Asia

In Uralsk it is hardly possible to buy an issue of the newspaper Respublika. The investigation proved that newspaper traders were ordered by unidentified officials not to sell the paper. City authorities said they have nothing to do with the issue. However all the traders state that they do not sell it because of threats.

Kazakhstan is pressuring independent Muslim communities to join the state-favoured Muslim Board. Asylkhan Nurmagambetov of the state Religious Affairs Committee stated that "mosques cannot be independent”. Just like any other religious organisation, because it belongs to a certain confession, it must be subordinated to a religious centre. Mosques also must do this". An official of the Muslim Board claimed that independent mosques "will breed terrorists". However officials were unable to explain what law demanded that mosques join the Board, or what proof there is for their assertions.

At Press Conference the founder of the Stan Production Company stated that in the last half a year the staff of Video Portal Stan.kz has been working under heavy psychological pressing on the part of official bodies. Limited Liability Company «Stan Production» is being under scrutiny of the tax inspectorate as well as financial police with no grounds for it. The inspectors scrutinize not only financial documents but also technological procedures.

Ramazan Esergepov, Chief Editor of Alma-Ata Info, being held in general regime prison in Taraz has been again refused to be transferred to penal settlement. This is the fifth refusal which he thinks to be groundless. He has problems to appeal against these decisions as he is not allowed to have a defence lawyer. 

On June 20 Saida Kurbanova, head of Pakhtakor district branch (Djizakh region) of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, published a statement reporting about summons to the district police department. Kurbanova was summoned to Pakhtakor district police department on June 02. There she was informed that Nargiza Mirzakobulova, a resident of Djizakh city, has filed a complaint against her and another activist Ziyadulla Razzoqov of Djizakh regional department of the Committee for Protection of Person’s Rights.

"Yusuf is going to die." That’s how Gulnora Juma, the wife of jailed Uzbek poet and political activist Yusuf Juma, summarized Juma’s plight at a recent discussion on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., the USA, jointly sponsored by Freedom House and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on June 22.

Yusuf Juma, who is currently serving a five-year prison sentence in Uzbekistan for “organizing an illegal gathering” to protest the rule of Uzbek ruler Islam Karimov, is regularly subjected to brutal treatment, according to his wife.

With escalation of violence against ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, those Kyrgyzstani human rights defenders of Uzbek ethnicity, who were monitoring and documenting the situation fell under great risk of persecutions and attacks by the Kyrgyz authorities.

Human rights defender and ethnic Uzbek, Azimzhan Askarov, was detained on 15 June in southern Kyrgyzstan. It has been reported that he is being tortured, denied medical care and his life is in danger. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately.

At about 2am today, another peasant leader in Negros Oriental was killed by the elements of the 11th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA).

At around 10:00 AM on 21 September 2010, a high ranking military official namely BGen. Eduardo del Rosario and Datu Ruben Labawan held a press conference at Apongcola, Anda Street, Davao. The said AFP General accused Kelly Delgado of masterminding a plot to liquidate the Eastern Mindano Command spokesperson, Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang, allegedly to avenge the abduction and death of Rebelyn Pitao, the daughter of Leoncio Pitao, a known New People's Army (NPA) commander.