president Thursday, May 26, amid reports of a fresh crackdown at home against religious minorities, including Protestant Christians. In media statements President Islam Karimov was described as "an old friend of the Chinese people" by Chinese President Hu Jintao, despite mounting international pressure for the Uzbek leader to step down following days of anti-government protests in which up to 1,000 people died. It was unclear how many Christians were among those killed or injured.
Karimov, who has been accused of ruling for 15 years with an iron fist, has made clear he will not allow revolutions like those in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and earlier in Georgia and Ukraine, and Protestants say his tactics include pressure on religious groups deemed dangerous to the regime.
PURGES UNDERWAY
"Purges are already underway – religious organizations have immediately fallen under suspicion," Protestants in the capital Tashkent told the news agency of Forum 18, a human rights organization, on condition of anonymity.
"Local authority and secret police officials are visiting and inspecting churches, and checking up on documentation," Forum 18 News Service (F18News) quoted a Protestant Christian as saying.
Such visits have taken place throughout Uzbekistan, including in the volatile Fergana Valley, the news agency reported. It has added to concern within churches in the former Soviet republic, where Christians are known to have been tortured in recent years, human rights groups say.
LEADERS KILLED
"An Uzbek evangelist was shortly arrested and is now under surveillance. Another Uzbek convert was clubbed to death with a wooden hammer in one of Uzbekistan’s labor camps," said Open Doors, a well informed group campaigning for persecuted Christians and churches. In addition "a Baptist Pastor was shot and some Christians have lost their jobs and a street library was threatened," the group added.
Only registered churches are permitted to function, but to receive a registration, the church needs to possess a building of its own, which is very expensive, churches say. Owning a property is only possible with registration, a situation that is believed to have forced Christians to meet in secret.
All forms of evangelizing, especially to Muslims, are forbidden and importing Christian literature in indigenous languages is effectively blocked, Open Doors said. "Telephones of leading Christians ,including that of the president of the Baptists, are bugged."
COORDINATED RAIDS
In addition the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect said numerous cases against members caught up in coordinated raids in March are now in the courts. "Almost weekly there are new cases of fines or interrogations – this is merely business as usual," a member told F18News on condition of anonymity, apparently because of security fears.
The government has accused "Islamic extremists" of sparking this month’s uprising, which began May 13 with protests in the eastern city of Andijan, which were triggered by the prosecution of businessmen charged with being sympathizers of Islamic extremism. Troops moved in and shooting broke out, witnesses said.
Uzbek opposition groups and human rights activists claim more than 700 people — mostly unarmed civilians — were killed, while some have suggested the figure may be even around 1,000. If true, even the conservative estimate would make it one of the deadliest crackdowns on protesters since the massacre in China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, analysts say. Karimov’s government put the death toll at 169 and said most were militants.
BEIJING KEEN
However Beijing made clear Thursday, May 26, it is keen to find partners in its campaign against Islamic militants — even at the cost of playing down international concerns about the Uzbek government’s use of force, analysts say.
China’s state television showed the two leaders smiling and shaking hands. Earlier, Chinese officials greeted Karimov at the Beijing airport in a red carpet ceremony with flower bouquets, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.
"The peace and stability of the area is important to the environment of the border areas in China," Professor Zhan Yao, a Central Asia specialist at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Studies, told AP. China and Uzbekistan, along with Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, are members of the China-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organization, formed to combat what they consider the common threat of Islamic extremism and separatism.
ENERGY HUNGRY
Energy-hungry China also is eager to tap into Central Asia’s energy resources as its power shortages show no sign of easing amid breakneck growth and development, AP reported. The China National Petroleum Corporation and the Uzbekistan National Oil and Gas Corp. inked a joint venture deal Wednesday, May 25, but no details were reportedly released.
The agreement is estimated at $600 million, Karimov was quoted as saying in an interview published in the People’s Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, AP said. The two sides also signed 14 other accords to strengthen ties in various fields, including technology, communication and tourism.
Yet church watchers claim Uzbekistan’s policies, despite economic agreements, will lead to more Islamic extremist groups and destabilize the region. F18News suggested that as Islam and other faiths "remain highly restricted," fundamentalist Islam is seen as a "valid alternative to the current political structure." Some fear the Uzbek crackdown will complicate the situation in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, as thousands are trying to flee towards that nation.
Karimov came to power in this poor, agricultural nation of 26 million in 1990, when it was still a republic in the Soviet Union. In the years since, his government has either arrested or chased into exile opposition figures, arrested thousands whom it accuses of being Islamic extremists, assumed a stranglehold over media and established a tight grip over all economic activity. Almost 90 percent of the population is Muslim, while many Christians have either fled or are in jail, according to estimates and human rights sources. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Uzbekistan and China)
