On Tuesday, the London Telegraph reported that refugees fleeing Andizhan (a Fergana valley city of about 300,000, also spelled ‘Andijan’) agreed that the number massacred by Uzbek government troops was in the thousands, not hundreds, and denied that the protesters had any links to Islamism.[1] -- The Independent (UK) reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “ending an increasingly untenable silence” about the massive killing that began on Friday, had responded to the massacre by declaring that the Uzbek political system was “too closed” and saying that the U.S. had been urging Uzbekistan, an ally, to “make reforms, to make it possible for people to have a political life.”[2] -- The Independent noted that the U.S. “is also believed to have subjected captured terrorist suspects to ‘rendition’ to Uzbekistan -- whose record has been criticized by human rights groups, as well as Ms. Rice's own State Department” (indeed, the New Yorker reported in February that the U.S. outsources torture to Uzbekistan). -- In a background piece, the Washington Times reported Monday that a group of entrepreneurs in the Fergana valley whose prosperity was resented by “a handful of powerful groups intertwined with the government that effectively run the small part of the economy that is not in state hands” had been framed and imprisoned in 1999, and that the current protests were linked to this “drive for greater free enterprise, not terrorism.”[3] -- Ahmed Rashid of the London Telegraph placed the blame for the crisis on the Western powers: “The Pentagon established close relations with Uzbekistan in 1998, funding and training Uzbek troops to deal with Islamic extremists. The CIA and MI6 followed suit, helping to train and re-organize the Uzbek security services which are notorious for torture. After September 2001 the U.S. leased military bases from Mr. Karimov while Uzbekistan became one of 10 countries where the CIA has 'rendered' dozens of al-Qa'eda suspects in the full knowledge that they would be abused. U.S. diplomats and some of their British colleagues, such as Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Tashkent, fought a losing battle with the Pentagon and the intelligence services, urging them to push for reforms. Instead, more aid was showered on the Uzbek military and secret service.”[4] -- In February 2004 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “lauded ‘the excellent military-to-military relationship between Uzbekistan and the United States,’” Michael T. Klare has written. “‘This relationship,’ [Rumsfeld] continued, ‘is strong and has been growing stronger’” (Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum [Metropolitan Books, 2004], p. 138)....
1.
REFUGEES PUT UZBEK DEAD IN THOUSANDS
By Deirdre Tynan
Telegraph (UK)
May 17, 2005
Original source: Telegraph (UK)
KARA SUU, Kyrgyzstan -- Refugees who fled from the massacre committed by Uzbek security forces agreed on one thing yesterday: the number of dead is not 500 -- the most common reported figure -- but could be in the thousands.
As reports continued to come in of clashes spreading outside the town of Andizhan, a sergeant in charge of the bridge at the border village of Kara Suu said he believed that 2,000 had been massacred during three days.
There is no way to confirm numbers offered by refugees, but it seemed likely that when the truth emerges, the massacre in Uzbekistan, an American ally in the fight against terrorism, could become the deadliest assault on civilians since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
The Uzbek-Kyrgyz border at Kara-Suu was open periodically yesterday under the watchful eye of Kyrgyz soldiers armed with machineguns.
Kara-Suu, which is divided between the two former Soviet republics, was tense as traders hurried goods between the two sides of town, divided by a fast flowing river straddled by a makeshift metal bridge.
A few refugees from Andizhan remained in the town staying close to their Kyrgyz relatives and homes. Apart from the 500 believed dead in Andizhan on Friday, there were reports of further deaths in nearby areas.
Saidjahon Zaynabitdinov, the head of the local Appeal human rights group, said yesterday that government troops had killed about 200 demonstrators on Saturday in Pakhtabad, about 18 miles northeast of Andizhan.
Suvahuan, a mother of four in her 40s who fled the town on Saturday with her children, gave a harrowing account of the scene in Andizhan.
"They had snipers everywhere and they didn't care who they shot down. I saw hundreds of people dead in the street. I saw them shoot boys, women and children," she said. "They shot at the crowd like animals. They were firing at us from helicopters. People got confused running everywhere, trying to hide in buildings or behind cars."
Rakhmat, a trader who crossed the hastily rebuilt Kara-Suu river bridge, said he saw desperate refugees drown in the river swollen by spring rains. "President Islam Karimov took that bridge down in 1999 because he didn't want us trading in Kyrgyzstan, that's half the reason why there were protests in Andizhan, it was poverty not politics that drove people on to the streets.
"It was chaotic. I saw several people drown as they tried to cross the bridge. Anyone who says the protest was the work of militant Islamists is lying. It was the people, tired, poor, hungry people, not extremists, who took to the street. Anything else is Karimov's propaganda," he added.
