|
Inner City Press
Global Inner Cities Report - February 21, 2006
What is the Sound of Eleven
Uzbeks Disappearing?
A Lack of Seats in
Tashkent, a Turf War at the UN
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 21 – It emerged last
week that Ukraine has arrested and deported eleven Uzbeks, at the
request of the Prosecutor's Office of Uzbekistan, alleging involvement
in the demonstrations in Andijan last May. The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva last week issued a
press release stating that “UNHCR wrote to the Ukrainian
authorities [and] requested access to the detained Uzbeks.” It was
unclear if the request was only made to Ukraine, prior to the
deportation of the eleven, or whether such a request has been made in
Tashkent as well. On Feb. 20 in Tashkent, Uzbek prosecutors demanded a
12-year sentence for opposition activist Nodira Khidayatova, for
“economic crimes.” While Ms. Khidayatova’s trial was ostensibly open to
the press, authorities have barred journalists due, they say, to a lack
of seats.
On Feb. 21, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for the
Secretary-General for an update, as well as contacting UNHCR in New
York, and submitting questions in writing to Ukraine’s and Uzbekistan’s
permanent missions to the UN. By day’s end, the Secretary-General’s
spokesman’s office had provided to Inner City Press a response from
UNHCR in Geneva:
“On Friday UNHCR’s office in
Tashkent officially sought / requested access to the 11 Uzbek asylum
seekers deported from the Ukraine [sic]. We have not had any
official response yet.”
Observers
note that there are others who could make inquiries. Last month, Uzbek
president Islam Karimov announced that Russia’s Gazprom plans to invest
$1.5 billion in gas projects, including exploring seven prospective
fields on the seabed of the environmentally-ravaged (and shrinking) Aral
Sea. Just last week the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD) announced the completion of the sale of the second largest mobile
phone operator in Uzbekistan, UNITEL, to Russia’s Vimpel-Communications
for $200 million, noting that “EBRD was the smallest shareholder in the
equity consortium selling the company. The others were Germanos SA, the
leading Greek retail network of mobile service and equipment centers,
and its leading shareholder Mr. Panos Germanos.” More generally, of
Uzbekistan the EBRD's web site states that as "one of the largest
foreign investors in the country, the... Bank maintains continuous
policy dialogue with the government." (Citation below).
While as of press time neither the permanent missions to the UN of
Ukraine or Uzbekistan had responded to questions, UNHCR from Geneva also
replied concerning related events in Kyrgyzstan:
“The Kyrgyz authorities have for
the time being not taken (and will probably not for a month) any formal
political decision on the fate of the two Uzbek refugees who were not
recognized as refugees on Friday… Today the appeal of the two other
Uzbek refugees in detention in Kyrgyzstan will be reviewed on the second
instance. If the appeal is rejected the cases will go to the Supreme
Court.”
This is a developing story that bears following – not least, for the
sake of the eleven Uzbeks deported from Ukraine.
 Simferopol,
capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine, to whose
detention centre the 11 Uzbek asylum seekers were taken before being
deported to Uzbekistan
On the Web:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=43f5b0c62&page=news
(UNHCR online 2/17/06 statement)
http://www.ebrd.com/country/country/uzbe/index.htm (European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Uzbekistan page, stating
"Being one of the largest foreign investors in the country, the... Bank
maintains continuous policy dialogue with the government.")
* * *
Also at the
UN Headquarters on Feb. 21, there were dueling statements from the
United States’ Ambassador John Bolton (speaking, he said, in his
capacity as president of the Security Council) and South Africa’s
Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo (in his capacity as head of the G-77). Amb.
