Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07TASHKENT1888
2007-10-30 14:41:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tashkent
Cable title:  

ERK PARTY TALKS WITH HIZB UT-TAHRIR LEADERS

Tags:  PHUM KDEM KIRF KISL PGOV PINR RS TU UZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3157
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHNT #1888/01 3031441
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 301441Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8678
INFO RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 2746
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 3397
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 9603
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1199
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 4013
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 3876
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0154
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0904
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 7190
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0087
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 0169
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0383
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2093
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TASHKENT 001888 

SIPDIS

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DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, DRL, AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM KIRF KISL PGOV PINR RS TU UZ
SUBJECT: ERK PARTY TALKS WITH HIZB UT-TAHRIR LEADERS

REF: A. 05 TASHKENT 3304

B. 98 TASHKENT 1116

Classified By: POLOFF R. FITZMAURICE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TASHKENT 001888

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, DRL, AND INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2017
TAGS: PHUM KDEM KIRF KISL PGOV PINR RS TU UZ
SUBJECT: ERK PARTY TALKS WITH HIZB UT-TAHRIR LEADERS

REF: A. 05 TASHKENT 3304

B. 98 TASHKENT 1116

Classified By: POLOFF R. FITZMAURICE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D).


1. (C) Summary: On October 26, poloff met with Erk political
opposition party leader Atanazar Arif, who claimed that Erk
was to hold a meeting in Istanbul on October 27 with leaders
of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) and other religious extremist factions
on coordinating their opposition to President Karimov. Arif
also reported meeting with HT leaders in Moscow on two
previous occasions recently. According to Arif, Erk has had
some success convincing HT leaders that they should cooperate
with the democratic opposition in their political struggle
against President Karimov. While Arif's information is
intriguing, we have no way to confirm it. Arif is the senior
Erk representative in Uzbekistan. Erk leader Muhammed Solikh
reportedly lives in exile in Germany, though some reports
also have him residing in Norway or Sweden. End summary.

RECENT MEETING IN ISTANBUL
--------------


2. (C) During a meeting with poloff on October 26, Erk
political opposition party leader Atanazar Arif revealed that
his party was to hold a meeting with leaders of Hizb
ut-Tahrir (HT) and other Islamic extremist factions in
Istanbul on October 27. The goal of the meeting was
reportedly to further explore how the democratic opposition
and religious extremists could coordinate their anti-Karimov
activities. According to Arif, the meeting would be attended
by Erk leader Mohammed Solikh, who resides in exile in
Germany, and HT leaders from England. Arif, who did not
attend, said that the meeting would not be publicized and
that only a few people know about it. He asked poloff to
keep the information confidential.


3. (C) According to Arif, one of the Wahhabist factions is
to be represented by Imam Abidkhan Nazarov, who was granted
politic asylum in Sweden in 2006. In the 1990s, Nazarov

gained widespread popularity in Tashkent as a leader in the
Islamic vigilante anti-crime effort. His followers were seen
as conservative Muslims tied to Wahhabi teachings, but not as
militant extremists (ref A). In 1998, Nazarov was believed
to have been arrested by National Security Service (NSS)
officers in Tashkent (ref B),and later appeared in Shymkent,
Kazakhstan. In 2005, seven of his followers were sentenced
to seven years' imprisonment by an Uzbek court on charges of
Islamic extremism after being deported from Shymkent (Note:
The Shymkent region has been an area of particular concern
for Uzbek security services for many years. In addition to
suspected religious extremists, they see the city as home to
a sizable Chechen population. End Note.) Arif alleged that
the arrests were carried out jointly by Uzbek and Kazakh
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) officials and that Nazarov
was fortunate to escape capture.


