BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The president of Kyrgyzstan on Monday lambasted the United States for honoring a jailed Kyrgyz journalist.
The U.S. State Department earlier this month conferred a share of its annual Human Rights Defender award on Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek journalist and activist who is serving a life sentence in prison for stirring up “ethnic hatred.”
Kyrgyzstan, angry at the award, last week dissolved a 1993 cooperation agreement with the United States, saying that Askarov is a dangerous criminal.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told reporters on Monday that he views the award to Askarov as a “deliberate provocation aiming to flare up ethnic tensions” in the south of the country.