The Kyrgyz department of defence last night hurried lorry loads of troops to the border area 15 miles west of Osh in the south of the country.
More than 2,000 Uzbek convicts, many of whom were imprisoned on charges of Islamic extremism, are still unaccounted for and are believed to be hiding in the Andizhan area 25 miles from the Kyrgyz border. The arsenal at Andizhan prison was looted of rifles and grenades, according to witnesses.
Kyrgyzstan has officially camped 560 Uzbek refugees in Jalal-Abad province, but many more are being housed by extended families and friends.
Gunfire was again reported in Andizhan last night prompting fears that Uzbek forces were flushing armed militants from their boltholes around the town for a final assault.
• Alec Russell, in Washington, writes: The Bush administration yesterday toughened its stance towards President Karimov, calling on him to ease his repressive control over the country. In the strongest language to date, the State Department said yesterday it was "deeply disturbed" by reports that soldiers in Uzbekistan fired on unarmed civilians.
2.
News
World
Americas
RICE BREAKS U.S. SILENCE ON UZBEKISTAN BY CALLING FOR REFORM
By Rupert Cornwell
Independent (UK)
May 17, 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=638940
WASHINGTON -- Ending an increasingly untenable silence, the U.S. has issued a call for reform in its ally Uzbekistan, where the government violently suppressed an uprising in the restive eastern part of the country last week.
The Uzbek system was "too closed," Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, told reporters on her way back from her weekend visit to Iraq. "We have been encouraging the government to make reforms, to make it possible for people to have a political life."
Her comments were Washington's first implicit criticism of the repressive regime of Islam Karimov, who has ruled the central Asian republic with an iron grip since it became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The delay reflected the dilemma facing the Bush administration, torn between the President's commitment to fostering democracy around the world, and its concern not to upset a government that is an important ally in the "war on terror."
The U.S. has a major air base near the southern town of Karshi, 80 miles from Afghanistan. It is also believed to have subjected captured terrorist suspects to "rendition" to Uzbekistan -- whose record has been criticized by human rights groups, as well as Ms. Rice's own State Department. [NOTE: On Feb. 14, 2005, the New Yorker reported: “Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, told me that ‘the U.S. accepts quite a lot of intelligence from the Uzbeks’ that has been extracted from suspects who have been tortured. . . . He said he knew of ‘at least three’ instances where the U.S. had rendered suspected militants from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan. . . . [H]e said, “They almost certainly would have been tortured.” In Uzbekistan, he said, ‘partial boiling of a hand or an arm is quite common.’ He also knew of two cases in which prisoners had been boiled to death. In 2002, Murray, concerned that America was complicit with such a regime, asked his deputy to discuss the problem with the C.I.A.’s station chief in Tashkent. He said that the station chief did not dispute that intelligence was being obtained under torture. But the C.I.A. did not consider this a problem.” --J.R.] "This is a country that needs, in a sense, pressure valves that come from a more open political system," she told reporters, claiming that the main priority now was to avoid further violence and assist refugees -- some of whom have taken refuge in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where its own President, Askar Akayev, was ousted by a popular uprising in March.
It is unclear who is behind the uprising in Uzbekistan. President Karimov blames it on Muslim extremists, whom he claims carried out a series of bombings in 2004. But many others say the unrest reflects a long pent-up demand for political reform.
International reactions have split largely along Cold War lines. Moscow, out to preserve its sphere of influence in central Asia, has sided with Mr. Karimov. But first Britain and the EU, and now the U.S. -- the strongest Western foes of the USSR -- are urging reform.
Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, also condemned the violence, and appealed to "all parties concerned" for restraint. He urged them to follow international humanitarian law and co-operate with a U.N. emergency team deployed to the region to assist refugees.
3.
TERROR CHARGES SEEN AS ANTI-CAPITALIST TOOL
By Christopher Pala
Washington Times
May 16, 2005
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20050515-103141-9957r.htm
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- U.S. lawyers and others familiar with political conditions in Uzbekistan say riots last week that left several hundred dead were the result of a drive for greater free enterprise, not terrorism -- as the government says.
A doctor in the Uzbek city of Andijan told the Associated Press that about 500 bodies were laid out yesterday at a school in the city, where police fired into a crowd of demonstrators on Friday.
Several hundred more people fled into neighboring Kyrgyzstan after the clashes, villagers said. Some reports yesterday said several soldiers were killed at the border crossing.
The demonstrators had been protesting harsh prison sentences sought for 23 businessmen accused of membership in a terrorist organization and of trying to overthrow the government.
But close observers of the case said by telephone yesterday that they thought the men had been prosecuted because the growing popularity of their free-market business practices had made them a threat to the government of President Islam Karimov.
