| February 13-February 20, 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Uzbek President says CIS security treaty inefficient
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The CIS collective security treaty has
proven inefficient, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan told a news
conference on Friday after a meeting with heads of two other Central Asian
countries.
The CIS collective security treaty was signed in Tashkent on April 15, 1992.
The treaty, involving nine CIS countries, expires this April, and its participants
are to decide whether to prolong it or to withdraw from it.
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President Karimov to take part in a Central Asian summit
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President Islam Karimov participated in a scheduled summit of the Central Asian
Inter-State Council, the members of which are Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan. In an interview to local journalists before his departure at the Tashkent airport, President Karimov said that measures taken to strengthen and tighten Uzbek borders are not welcomed by some neighbor-countries that until now have been travelling to Uzbekistan mostly for trade purposes. President Karimov said that Uzbekistan couldn't afford to feed the citizens of neighboring countries who cross the border to buy food. "They have their own independent country and president, who should take care of his people." President Karimov also ironically mentioned some of these countries' boast over having a purely democratic society. Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan had signed a treaty on eternal friendship. At the summit the leaders discussed how this treaty had worked in practice. According to President
Islam Karimov, all the three states were independent politically and should be independent economically too. "The treaty on eternal friendship was not designed in a way in which one state had to be a burden for another or one country had to feed its neighbor", said the president. | The government delegations of the three Central Asian states met following private meetings between the three presidents who disussed a wide range of issues. President of Kazakstan Nursultan Nazarbaev expressed his condolences to the families of victims from the bomb explosions in February 16 and said that the terroristic actions were aimed at President Karimov and Uzbekistan's sovereignty. Kyrgyz President askar Akaev shared Nazarbaev's concern. The delegations signed two documents that should regulate the fulfillment of the treaty on eternal frienship and should ease the consequences of the world economic crisis on the economies of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan. In a news conference President Karimov confirmed Uzbekistan's decision to withdraw from the CIS collective security treaty saying that it had not justified its original purpose when the territorial integrity of Uzbekistan was threatened two times.
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Karimov blames religious extremists for car bombings
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The president of Uzbekistan charged Friday that religious
extremists were behind a series of car bombings that killed 16 people in the
Uzbek capital of Tashkent earlier this week.
Islamic fundamentalists in the Central Asian nation have long been at odds with
President Islam Karimov, who narrowly avoided one of the explosions.
"The terrorist acts were carried out by religious extremists, fanatics," Karimov
told reporters during a visit to the neighboring nation of Kazakstan.
News reports in Uzbekistan have said Islamic fundamentalists were under
suspicion in the attacks, but authorities have not said there was any evidence
implicating them.
No one has claimed responsibility for the six car bombs, which exploded within
minutes of one another outside government buildings Tuesday.
The bombs were the most serious attack against the government since
Uzbekistan gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
Karimov, an authoritarian leader, came to power during the Soviet era and has
been Uzbekistan's leader ever since.
On Thursday, Uzbek police identified two suspects in the car bombings:
husband and wife Ulugbek and Dildora Babadzhanov from the Fergana Valley,
an Uzbek region with a strong Islamic tradition. Police appealed for help in
finding the two, but gave no further details on them.
At his news conference, Karimov described the attack in detail, and said his car
was within 160 yards of a government building when the commander of the
presidential guard, Rustam Adzhayev, approached him and ordered his driver to
stop.
Moments later, a GAZ-21 car loaded with explosives blew up directly in front of
the government building where Karimov was heading.
"Rustam Adzhayev saved my life," Karimov said, according to ITAR-Tass news
agency. "If he did not come to meet us halfway, my vehicle would have reached
the GAZ-21 in a few seconds."
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The cabinet reports on economic figures for 1998
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President Karimov
addressing the cabinet on 17 February, said GDP increased by
4.4 percent last year, industrial output by 5.8 percent, and
agricultural production by 4 percent, Interfax reported.
Monthly inflation stood at 1.9 percent, and the Central
Bank's monthly refinancing rate stayed below 3 percent.
