WHO IS BEHIND ANDIJAN UNREST AND WILL IT SPREAD TO KYRGYZSTAN? 18:39 19.05.2005The last graf I included not because I agree with it, but because it's valuable to see all perspectives here.
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - [...] The question of who is to blame for the high death toll in Andijan, President Islam Karimov or rebels, can soon be replaced with a more acute and unnerving one: Will the developments in Andijan trigger similar events in Osh? There were fierce clashes there 15 years ago.
The authorities in the two republics, which were then part of the Soviet Union, suppressed the 1990 conflict between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, who had coexisted in Osh for centuries. However, there were many casualties: 155 people died and 845 were injured. It is highly likely that ethnic clashes will again erupt there today, only this time on a far greater scale. [...]
The Andizhan unrest can hardly be said to utterly unexpected. The socioeconomic situation in the Fergana Valley has been a sore point for Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan since the Soviet times. It is an overpopulated area suffering from a shortage of land and water for irrigation. The excess of workforce - about 1.5 million people aged 17 to 25 in the Uzbek-dominated part of the valley alone - became a particular problem after the collapse of the Soviet Union. [...]
President Karimov can be accused of being a tyrant whose regime has committed massive human rights violations. However, criticizing the regime without advancing alternatives is easy. The policy he has pursued is designed to maintain stability in the republic. Karimov has repeatedly indicated that steps need to be taken to gradually liberalize the economy and political regime in Uzbekistan, even to the detriment of the local elites supporting him.
On Thursday evening, Moscow time, RIA Novosti reported UN sources saying that Karimov had refused the UN's request to conduct an independent investigation of the tragic events at Andijan (article is in Russian).
Switzerland has decided to "reconsider continuation of development cooperation in Uzbekistan," according to TRIBUNE-uz (in English).
According to Turkey's Anadolu News Agency, NATO's Secretary-General is "'Awfuly Worried' About Uzbek Violence."
An AP report (picked up by The Scotsman, among others) quotes US Gen. John Abizaid, head of CENTCOM, as saying that the US is "Scaling Back Uzbekistan Operations." I was unable to find the full transcript of these remarks on the press section of the US Department of Defense website. RIA Novosti picked this story up as well (in Russian).
1 comment:
Osh is an interesting city, in that I believe it could have fallen in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, or Tajikistan with equal legitimacy. I'm nt sure how the borders around Ferghana were drawn up, but they seem to even the casual observer to be an awful mess, all interwined like spaghetti. When ethnic groups are split like this, or centuries-old societies are split, there are bound to be problems.
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