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September 15, 2006

Uzbekistan: Islamist Threatens To Kill Politicians

On Wednesday, September 13, Ferghana.ru reported that the leader of the terrorist organization the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, released a speech to email addresses of several news agencies on the 5th anniversary of 9/11, in which the voice of the group's leader threatened politicians in Central Asian states.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was founded in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 1998, with the intention of forming an Islamist state in Uzbekistan. It is led by Tahir Yuldosh (Yuldashev), who gained permission in May 1999 from Afghanistan's Taliban to establish a base in the north of that country, where he is still thought to reside. A senior figure in the group, Juma Namangani, was made a "deputy" of Osama bin Laden in 2001. He was believed to be still training militants in northern Afghanistan.

The group has an estimated 700 members, and in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, they carried out a series of five car bombings in February 1999. It has also taken foreigners as hostages. It is classed as a specially designated terrorist entity by the US Treasury and State Department.

Tahir Yuldashev's message was sent to the BBC, RL, VOA and Ferghana.ru. It said: "We appeal to all Muslims...in the light of the event that dramatically changed world politics five years ago, on September 11, 2001. A strike at America, the fortress that had considered itself impregnable, changed politics throughout the world...Bush launched a war on Afghanistan."

Yuldashev (pictured) said that field commander Juma Namangani had been killed in the American offensive in Afghanistan. He vowed that the "fight" would continue, saying: "The mujahedin haven't forgotten the Moslems executed in Andijan last year. We will avenge Muslims in Central Asia or in Russia. We insist that all regimes in the region put an end to the practice persecution of Moslems, the practice of harassment and terror...Karimov, Rakhmonov, and Bakiyev had better remember...that they will be punished for the crimes they are committing."

According to Pakistani intelligence sources, Yuldashev is said to be hiding in the mountainous tribal areas of Pakistan (probably Waziristan) which border Afghanistan.

Today, Interfax-Religion quotes from Bektosh Berdiyev of the Uzbek Regional Policy Foundation, who says "here still exists a threat of terrorism in the region but it does not come from the leader of the former IMU, Tahir Yuldashev."

He claims that the group has been crushed by anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. Berdiyev states: "On the whole, the threat of attacks from international terrorism has not diminished, not to say it has increased. The events of May 2005 in Andizhan are evidence of the existence of certain forces seeking to destabilize the situation not only in Uzbekistan but throughout the region. But Yuldashev himself is most likely making miserable attempts to issue reminders of his existence."

Berdiyev said that Muslims were not persecuted in Uzbekistan, but as we have reported earlier, this is not true. He claims that statements Yuldashev made, such as "we demand that all the regimes in the region stop their persecution of Muslims and their terror against them," refer to Western and Arab nations, and not those in Central Asia. Uzbekistan under President Karimov is highly oppressive towards Muslims.

Berdiyev's words must be taken with a pinch of salt, but he does say that Yuldashev has hardly any support.

In Kyrgyzstan it seems that the group has been replaced by a group calling itself the Islamic Movement of Turkestan.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 15, 2006 6:38 PM

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