[Airbornelawyer]

From the RFE/RL Newsline:

Transcaucasia And Central Asia

• ARMENIA'S COOPERATION PLAN WITH NATO APPROVED
  NATO formally approved on 16 December the International Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) that Armenia submitted in June, according to PanArmenian Net on 17 December as cited by Groong.

• UN REGISTERS CONCERN OVER TENSIONS IN ABKHAZ CONFLICT ZONE
  In a 16 December press release, the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) expressed concern at the increasing number of violent incidents in the Abkhaz conflict zone, and about the apprehensions triggered among the district's Georgian population by Abkhaz arguments that they should adopt Abkhaz citizenship and serve in the Abkhaz army. UNOMIG called on both sides to cooperate in a crackdown on criminal activities, and reaffirmed its readiness to convene a high-level meeting to address security issues.

• KYRGYZ PRESIDENT SAYS U.S. TO PAY MORE FOR BASE
  A report by Bishkek Public and Educational TV on 16 December quoted President Kurmanbek Bakiev as saying that the United States will pay $200 million per year for its air base in Kyrgyzstan. In comments on 15 December, Bakiev stressed that Kyrgyzstan is not "bargaining" with the United States over the base, but rather seeking a new agreement under market conditions, Kabar reported. Kabar quoted Bakiev as saying that "in comparison with what exists today, the sum [paid for the base] will be several dozen times higher." He did not give a concrete amount, and the report saying that the United States will pay $200 million a year could not be confirmed. The "Financial Times" reported on 15 December that Bakiev wants to increase lease payments for the base from current levels of $2 million per year to $200 million.

Southeastern Europe

• NO PROGRESS IN LATEST ROUND OF TRANSDNIESTER TALKS
  Moldova and the breakaway Transdniester region have failed to make any progress in the second round of talks that concluded late on 16 December, international news agencies reported the next day. The talks were held in the "five plus two" format, with Moldova, Transdniester, Russia, Ukraine, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as full participants and the United States and the European Union attending as observers. The parties discussed six issues, Reuters reported, including an OSCE observer mission for elections, the demilitarization of the region, reforming the peacekeeping mission, and monitoring the military-industrial complex, and the security situation. William Hill, head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, said he was dissatisfied with the lack of progress, RIA-Novosti reported on 17 December. The next round of talks is scheduled for 26-27 January.

Southwestern Asia And The Middle East

• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WARNS OF WARLORDS DOMINATING AFGHAN PARLIAMENT...
  In a statement released to the media on 16 December, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed that many of the new legislators, including up to 60 percent of People's Council deputies, are directly or indirectly connected to current or past human rights abuses. According to HRW, in the Council of Elders, where one-third of the seats are appointed by President Karzai, new appointees linked to serious human rights abuses include former Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim; former Taliban government official Mawlawi Arasla Rahmani; and Sher Mohammad Akhunzada, who prior to his appointment to the Council of Elders served as the governor of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. "The international community will try to portray the opening of parliament as a triumph," HRW's Asia research director Sam Zia-Zarifi said. "But many Afghans are worried about a parliament dominated by human rights abusers."

• ...AND CLAIMS OF U.S. 'SECRET' PRISONS IN KABUL
  According to information from detainees at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan until 2004 where detainees were subjected to torture and other mistreatment, HRW said in a 19 December press release. Eight detainees now held at Guantanamo described to their attorneys how they were held at a facility near Kabul at various times between 2002 and 2004. The detainees, who called the facility the "dark prison" or "prison of darkness," said they were chained to walls, deprived of food and drinking water, and kept in total darkness with loud music or other noise blared at them for weeks at a time. "The U.S. government must shed some light on Kabul's 'dark prison,'" HRW researcher John Sifton said. According to HRW, most of the detainees claimed that they were arrested in other countries in Asia and the Middle East, and then flown to Afghanistan.

• NEO-TALIBAN STATEMENT ATTACKS KABUL-BASED TV STATION
  An e-mail statement sent on 17 December by the neo-Taliban, and later confirmed by purported neo-Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif, challenges reports by Western and independent Afghan media outlets, Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. The statement, which was sent to AIP by the "Taliban Islamic Movement Press Committee," claims that after ousting the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan in late 2001, the United States "not only established military bases, but also set up some propaganda centers under different names," and lists RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, and the Sulh and Arman radio stations. But the statement reserves its harshest criticism for Kabul-based Tolu Television. The statement rejects a report by Tolu that "claimed that famous Taliban commanders, respected Mullah Brother Akhund and respected Mullah Dadullah Akhund, were negotiating with the government" in Kabul. In their statement, the neo-Taliban tell "all those who seek credible reports about the Taliban" not to trust coverage from any radio or television station based in Kabul or the West.

• NINE FORMER REGIME MEMBERS REPORTEDLY RELEASED FROM COALITION CUSTODY IN IRAQ
  Arab and Western media reported on 18 and 19 December that U.S. forces have freed nine former members of the Hussein regime from coalition custody. Al-Arabiyah television reported on 18 December that the freed were to be transported to Amman on 19 December. Among those freed men are: Humam Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafur, the former Iraqi minister of higher education and scientific research; Ahmad Khalil Murtada, former transport minister; Sattam al-Qu'ud, a chieftain of the Al-Dulaym tribe and the former secretary-general of the Iraqi Intellectual Committee; and Asil Tabrah, who served as Uday Hussein's first deputy on the Iraqi Olympic Committee. Sheikh Majid al-Qu'ud, brother of one of the released detainees, told dpa that the nine were being flown to Jordan for security reasons after their names were found on extermination lists compiled by militias seeking revenge against the former regime, the news agency reported on 19 December. The other Ba'athist leaders released were Fadil Mahmud Gharib, Husam al-Alusi, Hazim al-Shaykh al-Rawi, Tha'ir Husam al-Din Muhammad, and Ibrahim Khalil Husayn, dpa reported.

• IRAQ-BASED JORDANIAN TERRORIST SENTENCED TO DEATH IN ABSENTIA
  Jordan's state security court sentenced fugitive Jordanian terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi to death in absentia on 18 December, Jordan's Petra news agency reported the same day. Two other terrorists were also sentenced to death -- one in absentia, the other is in custody -- for a failed suicide attack on the Al-Karamah border crossing in December 2004. A three-judge court said al-Zarqawi and Dhirar Ismail Abu Odeh helped plan the attack, in which Saudi national Fahd Nu'man al-Fahayqi attempted to drive an explosives-laden truck into oil tankers and other vehicles at the border crossing. Al-Fahayqi's truck landed in a ditch and the explosives failed to detonate; he was then captured by border police. The three men were also charged with the transport and possession of explosives and missiles. This is the second death sentence issued against al-Zarqawi by a Jordanian court; the first was in connection with the 2002 assassination of U.S. Agency for International Development official Lawrence Foley.