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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 9, No. 38, Part I, 28 February 2005
KYRGYZ PRESIDENT AFFIRMS DECISION NOT TO RUN AGAIN. President Akaev
announced on 27 February that he will not change the constitution to
extend his term in office, akipress.org reported. As he cast his vote
in parliamentary elections, the president said, "I personally,
President Akaev, have not had and do not have any intention of
changing the constitution with the aim of extending my term in
office." DK
KYRGYZSTAN HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS... Kyrgyzstan held elections
to its 75-seat unicameral parliament on 27 February, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz
Service reported. According to Central Election Commission Chairman
Sulaiman Imanbaev, turnout was 59.91 percent, or 1,587,139 out of
2,649,425 registered voters, akipress.org reported. The preliminary
figures indicated that turnout was somewhat lower than in the 2000
elections, which drew 64.5 percent of registered votes. The highest
turnout was in Talas, Jalal-Abad, and Bakten oblasts, which all
topped 65 percent, and the lowest in the capital, Bishkek, which
registered 46.44 percent turnout. DK
...AMID DISPUTES OVER FAIRNESS. A group of prominent Kyrgyz
opposition figures including Roza Otunbaeva, Muratbek Imanaliev,
Ishengul Boljurova, and Topchubek Turgunaliev stated at a news
conference in Bishkek on 27 February that numerous violations placed
the legitimacy of the elections in doubt, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
reported. Turgunaliev, head of the Erkindik party, said that the
opposition is still gathering information on violations, and he
promised to make preliminary information available on 28 February. On
26 February the opposition People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan condemned
official invective against the opposition, attacks on independent
media, and refusals to register former diplomats as candidates,
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. On 25 February, Markus Muller, head
of the OSCE Center in Bishkek, expressed concern over the recent
shutoff of power to an independent printing house in Bishkek and the
denial of local broadcasting capability to RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service.
For its part, the Foreign Ministry responded to Muller's statement on
27 February, calling his comments "rash" and disputing his version of
events, akipress.org reported. DK
POSTELECTION PROTESTS CONTINUE IN KYRGYZSTAN. Postelection protests
continued in a number of regions of Kyrgyzstan on 17 March, news
agencies reported. In the Kochkor District of Naryn Oblast, a crowd
of up to 3,000 people demanding the resignation of Governor
Shamshybek Medetbekov and President Askar Akaev demonstrated as 200
protesters occupied local government offices, akipress.org reported.
In the Toktogul District of Jalal-Abad Oblast, supporters of losing
candidate Toktosun Madiyarov seized local government offices and
demanded the annulment of second-round election results, fergana.ru
reported. In Talas, however, a number of opposition leaders were
unable to hold a planned rally when the authorities closed off a road
leading to the city, fergana.ru reported. In Osh, several thousand
people took part in a pro-government demonstration, Kyrgyz Television
reported. Meanwhile, a representative of Ar-Namys told RFE/RL's
Kyrgyz Service that the opposition party plans to hold protests in
Bishkek beginning on 18 March. The chief demand will be the
resignation of President Akaev. Feliks Kulov, the imprisoned leader
of Ar-Namys, said that Akaev can restore stability by resigning,
RFE/RL reported. Kulov also said that he does not rule out a run for
the presidency in the October elections. DK
KYRGYZ OFFICIALS CONDEMN ANTIGOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATIONS... A number of
Kyrgyz officials spoke out on 17 March against antigovernment
demonstrations, news agencies reported. Deputy Prime Minister Toktosh
Aitikeeva told Kyrgyz Television that political "extremism" could
cause delays in the payment of salaries and pensions. She added, "I
think that a political resolution should be adopted to end this
extremism." The Foreign Ministry lambasted the opposition for
encouraging "civil disobedience through storming administrative
buildings and blocking regional and international highways,"
ITAR-TASS reported. And Boris Poluektov, first deputy chairman of the
National Security Service, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, "Despite
[the opposition's] obvious defeat...there is every sign of [an
attempt at] unlawful seizure of power in the actions of the
opposition." But Poluektov stressed that "the situation is under
control. Only several regions have taken a position that is not very
good. I don't think this will assume a massive scale because the
elections were transparent and clear." DK
...AND FOREIGN MINISTRY DISPUTES U.S. ENVOY'S COMMENTS. Kyrgyzstan's
Foreign Ministry issued an official statement on 17 March disputing
U.S. Ambassador Stephen Young's critical comments the day before
about the recent parliamentary elections, akipress.org reported. The
statement specifically took issue with Young's remarks about
candidate disqualifications, pressure on the media, and state
interference in election campaigns. The ministry noted that the
judicial system is "entirely independent" and stressed that decisions
to remove candidates from races affected both opposition and
pro-government candidates. The statement also asserted that "all
necessary efforts were made to defend free speech and strengthen the
independence of the media." It also rejected the charge that state
structures interfered in races to support specific candidates.
Nevertheless, the ministry expressed its agreement with "the American
call to conduct a detailed analysis of flaws in order to rectify
them...." And in conclusion, it welcomed the envoy's statement that
the United States intends to "continue warm and friendly relations
between our two countries." DK
KYRGYZ POLICE STORM PROTESTORS IN JALAL-ABAD, OSH... Early on the
morning of 20 March, Kyrgyz riot police stormed provincial
administrative offices in Jalal-Abad and Osh to evict protestors who
had occupied the buildings, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported.
Antigovernment demonstrators demanding the resignation of President
Askar Akaev and the holding of new parliamentary elections had seized
the offices in Jalal-Abad on 4 March, and in Osh on 18 March. At an
opposition rally in Osh on 19 March, Anvar Artykov, a representative
of the opposition bloc Ata-Jurt, was named "people's governor"; a
similar gathering was held earlier in Jalal-Abad. The official Kabar
news agency initially reported no casualties during the police
operation to retake the government buildings, but a local human
rights activist told fergana.ru that at least 50 people were injured
in Osh. Police arrested and later released Anvar Artykov, fergana.ru
reported. Although initial reports by akipress.org said that nearly
200 protesters were detained, it remained unclear whether any
protestors were still being held later on 20 March. DK
...SETTING OFF VIOLENT REACTION IN JALAL-ABAD... After police
regained control of provincial administrative offices in Jalal-Abad
and Osh, a crowd of more than 10,000 protestors gathered in
Jalal-Abad on 20 March, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. Protestors
seized and burned local police offices and later took control of the
mayor's office and the airport, akipress.org and RFE/RL reported.
Fearing the arrival of additional government forces, protestors
blocked the runways at the airport, akipress.org reported. Police
fired warning shots into the air, but did not fire at demonstrators,
RFE/RL reported. Subsequent reports on fergana.ru indicated that by
the end of 20 March, Jalal-Abad was largely under the control of the
protestors. DK
...AMID CONFLICTING REPORTS ON CASUALTIES. Several unconfirmed
reports said that 4-10 people were killed during the violence on 20
March, but government spokesmen denied any fatalities, news agencies
reported. Interfax quoted an anonymous law enforcement source in
Jalal-Abad as saying that up to 10 people were dead, and a report on
lenta.ru, citing an anonymous source in Kyrgyzstan's National
Security Service, claimed that demonstrators had beaten four police
officers to death. But in televised comments on 21 March, Bolot
Januzakov, deputy head of the presidential administration, and State
Secretary Osmonakun Ibraimov denied all reports of fatalities during
the events on 20 March, akipress.org reported. Reports of injuries
varied. Aziza Abdrasulova, head of the Kylym Shamy NGO, told RFE/RL's
Kyrgyz Service that 30 people were hospitalized with injuries after
clashes in Jalal-Abad and Osh on 20 March. DK
Mar 22 2005 8:48PM
Kyrgyz opposition expands control in southern regions
BISHKEK. March 22 (Interfax) - The Kyrgyz opposition has occupied the Kadamzhai district and the town of Kyzyl-Kiya in the Batken region in the southern part of the country, sources close to official institutions reported on Tuesday evening. The opposition plans to hold a congress of its supporters in the Kadamzhai district on Wednesday, the sources said. The Batken region is the only region in southern Kyrgyzstan where the official government partly controls the situation.
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11258954
Petronas
03-23-2005, 06:22 PM
Islamists See Opening in C. Asia Chaos
March 23, 2005 4:30 PM EST
... Although the Bush administration supports pro-democracy movements, the turmoil in the region also has created a potentially dangerous opening for extremist Islamic parties.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, has a following among the young in Central Asia. It has called for Islamic rule to replace secular governments and unite the Muslim world. And its pamphlets criticize U.S. bases established in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to support the war on terror. A senior Western diplomat in Tajikistan confirmed that Hizb ut-Tahrir's influence is growing across the region, particularly among the young who are looking for alternatives to what they perceive as corrupt, totalitarian regimes with links to the Soviet past.
The United States has not declared Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization because it does not advocate violence, but the diplomat said some of its literature is virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic and could inspire violence. Leaders across Central Asia have banned Hizb ut-Tahrir. Kyrgyz security authorities have accused the group of having links with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is allied to al-Qaida and operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kyrgyz government has also warned of cooperation between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Uighur separatists in China, but has not provided evidence. Russia has accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of involvement in breakaway Chechnya.
The south of Kyrgyzstan is where Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongest, presidential spokesman Seghizbayev told the AP. He said the group blames the government for every problem and makes promises it cannot fulfill. Hizb ut-Tahrir has become more politically active. In Jalal-Abad, the scene of some of the fiercest anti-government protests, the group collected 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for more Islamic instruction in schools and segregation of the sexes. The petition, circulated in November, also demanded state sponsorship of Muslim schools and restrictions on the sale of pornography. Candidates who espoused a like-minded philosophy got support from Hizb ut-Tahrir members.
Askarov Azimjan, a human rights activist whose office in southern Kyrgyzstan is partially funded by Freedom House, says Hizb ut-Tahrir has emerged as an alternative for residents frustrated by corruption. "Most ordinary people I think support them now because they feel that in a democratic society it is difficult to get anything done without corruption. People believe that if the government was religious the situation would change," he said from Bazar Korgon, about 20 miles from Jalal-Abad. "Even high school students know exactly how much they will have to pay if they want to get a job in the police station," he added. "If Hizb ut-Tahrir registered as a political party it would get a lot of support. But the government won't allow them to register. They are afraid."
http://start.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20050323/4240f7d0_3ca6_15526200503231469675783
Kyrgyzstan Authorities May Use Force to Restore Order in Standoff With Opposition Groups
By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
The Associated Press
Mar. 23, 2005 - Authorities raised the stakes Wednesday in a standoff with opposition groups that have seized control of large parts of southern Kyrgyzstan, with riot police breaking up a protest in the capital and top officials warning they may use force to restore order elsewhere.
Hints of a potential crackdown came from two tough-talking new law enforcement officials appointed by President Askar Akayev after he fired their predecessors over the unrest in the Central Asian nation of mainly Turkic-speaking people.
Protesters angered over allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections have seized government administration buildings in three of Kyrgyzstan's seven regions and in smaller districts within two other regions.
Most are in the south, where opposition to Akayev historically has been strongest, but one is in Talas, in the north, where his base of support generally had been more firm.
Seizure of the buildings does not mean protesters have control of a region, but opposition forces clearly appeared to be in charge in Osh, the former Soviet republic's second-largest city, and in the sizable town of Jalal-Abad.
"Our primary task is to restore constitutional order in all regions, but strictly in accordance with the constitution," said new Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev. "The law gives us every right to take action, including by using physical force, special means and firearms."
