Islamists have taken over a town in Uzbekistan..
KORASUV, Uzbekistan – The bearded 42-year-old farmer, astride a horse with a colorful saddle and wearing a traditional Uzbek embroidered black-and-white skull cap, snapped his fingers as he gave orders to an assistant.
“We will be building an Islamic state here in accordance with the Quran,” rebel leader Bakhtiyor Rakhimov told The Associated Press as he watched two roads converging at an intersection. “People are tired of slavery.”..
..It was unclear how many people Rakhimov commands. But there was no sign of any Uzbek government officials Wednesday in this town of about 20,000 people on the border with Kyrgyzstan.
Rebels cherishing the prospect of a strict Islamic state were firmly in control of Korasuv, throwing up a new challenge to the government as it tried to prove to skeptical diplomats that its troops didn’t fire on civilians in the nearby city of Andijan.
The government of President Islam Karimov dismissed the rebel leader’s claims as “nonsense.” Rakhimov maintains he has 5,000 followers ready to fight any troops that try to crush the rebellion…
..Regardless of officials’ attempt to shrug it off, the insurgency in Korasuv ratchets up the stakes for Uzbekistan, a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism. Observers of the impoverished Central Asia region have long feared that any social unrest could be used by Islamic groups to promote their own goals…
…Rakhimov’s men, clad in traditional V-necked white shirts and embroidered skull caps, could be seen scattered around the town…
..Among the groups that promote such ideas, the one that probably has the most followers in formerly Soviet Central Asia is the Hizb-ut-Tarir party, which Uzbek authorities accuse of inspiring terror attacks in Tashkent and the central city of Bukhara last year that killed more than 50.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which claims to reject violence, denied responsibility for those attacks. The organization wants to establish an Islamic state throughout a broad swath of Central Asia.
Rakhimov said he and his supporters did not belong to any specific Islamic organization. “We are just people,” he said. “We just follow the Quran.”
First, Karimov said the Islamists were taking over. The Kossacks didn’t believe him.
Now, Karimov says they aren’t taking over. Will the Kossaks believe him now?
UPDATE: The BBC and the Daily Kos still can’t find them.
The Guardian believes that it’s all a CIA plot.
More at
Dean’s World.
Mary P. Madigan 