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KYRGYZSTANI President Almazbek Atambayev condemned the US yesterday for giving a human rights award to a hate speech convict.
Mr Atambayev said that the US State Department’s decision to hand its annual Human Rights Defender award to Kyrgyzstani activist Azimzhan Askarov was a “deliberate provocation aiming to flare up ethnic tensions.”
Mr Askarov was jailed for inciting ethnic hatred in 2010 following race riots that killed thousands of people in the south of the country during the coup against former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Kyrgyzstan withdrew from a 1993 co-operation pact with the US last week, saying that Mr Askarov was a dangerous criminal.
The award’s co-winner was the Venezuelan Penal Forum, which claims to provide free legal representation to those arrested during last year’s protests against the government but then charges them, claiming their cases are too complex.