4. (C) Arif acknowledged that the democratic opposition and
religious extremists hold divergent views on the best way to
confront President Karimov's regime. The religious
extremists favor direct confrontation and spreading their
views within Uzbekistan, while Erk prefers reaching out to
the large number of Uzbek migrants in Kazakhstan and Russia,
where the organization can operate more freely than in
Uzbekistan. HT leaders admit that many of their members have
been arrested in recent years, severely disrupting their
operations, but they remain undeterred and will continue
their struggle "till death." Arif noted that the activities
of his organization within Uzbekistan are limited. Erk
smuggles its newsletter into Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan,
which is then surreptitiously distributed to its members
across the country.


TASHKENT 00001888 002 OF 004


TWO PREVIOUS MEETINGS IN RUSSIA
--------------


5. (C) Arif also reported meeting with HT leaders during two
previous trips to Moscow in 2006 and 2007. On both
occasions, he met with the same three leaders in three
different locations in Moscow. The alleged HT leaders, all
Uzbeks permanently residing in Russia, were relatively young
and appeared to be well-educated. Arif did not learn the
identity of his interlocutors, but said that they -- along
with other leaders in Russia and Kazakhstan -- claimed to
direct HT's operations within Uzbekistan itself. He said
that the meetings were arranged by Erk activists residing in
Russia.


6. (C) Arif said that he traveled to Moscow in October 2006
and April 2007. In October 2006, Arif visited Moscow via
Turkey on his way back to Uzbekistan from an extended stay in
North America, during which time he visited his sons in
Canada and the U.S. Congress with Solikh. In April 2007,
Arif stopped in Moscow on his way to visit his sons in Canada
again. Arif believed that he was successful in disguising
his travel to Moscow and thought that Uzbek intelligence was
still unaware of the meetings. Arif has four sons with
refugee status in Canada, three in Halifax and one in
Calgary.

FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH HT IN TASHKENT
--------------


7. (C) Arif said that Erk has been trying to reach out to HT
and other extremist groups since at least 1993, when its
registration ceased to be recognized by the government (Note:
Erk was officially registered as a political party in 1990,
and the group believes that its registration is still active
as the government has never officially deregistered them.
End Note.) For over a decade, though, the religious
extremists demonstrated little interest in cooperating with
Uzbekistan's democratic opposition and refused to meet with
them.


8. (C) In early 2004, Arif said that he was approached at
his home for the first time by a young man, who identified
himself as an HT leader. The two then allegedly engaged in a
two-hour debate about Islam and democracy. Arif did not
learn his identify, but the young man appeared well-educated
and said he received a religious education at a Saudi Arabian
university. Arif said that the young man was later among 12
suspected HT members who reportedly disappeared in June 2004.
Arif was shown a picture of him by his family after the
disappearance. Arif added that Nazarov's son also vanished
around the same time, which followed a string of alleged
bombings by Islamic extremists in Tashkent and Bukhara.


9. (C) Arif said that he could not meet directly with HT
leaders in Uzbekistan, but he maintains ties with religious
leaders who have their own connections to HT and other
extremist group members in Uzbekistan. He did not say who
are those religious leaders, but offered to help poloff meet
some of them in the future.

WHY IS HIZB UT-TAHRIR WARMING UP TO DEMOCRACY?
-------------- -


10. (C) According to Arif, HT leaders initially viewed
democracy as "the enemy of Islam" and associated it solely
with the United States and England. Arif reportedly informed
them that democracy is a universal ideal that comes in many
different forms and stressed that democracy was not
anti-Islamic, but allowed all religions to compete equally
for adherents. According to Arif, HT leaders are gradually
being won over to the idea that it may be first necessary to
establish democratic states in Central Asia and elsewhere

TASHKENT 00001888 003 OF 004


before a worldwide Caliphate could be created, in much the
same way as some communists believed that agrarian societies
needed to first go through industrialization and a capitalist
stage before they could achieve communism.


