The Islamist Movement of Uzbekistan: The regional dimension to the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan

[Babur]

Two articles which both compliment each other on the issue of Islamists in Central Asia:

Unrest in Uzbekistan
Fata Fergana

Jun 11th 2009 | TASHKENT
From The Economist print edition
Suspicions that Islamist extremists are regrouping in the valley



JUST as Uzbekistan has once again become a transit route for supplies to American and NATO forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, two violent incidents have suggested the country itself may be susceptible to Islamist militants. In late May the tightly controlled official press reported a suicide-bombing in Andijan. It was said to have killed a policeman and the bomber. This followed a reported attack by militants on a border post in the city of Khanabad. Details are sketchy; there are no independent media in the country.
In the past, Islamist groups would claim such attacks, and according to a Russian news agency they did again this time. But some used to suspect that the government itself was creating an alleged Islamist threat that would justify repression. And one side-effect of America’s attack on the Taliban in 2001 was the nearly complete destruction of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a small but tough group of militants whose members included citizens of several ex-Soviet republics as well as Uighurs from the restive western Muslim region of Xinjiang in China. Uzbekistan’s dictator, Islam Karimov, demanded that America include IMU auxiliaries in Afghanistan among its targets, in exchange for access to bases in his country. The IMU’s charismatic commander, Juma Namangani, was killed in Afghanistan in 2001 along with most of his fighters. The survivors scattered to the four winds (see article).

Now, Uzbekistan is back in focus, because of America’s and NATO’s need to find new supply routes into Afghanistan. The Khyber Pass from Pakistan is often closed because of militant attacks. And this year Kyrgyzstan’s government has threatened to block NATO’s access to its Manas airbase. Now Uzbekistan’s airport in Navoi, as well as rail and road links, are to be used for the transit of what America says are non-lethal goods. This may make the country a bigger target for insurgents.
The attacks have also raised fears of increased tensions in the heavily populated, largely agricultural Fergana Valley that straddles Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Andijan, one of the valley’s biggest cities, was the site of a massacre by Uzbek troops in 2005. America’s calls for an independent investigation of the incident led to its eviction from the airbase in Karshi, which it had used for operations in Afghanistan from 2001.
Mr Karimov, whose regime has been in power since independence from the Soviet Union, has presided over an economy that is still largely closed and state-controlled. In agriculture, for example, the government tells farmers what crops they must grow and instructs them to sell the harvest back to the state for much less than the world market price.
Yet since last autumn many Uzbek farmers have lost land they had worked for years. Ostensibly to rationalise agricultural production, Mr Karimov decreed in October that landholdings should be consolidated. This gave local governors—the hakims, who often rule with an iron fist—a pretext to seize land and pass it on to cronies or those wealthy enough to offer bribes. In the past decade many farmers had signed 49-year leases, as Soviet-era collective farms were dismantled.
This land grab left many farmers landless, jobless and desperately poor. Some have gone back to work what was once their land. Yet there was already a vast surplus of workers, because of a bulge in the working-age population. Many Uzbeks have sought jobs in Kazakhstan and Russia but opportunities have been limited of late by the global slowdown. So remittances, the lifeblood of many families and a big source of income for the country, have fallen sharply. If Islamist extremists are regrouping in the Fergana Valley, they have plenty of discontent to prey on.



http://www.economist.com/world/asia/...ry_id=13837448

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Here comes trouble

Jun 11th 2009
From The Economist print edition
The regional dimension to the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan


CENTRAL ASIA’S militant Islamists have been popping up in some unusual places. Pakistani officials say that Uzbek fighters have numbered among those captured and killed in the government’s offensive to retake the Swat Valley. One Pakistani newspaper claims that local Taliban forces include up to 4,000 foreign fighters, most of them members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) who hail from the former Soviet Union. The Pakistani Taliban have not been driving just south toward Islamabad, but also northward to Malakand and Kohistan, leading some experts to fret that militants are aiming to expand their influence towards the China-Pakistan border and even farther afield to the mountains of Tajikistan, one of the IMU’s old stomping grounds.
The Chinese, who have their own Islamists to worry about, are unnerved by the prospect. At the beginning of June President Hu Jintao again demanded, as Chinese leaders have done in the past, that Pakistan root out members of the “East Turkestan Islamic Movement”, a reference to ethnic-Uighur separatists, once closely allied with the IMU, who have found safe haven in the tribal areas.

