Thursday, February 16, 2012

Kazakhstan

Banned Kazakh Rally Ends Without Incident

Protester being arrested in Almaty on 26 February (AFP)

26 February 2006 -- A banned rally of some 1,000 opposition demonstrators has ended without incident in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty.

TEXT SIZE - +

February 26, 2006

The participants were paying tribute to the co-chairman of the opposition Naghyz Ak Zhol (True Bright Path) party, Altynbek Sarsenbaev, who was found shot dead on 13 February, along with his bodyguard and driver.

The crowd broke through police lines several times during their march to the main square, as authorities warned over megaphones that the rally was illegal.

Opposition supporters demanded that those responsible for the killing be brought to account. Some called for President Nursultan Nazarbaev's resignation.

Five security-service officers and the head of the Senate administration, Erzhan Utembaev, have been arrested as suspects. It's not yet clear if the security-service personnel were rogue officers or operating under orders.

(AP)

RFE/RL Central Asia Report

SUBSCRIBE For regular news and analysis on all five Central Asian countries by e-mail, subscribe to "RFE/RL Central Asia Report."

Attack Of The Cloned Websites...This Time In Uzbekistan

A website has been set up to mirror the site of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, in what could be a phishing scheme to harvest user information. More

A vendor in the central Bosnian town of Zenica sells heart-shaped cushions with proclamations of love for 1 euro each.

Love It (Or Hate It), It's Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, the Western holiday celebrating love, has become a global phenomenon over the past two decades. The fall of communism and the emergence of the Internet have helped February 14 become something of an unofficial international day of romance. However, not all the passions the holiday stirs are related to love. While some countries have openly embraced the holiday, others are attempting to ban it or replace it with local customs. More

Production and distribution of rap music is not officially banned, but it

Yo! Turkmen Rappers Flip The Script On Repression

For a growing number of Turkmen youth, rap music has become a way to express their daily struggles and inspire political change in one of the world's most oppressive countries. More