BISHKEK, June 19 (AVN) - A Kyrgyz lawmaker warned on Tuesday that Uzbekistan should be getting ready for war as it may break out in any moment.
Tursunbai Bakir Uulu, leader of the Erk progressive and democratic party, told reporters he learned of the upcoming war during his talks with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan that he was conducting allegedly on the instructions of the Kyrgyz government. The extremist movement includes guerrilla gangs of Dzhuma Namangani.
According to Bakir Uulu, Uzbek guerrillas are assisted by mercenaries from Chechnya and several Arab nations. Their gangs are well armed, they possess portable anti-tank systems, surface-to-air missile systems and even helicopters.
Erk has long-standing relations with Islamic extremists, and Muhammad Solikh leader of the Uzbek party with the same name, has been proclaimed president of the Islamic state that extremists are planning to establish in the Uzbek territory by leaders of the Islamic Movement.
Kyrgyzstan's Erk is also in opposition to the leadership of the country and even more so to the Uzbek leadership. This was once again confirmed by Bakir Uulu's demand to stop prosecution of the illegal Islamic party called Hizb ut-Tahrir.
According to him, the Islamic clergy should be allowed to hammer out disagreements on its own. Mass arrests of Islamists that are underway in the Osh, Dzhalal-Abad and Batken regions of Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the Sogdi region of Tajikistan, only aggravate the situation and provoke a religious conflict in the area.
This is especially characteristic of Uzbekistan, where sentences passed to Islamic activists are extremely severe. A Tashkent court sentenced Nurullo Musayev, leader of the Hizb ut-Tahrir office in the city, to 20 years in prison for membership in that organisation in late May. Ten more people will serve a bit shorter prison terms.
The most publicised trial took place last week. As many as 73 people, all Tajik natives residing in Uzbekistan's Surkhandarya region, were charged with assistance to guerrillas and sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison each. The region was the area of clashes between government troops and armed Islamist gangs last year.