A few weeks ago American soldiers in Afghanistan found themselves fending off a surprisingly sophisticated ambush by well-equipped guerrillas speaking a mixture of languages on their radios, including, it is believed, Russian. American experts suspected that the attackers included Chechens and Uzbeks operating under the IMU’s umbrella. For good measure, in May Russia’s senior anti-narcotics official accused the IMU of trying to muscle in on the drug trade in his country. That is not quite as fanciful as it might sound. The IMU has long been suspected of profiting from the smuggling routes for Afghan opium that pass through the Central Asian republics.
The police-state methods employed by some of the governments in the region seem not to have stemmed the Islamist challenge. The harsh treatment meted out by Uzbekistan’s president, Islam Karimov, to his home-grown militants—ranging from coercive beard-shaving to imprisonment in concentration camps—has failed to eradicate the IMU. But the IMU’s ominous comeback illustrates a broader point as well. If the Taliban continues to wreak havoc in Pakistan, one side-effect could be the destabilisation of governments throughout Central Asia.


http://www.economist.com/world/asia/...ry_id=13837440

This doesn't surprise me considering that Islam Karimov is a repressive and authoritarian dictator who is not even fully Uzbek lol.

[jankren]

The 'Stan' countries should just merge.

[motiv-8]

The 'Stan' countries should just merge.

Yes, throwing together peoples with different languages, cultures, and identities and making them govern themselves well works all the time! Just look how well Yugosl... oh.

[Gromovnik]

I have a feeling that theese guys will be called freedom fighters instead of terrorists...

[Babur]

I have a feeling that theese guys will be called freedom fighters instead of terrorists...

why do you say that? lol

Islam Karimov isn't exactly a saint....

but neither are the IMU

[Treize]

Islamists...

Really, what's wrong with those people?..

[Farnan]

I've actually talked about these guys before. Karinov is bad and so are these guys, but compared to the IMU Karinov is the lesser evil. And I've talked about the impact of a Taliban controlled Afghanistan with relations to these guys.

[Burnum]

I've actually talked about these guys before. Karinov is bad and so are these guys, but compared to the IMU Karinov is the lesser evil. And I've talked about the impact of a Taliban controlled Afghanistan with relations to these guys.

Karimov is not the lesser evil, he's a butcher whose government has killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people. The only reason he's allegedly favorable is because he's currently pro-American. He's a little Stalin.

[Gumpfendorfer]

All the Stans are in trouble, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are real powder keg. All they need is a match. Corruption, unemployment, powerabuse and heroin flooding the countries are the main problems.

The ICG has worrying on all countries. http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5907 A bit speculative though.

Rumours are growing stronger and are getting persistent that around a 1000 Taliban fighters are crossing into Tajiskistan from Northern Pakistan. Can't verify that anywhere unfortunately. In May 2009 the Talibs warned Tajikstan for the consequences of aiding the USA. Tajikistan would be a cakewalk for them. Opening up a new corridor for heroin to China and Russia and transfer fighters from and to Uzbekistan makes sense.

We could be in for a surprise.

[Каие]

I take pride in knowing Blair kept these animals in power.

[ivan_the_terrible]

The south east of Kygryzstan is only dubiously Kyrgyz. Many cities there have been Uzbek for a very long time (the Kyrgyzs themselves didn't really live in cities until the late 19th century - they were just nomads). The area has been pretty volatile, especially after there was no longer the Soviet Union to keep things in check.

Luckily for the rest of the country in the north and north-east, it's separated by some impresive mountains. Which means unrest rarely spills over into 'actual' Kyrgyzstan.