He spoke hours after riot police in the capital, Bishkek, broke up a small opposition rally, signaling government determination to keep protests from spreading north. About 200 police encircled protesters calling for Akayev's ouster, scuffling with those who resisted and locking arms to force some 100 demonstrators out of the central square. Police detained 20-30 people, dragging some away.
"We will not allow any stormings, seizures and takeovers in Bishkek," Dushebayev said.
Political culture in Kyrgyzstan is clan-based, and Akayev has strong support in his native north. If the fractured opposition can carry mass protests north across the mountain range bisecting the country and toward Bishkek, tensions could explode.
Kyrgyzstan lacks the energy resources or pipeline routes of its neighbors that have drawn the interest of Russia, the United States and China. But its status as a conduit for drugs and a home for Islamic extremists makes for volatility, and it seeks to balance U.S. and Russian interests in the region by hosting military bases for both.
Officials have made broad accusations that "extremists" are behind the protests, but there have been no overt indications of Islamist sentiment or influence among the demonstrators.
The unrest follows protests in Georgia and Ukraine that have led to the ouster of entrenched governments and brought West-leaning leaders to power in the past 18 months.
But the push for change here already is much more violent than those peaceful uprisings. Opposition forces have wielded sticks, stones and homemade gasoline bombs, and burned down a police headquarters in the south. Warnings by Akayev's new lawmen added to fears of bloodshed.
"The tolerance is being scaled down," Edil Baisalov, head of a prominent non-governmental organization that monitored the balloting, told The Associated Press by cell phone from a police station where he said he was taken from the Bishkek rally.
Dushebayev emphasized that "we will never shoot law-abiding, peaceful citizens; women, children and old people." But he said opposition forces in the south had broken many laws, and vowed that in restoring order, "we are going to use the whole arsenal of legally available means."
Akayev had vowed not to use force, although the new pro-government parliament asked him to consider emergency rule, and he could cite that as a reason for a crackdown. New Prosecutor General Murat Sutalinov said the authorities "are getting numerous calls from citizens demanding we take decisive steps."
On Thursday, opposition groups planned more protests. Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev planned to visit Osh "to look for someone constructive to talk to," Akayev spokesman Abdil Seghizbayev said. But he stressed there would be no talks with "criminal groups that are controlling the situation there."
Activists have seized the headquarters of the Kadamjay district administration in the Batken region town of Pulgon. The opposition People's Movement of Kyrgyzstan said offices also were occupied in the Kochkor district, and in two districts in the Osh and Jalal-Abad regions.
In Jalal-Abad, 40 police officers pledged allegiance to a regional opposition shadow government. About 1,000 people rallied outside the opposition-controlled regional government headquarters Wednesday, shouting "Akayev, out!"
Akayev, 60, is prohibited from seeking another term. The opposition has accused him of manipulating the Feb. 27 and March 13 elections to gain a compliant legislature that would amend the constitution to allow a new term a charge he denies.
In power for 15 years, Akayev was long regarded as a reform-minded leader, but in recent years he turned more authoritarian. In 2002, his reputation was tarnished after police killed six demonstrators protesting the arrest of an opposition lawmaker.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=607796
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Protesters stormed the presidential compound in Kyrgyzstan on Thursday, seizing control of the symbol of state power after clashing with riot police who had surrounded it during a large opposition rally. The defense minister was led out of the building by demonstrators.
About 1,000 protesters managed to clear riot police from their positions outside the fence protecting the building, and about half that number entered the compound and went into the building through the front entrance. Others smashed windows with stones, while hundreds of police watched from outside the fence.
Protesters led the defense minister out of the building, holding him by the elbows and trying to protect him, but others threw stones at the military chief and one protester kicked him. Interior Ministry troops led other officials out, and three injured people left in bandages, accompanied by a doctor.
Protesters, who appeared to control the building, threw papers and portraits of President Askar Akayev out of windows. It was unclear where he was; he had been scheduled on Thursday to meet with an envoy from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had made overtures to help mediate the crisis.
Two protesters waved a flag from a top-floor window in the building, and others looked out of other windows as cheers erupted from demonstrators. Some furniture was cast out of windows of the seven-story structure.
"I am very happy because for 15 years we've been seeing the same ugly face that has been shamelessly smiling at us. We could no longer tolerate this. We want changes," said Abdikasim Kamalov, 35, proudly holding a red Kyrgyz flag.
The storming of the compound was the culmination of the first major rally in the Kyrgyz capital since opposition supporters seized control of key cities and towns in the south to underline their demands that Akayev step down amid allegations of fraud in this year's parliamentary vote.
The rally started with about 5,000 opposition supporters moving down Bishkek's main avenue, halting in the city's main square adjacent to the white stone presidential and government headquarters. Protesters chanted "Akayev, go!"
Many of the demonstrators had come from a rally on the outskirts of Bishkek, where protesters roared and clapped when an opposition activist asserted that Akayev's foes would soon control the entire Central Asian nation.
The crowd swelled as marchers reached the government headquarters, a hulking Soviet-era building set well away from the street.
Dozens of mostly young opposition supporters soon rampaged through the government building, some smashing furniture and looting supplies and ignoring the organizers who urged them to step. Broken glass littered the floors; a drugstore in the building was ransacked.
"It's the victory of the people. But now we don't know how to stop these young guys," said Noman Akabayev, who ran unsuccessfully in the parliamentary elections.
Although the police were equipped with shields and weapons, they appeared disorganized and unwilling to take harsh action.
Many of the demonstrators wore pink or yellow headbands signifying their loyalty to the opposition — reminiscent of the orange worn by protesters who helped bring in a new, pro-Western president in Ukraine last year.
Unlike the revolutions in Ukraine, and in Georgia in 2003, the Kyrgyz uprising does not have a central figure at its head. That raises the likelihood of a jockeying for power if Akayev were to step down.
"I am concerned that for the next two months, or maybe even for a year, there will be chaos," said Iskander Sharshiyev, leader of the opposition Youth Movement of Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan lacks the rich energy resources or pipeline routes that have made of some of its Central Asian neighbors the focus of struggles by Russia, the United States and China for regional influence. But the former Soviet republic's role as a conduit for drugs and a potential hotbed of Islamic extremism, particularly in the impoverished south, makes it volatile.
The protesters had gathered peacefully in the square outside the government building — some holding yellow Narcissus flowers to signify nonviolence — but a clash broke out when men in civilian clothes and blue armbands began throwing stones and brandishing truncheons to threaten demonstrators. Protesters retaliated by throwing stones and sticks.
The men in blue armbands — the color of the pro-government Forward, Kyrgyzstan party — chased protesters away from a platform in a central square, but demonstrators charged back and drove them away.
Two protesters were injured, one with a serious skull injury and a broken leg and another with broken ribs, said Sharshiyev.
Before the clash, Zainitdin Kurmanov, a leader of the My Country opposition party, said the demonstrators would not leave the square until Akayev resigned and called for an overhaul of the political system.
"We want to create a genuinely democratic Kyrgyzstan," he said, stressing that the protesters would not storm the government headquarters or confront police.
At the initial rally, Interior Minister Keneshbek Dushebayev addressed the crowd and urged them to obey laws. However, in a departure from his warnings the day before of a possible crackdown that could include "special means and firearms," he vowed Thursday that no force would be used against peaceful protesters.
"I promise here that force will not be used against the people," he said.
"The law is the law, and whether we like it or not we have to abide by it," said Dushebayev, to whistles and booing by protesters.
Meanwhile, the government said it canceled a trip by Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev to the rebellious south where he had hoped to meet with opposition activists who have taken control of the country's second-largest city, Osh, and other administrative centers in the past week.
Government spokeswoman Roza Daudova did not explain why Tanayev's trip was canceled, but she said "other mediators" might seek to defuse the crisis sparked by the election of a predominantly pro-Akayev parliament and concerns that he might seek to stay in power beyond a presidential vote set for October.
The protests began even before the first round of parliamentary elections on Feb. 27 and swelled after March 13 run-offs that the opposition and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said were seriously flawed.
Akayev, 60, is prohibited from seeking another term, but the opposition has accused him of manipulating the parliamentary vote to gain a compliant legislature that would amend the constitution to allow him to stay in office. Akayev has denied that.
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-11/1111666188142580.xml&storylist=
Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev has resigned, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing an opposition leader hours after protesters stormed the presidential compound in the former Soviet republic.
The Russian news agency quoted Kyrgyzstan opposition leader Felix Kulov, who was released from prison on Thursday, as saying that Akayev has resigned. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Earlier, the Interfax news agency said Akayev had been flown to Russia and his family had been taken to Kazakhstan.
The tumultuous scene was the culmination of the first major rally in the capital since opposition supporters seized control of key cities and towns in the south this week to press demands that Akayev step down amid widespread allegations of fraud during parliamentary elections in the former Soviet republic.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=609942
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
Associated Press Online
March 24, 2005 Thursday 11:35 AM Eastern Time
Islamists See Opening in C. Asia Chaos
KATHY GANNON; Associated Press Writer
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan
:
The only splash of color in the drab bluish gray office of Kyrgyzstan's Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society was a wool orange scarf thrown over the back of its president's chair.
It was Edil Baisalov's souvenir from Ukraine's Orange Revolution that swept opposition leader Victor Yushchenko to the presidency. Baisalov had been in Kiev in December as an election monitor. He returned home inspired: "I was intoxicated by the protests, by the desire for change, the power of the people."
The popular uprisings in Ukraine and in Georgia a year earlier have fired up Central Asia's nascent political opposition and brought protesters into the streets of Kyrgyzstan.
The movement is unsettling authoritarian regimes who have ruled since the Soviet Union collapse 15 years ago. But it's also exposed the frailty of opposition groups who lack charismatic leaders - and created an opening for extremist Islamic parties to gain power in a strategic oil-rich region known as a terrorist haven.
"What happened in Ukraine and Georgia touches the hearts of our people because these countries are like us," said Kyrgyzstan's deputy ombudsman Sadyk Sherniyas, whose office investigates complaints against the government.
In most of Central Asia, however, the absence of a cohesive opposition group is encouraging regionalism and chaos, said political activist Alymkulov Berdi, who protested when his candidate was disqualified from Kyrgyzstan's February elections.
"Today all we have are regional leaders and that is a dangerous situation because people are frustrated and furious but they don't have one leader to guide them," Berdi said.
During the February elections, opposition leaders sought to mimic Ukraine's Orange Revolution with a color of their own - but even there they couldn't agree.
In the more prosperous and liberal north, Roza Otunbayeva, leader of the opposition Ata-Jurt movement, wrapped supporters in yellow. In the south, demonstrators wore pink, called their uprising the "pink revolution" and strung pink banners from windows of government offices they overran to demand the resignation of President Askar Akayev.
Protests against Akayev began after the first round of voting in February and swelled after run-off balloting that the opposition and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said was seriously flawed. The fiercest opposition has been in the south.
Akayev blames the demonstrations on outside interference.
A senior Georgian lawmaker who helped stage his country's 2003 Rose Revolution was in southern Kyrgyzstan, where opposition seized control of the country's second-largest city and other towns, Georgia's Rustavi-2 television reported. Givi Targamadze was also in Ukraine for the Orange Revolution.
A series of parliamentary elections across the region in the past six months - which exposed authoritarian regimes to criticism from international observers - spawned allegations of U.S. attempts to foment anti-government uprisings through U.S.-funded democracy building organizations, like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Freedom House.
"American organizations like the NDI were involved in the revolution in Ukraine and Georgia and definitely they want to create the same situation here," says the Kyrgyz president's spokesman, Abdil Seghizbayev. "The United States thinks we are too close to Russia and China."
Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, said he was surprised by the comments. A personal emissary of Akayev visited the institute's office in Washington this week to say the Bishkek government valued its relationship with NDI and urged greater involvement in Kyrgyzstan in light of current events, Wollack said.
Wollack said his group had helped all parties, including the ruling one. "None of our programs in Kyrgyzstan have favored a particular party and all of our activities have supported the democratic process," he said.
In February, electricity was shut off at the Freedom House printing press in Bishkek, where opposition newspapers were printed. Tajikistan refused to register Freedom House. Uzbekistan in 2004 denied registration to the Open Society Institute funded by the George Soros Foundation.
"After Ukraine and Georgia we have certain concerns about the activities of these western democratic promotion organizations," said Igor Sattarov, the foreign ministry's information chief in Tajikistan.
Michael Goldfarb, spokesman for Freedom House, said his organization and others like it "are not in the business of supporting one political party over another."
"In Central Asia, the nature of our work is to support people advocating for their fundamental rights," Goldfarb said. "Governments in the region that are critical of the work of civil society are in fact trying to deflect criticism of their own heavy-handed electoral tactics by blaming outsiders."
Baisalov, president of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society that receives a U.S. grant, described his Kyrgyz group as a "civil non-partisan organization."
"But we are able to criticize authoritarian governments," Baisalov told The Associated Press in early March. "After 15 years of Akayev we say it is enough. The personality cult around Akayev has stifled discourse in our country."
On Wednesday, Baisalov was among 20 to 30 protesters detained by riot police in Bishkek as the government got tougher with demonstrators. "The tolerance is being scaled down," he told AP by cell phone from a police station.
Both the United States and Russia regard the Central Asian countries as vital security interests - and both have military bases outside Bishkek. The United States places high importance on stability in the region, which borders Russia, Afghanistan and Iran.
Although the Bush administration supports pro-democracy movements, the turmoil in the region also has created a potentially dangerous opening for extremist Islamic parties.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation, has a following among the young in Central Asia. It has called for Islamic rule to replace secular governments and unite the Muslim world. And its pamphlets criticize U.S. bases established in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to support the war on terror.
A senior Western diplomat in Tajikistan confirmed that Hizb ut-Tahrir's influence is growing across the region, particularly among the young who are looking for alternatives to what they perceive as corrupt, totalitarian regimes with links to the Soviet past.
The United States has not declared Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization because it does not advocate violence, but the diplomat said some of its literature is virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic and could inspire violence.
Leaders across Central Asia have banned Hizb ut-Tahrir. Kyrgyz security authorities have accused the group of having links with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is allied to al-Qaida and operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Kyrgyz government has also warned of cooperation between Hizb ut-Tahrir and Uighur separatists in China, but has not provided evidence. Russia has accused Hizb ut-Tahrir of involvement in breakaway Chechnya.
The south of Kyrgyzstan is where Hizb ut-Tahrir is strongest, presidential spokesman Seghizbayev told the AP. He said the group blames the government for every problem and makes promises it cannot fulfill.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has become more politically active. In Jalal-Abad, the scene of some of the fiercest anti-government protests, the group collected 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for more Islamic instruction in schools and segregation of the sexes.
The petition, circulated in November, also demanded state sponsorship of Muslim schools and restrictions on the sale of pornography. Candidates who espoused a like-minded philosophy got support from Hizb ut-Tahrir members.
Askarov Azimjan, a human rights activist whose office in southern Kyrgyzstan is partially funded by Freedom House, says Hizb ut-Tahrir has emerged as an alternative for residents frustrated by corruption.
"Most ordinary people I think support them now because they feel that in a democratic society it is difficult to get anything done without corruption. People believe that if the government was religious the situation would change," he said from Bazar Korgon, about 20 miles from Jalal-Abad.
"Even high school students know exactly how much they will have to pay if they want to get a job in the police station," he added. "If Hizb ut-Tahrir registered as a political party it would get a lot of support. But the government won't allow them to register. They are afraid."
Kyrgyz Parliament Appoints Acting President
Thu Mar 24, 2005 03:14 PM ET
By Dmitry Solovyov
BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's opposition declared themselves to be in power on Thursday and seized key buildings after veteran President Askar Akayev vanished from view following days of violent protests aimed at toppling him.
In an emergency meeting, parliament installed an opposition deputy as acting president and gave the opposition until Friday to present a new government for the Central Asian country. "A decision has been made today with 44 votes for and two abstentions to name Ishenbai Kadyrbekov the new parliamentary speaker and acting president," former speaker Abdygany Erkebayev told reporters.
Protesters earlier were repelled in a first bid to enter the heavily defended White House -- the seat of government in the capital, Bishkek. But, on their second attempt, security forces moved out of the way and let them in to take control.
Thursday's protests were a culmination of days of demonstrations against what the opposition said were rigged parliamentary elections, amidst grinding poverty and widespread corruption.
One protester could be seen waving a flag from the second floor of the White House. Above, another protester tossed documents out to the cheering crowd of thousands below. The square nearby was splattered with pools of blood.
"This is a popular revolution and the power is in the hands of the people, we don't fear anyone any more," said Askat Dukenbayev, a professor from the local American University.
At least 30 people were reported injured in the clashes with pro-Akayev supporters in Bishkek, a city of 800,000.
Rumors flew that Akayev had fled the mountainous country which appears likely to become the third former Soviet state in two years to see its entrenched leadership fall to popular protest after disputed elections, following Ukraine and Georgia.
Felix Kulov -- an opposition leader freed from jail earlier in the day by protesters -- denied media reports that quoted him as saying Akayev had resigned.
"Akayev's resignation will come when we find him," he told Reuters.
But while the hunt was on for Akayev, Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev resigned, a spokesman for former Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev, another opposition leader, told Reuters.
"The president has left in an unknown direction, the prime minister has filed his resignation," Sergei Benisovich said.
Acting president Kadyrbekov -- a former construction minister and described by analysts as powerful and tough -- has kept a low profile during the protests.
CHEERED BY RESIDENTS
Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim country of 5 million bordering China, lies in an energy-rich region where Washington and Moscow vie for influence. Both have a military base outside Bishkek.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking in Guatemala, said he did not believe U.S. troops would be affected by the protests. The United States and its Western allies keep hundreds of servicemen the base which supports U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
The unrest is certain to unnerve the autocratic, mostly pro-Moscow leaders in the rest of ex-Soviet Central Asia compared to whom Akayev was relatively liberal.
Many demonstrators wore pink and yellow arm bands which are becoming the colors of anti-Akayev protest -- much as orange was the campaign color in Ukraine and the red rose the symbol of the opposition in Georgia.
Thousands of demonstrators, cheered on by residents, took to the streets to demand Akayev resign after 14 years in office and annul what they say were fraudulent election results.
International observers had also declared the polls flawed.
"We will establish order. We will not allow looting. We will hold our own elections to start our rule," said Bakiev.
The head of Kyrgyzstan's Supreme court, Kurmanbek Osmonov, was quoted by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency as saying it had annulled a decision by the electoral commission validating parliamentary polls. The court's decision opens the possibility of fresh elections being called.
There was speculation that Akayev might have flown to neighboring Kazakhstan or had sought sanctuary in a Russian airbase 20 km (12 miles) outside the capital.
Earlier this week, the opposition took control of two key towns in Kyrgyzstan's poorer south, scene of bloody ethnic conflict in the dying days of the Soviet Union, where resentment is strong against the richer north.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7999201
Desaix
03-24-2005, 05:12 PM
Its amusing that Akayez was once seen as a progresive democrat-things have changed over the last few years though,protesters shot dead and a very dodgy election have helped flame the south's protests.But this country is not going to be a Ukraine-maybe more like a Georgia with the country falling back into corruption,organised crime and possibly becoming a terrorist haven.Theres even possibilities of a north/south seperatation and civil war.
Its amusing that Akayez was once seen as a progresive democrat-things have changed over the last few years though,protesters shot dead and a very dodgy election have helped flame the south's protests.But this country is not going to be a Ukraine-maybe more like a Georgia with the country falling back into corruption,organised crime and possibly becoming a terrorist haven.Theres even possibilities of a north/south seperatation and civil war.
Yeah, he was once the darling of the CA "Republics". I totally agree with all your comments here. But this is a news section and we a not supposed to write too many comments here. If you feel strongly, I suggest a different area like Rant or News (discussions). I am sure you are not the only one with an opinion about this.
Desaix
03-24-2005, 05:22 PM
Didn't realise that.I'll post on the discussion forum then.
Kyrgyzstan's newly-elected parliament has won the support of key opposition leader Felix Kulov and the central electoral commission.
Mr. Kulov warned that ignoring the results of this month's disputed run-off election could raise the possibility of civil war. But some deputies in the old parliament believe it should retain power.
President Askar Akayev was driven from office amid demonstrations sparked by the election results, which saw the opposition nearly shut out of parliament.
Mr. Kulov was freed from jail by the demonstrators and has helped to restore order to Bishek, the capital, after days of looting and violence.
Constitutional and legal experts from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are trying to resolve the tensions between the rival parliaments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said weak leadership, and social and economic problems, contributed to the unrest in Kyrgyzstan. He says he is willing to work with interim leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-03-27-voa16.cfm
Dueling Parliaments, Old and New, Deepen Crisis in Kyrgyzstan
By CRAIG S. SMITH
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, March 27 - A post-putsch crisis in this Central Asian nation appeared to deepen Sunday, as a conflict between the newly elected Parliament and the old one continued to cloud prospects for the government that seized power last week.
The head of the world's largest election-monitoring body, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, arrived to offer help in mediating a resolution to the crisis, which started after President Askar Akayev suddenly fled in the face of protests over election abuses.
The standoff has turned into a negotiation between the small group of unelected politicians at the core of the new government and some of the powerful businessmen who recently won parliamentary seats. Many of those new members have enough money to destabilize the country if pushed from the scene.
Some officials in the new government said Sunday that they were backing the legitimacy of the newly elected members of Parliament, even though it was protests against the election that led to the ouster of Mr. Akayev.
"The new Parliament is legitimate, and the old Parliament's term has expired," said Felix Kulov, who has been put in charge of Kyrgyzstan's security forces. Mr. Kulov, who was released from jail by protesters on Thursday, threatened to arrest any of the old Parliament members if they organized protests, according to the AKIpress news agency.
The agency reported that the newly appointed chairman of the country's Central Election Commission also said that the new Parliament would be recognized and that contested seats in regions where there were documented election irregularities would be settled in the courts or through fresh elections.
But it was not clear whether Mr. Kulov and the commission chairman were speaking alone or with the authority of the new government. Members of the previously sitting Parliament and the new one each claim legitimacy and have met throughout the weekend on separate floors of the Parliament building.
After Mr. Kulov's statement, members of the old Parliament left to meet with the newly appointed prime minister and acting president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Mr. Bakiyev was appointed by the old Parliament on Thursday after Mr. Akayev fled. The new government's spokesman, Dastan Sarygulov Islamovich, said he could not comment on the matter. Mr. Bakiyev's office also declined to comment.
Mr. Kulov resigned as the country's vice president in 1993 amid a dispute over missing gold reserves. He was jailed in 2001 on forgery charges that his supporters say were politically motivated. Mr. Bakiyev was prime minister at the time.
Mr. Bakiyev met Sunday with the general secretary of the Organization for Security and Cooperation, Jan Kubis. Mr. Bakiyev and other opponents of Mr. Akayev's administration had used an O.S.C.E. report criticizing the parliamentary elections to rally the demonstrations that forced Mr. Akayev from power.
