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EURASIA INSIGHT

UZBEKISTAN: THE WOUNDS OF ANDIJAN REMAIN FRESH
Joshua Kucera 10/16/07

And the square itself, which had been littered with the bodies of hundreds of townspeople killed by Uzbek security forces during a protest, is now just a pleasant small town scene with groups of teenagers talking quietly and families with children on bicycles and babies in strollers lingering under the soft electric lights. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The City Hall, which was badly damaged in the attack, is completely restored. The movie theater, which was destroyed, has been rebuilt.

But under the surface, the wounds are still fresh. Most people approached on the square are polite, but answer even the gentlest questions about what everyone calls "the events" of May 12-13, 2005, with one-word, vague answers. Finally, one thirty-something man, walking through the square with his tiara-clad daughter, opens up.

He says he was at the protest, and describes what he saw. "There was so much shooting, people ran in every direction. I saw people shot in the forehead, people shot in the chest. I saw little children killed."

Most of the people who were here were protesting against the government, he said, adding; "people are too afraid to protest again. The government controls everything here now."

"Anyway, we’ve had enough protests, too many people have died."

The Andijan tragedy in 2005 helped cause a rupture in relations between the United States and Uzbekistan which, while formalized in a strategic cooperation agreement, were already rocky because of Uzbekistan’s poor human rights record. After Washington demanded an independent investigation into the Andijan events, Uzbekistan shut down the airbase in Karshi-Khanabad that US forces had used as a logistics hub for operations in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Nevertheless, it’s apparently a common belief in Uzbekistan that the United States provoked the attacks in Andijan that led to the violent government response. Most people who are even lightly challenged on this point quickly acknowledge that it doesn’t make much sense. The initial justification that the Uzbekistan government gave for its harsh response was that the attacks were by religious extremists bent on installing a radical Islamist government � hardly the sort of thing that Washington supports. But the logic of conspiracy theories is usually convoluted, and this one is no exception. As one person explains: "If the religious extremists take over the government in Uzbekistan, then we’ll develop badly and be weak and then the United States will be able to take our resources."

The Uzbek government appears to be encouraging the circulation of such theories. A government-published book on display at my hotel in Andijan, called "Andijan Today," includes an account of the events that implicitly blames the United States.

"In the last years, some destructive outside forces began to display unfriendliness towards Uzbekistan which has an important strategic location," the book states. "Using different methods, they try to realize their improper intentions. Now it’s publicly known that �colored revolutions,’ happened in some CIS countries, are directly connected with their activity. The same forces, using extremist organizations, performed an act of terrorism in Andijan on the 12th-13th of May, 2005."

This theory is commonly held in Andijan, even among ordinary people. "A lot of people think that the United States gave guns to Akramiya," says the man on Babur Square, referring to the group that seized City Hall, setting off the entire series of events. "I don’t know about that," he adds. "But I think the United States supported Akramiya, and is trying to make Uzbekistan weak."

Finally, he says he has to leave. "I should go. They have been watching me and I shouldn’t be talking to you." And he walks off, holding his daughter’s hand.

It doesn’t take long for "them" to start watching me, as well. Before I went to Andijan I didn’t know how much police interference to expect; I’d heard various opinions about the situation there. Several people � usually outside Uzbekistan � told me that it would be impossible to visit, that police carefully control traffic in and out of the city. But people in Uzbekistan said it would be no problem to go to Andijan, and they turn out to be right. The hotel receptionist tells me that just the day before there had been another American tourist � Andijan is on the main route to Kyrgyzstan, so it gets a lot of tourist transit. I hope I won’t attract too much attention.

The day after visiting the square, I drop in on some of the larger mosques and madrassas in Andijan, to see what people tell me about the "events" and also to gauge to what degree they might harbor some radical Islamist sympathies; it was the alleged threat of Islamist insurgency that the government used to justify its crackdown here.

The government, in the wake of the events, has closed down all the private mosques and madrassas, only allowing the state-sponsored ones to remain open. I visit two mosques, and find the officials willing to talk, but clearly wary. They give vaguely positive answers about the situation today in Andijan. "We have religious freedom," one imam tells me. Another says: "We have no problems � we can read the Koran, study Arabic." There is a little sarcasm in his voice, though, when he adds, "people here just want stability, we need a peaceful environment."

I later go to the historic Devonaboi Mosque, not far from Babur Square. There, a representative of the City Department for Religious Affairs is waiting for me. Apparently the first imam I spoke to has called the National Security Service and the Department for Religious Affairs, and the department official wants to know whether I have permission to be doing this. I don’t � I’m in Uzbekistan on a tourist visa.

Nevertheless, he says, he’s willing to give an interview. So I ask some anodyne questions about the situation in Andijan and make small talk. Ironically, both he and Devonaboi’s imam had taken part in US government-sponsored education exchange programs for religious leaders � the imam had visited Georgetown University, and the state official, the University of Massachusetts.

At the end of our short conversation, he asks for the names of both me and my translator, and which hotel we are staying in. He writes everything down in a small notebook, and it seems that it’s time to get out of Andijan.

Editor�s Note: Joshua Kucera is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. He is presently traveling through the Caucasus and Central Asia to write a serial travelogue for EurasiaNet.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the position of the Open Society Institute and are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.