Bolton smirked at the press stake-out and said any country is free to
speak at the Security Council’s hearings on corruption in the
Peacekeeping procurement systems. Half an hour later, Amb. Kumalo
denounced encroachments on the General Assembly’s turf. Several
reporters asked why none of the G77 members on the Security Council
opposed the encroachment; Amb. Kumalo said he is not privy to the inner
workings of the Security Council. Inner City Press asked if, going
forward, the G77 members including those on the Security Council would
meet and agree to vote the G77 position. “They don’t run on a G77 slate
for the Security Council,” Amb. Kumalo concluded. Big times at the
United Nations…
A report from
last week:
Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment
and Electricity;
Lights Out on Privatization of
Ferronikeli Mines
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press U.N. Correspondent
UNITED
NATIONS, Feb. 14 – Following the UN Security Council meeting on the
status of Kosovo, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Kosovo, Soren Jessen Petersen, took brief
questions from reporters. He was asked, by Inner City Press, about the
status of electricity in Kosovo, in light of reports that some areas are
without power for up to 20 hours a day. He and then his spokeswoman said
that is not true. The spokeswoman, Marcia Poole, described a system in
which “areas” which have a record of slow or no payments for power
receive less frequent service that other, “better areas.” Prior to the
recent cold weather, the best paying areas, referred to as “A,” received
uninterrupted power (“theoretically,” the spokeswoman added). B areas
received five hours on, one hour off. The spokeswoman said proudly that
now the A areas have this five on, one off schedule, so that the
worst-paying areas, called “C,” now have two hours on, four hours off.
So rather than being without electricity for twenty hours a day, the
correct figure is sixteen…
The
allocation of electricity that an individual or family receives is not
related to the individual’s record of payment, but rather the records of
those among whom he or she lives. It is quite literally a form of
profiling – a practice that, given the history of Kosovo and the region,
one would think should be avoided. It is excused as related to the old
wiring system.
Neither Mr. Jessen Petersen nor his spokeswoman would answer questions
about the progress and transparency of the UN-overseen privatization of
Kosovar socially-owned enterprises. An early quasi-privatization inside
deal involved US AID’s creation of a bank in November 2001, and sale of
the institution in 2003 to Raiffeisen Bank. The most recent troubles
involve the conditional (and controversial) sale in November 2005 of the
Ferronikeli mines to Alferon/IMR, reportedly dominated by oligarch’s
elbow-deep in Kazakhstan. Three months later, the $40 million sales
price has yet to be paid. The reason given is the Kosovo Energetic
Corporation’s offer to Alferon, to let it import its own electric power,
has not been accepted. Close observers speculate whether Alferon is in
fact angling to buy a chunk of the Kosovar power system, Korporata
Energjetike e Kosovës, managed by the Irish company ESBI. Inner City Press will continue to report on this;
the response to its questions was a referral to
UNMIK Pillar IV in Pristina.
Developing…
  Jessen-Petersen
At the
previously scheduled noon press briefing, which Soren Jessen Petersen
had been slated to attend, the spokesman for the Secretary General, when
asked by Inner City Press about the recently screened video of British
soldiers beating Iraqi teenagers, said that such footage is “always
disturbing” but that “it is positive that the British government is
investigating.”
On the
Internet: http://www.unmikonline.org/
Some previous reports:
Abkhazia:
Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia, Even Terror’s Haven
Post-Tsunami
Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives
Halliburton
Repays $9 Million, While Iraq’s Oil Remains Unmetered
Darfur on the
Margins: Slovenia’s President Drnovsek’s Quixotic Call for Action
Ignored
Who Pays for the
Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN
Royal Bank of
Scotland Has Repeatedly Been Linked to Terrorist Finance and Money
Laundering, Not Only in the Current Brooklyn Case
From Appalachia
to Wall Street: Behind the Mining Tragedy, UBS and Lehman Brothers
Iraqis Absent
from Oil Oversight Meeting on Development Fund for Iraq, Purportedly Due
to Visa Problems
Watching the
Detectives: Oversight of the Development Fund for Iraq Will be Discussed
at the UN on December 28, 2005
From the UN
Budget, Transit Strike, to the USA Patriot Act, 2005 Ends with
Extensions
Some previous
highlights and special reports:
Citigroup
Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference
The United
Nations' Year of Microcredit: Questions & No Answers
Older Inner City Press
reports are archived on
www.InnerCityPress.org -
For more reporting about such topics as banks, predatory
lending, consumer protection, money laundering, mergers or the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), click
here for Inner
City Press's
weekly CRA Report.
Inner City Press also reports weekly concerning, among other beats, the
Federal Reserve,
environmental justice,
global inner cities, as
well as
on the United
Nations. Follow those links
for more of Inner City Press's reporting, or, click
here
for five ways to
contact us,
with or for more information.
©opyright 2006 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editors [at] innercitypress.com - phone: (718) 716-3540 |