Retail trade was up by 14 percent and consumer goods output
by 7.2 percent. Foreign investment last year totaled $1.3
billion, a 22.6 percent increase over 1997. Karimov noted
that the government hopes that this figure will increase to
$2 billion in 1999. The foreign trade surplus reached $240
million, which contributed to augmenting foreign currency and
gold reserves. Karimov, however, did not give a figure for
hard currency reserves. President Karimov
addressing the cabinet on 17 February, said GDP increased by
4.4 percent last year, industrial output by 5.8 percent, and
agricultural production by 4 percent, Interfax reported.
Monthly inflation stood at 1.9 percent, and the Central
Bank's monthly refinancing rate stayed below 3 percent.
Retail trade was up by 14 percent and consumer goods output
by 7.2 percent. Foreign investment last year totaled $1.3
billion, a 22.6 percent increase over 1997. Karimov noted
that the government hopes that this figure will increase to
$2 billion in 1999. The foreign trade surplus reached $240
million, which contributed to augmenting foreign currency and
gold reserves. Karimov, however, did not give a figure for
hard currency reserves. |
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Police identify suspects in Uzbek explosion
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(AP)
Uzbek police identified a married couple as
suspects in a series of car bombs and appealed over state televison Thursday for
help in finding them.
The explosions in this Central Asian nation killed 14 people, one of whom died
Thursday, state television reported. More than 100 were injured.
No one has claimed responsibility for the six car bombs, which exploded within
minutes of one another outside government buildings Tuesday. But Islamic
militants have come under suspicion.
State television transmitted pictures of the couple and said they were from the
Fergana Valley, an Uzbek region with a strong Islamic tradition.
The TV report said the man and woman being sought were born in 1971 and
1977 respectively, but it did not say any more about them.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which is carrying out the investigation,
refused to answer any questions about the suspects or the investigation.
The car bombs were the most serious attack against the government since
Uzbekistan gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. The
country's authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, came to power during the
Soviet era and has been Uzbekistan's leader ever since.
He has kept a tight grip on power and tolerated no real opposition. The
president has warned that the alternative to his iron rule would be war, as in
neighboring Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
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Uzbeks mourn dead after Tashkent explosions
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Uzbekistan mourned its dead Thursday,
two days after a wave of bomb attacks in Tashkent killed at least 16 people and
injured more than 130.
Flags flew at half mast on government buildings in the city center, many of which
were devastated by the blasts. Restaurants and bars in the capital were shut, and
other entertainment was banned.
President Islam Karimov, who declared the day of mourning, called the attacks
at bid to assassinate him. He was not hurt.
Two of the dead were government workers, one an employee at the cabinet of
ministers and the other a worker from the macroeconomics ministry.
The death toll rose to 16 Thursday after one of the injured died in a hospital,
state television said. It described the dead man as an Uzbek driver for the
International Monetary Fund in Uzbekistan.
Despite the blasts, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry said Karimov, ruler of the
cotton-producing country of 22 million since Soviet times, would go ahead with
a planned one-day trip to neighboring Kazakhstan Friday.
Kazakh officials said the summit, which will bring together Karimov,
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Askar Akayev of
Kyrgyzstan, would be largely symbolic but that some joint documents might be
signed.
The Uzbek government has essentially imposed a news blackout on the
investigation of the bombings.
"In the interests of the investigation, it is premature to give information," Interior
Minister Zakir Almatov told state television late Wednesday.
Uzbek television did however broadcast an appeal from the Interior Ministry for
help in finding two suspects it said might have been involved.
The TV showed the names and photographs of a 27-year-old man and his
21-year-old wife. It said they were from the country's southeastern Fergana
region and asked anyone with information on their whereabouts to call police.
A high-ranking official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), on a pre-arranged visit to Tashkent, said Wednesday she had
received information that five people had been arrested. Officials declined
comment.
But the state-run press, tightly controlled by Karimov, gave some clues as to
whom the government suspects.
An editorial in the government mouthpiece Pravda Vostoka (Eastern Truth)
pointed a finger at conservative Islamist groups against which Karimov has been
waging a campaign.