They said a stifling bureaucracy makes it extremely difficult to start a business without paying for protection by one of a handful of powerful groups intertwined with the government that effectively run the small part of the economy that is not in state hands.
Uzbekistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, 114th out of 146 on the Transparency International ranking. It is also in the worst 10 percent in regulatory quality and rule of law, according to the World Bank, whose figures paint a steadily deteriorating situation.
In the impoverished Ferghana Valley, linked to the rest of the country by a single road over a mountain pass and heir to a long tradition of prosperity and trade, the government's oppression was particularly resented, the sources said.
Against this background, a businessman named Akram Yuldashev in 1997 created a loose association of observant Muslim employers -- ranging from market traders to factory owners -- aimed at making money while promoting the public good.
These businessmen, who named their group Akramia after its founder, pledged to pool their financial resources, donate money to the poor, and maintain a high standard of ethics based on religious values.
In 1999, the government jailed Mr. Yuldashev for 17 years, and late last year, it arrested 23 members of the group's leadership. They were accused of organizing a criminal group, distributing extremist literature, and organizing a banned religious organization.
Melissa Hooper, an Uzbekistan-based American lawyer who has worked with the Uzbek lawyers who are defending the 23, said the influence of Akramia's members posed a challenge to local government officials.
Will Trigg, a lawyer who follows religious trends in Uzbekistan, said Akramia members "want economic freedom, not revolution, so they can go beyond survival." "They have become the largest independent group of their kind in the country, they employ thousands of people in a very poor area, and they're very popular," he said.
4.
WESTERN POWERS MUST BEAR THE BLAME FOR UZBEKISTAN CRISIS
By Ahmed Rashid
Telegraph (UK)
May 17, 2005
Original source: Telegraph (UK)
LAHORE, Pakistan -- After President Islam Karimov's American-trained crack troops massacred an estimated 500 people on the streets of Andizhan, the Uzbek leader insisted that the victims were Islamic terrorists. They were not. But the real danger is now that Islamic extremists, rather than democratic forces, will exploit the power vacuum.
Much of the blame for the present crisis rests on the shoulders of the United States, Britain, and European powers who since September 2001 have refused to support democracy and instead propped up dictatorships in Central Asia.
Before 2001 the countries of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were a forgotten corner of the world. Their leaders and regimes had barely changed since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and they had refused to carry out desperately needed reforms.
The U.S. and Europe had little incentive to support democratic change in the region. Instead, the Pentagon established close relations with Uzbekistan in 1998, funding and training Uzbek troops to deal with Islamic extremists.
The CIA and MI6 followed suit, helping to train and re-organize the Uzbek security services which are notorious for torture. After September 2001 the U.S. leased military bases from Mr. Karimov while Uzbekistan became one of 10 countries where the CIA has “rendered” dozens of al-Qa'eda suspects in the full knowledge that they would be abused.
U.S. diplomats and some of their British colleagues, such as Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Tashkent, fought a losing battle with the Pentagon and the intelligence services, urging them to push for reforms.
Instead, more aid was showered on the Uzbek military and secret service. The harsh words the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, used to condemn the Uzbek regime on Sunday were almost exactly the same that Mr. Murray, who was forced to resign, used in his reports to the Foreign Office in 2002.
The overthrow of President Askar Akayev in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan last month represented the first break in this systematic repression in Central Asia. The Kyrgyz and the earlier Ukraine revolutions should have been a wake-up call for the West.
However, Mr. Karimov was well aware of the implications of these revolutions. Last year he started banning leading Western non-governmental organizations from operating in Uzbekistan, with little public protests from Western governments.
At the end of January 2005 Mr. Karimov issued a warning to Western ambassadors in Tashkent that he would use ''necessary force" to stamp out any democratic unrest in Uzbekistan. Still there was no significant change of policy in London or Washington.
Mr. Karimov's repressive system has ensured that all democratic parties are banned. Unlike in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, where there was an organized democratic opposition, [no] one has had democracy training in Uzbekistan.
As a result there have been many more underground Islamic extremist groups mushrooming in Uzbekistan, becoming organized and in the past taking aid from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the Taliban, and al-Qa'eda.
The best known group, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was routed in the 2001 war in Afghanistan. But its remnants under Tahir Yuldesh, now based in Pakistan, have been able to get back in touch with their supporters in Uzbekistan.
Nevertheless, the armed group that first attacked the jail in Andizhan were not extremists but relatives of 23 businessmen and traders on trial for their lives. The 23 were the first to be freed in the jail break and from then on the movement became a local popular uprising.
Meanwhile in Tashkent, Mr. Karimov is rumored to be extremely ill. But Western policies have ensured that even if he were toppled by an internal power struggle, his replacement would only be another dictator.
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