Uzbekistan Weekly Roundup

Traffic continues to be stalled on the Termez-Kurgan-Tyube line as a result of an explosion on November 17 between the Galaba and Amuzang stations, Choihona reported citing the independent Tajik news service Asia-Plus. Uzbek authorities have not released any further information about the incident, said to be a terrorist attack on a bridge, which knocked out supports. For more than a week, Tajik rail officials have unsuccessfully tried to get news from their counterparts, and their offers to help with repairs have been rebuffed.

The stoppage has evidently only affected cargo to Tajikistan, which the Uzbek government had already been halting or delaying even before the explosion in retaliation for Dushanbe's determination to go ahead with the Roghun hydropower station. Tashkent believes Roghun will adversely affect irrigation for its lucrative cotton industry and has been lashing out against Dushanbe in various ways. A border incident also set the stage for further aggravated relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. On November 14, three days before the rail explosion, an Uzbek border guard was killed and another injured in a shoot-out at the border when Uzbek guards tried to stop a group of people crossing the border, trend.az reported.
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The shoot-out occurred near the Uzbek town of Bekabad in Tashkent region and the Tajik town of Khujand at the Bekabad checkpoint 400 km north of Dushanbe, Interfax reported. A source within the Tajik Committee for National Security Border Directorate said Tajik residents of Sogdi province tried to cross the border illegally, and Uzbek border guards opened fire. They said Tajik border guards allegedly fired in the air to divert the attention of their Uzbek colleagues and to prevent the killing of the border-crosser, whom they claimed had no drugs or contraband. But the Uzbeks say they captured an illegal fugitive and found 3.8 kilograms of heroin at the scene. Their Tajik counterparts were only trying to cover for drug-runners, say the Uzbeks.

With a terrorist attack so near the Uzbek-Afghan border, there has been concern about the impact on the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), the supply line to NATO troops in Afghanistan. Like the train crash earlier this month said to be unrelated to the NDN, the explosion has reportedly not affected the movement of deliveries to Afghanistan, a source told The Bug Pit. Even so, the incident highlights the vulnerabilities of Uzbekistan's rail system, as well as the lack of government transparency or an independent investigative media in Uzbekistan. (It's telling that most recent information came from the intrepid independent media in Tajikistan.)

The explosion comes at a time when the US has to rely even more heavily on Uzbekistan. Following a NATO attack that killed 28 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan has closed US military delivery routes. As Reuters has reported, a third of NATO supplies goes overland via Pakistan, a third by air and a third overland via the NDN, mainly through Uzbekistan. With the Pakistan route cut off, this will put more pressure on Uzbekistan, notes The Bug Pit.

Recently, Uzbekistan seemed at first to be making a departure from a long-standing practice of abuse of psychiatry since the Soviet era. Last week, reports were received that Jamshid Karimov, the nephew of President Islam Karimov, was freed from psychiatric imprisonment after five years. Karimov was originally incarcerated for his writings for various websites, including the independent news site fergananews.com. While initially he was held under a six-month court order, he was subsequently not lawfully confined. During his ordeal, his mental health deteriorated and today he is said to suffer from mental illness. As with other prisoners released near the end of their terms or seriously ill, Karimov's release might be said to be a concession to concerns raised by the US government before the October trip of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But when political prisoners cannot return to their previous activism, it's not authentic reform.

Then this week, Elena Urlaeva, a prominent human rights defender in Tashkent, was threatened with psychiatric detention for unknown reasons, likely related to various controversial cases she has taken up ranging from police misconduct to local administrative corruption, reports Choihona. In the past, authorities have tried to have her confined in retaliation for her activism. In both cases, a veneer of judicial oversight has been created, but given Urlaeva's criticism of a judge who presides over a court validating evictions of the elderly, psychiatric detention is being used punitively.

The Uzbek leadership appears to have suffered something of a shake-up in recent weeks, although it is difficult to confirm exactly what has happened. On November 22, President Islam Karimov's law enforcement adviser, Ravshan Mukhiddinov, who had previously held the post of justice minister, was arrested as part of a corruption probe, Inside the Cocoon reported, citing the semi-official web site uzmetronom.com. At about the same time, Deputy General Prosecutor Mukhiddin Kiyemov reportedly resigned, although nothing more of his fate is known, uzmetronom.com said.

The independent web site uznews.net also reported that former Emergency Services Minister Tursinkhon Khudaibergenov was charged with abuse of office and embezzlement of state funds; allegedly he gave jobs to his cronies for money.

But later, Khudaibergenov's assistant told Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, that in fact he was not arrested, Inside the Cocoon reported. Uzmetronom, a commercial news site with servers in Germany banned by the government in Uzbekistan, often leaks information obtained from Uzbek government ministries, and therefore has a reputation of being close to the government. Uzmetronom insisted that in fact Khudaibergenov had to sign a pledge not to leave town even if not physically detained, and it appears that he is under investigation. Yet "experts" believe that he has influential backers who have kept him from prison, says uzmetronom.com.

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