Uzbekistan

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 e

The recent ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan has President Islam Karimov’s administration in Tashkent worried about the possibility of ethnic unrest in Uzbekistan. To make sure ethnic passions remain in check, Uzbek leaders have launched a wide-scale propaganda campaign.

When the violence in Kyrgyzstan's southern city of Osh subsided in June, one thing was plain: whole neighborhoods of minority Uzbeks had been burned to the ground, while most buildings belonging to ethnic Kyrgyz remained standing.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is sending a 52-person police presence to southern Kyrgyzstan known as the Police Advisory Group, but the group is still mustering and will not deploy until September.

Uzbekistan is chairing a meeting of the five Central Asian nations with Japan, the state news site gazeta.ru reported. This is the first such meeting of Central Asian foreign ministers with Japan's foreign minister since 2004. The meeting's agenda includes discussions on regional security and advancement of various economic programs.

Tashkent is expanding its de facto trade embargo against Dushanbe, levying new tariffs for trucks crossing the border, and continuing to delay train freight bound for Tajikistan. Seven months into the blockade, Tajik businessmen are hurting, and the government is worried about its long-term economic impact.

Stark differences have emerged in how the Kyrgyz media have covered the origins and aftermath of the interethnic violence that erupted the Central Asian country in mid-June.

The Kyrgyz Ministry of Health has revised upward to 355 the officially-registered death toll for the conflict in southern Kyrgyzstan in June, noting that at least 2,326 were wounded. Yet NGOs continue to collect testimony that many more deaths have occurred, and that at least 60 people are still missing.