NUMBER 143 • ISSUE 2 • 2006 After Tensions Mount in

THE EDITOR’S DESK The troubled heart of Central Asia

hen the five Central Asian republics rose One state – Tajikistan – could not bear the strains from the ashes of the in 1991, and tumbled precipitously into a vicious and Wthey inherited immense problems that highly destructive civil war that displaced some would have tested the resilience of any government 700,000 people. and its people – let alone that of five countries that had Ten years on, some states have seen improvements never existed as independent states before. – in particular the economy of Kazakhstan, which has Ten years ago, a conference was held to discuss been transformed by relatively liberal economic some of those problems and see what could be done policies and by the booming value, and increasing about them. The May 1996 CIS conference on accessibility, of its huge oil reserves. Tajikistan, though still extremely poor, has also improved immeasurably from its devastated state in RUSSIAN FEDERATION the early 1990s. On 30 June 2006, who fled their country because of the 1992 civil war were scheduled to lose their refugee status after UNHCR applied the ASTANA so-called “cessation clause.” This is only used when the circumstances under which refugee status was granted KAZAKHSTAN have ceased to exist – and is a clear marker that considerable improvement has taken place. But even as Tajikistan continues to grapple its way

Aral Sea SATELLITE IMAGEMAP © 1996-2004 PLANETARY VISIONS BISHKEK Almaty slowly towards a brighter future, a new shadow has been cast across the heart of Central Asia. Uzbekistan  Andijan Navoi is the only one of the five Central Asian states to TURKMENISTAN share a border with all the others. Rich in gas and DUSHANBE TAJIKISTAN CHINA ASHGABAT mineral resources, host to the legendary cities of ISLAMIC Bukhara and Samarkand, and – because of its location REP. OF IRAN AFGHANISTAN – in pole position to be the trading powerhouse of the region, Uzbekistan could be rivaling Kazakhstan on refugees and migrants placed a spotlight on a number the economic front. of major issues caused by the sudden implosion of a Instead, since the slaughter of hundreds of civilians huge and – as it turned out – short-lived superpower. in the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan on 13 May 2005, These ranged from environmental disasters such Uzbekistan has been steadily closing in on itself, in an as the shrinking of the Aral Sea – which directly apparent attempt to turn back the clock. In the process, affects three of the countries – to the complex legacy it has rejected many of the states and organizations of Stalin’s bizarre and ruthless policy of deporting that have been working to promote civil and human millions of people, including eight entire rights and economic development across the region. ‘nationalities,’ from western areas of the USSR to And once again – for the first time since a 1997 Central Asia and . UN-brokered peace agreement officially brought the The conference also exposed the extraordinary Tajik civil war to an end– refugees from one Central scale of involuntary movements of people in the CIS Asian state are flowing across the borders into the region – more than 9 million in all between 1989 and others. So far the numbers have been small, but the beginning of 1996, the bulk of them from, to and tensions remain high and those who hope for peace within Central Asia. All this against a backdrop of in this varied, little known and stunningly beautiful economic meltdown. region are looking on anxiously.

2 REFUGEES N°143-2006

Editor Rupert Colville French Editor 4 COVER STORY Cécile Pouilly The shooting of hundreds of people Contributors Cristina Bunea, Nargiza Dosmetova in Andijan, Uzbekistan, highlighted a crisis and UNHCR staff worldwide at the heart of Central Asia, says Editorial Assistant BBC correspondent Monica Whitlock. Manuela Raffoni Photo Department TAJIK RETURNEES MOVE ON Suzy Hopper, Anne Kellner 12 Design Eleven years have passed since UNHCR Vincent Winter Associés, Paris helped the Najmuddinov family return Production from Afghanistan. How have they coped?

Françoise Jaccoud UNHCR/C. ZACCAGNINI/KGZ•2005 Distribution How a peaceful John O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot demonstration 14 HOW THE WORLD Photo Engraving 4 in a town square RALLIED ROUND Aloha Scan, Geneva turned into a bloodbath that shook a region. The tense situation of 439 Uzbek refugees Maps in Kyrgyzstan, and their subsequent UNHCR Mapping Unit evacuation to Romania, was an emotional Historical documents UNHCR archives and operational roller-coaster.

