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Moscow on alert for Muslim
militancy
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Although armed Islamic militants have
not been active in mountainous Central Asia for two
years, government officials in the region voice concern
over threats of Muslim militancy, and Moscow has
dispatched a high-ranking security envoy to the volatile
region to assure its Central Asian allies.
The
emergence of the Russia-led Collective Security Council
(CSC) of six post-Soviet states as an international
organization enlisting new member states would allow a
zone of stability to be created from Asia to the
Atlantic, General Valery Nikolayenko was quoted by RIA
news agency as saying in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on
September 17. Not only post-Soviet states could join the
CSC, he said, but he failed to elaborate.
Nikolayenko, head of the CSC, which includes
Russia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus and
Armenia, traveled to Tajikistan from September 11-13,
and then to Kyrgyzstan to discuss issues of "military
and political cooperation".
Yet despite
Nikolayenko's encouraging message, these days Kyrgyz
officials repeatedly voice security concerns. On
September 16, Kyrgyz National Security Service head
Kalyk Imankulov claimed that Muslim militants belonging
to various groups had banded together to form the
Islamic Movement of Central Asia (IMCA). Imankulov
alleged that the IMCA may attempt to carry out acts of
sabotage in order to move towards its ultimate goal of
creating an Islamic caliphate.
According to
Imankulov, the IMCA is headed by the interim chief of
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Tahir
Yuldashev, and includes Kyrgyz, Tajik, Uzbek, Chechen
and Xinjiang separatists. He also claimed that these
Islamic militants had set up bases in Afghanistan's
Badakhshan province.
Muslim extremists in
Central Asia are reportedly dominated by the IMU, once
led by Juma (aka Jumaboi) Namangani, a former Soviet
paratrooper and Afghan war veteran. The IMU fighters
crossed into Kyrgyzstan in August 1999 and August 2000,
seeking to enter Uzbekistan from the north through
Kyrgyzstan. Subsequently, Namangani was reported to have
been killed in the course of the Taliban demise, yet
these reports are yet to be confirmed.
Moreover,
Imankulov also claimed that the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir
Kyrgyz Islamic party of some 3,500 members keeps ties
with Muslim militants and al-Qaeda, allegedly aiming at
creating an Islamic caliphate in the Ferghana Valley, a
hub of Islamic radicalism. Earlier, in September, Kyrgyz
Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev warned that radical
members of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir movement could engage in
armed action.
Last February, Hizb-ut-Tahrir
leader Adakham Baltabayev and seven other activists were
arrested in southern Kyrgyzstan. Last August, the Kyrgyz
authorities seized an arms depot, allegedly belonging to
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, in the Jalal-Abad region, currently a
hotbed of anti-government protests.
Within the
past few months Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek officials have
voiced concern over the perceived threat of an armed
incursion by Muslim militants. Kyrgyz Defense Minister
Esen Topoyev claimed that a few hundred Islamic
militants were located in Afghanistan's Badakhshan
province, and another 1,500 fighters in Paktia province.
Moreover, Tajik officials have claimed that Namangani
was alive, regrouping and hoping to launch a strike into
the Ferghana Valley.
However, the Central Asian
governments are yet to provide any independently
verifiable evidence that Muslim extremists have
sustained capabilities of resuming their Central Asian
insurgency.
After meeting with Kyrgyz President
Askar Akayev, Defense Minister Esen Topoyev and Deputy
Security Council Secretary Askarbek Mameyev, the CSC's
Nikolayenko stated that there was no threat of outside
invasion in the region.
Moreover, earlier this
month, Akayev traveled to Russia to meet President
Vladimir Putin. It is "important" for Kyrgyzstan to get
advice on international politics from Russia, Akayev was
quoted as saying by RIA on September 9. Putin reportedly
stated that Russia viewed Kyrgyzstan as its "strategic
partner and ally".
Putin and Akayev reportedly
discussed the unsuccessful assassination attempt against
the acting chief of the Kyrgyz presidential
administration, Misir Ashirkulov. The Kyrgyz government
has quoted the incident as evidence of the growing
threat of Muslim radicalism and political violence.
Ashirkulov survived a grenade attack on
September 6 carried out by unknown assailants. On
September 11, Ashirkulov was moved to a Moscow elite
hospital for further treatment. Putin promised his
Kyrgyz counterpart assistance in investigation of the
incident.
It is understood that vocal public
warnings of the perceived threat of Muslim militancy
might serve as a pretext for some Central Asian leaders
to ensure economic and military assistance from Russia
and the US simultaneously.
Notably, Russia and
Kyrgyzstan have maintained close political and military
ties, and Akayev has tended to support the Kremlin's
policies in the region. In response, Moscow has backed
Akayev's regime and warned against "interference in
Kyrgyz internal affairs" in connection with continued
protests in southern Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz
volatility raises questions about the viability of some
post-Soviet groupings, including attempts of security
integration. Kyrgyzstan is a member of a number of
international groupings, notably the CSC and the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which also
includes Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China and
Russia. The SCO summit on June 7 in St Petersburg,
Russia decided to launch a joint anti-terrorist center
in Bishkek.
Therefore, Moscow seemingly views
Kyrgyzstan as a sort of security outpost of Russian-led
post-Soviet groupings in the heart of Central Asia. Yet
it remains a matter of debate whether Kyrgyzstan could
sustain a role of security hub with a backdrop of
domestic volatility and the perceived threat of Muslim
militancy.
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