due to the lack of helicopters, the tourist season could be frustrated, and mountaineering in Kyrgyzstan would lose its popularity. This year, there are no helicopters to ensure the safety of tourists in mountainous areas. Such a situation is developing for the first time for the 26 years of the country’s independence, they said.
Every year, more than 20 rescue operations are implemented during the summer tourist season, but now travel companies cannot provide them. Kazakhstan agreed to deliver tourists with its helicopters to the peaks of Khan-Tengri and Pobeda, but the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan did not allow this.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country, so many tourist routes pass through mountain areas. Currently, trekking and mountaineering tourism is gaining popularity but Kyrgyzstan must ensure the safety of tourists. Helicopters are also necessary to deliver tourists to the mountains, and tourists are ready to pay all expenses for helicopter services. In addition, there are tourists who would like to look at the mountains from the air.
About five thousand tourists from 18 countries applied for mountain programs in Kyrgyzstan this year. Tour operators fear that now tourists can include the country in their blacklist because it cannot ensure their safety.
Not only the tourist season may fail but the positive image of the country, worked out over the years, will suffer.
TCA
TASHKENT (TCA) — World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Cyril Muller reconfirmed the World Bank Group’s strong commitment to support Uzbekistan as it goes through a major economic and social transformation, and encouraged Uzbek authorities to maintain the impressive pace and scope of reforms, the Bank said.
TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — “Climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’ as it can result in poverty, food insecurity, illegal migration, social instability and bitter conflicts,” the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Yerzhan Ashikbayev, said last week at the open debate of the United Nations Security Council dedicated to Understanding and Addressing Climate-related Security Risks, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported.
