Sapurmurat Niyazov, the Kim Jong-il of Central Asia, left quite a legacy: a crumbling infrastructure, egregious human rights abuses, rumors of mass starvation outside the capital, and a personality cult capped by a funny name. Turkmenbashi, the father of all Turkmen, left some pretty big shoes to fill when he died last December. As a result, Gurbanguli Berdymuhkammedov, Turkmenistan’s second dictator and the world’s most powerful dentist, faces some serious choices. The first is how closely he’ll stick to his election promise of keeping Niyazov’s policies in place. There are many encouraging signs that President Berdymuhkammedov will open his country [...]
BANGKOK, Thailand — The quaint 1956 Hollywood musical “The King and I,” which most people might regard as innocuous, probably would have been banned in Thailand under broadening definitions of “national security” now being cited by military coup leaders to justify their increasing censorship. But in any case, the movie, starring the late Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr, is already outlawed under another device that curbs public opinion, the increasingly catch-all “les majeste” rule. Brynner’s singing and dancing routine has long been considered by the authorities to insult the institution of the Thai monarchy, and to distort Thai history. The [...]
Earlier this month, the government of Uzbekistan completed its ratification of the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (CANWFZ). The signatories of the so-called Semipalatinsk Treaty also include the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Although the accord could provide timely support for international nonproliferation efforts, the signatories still need to satisfy the concerns of Britain, France, and the United States regarding possible loopholes in its underlying treaty. Article 3 of the CANWFZ prohibits the signatories from researching, developing, manufacturing, stockpiling or otherwise trying to acquire a nuclear explosive device. Furthermore, they pledge not to allow other parties to [...]
