| August 21- August 28, 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kyrgyzstan attacks bandit formations from air
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|  he Uzbek Air Force made several air strikes on Thursday at formations of the militants
presumably concentrated in the area of the Abramov glacier, Kyrgyz acting Defence Minister Lieutenant-General Nuritdin
Chomoyev told a press conference in Bishkek on Friday.
Operations against the bandit formations are being conducted in close cooperation with Uzbek troops, Chomoyev said. Uzbek
Defence Minister Khikmatulla Tursunov has been staying in the area of the hostilities.
According to Chomoyev, the extremists divided into small groups numbering 15-20 each are seeking to penetrate into Uzbekistan. "
They have been given a first rebuff, and now, they have been careful to avoid us," the acting Kyrgyz defence minister said.
" Two companies, consisting of veteran servicemen-in-reserve who took part in the Afghan war and had been to other hotbeds of
tension, have been formed in the Batkentsky region, apart from 400 servicemen of the Defence, Emergencies Ministry and Interior
troops who are fighting against the militants in the south of Kyrgyzstan," Chomoyev said.
The local population have created self-defence brigades who were provided with firearms. They have been guarding a TV tower,
the local airport and other vitally important facilities.
"At present, the number of government troops exceeds the number of militants," Chomoyev said.
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Two killed, four injured in Uzbek plane accident
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|  passenger aircraft belonging to local state-run airlines overturned during landing in Uzbekistan
Thursday, killing two people and injuring four, a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said.
The plane, a Soviet-made Yak-40, was carrying 28 people and had flown from the capital Tashkent to the town of Turtkul, 430
miles to the west. The accident happened at 10:54 a.m. (1:54 a.m. EDT).
The spokesman said it was not immediately clear what had caused the accident.
The national airline Uzbekistan Havo Uillari, one of the largest in the former Soviet Union, said recently that its planes had not
had an accident in six years.
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Gold bars confiscated at Tashkent airport
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|  ive gold bars weighing a total of 1.5 kilos (five pounds) were confiscated from a passenger at Tashkent airport on his way to New Delhi, Interfax news agency reported Wednesday. Five mobile telephones, which had not been declared to customs, were also impounded from the same traveller, whose nationality was not given. Uzbek customs officials said it was not the first incidence of gold smuggling they had come across.
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Presidential and parliamentary poll dates are known
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| he Uzbek Parliament's 15th session set up dates for presidential and parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan will hold parliamentary elections on December 5 this year and presidential polls on January 9 next year. This will be first presidential elections since 1991. The vote was supposed to take place in 1997 but was postponed after current President Islam Karimov held a referendum to extend his term in 1995. President Karimov led Uzbekistan in the Soviet era and was overwhelmingly elected president weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. According to the Constitution of Uzbekistan, Mr. Karimov, who will turn 62 a month after presidential elections, can run for the office for his last five-year term. As a professional economist and politician, he restored the nation's economy and secured peace and stability in the country in the last eight years - a rare case for former Soviet republics. The first parliamentary elections were held on December 25, 1994. The Uzbek parliament, Oliy Majlis, is unicameral and has 250 deputies who represent four political parties. During its first term, the Parliament adopted over 130 bills, ten codes and over 460 decrees. In this year's parliamentary elections, a new political party will attempt to win as more seats as possible. It is the party of "Patriots" - "Fidokorlar" which was established last year predominantly by younger generation of people. Among them is Uzbekistan's number one pop and folk star, Yulduz Usmanova.
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Uzbek Yak-40 plane crashes
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| n Uzbek passenger plane on an internal flight overshot the runway while landing and flipped
over today, leaving at least two people dead and four others injured, officials said.
The Yak-40 of the national airline, Havo Yullari, crashed at the airport in Turtkul as it was landing after a flight from the capital
Tashkent, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
The jet was carrying 28 passengers and four crew members. The cause of the accident had not been determined, officials said.
Turtkul is 560 miles northwest of Tashkent.
