Louise Hidalgo (BBC)
The authorities in Kyrgyzstan say troops have clashed with Islamic militants who appeared to be trying to break in to the Sokh enclave of Uzbekistan that is surrounded by Kyrgyz territory.
The head of the Kyrgyz security council, Botot Dzhanuzakov said seven Kyrgyz soldiers were killed and at least two of the rebels, including one of their field commanders.
The battle, which he said lasted more than four hours, broke out after a group of the militants attacked near the village of Syrt.
It was some of the heaviest fighting there has been since the crisis in southern Kyrgyzstan first erupted almost a month ago.
The militants moved in to southern Kyrgyzstan in August, across the high mountain passes that separate it from its southern neighbour, Tajikistan. They are believed to have links with the Uzbek radical Islamic opposition and the aim their leaders have declared has been to move north across this narrow space of Kyrgyz territory towards Uzbekistan itself.
Complex jigsaw
Kyrgyz officials say this latest attack appears to have been an attempt to break in to the Uzbek enclave of Sokh. It is a tiny pocket of Uzbekistan surrounded by Kyrgyz territory - a symbol of just how complex the jigsaw of borders and peoples in this fragile corner of central Asia is.
Until now the rebels have mainly been contained in the remote mountains further south, an intense stalemate that every day further strains relations between already uneasy neighbours.
Uzbekistan has lashed out at both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, accusing the Kyrgyz of failing to stop the militants and the Tajiks for letting them cross.
The Kyrgyz are anxious not to antagonise their large and powerful neighbour and the fear is that the longer this crisis continues, the greater the danger of upsetting the delicate balance of this region, that�s home to tens of millions of Muslims from many ethnic groups.
Antoine VERBIJ
BISHKEK, Sept 18
(De Groene Amsterdammer, Holland)
Every possible effort should be made to preserve the tradition of pluralism and tolerance that has dominated religious life in Central Asia for many ages. That was the main message of the International Forum on �Culture and Religion in Central Asia�, held from September 13 to 17 in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and in Cholpon Ata at the Lake Issyk-Kul. The Forum was organized by Unesco, in close cooperation with the International Institute for Central Asia Studies, based in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. Participants to the conference were scientists from East and West, plus a colourful mixture of representatives of different religions in Asia.
The message of the Forum had a special urgency because of the armed confrontation with Islamic rebels in the south of Kyrgyzstan. Many participants of the Forum stressed in their papers how untypical the conflict in the Kyrgyz mountains is, if seen in the light of the history of religion in the Central Asian area. Historians pointed at the total absense of a tradition of state religion in the region and the weak dogmatic development of religious teachings. Though Central Asia was and is predominantly Islamic, religious institutions never were very powerful and never got a strong hold on the everyday life of people. Instead, the people of Central Asia developed a kind of folk religion, incorporating elements from all kinds of beliefs and superstitions. As the British Professor D. Lewis pointed out in his paper, this folk religion is nowadays still prevailing. In his field research he found beliefs such as fear of the evil eye, astrology, rituals related to childbirth, memorial rites for deceased ancestors, and the consultation of mediums and faith-healers. Only on top of these folk beliefs, Professor Lewis stated, �there is a thin veneer of practices associated with Islam. People profess to be Muslims, but in practice could be described as materialists with many folk beliefs.�
The historical and anthropological justifications for pluralism and tolerance delivered by the majority of the speakers at the Forum are in strong accordance with the official policy of the Kyrgyz state, as expressed in the 1991 Law on the Freedom of Religion. The receptions and dinners the government and presidency bestowed upon the participants certainly did not weaken this ideological bond between the Forum and the Kyrgyz state; neither did the final days of the conference, spent in a relaxed atmosphere at the Lake Issyk-Kul. But it may in all seriousness be asked whether the sunny optimism displayed by the Forum does not blind the eye for possible tendencies in contemporary religion that may weaken the basis for pluralism and prepare the soil for fundamentalism.