"The criminals are not hard to identify. Their handwriting is on the Jerusalem car
bombs, the blowing up of the World Trade Center (in New York in 1993), the
taking of hostages and the killing of innocent people," it said.
It also said criminal groups who control the lucrative narcotics business in the
region might also have had a hand in the attacks. Uzbekistan and all of Central
Asia is a transit route to Europe from opium-producing Afghanistan.
"We can guess for whom this might have been profitable. A lot of money was
needed to plan these attacks. The money reeks of narcotics," said the editorial.
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National day of mourning in Uzbekistan
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(AP) President Islam Karimov declared Thursday
a day of mourning in Uzbekistan, where a series of car bombs killed 13 people
and shook the Central Asian nation's image as an outpost of stability in a
turbulent region.
No one has claimed responsibility for the Tuesday attacks, and the government
has not officially announced any suspects or arrests. Islamic militants have come
under suspicion, but apparently without any specific evidence against them.
A visiting official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
said she had heard that five suspects had been arrested. But Helle Degn, the
Danish president of the OSCE's parliamentary assembly, did not disclose the
source of her information and stressed that Justice Ministry officials would not
confirm the report.
The six car bombs exploded within minutes of each other outside government
buildings in an assault apparently aimed at the authoritarian Karimov and his
government.
In addition to the 13 people killed, more than 100 were injured.
Stepped-up security was evident in the Uzbek capital Wednesday. Streets in
downtown Tashkent remained cordoned off. Additional security forces patrolled
the city and police stopped young men on the streets to check their documents.
One of the city's main subway stations was closed. Airports and railway stations
were allowed to resume operations, but passengers and their luggage were
thoroughly searched.
The car bombs were the most serious attack against the government since the
country gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Karimov
came to power during the Soviet era and has been Uzbekistan's leader ever
since. |
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Tajik opposition condemns Tashkent blasters
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The leadership of the united Tajik
opposition voiced their condemnation over Tuesday's terrorist actions in
Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent describing them as "anti-human and having led to
numerous victims."
The head of the commission for intra-Tajik reconciliation and opposition leader
Said Abdullo Nuri issued the statement on Wednesday to "condole with
Uzbekistan's people distressed by moral and material damages."
First Deputy Prime Minister Khodzhi Akbar Turanzhodzoda who spoke with
Itar-Tass on Wednesday also sharply condemned Tashkent blasts.
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Uzbekistan's president on phone with Kuchma
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Uzbek President Islam Karimov said in a
telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart that situation in his
republic remains stable despite a series of blasts on Tuesday.
Karimov thanked Leonid Kuchma for telegrammed condolences to families of
the victims of the blasts and for "support to the Uzbekistan leadership in these
arduous times."
Both presidents agreed that terrorism which has become a global problem can
be fought only by the entire world community.
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Explosions in Tashkent
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A first attempt to assassinate President Islam Karimov failed. Uzbekistan, considered the safest
country in the post Soviet Union, hasn't had such attacks before. On Tuesday between 11 and
12 in the morning five bomb explosions shocked the capital and the government that was
planning to hold a meeting on year-end results at the Cabinet of Ministers located in the
center of Tashkent. President Islam Karimov was going to address a speech.
The first blast came on at about 11:00 a.m. A small locally-made car exploded near the
Interior Ministry slightly damaging a building near it, but blowing out its windows. Then
within half an hour four other explosions occurred mostly targeting government offices like
the Cabinet of Ministers and the new building of the National Bank of Uzbekistan. In all cases
cars filled with explosives became the main tools for the attackers. According to the Minister of
Internal Affairs, 13 people had been killed and 128 were seriously injured. President Karimov
has no doubt that these were well-organized series of attacks.
He said that the evil forces that envy the country's political and economic stability, had
targeted him in an attempt to cause a chaos in the country. In his statement on the National
Television, President Islam Karimov called the nation to maintain the order and promised that
the terrorists would be caught. But there were no signs of panic in peoples's eyes; there were
rather curiosity and interest.
