Violence In Uzbekistan Not The Mark Of Al-Qaeda

by William O. Beeman

(PNS) -- Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov has blamed recent violence in his country on "foreigners," suggesting possible Al Qaeda connections. Al Qaeda is almost certainly not directly involved. The current suicide bombings and earlier insurrections in 1999 in Uzbekistan's Ferghana valley are the likely result of home-grown, explosive frustration with Karimov's heavy-handed regime.

Why does the mythology of Al Qaeda's connection to these events persist?

The short answer is that the governments of both Uzbekistan and the United States find it politically expedient to promote a false view of this ongoing confrontation. Karimov's government does so to avoid criticism for its own repression of its citizenry; the United States, to continue the image of the "United States at War," upon which President Bush is hanging his re-election hopes.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on March 29, "The attacks are yet another example of the importance of continued cooperation against those who would stop at nothing to achieve their misguided goals."

Their methods may be unacceptable, but the goals of the Uzbek militants are anything but misguided. There are plenty of local reasons for them to oppose the Karimov government.

Since attaining power, President Karimov has run one of the most repressive governments in the world, according to the organization Human Rights Watch. He has not only suppressed religious groups, but also the Tajik ethnic minority in his nation, who speak a variety of Persian, an Indo-European language contrasting with the Uzbek language, which is Turkic.

Karimov was especially fearful of the civil war in neighboring Tajikistan, where one side identified itself with Islamic fundamentalism. He feared that the war would spread to Uzbekistan, creating both an Islamic and a Tajik ethnic problem. Consequently, he has completely closed and mined borders with that nation, creating hardships for the Tajik economy and for Tajik families on both sides of the border, who in Soviet days enjoyed free interchange.

Internally, Karimov has closed Tajik schools, repressed Tajik publications and restricted broadcasts in the Tajik language. Prayer in mosques is allowed, but religious gatherings of other sorts are severely restricted.

Organized resistance to the Karimov regime pre-dates Al Qaeda by many years. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, one of the suspect groups, has roots that go back to the beginning of the 19th century. The Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) is indeed international in scope, but it was founded in 1952, and is headquartered in London.

Neither of these two groups has been linked to the recent bombings, but neither would ever have been able to inspire followers to anything as violent as suicide bombings if an atmosphere of repression had not been firmly established in Uzbekistan.

The city of Bukhara, where the bombs were apparently being manufactured, is simultaneously an Islamic shrine city, a major Jewish cultural center and a monument to Tajik/Persian civilization. It was the capital of the 11th century Samanid Empire, which gave rise to modern Persian language and literature. Bukhara is a world-class cultural treasure and a constant, unpleasant reminder to Uzbek chauvinists that their Turkic civilization was built on Tajik roots. Cultural and religious repression in Bukhara hangs over the city like a dark cloud.

The Uzbek violence seems to have been directed particularly at the police force, perceived by ordinary citizens as the principal agents of government repression. Notoriously corrupt, heavy-handed and unchecked in their exercise of brute force, they effect a virtual reign of terror throughout the country. Traveling from province to province by land in Uzbekistan is an ordeal, as one is stopped at each provincial border by the police. Bribing the officers is almost always necessary. Citizens, even foreign tourists, endure regular police shakedowns on the streets of Tashkent and other large cities.

Arrests and torture of numerous Uzbek human rights campaigners throughout the past year have shown the population the danger of attempting to thwart the Karimov regime.

The locus of the bombings in Tashkent was the crowded central Chorsu Bazaar, a place of much discontent as well as commerce. Draconian, government-imposed restrictions and tariffs on bazaar merchants, including a recent prohibition against selling non-food items, has merchants reeling in despair. Bombs set off in the bazaar -- carried by women, who would be less conspicuous in such a setting -- targeted the policemen, who alternatively punish and extort the merchants.

President Karimov knows that the United States needs him. During the campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan following the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States contracted to use the Khanabad air base near the southern city of Karshi as a staging area for U.S. military operations. In a visit to Tashkent in February 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld began discussions to establish a permanent military base in Uzbekistan. On Feb. 24, Rumsfeld praised Karimov's government in a press conference, saying, "we have benefited greatly in our efforts in the global war on terror and in Afghanistan from the wonderful cooperation we've received from the government of Uzbekistan."

Once again, an authoritarian regime -- think China and Russia, too -- is getting a "pass" from the Bush administration by linking their actions to Bush's "War on Terrorism." By merely hinting that Al Qaeda might be behind the Uzbekistan violence, Karimov's regime has not only avoided further censure from the White House, but garnered its praise.