RUSSIA AND ITS NEIGHBORS
8. ISLAMISTS IN UZBEKISTAN
SOURCE. Institute for War and Peace Reporting. REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 135, August 6, 2002. Article by Galima Bukharbayeva in Tashkent.
The best known Islamist organization in Uzbekistan is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Another important but secretive and less well known group is Hizb-ut Tahrir. Founded in Palestine in the early 1950s by Arab theologian Takydin Nabahani, Hizb pursues the ultimate goal of uniting all Muslim countries under a pan-Islamic Caliphate. Its membership has been estimated at 10,000 with cells in and around Tashkent, in the Ferghana Valley, and in six other provinces.
A recent massive government crackdown has put some 4,200 suspected Hizb activists in prison. Most are serving long sentences (up to 20 years) for crimes such as violating the country's constitution, running prohibited organizations or distributing seditious pamphlets. There have been protests by women relatives of Hizb prisoners to demand that they be freed or at least that their torture stop and their conditions be improved. Some of these women have themselves been detained together with their children.
The organization has suffered a major blow and been driven further underground. It is no longer able to produce pamphlets and members remaining at large are afraid to campaign. Many have gone into hiding or escaped abroad, mainly to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan.
Hizb-ut Tahrir has claimed that unlike the IMU it is opposed to violent methods of achieving political change. But will that remain the case now that non-violent channels have been closed to it, especially once its depleted ranks have been filled by a new generation of young people?
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