A Russian Andijan

The newspaper Versiya recently published an article by Novaya Gazeta correspondent Orkhan Dzhemal about developments in "law enforcement" within the Russian Federation in the context of Andijan:

The MVD and FSB are trying to prevent a "velvet" revolution in Russia. Instead, they are preparing an “Uzbek version”.

Versiya has already written (see No 20 30.05 - 05.06. 2005 issue) that in all probability the bloody tragedy in Andizhan was a provocation by Uzbekistan’s law enforcement agencies [silovyye struktury]. However, conflict in the ruling elite is not only customary for Uzbekistan, but also for Russia. Moreover, the issue here is not so much in the conflict itself, as in the creation of the conditions in which this provocation becomes possible.

In Russia, as in Uzbekistan, the probability of an “Islamist revolt" is very high. In recent weeks and months, the MVD and FSB of the Russian Federation have literally been creating an Islamic underground, and their methods do not differ from those used by the Uzbek authorities.

It is now no longer a secret that for many years Islam Karimov has fostered an "unconstructive" opposition in the country, carefully creating what is now called the Islamic underground. Karimov's conflict with the Islamists began at the very beginning of the 1990's, when the Islamic movement Adolat ("Justice") appeared.in the Fergana Valley.

Initially the president even viewed the activity of the "Adolatovites" with approval. During the first presidential elections Takhir Yuldashev, leader of the Adolat movement, issued a call to Muslims to vote for Karimov, and in response Karimov promised to build a large number of mosques, and to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

However, when the crowd at Namangan demanded that he fulfill those promises, he changed his attitude toward Adolat. Towards the end of 1991 the movement was destroyed, and its leaders went into the underground to become guerrillas. Thus, with Karimov's efforts, a militarized Islamic movement has created in Uzbekistan.

Karimov did not forgive the Muslims for the humiliation at Namangan. After the Adolat, the authorities went after the "Hizb-ut-Takhrir al-Islamiya" party which, although it was anti-government, was nevertheless a pacifist organization. Now any Uzbek who did has had some difference with a street policeman may find himself behind bars because the following standard equipment will be 'discovered" on his person: an Islamic leaflet and two [bullet] cartridges.

In Uzbek jails the fight against "prisoners of conscience" is being continued with particularly refined methods. Beatings to the point of death, the rape of convicted Muslims, electrical torture, starvation are a normal occurrence in Uzbekistan. These measures are also applied also to the close relatives of those religiozniki (religionists), who are not yet in prison.

All these horrors would hardly be worth enumerating were it not for the fact that wholly analogous practice exists in today’s Russia. The Memorial human rights organizations “Memorial” and "Civil Co-operation" have made available to Versiya materials which testify that in recent months the FSB and MVD of Russia are ata rapid rate “churning out” Muslims who are dissatisfied with the rule of the Russian regime .

[a list of repressions, torture, forced confessions and other punitive actions follows, with accounts of arrests and beatings of Muslims in different areas of the Russian Federation, including Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Samara, Kazan, Bugulma, Naberezhnye Chelny, Udmurtiya and Chelyabinsk]

[tr. by M.L. and D.M.]: