| October 16-October 23, 1999 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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South Korean company to suspend production in Uzbekistan
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|  amsung Electronics has suspended indefinitely the production
of household appliances in Uzbekistan, Interfax reported on
19 October, quoting an Uzbek official. The decision was
prompted by problems in ensuring the regular import of
components owing to the non-convertibility of Uzbekistan's
currency.
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Uzbek president vows to defend territory "with all available means"
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|  zbek President Islam Karimov has warned that Uzbekistan
would be "fully within its rights" to carry out an operation
against militant bases in Tajikistan "similar to the Russian
action on the Chechen-Dagestan border". The president said: "We
do not excuse such bandit attacks... . We will defend our
territory, with all available means within international
standards." He also spoke of the "danger" posed by "religious
extremism" and "international terrorism" to young people who
"are being turned to absolute zombies, who are ready to carry
out any act of sabotage without thinking". He said the most
frightening part was that "this danger knows no borders" and
"is not under the control of any state". He denied that the
militants in sourthern Kyrgyzstan were Uzbek opposition
members, saying the majority were "members of the United Tajik
Opposition". He was speaking in an undated interview, published
in all the major Uzbek newspapers, in both Uzbek and Russian,
on 19th October. The following is excerpts from the inteview
published in 'Narodnoye Slovo' on 19th October:
"We will defend our own territory within international
standards and with all available means at our disposal," Uzbek
President Islam Karimov said in an interview with Moscow's
`Vremya MN' newspaper.
The confrontation between the government forces [of
Kyrgyzstan] and armed groups of religious extremists, which
infiltrated from the territory of Tajikistan, has been
continuing in Kyrgyzstan for three months already. The
militants still hold 13 hostages, among whom are four Japanese
citizens and a Kyrgyz General. [Kyrgyz Gen Anarbek Shamkeyev
was released on 18th October; there are now said to be only
five hostages - the four Japanese and their interpreter]. A
correspondent of `Vremya MN' reports from Bishkek that the
situation in the south of the republic looks quite
contradictory, as victorious reports of servicemen forcing the
militants out are giving way to forecasts of long-term war. The
correspondent notes that according to the militants' claims,
Uzbekistan appears to be their main target.
To the correspondent's question about the danger of a war
beginning in Central Asia, the president of Uzbekistan said
that today centres of international terrorism have become one
with centres of religious extremism.
"After the events in Dagestan and in Russia in general, it
has become obvious that there are common centres, which are
powerful, have strong financial resources, and are extremely
well organized. At present we cannot even imagine how
widespread their influence might be. Religious extremism does
not only exist within our Islamic religion, but is a
characteristic of other religions too. But today we are
speaking about Islam. I am firmly convinced that the savage
appearance of international terrorism is today taking cover
behind religious concepts,sacred to many people. Under the
guise of the fight for "pure" Islam, young people, who do not
have a concept of the true values of their religion, are being
drawn to terrorism... [ellipses as given] They are being turned
to absolute zombies who are ready to carry out any act of
sabotage without thinking, to kill sleeping people, children
and women. This danger especially threatens the regions of
Central Asia, in particular, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where
the majority of the population believes in Islam. It is not the
danger of external armed intrusion, with the purpose of
occupying territory, that worries me so much as the expansion
of religious extremism in order to set up bridgeheads and bases
which will train stupified young people to explode towns and
villages in which they were brought up," Karimov said.
He went on to say that the most frightening part of it was
that this danger knows no borders, that this danger is coming
from extremist centres, which are not under the control of any
state - of our neighbour in the south, for example... [ellipses
as given]
We cannot lodge a complaint with any government, for
example with Pakistan, which declares that it has nothing to do
with this. Yes, this is true, but it looks quietly on as camps
are being set up in the territory of Pakistan, where for the
first three or four months they teach religious dogma, and
during the next six months they teach sabotage activity.
Answering a question on the militants' attempts to break
through to Uzbekistan, the president said that they were
bursting to go wherever a strong religious mood prevailed.
[passage omitted: 82 per cent of Uzbekistan's population
beleives in Islam; great Islamic scholars lived in Central Asia
and Uzbekistan]
"You say that the militants entered the Kyrgyz territory
in order to fight against Uzbekistan. This was the first
attempt [of the militants] to create an illusion among the
Kyrgyz public and leadership that they would not be disturbed
if they were granted a corridor. This happened at the beginning
of August, when the bandits took the first hostages and then
the Kyrgyz side redeemed them for 150,000 dollars, and only
after almost three weeks were the Japanese geologists taken
hostage... [ellipses as given] Why do they not report in
Kyrgyzstan that everything started at the beginning of August?
