Home » Uzbekistan » bulk thoughts: guerillas (14)

From: Anna Kirtiklis<br />Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 02:13:12 -0700 (PDT)

bulk thoughts: guerillas (14)

Anastasia Kirtiklis
2006-06-29 10:44:57

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www.kirtiklis.com

Hi.

It's Saturday night, the last of my tour with Maeve, Group of One. We had dinner with another tour group that is here in Tashkent and watching her in a group was weird and refreshing. Some of the steam that built up this tour was exhausted and part of my question, “In the end, I wonder how will I fit into the stories she tells (that annoy me so much)? ” was answered.

Emotions are running high at the moment. There are problems on the southern border here and I'm quite upset by them. In a nutshell, Uzbekistan has had a pretty stable time of it since independence. This is partly because the president, Islam Karimov, was also in charge during the Soviet period and, for better or worse, he has a strong hold on things.

This week a group of Tajik- and Afghan-trained Uzbek rebels, called Wuhabis by the Uzbeks, are infiltrating the southern border. They want the Ferghana Valley (the most fertile and populated part of Uzbekistan) as an independent Muslim state and Uzbeks support them in droves, only because of the repressive regime run by President Karimov. Over 100 Uzbeks and 60 Kyrgyz soldiers are dead and the Tajik guerillas are roaming about. Ferghana (home of Anwar, Victoria and the gownless evening strap if you recall) is now closed to everyone who isn't registered there (i.e. doesn't live there) as well as most roads other than the most heavily traveled tourist route from Khiva to Tashkent. The military is moving south at night, as not to upset anyone. Our tours to Ferghana are obviously off and we're moving to what has ridiculously been termed as “Emergency Plan 3” or some such rot.

Tajikistan? It's southeast of Uzbekistan and significantly smaller. Since independence from the USSR in 1991, Tajikistan has suffered from civil war between the current government and the more militant Islamic separatist groups. It's somewhat ...