While the US is considering resettlement of Uzbek refugees in Kyrgyzstan, the AP reports that Uzbek agents are active in Kyrgyz border areas.
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, said people interviewed by The Associated Press.
Now, there’s nothing in the story that I find the least bit impossible, but I am not exactly impressed with the evidence offered. So, for whatever it’s worth, there it is. From what is said in the story, it sounds like Uzbek agents have been active in the area, but it’s not clear that there is a sustained campaign to destabilize the area and get the refugees back.
This post was written by...
Nathan Hamm – author of 2974 posts on Registan.net.
Nathan is the Founding Editor and Publisher of Registan.net, which he launched in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with private and government clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural and political factors shape risks and opportunities and how organizations can adjust their strategic and operational plans to account for these variables. Nathan is currently seeking research, analysis, and consulting opportunities. He can be contacted via Twitter or email.
For information on reproducing this article, see our Terms of Use
{ 3 comments }
I have nothing topical to add, but man, Uzbek Bounty Hunters in Kyrgyzstan is a TV show I would watch… : )
For what its worth, I’ve been in Osh for over one year now, and there has clearly been regular activity of Uzbek secret police here. They come and abduct people for trial in Uzbekistan, even citizens of Kyrgyzstan. There was one very public attempted such abduction last year when they tried to snatch a Muslim cleric out of the central bazaar.
I don’t know whether it’s sustained, but there’s been a campaign of some kind around the camp. Relatives of asylum seekers don’t get bussed across the border by accident. And it’s not really a coincidence that they’re all pleading for the return of their loved ones, and hinting about some kind of gruesome fate awaiting them if the people don’t leave the camp. And do you really think that angry mobs of Kyrgyz, including men on horseback, would threaten the asylum seekers on their own initiative? Maybe, I guess. But it’d make a lot more sense if they were whipped into a frenzy by somebody saying that the camp means trouble.