| August 14-August 21, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Uzbekistan to hold presidential elections in January
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|  zbekistan will hold its first presidential elections since 1991 in January, President Islam
Karimov announced Thursday.
The vote was supposed to take place in 1997 but was postponed after Karimov, Uzbekistan's former Communist boss, held a
referendum to extend his term.
The Central Asian nation will hold parliamentary elections Dec. 5 and presidential polls Jan. 9, Karimov said.
Karimov led Uzbekistan in the Soviet era and was overwhelmingly elected president weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
December 1991.
Karimov is one of several authoritarian leaders of former Soviet republics to prolong his tenure through unorthodox means.
Karimov has suppressed most opposition groups, saying Uzbekistan needs tough leadership to ensure stability during its transition to
a free-market economy.
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Uzbekistan aware of nationals fighting in Daghestan
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| zbek President Islam Karimov said Thursday that his government was aware that Uzbek
nationals were among the guerrillas fighting Russian troops in the southern region of Daghestan.
"During my latest meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, I told him that Chechnya is an integral part of Russia.
However, there are camps located on its territory to train guerrillas who recruit young people from other republics. That is
inadmissible," Karimov said.
"They are using the holy religion of Islam to confuse young people, including Uzbeks," the Interfax news agency quoted Karimov as
saying during a break in the 15th session of the national parliament.
"Having recruited our young people, they train them in (Jordanian warlord) Khattab's camp and two other camps. We know the
names of 60 people from Uzbekistan who have been trained there.
"Most of them have now been detained by our law enforcement agencies, but some of them have holed up in Tajikistan," he said.
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Uzbek President criticises Tajik authorities
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|  uring a break in a plenary meeting of the
Uzbek parliament in Tashkent on Thursday, Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov
told journalists that "Tajikistan's government, regrettably, does not control the
situation in its territory, particularly in the eastern part."
Touching upon the recent events involving the destruction in the Kirghiz territory
with the assistance of Uzbekistan's air force of bandits units that tried to cross into
Uzbekistan, President Karimov said that the bandits units consisted not of Uzbeks
alone, but also included Kirghiz and Tajiks.
Stressing that under the existing international norms, neighbour states are obliged
to ensure the safety of each other's border, Karimov sharply criticised the
Dushanbe authorities. He said, specifically, that instead of sending a note to
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan should consider how it happened that a bandit formation of
21 men passed without a hitch from its territory to neighbouring Kirghizia. "If Tajik
leaders are unable to eliminate military camps where these bandits are trained,
they should seek international aid," he said. "Instead of doing that, the Tajik
government courts the Joint Tajik Opposition and, while about that, wishes that
everything should be within international norms and limits itself to sending notes to
Uzbekistan".
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Uzbekistan sees 5% economic growth in 2000
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| zbekistan is heading for 5.0 percent economic
growth in 2000 after an expected 4.5 percent gross domestic product increase in
1999, Finance Minister Rustam Azimov told a parliamentary session on Thursday.
"Next year there will be GDP growth of five percent compared with 1999, a rise
of six percent in industrial production and an increase in gross agricultural
production of 5.5 percent," he said.
Industrial production is forecast to expand 6.1 percent and agriculture 6.0 percent
in 1999, a statement issued in parliament said.
Uzbekistan's statistical forecasts and estimates often radically exceed from those
made by Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.
The largely agricultural former Soviet republic of 24 million people has pursued an
isolationist economic policy since 1996, leading to a sharp slowdown in foreign
investor interest.
Foreign exchange restrictions have also triggered a gaping difference between the
official exchange rate at around 132 sum per dollar and 515 sum on the black
market.
Azimov said inflation was expected to come down to 18.0 percent in 2000
compared with 21.7 percent in 1999.
The budget deficit would be set at 2.8 percent of GDP next year, down slightly
from 3.0 percent this year.
Next year's budget gap would be financed by privatisation revenues, accounting
for 1.1 percent of GDP, treasury bills and other state securities (0.7 percent) and
printing money (1.0 percent).
"The main part of GDP growth will come as the result of active industrial and
investment policies," the statement said.
Grain production is targeted at 5.4 million tonnes in 2000 compared with this year's
harvest of 3.9 million tonnes.
The key cotton crop, Uzbekistan's dominant cash cow sent mainly for export, is
targeted at 4.0 million tonnes, unchanged from this year's forecast.
The impoverished Central Asian state produced a paltry 3.22 million tonnes of raw
cotton in 1998, a failure which has added pressure to already limited access to
hard currency.
The other main export earner is gold, and low international prices have also
drained the coffers during recent months.
The failure of the planned sale of a large stake in the Almalyk copper and metals
producer earlier this year for nearly $500 million came as a further blow. (Reuters)
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Uzbek Court convicts six more in February bombing
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|  Tashkent court convicted and sentenced six members of a banned opposition party
Wednesday for involvement in a series of bombings earlier this year, a human rights group said.
The men were implicated in an attack in which six car bombs exploded within minutes of each other outside government
buildings in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, killing 13 and injuring more than 100.
The six suspects were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from eight to 15 years, the Independent Human Rights
Organization said in a news release.
President Islam Karimov said the attack was staged by Islamic fundamentalists who want him killed. Uzbek courts have already
convicted more than 25 people for playing a role in the bombing.
Two of the six accused are cousins of Mukhammat Salikh, a former leader of the banned Erk (Freedom) party who was singled
out by Karimov as the mastermind behind bombings on Feb. 16.
The two cousins admitted that Salikh planned the attack and said they met with him in Kiev, Ukraine, the day before it occurred.
Salikh fled Uzbekistan after his party was banned in 1992.
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Uzbek Parliament to consider more than 20 bills
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|  he Uzbek parliament, at its session opening on Thursday, is to consider more than 20
bills, including those on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, road traffic safety, the State border of Uzbekistan, marshals
of the court, and telecommunications.
At this last session of the first parliament in view of the expiry of its powers, a date for new parliamentary and local elections will
be considered. A date for a presidential election is to be determined as well.
The parliament session is to be attended by President Islam Karimov, who is expected to deliver a report on the political,
economic and social situation in the republic.
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Tajiks say Uzbekistan bombed their territory
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| ajikistan said on Monday that neighbouring Uzbekistan had bombed its remote northern
territory early on Sunday morning in an attack which left the impoverished former Soviet republic "bewildered" but no one hurt.
Foreign ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov told a news briefing that Tajikistan, while concerned about the attack, was not ruling
out a mistake on the part of Uzbekistan, adding that the bombs might have been intended for Kyrgyzstan instead.
"On August 15...four planes with Uzbek air force markings, having proceeded across the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan, subjected
the territory of Tajikistan to a bomb attack," Sattarov said.
In the latest flareup of tensions between the squabbling states, Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov summoned the Uzbek
ambassador, Bakhtiyar Urdashev, to protest at the attack and gain assurances that it would not happen again.
Uzbekistan has declined to comment on the incident.
More than 100 animals died as a result of the explosions in the remote Dzhirgatal and Garmsk regions, and several hectares of
agricultural land were set ablaze.
"It was pure chance that the bombing did not cause loss of life," Sattarov said.
A Tajik security official said earlier that the Uzbek jet fighters may have been targeting southern Kyrgyzstan around the village of
Zardaly, where Uzbek nationals had been holding four Kyrgyz men hostage. The area is just 35 km (20 miles) from Tajikistan's
Dzhirgatal region.
The independent daily newspaper Kyrgyz Vecherny Bishkek said Kygyrzstan had asked Uzbekistan to help it flush out the
kidnappers after the captives were released late last week.
No independent confirmation was immediately available.
Tajikistan, its economy in ruins after a bloody civil war between 1992 and 1997, has accused Uzbekistan, the most populous
Central Asian state, of wanting to invade the mountainous republic of 5.7 million.
President Imomali Rakhmonov said an uprising in northern Tajikistan led by ethnic Uzbeks among others late last year was "a
thoroughly planned military aggression" supported by Uzbek leader Islam Karimov.
Karimov has denied the charges, but suspects that radical fundamentalist Moslems train on Tajik territory with a view to
destabilising Uzbekistan.
His fear of an extremist threat was heightened in February when he narrowly avoided being killed in a series of bomb attacks in
the capital Tashkent which claimed 16 lives.
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Uzbekistan denies knowledge of bombing Tajik villages
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| he Uzbek Foreign Ministry on Monday sent a note to the Tajik Foreign Ministry denying
any knowledge of the bombing of Tajikistan's territory.
The denial came after the Tajik Foreign Ministry handed a note to Uzbek Ambassador Bakhtiyar Urdashev earlier Monday
protesting the bombing of Tajik villages allegedly by Uzbek military aircraft on Sunday.
Igor Sattarov, head of the Tajik Foreign Ministry's Information Department, said four Uzbek military planes bombed the Tajik
territory in the vicinity of a Khait village along with the villages of Gushkaba and Tandikul, the Interfax news agency reported.
However, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said it knew nothing about the bombing.
"The facts given in the Tajik Foreign Ministry note of August 16, regarding alleged bomb attacks by Uzbek air force planes on
the territory of Tajikistan... are not known to the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan," the ministry said in the note.
There were no human casualties in the bombing, but buildings were destroyed and 111 head of cattle were killed. Crops were
lost in a subsequent fire on several
hectares, Interfax quoted Sattarov as saying in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital.
Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov expressed perplexity over "the absolutely unjustified action of the Uzbek Air Force" and
requested Tashkent to take immediate steps to avert similar actions in the future.
This incident runs counter to the existing bilateral relations, Sattaraov said.
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Uzbeks say may have bombed Tajikistan by mistake
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| zbekistan said on Tuesday that it may have bombed Tajikistan by mistake when its jet
fighters strayed over the Kyrgyz border on Sunday during a mission to help Kyrgyzstan flush out a group of armed kidnappers.
"We do not exclude the possibility that the planes could have flown over the territory of Tajikistan, as the terrorists were very
close to the border," Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov told a news briefing on Tuesday.
Kamilov gave the first official confirmation that Uzbekistan's airforce had been called on by Kyrgyzstan to help liquidate a group
of 21 armed men who had crossed from neighbouring Tajikistan last month and held four Kyrgyz hostage.
The hostages were released on Friday and Kyrgyzstan launched a hunt for the kidnappers, who are thought to be of Tajik,
Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationality.
"In order to neutralise and liquidate the band of over 20 people...Kyrgyzstan asked Uzbekistan for help using air power, as there
is practically no other way of accessing these (mountainous) regions," Kamilov said.
He added that some bombs had been dropped accurately on the place where the group was understood to be hiding, but no
details as to losses or casualties were yet available.
Tajikistan said on Monday that it was bewildered by the attack on the remote Dzhirgatal and Garmsk regions in the north of the
impoverished former Soviet republic.
The regions are just a few kilometres (miles) away from the southern Kyrgyz village of Zardaly, where the hostage incident took
place.
Noone was hurt in the explosions, but the incident was the latest in a long history of diplomatic squabbles between Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan, the most populous of the five Central Asian states with 24 million, suspects that armed fundamentalist Moslems are
hiding and training in Tajikistan and represent a threat to its security.
The hunt for suspected terrorists in the region was stepped up by Uzbek President Islam Karimov after he narrowly escaped
being assassinated in a series of bomb attacks in the capital Tashkent in February which claimed 16 lives.
Kamilov called on Imomali Rakhmonov to destroy training camps which posed not only a threat to Tajikistan but also to its
neighbours.
He added that Uzbekistan would consider offering armed assistance to neighbouring states again.
"The terrorists will make similar displays and we consider taking similar measures in future completely normal."
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Tashkent denies having bombed Tajikistan
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| he Tashkent authorities flatly denied bombing strikes at Tajikistan's territory. Andulaziz
Kamilov, Uzbekistan's foreign minister, stated this to reporters on Tuesday.
He said a gang of terrorists that invaded Tajikistan from Kirghizia in early August had not yet been eliminated. The Uzbek side
reported more than once on the gang's efforts to get into Uzbekistan via the Kirghiz territory to stage subversive acts.
Noting the fact that the gang of terrorists got into Kirghizia from Tajikistan, the minister said that the gang, equipped with
contemporary armaments, got entrenched in hard-of- access gorges in Kirghiz highlands. He said the Kirghiz side asked
Uzbekistan to use aircraft to destroy bandits. An operation to destroy the gang was carried out with the use of one section of
combat aviation. In order to avoid fatalities, the entire peaceful population of the district had, naturally, been evacuated.
The minister said a section of combat aviation dealt several strikes at the district on August 15.
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