Kleinkriege im Ferganatal und das Problem der "neuen Sicherheitsrisiken"
In: Sicherheit in Zentralasien, Teil 2
In: Berichte des Bundesinstituts für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 25-2000
The clashes between the armed forces of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and irregulars from the militant opposition surrounding "the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan" in the summer and autumn of 1999 and again since August 2000 have brought home to Central Asia the weakness of its security structures and drawn the region's security to international attention. The Central Asian governments have appealed to the international community to consider the incursions into the Fergana Valley by groups of fighters from Afghanistan and Tajikistan under the banner of Islam as a challenge to international security. International organisations like the UNO and OSCE have responded by giving stronger expression to their concern about the threat to Central Asia emanating from Afghanistan. Russia is advocating a "fight against international terrorism" within the framework of the CIS and on a global scale. But it is also trying to use this as a pretext for justifying its military campaign in Chechnya, a tactic that actually seems to encourage the interference of foreign Islamic forces on its southern flank. Despite some exaggerated reports of the strength of the "guerrilla troops" in the Fergana Valley, the hostile groups that the Uzbek Armed Forces currently face in the Province of Surkhandarya consist of a mere 70-100 men. Thus, in military terms the clashes are of purely local significance. More disturbing for the international community is that conflicts of this kind are closely bound up with other, less "traditional" security threats in the region, like the expanding drug trade and the shipment of drugs from Afghanistan via Tajikistan to CIS territory and beyond. The present report examines this connection and views the guerrilla warfare in the Fergana Valley in the context of the "new security risks" in the southern CIS. (BIOst-Dok)