Rif-Obozreniye
October 19
fter listing biographical details of Uzbek Islamic opposition figures
Zubayr ibn Abdurahman, Juma Namangoniy and the late Abduvali
Ahmadaliyevich
Yoldoshev, the Kyrgyz newspaper Rif-Obozreniye examines where
organizations
such as theirs get their money from. It contends that most of the money
financing Islamic extremists in Central Asia comes from crime,
particularly
the international drugs trade, and that international terrorism and
international organized crime are two partners in an unholy alliance.
The
following is the text of the article published on 19 October.
Subheadings
are as published.
The history of extremists aspiring to the role of the Uzbek "Islamic opposition" dates back to 1991. Thanks to financial support from religious organizations in a number of Muslim countries, informal Islamic associations such as Tovba [Repentance], Adolat [Justice] and Islom Lashkarlari [Soldiers of Islam] emerged in the Fergana valley in 1991-1992, particularly in [the eastern city of] Namangan .
The leaders of the movement are as follows:
Zubayr ibn Abdurahman
Zubayr ibn Abdurahman "proved" himself as "chairman of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan [IMU] political council" during the Batken events [in summer 1999 and 2000 when IMU militants broke through from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan]. It was Abdurahman who faxed the Kyrgyz president [Askar Akayev] a jihad declaration.
Jumaboy Ahmadjonovich Khojiyev
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He is better known as Juma Namangoniy. He was born on 12 June 1969 in the village of Hoja in Namangan District in Namangan Region. After graduating from a Namangan agricultural vocational school in November 1987, he was called up for army service. |
He served with the Airborne Troops in Afghanistan and was demobilized in 1989. After returning home, he gained something of a reputation as a "hard" man. At the same time, like Tohir Yoldoshev, he studied with [Andizhan imam] Abduvali Mirzoyev's khujra [cell]. These two things brought him to the attention of the Tovba organizers and they recruited him to an Islamic group.
By 1992, Khojiyev was already on the Uzbek law-enforcement agencies' wanted list for a series of crimes ranging from bandit attacks and robberies to contract killings. He fled to Tajikistan, where he joined Islamic groups fighting against the central government and became a very close associate of Tohir Yoldoshev.
In February 1993, Namangoniy was in Afghanistan again, but now with the so-called Tajik "government in exile" led by [United Tajik Opposition, (UTO), leader] Sayed Abdullo Nuri and [UTO deputy leader Haji] Akbar Turajonzoda. They appointed him head of the Islamic Movement for the Revival of Uzbekistan [IMRU] and deputy chairman of the Movement for the Islamic Revival of Tajikistan [MIRT].
While in Afghanistan, he received special training in mojaheddin camps in Takhar and Konduz Provinces. Later he visited Mashhad in Iran and Peshawar in Pakistan where the "finishing touches" were given to Namangoniy's image as a committed fighter for the triumph of the faith. He formed extensive ties among the spiritual authorities of the countries he stayed in but that wasn't all: representatives of the special services in these countries also established contacts with him.
After returning to Tajikistan, Juma Namangoniy opened a camp for training fighters in the Qarotegin valley [a UTO stronghold]. Namangoniy is one of the most prominent figures in the IMU. He enjoys influence among members of the United Tajik Opposition on whose side he fought during the civil war in Tajikistan. He is considered to be a recent friend and relative of the authoritative field commander Mirzo Ziyo, who went on to become head of the Emergency Situations Ministry (ESM) in Tajikistan's coalition government.
He is regarded as an expert in partisan warfare and sabotage. Namangoniy's combat groups have excellent equipment - nearly all kinds of small arms.
Juma Namangoniy and his fighters are directly involved in smuggling drugs from Afghanistan to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Apart from illegal drugs smuggling, Namangoniy is actively involved in the smuggling of weapons and ammunition as well as gold and precious stones extracted in the mines of Afghanistan and Jirgatol District of Tajikistan. This has enabled him to acquire houses in Afghanistan and Pakistan, notably in Kabul, Konduz, Taloqan, Tavildara and Peshawar.
According to our information, there are several peculiar restrictions on Namangoniy detachments. For example, they don't use their proper names but have different ones for communicating. Unapproved contact with civilians or fighters under other field commanders is strictly forbidden. For actions which Namangoniy regards as treachery, the threat of death hangs over not only the "traitor" but also over the whole group of fighters to which the traitor belongs. Sometimes Juma brags to his subordinates about huge sums of money which he receives from abroad. And even his fighters observe that Namangoniy's adherence to terrorist methods certainly isn't down to fanatical loyalty to jihad. He acts in return for large sums of money and on orders from foreign special services.