Blasts of the explosions blew out the windows of almost all near-by government offices and
stores, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National security Service and the Central
Department Store. The president and other government officials moved to the Parliament
building to hold the Cabinet of Ministers meeting no matter what. By the dawn the life in the
city returned to a normal state.
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French businessmen in Tashkent
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On Friday a group of visiting French businessmen met with President Karimov at his residence. The delegation was led by committee chairman of the Movement of French Enterprises Christian Mons.
This French organization is the club for large banks, leading corporations and other small and
medium-sized businesses. This visit should boost the economic relations between Uzbekistan
and France that are developing by every year. The trade turnover between the two countries
has constantly grown from 16 to 172 million dollars since 1995. President Karimov encouraged
the French businessmen to make greater investments to the Uzbek economy and said that two
main factors for this existed in Uzbekistan, that is political and economic stability. Other than
that the president pointed out the country's natural resources and cheap labor force that are to
ensure foreign companies's low prime cost. With a number of French companies Uzbekistan
has already been doing buisness in banking, hotel management and the construction of an oil
refinery. President Karimov thanked the Ambassador of France to Uzbekistan Jean-Claude
Richard for his efforts to bring the delegation to Uzbekistan and offered the French businessmen
to work in the fields of energy, machine-building, communications, vehicle and aircraft
production and tourism. He also said that the opening of a joint Uzbek-French bank would
ensure the security of many joint projects. M. Mons said that the main reason of their visit to
Uzbeksitan was their interest in doing buisness here and presented President Karimov a list of
about 30 projects.
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Khokims attend re-training sessions
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The Academy for State and Social Construction in Tashkent, known as the place to re-train
national and local government officials, finished its next ten-day training for deputy khokims
of the provinces who deal with agricultural issues and regional khokims.
The khokims learned about how reforms take place in agriculture during the free market
economy. Upon the completion of the course, they were required to write an essay on their
ideas to implement reform in the agricultural sector of their province or region.
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Russian drama theater opens new season in new place
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The Russian Academic Drama Theater in Tashkent began its 64th season in a new building in
the center of the city.
Last Sunday the theater held the inauguration of its new place that has completely modern look.
Government officials and the mayor of Tashkent city inaugurated the theater and presented its
symbolic key to the theater group. President Karimov visited the theater only Thursday with the
speaker of the Russian Federation Council Yegor Stroyev. In his short conversation with the
theater administration and artists, the President said about how much he respected the Russian
arts and theater.
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President's gifts to the gifted and people in need
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In Ferghana two sisters hand-made men's national headgear and sent it to the president as a
gift. In return as a sign of appreciation President Karimov sent them his presents along with his
autographed portrait. In Tashkent province a school band received the president's gifts for their
achievements in various contests and songs praising the country's independence, hope for a
better future and happy childhood. But most of all a boy from Bukhara will be thankful to the
leader of his country not just for his gift or an autographed portrait, items of pride and boast in
front of his friends, but for the president's care and help as well. After a number of unsuccessful
attempts to treat the boy, chained to bed since his childhood, his father wrote a letter to the
president in despair requesting him a financial support to pay his son's medical expenses and
a complex operation in Moscow. The president responded immediately and after a seven-month
long treatment course and an operation, the boy returned to a normal life.
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Uzbek grandmaster wishes to become a world champion
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A 19-year-old grandmaster from Uzbekistan Rustam Qosimjonov returned from a representative
international chess tournament in the Netherlands as a national hero. He didn't win the
tournament. He wasn't even the third. But for his age he performed an excellent result in a
prestigious tournament that has the history of over 100 years.
Rustam became the first Uzbek grandmaster to play in this tournament attended by the world's
best players like Russian Kasparov, Indian Anand, Kramnik, Topalov and others. In 13 matches
Rustam scored five points out of 13 with one win and eight draws and finished only the 11th.
The 19 year-old student of Tashkent State University's applied mathematics department
considers the tournament in Holland a good school and preparation for the World Championship
that is going to be held in Las-Vegas in summer.
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