Uzbek Security Forces on the Prowl in KGZ

This just came through from the Uzbeks of Kyrgyzstan Yahoo Group e-list (approval to join required) and makes a thought-provoking read (apologies for the absence of formatting):

Uzbek secret agents reportedly flood southern Kyrgyzstan, hunting for uprising participants

By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
Associated Press Writer
OSH, Kyrgyzstan (AP)

Uzbek security agents are offering large amounts of money to people in this impoverished region to turn in people who fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan after an uprising that was violently put down, rights activists and others say. The agents are also trying to stir up ethnic tensions in the region to make Uzbeks return to their country, according to people interviewed by The Associated Press. Hundreds of Uzbeks took refuge in Kyrgyzstan after a May 13 uprising in the city of Andijan was violently put down by police and troops. Uzbek officials say 187 people died in the violence - half of them armed militants; it blames the uprising on Islamic militants. Rights activists say as many as 750 people were killed, mostly unarmed civilians, and they say the revolt was an outburst against poverty and political and religious oppression in the authoritarian state. Kyrgyzstan suffered its own uprising in March, when demonstrators stormed the presidential offices and forced longtime leader Askar Akayev to flee. Although presidential elections on Sunday appeared to be a significant step toward restoring normalcy in Kyrgyzstan, the presence of the Uzbek refugees and the alleged agents' actions present serious potential for new instability. After the Andijan violence, according to local activists and residents, Uzbek authorities launched a massive operation in southern Kyrgyzstan trying to return those who had fled _ some to be prosecuted and others so that they could not give accounts to the outside world about what happened in Andijan. More than 400 Uzbek asylum seekers are living at a U.N.-sponsored camp and have been recognized as refugees, but many more _ mostly those who were actively involved in the revolt _ are believed to be on the run in border areas. The governor of the Osh region, Anvar Artykov, said ``it's quite possible that Uzbek agents are searching around here.'' In June, Kyrgyzstan secretly handed over four Uzbeks to Uzbekistan in violation of its obligations under the international refugee and anti-torture conventions _ torture is routinely used in Uzbek jails, according to a U.N. report. Dilyor Jumabayev, a spokesman for the radical Islamic party Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Osh, claims, citing police sources, that the four were sold by Kyrgyz police to Uzbeks for US$25,000 (euro20,500). Jumabayev claimed as many as 20 Uzbek agents are operating in Kara Suu, a town on the Uzbek border. Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Uzbekistan, calls for formation of an Islamic caliphate. The catalyst in the Andijan uprising was seen as the imminent verdict in the trial of Islamic businessmen who had alleged contacts with Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Izatullo Rakhmatullayev, a rights activist in Osh, said that in June Kyrgyz police had helped Uzbek authorities to catch and transfer to Uzbekistan at least two Uzbeks who fled after the Andijan violence but were outside the refugee camp. A journalist in Osh, Alisher Saipov, said he was approached by a man who said he was an officer from the Andijan security service and offered him US$10,000 (euro8,200) for helping him track down a leader of the uprising, Kabuljon Parpiyev, who Uzbek authorities believe is hiding in southern Kyrgyzstan. Apart from bringing money, Uzbek agents incite hostility among Kyrgyz toward the Uzbeks, so that they will be willing to tip off authorities on any suspected Uzbeks, said Ikbol Mirsaitov, a Kyrgyz analyst from Osh. ``They say: 'Look, you are poor, but you're going to be even poorer if you will have to feed all these runaway Uzbeks,''' Mirsaitov said. He said this ``sows seeds of interethnic confrontation'' _ something that could re-ignite longtime ethnic enmity between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks that in 1990 led to clashes that left hundreds dead in the southern Kyrgyz town of Uzgen. Tensions are strong among local residents. Meder Usenov, a political activist in the southern city of Jalal-Abad, says vilifying the Uzbeks on the run is another technique used by Uzbek agents. Saparbek Nasyrunbekov, 45, who sells water melons on a road leading to the camp says ``there might be criminals among Uzbek refugees''. ``We don't know what's on their minds. We have to kick them off of our soil,'' he says. But Umida Irdayeva, who works at a roadside tea house near the refugee camp said people in her village tell Uzbek strangers who ask them for help forcing the Uzbek refugees to return home that ``they don't trouble us and we don't mind them being here.''