From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Nov 16 2000 - 11:21:45 EST
UZBEK OPPOSITION PARTY DENIES PARTY'S INVOLVEMENT IN
TERRORISM
Speaking in Tashkent on 14 November, Otanazar
Oripov, who is general secretary of the opposition Erk Party,
denied that the party's chairman, Muhammad Solih, is one of
the leaders of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan,
RFE/RL's bureau in the Uzbek capital reported. Oripov
described the trial in absentia of Solih and several IMU
leaders on charges of terrorist acts, including the February
1999 car bombings in Tashkent, as "a political show" staged
by the Uzbek leadership. Oripov predicted that the trial
"will polarize Uzbek society." But of 200 people polled by
RFE/RL's Tashkent bureau, 99 percent expressed approval of
the death sentences called for by the prosecution, while only two people
protested them. LF
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