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Kyrgyzstan-invading band led by Islamic militant sources
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|  overnment troops have suffered losses fighting the guerrilla band that invaded
Kyrgyzstan's Batkent district on Sunday, a source close to the Defense Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The source said one army serviceman was killed and four others were wounded.
The band is led by an Azizkhan, a former national of Uzbekistan and right-hand man of terrorist Dzhumabai Namangani, a
competent source in Bishkek told Itar-Tass.
After serving a prison term for a common-law crime, Azizkhan went from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan in 1992. He was through the
military training at Tohor base in Afghanistan and, returning to Tajikistan, took command of one of units of the diehard Tajik
opposition. "The main task before commanders of the bandit formation that has invaded Kirgizia is to pit Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
and Kirgizia against each other, unleash a bloody carnage in border areas of the three republics," informed sources in Bishkek
told Itar-Tass.
They said 200-250 Islamic militants are standing ready in Tajikistan's Khaib district that borders Kyrgyzstan.
An estimated 600 militants are staying in mountains along the Kyrgyz-Tajik-Uzbek border from Lyaylyak to Osh. Apart from
Namangani and Azizkhan, two other field commanders, Gani and Salimov, have activated at this border stretch.
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Uzbekistan to provide $200,000 in aid to Turkey
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|  zbekistan will provide 200,000 U.S. dollars to Turkey to help it cope with the
consequences of the August 17 devastating earthquake which has killed more than 12,000 people.
The money will be transferred to the Turkish Workers' Bank, the Ministry for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Monday.
An Il-76 transport plane left Tashkent for Istanbul earlier in the day. It carried a team of rescuers and equipment. They will join
in the search and rescue work immediately after arrival in Turkey.
The Uzbek Society of the Red Crescent has sent more than 50,000 U.S. dollars worth of humanitarian aid to Turkey, including
mattresses and bedding.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov sent condolences to Turkish President Suleyman Demirel.
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Band keeps hostages in Kyrgyzstan
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| 50-member guerrilla group entrenched in Kyrgyzstan's Botkent district is keeping hostage
a brigade commander of interior troops, Alexander Shankeyev, several locals, four Japanese geologists and their interpreter.
Kyrgyzstan's government troops and the band exchanged intensive fire last night, the Kirgiz president's press secretary Kanybek
Imanaliyev told reporters on Tuesday.
He said "there are no victims on the Kirgiz side". The shootout flared up after troops encircled the village seized by the gunmen
and tried to start negotiations. Uzbekistan's police sources told Itar-Tass on Tuesday that the armed group that invaded the
Botkent district, which is close to Kyrgyzstan's border wit Uzbekistan, is made up of ethnic Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs and Pushtus.
The band on August 20 attacked a meteorological station of Uzbekistan's Hydrometeorological Centre, which is located five
kilometers from the border with Tajikistan.
The gunmen seized ten workers of the station and five local tourists, robbed them and released.
On August 21, the band crossed into Kyrgyzstan through a mountain gorge and entered the villages of Zardoli, Zhilisuv and
Khozha Achkan in the Botkent district.
The gunmen attacked the camp of a geological expedition and took hostage four Japanese geologists and their interpreter.
The band killed several people and took a number of people hostage in the seized villages, whose 250 residents fled to Botkent,
an administrative center.
Kyrgyzstan's army units and Uzbekistan's security forces are carrying out a joint operation to drive the gunmen from Kyrgyzstan.
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Saudi delegation in Uzbekistan
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| government delegation from Saudi Arabia led by Trade Minister Osama Jafar Faqih was in Tashkent last week as part of the Uzbek-Saudi joint commission to discuss issues in technical, economic, trade and other areas between the two countries.
