I've spent a fair bit of time translating this article from Russian newspaper Vremia Novostei (the site has a page which aggregates the paper's several recent articles on the situation in Uzbekistan, including one early one cleverly titled "Islam against Karimov?"), which I happened to pick up on the plane back from London today.
I have sown some of the key words in the article with links to more information, much more so than I usually do with articles I translate. Hopefully people will find this to be useful and informative.
The sometimes-sarcastic, sometimes-chatty tone of this article is typical for Russian newspapers in general and this one in particular, and that articles like this one give the lie to blanket statements about the Russian press being monolithically pro-Russian government.
"Tashkent must 'submit a sample for analysis' – the world searches for the wellspring of the tragedy in Andijan." Vremia Novostei, No. 86 (19 May 2005), page 5, by Arkadii Dubnov
Yesterday the Uzbek authorities organized a charter flight from Tashkent to Andijan for the diplomats and journalists who wanted to acquaint themselves with the situation in the city where bloody events took place May 12-14, claiming 170 victims, according to official information. As the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, felt it necessary to point out, the trip was “free of charge.” Apparently, he thought that this would be an additional stimulus for those individuals who are excited about the Andijan tragedy. In the words of Deutsche Welle Radio’s Tashkent correspondent Yurii Chernogaev, who took part in the trip, its participants “saw what they were shown.” This is not surprising, considering that Zokir Almatov, head of the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, was responsible for the trip, and it was he who acquainted the guests with the situation in Andijan and gave his assessment of what had happened in the city.
However, it differed little from those assessments which had been given the day before at a press conference in Tashkent by the head of state and the prosecutor-general of Uzbekistan. Islam Karimov, as quoted by his http://www.uza.uz/eng/ Uzbek information agency UzA, stated that “not one peaceful resident was killed in Andijan…can anyone name the names of women, old men, or children, who were killed?”
Maybe for the time being no one can…but what about the information about “the deaths of two teenagers and three women,” which was being broadcast for a couple of days by official Tashkent? Clearly, they were also bandits. After all, right after this statement Mr. Karimov announced that “during the operation only bandits were killed, weapons were always found on or near their dead bodies.” Are we to understand, then, that weapons were also found next to the dead bodies of these women and teenagers, as well as next to the bodies of every one (!) of the official tally of 170 victims who were not members of law enforcement?
The Uzbek leader has said a great deal about the role of the press in covering the Andijan tragedy. “I don’t have any complaints about Reuters, the BBC, CNN, or Radio “Deutsche Welle.” “I can disagree with their opinions or assessments,” said Mr. Karimov, “but I respect their work, which cannot be said about the Russian television channels which have been reproducing insinuations about the events in Andijan.” This statement was strange and not entirely consistent with elementary logic, to put it mildly. One may have many complaints about Russian TV, but among the “insinuations” they “reproduced” were numerous references to the very same media about which Mr. Karimov “has no complaints.”
It seems there is actually a different reason for the Uzbek president’s irritation. It was necessary for him to discredit the sources of information which Uzbek citizens were able to access one way or another. Among these, first and foremost were Russian television channels. It’s obvious, after all, that the average Uzbek citizen has no way to access the media “respected” by Karimov – CNN, Reuters, and the BBC.
Heading off the spread of “insinuations,” the Uzbek security forces demonstrated that they are quite well equipped technologically. Using the country’s mobile phone network operators, they were able to introduce additional settings, which automatically cut off telephone conversations upon the utterance by either party of the words “Andijan,” “killed,” “casualty,” or “SNB” (the SNB is the National Security Service). The internet resource Ferghana.Ru announced yesterday that its correspondent had personally experienced the effects of this “censorship” while placing a mobile phone call from Andijan to Namangan. After a ten-minute conversation, the word “Andijanis” was said, and the connection immediately went dead. He was then not able to reach the other party to the conversation any more…
As far as the work of the media “respected” by the president of Uzbekistan, among which he named Radio “Deutsche Welle,” the May 8th edition of their program “Focus” is extremely important to an analysis of the reasons behind the Andijan uprising. Five days prior to the bloodshed, this radio station broadcast an interview with one of the accused in the trial taking place at that time in Andijan of “Akramiya,” the so-called Islamic sect whose members, once freed from jail, became some of the leaders of the uprising.
Here is what Mamudjon Kurbanov, the deputy director of Andijan furniture-making concern Turon Production, had to say to Deutsche Welle’s correspondent: The SNB investigators “told us that they could do anything, and they said that even if I were to withstand their torture, they would go get my wife and would interrogate her in the room next door, and I would hear everything,” said Kurbanov. “They hinted at horrible things, you know, ‘you have a pretty wife,’ and so on, and I couldn’t stand it and signed a false statement.” Kurbanov was required to confess that he was a member of the “Akramiya” sect. According to him, the investigator’s case held that this “organization first attracts people by making them well-to-do, and then at some point they may become a threat to society."
But apparently the SNB investigators had more prosaic motives for persecuting the so-called members of "Akramiya." Deutsche Welle reported that "as long ago as last year valuables, cellular phones, cash money, and also personal automobiles were confiscated from the homes of twenty of the arrested employees of Turon Production," moreover, this was done "without filing a proper protocol of confiscation." Recall that the events in Andijan started with a two-day protest in front of the courthouse where the trial of the "Akramiya" members was being conducted. People were demanding justice from the court. But official Tashkent is currently avoiding any examination of the details of how this protest turned into an armed uprising. Yesterday reports emerged that the protesters were fired on first by local SNB officials who showed up at the square under orders to disperse the crowd. This was reported by Deutsche Welle.
Also yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged "the conduct of an independent investigation into the causes and circumstances of the incidents in eastern Uzbekistan."
Benita Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations, issued a similar statement. "I join US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in demanding an independent investigation," she said. "We need to know what really happened there in order to conduct an objective analysis."
This article is without a doubt the best account of why Karimov might have made his various comments about various media outlets.
Here's an article (in Russian) from Deutsche Welle's website titled "The foreigners were allowed to spend 3 hours in Andijan."
And a few more interesting links came up while I was translating and finding links with which to fill the article above:
The CNN link is to a fresh story (from May 19) on their website playing up claims by some human rights organizations of higher death tolls.
The EU's page on Central Asia - although it has links to news items items from 2004 and 2005 (the most recent is from early April) on the page, the "overview" says it was updated most recently in 2001. There's a page dealing with EU-Uzbekistan relationships and providing a backgrounder on Uzbekistan - last updated in March 2004.
If this is not a joke, then it's scary. The link is to the SNB.uz website, which consists of one page with a camouflage background scheme, a link allowing visitors to the site to send in emails, and the following text, in Russian and Uzbek:
Please send in only objective information.
Absolutely all messages will be examined and taken into account.
All will be kept top-secret!!!
But I guess it could just be a joke.
