Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russia, Uzbeks plan first joint military exercises

Background
Uzbekistan's tyrannical President Islam Karimov had early profiled himself as a staunch friend of the Washington "war on terror", offering a former Soviet airbase for US military actions, including the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001. Many considered Karimov too close to Washington to be in danger. He had made himself a "good" tyrant in Washington's eyes.

That's also no longer a sure thing. In May, Rice demanded that Karimov institute "political reforms" following violent prison uprisings and subsequent protests over conditions in the Ferghana Valley region in Andijan. Karimov has fiercely resisted independent inquiry into allegations his troops shot and killed hundreds of unarmed protesters. He insists the uprisings were caused by "external" radical Muslim fundamentalists allied with the Taliban and intent on establishing an Islamic caliphate in Uzbekistan's Ferghana Valley bordering Kyrgystan.

While the ouster of Karimov is unclear for the moment, leading Washington backers of Karimov's "democratic reform" have turned into hostile opponents. As one US commentator expressed it, "The character of the Karimov regime can no longer be ignored in deference to the strategic usefulness of Uzbekistan." Karimov has been targeted for a color revolution in the relentless Washington "war on tyranny".

In mid-June, Karimov's government announced changes in terms for the US to use Uzbekistan's Karshi-Khanabad military airbase, including a ban on night flights. Karimov is moving demonstrably closer to Moscow, and perhaps also to Beijing, in the latest chapter of the new "Great Game" for geopolitical control over Eurasia.
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-Am

Russia, Uzbeks plan first joint military exercises
29 Jun 2005 10:51:48 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Michael Steen

MOSCOW, June 29 (Reuters) - Russia is to conduct joint military exercises with Uzbekistan, Russia's defence minister said on Wednesday in a further sign of Moscow's growing support for the Central Asian state after a bloody government crackdown.

The Uzbek-Russian manoeuvres, which Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said would be the first since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, come as human rights groups are calling on Washington to review its own military presence in the country.

The suppression of a rebellion in the eastern town of Andizhan last month killed around 500 people including unarmed civilians, according to witnesses, and has been branded a massacre by rights groups and Western politicians.

The Uzbek government says its troops opened fire on "terrorists" and puts the death toll at 176, an account of events that both Russia and China have backed.

"It's absurd to say that troops opened fire on a peaceful crowd of demonstrators in Andizhan," Ivanov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after a meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov.

Witnesses in Andizhan on May 13, including a Reuters correspondent, said they saw troops fire at people in the centre of town where armed rebels had occupied a building and unarmed civilians had gathered, some of whom were demonstrating.

Ivanov said the military exercises would be held over the summer. He also backed Karimov's view that a "base of terrorists" from outside the former Soviet Union was trying to destabilise Central Asia, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Speaking on Tuesday after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Karimov implicitly accused the West of being behind the violence in Andizhan, saying the rebellion was a plot.

"Its script writers and directors have used religious, extremist, radical forces, which they themselves describe as terrorists whom they successfully fought in Afghanistan and whom they now fight in Iraq," he said, without naming any countries.

RUSSIAN, CHINESE SUPPORT

The authoritarian leader, who has ruled the mostly Muslim country of 26 million since 1989, had previously sought close relations with both the United States and Russia, despite long-running Western criticism of his human rights record.

Since Andizhan he has increasingly turned to Russia.

"I want to express my respect for this man," Karimov was quoted by Tass as saying in praise of Putin, a former KGB spy.

"He's the kind of man you would go on a mission behind enemy lines with," he said, using a popular Russian idiom.

Although Washington has not formally changed its policy on Uzbekistan, President George W. Bush has joined international calls for an independent inquiry into the Andizhan rebellion, a proposal Karimov has rejected.

Since that call, the Uzbek government has limited U.S. military use of the Karshi-Khanabad airbase, which supports operations in neighbouring Afghanistan, forcing Washington to temporarily shift some flights to Kabul.

The Andizhan revolt was triggered by the trial of 23 local businessmen whom the authorities accused of religious extremism. Many residents said they believed the trial was an attempt to grab property from the men, significant local employers.

Uzbekistan, which tolerates only state-sponsored Islam, has jailed thousands of political and religious dissidents, human rights groups say. Karimov has said tough policies are needed to fight Islamists seeking to overthrow the secular government.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29441447.htm