Rupen Savoulien
A series of bombings and shootings on March 29 left at least 19 people dead and dozens more wounded in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, according to official reports. There were also unconfirmed reports of numerous other bombings and shootings in Tashkent, including a bombing late at night on March 28 near one of President Islam Karimov's residences.
Uzbek authorities confirmed that there had been two suicide bombings at the main bazaar in Tashkent, but the full extent of the violence remained difficult to determine. The Uzbek government exerts tight control over mass media and information gathering.
Uzbek officials quickly linked the confirmed attacks in Tashkent to international terrorism. Prosecutor Rashid Kadyrov argued that the use of suicide bombers in the attacks "indicated foreign involvement". While not explicitly mentioning al Qaeda, foreign minister Sadiq Safayev said that the "hands of international terror" were behind the violence. "Attempts are being made to split the international anti-terror coalition", he said.
A massive security sweep was carried out by the Uzbek government. Officials maintain that Islamic radicals, with backing from an international terrorist groups, are responsible for the violence.
A statement issued by the prosecutor-general's office on April 2 provided official casualty figures: 14 civilians, including three children, and 10 police officers killed and 24 police officers wounded. "During the course of the special operations, 33 terrorists, including seven women, were liquidated", the statement added.
However, Tashkent residents interviewed by human rights organisations treated the government's assertions with skepticism. Many believed the attacks to be connected to pent-up popular frustration generated the government's ongoing crackdown on individual liberty, along with officials' reluctance to take action to improve a deteriorating economy.
"Why are we all so poor?" asked one man interviewed near the Chorsu bazaar, scene of the suicide bombings. The man blamed the government for imposing restrictions that stifled educational and economic opportunities for most Uzbeks. The majority of vendors at markets, he added, were operating illegally because they could not afford to stay in business if they followed government regulations, including the imposition of onerous tariffs on imported goods.
As a result, they were vulnerable to police shake-downs. "People see no legal way to make an honest living. They are desperate," the man said.
Human Rights Watch has documented the ongoing, severe repression of religious expression in Uzbekistan. Karimov has relied on coercion to repress any expression of dissent, whether religious or secular.
According to US State Department figures, Uzbekistan has around 6000 political prisoners, more than the Soviet Union in its final decades.
In the early 1990s, Islamic fundamentalist groups, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), rebelled. This group agitated for the implementation of Islamic law in Uzbekistan, the establishment of sharia (Islamic holy law) as the basis for the constitution, and the unification of mosque and state.
The Uzbek authorities responded with severe repression. Human rights groups have documented the Uzbek regime's use of torture and violence against any journalists, opposition politicians, Muslim groups and dissidents who speak out against the regime.
UN, not CIS
Uzbekistan is the most populous country of Central Asia, has a population of 25 million, and is comparatively homogeneously populated. It does not border Russia and has no Russian troops on its soil, but it is affected by the war in Afghanistan and instability in Tadjikistan.
Karimov has been a chief advocate for international, especially United Nations, involvement in the conflicts in Uzbekistan's neighbourhood, as opposed to the intervention of the loose Commonwealth of Independent States, which is dominated by Russia. In several different forums, Karimov has warned against renewed "great-power chauvinism" and denounced military co-operation within the CIS.
Since the mid-1990s, as Russian policy has moved in a nationalist direction, Tashkent has grown increasingly assertive. Karimov has strongly denounced further CIS integration or moves that aim to transform it into a "subject of international law". Within the CIS, Uzbekistan has stepped-up cooperation with states like the Ukraine and Georgia.
Uzbekistan suspended its participation in the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in September 1997, refused participation in any CIS Customs Union and, most significantly, refused to renew the CIS collective security treaty in early 1999. Uzbekistan has concentrated its energy on forming relations with NATO, Germany and, most of all, the United States.
A US ally
In fact, analysts have noted that Uzbekistan is, together with Israel, the sole country that has consistently supported the US in virtually all of its policy moves in the Middle East, including in regard to Iraq and Iran. Karimov has explicitly noted that NATO expansion poses no threat to Russia, and has supported the Baltic states' aims to join NATO. Karimov has upheld Turkey as the model of a secular republic that Uzbekistan should emulate.
Washington has been a consistent supporter of the Uzbek government, and seeks to increase its trade and influence in Central Asia. US secretary of state Colin Powell stated that the US is prepared to help Tashkent find the perpetrators of the March 29 attacks.
While Tashkent gladly accepts US loans and financial support, Karimov may be growing disenchanted with Washington's rhetoric about increasing democracy in Uzbekistan. Such US admonitions, of course, have never been accompanied by action to compel improvements in Uzbek human rights practices. Even before the March 28-31 attacks, Karimov was expressing a desire for a rapprochement with Russia, which has tended to be less outspoken on human rights than the US.
The Russian government appears keenly interested in seizing whatever diplomatic opening may exist to restore its influence in Uzbekistan. Russian officials, along with state-run media, have voiced virtually unqualified support for Karimov's government, fully accepting the official Uzbek version that the violence was carried out by "terrorists" with international connections.
On March 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Karimov. During the conversation, the two leaders reportedly discussed ways to boost anti-terrorism cooperation, according to the Russian presidential press service. Russia will now apparently assist an Uzbek crackdown against underground Islamic groups.
The immediate question, however, is what can be done to lower the social tensions driving Uzbeks to blow themselves up. Many reports say Uzbeks are developing a sense of hopelessness about the future.
On top of the human rights problems, the country is hard-pressed economically. The government recently accepted Western demands to make its currency convertible, but also made trading with the outside world more difficult so as to protect the local economy.
Travelers crossing the Uzbek border sees police mistreating local peddlers as they try to earn a living by moving goods from one country to another. Because of ruthless confiscations of property at the border, several of these peddlers have immolated themselves in protest, a step not too far from suicide bombings.
Locals contend that prostitution and crime are soaring as people find no other way to stay afloat. Yet fearful of the political consequences of suddenly opening up the economy or relaxing political controls, the Uzbek government has decided to press the local population even harder. Rather than lower the risk of terrorism, the combination of severe repression and impoverishing economic policies breeds a desire for revenge at any price.
From Green Left Weekly, April 21, 2004.
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