Concern over Islamic insurgency in C. Asia

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, AUGUST 25. Russia's defence chief voiced concern over continuing rebel incursions in Central Asia and urged closer anti-terrorist cooperation with the countries of the region.

Following weeks of rebel incursions into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the Defence Minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, said the situation in the Central Asian region ``remains difficult and calls for additional measures to improve operation controls of the unified anti-terrorist command'' of Russia and the Central Asian states set up earlier this year.

The army and security forces in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have been battling Islamic insurgents for three weeks now amid reports that more rebels are planning to join the fray from Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

The authorities in Kyrgyzstan said a border post on the border with Tajikistan had been attacked on Thursday and in Uzbekistan government commandos were trying to track down a group of Islamic rebels hiding in the mountains just 100 km from the capital, Tashkent.

``The latest flareup of terrorism in the region of the Tajik- Kyrgyz and Tajik-Uzbek borders betrays far-reaching plans of Islamic extremists to assert their control in the region and destroy by military and other means the foundations of statehood in the Central Asian republics,'' the Russian defence chief told Interfax news agency on Friday.

Kazakhstan has put its army and security forces on alert, the Izvestia daily reported Friday.

``Authorities in Astana capital of Kazakhstan0 do not rule out that Islamic rebels who are terrorising Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan may push into Kazakh territory,'' it said.

The rebels are led by the notorious Uzbek warlord Djuma Namangani, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which last year invaded southern Kyrgzystan, taking hostage four Japanese geologists. His stated aim is to overthrow the Uzbek President, Mr. Islam Karimov, and replace him with a fundamentalist regime. The rebels are said to have been trained in Afghanistan and financed by Osama bin Laden, who seeks to destabilise the secular governments in Central Asia and weaken their ties with Russia.

The Government in Uzbekistan on Friday issued calls for increased vigilance by the population, urging people to report anything suspicious. The calls followed clashes with a rebel group 110 km east of the capital Tashkent in which two Uzbek border guards had been killed, according to the country's Defence Ministry announcement.

Mr. Karimov said on national television that the military had underestimated the enemy and had suffered

``unjustifiable losses.'' ``The liquidation of bandits is not going to be a lightning operation,'' he admitted. ``It is a most challenging task.''

Last weekend, the leaders of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan met in an emergency summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek to discuss stepped-up cooperation to repulse the attacks. They called on the world community to pay closer attention to the situation in Central Asia which could undermine stability not only in the region but also far beyond its borders.

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