The International Crisis Group released a new report August 23, The Pogroms in Kyrgyzstan, on the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in June, finding much damning evidence that the attacks involved Kyrgyzstan’s security forces, including military, were well-planned and targeted mainly ethnic Uzbeks. Videos taken of the events show military officials directing some of the mobs and using armored personnel carriers in the attacks on ethnic Uzbek neighborhoods. Obviously the authorities in Osh are not happy with this conclusion, representing the international community's analysis of the tragic events, and have sought to deflect criticism and even obstruct investigations by human rights groups.
While Kyrgyzstan’s interim President Roza Otunbayeva is said to be attempting to remove Melsibek Myrzakmatov, mayor of Osh, from office, he is putting up a fierce opposition and organizing supporters in rallies at city hall. Among his most controversial policies is the plan to reconstruct Osh which existed even before the pogroms. The plan would force people to move into high-rises or houses in new areas not on their old properties, and disrupt the old ethnic neighborhoods that constituted the support structure for the Uzbek community. The market, destroyed in the clashes, is also slated to be rebuilt in a new area, and the long-established property rights have been disrupted there, too.
Kyrgyzstan’s national investigation into the violence has broken down, with members of a commission of inquiry claiming foreign journalists were stirring up "anti-Kyrgyz" sentiment even in May due to their critical coverage of the unrest. Alexander Knyazev, a respected political analyst and commission member, resigned, saying its members had been unreachable and the commission had arrived at conclusions without conducting proper research. He warned of increasing nationalism backed by the authorities.
Human rights groups in Kyrgyzstan have also been critical of the Kyrgyz ombudsman, Tursunbek Akun, saying he is violating his mandate by making political statements and assigning collective responsibility for the conflict to ethnic groups. Akun also accused Human Rights Watch of issuing a biased account of the June violence. In a letter to Akun, Rachel Denber, acting director for Europe and Central Asia for Human Rights Watch (HRW) said her group had met with numerous Kyrgyz and Uzbek victims and witnesses, as well as officials of the local and central administration and law-enforcement, NGOs, and lawyers. HRW found on the basis of these interviews that officials were implicated in the violence. Denber urged Akun to make public detailed explanations of what he claimed were incorrect statements.
Some Kyrgyz officials continue to blame international organizations for Kyrgyzstan's many problems. Earlier this month, Deputy Prime Minister Azimbek Beknazarov said international organizations could not be trusted as many of their Osh-based staff are ethnic Uzbek, and said the planned 52-person deployment of unarmed OSCE police advisors should be cancelled because they would not be impartial, EurasiaNet reported. Orozbek Moldaliev, a Kyrgyz political analyst, said international groups had lost credibility because they claimed Uzbeks did not have access to medical treatment. Yet Doctors Without Borders had documented interviews indicating Uzbeks were afraid to seek medical treatment.
In Uzbekistan, the crackdown on local journalists continues. The independent online news site ferghana.ru reports that Vladimir Berezovsky, the Russian editor for vesti.uz, was charged with “libel” and “insult” for publishing articles that appeared on the website from Russian state news services Interfax, ITAR-TASS, RIA Novosti, and others. While it would seem that the law requires an individual victim in the case of charges of libel or insult, prosecutors have varied their claims of the party injured from "the Uzbek people" to "the Uzbek constitutional order." Berezovsky published articles on subjects the Uzbek government found to be sensitive such as the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), NATO’s increasing influence in Central Asia and Uzbek labor migrants in Russia. If found guilty he faces up to six months in prison or three years of corrective labor or a fine of about $12,000.
Meanwhile, stories on the IMU persist -- Tahir Yuldashev, the head of the IMU who was said to be killed in October 2008 and then reportedly survived to be killed by an American drone in Pakistan, is dead again. The IMU has now announced a new leader, Usman Adil, and posted undated photos of Yuldashev's corpse, EurasiaNet reported. Uzbek authorities have been concerned about the movement of the IMU into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan although there has been no fresh evidence. Last week, Uzbek border guards arrested 11 Kyrgyz men who were delivering explosives for construction through the mountains from Tajikistan and eventually released them.
Nine more followers of the Turkish religious figure Nursi, known as the Nurchilar movement, were sentenced on charges of "extremism," the Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan reported. Three of the members were handed sentences of five years of prison for leadership of a banned organization, and the rest were fined $1,970 each for taking part in unlawful civic organizations. Human rights activists believe the case was fabricated by the Uzbek National Security Agency (SNB) as part of the overall effort to rein in any expression of religious belief not controlled by the state.
Uzbekistan presented its periodic report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racism and All Forms of Discrimination (CERD), but the CERD experts produced largely anodyne conclusions praising Uzbekistan for good intentions to reform legislation it has not yet realized. No NGO alternative reports were produced, and no NGOs came to the session, a fact noted by the Russian member of the committee. Although Uzbekistan had been presented with a list of issues requesting more statistical breakdown on ethnic groups in Uzbekistan and ethnicity of those in pre-trial detention, such details were not discussed. Several experts asked about the status of the Roma in Uzbekistan, and when the Uzbek delegation said all the Roma were settled and had no problems, no one thought to ask how it came about that they were so assimilated.
Donald Nicholson, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan, has found himself in a controversy as Uzbek media has covered his remarks at a press conference in Tashkent August 20 on business opportunities in Uzbekistan, indicating he would not support a boycott of Uzbek cotton due to the exploitation of forced child labor. He said NATO needs 40 tons a day of fresh fruit and vegetables to supply troops in Afghanistan, and these could be bought from Uzbek farmers. Nicholson said his own business had helped supply footwear to the Uzbek military.
Reports of long lines at the gas pump have prompted speculation about a gasoline shortage in Uzbekistan, but analysts say it is artificially induced, News Briefing Central Asia reported. While it is true that Uzbekistan’s oil production has been falling, and the government sets aside some fuel at the start of the harvest season, the main issue seems to be that the government sets a fixed price and thereby creates a black market, which causes traders to hold back fuel so they can make a profit.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick compiles the Uzbekistan weekly roundup for EurasiaNet. She is also editor of EurasiaNet's Choihona blog. To subscribe to Uzbekistan News Briefs, write [email protected]
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