Uzbek TV
October 27

Uzbek President Islam Karimov left for Hungary on 27 October. Before the flight, the president talked to journalists on conclusions that should be drawn from the recent hostage-taking crisis in Moscow and said that nations must unite in maintaining security, Uzbek TV reported.

The president also stressed that some states are concerned only about their own safety and do not cooperate in strengthening security in neighbouring countries, the report said. Karimov also warned of dangers of international terrorism which is supported by extremist and religious centres around the world, the report added.

Correspondent: Tragic events in Moscow once more confirmed your prognosis that terrorism has no state borders, no nationality. What lesson should we, the whole of humanity, learn from these events?

"President Karimov: "Literally the next day after the events, a meeting was held in our office. Who was invited to the meeting? First of all power-wielding bodies, second, all those bodies that have a direct relation to, more precisely, have a responsibility for peace and stability, and protect people's tranquility. Not only protect, we have discussed the issues of, above all, preventing, or if you want, I want to use this word, warning about all those possible acts that can take place in the territory of Uzbekistan. We are not protected by any means from this evil, or, if you want, from this most cruel, inhumane evil that the 21st century has brought to civilization, to all those people who live on this planet.

"And we are being convinced over and over again that there is a concept of continuity of security. The security of Russia is our security, the stability of Russia is our stability, the tranquility of Russia is our tranquility, and the nations, territories or other nations are not separated. When we go into euphoria, "we are this and that". We have some neighbours who want to strengthen their borders with boundaries. I think they are very wrong. Borders must be strengthened not by boundaries but cooperation must be strengthened, cooperation between neighbouring countries in order not to let those who managed to pass through one territory, pass through another territory. So we could, with combined efforts, strengthen our common borders. Not only borders, but the special services should cooperate so we know in advance about all those underhand plots, plans that are being thought over.

"As Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has said absolutely correctly in his speech, this plan was arranged. The plan was drawn up not in Russia's territory, nor in Chechnya's territory, but far from its borders. And all these phone calls, and all these appeals, as time goes by many things will be cleared up, and I am sure it will all be disclosed. And all of it again confirms that terrorism in its true sense, especially international terrorism, its manifestation, if it were not supported by international centres, extremist centres, inhumane terrorist centres, religious centres, I think that it would be possible to stop all of it.

"The second new thing, if we talk about international terrorism and at the same time flirt too long with terrorism, I think it is a great misfortune, or if you want, a great tragedy, mistake. These heads of state that continue to play with terrorism, international terrorism: "Do not touch me and I will not touch you, let my territory be a transit, so you can pass through it to another territory and carry out your subversive activity, but for God's sake, I am ready to let you through, but do not touch us." I do not want to go into details, or say concrete names or concrete events, but our small event from yesterday, starting from 1999, shows that there are such attitudes, and moreover, efforts to save oneself at the expense of tripping someone else up, not thinking that will find you anyway. Maybe it is another territory where inhumane acts are taking place but do not think that you will be safe. When we talk about Central Asian territory, a territory where these nations have lived together for centuries, I do not think that leaders of these states, independent, sovereign, as we love repeating, must think that if their territory is highly strengthened, in their opinion, those who blow up the houses of peaceful people, who kill people, eliminate them, whose plans do not take into account any losses whatsoever among peaceful people will not enter. This is my second conclusion, it is a mistake, a serious mistake, a tragedy for those people to think that everything is fine here, but "at my neighbour's something else", and to make efforts to compare them sometimes.

"We are living in peace and so on, but if there is a war in the neighbour's territory, as there was in Tajikistan where the war went on for eight or nine years, one should not have disparaged it, should not have said "there is a war, we have peace", when address their nation, it starts from that. "But look around, look around, blood is shed there and there and there, but we have been having peace for several years. The only thing we did is that we maintained the peace and stability of all nations living within our territory!" When I hear all that, I think that a nation which is living on the other side of your border, and the border is conditional, if the nation is suffering, what sort of a moral right do you have to say that: "We have maintained peace"? The art of a leader is maintaining stability not only in his own land but to maintain peace around. Peace in your neighbour's is peace in your home. Stability of your neighbours means your stability.

"A lesson we should learn from the Moscow events, many issues come up here, a capital of such a powerful state, I can't think of any word, Russia is a powerful country. And suddenly terrorists invade the capital of such a powerful country, the centre of it, and impudently take such a number of people hostage, thousands of people, act impudently and try to dictate their terms. As Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin said today, they did not manage to bring Russia to its knees, and they will never be able to bring to its knees not only Russia, but any other nation. Overall, it is impossible to bring a nation to its knees. And those who think it is possible are terribly wrong. Conclusions from all this will be drawn, I have no doubts, but the call by Putin about the fact that this misfortune, tragedy should unite our nations, I want to add to that not only nations, but to all of those who empathize with you, all those who have become innocent victims. When a person was on his way to a concert, what was he thinking, what did that boy, that girl, or that young man. We are compassionate together, we empathize with them. The appeal to our nation is this: someone else's misfortune is our misfortune. That is the conclusion I would like to draw."

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