Torokul Doorov

Police have confirmed the fact of mass fight on Friday night (June 22) in three Moscow locations. Around 50 people from the right-wing extremists had attacked against people from Central Asia and Caucasus (there were some people from Kyrgyzstan as well). One ethnic Armenian man was hospitalized with stab wounds. Police arrested more than 40 people. They coordinated attacks against foreigners. According to agency reports, they were from the Movement Against Illegal Immigration, which is well-known with its ultra-nationalistic activities and whose name connected with recent ethnic clashes in Stavropol. It’s difficult to find differences between this organization and wild skinheads… Today, Moscow police called up all political parties and movements to stop to encourage youth fighting against foreigners. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov pledged on Saturday that the city authorities "will not allow nationalist and chauvinist manifestations" in the capital and will "clamp down on al...

Today, I have heard that slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya posthumously awarded a “Freedom of the Press Award” of the U.S. National Press Club “for her fearless reporting on the behavior of the Russian military in Chechnya”. She worked for the “Novaya gazeta”, independent news-paper in Russia. In October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in the entrance of her flat building in Moscow. The killers have not been found yet.

Hello everybody, Janyl Jusubjan (Chytyrbaeva), a Kyrgyz journalist in Prague, wrote this interesting article about Kyrgyz actress living in Czech Republic Aiturgan Temirova. Many people may know A.Temirova from well-known Kyrgyz films “Ak-keme” (“The With Ship”), “Wolf’s hole”, “The secret night at Fujiyama”, etc. Personally, I couldn’t find A.Temirova’s any other full profile written in English. Therefore I’ve decided to share it with you.

According to the International Labour Organization, more than 200 million children in the world today are involved in child labour, doing work that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional development. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it. Child labour persists even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference, and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. While the total elimination of child labour is a long-term goal in many countries, certain forms of child labour must be confronted immediately. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work. The effective abolition of child labour is one of the most urgent challenges of our time. There are tens of thouthands of children are trying to support their families in a difficult life of poverty. De...

By Torokul Doorov On May 24, Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, presented annual report for 2007. The right group criticized Russia of intensifying pressure on civil society; independent media, turning a blind eye to the growing number of hate crimes targeting foreigners, immigrants and sexual minorities. As the flow of foreigners into Russia has significantly increased over the last years, the nationalistic moods amongst local populations are also growing. What are the reasons behind this tendency, how the government is coping with this problem? I reached up some local experts and labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, to find out more. “When walking in the streets, local people with children demonstratively avoid us or skeptically look at us as if we would hurt their kids. Perhaps they think of us as uneducated people as we often are treated by locals as ignorant. The other day, I was traveling by subway and heard two old women in the wagon talking to each other: “Can you be...

By David Nowak The Moscow Times Friday, June 8, 2007 When President Vladimir Putin signed a 2002 anti-extremism law in response to a wave of hate crimes linked to skinheads, critics warned it was a thinly veiled move to silence opponents. Five years later, evidence is mounting to support their fears. Renowned human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov, political analyst Vladimir Pribylovsky and political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky say the Federal Security Service has targeted them recently under the pretext of stamping out extremism. More liberal intelligentsia than White Power, these three Kremlin critics say they have been caught in a wider campaign to label anyone who disagrees with the powers that be as extremist. The investigations come as the Kremlin is being bombarded with accusations of stifling democracy from top European and U.S. officials, who have criticized its treatment of political opponents. Ponomaryov was questioned at the FSB's Lubyanka headquarters Monday over a spee...

Hello everybody! I want to share my impressions with you on last trip to Kaluga! We had a great Forum yesterday in Russian region of Kaluga. It’s about three hours far from Russian capital of Moscow. The Kyrgyz Diaspora in Russia “Kyrgyz Unity” had organized The International Forum of Kyrgyz Diasporas. I had a good chance to meet with some leaders of Kyrgyz Diasporas from Turkey, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Actually, I met some of them before in Kiev last February, so I was happy to meet them again, this time in Russia. Fantastic open place in a Russian forest, more than 32 yurtas (nomad’s tent), and Kyrgyz national sport “kurosh” (wrestling), national tradition “tushoo kesuu” (devoted with first steps of the child), and Kyrgyz national songs performed by Salamat Sadykova (People’s Artist of Kyrgyzstan) had just bewitched me… Now, time for some memories from that event: There was a long "symbolic" (with Kyrgyz and Russian flags) track to the main place And it was a beginning of ...

By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA The Associated Press Saturday, June 2, 2007; 7:18 AM MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan -- When Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits next week, he'll find pressure from Russia and China , as well as some Kyrgyz officials, to close this Central Asian outpost of American military might. The Manas Air Base was set up to support U.S. operations in nearby Afghanistan , but it is part of high-stakes contest for political influence being played out across a region with vast natural gas and oil reserves. Small, poor and politically unstable, Kyrgyzstan is nevertheless being aggressively courted by the United States, Russia and China because of its strategic location. Russia also has an air base in this former Soviet republic of 5 million, part of a regional security treaty. But tensions surrounding the air base have hurt Washington's efforts to gain favor here. There have been disputes over payments, a fatal shooting and the mysterious reported kidnapping of an America...

News from BBC: A video has appeared on the internet showing the first pictures of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston since his abduction in Gaza on 12 March. It is said to have been posted by the Army of Islam, the group that says it is holding the reporter. In the video, Mr Johnston says he is in good health and that his captors have treated him well. The UK Foreign Office and the BBC said they were aware of the reports of the video and were investigating. Mr Johnston, 45, was seized nearly 12 weeks ago in Gaza City on his way home. It is unclear when the video, which has appeared on the al-Ekhlaas website, was recorded. Mr Johnston, seated and wearing a red sweatshirt, calls for an end to Western sanctions that have been imposed on the Palestinian government and also talks about Iraq and Afghanistan. Until now there has been virtually no news about Mr Johnston. He was the only Western reporter permanently based in Gaza and his abduction has triggered appeals for his release from lawmak...