The 'Stan' countries should just merge.

It's interestig you mention this. Because the former Soviet central asian countries' infrastructures are very interconnected. For example, for electricity and gas there are massive grids spanning Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which still link up with Russia. And when they were built, they were never designed for independent, bickering and poor countries.

So they now have to have many agreements stipulating exactly how energy is shared. In short, they all depend on each other to some degree. It's definitely in their interests to relax controls, so that the system can function as it was designed to.

Now, whether any political union at all follows this, I don't know. Probably not, as they're all far to diverse.

[Babur]

The south east of Kygryzstan is only dubiously Kyrgyz. Many cities there have been Uzbek for a very long time (the Kyrgyzs themselves didn't really live in cities until the late 19th century - they were just nomads). The area has been pretty volatile, especially after there was no longer the Soviet Union to keep things in check.

Luckily for the rest of the country in the north and north-east, it's separated by some impresive mountains. Which means unrest rarely spills over into 'actual' Kyrgyzstan.



It's interestig you mention this. Because the former Soviet central asian countries' infrastructures are very interconnected. For example, for electricity and gas there are massive grids spanning Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which still link up with Russia. And when they were built, they were never designed for independent, bickering and poor countries.

So they now have to have many agreements stipulating exactly how energy is shared. In short, they all depend on each other to some degree. It's definitely in their interests to relax controls, so that the system can function as it was designed to.

Now, whether any political union at all follows this, I don't know. Probably not, as they're all far to diverse.

well Pan-Turkists wish to unite all the "stans" with the exception of Tajikistan.

I doubt they would be able to get along in such a union.

[YuriVII]

IMU coming back? Usually happens in one big cycle of . Kazakhstan seems to be the only country around there that has its affairs in some sort of order. I guess a level of authoritarianism is needed to maintain a peacful societey when it comes to the Central Asian Republics.

[Shadowcry]

Yes lets keep supporting evil secular dictators in teh middle east and Central Asia! That will certainly persuade the terrorists to stop hating the state which supports teh dictator that oppresses the common people! Thus we can prevent another 9/11

Poor poor naive americanos

[YuriVII]

Except I am Russian and if you are going to install a "democracy" in some of those countries than it will just degrade into a civil war. We can use Kygyzstan as an example with the Tulip revolution of further democratization going wrong. Something tell me if "democracy" hit Uzbekistan, it would make the Tulip revolution look like the singing revolution in the Baltics.

Poor Poor naive whatver you are...

[Shadowcry]

I was not even talking to you, it was a general statement. Oh and PS Your nation is the root cause of practically all of Central Asia's problems. So do not get me even started there. Maybe you should think before making more ignorant comments.

[ivan_the_terrible]

I was not even talking to you, it was a general statement. Oh and PS Your nation is the root cause of practically all of Central Asia's problems. So do not get me even started there. Maybe you should think before making more ignorant comments.

Hah. Russia is the only reason Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have anything at all.

As soon as Russia/Soviet Union is gone, they fall to pieces. Take Kyrgyzstan, for example. They were nomads who lived in tents. Which is absolutely fine. But what did they get from Russia (and then the SU)? Lets see....infrastructure, industrialisation, modernisation, education, an alphabet to write their own language, emancipation of women etc etc.

Any problems they have now derive from Russia very indirectly at most.

The root of Kyrgyzstan's problems is a culture that is still largely tribal-based, and prone to excessive corruption.

[YuriVII]

Its the cause of some if its problems and also the cause of many of the things that will bring it out of obscurity. Its also the place where much of their youth goes to find economic oportunity and education. Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kygyz, and Kazakhs go to my country in search of opportunity, beleive it or not. So my country's relationship with the central asian republics is multifaceted in that respect. I would love to get your started. Aswell, if my comments are ignorant, than what are yours? You seem to just toe the common line: USSR=bad: therefore all influence USSR had in Central Asia is bad.

[Angrychris]

People will resort to many things when under the authority of abusive dictators. Evil is evil and change is change.