REFUGEES is published by the Media Relations and Public Information Service 20 TWO STEPS FORWARD, of the United Nations High Commissioner ONE STEP BACK for Refugees. The opinions expressed by con- tributors are not necessarily those of The after-shocks of Andijan have jolted, UNHCR. The designations and maps used and may have damaged, Central Asia’s do not imply the expression of any opinion UNHCR/A.HOLLMANN/AFG•1995 emerging asylum systems. or recognition on the part of UNHCR For the Tajik concerning the legal status of a territory refugees who fled or of its authorities. 12the civil war, and BACK TO “THE REFUGEES reserves the right to edit all arti- then returned, the focus 22 cles before publication. Photos with is now on economics MOTHERLAND” not ethnicity. ‘UNHCR’ in the credit may be reprinted Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan have both without prior permission. Please credit UNHCR and the photographer. Photos given citizenship to thousands of refugees marked © do not belong to UNHCR and may who fled the Tajik civil war. only be reproduced with permission of the agency that owns the copyright. STALIN’S LEGACY English and French editions printed in 23 Italy by AMILCARE PIZZI S.p.A., Milan. Thousands of Meskhetians are finally getting Circulation: 153,000 in English, French, help in the US, 60 trouble-plagued years after

Italian and Spanish. UNHCR/L. GESLIN/SEN•2005 they were first deported to Central Asia. ISSN 0252-791 X Seventeen years on the wrong side 26 PHOTO ESSAY Cover Woman grieving over anonymous 26of the river. graves of people killed in Andijan. The story, in pictures, of 20,000 Mauritanian ©ap/m.japaridze/dp/uzb•2005 refugees living on the Senegalese side of Back cover Girl staging a protest against the the river border between the two countries. Andijan killings in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. ©ap/d.makesheva/dp/kgz•2005 UNHCR 31 OBITUARY P.O. Box 2500 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland www.unhcr.org

REFUGEES 3 After

BY M ONICA W HITLOCK border. We women made white flags out ofour scarves but they shot us anyway. None ofus had Monica Whitlock has covered Central Asia for the guns. My son – he’s only three – he got wedged BBC since 1995. She was the regional correspondent between dead people. He was crying out based in Tashkent from 1995-98 and again from ‘Mummy! Mummy!’ but I couldn’t reach him. 2003 until June 2005, when she was told to leave “Then a man pulled him out – a tall man. Uzbekistan. She is the author of Beyond the Oxus; As he held my child, he was shot in the head. The Central Asians (John Murray, 2002). The He died there bleeding. For the sake of this opinions in this article are her own and do not man, I am telling you our story.” necessarily reflect those of UNHCR or the BBC. Zuhra (name changed) and her children were part of a group of over 500 people who N THE NIGHT OF 13 MAY L AS T had escaped alive from Andijan, after a huge, year, an Uzbek housewife scrambled largely peaceful demonstration turned into across the border into Kyrgyzstan, a massacre. Behind them, hundreds lay dead carrying her baby and clutching her in the main square and along the wide avenue Othree other young children as best running through the centre of town, shot by she could.“The soldiers shot at us, right on the the armed forces of their own state, acting on

4 REFUGEES Andijan

Tensions rise the orders of the highest authorities. RISING DISCONTENT The story of Andijan grew out in Andijan “We just ran and ran,” Zuhra said. “I was shortly before barefoot and it was pouring with rain. All of a small protest outside the city courthouse hundreds along the roads, people were opening their a hundred days before the shooting. It was mid- of people doors to us and saying ‘Come in! Hide with us. winter, and a handful offamilies came together were shot They’ll kill you.’ Many people did go inside. in support of 23 local businessmen – their dead on But I just ran on. I thought we would never relatives – who were on trial, accused of plot- Friday 13 May, be safe until we were out of Uzbekistan.” ting an Islamic revolution, a charge hotly 2005. The Uzbek government described the disputed by many people in Andijan. demonstration as an attempted coup by “My son ran a café,” a woman told us. “One Islamic radicals, backed by foreign powers. day he went to work and did not come back. They refused to allow any international Then we heard he had been arrested – they said investigation. The journalists who reported he was an extremist! He is just an ordinary the story, including myself, were made to person.” leave the country, as were a number offoreign There have been many similar trials in NGOs and, later on, the UN refugee agency. Uzbekistan, since the country came into ©AP/E. LUKATSKY/DP/UZB•2005

REFUGEES 5 Localpeople buried the unclaimed dead in municipal flower beds, and washed bloodand body partsfrom the streets with bucketsand brooms.