11. (C) Arif stressed to poloff that Erk, of course, did not
support HT's goal of establishing a worldwide Caliphate, but
saw the group nevertheless as useful allies in their struggle
against Karimov's authoritarian regime. Through further
interaction with the democratic opposition, Arif also seemed
to believe that HT's hard-line ideology could be softened and
made more amenable to democratic ideas (Comment: It is
equally likely that HT views the democratic opposition as
useful but temporary allies in their own battle against
Karimov. End comment.)

UZBEK HT MEMBERS REPORTEDLY ATTEND HT RALLY IN JAKARTA
-------------- --------------


12. (C) Arif also reported that Uzbek HT members have
participated in other HT events around the world. He cited a
HT rally that allegedly occurred in August at a stadium in
Jakarta, Indonesia. According to him, the rally was attended
by over 8,000 HT activists from around the world, including
several from Uzbekistan. Arif did not know further details
about the event, except that it was a legal event which
allegedly occurred with the full knowledge of local
authorities in Jakarta.

ERK WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN ELECTION, BUT SOLIKH STILL A
CANDIDATE
-------------- --------------


13. (C) Arif said that Erk was boycotting the election,
believing that it would be impossible to hold a free and fair
election in the current political environment. However, Arif
noted that Solikh would remain Erk's candidate for president
in perpetuity, regardless of whether there are future
elections or not. According to Arif, Solikh often travels
from Germany to meet opposition figures in Turkey and Norway,
where his son also currently resides (Note: Some reports
place Solikh as residing in Norway or Sweden, not Germany.
End note.) Solikh remains an Uzbek citizen, but lacks a
valid passport. His main form of identification is a refugee
status card. (Bio note: Solikh participated as a candidate
in the 1991 presidential election and was briefly detained in
1992 before fleeing Uzbekistan. In 1999, he was sentenced by
an Uzbek court in absentia to 15 years' imprisonment for
allegedly organizing the 1999 bombings in Tashkent. End
note.)


14. (C) Arif reported that on October 11, Erk sent President
Karimov a letter listing three demands that the government:
(a) cease its persecution of Erk activists and other
opposition leaders, (b) recognize Erk's registration as a
political party, and (c) allow Erk to freely participate in
the December 2007 election. Unsurprisingly, Erk has yet to
receive a response.

COMMENT: A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE? NOT YET
--------------


15. (C) Despite Arif's claim that HT's leadership is warming
up to the idea of democracy, we doubt that such ideological
extremes will be able to form some sort of alliance in the
near future. It remains intriguing that Erk and HT leaders
are apparently talking to each other, but we doubt that this
will have a serious impact on HT's ideology, which, despite
its alleged adherence to non-violence, remains virulently
anti-Semitic and anti-Western. HT is a global phenomenon, so
it is unlikely that talks with a small, struggling Uzbek
opposition party will have much impact on its worldwide
tactics or strategy. Most likely, HT views Erk as useful,

TASHKENT 00001888 004 OF 004


but temporary, strategic partners in its continuing campaign
against President Karimov. It is also possible that talks
between the two groups have been inspired by the formation of
the "Other Russia" coalition, which was able to unite
liberals, communists, and hard-line nationalists together in
opposition to President Putin. Regardless, we are currently
only hearing half the story, as we have no contact with
anonymous HT leaders themselves in Uzbekistan.


16. (C) While Arif appeared sincere in his conversation with
poloff and we do not suspect him of collaboration with
Uzbekistan's security services, it is always possible that we
are being deliberately provided disinformation intended to
tarnish Uzbekistan's democratic opposition by drawing links
between them and religious extremists. The information that
Arif provided may be somewhat misleading, as according to the
GOU Erk had contacts with religious extremists prior to 2004.
For example, the GOU has long claimed that Solikh met with
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) leader Tahir Yuldashev
in Istanbul in 1998. In light of the provocative nature of
this news, the possibility of intentional disinformation by
Arif, and other information provided by Arif (see septel on
Erk's relationship with slain journalist Alisher Saipov),we
will carefully evaluate any future communication with and
information from Arif.
NORLAND