At a news conference with Mr. Kubis, Alojz Peterle, the O.S.C.E.'s representative in Central Asia, called the parliamentary crisis "a very, very sensitive issue" and said Mr. Bakiyev had expressed interest in getting help from the organization. He said it would send three constitutional and legal experts to the country in the coming days.
The organization's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Markus Mueller, suggested that the new government should reconsider the June 26 date it has set for new presidential elections. "For the organization of presidential elections, or any elections, you need a certain level of stability," he said.
The new government has managed to stop looting that followed Thursday's accidental coup, in which a lack of resistance to protesters at the presidential compound and Mr. Akayev's sudden flight left a power vacuum for the opposition to fill.
But one senior former government official, speaking to an international business representative in Bishkek on Sunday, said many of Kyrgyzstan's political elite would like Mr. Akayev to return, if only to resign and allow for a more orderly and transparent transfer of power. Though he is deeply unpopular, particularly for allowing long-running abuses of power by his wife and son, he is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Mr. Akayev has not resigned, however, creating problems for the opposition, which came together more over its dislike for him than any particular ideology or plan.
"They lack legitimacy with the army or police," said a Western official, noting that even if the opposition was unified, it would not have a majority in either the old or new Parliament. "Either they compromise or they go for a conflict."
Thousands of Mr. Akayev's supporters apparently abandoned a march on the capital on Saturday. On Sunday, The Associated Press reported that about 700 of his supporters had met in his hometown, Kemin, about 50 miles east of Bishkek, and that about 150 of them later blocked the main road to the capital before dispersing peacefully.
Many people worry that an accommodation between the government and the newly elected lawmakers could leave the country with the same corruption and stymied democracy that led to the uprising in the first place.
"The story is not over with; it's only beginning," said Edil Baisalov, who leads a coalition of nongovernmental organizations. "Now is the time when we need international support."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/international/asia/28kyrgyzstan.html?pagewanted=print&position=
DEATHS, INJURIES, LOOTING REPORTED IN KYRGYZ CAPITAL. Looting and
violence in Bishkek on the night of 24-25 March claimed at least
three lives and left hundreds injured as of 7 a.m. on 25 March,
akipress.org reported. The Health Ministry reported two dead and 360
injured, with 173 hospitalized, but parliamentary deputy Temirbek
Sariev announced on television on 25 March that three people were
killed -- one woman who fell from the third floor of a shopping
center, one person run over by a car, and another shot by guards
during looting at a shopping center. Looters ransacked many of the
capital's largest stores during the night of 24 March, fergana.ru and
akipress.org reported. They also targeted cafes and a number of ATMs
and currency exchange points. A police officer told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz
Service: "We are all here just observing from a distance. We are
working but just looking at [what is happening]. There was an order
just observe the events." DK
NEW KYRGYZ LAW-ENFORCEMENT COORDINATOR PROMISES TO RESTORE ORDER.
Ar-Namys leader and former National Security Minister Kulov, who has
been put in charge of law-enforcement agencies in the interim
government, announced in a televised address on 25 March that all
law-enforcement personnel must return to work in order to restore
order, fergana.ru reported. Kulov also said that he has met with
high-ranking officials at the Interior Ministry to coordinate plans.
Kulov asked people to cooperate with police, and suggested that they
form local committees to guard their homes. DK
2005 Financial Times Information
Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
Business Daily Update
March 29, 2005
CHINESE NATIONALS WARNED AGAINST TRAVEL TO KYRGYZSTAN
Author: huo
The Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan warned Chinese citizens on Saturday against traveling to the Central Asian state after two days of chaos and looting in Bishkek left at least three people dead. Dozens of Chinese stores in the Kyrgyz capital have been robbed or ransacked by mobs in recent days, and at least four Chinese citizens were injured in the riots, two in serious condition, the embassy said in a travel advisory. "The unrest has caused the worst economic damage for Chinese traders in Kyrgyzstan in more than 10 years of bilateral ties," the embassy said. The embassy is contacting relevant Kyrgyz authorities to try to ensure that the physical safety and property of Chinese citizens are protected, it said, adding that it will take all possible measures to protect some 10,000 Chinese here and help the victims. "Due to ongoing concerns about the possibility of robbery targeting foreigners and their interests, the Chinese Embassy continues to warn all Chinese citizens of the danger here and advise them to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with local people," it said. Chinese citizens who are not in Kyrgyzstan should defer all non- essential travel to the country, the embassy said. Gunshots were heard in downtown Bishkek Friday night as looting continued for the second straight day. The Health Ministry said three people had been killed and more than 300 injured. But unconfirmed reports said six people have died so far. The Guoying Trading Center, a locally renowned shopping mall owned by Chinese traders, was gutted Thursday night, clearly a result of arson by some of the mobs.
Meanwhile, the Ruskies are sweating blood over the chaos
Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
March 29, 2005, Tuesday THIRD EDITION
MOSCOW WARY FOLLOWING UPHEAVAL IN KYRGYZSTAN
By Anna Dolgov, Globe Correspondent
MOSCOW One of the most popular films in the history of Russian cinema, "White Sun of the Desert," tells the story of a Russian soldier drawn into adventure and drama amid the deserts of Central Asia, as he tries to make his way home from the civil war that followed the Bolshevik Revolution.
By movie's end the soldier appears convinced that Moscow-based masters could never fully control the lands of Central Asia, where sages and warriors rule, loyalties and hatreds run deep, and lives are shaped by codes of honor as ancient as the desert sand.
Thirty-five years after the film was made, and nearly 85 years since the events it draws on took place, Russia is still grappling with the same problem as it tries to reassert its influence over its former colonies in Central Asia. The difficulties have mounted following the uprising last week in Kyrgyzstan, which toppled the nation's government and unsettled a balance of Russia's economic, military, and political interests in the region.
The five former Soviet republics in Central Asia are still home to many ethnic Russians. Moscow tends to regard the region as its backyard, essential for Russia's well-being. The territory offers vast mineral resources, but also a mishmash of authoritarian regimes, ethnic conflicts, and Islamic extremism right under Russia's midsection. Now Moscow seems worried that the leaders of the Kyrgyz uprising may have let loose more dangerous forces than they can control.
The uprising started as an opposition protest against voting irregularities, but its triumph disintegrated into looting that left smashed windows and ransacked shops in Kyrgyz cities. Inspired by peaceful protests that toppled governments in two other former Soviet republics Ukraine's Orange Revolution last year and Georgia's Rose Revolution the year before the Kyrgyz opposition chose yellow tulips as a symbol of their resistance. But highlighting a lack of unity in the movement, protests in some Kyrgyz provinces gathered under banners of different colors some of which disturbed Moscow.
"I don't care what color their revolution is, . . . as long as it's not Islamic extremists gathering under their green flags," the head of the foreign affairs committee of the upper chamber of Russian parliament, Mikhail Margelov, said on Russian television the night after the Kyrgyz government fell last Tuesday.
Radical Islamists remain a heavy presence in the Fergana Valley, where Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan merge, and where extremists who sought to carve out an Islamic state fought government troops in the 1990s.
Security seems the main concern for Moscow, and perceived threats are many. Besides radical Islamic groups, Moscow worries about possible violence between competing factions in Kyrgyzstan, riots in any of the Central Asian states, or conflicts between the five nations.
"A lot will depend on how quickly they manage to restore order" in Kyrgyzstan, said Moscow-based independent political analyst Alexander Pikayev.
Kyrgyzstan's neighbors Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have sealed their borders amid the Kyrgyz revolt, but the region's record of ensuring security is notoriously poor. Any unrest could spill over the more than 4,500-mile-long, loosely guarded border between Russia and Kazakhstan.
"If the situation in the Central Asian region becomes destabilized, it will be a serious blow against Russia," said Dmitry Trenin, a foreign policy analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "Today Russia doesn't have a whole lot of strength to influence the situation." Moscow, which is under domestic pressure to protect the many ethnic Russians in Central Asia some of them Russian citizens has not been greatly successful so far.
Ethnic Russians in dictatorial Turkmenistan have appealed to Moscow to protest a ban on Russian-language radio broadcasts and the closure of Russian schools by Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov, who has had himself declared president for life. But Moscow seemed unwilling to antagonize his government.
"Natural gas. That's the reason," Trenin said. Turkmenistan sits on rich oil and gas reserves, and Russia wants a share in developing them.
Kyrgyz opposition leaders who came to power last week include former government ministers with longtime ties with Moscow. They have promised to strengthen relations between the two nations, as impoverished Kyrgyzstan hopes for Russian investments to support its economy.
Two opposition leaders visited Moscow earlier this year, and seem to have convinced the Kremlin that they have no plans to follow their Georgian and Ukrainian counterparts in turning away from Russia and toward the West.
"We have traditionally friendly relations with Russia," said Kurmanbek Bakiyev, named acting Kyrgyz president after the revolt. "Nobody want to change those relations."
Russian authorities, who strongly sided with the Ukrainian government during the Orange Revolution, and lost, refrained from openly taking sides in Kyrgyzstan.
"The Ukrainian lesson has played a part, but also the fact that the Kyrgyz opposition has succeeded in building a relationship with Moscow even before their revolution started," Pikayev said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed "regret that once again on the post-Soviet territory political questions are being solved by unlawful methods." He offered ousted Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev refuge, while also praising those who unseated him as people who "did a lot for establishing the current level of relations between Russia and Kyrgyzstan."
PUTIN ORDERS GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE AID TO KYRGYZSTAN. Speaking at a
cabinet meeting on 28 March, President Vladimir Putin ordered the
Emergency Situations and Agriculture ministries to help Kyrgyzstan
with the reconstruction of the Bishkek infrastructure and with
preparations for the spring sowing season, RTR reported. "The
political process there is developing very tumultuously and we do not
need to make any comments about that," Putin said. "The people
controlling the situation there have asked us for help and we should
extend it." Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov reported to Putin that
planned joint military exercises of Central Asian countries who are
signatories of the Collective Security Treaty will go ahead as
scheduled this week in Tajikistan and that Kyrgyz units will
participate as planned. VY
Kyrgyzstan's ousted president Askar Akayev has formally resigned in a ceremony arranged in the Russian capital.
Mr Akayev fled to Russia after the March 24 coup in the central Asian state
By stepping down, Mr Akayev opens the way to hold a new presidential election scheduled for June 26.
He has ruled Kyrgyzstan since 1990.
Mr Akayev had wanted go to his capital Bishkek to resign to Parliament as required by the constitution.
Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, one of the leaders of the coup and certain to contest the June election, objected saying he could not guarantee Mr Akayev's safety.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1338012.htm
BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's deposed President Askar Akayev resigned on Monday allowing the Central Asian state's new rulers to consolidate their grip on power seized in last month's coup and prepare for a new election.
The veteran leader formally stepped down in a low-key ceremony at the Kyrgyz embassy in the Russian capital, where he had fled after the coup on March 24.
Disagreement among the new leadership over whether to let Akayev return to hand in his resignation to parliament added to tension in the ex-Soviet state amid warnings of fresh violence. "Askar Akayev has already signed the (resignation) statement," Bermet Bukasheva, member of a Kyrgyz delegation dispatched to Moscow to negotiate with the ousted leader, told reporters in Moscow.
"Before resigning, he made his final address to the Kyrgyz people asking them to pardon him if he did anything wrong to the nation or individuals and expressed his wish that Kyrgyzstan's future course be as democratic as possible," she added.
Akayev's 18-minute videotaped resignation speech was due to be played before the Kyrgyz parliament on Tuesday.
The ousting of Akayev followed a wave of opposition protests fueled by flawed parliamentary polls and widespread poverty in the mountainous state of 5 million bordering China.