They are in cloud-cuckoo-land: they think it is not they,
but Uzbekistan that is being threatened. I am surprised, by the
way, that you too have began to broadcast this same version.
Listen to what is happening: an armed gang of 600 or 1,000 men
enters the territory of a sovereign state... [ellipsis as
given] After all, each state should have a sense of pride, and
each of its citizen should feel confident that security is
guaranteed. Where are these stories coming from, which are also
being aired on Russian television, that they tried to enter
Uzbekistan and were not allowed? Talking like this - their
enemies are other people, not us - is naive, illiterate, simply
nonsense! Does that then mean that Kyrgyzstan, violating all
norms of international law, is allowing saboteurs to enter its
territory in order to invade another country? I see such
theories as attempts to play off Uzbekistan against Kyrgyzstan,
and completely reject them. If this were true, then why did the
bandits begin to rob and kill Kyrgyz people, why do they rape
their wives in Zardaly and Khodzha-Achkan? And is that,
incidentally, on the way to Uzbekistan? I will tell you another
thing: the bandits did not cross the Kyrgyz border in August,
they have been freely travelling from Tajikistan through
Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan for two years already. This is why we
have these bandit sallies, tonnes of explosives that we found
in Kokand [Fergana Region], Andizhan and Namangan [eastern
Uzbek Regions]. All of this was transported through the
territory of Kyrgyzstan!"
On the subject of the mediating mission of various
officials of Kyrgyzstan, calling themselves human rights
advocates, who go to Afghanistan for talks, the president of
Uzbekistan said that they are negotiating with the bandits. A
mediator, Karimov underlined, can negotiate with normal people,
but not with bandits... [ellipses as given]
When asked by the correspondent why this was not reported
earlier, the head of our state said:
"This became known when 500 to 600 saboteurs infiltrated
Kyrgyzstan, when their path was blocked, when the Kyrgyz
announced their mobilization, accumulated armed forces and
became seriously engaged in this - it was only then that these
facts were revealed. We could not examine another country's
territory, could we? Put this question to the Kyrgyz special
services, the minister of state security of Kyrgyzstan, who
never visited the Kyrgyz Batken Region during the whole time
that it was infiltrated by the bandits... [ellipses as given]
Ask why they were supplied with food and water, why were Kyrgyz
girls in the occupied villages married off to them? Why did
they freely wander around the Kara-Archa ravines, and why were
their guides Kyrgyz people?
Yes, there are Uzbeks among the bandits... [ellipses as
given] But it has become clear recently that the majority of
them are members of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), those
who did not join the government forces or, as the UTO chairman
Mr Nuri [Sayed Abdullo] says, uncontrolled militants. It is
useful for him to call them that now, in order to keep them in
reserve... [ellipses as given] Now he is a peace-maker, his
Islamic Revival Party is taking part in elections [as received,
at time of writing Islamic Revival Party is boycotting
elections], and now it is inconvenient for him to speak about
himself as a leader of the UTO armed groups. All those in his
"reserve" wander about the Gharm, Qarotegin and Tavildara zones
with arms in their hands - and well we know it. If Mr Nuri, as
he says, doesn't know any of them, then I will tell him dozens
of names of the group commanders, who wander about from the
borders of Afghanistan to those of Kyrgyzstan. Let him know
that we understand this game. And don't let him talk nonsense!
Let him play this game with [President of Tajikistan Emomali]
Rahmonov, but not with us. If Rahmonov wants, let him obey
Nuri, because there is a long peace process between the
government and the opposition there, and we hope that process
will reach its logical end. But when such games are played, and
armed groups commit acts of aggression against a sovereign
state, violate the borders and are constantly supplied with
arms, and those wounded on Kyrgyz territory are calmly taken to
Tajikistan through the passes... [ellipses as given]
In anwer to the correspondent's question about whether or
not Kyrgyzstan can close the passes, Karimov said:
"In the high mountains there are dozens of ravines with
hot springs which the bandits have selected. There is a place,
Karamyk, one side of which belongs to Kyrgyzstan and another to
Tajikistan, on the road from the Kyrgyz [town of] Osh to the
Tajik Jirgatol and further to Khorugh. If they are opposition
members wishing to struggle against Uzbekistan, why did they
attack Karamyk three times, a place far from the Uzbek border?
Because this is a key point of the drug traffickers from
Afghanistan through Khorugh to Osh, which is a major transit
point of drugs from Central Asia to Europe, and [Kyrgyz
president Askar] A. Akayev has only now strengthened that area
by stationing 500 border troops there. What does all that have
to do with the theory that the militants wanted to fight
against Uzbekistan?
