User:KazakhPol/Projects/Central Asia

''As a result of these events, tensions grew sharply even between the three Central Asian states. Uzbekistan criticized Kyrgyzstan for harboring Uzbekistan’s enemies. Tajikistan protested the unsanctioned over-flight and bombing of its territory by Uzbekistan (which Uzbekistan first denied, but later admitted). Eventually, however, the incursions prompted the security agreements between these (and with Russia), as they braced for new incursions in the following summer. The incursions began again in August 2000, this time initially in Uzbekistan’s southern province of Surkhan-Darya, a high mountain area on the border with Tajikistan. Within a week, separate incursions began in separate places in southern Kyrgyzstan. According to Osmonakun Ibraimov, the Press Secretary of the Kyrgyz President, on 11 August 1999, 40 rebels invaded the Batken district. The Kyrgyz army was better prepared this time. Therefore, they swiftly reacted to the incursions and a fight continued between the terrorists and the troops. Immediately after the terrorist incursions had taken place, a group of American mountain climbers entered the area. The insurgents took these climbers hostage, but they escaped by overpowering and killing an armed guard. Though this fortuitous escape avoided the possibility of direct US involvement in the hostilities, the capture of the Americans prompted the US State Department to include the IMU in its official list of terrorist organizations. Nevertheless over a month passed before the military drove the fighters from the Uzbekistani territory. On 12 August, the ministers of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan started joint military meetings on the effort to fight the insurgents in Batken. Military representatives of Tajikistan also participated in the meeting being an aggrieved party. Two days later, insurgents withdrew under assault from the Kyrgyz armed forces. The commander of the Southern group of Kyrgyz army troops Colonel Ormakoyev said that among the dead guerrillas on the border were Uzbeks, Tajiks, Arabs, Taliban and Chechens fighters. All of them belonged to the IMU. It was reported in the middle of August that up to 800 international terrorists were concentrated in Tajik regions bordering Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and were ready to invade the Uzbek and Kyrgyz territories “at any time.” Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Balot Dzhamuzakov confirmed that the supporters of the IMU had combat aircraft supplied by the Afghan Taliban movement. Namangani, who controlled 70% of the drug traffic from Afghanistan to Central Asia, was trying to undermine stability in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, according to Dzhamuzakov. Security and the law enforcement agencies of the four countries agreed to set up a Rapid Reaction Group to coordinate efforts to trace and destroy the militant groups. Dzhamuzakov further added that the militants invading Kyrgyz territory were financed by international terrorist Osama bin Laden. Quoting one report from the Kyrgyz intelligence sources, he said that the leaders of IMU, Taliban, and Osama bin Laden had met in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan where they discussed the operations to undermine stability in Central Asia, which “means the beginning of hostilities against Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Kazakhstan.” There was a pressing need to set up an operational group with the participation of the military from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to hunt down and destroy the gangs of international terrorists who numbered about 700 to 800 in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, split into small groups of 40 to 50 people, and ready to join hostilities against these two states.” This news, on the very next day, was contested by the Tajik authorities who denied that there was any such concentration of terrorists on the border with Kyrgyzstan. In August 2000, some Kyrgyz soldiers had managed to lay their hands on the offensive plans of the extremists; they were confronted on the river Khodjin-Achkan and suffered heavy casualties. On interrogation of the prisoners, it was revealed that they were supporters of Juma Namangani. According to the Chairman of the Council of Security, Balat Dzhamuzajkov, extremists like Rustan Adullin, a Bicker who came from the village of Aznalino Kurgan region of Russia. Apparently, he was trained for three months in a camp run by citizens of Pakistan. After the interrogation, it became clear that in the Tajik Pamirs and in the district of Talimgokh, there were many training camps for the extremists. Similar theories were also forwarded by Uzbek intelligence, which said that the militants underwent training in camps in Afghanistan. Then in small groups they slipped into Tajikistan’s mountains to move on to their final destination, ‘Fergana Valley’, through Kyrgyzstan. Terrorist activities, however, continued and deliberate attempts were made to infiltrate into the territory of Kyrgyzstan. Two groups of terrorists (about 50-60 strong) made attempts to attack the Jily-Suu post in Liya-Liyak region in 2000. Simultaneously, attacks were unleashed from three different directions in the areas of Saddle-point Jangiabad, Jily-Suu and Abramov glacier. Kyrgyz Air Force attacked areas of probable concentration of these terrorists. The armed forces of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan acting jointly successfully countered various intruding groups in Tashkent area. By the end of September 2000, the Kyrgyz army managed to flush out terrorists from the glacier on the Kyrgyz-Tajik frontier. Some terrorist units which stayed in Kyrgyz territory were destroyed. All the passes were closed. Batken incident was one of the major terrorist incidents which had a tremendous bearing on the psychology and strategic considerations of Central Asian region. Askar Aytmatov, who was the Advisor on International Affairs to President of Kyrgyzstan republic, summed it up very accurately. He wrote, “the 1999, Batken incident in south Kyrgyzstan was a serious test for the whole of our peaceful nation. At that