being with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The strawberries as he described his own years in prison, authorities have frequently raised the spectre of Islamic convicted of Islamic radicalism. He said the repeated radicalism as justification for hundreds, perhaps thou- beatings he had received had left him with permanently sands of arrests, especially since the rise of the Taliban, numb legs. just across the border in Afghanistan, in the mid-1990s. “People have become tired of the situation here,” The 23 young men in Andijan were running he said. “They have had enough and they are demon- successful businesses – a café, a furniture factory, a strating to show that.” shoemaker – producing goods that were, according to And it was not just Andijan. Elsewhere in Uzbek- local people, better than the state-produced alternatives. istan, during the winter of 2004-05, exasperation was They had standing in the community and were self- growing – about unemployment, poverty, and a reliant, independent people. Dissatisfied with the state- legal system that did not serve ordinary people’s run nursery schools in Andijan, for instance, they set interests. up their own and provided other social support to the Protests sprang up in central Uzbekistan, where the city. local government had seized the lands of successful It is not surprising they were arrested. It was the farmers. traders rioted when an extra tax chipped response that was unusual. Because the 23 had money away further at the pittance they earn. The authorities and confidence, their families hired defence lawyers acted quickly to break up such demonstrations, who actually fought the case. Even more unusual was including one in the capital, Tashkent, in early May. the quiet determination of the demonstrators who The crowd of began turning up every day – elderly parents, wives, DAILY VIGIL several thousand and young children standing quietly, shivering in the Far away in the east, in Andijan, the protesters enjoying cold, then growing in numbers as the case ground on demonstration was still growing unchecked. On 10 May, themselves in and winter turned to spring. 3,000 people took their places outside the court, Square, Andijan. One of the organizers, Bahram Shakirov, invited me lining the main road in easily the biggest demonstra- Hours later, many of the people pictured to his house. A middle aged man, a father and grand- tion Uzbekistan had ever seen. here were dead or father, he ran a confectionery firm that was doing The organizers were careful not to give the fleeing to the well – until it was shut down. Two of his sons were among authorities any grounds to break it up. No one border with the 23 on trial. shouted; no one waved flags; no one interfered with Kyrgyzstan. Sitting in his garden, we ate rice, meat and early passing traffic. A car wash opposite the court contin- ued to work as usual, with the demonstrators leaving a neat, empty corridor at its entry and exit. Everyone wore their best clothes. The children joined straight from school, in uniform. The women served lunch, passing round food in bowls so as not to break the line. The men even refrained from smoking. Each evening, everyone went home, sweep- ing the street behind them. Each morning they were back again outside the courthouse. The demonstration had matured into a highly disciplined mass protest by determined people who were no longer afraid. “How can you be this brave?” I asked one woman. “My son is in prison,” she replied. “They taped a plastic bag over his head so he could not breathe. When that happens to your children, you stop being afraid.”

A MASSACRE UNFOLDS Andijan unraveled at midnight on 12 May, when a group of demonstrators seems to have

©AP/E. LUKATSKY/DP/UZB•2005 stormed a barracks, broke open the armoury,

6 REFUGEES BISHKEK SERIOUS OUTBREAKS OF VIOLENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA, 1989-2005

KYRGYZSTAN KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN

TASHKENT UZBEKISTAN Sasyk Barash Jalalabad Andijan 5 1 Osh Ferghana 2 Batken 4

TAJIKISTAN CHINA DUSHANBE 3 SATELLITE IMAGEMAP © 1996-2004 PLANETARY VISIONS 1. Intercommunal violence, Ferghana 1989 and then rammed the gate of the city jail, freeing the are rumours that they are going to shoot massively at 2. Intercommunal prisoners. The armed group rushed to the main square us in the evening. But we think, if we stay put, they violence, Osh, 1990 and took over the mayor’s office, taking those inside won’t dare!” 3. Civil war, Tajikistan, captive. At around 6:00 p.m., he was proved tragically 1992-97 So far, it had the appearance of a militant raid. But wrong. The BBC spoke to a man called Sharif by 4. Militant incursions, then an extraordinary situation emerged, as thousands mobile phone: “They are shooting,” he said. “They are Batken region, of ordinary, unarmed people filled the square around shooting people. They are coming in armoured troop 1999 and 2000 – the crowds from the original demonstration, plus carriers. But people are staying put, they’re not 5. Suppression of neighbours, friends and other people of the town. running. They are shooting from all sides.” popular demonstration, Speakers climbed up on the monument to Babur An hour later, a bloc of around 3,000 demonstrators Andijan, 2005 (founder of the Mogul empire and Andijan’s most tried to leave the square. They walked along a wide famous son) and held forth about poverty, unemploy- avenue, holding the captured officials at the front, ment, injustice and the other burdens they had borne daring the soldiers to shoot their own people. This part in silence for so long. of the drama was to present a major problem for some Traders from the nearby bazaar strolled over to look, of the refugees in Kyrgyzstan over the following weeks and stayed on. Women dressed up their children and and months (see article on page 14). took them down to the square for a day out, spreading The troops met them head on. picnics on quilts. By midday, perhaps ten thousand Sharif held up his mobile phone so the BBC could people filled the square. record the gunfire. It continued for more than an hour The BBC spoke to a man, Husan, in the thick of the before he was killed. crowd in the early afternoon. “We are just ordinary people here,” he said. “We are demonstrating peacefully. THE MORNING AFTER But just now, a troop carrier drove up and shot In the early hours of Saturday morning straight at us. And there are soldiers gathering now. most of the bodies were loaded on to trucks and buses I can see them, at the stadium and at the toy shop. There and taken away. Crowds of families desperately searched

