Government Crackdown Provokes Islamic Extremism in Central Asia

Osh/Brussels  |   1 Mar 2001

The threat of violence by militant Islamic movements in Central Asia is real, but has been greatly exaggerated by regional governments and by other countries including Russia, China and the United States. The risk is that government crackdowns will worsen the situation: the answer is not more repression but more freedom and democracy.

These are the conclusions of the International Crisis Group’s latest report on Central Asia, Islamist Mobilisation and Regional Security, which studies recent incursions and attacks by Islamic militants in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It examines the motives of these insurgent groups, assessing their size, capacity and links to militant groups in Afghanistan and other parts of the region.

Mass arrests and harassment of supporters of Muslim groups, especially in Uzbekistan, are not stopping the activities of Islamic groups. On the contrary, they may be – along with the continuing impact of poverty - encouraging popular support for Islamist movements.

Releasing the report, ICG President Gareth Evans said that “The repressive approach of regional governments, especially in Uzbekistan, has already led to greater sympathy for Islamic militants. These governments run the serious risk of exacerbating the violence they say they are trying to prevent.”

Russia, China and other foreign powers including the U.S. are urged not to support the repressive policies of local governments. “Central Asia can be compared with pre-Revolutionary Iran, where foreign support for an unpopular leader fostered worse leadership and antagonism towards both the leader and his external supporters,” said ICG’s Central Asia project director, Harvard specialist John Schoeberlein.

Russia, following the war in Chechnya, tends to exaggerate the threat of Islam, while the preoccupation of the United States with the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden means Washington may be indirectly condoning local authorities’ reactionary approach.

ICG recommends a major reorientation of internal security policies in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, to emphasise the positive values of a free press and religious tolerance. The challenge for friends of these countries, particularly in the West, is to separate real threats from spectres and insist that the best security measure these governments can take is to practice greater tolerance and more democracy.