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Tensions between the authorities and the opposition have been heating up ahead of the parliamentary elections due 6 November in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In a statement in April the Council of Europe said the approaching elections would be a fork in the road where “we may become witnesses either to fair and free elections or a bloody confrontation between thousands in the Republic of Azerbaijan.”  (23-MAY-2005)

The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH), Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) and  Swedish Helsinki Committee (SHC) have joinly sent an open letter to the Azeri President  I. Aliyev concerning the recent detention of opposition activists. HRH, NHC and SHC called for the Azerbaijani Government to immediately intervene to create an environment for civil society to act freely and without intimidation all over Republic of Azerbaijan. (20-MAY-2005)

Nearly a decade ago, the Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa was drawn up to improve the situation of inmates across the continent. In an ironic twist, however, the capital that gave its name to the initiative has yet to meet the goals of the declaration. The same goes for the rest of Republic of Uganda. (21-MAY-05)
 

Ngawang Sangdrol – a Tibetan Buddhist nun and former political prisoner – made a visit to Republic of Poland. She came at the invitation of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights to give testimony to the current situation in Tibet and to appeal for assistance for her country. (20-MAY-05)

A death threat has been delivered to Soraya Gutiérrez Arguello, President of the non-governmental human rights organization Corporación Colectivo de Abogados ‘José Alvear Restrepo’ in Colombia. Please send appeals immediately. (21-MAY-05)
 

Many international free expression groups now believe the Tunisian government’s strategy is to isolate and intimidate its barristers and clear the way for advocates willing to toe the authorities’ repressive line. Index on Censorship was on hand to witness a tense stand-off between riot police and independent lawyers in Tunisia during the first week of May. Rohan Jayasekera reports from Tunis. (08-MAY-05)

In theory the combination of state control and limited access to the net should have barred Uzbekistan’s way to latest reports about the brewing revolt in the country, increasingly available in Uzbek and Russian online. But as report Daniil Kislov and Andrei Kudriashov, partners in Index on Censorship’s 2004 Ferghana Valley projects, that would be seriously underestimating the Uzbeks´ desire for information. (19-MAY-05)

The news about plans to present the descendents of Draza Mihailovic with the Legion of Honor, which the President Harry Truman awarded him with 57 years ago, within the next few days has deeply upset and shaken the democratic and anti-fascist public of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (19-MAY-05)

Official statistics indicate that around 700,000 people in the Republic of Uzbekistan use the Internet, less than three per cent of a population of 26 million. Independent sources estimate that it has even fewer regular users. Access to sites with an oppositional or even just a critical slant is blocked by service providers on instructions from the authorities. (19-MAY-05)