At least one speaker at the Forum, Miss Anara Tabyshalieva from the Bishkek Institute for Regional Studies, sounded some alarm bells. During an interlude of the conference I asked her to elaborate on her worries. �Islamic leaders in Kyrgyzstan tend to get stricter�, Miss Tabyshalieva explained. �Stricter in their dogmatic teachings and stricter in their prescriptions to the believers, especially to women and young people. Moreover, there seems to develop a conservative alliance between the Islamic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church as they get both more and more intolerant vis a vis other religions in Kyrgyz society. But what I am especially worried about, is the position of women in the south of my country. The emancipation of women seems to have come to a halt there. Women are forced back in old Islamic behaviour patterns. I even heard arguments for the reinstallation of polygamy. In reaction to this a certain number of women converted to protestantism, hoping that in doing so they can live a life of their own.�
When asked about the armed confrontation in the southern Kyrgyz mountains, Miss Tabyshalieva emphasized that in fact it is a conflict between different Islamic forces in Uzbekistan, fought on Kyrgyz soil. �In fighting the Islamic opposition in his country, President Karimov of Uzbekistan has destabilized the whole region. In fact Karimov fails to apply the principle of freedom of religion in his country. If he had sticked to the idea of pluralism, the things happening now in southern Kyrgyzstan would not have occurred. Karimov seems not to understand that pluralism and democracy are the only ways to preserve the unique tradition of Muslim tolerance in Central Asia.�
From the editorial staff: after the fire the interest to the Almaty airport has not die away. In August the mass media published several materials devoted to the financial machinations in the airport. It is interesting that after the official mass media published critical articles, �Vremya� newspaper presented the interview of the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Almaty airport. His information was opposite. The following story is about how the Almaty airport was ravaged. This is a visual example, how a big property was transferred to �respectful� companies. The author has illuminated in details all machinations, which characterise not only the airport.
Madat AKKOZI
ALMATY, Sept 19
(Spesially for THE GLOBE)
The wind of economic reforms touched the Almaty airport as well. The airport changed its soviet name to the Joint-stock company �International Airport Almaty� with the state 100% shareholding of the share capital in the amount of 74413 thousand tenge. Then the airport along with all erections and the state shareholding was transferred to �Lufthansa Airport and ground services of Almaty�. In a year, in August 1997 the airport was transferred to the consortium of the three companies �to stabilise the financial state and development of the JSC �International Airport Almaty�, as it was stated in the transfer contract.
Despite the expectations, from the first days of the new management the airport incurred losses. If nine months of 1997 were completed with the profit of 254471 thousand tenge, the following three months resulted in the loss of 78304 thousand tenge. Expenses began to increase abruptly. At the average monthly growth of profit by 19.8% in 1998 in comparison with 1997, the average monthly expenses increased by 44.4%. For five months of 1999 expenses increased by 35.8% in comparison with the last year.
The consortium took the responsibility to invest US$ 63.5 million to the development and reconstruction of the airport, including US$ 62.5 million in 1997 to 1998. But the consortium did not invest any money. The Department on Management of the state property and assets of the Finance Ministry instead to control and demand to fulfil the conditions of the contract, according to the decree No. 210 dated April 20, 1998 entitled the JSC �Airport Almaty� to conclude credit agreement under the pledge of the state shareholding. Before the department had permitted to take credits against the pledge of fixed assets of the airport without stipulation of its validity. So, foreign �benefactors� had the chance to receive credits from our banks against the pledge of our assets and to finance us with these credits. Further we will see that they did this with our citizens� hands, as they themselves remained in a shadow.
Since January 1998 credits from the People�s Bank and Credsocbank were allotted in an increasing volume. The latter was especially active. For the year the average monthly credit amount was 1 billion 4 million 863641 tenge. Before the airport was transferred to the consortium, it received credits 22 times less, and the airport repaid them with 0.46% of the revenues. In 1998 interests for credit came to 6.1% from the profit. For 5 months this year the interest raised to 7.3%. Besides, in the last year losses caused by devaluation of �tenge-dollar� rate were 1016771 thousand tenge. The trust management cost the airport the loss of private capital in the amount of 1445365 thousand tenge. As on June 1, 1999 the credit debt came to 2508072 thousand tenge, that is 9.5 times more than the private capital. In other words, the repayment of the credit is problematic.