WAY CLEARED FOR ELECTIONS
Protesters led by Kurmanbek Bakiyev, now acting president, accused Akayev and his family of ruling illegally and of running a corrupt business empire.
Bakiyev welcomed the resignation as meaning new elections could be held without any fear of violating the constitution.
"This is good. It should have been done before, but obviously he had to think and analyze the situation for a long time," Bakiyev told Reuters in an interview.
"Our delegation will return tomorrow and we will learn what is in the text... This means that, under the constitution, from this day we can begin the count (to fresh elections)."
Many Kyrgyz politicians argued that Akayev was still legally president and would have to resign before new elections could be held, but Bakiyev refused to allow him into the country -- saying the ex-leader could not be protected from public anger.
That put him at odds with other key members of the new leadership, Felix Kulov and parliamentary speaker Omurbek Tekebayev, both of whom wanted the country's leader of 14 years to formally quit before parliament.
But observers said such differences showed democracy was developing in the absence of Akayev.
"We have got used to living in an authoritarian state and we need now to adapt to the fact that there will be competition between political parties. There is no one boss," said Edil Baysalov, head of a coalition of human rights groups.
The presidential election, in which both Kulov and Bakiyev are expected to stand, had been tentatively set for June 26. Under the constitution, new polls must be held within three months of the resignation of the previous leader.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8078992
KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT FAILS TO GATHER QUORUM TO ACCEPT PRESIDENT'S
RESIGNATION... Kyrgyzstan's parliament, which had planned to review
ousted President Askar Akaev's resignation petition on 5 April,
rescheduled the session for 6 April after failing to gather a quorum
on 5 April, akipress.org reported. Fifteen of the legislature's 75
deputies were absent, Kabar reported. According to Deputy Speaker
Bolot Sherniyazov, the seven-member parliamentary delegation that had
held talks with Akaev in Moscow did not manage to return to Bishkek
in time for the session.
KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT CREATES COMMISSION TO REVIEW 24 MARCH EVENTS.
Acting Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev issued a decree on 11 April
creating a state commission to investigate the circumstances that led
to the events of 24 March, Kabar reported. The commission, which will
be headed by National Security Council Secretary Miroslav Niyazov,
will complete its examination of the issue by 15 May and will present
both conclusions and recommendations for stabilizing the country.
Niyazov commented, "The commission includes representatives of the
government, parliament, and civil society, with five persons from
each group," Interfax reported.
INTERESTING
AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN PAKISTAN... Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliev arrived in Pakistan on 12 April at the start of an
official two-day state visit, Turan reported. The Azerbaijani
president met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, discussed
plans for the expansion of bilateral ties, and requested diplomatic
support for Azerbaijani efforts to raise the issue of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the United Nations. The two leaders
also formally signed a set of eight new bilateral agreements. RG
...AS U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ARRIVES IN AZERBAIJAN. U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Baku on 12 April,
Turan reported. Secretary Rumsfeld, in Baku after a surprise visit to
Baghdad, held talks with Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiev and
Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. Rumsfeld's visit -- the third in a
year -- is widely seen as reflecting the expanding military
relationship between Azerbaijan and the United States. Rumsfeld
reviewed security plans for the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline and
discussed ongoing counter-proliferation efforts along Azerbaijan's
borders with Russia and Iran. RG
U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY VISITS KYRGYZSTAN. U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld visited Kyrgyzstan on 14 April, meeting with acting
President Kurmanbek Bakiev and U.S. military personnel at the U.S.
airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported.
At a press conference after meeting with Rumsfeld, Bakiev said that
his government will continue to honor all agreements with the United
States, akipress.org reported. He added, "I feel that there is no
need to have additional armed forces from other countries in
Kyrgyzstan." Bakiev also said that the issue of deploying AWACS
surveillance aircraft to the U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan was not
discussed in his talks with Rumsfeld. For his part, the U.S. defense
secretary told Kyrgyzstan's new leadership that "the United States is
wishing them well in the important work that they're engaged in, in
building a stable and modern and prosperous democracy," American
Forces Press Service reported.
Petronas
05-03-2005, 10:42 PM
Radical Islamic Group Growing in Asia
Sun May 1, 4:04 PM ET
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - Abdullah Modmarov was in the middle of a soccer game when Uzbek police waving their rifles hauled him off the field and arrested the 33-year-old on charges of belonging to an outlawed radical Islamic party. The crackdown on Hizb ut-Tahrir — or Party of Liberation — has swept through cities and villages across this former Soviet republic, filling prison cells with thousands of observant Muslims or political dissidents imprisoned under the guise of religious extremism. Some belong to the party. Many such as Modmarov say they do not.
Either way, the ban on the group that authorities see as a "farm team" for terrorist organizations like al-Qaida hasn't stopped its expansion across volatile Central Asia, where it wants to overthrow secular governments and replace them by Islamic rule, but through nonviolent means. It is not on the U.S. list of terrorist organization because it eschews violence. Yet Hizb ut-Tahrir followers as well as the group's opponents, who were interviewed by The Associated Press in four Central Asian states, say the authorities' heavy-handed approach to quash the movement has actually fueled membership in the group — and accelerated a leap by many to embrace other Islamic groups that are even more militant than Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Ibrahim Mirzajanov, a 21-year-old Uzbek who has spent more than three years in jail for religious activity, said he knows Muslims who used to promote the goal of an Islamic state through nonviolent means when they were with Hizb ut-Tahrir, but now have grown angry. "The more there has been a crackdown, (the more) they have joined more violent militant groups because they want things to happen faster," Mirzajanov told AP. "They are fed up with Hizb ut-Tahrir because they say they have not been able to change anything." Mirzajanov says he studied literature distributed by Hizb ut-Tahrir but never joined the movement.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, founded in 1953 in Jordan by Sheik Takuddin an-Nabahani shares the goal of creating a huge Islamic state with groups that are on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. Hizb ut-Tahrir sometimes meets with leaders of these groups, but the organization's London-based spokesman, Dr. Imran Waheed, insisted, "We only talk and meet to try to convince them to our way of bringing about change, which is a nonviolent one. I believe that 99 percent of Muslim people anywhere in the world want the same thing, a caliphate to rule them," Waheed told AP in a telephone interview, adding that Central Asia is one of the most fertile recruiting grounds for Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has been outlawed in all five newly independent Central Asian nations: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. But there's plenty of fertile ground for extremism: corrupt authoritarian regimes rule over bankrupt economies; legions of disillusioned youths are unemployed; and ruined social systems are bereft of basic health and education services once provided by the former Soviet Union. Hence the openness to Hizb ut-Tahrir, which does not advocate violence but distributes inflammatory and increasingly anti-Semitic literature — seeding the ground for even more radical groups.
A senior Western diplomat in Tajikistan, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, likened the group to a "farm team" for other terrorist groups. Some Hizb ut-Tahrir members who are disgruntled "could take it that next step and engage in violence," the diplomat said, voicing worries of authorities in the region. Alisher Khamidov, of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World, agreed. He said that "increasing suppression by secular authorities, as well as differences between competing factions within the party, indicate that the group could turn violent." He also said it could be "a breeding ground and support structure" for now violent groups.
Some senior al-Qaida men are former Hizb ut-Tahrir members, according to terrorism experts. Rohan Gunaratna, an associate professor at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, said both Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, once belonged to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Waheed, the London-based spokesman, disputed that, saying he had no evidence to link either man to his organization, although he couldn't say with certainty they had never been members.
Al-Zarqawi supposedly took 200 people, some of whom were members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, when he moved to Iraq from Afghanistan in 2001 after the U.S.-led coalition's assault on the Taliban and the al-Qaida network there, Gunaratna said. This provides "but one example of the radicalization of Hizb ut-Tahrir contributing to the growth of these other dangerous groups," he said.
Hizb ut-Tahrir organizers made their initial forays into predominantly Muslim Central Asia in the early 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Its promise of a region without borders, ruled by a single Islamic body, grew in popularity as economies slumped, unemployment soared and friction between countries caused borders to be sealed for the first time in 70 years, disrupting trade and firing resentment and ethnic divisions.
Gauging the membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Central Asia is difficult because the organization has gone underground to avoid government attacks. Some experts put it as high as 40,000. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group estimated its strength in 2003 at probably 15,000 to 20,000. Central Asian governments have further muddied the picture with inflated numbers, by accusing opponents and political dissidents of being Hizb ut-Tahrir members to silence them. In Uzbekistan, for example, where human rights workers estimate at least 6,000 people are in jail for religiously motivated crimes, policemen knock on dissidents' doors and order them to confess to being members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, witnesses have told AP.
Ahmed Modmarov, a human rights worker and the soccer player Abdullah's father, accuse Central Asian governments of keeping the threat of religious extremism alive to get money and aid from the United States — which established military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan after the Sept. 11 attacks to provide logistical assistance to troops in Afghanistan. Modmarov said his son had dipped his toe into Hizb-ut-Tahrir but was persuaded to leave the group. Still, he was arrested and two of his younger brothers also were thrown into prison just for being related to Abdullah, the father said.
Before emerging from the shadows to be interviewed, Dilyor Dzhumabayev, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan, sent out two men as apparent decoys to flush out any police or local intelligence agents who might be lurking nearby. Dzhumabayev said fresh recruits were quietly and steadily joining the organization. "The government has banned us because it is afraid. We are not fighting with violence but with our faith, and we will see that this government goes," Dzhumabayev said in March in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, where Hizb ut-Tahrir is the strongest and where anti-government demonstrations that month led to the ouster of President Askar Akayev. In a telephone interview from London, Waheed told AP that Hizb ut-Tahrir had nothing to do with the protests in Kyrgyzstan, which he alleged were orchestrated by the United States to install a pro-American government.
Yet Hizb ut-Tahrir has shown its political muscle in southern Kyrgyzstan, where in November it gathered 20,000 signatures on a petition demanding state-funded Islamic schools, segregation of the sexes in schools, a crackdown on pornography and heavy prison terms for those selling pornographic materials. It has won over parliament members who are trying to change legislation that forbids women from wearing head scarves in photographs used on official documents.
Khamidov, at Brookings, said it is in Washington's interest to figure out how to deal with Hizb ut-Tahrir. "The manner in which the party can be induced to move from religiously inspired extremist protests to engagement in mainstream political life in Central Asia may provide key lessons for crafting a well-informed policy toward similar Muslim movements elsewhere in the world," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/radical_farm_team;_ylt=AqI8se2dwcoo7tgBJ6X_qqKs0NU E;_ylu=X3oDMTA2bm5xNHVjBHNlYwNtcA--
Petronas
05-09-2005, 06:11 PM
PUBLIC
ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This information is current as of today, Mon May 09 15:05:01 2005.
Uzbekistan
May 06, 2005
This Public Announcement is being issued to remind U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist actions in Uzbekistan. This Public Announcement updates the Public Announcement of November 4, 2004, and expires on October 5, 2005.
The United States Government has received information that terrorist groups may be planning attacks against U.S. interests in Uzbekistan in the near future. Supporters of extremist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al-Qaida, the Islamic Jihad Group, and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement continue to remain active in the region. These groups have expressed anti-U.S. sentiments and may also attempt to target U.S. Government or private interests in Uzbekistan. The Department of State urges Americans in Uzbekistan to exercise extreme caution, including avoiding large crowds, celebrations, and places where Westerners generally congregate.
Uzbekistan experienced a wave of extremist violence in 2004. Three suicide bombings occurred in July 2004 in Tashkent, including one outside the U.S. Embassy. Other targets included the Israeli Embassy and the Uzbekistani Prosecutor General’s Office. The Islamic Jihad Group released a statement claiming responsibility for these attacks.
