Watchdog

Readers inside Kazakhstan can now access the website of RFE/RL's Kazakh Service for the first time since April 11. The blockage prompted expressions of concern by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Congress, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and numerous nongovernmental human rights and press-advocacy organizations.

Internet access to the website is provided by state-run KazTelecom.

"We're very impressed by the support shown by the international community for freedom of information and media rights in Kazakhstan," RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin said. "We never did get a reply or an explanation about the service disruption from the Kazakh government."

Service was also restored to RFE/RL's English-language website in Kazakhstan and RFE/RL websites in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan -- all of which use KazTelecom as their Internet service provider.

Uzbek human rights activist Mutabar Tojibaeva has been released from the Tashkent Women's Prison after serving almost three years of an eight-year sentence, imposed after she criticized the government's bloody response to the uprising in Andijon in May 2005.

Tojibaeva was not amnestied, however, and will continue to serve a three-year suspended sentence.

Tojibaeva, 46, told Human Rights Watch (HRW) after her release that she believes she was freed due to her declining health. She underwent cancer surgery in March.

HRW welcomed Tojibaeva's release but said her conviction should be annulled and that she should "be allowed to do her human rights work without further government persecution."

HRW says at least 11 human rights defenders are still imprisoned in Uzbekistan for politically motivated reasons.