“Howcan you be this brave?”I asked one woman.

REFUGEES 7 A woman grips her the streets for missing relatives, unsure whether they municipal flower beds. They brought buckets and daughter as she had been arrested, had fled or were dead. brooms and washed blood and body parts from the mourns her dead “My son was a baker,” one woman told us. “He went streets themselves. husband two days to look at the demonstration – he was curious. He never after the killings in THE IMPORTANCE OF UZBEKISTAN Andijan. came home. We found his body on a pavement the next day, all bloody and wet with rain. I took his body home Andijan has brought to a head a crisis at the myself.” She showed me her dead son’s clothes, shot heart of Central Asia. It may also be the prelude to through with more than twenty bullet holes. even more terrifying collisions to come if the Local people buried some of the unclaimed dead in conditions that brought it about do not improve. The civil war in Tajikistanremains the most trenchant reminder of what can happen when Central Asia goes wrong.

8 REFUGEES Politically, Uzbekistan is in many ways after ten days of street battles left around 100 dead. the most significant country in the A year later, disputes over land and water led to region. It has the biggest population – several days of fighting between Kyrgyz and in more than 25 million – and a pivotal Osh (on the Kyrgyz side of the border), during which geographical position relative to the several hundred people are believed to have been killed. other Central Asian states. It controls In the summers of 1999 and 2000, Uzbek militants important trade routes especially to calling for an Islamic state launched forays into Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, both of Batken, in the hills skirting the Kyrgyz side of the which are fairly insecure states where Ferghana valley. Mostly from Ferghana, they had fled poverty, unemployment and crime run earlier Uzbek government campaigns against Islamic high. Turkmenistan is also affected revivalists, and made their way down to Afghanistan directly by tensions in its larger neigh- where they fought alongside the Taliban. They emerged bour. Kazakhstan, too, is not immune, trained and radicalized as a jihadi force, and are now though its vast physical size, develop- believed to be trapped in the Pakistani tribal area of ing economy and land borders with Waziristan. As recently as May 2006, another group Russia and China set it apart from of armed men shot their way across the Tajik-Kyrgyz Central Asia proper. border at Batken. Uzbekistan also shares a sensitive frontier with Afghanistan. Still volatile WAR AND PEACE IN TAJIKISTAN after more than two decades of war, It is the civil war in Tajikistan, though, that Afghanistan’s northern provinces remains the most trenchant reminder of what can badly need a secure, confident neigh- happen when Central Asia goes wrong. At least twenty bour to trade with. If Uzbekistan thousand people died in the short but vicious initial becomes even more unstable, a huge conflict from 1992-93, while many others died in the region will feel the impact. guerrilla war that continued until 1997. It was one of the bloodiest civil conflicts in a post-Soviet state, and THE FERGHANA VALLEY still casts a long shadow throughout the region. Should political upheaval erupt, The war came about when the USSR collapsed and the most immediately vulnerable independence dropped “like a meteorite,” as the then region may well be the Ferghana president of Tajikistan put it. A vibrant, colourful Some of the 60,000 valley – a great stretch of green, fertile country sprang to life with a multitude of opposition Tajik refugees who fled across the Amu land where Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and parties, a vigorous Muslim revival movement, mass river to Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan meet. Ferghana is densely demonstrations, and demands for change. Born and in 1992-93. Another populated by Central Asian standards, moulded in another time, the leadership had no idea 600,000 were with around eight million people how to take the brand new country forward. The displaced within living off the land and in a series of political ground opened up and they fell in. Tajikistan itself. bazaar towns that stretch across the valley, from Andijan in the east to Kokand in the west. News and views travel quickly through the valley compared to other parts of Central Asia, where populations are cut off ©REUTERS/S. ZHUMATOV/UZB•2005 from each other by mountains and des-