Multiple attacks also occurred in Tashkent and Bukhara in late March and early April 2004. These attacks used suicide bombers, mainly focused at police and Uzbek private and commercial facilities. In late July, approximately 15 people pled guilty in an Uzbekistan court to charges related to the attacks. The Islamic Jihad Group also claimed responsibility for these operations.
In 2003, the U.S. Embassy received information indicating that terrorist groups had planned attacks against hotels in Uzbekistan frequented by Westerners, as well as against other institutions affiliated with or representing foreign interests.
Terrorist groups do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. As security is increased at official U.S. facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers seek softer targets. These may include facilities where Americans and other foreigners congregate or visit, such as residential areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, hotels, outdoor recreation events, resorts, beaches, maritime facilities, and planes.
The U.S. Embassy in Tashkent continues to employ heightened security precautions. U.S. citizens should report any unusual activity to local authorities and then inform the Embassy.
The Uzbek Government maintains travel restrictions on large parts of the Surkhandarya oblast (administrative region) bordering Afghanistan, including the border city of Termez. Foreign citizens intending to travel to this region must obtain a special permission card from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or Uzbek embassies and consulates abroad.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_1157.html
Petronas
05-13-2005, 10:01 AM
Soldiers fire on Uzbek protesters
Friday, 13 May, 2005, 12:59 GMT 13:59 UK
Soldiers have fired on a crowd of some 2,000 protesters in the town of Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan. At least one person has been killed, according to reporters at the scene. Troops had sealed off Andijan after protesters took control of the town centre and a government building. The protesters included a group of men who were freed from prison in a jailbreak overnight. They were facing trial on charges of Islamic extremism. Their families say the men are innocent and have been unfairly targeted. Protesters are calling for "justice" and "freedom".
President Islam Karimov reportedly left for Andijan several hours ago but his current whereabouts are unknown. Shots were fired into the crowd earlier in the day as well. Nine people were killed and 34 injured on that occasion, according to government officials. The BBC's correspondent in Tashkent, Monica Whitlock, says the unrest feeds on long pent-up anger in Andijan regarding the treatment of prisoners, poverty, unemployment and other social problems.
Overnight, a group of unidentified armed men broke open Andijan jail, freeing everyone inside - perhaps as many as 4,000 inmates, both political prisoners and ordinary criminals. They poured out into the city, some of them carrying guns. "The people have risen," AP news agency quoted Valijon Atakhonjonov, the brother of a defendant in the long-running trial.
Some protesters have occupied the mayor's office in Andijan, while the majority are in the main square. Earlier, three snipers were reportedly pulled down from a roof by protesters. An official in Uzbekistan's foreign ministry, who described the protesters as "armed criminals", said negotiations with them were under way. All foreign news broadcasts, including those of the BBC, have been blocked.
In the capital Tashkent, 300 km away, a man was shot dead outside the Israeli embassy, upon suspicion he was a suicide bomber. Our correspondent says the incident, while apparently unrelated to the protests, shows how tense the situation has become.
Andijan is one of the main cities in the most politically sensitive part of this country, our correspondent says. It is the barometer of feeling for a long, densely populated valley called Ferghana with a long tradition of independent thought, and the authoritarian government in Tashkent has always eyed the valley with suspicion, she says.
The government has locked up probably thousands of local young men, many of them prominent members of the community, accusing them of Islamic extremism. Neighbouring Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have shut their borders with Uzbekistan. Protests in Kyrgyzstan in March resulted in the overthrow of its then President, Askar Akayev.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4544599.stm
Petronas
05-13-2005, 10:04 AM
Uzbekistan (Country threat level - 4): On 12 May 2005, the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent issued the following Warden Message: "The United States Government reminds the general public that information exists that terrorist groups may be planning attacks in Uzbekistan in the near future, possibly against U.S. interests. These terrorist groups have expressed anti-U.S. sentiments and may also attempt to target U.S. Government or private interests in Uzbekistan. The Department of State urges Americans in Uzbekistan to exercise extreme caution, including avoiding large crowds, celebrations, and places where Westerners generally congregate, which may include residential areas, clubs, restaurants, outdoor cafes, places of worship, schools, discotheques, hotels, outdoor recreation events, resorts, and planes. ..."
AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 5/12/2005
Petronas
05-13-2005, 11:28 AM
Uzbekistan (Country threat level - 4): Police officers shot and killed a man in front of the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent on 13 May 2005 after he was mistakenly thought to be a suicide bomber. Police officers reportedly mistook the wooden objects in the man's hands for explosives. Embassy guards, who were suspicious of the man, called for him to stop, and shot him in the leg when he ignored their commands. However, the suspect continued to move toward the embassy at which point he was shot and killed. Following the incident, the street on which the embassy is located was closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic. The Israeli foreign minister has placed all Israeli diplomatic missions around the world on alert.
AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 5/13/2005
Violent Protests Grip Uzbekistan, 9 Killed
TASHKENT, May 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least nine people were killed Friday, May 13, as thousands of people took to the streets in an eastern city to protest the unfair trial of Muslim activists and to call for freedom in a country widely condemned for a bad human rights record.
Uzbek soldiers surrounded a crowd of protesters in the main square in the eastern Andijan city after an overnight jailbreak to free all the 4,000 inmates, both political prisoners and ordinary criminals, inside a prison located at the area.
According to Reuters, 10 police officers were taken hostage when the armed men broke into the prison and seized a key government building.
The violence, the worst in the authoritarian ex-Soviet state since bombings in the capital, Tashkent, last year, hit the densely populated Ferghana Valley, one of the poorest and most volatile Muslim regions in Central Asia.
The protests were triggered by the trial of 23 local businessmen on charges of religious extremism, a claim observers say used by the government to crack down on activists.
Uzbekistan, an impoverished agrarian state of 26 million, has come under criticism from Western human rights groups for the mass jailing of Muslims who do not subscribe to state-sponsored Islam.
The unrest also feeds on long pent-up anger in Andijan regarding the treatment of prisoners, poverty, unemployment and other social problems, according to the BBC correspondent in Tashkent.
The protesters shouted “justice” and “freedom”.
Enforcements
Uzbek President Islam Karimov rushed Friday to Andijan where protestors were reported to have taken over the town, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
But it was not clear who was in control, reported Reuters.
Karimov, in power since Soviet days, was reportedly deploying scores of soldiers into the town in jeeps and trucks.
But a foreign ministry spokesman in Tashkent told AFP that security forces had brought the situation under control. Karimov is expected to make a statement on state television later Friday, according to a presidential press spokesman.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry, which denied the seizure of government buildings, said nine people had been killed and 39 wounded during an attack on a police station and military unit, and said negotiations were underway with the armed men.
The corpses of three civilians, including one woman, and one soldier lay in pools of blood on Andijan’s streets.
The soldier, killed by a gunshot wound, was lying face down by an armored vehicle outside the security services headquarters.
Calls for Justice
Karimov rushed Friday to Andijan where protestors were reported to have taken over the town.
Sporadic automatic gunfire could be heard, and buses and trucks had been parked to block streets leading to the center of the city.
The Andijan armed men demanded Russian mediation to avert further bloodshed.
“This is the limit. Our relatives started to disappear,” one leader of the armed men, who declined to give his name, told Reuters inside Andijan’s administration building.
“We suffered too much, people have been driven to despair, it has to be stopped,” he said, demanding a ceasefire and the release by authorities of Akram Yuldashev.
Press reports say Karimov has claimed he is fighting the rise of what he terms “militant Islam”, to justify his hardline policies and alleviate pressures on his record of human rights violations.
Karimov is a key ally in Washington’s anti-terror campaign, having provided US forces with a major airbase near the Afghan border since 2001.
Rights campaigners argue that Uzbekistan’s courts are closely controlled by Karimov’s leadership and that defendants are often tortured and denied fair trial.
There was yet no reaction from Washington or Europe on the unfolding crisis in Uzbekistan.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-05/13/article02.shtml
Doctor: Hundreds dead in Uzbek protests
Sunday 15 May 2005, 17:21 Makka Time, 14:21 GMT
About 500 bodies have been laid out in rows at a school in the eastern Uzbek city where troops fired on protesters to put down an uprising, a doctor in the town said.
Relatives were arriving at School No 15 in*Andijan*to identify the dead, said the doctor, who spoke by telephone on condition of anonymity.
Another 2000 people were wounded in the clashes on Friday, said the doctor, widely regarded as knowledgeable about local affairs. It was unclear how she arrived at her estimate.
The government has given no clear casualty figures. President Islam Karimov has said 10 government soldiers and many more protesters died and at least 100 people were wounded in the uprising, but witnesses reported hundreds killed.
Search for relatives
Distraught relatives searched for bodies in the smouldering city.
Smoke billowed from a government building that burned during the night and the streets were mostly empty of people and cars. The exception was the mortuary, where relatives came to look for their missing loved ones.
"I have been looking for two days for the bodies of my brothers," said Bakhadyr Yergachyov, clutching his siblings' passports.
"They are neither at the morgue nor at the hospitals. I know
that they had gone to the square to participate in the
demonstrations."
An accurate toll from the violence was impossible to come by, as soldiers guarding the city mortuary and hospitals denied entry to reporters amid a general media clampdown by the autocratic government.
AFP correspondents had seen up to 50 bodies on the streets, and local witnesses spoke of seeing up to 300 dead.
Innocents perished
The bloodshed started early on Friday, when weeks-long demonstrations over a trial of 23 local business people boiled over.
Karimov says the demonstrators' aim is to establish a caliphate
Prosecutors had accused the men of belonging to an outlawed Islamic group, but their supporters said the charges were fabricated.
After armed backers of the accused stormed a local prison to free them, along with some 2000 other prisoners, the military moved into the city that by then was gripped by mass anti-government protests. Witnesses accused the soldiers of firing indiscriminately into the crowd.
"The situation is terrible," Nadyr, a worker at the Andijan market, said on*Sunday. "The innocent perished. They placed weapons near the killed civilians to make people think that they are terrorists."
Frustration explodes
Like many, he blamed the repression and corruption of the government in impoverished Uzbekistan for driving people to protest and the ensuing violence.
Uzbeks accuse the government of corruption and torture
"We live very badly, I have trouble feeding my children," he said. "This is the fault of the president. It is he who has reduced us to this situation and it was he who ordered the killing of the innocents."
Karimov, a 67-year-old Soviet-era leader in the nation of 24 million who is supported by both Moscow and Washington, has blamed Islamic groups*for the violence, and denied that the soldiers were given the order to shoot.
"Their aim is to unite the Muslims and establish a caliphate. Their aim is to overthrow the constitutional regime," Karimov said on Sunday. He said soldiers fired only after being fired upon by the protesters.
Crackdown on Muslims?
Karimov's government, wary of Islamic influences in a country that shares a border with Afghanistan, has moved on what it considers radical groups for years.
Critics say that in practice, this has meant a crackdown on practicing Muslims that has filled the nation's prisons, fuelled discontent with the government and paradoxically has driven many to support the groups opposed by the government.
Although human rights groups have routinely charged Karimov's government with using systematic torture in prisons and police stations, the United States has been mild in its criticism as Uzbekistan houses a US military base and is considered an ally in Washington's war on terror.
Russia, fearful of Islamists as its battle against Chechen insurgents stretches into its 11th year, has also backed Karimov.
After the clashes, Kyrgyzstan, Tashkent's eastern neighbour where mass protests overthrew a Soviet-era government in March, closed its border with Uzbekistan. But on Sunday, authorities said the border crossing at the city of Kara-Suu, which lies in both countries, would be open for five days.