The tragedy of the situation in the airport is that now when sad results of the transfer to management are known, this have nothing to do with the triumvirate. After the contract was signed, they only once showed that they still existed, having appointed Samat K. Kanapyanov the trusted manager of the airport on September 15, 1997. After this �Lufthansa Airport and ground services of Almaty�, �Air Finance Europe Limited� (registered in the islands Caiman in the Caribbean Sea) and the company �JCD and ground service Inc.� (registered in the city of Rion, Nevada, America) disappeared, as if they had established the consortium to appoint Kanapyanov the manager of the airport. On March 4, 1997 the Board of Directors of the company �JCD and ground services� approved the charter of the limited company, which later was one of the companies which played a fatal role in the airport�s fate. Probably, it was on purpose that the company granted the limited company with its name with �Almaty� in the end.
So, on March 4, 1997 �JCD airport and ground services� Ltd. was born in the American town of Rion. (to be brief, let�s name it �the limited company�). The above-mentioned Kanapyanov signed the charter of the limited company. We may suppose that the establishment of the limited company, and consortium, which in five months managed the airport, and appointment of Kanapyanov were planned in prior.
Work to destroy
The absolute majority of the republican population faces the problem of survival. A small part of the population, which has both power and influence, thinks about increase of its wealth. But there are people who are anxious to make as much harm as it is possible, to objects managed by these people. Kanapyanov and the executive director of the JSC �Airport Almaty� Malik D. Dosymbekov, who was appointed to this post before Kanapyanov, seem to be these people. They, as old business partners, did not need any adjustment to each other. Hence they at once began to destroy the airport and to pump out its rich assets to the limited company.
Having signed the agreement on mutual activity with the airport, the limited company invested only 153.9 thousand tenge (out of stipulated 585 thousand tenge) to the joint business. Moreover, this amount was invested in a year. Dosymbekov transferred to the limited company with the right of a further redemption, avia-fuel and auto-fuel, fixed assets for the amount of 39.3 million tenge, lubrication materials for more than 60 thousand tenge, and all profit for 17 days of August in the amount of 73819 thousand tenge, and miscellaneous materials for 826 thousand tenge. The insatiable and thankless limited company announced that the airport was to pay 36316 thousand tenge. After this debt was reimbursed, the limited company promised to return to the airport the value of fuel and materials within 6 months. Meanwhile the airport was the guarantor before the bank for the limited company�s credits. The limited company failed to pay completely the credit in the amount of US$ 3 million, which had been allotted under the airport�s guarantee. The airport had to pay 182824 thousand tenge to the bank.
Malik Dosymbekov and Samat Kanapyanov along with other three persons established �Association of the wild nature Seil� Ltd. though they did not know for a long time how they could use this company. Having received the airport, these people decided to make this association a burden to the airport. Having their own premises and the hotel Dosymbekov concluded a contract for rent of the office in the hotel �Dostyk� with one of the co-founders of the association A.V. Tsoi. Under this fictitious agreement the airport transmitted US$ 6116.6 thousand to the association. In October 1996 �JCD and ground servicing� company won the closed tender for purchase of 90% of the state shareholding of the JSC �International Airport Aktobe� for US$ 28.3 million. But the company did not pay money for a year. It is striking, but the head of the Aktobe Territorial Committee on state property and privatisation B.K. Urdabaev was patiently waiting for money for all the period. The Association of the wild nature Seil rescued the company. Having taken from Kazdorbank a credit for US$ 29 million under the guarantee by the JSC �Airport Almaty�, the association transmitted money for stocks as a contribution on behalf of the �JCS and ground servicing Almaty�. Thus, owing to Kazakhstan money the Kazakhstan airport in Aktobe became a property of the American company.
(To be continued)
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