CENTRAL ASIA: Weekly news wrap

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ANKARA, 26 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - This week the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a possible flu pandemic, adding, however, that the timing and severity of it remained uncertain. As part of its efforts to prepare for, detect and mitigate the impact of such an event, the agency was creating an international stockpile of antiviral drugs for rapid response at the start of any pandemic, WHO Director-General, Lee Jong-wook, said.

In an agreement signed on Wednesday, Roche, a leading healthcare company based in Switzerland, agreed to provide three million treatment courses of the antiviral drug oseltamivir to the WHO, which could be provided to people in greatest need at the site of an emerging influenza pandemic.

The world health body also said it was carefully monitoring ongoing bird flu outbreaks in Russia, Kazakhstan and other parts of Asia, warning that the outbreaks could evolve into a global flu pandemic if the virus mutates into a form which could be transmitted between humans.

In Kazakhstan, long-time president Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Wednesday he would seek a new, seven-year term in an election slated for December, Reuters reported. Nazarbayev, 65, has ruled the oil-rich Central Asian nation for 16 years, from before it became independent in the 1991 Soviet collapse.

But Nazarbayev also dismissed the possibility of a popular uprising in Kazakhstan similar to those in other former Soviet republics that had brought opposition leaders to power in Georgia, Ukraine and neighbouring Kyrgyzstan over the past two years, saying his nation's economy was in better shape. Kazakhstan has enjoyed nearly 10 percent annual economic growth in recent years and has higher living standards than its neighbours in the region.

The head of the US military's Central Command, General John Abizaid, has held talks on security cooperation in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, AFP reported. Abizaid met Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov on Tuesday and with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov on Wednesday. In Turkmenistan "he reassured the president that the presence of the United States in this region is to stabilise Afghanistan - not to seek confrontation with any of the nations in the region," the US embassy in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat said in a statement.

Following talks with Rakhmonov, Abizaid told reporters the two had discussed "the security situation and partnership of the US with regional countries and our common interest in fighting drugs and terrorism." Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have both allowed US forces the right to over fly their territories since 2001, when the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government.

Abizaid's visit follows reports that Washington might be seeking to open a new air base in one of the region's former Soviet republics to support operations in Afghanistan, after Uzbekistan last month ordered Washington to close its air base in that country within six months.

The US gave almost US $60 million in aid to Tajikistan in the fiscal year 2005, with Washington's assistance to Dushanbe shifting from primarily humanitarian during the 1992-97 civil war to efforts to promoting development, the US State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

In response to the June 2005 transfer of responsibility for the Tajik-Afghan border from Russian border guards to Tajik border guards, the US is supporting a large programme to help Tajikistan defend its borders from the transit of weapons of mass destruction, illicit drugs and potential terrorists, the report added. Tajikistan remains a major transit point in the flow off illicit drugs from Afghanistan, the world's top opium producer, to western Europe and Russia.

Also in Tajikistan, a court on Thursday convicted the editor of an embattled independent newspaper, of theft in a case seen by observers as part of a crackdown on free media, AP said. Mukhtor Bokizoda, editor of the Nerui Sukhan newspaper, was found guilty of stealing electricity and sentenced to two years labour.

However, Bokizoda maintained his innocence, claiming he had been targeted for his paper's critical reporting. Authorities in the mountainous state effectively shut down Nerui Sukhan by closing its printing plant on 13 July, a move that prompted the European Union (EU) to urge the government to improve media freedom. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has also expressed concern about a media crackdown in Tajikistan ahead of the country's 2006 presidential elections.

[ENDS]