| March 27-April 3, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Gunmen hijack bus in Uzbekistan
| |
|  hree gunmen hijacked a passenger bus
carrying 24 people in Uzbekistan, shot to death three police officers and then
were themselves killed by police today, officials said.
None of the hostages were hurt, the Interior Ministry said.
The gunmen seized the bus Tuesday in Khoresm, in southern Uzbekistan, and
took it to the capital Tashkent. They fatally shot three officers who tried to stop
them overnight on the outskirts of Tashkent.
The hijackers were demanding the release of suspected Islamic militants jailed in
connection with last month's car bombings outside government buildings in
Tashkent in which 15 people were killed.
Special security troops stormed the bus today and freed the hostages, killing all
three gunmen in the process, the Interior Ministry said.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed last month's bombings on Islamic
militants trying to undermine his government. Police have arrested a dozen
suspects in Uzbekistan and two other former Soviet republics, Ukraine and
Kazakstan.
Karimov, who has led the central Asian nation since Soviet times, is Muslim, like
most Uzbeks. However, his insistence on keeping the country secular and his
authoritarian rule have put him at odds with fundamentalist Islamic groups. (AP)
|
|
Nine killed after gunmen seize bus in Uzbekistan
| |
|  ine people, including two passengers,
were killed in Uzbekistan when security forces tried to free passengers from a
bus that had been seized by gunmen, state television said Wednesday.
The television quoted the general prosecutor's office as saying the incident took
place Tuesday in the Bukhara region, about 300 miles west of Tashkent, the
capital of the impoverished Central Asian nation.
The four gunmen took over the bus after police discovered their weapons during
a routine document check in the nearby Khorezm region. One policeman was
hurt in a shootout before the gunmen drove away in the bus.
Itar-Tass news agency said 45 passengers were on board.
The bus was eventually stopped in Khorezm. Three of the armed men, two
passengers, three national security guards, and a traffic policeman were killed as
the police tried to release the hostages. One of the gunmen was arrested. (Reuters)
|
|
Uzbekistan calls for peaceful solution to Kosovo
| |
|  zbekistan opposes the
military solution
to the Yugoslavia issue, a spokesman at its Foreign
Ministry told Itar-Tass on
Friday.
"We do not accept the resolution of any issue by
forcible
methods, much less
military ones. We stand for peaceful, political
solutions
to international and
inter-ethnic problems. That is our principle," he said.
The ministry official added that, given that Uzbekistan
had no part in the
discussion of Yugoslavia's problems and was not well
informed of causes
underlying the Kosovo crisis and NATO's missile and bomb
strikes on
Yugoslavia, "it is difficult for us to declare any
specific position on this issue".
However, the Foreign Ministry called on the rival
parties
to meet at the
negotiating table and invest every effort in finding a
peaceful solution.
The international community, and primarily the UN,
"should urgently find ways
for resolving this issue in a peaceful way," the
ministry
said.
|
|
Industrial growth reported in Tajikistan
| |
|  ndustrial production
registered a 6.7
percent growth in January and February of this year in
Tajikistan as compared to
the same period of last year.
In Uzbekistan, industrial production rose by 4.4 percent
in January and
February, In Azerbaijan by 2.4 percent, and in Belarus
by
1.2 percent,
according to the Russian Goskomstat statistics committee
and the CIS
Inter-state statistics committee.
For the same period, production slump was registered in
seven CIS
member-states, including Russia. Production slump was
the
deepest in Moldavia
- 26.4 percent. Kazakhstan was next with 5.3 percent.
Armenia recorded a
5.2-percent slump, Russia - 4.3 percent, Kirghyzia - 4.1
percent, Georgia - 2.4
percent, and Ukraine - 2.1 percent.
|
|
Young people involved in Feb 16 events surrender
| |
| ens of young people involved in the tragic
events of February 16 in Tashkent have surrendered to Uzbekistan's law
enforcement agencies over the past three days.
On February 16, explosions rocked the buildings of the republic's Cabinet of
Ministers and the National Bank, the nearby street, where the embassies of
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Belarus are located, as well as the area
of the airport.
The number of those killed or injured was not disclosed. According to officials
of Uzbek law enforcement agencies, the timing and places of the terrorist acts
was chosen not without reason: a Cabinet meeting was due to begin at 11.00
local time and was to be attended by the invited heads of practically all agencies
and organisations of the republic and regional administration chiefs. The meeting
was to be chaired by Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov. The Head of State
was not hurt by the explosion in the government building.
Young people decided to surrender following Islam Karimov's speech over the
national television last Thursday, in which he said, in particular, as follows: "All
those, who wittingly or unwittingly embarked upon the slippery, criminal road,
getting under the influence of various religious fanatics and extremists, will not be
called to account under criminal law if they surrender to law enforcement
agencies and repent their doings".
The amnesty also applies to those who in different periods left Uzbekistan and,
upon joining religious extremist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other
countries, waged an undeclared war against the Uzbek state.
|
|
Sergeyev to visit Byelorussia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
| |
|  ussian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev
said he plans to visit Byelorussia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for talks on the
situation in Kosovo.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Sergeyev said he also intends to
hold consultations with his counterparts from China and some of the CIS
countries to discuss the Yugoslav crisis.
He noted that during his visit to Byelorussia he will participate in a joint meeting
of the leadership of the defence ministries of the two countries.
The agenda is expected to include "topical issues of regional and European
security, the state of and prospects for bilateral military cooperation in the
interests of increasing the combat readiness of the armed forces, as well as
additional measures to ensure the security of Byelorussia and Russia," he said.
Sergeyev pointed out that the Russian Defence Ministry "is considering even
more decisive measures which will be recommended to the leadership if the
situation changes."
|
|
Powerful Uzbek figure makes surprise govt comeback
| |
| zbekistan's former First Deputy Prime
Minister and Agriculture Minister Ismail Dzhurabekov has been reinstated to the
ex-Soviet state's government, a cabinet source said on Thursday.
The powerful figure was understood to wield considerable influence over key
sectors of the economy, despite being sacked by President Islam Karimov last
November.
He has been named chairman of the state organisation in charge of water supply
supervision, called Gosvodkhoznadzor, said the source, who asked to remain
anonymous. The organisation was set up by presidential decree only last week.
It is unclear whether Dzhurabekov's nomination gives him ministerial status in the
government or exactly how much influence he will enjoy.
His return will come as a surprise to many observers in the secretive Central
Asian state of 24 million people.
His dismissal was seen as a victory for Karimov over powerful forces in his
entourage who did not agree with his policies, and was widely linked by
Western analysts with a drive by the hardline leader to clamp down on
corruption.
Dzhurabekov has not regained the same level of office he once held, but water is
a major issue in the mostly desert nation, where intensive cotton cultivation since
Soviet times has caused huge ecological damage to rivers and the Aral Sea.
It is also a regional problem, with neighbouring Central Asian states holding
vested interests in taking a share of depleted water supplies flowing west from
the mountains of Tajikistan and China.
Cotton is a mainstay of the Uzbek and Turkmen economies. (Reuters)
|
|
Uzbek President calls on nation to fight banditism
| |
|  resident Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan said
on Thursday that fighting banditism is not the concern of security and law
enforcement agencies only but rather a concern of the entire nation.
Karimov was commenting on the Tuesday developments when 25 passengers of
a bus, including women and children, were taken hostage.
"The offenders who seized the bus pursued no political aims," the Uzbek
president said. "In this case, there was no religious motive either. They were
ordinary bandits and thieves."
"We shall find and punish them. We will spare no effort to preserve peace and
stability in our country," he stressed.
| E-mail me on: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||