time, Kyrgyzstan was not ready for military action or neutralization of armed bandit groups of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They captured hostages including Japanese citizens and demanded that the authorities provide them a hefty amount and a corridor for free access to neighboring Uzbekistan. Still, at the cost of human lives, we succeeded in displacing the terrorist groups from our territory and released all the hostages they captured. In the autumn of 2000, these events occurred again but with the military technical support of the friendly countries, the Kyrgyz army resisted the efforts of the international terrorists to intervene on our territory again. The Batken events of 1999-2000 have again drawn attention of the world to the strengthening of the ‘Islamic factor’ in Central Asia. Unfortunately, there is every reason to assume that in the near future, similar events will be repeated. The current military political situation in the south of our country is the result of the intersection of a number of urgent problems, which cover all of Central Asia.” A number of people were arrested in East Kazakhstan oblast on 19 November 1999, who were reported to be ethnic Russians and veterans of the Afghan and Chechen wars. They had allegedly been planning an armed rebellion in the town of Pavlodar in the north Kazakhstan oblast and Oskune and Leningorsk in east, with the aim of setting up an ‘Indepent Republic of Russian Altai’. It was further alleged that the rebels had secured the support of a number of prominent local residents. Long after the Tajik civil war, on 16 February 2000, a powerful bomb exploded in Dushanbe which killed the Deputy Security Minister, Shamsullo Dzabirov, who was also a candidate for the legislative elections. The Mayor of Dushanbe, Muhammad Sayed Ubaydulloyav, was traveling in the same car as Dzabirov but escaped unhurt. President Rakhmanov described the attack as an act of terrorism aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation before the parliamentary elections. In the same month, an attack was made on the car of the first Deputy Prime Minister, and UTO member Ali Akbar Turadzhonzada, as it traveled in a motorcade from, Dushanbe to his hometown of Kofarnikhon. No one was injured. In Dushanbe, on 7 February, three powerful explosions occurred in the central places. Asia Plus News Agency reported that the first explosion occurred outside a house at 70, Rudoki Avenue, the second between the Avesto Hostel, where the Russian embassy is situated and the Koh-l-Vahdat (Place of Unity) complex. The explosive was planted in a square. The third explosion occurred between the buildings of Tajikistan’s Tax Committee and Pamir Cinema. No one was hurt or killed. Though Kazakhstan has been the less terrorist prone republic of Central Asia, several incidences there do not rule out the intention of the terrorists to spread their tentacles to Kazakhstan. A senior official of the south Kazakhstan told the media on 26 October 2000 that in the run-up to the celebrations of the 1500th anniversary of Turkestan (in south Kazakhstan region), Kazakh special services in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies rendered harmless several armed extremists. He further added that after receiving a tip-off, officers from the National Security Committee Department (NCSD) for south Kazakhstan region found a Kalashnikov rifle and two full magazines in a private house in Turkestan on 13 October. Along with the assault rifle, the security personnel seized literature and leaflets callinf for a jihad, in Kazakh, Arabic and Uzbek languages. The Interfax-Kazakhstan News Agency also reported that several days before the celebrations, leaflets calling for a jihad against the ‘infidels’, the overthrow of the existing state order, and the establishment in Central Asian countries of a single Islamic state were found in the Central market, at the railway station and in Turkestan’s main mosque. Tulebay Kulbayev, an official, also told that another two local residents were detained in Turkestan, from whom a handmade explosive device, detonator and drugs were seized. According to his information, one of the detained men was a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Tajik security forces, on 4th October, carried out a special operation to detain a group of terrorists in Karamov Street in Dushanbe. The terrorists put up armed resistance and fired at security officers. The terrorists intended to carry out a number of terrorist acts on festive days. One terrorist was killed, second was wounded and a third was arrested. At a conference in Bishkek in March 2001, the Chairman of the Kyrgyz National Security Service, Bolat Dzhamuzakov, told the journalists that about 3000 militants were undergoing training at bases in Afghanistan and that they might try to break into the border at any moment. As late as on 8 September 2001, terrorist activities went on in its different forms. On that day, the Tajik Minister of Culture, Abdurahim Rahimov, was shot dead outside his residence in Dushanbe by a lone gunman who then escaped. The very next day, a young man identified as Ghaffar Abdughafforov died when a country made bomb exploded as he was carrying it to the Frunze Central Stadium in Dushanbe. The stadium was hosting festivities to mark the 10th anniversary of the country’s independence and was attended by the President and other senior officials. After 11 September 2001, a remarkable turn around took place in the security scenario all over the world with the focus shifting over to Afghanistan, Central Asian countries and Pakistan. There was greater action by these republics against their own suspected terrorists and the terrorist organizations after 11 September episode. The American intervention in Afghanistan resulted in the dissipation and collapse of Taliban and at the same time brought the end of the intervention by the other foreign actors in the region. It had its direct impact on Central Asian republics, as a result of which, incidences of terrorism came down heavily in these republics and the republics also found excuses to heavily crackdown on their religious, separatist and fundamentalist groups.'' (Page 71)