"Uzbek and Kyrgyz authorities decided to open the border," an official with Kyrgyz border authorities said.
AFP
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/187E6C4F-27A4-4411-B762-1D7A809AC224.htm
Petronas
05-16-2005, 01:31 AM
11 Killed in Uzbek Border Skirmish
Sunday, May 15, 2005
FERGANA, Uzbekistan — Eight Uzbek soldiers and three Islamic militants died in a clash near the Kyrgyz border Sunday and more than 500 Uzbeks fled to safety across the frontier, witnesses said, in spreading violence that further threatened stability in this Central Asia country, a key American ally and host to an important U.S. military outpost. The explosions of pent-up anger have now hit at least two Uzbek border towns in the volatile Fergana Valley in eastern Uzbekistan. As many as 500 people reportedly were killed Friday in Andijan, Uzbekistan's fourth-largest city about 30 miles west of the Kyrgyz frontier, when government troops were called in to put down an uprising by alleged Islamic militants and citizens protesting dire economic conditions.
About 500 bodies were laid out in rows at an Andijan school, according to a respected doctor in the town, seeming to corroborate other witness accounts of hundreds killed in the fighting. Relatives were arriving at Andijan's School No. 15 to identify the dead, said the doctor, who spoke by telephone on condition she not be named. The doctor, who also said about 2,000 people were wounded, is widely regarded as knowledgeable about local affairs. She did not say how she arrived at her estimate.
Security was tight in Andijan as stunned residents cleaned blood off streets guarded by troops and armored vehicles. One man said he saw the bodies of three people apparently killed by a soldier Sunday, two days after government forces put down the uprising. "The city was burying its victims throughout the entire day, and the people are very angry at the president for his order to open fire at protesters," said the man, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Ilkhom.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry on Sunday denied that government forces had opened fire on demonstrators. President Islam Karimov has said 10 government soldiers and "many more" protesters died in the Friday conflict and at least 100 people were wounded. Since then the government has imposed a near-total news blackout on the region, keeping reporters away from scenes of violence.
Karimov, viewed as one of the most authoritarian leaders still in control of a former Soviet republic, cut his political teeth under the old communist system which brooked no civil disobedience. Before the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, many regional leaders had ordered military or police attacks against their own people when they massed in protest in places like Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. But if the estimates of 500 dead hold true and if Uzbek forces were behind the killing -- as most reports indicate -- Friday's violence would be one of the worst incidents of state-inspired bloodshed since the massacre of protesters in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Karimov has blamed Islamic extremists for the uprising, in which protesters stormed a prison, freed inmates and then seized local government offices before government troops put the protest down with force. The violence was Uzbekistan's worst since gaining independence in 1991.
Reports of 11 dead Sunday in fighting in the border village of Tefektosh could not be confirmed, but blood stains were visible on the streets. One villager said eight government soldiers were killed, another said three civilians also died. Other accounts said more than 500 people, including militants, crossed into Kyrgyzstan after the clash. In Korasuv, another border community, the village was strewn with the charred remains of police cars Sunday and the streets littered with documents from torched government offices.
An estimated 5,000 people went on a rampage a day earlier and forced authorities to restore a bridge across a river that marks the border with Kyrgyzstan. The bridge had been closed more than two years ago by the government, and locals saw the closing of it and other river crossings as an attempt to deny them access to the better-developed economy and more open politics of Kyrgyzstan. "It was a popular uprising. There were no terrorists here, just ordinary people," said Furkat Yuldashev, 32, as he stood with other townspeople near the bridge. But villagers remained angry even with the bridge restored. "It's necessary to get this ruler out," said a 75-year-old man named Umarjon-Aka, dressed in a traditional black robe and dark blue hat. "For how long they can torment the people?" He, like many others in Korasuv, voiced sympathy for the victims of Andijan violence and expressed anger at accounts of the events by Uzbekistan's tightly controlled news media. "People have done that, and they [the authorities] keep calling them terrorists," Umarjon-Aka said. "Now more people will rise up." No government forces were visible around Korasuv on Sunday, apparently reflecting the authorities' reluctance to engage in another conflict.
In Andijan, the square that was the scene of Friday's bloodshed was empty Sunday, according to the doctor who reported 500 were killed by government forces. But reporters trying to enter the city heard bursts of automatic weapons fire on the outskirts late in the day. Police officers at a checkpoint dropped to the ground and fired in the direction of the shooting. An Andijan resident reached by phone said gunfire could be heard briefly near the city market in the afternoon. The resident, who asked not to be named, said that scores of troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed around the main avenues. A U.N. refugee agency team went to Suzac, Kyrgyzstan, 50 miles northeast of Andijan. Most of the 560 Uzbeks who arrived there Saturday were men, and 18 were wounded, the agency said.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Sunday there had been rights abuses in Uzbekistan. "The situation is very serious; there has been a clear abuse of human rights, a lack of democracy and a lack of openness," he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. The Uzbek government rejected the criticism. "From where has Jack Straw learned that law enforcement had 'opened fire on demonstrators' if that did not take place at all," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The United States faces a quandary in responding to the violence because of its ties to the Karimov government and its air base in the country. So far U.S. authorities have only called on both sides to work out their differences peacefully. Uzbekistan hosts a U.S. air base in the Karshi-Khanabad region, 90 miles from the Afghan border, to support military operations in that country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The number of troops at the base, more than 430 miles southwest of Andijan, has at times reached several thousand.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156563,00.html
NEW ESTIMATE PUTS KYRGYZ LOOTING DAMAGE AT $24 MILLION. Kyrgyzstan's
Interior Ministry has announced that its preliminary estimates
suggest that looting in Bishkek on the night of 24 March caused
nearly 1 billion soms ($24 million) of damage, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz
Service reported on 12 May. Earlier estimates had ranged as high as
$100 million (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 March 2005). The Interior
Ministry has opened 188 criminal cases in connection with the looting
and filed criminal charges against 87 individuals. Twelve of them are
currently in jail, while an unspecified number of others are under
house arrest. At present, only 3.3 million soms' worth of merchandise
has been returned to merchants whose businesses suffered during the
chaos.
Petronas
05-28-2005, 01:10 AM
US puts Uzbek group on terror watch-list
Saturday, May 28, 2005
WASHINGTON: The US government said Thursday it has placed the Islamic Jihad Group on its list of international terrorist organisations, saying the group had carried out several bombings in the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. “This is a group you might not be familiar with, but it’s active in Central Asia. It broke away from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and it is responsible for coordinated bombing attacks,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a “specially designated global terrorist organisation” listed by the United Nations.
Boucher said the Islamic Jihad Group (IJG)) was behind the bombings of the US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent as well as the office of the Uzbek prosecutor general that killed at least two people and wounded nine in July 2004. The IJG “claimed responsibility for these attacks and indicated that future attacks are planned,” Boucher said later in a statement. The group “continues to target Americans and US facilities overseas and is a dangerous threat to US interests,” he added. In March and April 2004, IJG suicide bombers “attacked a popular bazaar and other locations in Tashkent,” Boucher said, “resulting in the deaths of more than a dozen police officers and innocent bystanders and dozens of injuries.” The attackers, which included female suicide bombers, “targeted the local government offices of the Uzbekistani and Bukharo police, killing approximately 47 people, including 33 terrorists. “These attacks marked the first use of female suicide bombers in Central Asia,” Boucher said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_28-5-2005_pg4_6
Petronas
06-09-2005, 12:32 AM
Uzbekistan (Country threat level - 4): On 7 June 2005, the U.S. Embassy in Tahskent issued a Warden Message, which reads as follows: "In light of the terrorist threat announced in the Travel Warning released by the U.S. Department of State on June 2, 2005, the U.S. Embassy has instructed its personnel not to send their children to school for the rest of the school year."
AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/8/2005
Uzbekistan (Country threat level - 4): Reports issued on 3 June 2005 indicate that several countries, including the U.S. and Israel, are evacuating diplomatic staff from Uzbekistan. The move is allegedly in response to heightened security concerns. The U.S. Department of State issued a Travel Warning on 2 June 2005 discussing current security conditions in Uzbekistan.
AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/3/2005
Petronas
06-20-2005, 08:37 PM
Uzbekistan (Country threat level - 4): On 17 June 2005, the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent issued a Warden Message, which reads as follows: "On June 14, an American citizen was found murdered at her home in the Mirobod district of Tashkent. A police investigation into her murder and the burning of her home is on-going, but at this time there is no evidence that her death was at all related to the terrorist threat noted in the Travel Warning issued by the U.S. government on June 2. While this information is not usually the subject of a warden message, the U.S. Embassy does understand that it comes during a time of heightened security awareness for all American citizens. There has been a recent increase in violent crime, including against foreigners. In urban areas, travelers are urged to take the same precautions against crime that they would take in a large American city."
AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 6/20/2005
Petronas
12-09-2005, 11:59 AM
Extremists detained in Tajikistan
19:54 2005-12-06
Members of the banned Uzbek Islamic Movement were arrested on Monday in the city of Khudzhand in northern Tajikistan. "An Uzbek citizen, 37, and a Russian citizen from the Mordova region, 41, who are accused of being members of the Uzbek Islamic Movement, were detained on December 5 in Khudzhand," a source from the Tajik Interior Ministry told. "Six other people from northern Tajikistan were also detained," the source said. The men were detained while distributing leaflets calling for a coup d'etat. The town of Khudzhand is an administrative center in the Tajik Sughd region. It borders on Uzbekistan and is the second largest city in the country.
The Uzbek Islamic Movement is an extremist organization, which says
it wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Central Asian countries. Several dozen people suspected of links with the Uzbek Islamic
Movement and Hizb-ut-Tahrir have been arrested in Tajikistan since the beginning of 2005, Interfax reports.
http://newsfromrussia.com/cis/2005/12/06/69331.html
Petronas
03-08-2006, 03:43 PM
Dhimmis beware!
Last Tajik synagogue to be razed
Monday, 6 March 2006, 05:14 GMT
The authorities in the central Asian republic of Tajikistan have started to demolish the country's last synagogue. It is being destroyed to make way for the construction of a new presidential complex in the capital, Dushanbe. Members of Tajikistan's ancient Jewish community say they have not been given adequate compensation to enable them to build a new synagogue. Jews have lived in Tajikistan for many centuries, but the community declined after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Bulldozers have already destroyed part of the compound. The demolition of the synagogue building itself is expected to go ahead later in the year. Dushanbe's small Jewish community, mostly poor and elderly, have almost resigned themselves to losing their only place of worship. But they say the distant plot of land the government has given them in exchange is inadequate compensation. They cannot afford to build a new synagogue, and they say the new land, on the edge of the city, is too far away.
The current synagogue sits on a prime site in the middle of the capital, where the government is building a large new office complex for the president. The rabbi says the community still hopes the government, or international Jewish groups, will help them to acquire an appropriate building for a new synagogue. But people familiar with the Jewish community in Dushanbe say those opposed to the demolition had been threatened by officials and most of the congregation are afraid to speak out.
Tajikistan's Jews are members of the ancient community of Persian-speaking Bukharan Jews, who have lived in central Asia for more than 2,000 years. Dushanbe's synagogue was built about 100 years ago, in what was then one of the city's two Jewish quarters. Two other synagogues in Tajikistan were closed during the Soviet period.