Uzbekistan has had a number of joint commission sessions this year with the United States, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other countries. During the commission both sides noted that despite a slight growth in trade turnover, the full potential for boosting bilateral trade relations has not been used, mostly in the areas of oil processing, tourism, education, small and medium-sized businesses. During the commission the Uzbek Oil Industry Association and the Saudi "Dar-es-Salam" Group signed an agreement on investment cooperation. The agreement states that within the next five years both sides will use half a billion dollars for the development of the vegetable oil industry and Uzbekistan's food industry as a whole. The Saudi delegation met with President Islam Karimov last Friday. He noted that there had been no barriers in Saudi-Uzbek relations. On the contrary, there are huge possibilities for boosting these ties. The Saudi delegation also visited the agricultural and industrial exchange, the National Tourism Company, and the Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations.
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BAT Uzbekistan meets with journalists
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| he National Press-Center in Tashkent invited members of the executive office of the British American Tobacco Uzbekistan to a meeting with journalists.
According to BAT Uzbekistan, at their tobacco factory in Samarkand the production in the past seven months rose by 176% as compared to the same period in 1998. The company leaders said that there was a great interest in exporting raw tobacco and at the present time the company signed export contracts worth of eight million dollars. BAT Uzbekistan leaders said that in addition to business, the company had also been actively involved in charity activity. It will also partially sponsor the upcoming annual international music festival in Samarkand - "The Melodies of the East". While in the West, tobacco companies have been banned from sponsoring sports and children events, in Uzbekistan they are spending a decent amount of money to minimize the damage to the health of our smokers and the negative public opinion.
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Last preparations for Independence Day
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| he national organizing committee for Independence Day accepted a holiday scenario which will be performed in the last day of August at the Mustaqillik (Independence) Square in Tashkent.
Every day rehearsals involving ten thousand people from different parts of Uzbekistan are being held at the Square under the burning Sun in two-three shifts. The nation's best artists have been invited to make various decorations of the stage. This year's costumes will be completely new as the old ones have been worn out during several holiday shows. The show on August 31 will last two hours and will be aired on all channels of Uzbek Television live.
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Boxers ready for World Championship
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| group of boxers from Uzbekistan has left for Houston to take part in the next world championship. Ruslan Chagaev, Muhammadkodir Abdullaev, Lazizbek Zokirov and Dilshod Yorbekov are the core of the Uzbek national team which is highly ranked in the world along with boxers from Cuba, Russia and the United States. Ruslan Chagaev will try to repeat his victorious record and win the title which was taken away from him soon after his victory over unbeatable legendary boxer Felix Savon in a final fight in Budapest two years ago. Ruslan had to return the crown after it was disclosed that he had participated in professional fights in the past.
(Update)Uzbekistan Has Three Boxers in the Finals
48 kilogram (106 pounds)
56 kilograms (125 pounds)
63 kilograms (139 pounds)
70 kilogram (156 pounds)
74 kilograms (165 pounds)
80 kilograms (178 pounds)
90 kilograms (201 pounds)
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Uzbeks outline 2000 budget, company tax cuts
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| zbekistan last Friday outlined its budget parameters for 2000, saying it would lower several
key levies on companies in order to ease the tax burden for producers.
A government statement distributed to parliament said profit tax for companies would be lowered to 31 percent from 33
percent. Enterprises would also not be taxed for property and industrial equipment purchased with foreign credits until the loan
was repaid.
Companies with foreign participation which switch to using domestically-produced raw materials and components would be
allowed further discounts on profit tax payments.
Mining enterprises would receive a 30 percent cut in mineral resources tax. Uzbekistan is a major producer of gold and base
metals which account for a large slice of its export earnings.
The draft budget envisions a deficit of 2.8 percent of gross domestic product as compared to 3.0 percent this year. It foresees
spending 712.4 billion sum ($5.3 billion) against revenues of 650 billion sum.
The deficit will be plugged through privatisations, domestic borrowing and printing money.
The government said it was expecting the economy to grow by five percent in 2000 after an expected rise in gross domestic
product of 4.5 percent in 1999. Industrial production is forcast to expand 6.1 percent.
The statement said, however, that the government would hike utilities levies for individuals as well as enterprises. Land tax would
be raised 20 percent, water tax would be doubled and ecology tax also raised 20 percent.
The government would cut spending on state-owned enterprises, while raising allotments to defence and social security, the
statement said.
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