Insurgency-GWOT
Uzbekistan has shown a particular vulnerability to terrorism since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In February 1999, a series of explosions in Tashkent left a reported 16-28 killed and hundreds more wounded. The Karimov government responded with wide-scale arrests of political dissidents in a telling display of lingering Soviet-style tactics. In April 1999, Karimov accused Mohammed Solikh, a former presidential candidate and head of the banned Erk Pary, of masterminding the plot along with Tohir Yuldashev (former leader of the Adolat social movement) and the Taliban. The first trial of 22 suspects resulted in six death sentences. In 2000 Yuldashev and Jama Namanganiy (leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) recieved death sentences in absentia, and Solikh recieved a 15 year prison sentence.
In late March 2004, a series of bombings and armed attacks left a reported 47 dead. President Islam Karimov asserted that the attacks were concerted attempts to overthrow the government.
The Uzbek government has considerably alienated its Muslim population since the end of Soviet control. As a result, many analysts have partly attributed the rise of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)-- re-named the Islamic Movement of Turkestan (IMT)-- in the mid to late 1990s, to government actions. The government's response to the terrorist attacks in March 2004 generated a wide negative reaction from the West. Nevertheless, Russia was more understanding, and in a move that suggested a burgeoning Uzbek role within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), facilitated the opening of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Centre (RATC) in Tashkent.
May 2005
Violence erupted in Andijan, Uzbekistan on May 13, 2005 after days of peaceful protests over the imprisonment of 23 local business leaders accused of Islamic extremism. President Islam Karimov has described the violence as an armed uprising, planned by Islamic militants linked to the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement. Witnesses, however, claim that Uzbeki troops opened fire on protestors indiscriminately, leaving up to 500 dead, as the Daily Times of Pakistan has reported. Andijan, a city in eastern Uzbekistan, is near the border separating Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. On May 14, BBC NEWS reported that approximately 6,000 people had fled to the border.
Reporting from Kyrgyzstan, Radio Free Europe quoted Kyrgyz interim President Kurmanbek Bakiev, as saying "This [the 12-13 May violence in Andijon] happened because of those [known as] the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and [members of the Islamist movement] Hizb ut-Tahrir.... In any case, this [violence] does not lead to a good life. I think, there should be peace. I don't support the views of those who want to establish a state under the rule of a religious body."
Torture
The US State Department's Human Rights report on Uzbekistan released in February 2005 states the following, "The law prohibits such practices; however, police and the NSS routinely tortured, beat, and otherwise mistreated detainees to obtain confessions or incriminating information. Police, prison officials, and the NSS allegedly used suffocation, electric shock, rape, and other sexual abuse; however, beating was the most commonly reported method of torture. Torture was common in prisons, pretrial facilities, and local police and security service precincts. Defendants in trials often claimed that their confessions, on which the prosecution based its cases, were extracted by torture (see Section 1.e.). In February 2003, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture issued a report that concluded that torture or similar ill-treatment was systematic.
Authorities treated individuals suspected of extreme Islamist political sympathies, particularly alleged members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, more harshly than ordinary criminals, and there were credible reports that investigators subjected persons suspected of belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir to particularly severe interrogation in pretrial detention, in many cases resorting to torture. After trial, authorities reportedly used disciplinary and punitive measures, including torture, more often with prisoners convicted of extremism than with ordinary inmates. Local human rights workers reported that common criminals were often paid or otherwise induced by authorities to beat Hizb ut Tahrir members (see Section 1.d.)."