There were neither border troops, nor even a border post
there to separate Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan. These are not the
passes of Dagestan, which are 1.5 km above sea level; here
there is 3.5 to 4.5km of deep snow all around: it is difficult
to destroy anything with bombs or anything else. The bombs fall
in the snow, and that is all... [ellipses as given] And the
bandits pass freely. I repeatedly asked the president of
Kyrgyzstan: why do you not deploy border troops there? Well,
maybe because there they have an accord with Tajikistan on
mutual trust, or they just don't have enough forces. This is a
question for the Kyrgyz leadership to answer.
Today we know that the militants organized a hospital with
50 beds in Khodzha-Achkan. They treat their wounded members
there, and if necessary move them to the area of Hoit, deep in
Tajikistan. There is a place, (?Kandykul) where the former
sanatorium of the Tajik mines department is located. Via
Kandykul the bands in Kyrgyzstan are supplied with ammunition
and warm clothes, and the wounded are taken there. I know that
when we launched a bomb attack, all those wounded were moved
from there to Hoit and Jirgatol, and let Mr Nuri tell you who
supplied a helicopter for that! Where do you think the famous
wounded militant mullah, (? Abdullo), was taken? To Dushanbe!
And he was given a surgical operation there. Who is this
mullah, Abdullo? Maybe an Uzbek? No, like dozens of others, he
is a UTO field commander. Why, then, is there this theory that
they are Uzbek opposition members, which you readily swallow?
That was necessary for Mr Nuri. At a recent news conference
given by A [Abdulaziz] Komilov (Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uzbekistan - Ed.) we disclosed only a hundredth of the
information we have. We can tell more, but we would like to
wait a little... [ellipses as given]
We would be fully within our rights to carry out an
operation against the terrorist bases on the territory of
Tajikistan similar to the Russian action on the
Chechen-Dagestan border. I will take advantage of this
opportunity to state: Uzbekistan has the full right to launch
such an attack against those bases that will be long remembered
and even passed down to future generations. We do not excuse
such bandit attacks, and we will not allow them to play with us. We will defend our territory, with all available means within
international standards," President I. Karimov of Uzbekistan
said.
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OSCE Commissioner to visit Uzbekistan
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|  he OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, Max van der Stoel, will arrive
in Tashkent on October 24 to acquaint himself with the life of various ethnic diasporas in Uzbekistan.
In Tashkent, the commissioner will have talks with Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and Parliament Speaker Erkin
Khalilov. He will also visit the International Centre in Tashkent, where he will discuss with leaders of more than 30 ethnic cultural
centres conditions for residing of various diasporas in Uzbekistan.
At present, more than a hundred nationalities reside in the country. They include Russians, Ukrainians, Koreans, Greeks, Turks,
Germans, Tatars, Armenians, Azeris, Tajiks, Jews, Kazakhs and others.
The visit will last until Tuesday, October 26. From Tashkent, the commissioner will leave for Kirghizia's capital Bishkek.
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UN regional anti-drugs projects moves headquarters to Tashkent
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| he "Osh knot" project was launched in the southern
capital of Kyrgyzstan two years ago with active UN support. Its
major aim is to close the main drug route in the mountainous
region: the Khorog - Osh - Andizhan highway. As a result of the
project since 1997, drug trafficking has considerably decreased
on this route, as a policeman from Holland with 35 years of
service and a rich experience of fighting organized crime, the
chief technical advisor of the project, Casper Doornbusch, told
journalists.
It is in this very regional capital that regional drug
routes have interlaced, and naturally, it was necessary to
close and destroy them on the spot, the expert said. We
organized cooperation between the anti-narcotics power
structures of the three adjacent states - Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on that frontier area over two years
We supplied them with transport and special equipment, built
customs posts and trained officers from the law enforcement
agencies on the spot and abroad.
At a meeting of the member-states of that UN project in
Khujand [northern Tajikistan] in late September,
representatives from Geneva, Vienna, Tashkent, Bishkek and
Dushanbe decided to move the project office from Osh to the
Uzbek capital [Tashkent]. Everything planned within the project
will be completed by 30th June 2000.
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Public opinion supports President Karimov
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| tate-run daily Narodnoe Slovo carries an article by director of public center "Public Opinion" Rano Ubaydullaeva about poll results on upcoming elections in Uzbekistan. The polls show that 89.3% of the respondents said they would go to the elections while 6.2% said they hadn't decided yet. 92.2% of respondents in rural areas said they would go to the elections. Men proved to be more active than women, according to the polls. 90.5% versus 88% will participate in the elections. 98.8% of the respondents said they would vote for incumbent President Islam Karimov if the presidential elections took place tomorrow. The research also showed that people have little information about political parties in Uzbekistan and only 38.6% (majority) of respondents said they knew the People's Democratic Party. 17.8% said they knew National Democratic Party of "Fidokorlar."
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