While international leaders are still praising Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov for his restraint and efficiency in handling the June refugee crisis with Kyrgyzstan, recent developments indicate that Tashkent nevertheless feels it has to send some tough messages to Bishkek. Last month's border scandal, one of a string of such conflicts in recent years, ended peacefully with a prisoner exchange of border guards apprehended by both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Yet the pro-government news agency press-uz.info characterized the clash as sheep-rustling by Kyrgyz border guards, even after the livestock were returned, and later “suggested that “brazen, unscrupulous, and predatory” abuses by the Kyrgyz military in border areas might cause a “new outburst of resentment” among Uzbeks, EurasiaNet reported.
More ominously, press-uz.info warned about a potential "slaughter on the border" if Kyrgyzstan's provisional President Roza Otunbayev fails to rein in her security forces, EurasiaNet reported. Then press-uz.info began to question Kyrgyzstan's claims to the southern cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad with large populations of ethnic Uzbeks – the sort of provocation Uzbekistan had avoided during the violence in June. Of course, any such irredentism could raise parallels for Tajikistan with Tajik-speaking Samarkand and Bukhara, which were handed by Moscow to Tashkent in the early years of the Soviet Union. The press-uz.info website, believed to be controlled by President Karimov's Security Council, said that if the cities in Kyrgyzstan had been part of Uzbekistan all along, they would have avoided problems.
Although at odds with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on border, energy and transport disputes, Uzbekistan seems to be making nice to Kazakhstan lately, despite a long tradition of rivalry. This week, Astana extradited Khurshid Kamilov, an ethnic Uzbek who is a Kyrgyz citizen to Uzbekistan to face terrorism and extremism charges, EurasiaNet reported. Prosecutors said he was wanted in Uzbekistan for alleged involvement in the murder of two Uzbek police and participation in terrorist activists, RFE/RL reported. Police made a sweep of illegal immigrants in June that led to the arrest of 29 ethnic Uzbeks on what their relatives say are trumped-up charges. They remain in detention, and human rights activists fear they could face torture if extradited.
The much-discussed international commission to investigate the causes of the June events in Kyrgyzstan has fallen quiet in recent weeks, but the commission head, Finnish MP Kimmo Kiljunen, announced recently that he expects to start work this fall and have a report by the end of December, Interfax Kazakhstan reported. Kiljunen is the special representative on Central Asia for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE PA) and also the special representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office on election observation mechanisms.
Kiljunen said in addition to the fact-finding commission, he will head the OSCE observer mission to the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan on October 10. With the poor performance of the Kyrgyz national commission of inquiry, which broke down last month amid charges of bias, and the obstruction of any human rights probe by local authorities in southern Kyrgyzstan, the outcome of the international fact-finding is uncertain. And the delay of reports that would likely incriminate certain Kyrgyz leaders in incitement or perpetration of the pogroms of June means that some of them could get elected, and then use the power of office to suppress further questioning. Kiljunen’s dual role may become a conflict of interest as he must both render a judgement on the validity of the elections, then preside over an effort to find the truth about the June violence.
International groups condemned the life sentence this week of an ethnic Uzbek human rights activist, charged with killing of a policeman and other offenses in southern Kyrgyzstan. Azimjan Askarov, a well-known rights advocate, and seven others were accused of involvement in clashes in June between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the village of Bazar-Korgon, RFE/RL reported. The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Askarov had a documented alibi about his whereabouts that differed from official claims, and prosecutors were not able to prove that he was at the scene of the policeman’s murder. The Dublin-based Front Line said there was indication that Askarov was tortured while in confinement, as he appeared with bruises during the trial session.
Uzbekistan hosted an OSCE-sponsored conference on the role of the ombudsman in promoting human rights and cooperating with civil society. The Ombudsperson appointed by the Oliy Mejlis or parliament in Uzbekistan, Sayyora Rashidova, does not comment on Uzbekistan’s numerous cases of political imprisonment, torture, and suppression of religious freedom, although she has worked on women’s and children’s rights and social issues. By contrast, Torsunbek Akunov, the Ombudsperson in Kyrgyzstan, denounced the trial of Askarov this week, saying numerous violations of due process were involved. Yet Akunov has angered human rights groups by claiming they were biased in their critical coverage of the pogroms in Kyrgyzstan.
Gulnara Karimova, the notorious daughter of President Islam Karimov, was in New York last week showing off her fashions and capturing the admiring attention of the local celebrity press. While El Pais once characterized Karimova, heavily involved in promoting Uzbekistan's image and once believed to be in line to succeed her dictator father, as "part Princess Diana, part Sarah Palin, part [James] Bond girl, part Cruella de Vil," the fashion paper Daily Front Row in New York gushed about Karimova's many roles -- philanthropist, businesswoman, and ambassador to Spain" and wondered how she had time to design. Zeromax, the Swiss-registered conglomerate which was part of Gulnara's power base and reportedly the source of some of her wealth, was taken over by the government earlier this year, but she still has her charitable foundation.
Karimova was at the center of controversy earlier this year when she donated to an AIDS benefit at the Cannes Film Festival and faced probing questions about the jailing of Maxim Popov, an HIV/AIDS activist in Uzbekistan -- promising to inquire about his case but never following up.
Karimova's fashion promotion obscured the growing scandal of Uzbekistan's use of forced child labor in its cotton industry. As the cotton harvest opened this year, reports from a half dozen Uzbek provinces indicated that children are still being taken out of school and exploited as low-paid laborers, living in poor and dangerous conditions, the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights reported.
The state imposition of cotton quotas on farmers, and the forced recruitment of state employees for cotton-picking under pain of dismissal, creates a climate where child labor is also seen as a necessity. This year, police and soldiers are not being recruited for the harvest, apparently because they are needed to guard the troubled border areas of Uzbekistan, uzmetronom.com reported. The gasoline shortage gripping Uzbekistan has created additional hardships, as instead of taking buses to the fields, forced laborers are compelled to remain on the farms for periods of 10 days or longer, sleeping on the ground with limited food, water, and sanitation.
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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