Abduvali Ahmadaliyevich Yoldoshev
He is also known as Abdulaziz. He was born on 16 March 1963 in the town of Haqqulobod in Namangan Region. He was killed in a night fight during terrorist action in Batken in southern Kyrgyzstan. He had been through secondary school. He knew Arabic as well as Russian and Kyrgyz. He dodged army service. He was married and had five children. He gained a distinguishing mark when he lost a finger when a grenade went off accidentally while he was still holding it.
He was one of the first members of the Tovba terrorist organization. He was involved in crime. Abdulaziz was in favour of filling the coffers of the organization ("bay-tulmola") through "amaliyet", or violent seizure (by means of theft, robbery and pillage) of funds from well-off people who had allegedly made their money by "dishonest means".
In 1997, members of Abdulaziz's group brutally killed the deputy head of Namangan Region (?E. Mamaljanov). In December of the same year an official from the Regional traffic inspectorate, (?B. Ubaydullayev), was killed to intimidate officials from the local law-enforcement agencies. But killing wasn't enough for them. The corpse was beheaded and the head was hung on the gate of the house of the deputy head of the Regional internal affairs directorate.
In 1997 Abdulaziz fled Uzbekistan where he was on the wanted list. Moreover, he shot two more officials from Namangan Region internal affairs directorate. Later he went to Pakistan and subsequently settled in Tajikistan where he became an instructor at Juma Namangoniy's Devonasuv camp. In due course Abdulaziz rose to become Namangoniy's personal "special envoy".
He trained fighters both in combat skills and in spiritual matters. Abdulaziz had the religious title of imam and as far back as 1989-1991 was an imam at a mosque in Chartak, Namangan Region.
Abdulaziz was the commander of the first armed group to announce its incursion into Batken District of Kyrgyzstan by taking the first four hostages (late July, early August 1999). He personally conducted negotiations on the terms for their release. At the initial stage of the Batken action, Abdulaziz's detachment consisted of 13 Uzbek fighters and eight mercenaries (five Tajiks, two Afghans and one Arab). Abdulaziz asserted that once he had broken through into Uzbekistan, he would be able to attract far more followers.
Abdulaziz was subsequently dismissed from commanding fighters operating in southern Kyrgyzstan. There are several possible explanations for this disgrace. One is that it was because of events which occurred at the main Hoit base in Tajikistan when 18 of 36 people, who wanted to leave the camp and return home, were killed. Abdulaziz himself, who was by that time the amir (head) of the Hoit base, beheaded one of those involved in this tragic incident.
After Abdulaziz was dismissed, Yunus Abdullajonovich Abdurahmanov (President) became commander of the fighters who were still operating in southern Kyrgyzstan. He was born in 1902 [as published]. He was also an active member of the Tovba terrorist group in Namangan in the early 1990s and was on the wanted list for crimes committed at that time. He headed the so-called committee of Uzbek refugees in Tajikistan.
Financing and foreign support
In attempting to resolve the problem of how to finance their activities, IMU extremists took an old and well worn path. IMU terrorist activity has several sources of financing which can be theoretically divided into two main groups - self-financing and foreign sponsorship. For self-financing, the main sources of income are crimes like simple racketeering and robbery, for which "amaliyet" is used as justification, and more complicated forms of criminal activity (drug trafficking via Central Asia as part of international drugs smuggling).
Jumaboy Khojiyev (Namangoniy) was once a habitual criminal and the chieftain of gang of thieves. However, this source of finance was typically used by the extremists in the early stages of their careers. Nowadays, the main source of criminal income is drugs, and smuggling them internationally from Afghanistan to Central Asia to Russia and then on to the rest of the CIS and Europe. Many acknowledged experts on both international terrorism and international organized crime think that the two phenomena are closely connected. They form a distinctive alliance in which each partner uses the other for their own tactical and strategic goals. Extremist organizations (local, national and international) are actively involved in the drugs business (primarily and most often), in the illegal sale of weapons and in the production and distribution of forged money. They use the funds thus obtained to buy material and technical supplies for their activities and to recruit and train personnel. Extremists are also starting to use illegal channels formerly used by strictly criminal elements for the undercover movement of people and weapons.