Uzbekistan is still receiving U.S. military aid, despite efforts by the U.S. Congress to impose restrictions due to the human rights situation, according to a report from Open Society Foundations (OSF) by Lora Lumpe. Congress first imposed restrictions on military aid in 2002, and then the State Department cut off aid in 2004 when it could not certify under U.S. law that Uzbekistan was meeting human rights standards. This was subsequently resumed in 2008, with the launch of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) to supply troops in Afghanistan. This year, $472,000 has been spent on military cooperation programs with Tashkent. But while traditional military aid for education and training has been restricted, the Department of Defense has had even more funds to spend in Central Asia as part of the war on terrorism. That money has less oversight, and its expenditure is classified, so the amount spent on Uzbekistan is unknown, says EurasiaNet. [Editor’s note: EurasiaNet is also funded by OSF.]
With the surge ordered by President Barack Obama in Afghanistan last year, the Taliban has retaliated by increasing its attacks in northern Afghanistan, which previously had been more peaceful. Now, as trucking routes in Pakistan have increasingly been under fire, the U.S. has started using the NDN more heavily, prompting concerns as to whether the Taliban would begin attacking the NDN route in Central Asia.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Maj. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz, the German commander of 11,000 coalition troops across Afghanistan's nine northern provinces, attacks are indeed increasing to the point where the north could "become the game-changer for all of Afghanistan," as he is quoted as saying. The Wall Street Journal's interactive map with a timeline of attacks tells the story: more than double in many regions, including Baghlan, which is strategically important, as Maj. Gen. Fritz explained, because most supplies from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan pass through it, including most of the coalition's fuel and Kabul's main source of electricity -- the power line from Uzbekistan. EurasiaNet blogger Joshua Kucera says it is unlikely that this violence will spill over to Central Asia further up the NDN, because Uzbekistan -- and Turkmenistan and Russia -- harshly control their borders.
Yet with the closed nature of these societies and lack of free media, we do not know the extent of the threat or how it is being addressed. There have been a string of terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan, but the origins and perpetrators are murky, as the Uzbek government tends to blame any attack, even incidents that appear to be agency turf wars, on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and its offshoots.
There's no question that Tashkent is reinforcing its border under the perception as well as the reality of potential violence, as numerous border incidents in the past year indicate. This week, Uzbek border guards shot Kyrgyz shepherds and confiscated their herds, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) reported.
Despite the security problems, Uzbekistan has forged ahead in building the first railroad to Afghanistan in 100 years to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif. The work is nearly completed, and could speed up freight deliveries across the Uzbek border dramatically, RFE/RL reports.
NATO planners hoping to shift traffic on the NDN to Uzbekistan will be dealing with largely state-run companies and rampant corruption. According to the annual Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International released this week, Uzbekistan is ranked at the bottom at 172 out of 178 countries monitored. Despite claims of an increasing economic improvement, another annual survey of prosperity found that Uzbekistan plunged from 65 to 76 in its ranking.
A judge in Nooken in southern Kyrgyzstan sentenced eight ethnic Uzbek men to life in prison on September 15 for their alleged role in the murder of policeman Myktybek Sulaimanov and organizing ethnic clashes in Bazar-Korgon on June 12-13. The victims' relatives and sympathizers have been responsible for repeated violent attacks on the defendants and their lawyers.
[Correction: an earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the policeman as Adylbek Sultanov; this was a different trial of two policemen's murders, not involving Askarov.]
International and local human rights groups have protested the unfair arrest of one of the defendants, Azimjan Askarov, a human rights activist who was documenting the violence on video. His appeals trial will resume on November 3 at a military base. Prosecutors have acknowledged that holding the hearing in villages where the deadly clashes had taken place has resulted in "very aggressive" relatives, RFE/RL reported.
During his trip to Ashgabat last week, President Islam Karimov reiterated his view that the June clashes in which more than 400 people were killed were caused by unspecified "third forces," uznews.net reported. The Uzbek leader has blamed "third forces" for violence in Uzbekistan in 1999, 2004, 2005, and 2009, but has not been able to pinpoint the origin of these militants or explain how and by whom they are supported.
While international protests helped two journalists to avoid prison terms, Uzbek authorities continue their crackdown on lesser-known activists. Habibulla Iluradov, an activist from Yangiyul, went on trial this week on drug charges that his colleagues say are fabricated in retaliation for his defense of a relative of the former deputy prosecutor of Yangiyul in a housing dispute. Matluba Kamilova, a college director in Angren and author of five books has also found packets of heroin planted on her, local human rights groups say. Kamilova attempted to buy shares in a local TV station and launch a program exposing local corruption. Her son was also detained and beaten as police tried to force him to incriminate his mother. She is currently being held in Tashkent Prison and could face up to 12 years of prison.
A German NGO has filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development which has developed human rights standards for corporations, alledingalleging that seven EU companies, including Otto Standtlander of Brem still buying Uzbek cotton despite findings that forced child labor is still used in the industry.
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, a weekly digest of international and regional press, write [email protected]
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