Only about 300 Jews now live in Dushanbe, and less than 1,000 in the entire country. Tens of thousands have emigrated since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the five year civil war which broke out in Tajikistan immediately afterwards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4777586.stm
keith
05-23-2006, 12:34 PM
RUSSIAN INFLUENCE ON THE UPSWING IN KYRGYZSTAN
On May 19, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told a visiting group of international journalists that Kyrgyz authorities would go ahead with the plan to ask the United States to vacate the Manas air base by June 1 unless Washington agrees to a massive increase in rent payments to Kyrgyzstan. A Pentagon delegation is expected to hold talks in Bishkek May 22-23 on the future of the base, "to consider this issue once and for all."
Bakiyev's thesis is two-fold: First, the U.S.-led active combat operations in Afghanistan are practically over, hence the Manas base is no longer as useful as it formerly was. And, second, the United States should pay "world-standard prices" as Kyrgyzstan defines them for using the base (Kabar, May 19). Bakiyev had first announced the June 1 deadline on April 19, five days before his visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin (see EDM, April 21). While the second part is arbitrary, the first part is completely inaccurate, as the U.S.-led coalition is actually embarking now on a major expansion of security and reconstruction operations in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Moscow plans to double the number of personnel and aircraft at its Kant air base (situated near Manas) by early next year, pending the completion of housing and hangars construction at Kant. Unlike the Manas base, which is only authorized to conduct Afghanistan-related operations, the Kant base is supposed to "guarantee" security in Kyrgyzstan and farther afield in Central Asia. Furthermore, unlike Manas, the Kant base pays no rent or other compensation to Kyrgyzstan, on the excuse that Kant is a component of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). That label notwithstanding, the Kant base is actually subordinated to Russia's own Fifth Air Army -- as Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief General Vladimir Mikhailov recently revealed (Interfax, May 12; Center TV, May 18).
Some Kyrgyz officials now propose that a CSTO base, or a part of the Kant base once it is augmented, be deployed to southern Kyrgyzstan to deal with possible cross-border raids such as the recent one by gunmen from Tajikistan. The idea of setting up such a base in the Osh region has been considered from time to time. Last year, Prime Minister Felix Kulov deemed it unnecessary. Unlike the Moscow-oriented Bakiyev, Kulov attempts to maintain an even-handed course in Bishkek's policy between Moscow and Washington. In the meeting with the press when Bakiyev warned the United States about the approaching June 1 deadline, Kulov declared himself in favor of a "multi-vector policy" (24.kg website [Bishkek], May 19).
On a parallel track, the authorities are encouraging the emergence of seemingly independent non-governmental organizations that oppose U.S. policies. On May 20, a "Forum of Kyrgyz Young Politicians" launched a signature-collection campaign in Bishkek against the U.S. proposal that Kyrgyzstan should join the International Monetary Fund's debt-write-off program for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). The program would institute IMF oversight of those countries' finances in return for writing off their debts, supporting budget-balancing measures, and improving their investment climate. However, the just-created Kyrgyz Young Politicians' Forum denounces the program as "good for the rich countries, not the poor ones" and demands a rejection of "IMF's ukazes" (Kabar, Interfax, May 19). The U.S. Embassy's public proposal last month that Kyrgyzstan join the HIPC triggered an outburst of anti-U.S. rhetoric from circles associated with Bakiyev.
The recently created "Coalition of People's Democrats" similarly demands that "the U.S. embassy should not interfere in the country's internal affairs" and is telling the public that "it is in the U.S. interest that there should be no prosperity in Kyrgyzstan … The USA is ready for anything to put a noose around the neck of independent Kyrgyzstan." Moreover, these People's Democrats are asking the U.S. Embassy to stop supporting the "odious" Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society led by Edil Baisalov (Kabar, May 18). The latter is a pro-U.S. group and Baisalov was recently injured in assassination attempt in downtown Bishkek in broad daylight by still-unknown perpetrators (see EDM, April 14).
Setting up dummy or Potemkin-type NGOs would seem to be beyond the abilities of the incumbent Kyrgyz authorities. It seems likely that political operative from Russia, who perfected this technique last year, assisted in the sudden emergence of such groups in Kyrgyzstan. Earlier this month, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Nikolai Patrushev paid an unannounced visit to Kyrgyzstan; his countenance could be identified on television footage (RTR Russia Television monitored by the BBC, May 12).
The recently appointed chairman of Kyrgyzstan's National Security Service, Busurmankul Taabaldiyev, proposes that the institution's personnel be trained henceforth "exclusively in the specialized schools of Russia's services." Talks are well advanced with the FSB toward that end. Taabaldyiev unabashedly refers to the Kyrgyz agency's personnel as "Chekists" (Interfax, Itar-Tass, May 18).
--Vladimir Socor
Petronas
08-08-2006, 09:36 PM
Kyrgyz Republic (Country threat level - 4): On 7 August 2006, the banned Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir called the 6 August killing of Muhammadrafiq Kamalov, a popular ethnic Uzbek imam who led Al-Sarahsiy Mosque in the southern town of Kara-Suu, an "extrajudicial assassination." Officials reported on 7 August that Kamalov was killed -- along with two Tajik citizens suspected of being members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan -- in a gunfight that ensued after security forces attempted to stop the vehicle in which they were traveling outside of the southern city of Osh. Government sources allege that all three were involved in the May attack on customs and border posts in the southern part of the country; Kamalov has previously denied such claims. They also allege that a variety of weapons, including an automatic rifle, three full magazines, cartridges and hand grenades, were found in the suspects' vehicle along with fake passports and a road map of Uzbekistan, which had a number of locations marked with the word jihad.
Kamalov was known throughout the region for allowing suspected members of Hizb ut-Tahrir to participate in worship at his mosque despite publicly disagreeing with their principles. Approximately 3,000 people attended his funeral in Kara-Suu on the night of 7 August, shouting phrases such as "God is Great" and "Down with democracy." Police officers were on the scene to prevent unrest, but none was reported. Thus far, there have been no other reported protests in response to Kamalov's death.
http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp
keith
09-03-2006, 03:44 PM
Georgia raps Russia for S.Ossetia copter incident
By Margarita Antidze
Georgia accused the Russian military of aiding South Ossetian rebels who shot at a helicopter carrying the Georgian defense minister on Sunday and forced it to land.
South Ossetia, which broke from Georgia in the early 1990s, is a frequent source of tension between Moscow and Tbilisi. Georgia accuses Russia of propping up the breakaway province's rulers.
Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili, accompanied by his deputy military chief of staff Zaza Gogava, was on his way to Senaki in western Georgia when his helicopter was shot at.
"This is yet another provocation," Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said on Georgia's Rustavi-2 television, pointing the finger at South Ossetia's rulers and the Russian military in the area.
Okruashvili said earlier his helicopter had been hit by "Ossetian bands" and forced to make an emergency landing, avoiding a crash only thanks to the skill of its pilot. Okruashvili said he and the other two people on board were safe.
"This was nothing unexpected, but the impudence of these provocations is getting more and more self-evident day by day," Nogaideli said.
Russian peacekeepers said Okruashvili's flight over South Ossetia was a "provocation" and the helicopter had been shot at by "unknown persons," Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Video footage showed the Soviet-era Mi-8 military transport helicopter with several bullet holes in its side.
Okruashvili said "the rampage of these rogues will stop very soon," but declined to elaborate.
Separately, Georgia's Interior Ministry said a rocket had been fired from South Ossetia at a helicopter escorting one carrying Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to another part of the country a few days ago.
It said Saakashvili was accompanied on that flight by a delegation of U.S. senators including Arizona Republican John McCain, a potential presidential candidate in 2008.
Georgian police said they would send evidence from the attack on Saakashvili's helicopter escort to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Two bombings in South Ossetia in July -- blamed by South Ossetia on Georgia -- prompted Russia to warn Georgia against an attack on the region and to pledge it would defend its peacekeepers and citizens in the region by any means.
A joint peacekeeping force of Russians and Georgians is deployed in the region.
Saakashvili has pledged to regain control over South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia. Both breakaway provinces are financially supported by Moscow and their inhabitants are eligible for Russian passports.
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060903/wl_nm/georgia_helicopter_dc_7
Petronas
12-04-2006, 06:11 PM
I am not posting the entire article here, as it is 7 pages long.
Are Islamic Militants Regrouping in the Fergana Valley?
Violent incidents in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan seem to be symptoms of instability rather than a new wave of organised Islamic militancy.
By Dadodjan Azimov in London (RCA No. 473, 1-Dec-06)
A spate of violent incidents in the Fergana Valley this year has sparked concern that militant Islamic groups are undergoing a resurgence. The violence, focusing on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border region, has been cited by officials as proof that the paramilitary Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is back in action and the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir group has taken up arms.
However, Central Asian analysts interviewed by IWPR say the picture is less clear-cut, and that sporadic armed clashes between suspected militants and the security forces do not add up to a coordinated campaign by a resurgent guerrilla grouping.
In addition, they say, to simply blame the obvious culprits – the IMU and Hizb-ut-Tahrir - is to oversimplify a complex picture made up of armed groups, economic problems and poor government. ...
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=rca&s=f&o=325860&apc_state=henprca
Petronas
12-21-2006, 04:41 PM
Turkmenistan (Country threat level - 3): Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov died unexpectedly during the overnight hours on 20-21 December 2006, apparently the result of cardiac arrest. Niyazov held the position of "president-for-life" and had ruled Turkmenistan for 21 years. He was 66 years old. Niyazov left no designated successor. According to Turkmenistan's constitution, the speaker of Parliament, Ovezgeldy Ataev, should have taken over as temporary head of the country until elections could be held; however, unconfirmed reports indicate that unspecified criminal charges have been filed against Ataev. Deputy Prime Minister Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has meanwhile been named acting head of state, and an emergency meeting of the People's Assembly to determine who will succeed Niyazov will be held on 26 December. Reports indicate that Turkmenistan's opposition in exile is planning to return to the country in the coming days as well. Funeral services are scheduled to take place in Ashgabat, the capital, on 24 December, and a seven-day mourning period has been announced. The situation in the capital city is said to be calm.
http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp
Petronas
08-16-2007, 09:37 PM
Kazakhstan (Country threat level - 3): Officials reported on 15 August 2007 that recent arrests had prevented several terrorist attacks in the southern Shymkent province, which were planned in relation to a visit by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The thwarted attacks specifically targeted the National Security Committee building in Shymkent. At least 13 people -- believed to be members of the jihadist wing of the Salafi movement -- were arrested for the plot. The case is reportedly connected to a group arrested in southern Kazakhstan in April, which allegedly planned several other attacks.
http://www.asigroup.com/HOTSPOTS.asp
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2007/08/mil-070828-rferl02.htm
Kyrgyz Minister Says Army To Stick With Conscription
August 28, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Kyrgyzstan's defense minister, Ismail Isakov, says there are no plans to abolish conscription and create a wholly professional army.
In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, Isakov said there is currently no need for such a transformation and there is no room in the budget for a professional army.
Most of Kyrgyzstan's 12,000-13,000 troops are conscripts serving one year of compulsory military service.
But the defense minister said the military is recruiting a handful of professionals for special mountain operations as part of broader army reforms.
Isakov said the need for such highly trained professional soldiers was apparent in a clash with Taliban-linked militants at Batken seven years ago.
"What kind of changes are occurring?" Isakov responded to RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. "There is the establishment of special air-defense forces [and] there is the formation of special military detachments from among troops needed for mountains operations. This was a very important step since learning the lessons of events in Batken in 2000. The troops in that special detachment are serving on a contract basis. [That leads to] the formation of professional military detachments."
Isakov also said a new military rank of "legal adviser" has been introduced into the army, with duties that include dealing with human rights issues in the military forces.
Copyright (c) 2007. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
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