erts. In ancient times, the towns of UNHCR/A. JAMA /CS/ AFG•1992 Ferghana were almost autonomous city-states, and there is still a strong tradition of independent thought. The valley is a patchwork of different ethnic groups, generally living harmoniously together. It has also often been a conduit for armed groups. In the 1930s, anti-Soviet partisans, the ‘Basmachi,’ fought a long guerrilla war in the surrounding mountains, while in modern times it is one of the routes used by drug dealers bringing opium from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the markets of Moscow. Ferghana has already seen a measure of turmoil. In June 1989 – before the Central Asian states became independent – Soviet troops had to evacuate 74,000 Meskhetians (a group forcibly deported from Georgia in 1944) from Uzbekistan’s portion of Ferghana,

REFUGEES 9 Thousands of In the early summer of 1992, people all across the By December 1992, tens of thousands of Tajik men, houses – including plains of southern Tajikistan armed themselves in women and children were camped along the river, entire villages – terrified self-defence as the centre collapsed. Local huddled against the winter cold. As the gunmen closed were looted and militias formed. Trusting no one, they barricaded off in, they jumped into the Amu. On planks lashed destroyed during the Tajik civil war. their towns and villages with concrete slabs and old together on old tyres and tractor doors, they paddled Rebuilding them beds. Many crossed the border into Afghanistan to frantically across to Afghanistan – not many people’s was an integral part buy cheap guns. The complex mosaic of the population idea of a safe haven. Some, including children, were of a repatriation began to split, with village against village, local Uzbeks shot from the Tajik side as they crossed. programme that against local Tajiks, supporters of the old regime against War continued in the mountains, where forces of the played a vital the new Islamic Revival Party. new government shelled towns and villages it catalytic role in the A number of neighbouring states and regional pow- considered loyal to the opposition guerrilla force that peace process. ers took an active part in supporting different factions was operating out of Afghanistan. There, they had found and between them, turned a dangerous situation into a natural affinity with the mujahedeen of Ahmed a lethal one. Shah Massoud, the famous Afghan commander who War unrolled across southern Tajikistan through had done so much to bring down the Soviet-backed the autumn of 1992. Militias looted and burned their government in Kabul. The opposition managed to way through the southern farmlands, driving sustain their fight against the government for the thousands of families from their homes. Those who next four years. When the two sides finally signed a could, fled to the capital Dushanbe or to the mountains. UN-brokered peace deal in 1997, they won a com- Some escaped to relatives in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan promise that gave them a slice of power and Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – where many still remain to this became the first Central Asian country with a legal, day. But thousands more were trapped on the pluralist political system. southern side, with nowhere to run except the Amu Considering the bloodletting and atrocities that river– once known as the Oxus – that forms the border had taken place, it says much for Tajikistan – and the with Afghanistan. bold political, peace-keeping and humanitarian

10 REFUGEES Should politicalupheavalerupt, the most immediately vulnerableregion may well be the Ferghana valley.

initiatives carried out mainly by the UN – that critical period, the international currents around it are reconciliation came about relatively fast. changing too. Shortly after independence, the Uzbek Of a population of five and a half million, government geared part of its foreign policy towards over 600,000 fled their homes during the first the United States, as a counter-balance against the few months of the war, according to UNHCR Russian Federation – the old colonial power. After – or more than one in ten of the country’s 11 September 2001, President Karimov offered the US citizens. Yet by the end of1995, around 43,000 an airbase at Khanabad, close to the Afghan border and of the Tajik refugees in Afghanistan had – ironically – the launchpad for Soviet air strikes already gone home, as had almost all the during the 1980s war in Afghanistan. 600,000 people displaced within Tajikistan The Americans used Khanabad as the springboard itself. for their Afghan operations, and later built it up into a Numerous villages – some without a single huge supply base for its troops inside Afghanistan. The house left standing – were rebuilt, and US-Uzbek relationship was full of tensions, mainly over thousands of other properties that had been civil rights, but it remained the guiding star of Uzbek occupied by people other than their owners foreign policy. had been given back. By the end of 1997, almost After Andijan, however, came a volte face. The US everyone had returned home. Virtually all the State Department put out a note of concern after the wrecked houses have now been restored, and shooting, calling for an international enquiry. Shortly the complex community of Tajikistan is living afterwards, the Uzbek government ordered the closure in peace. The country now faces a new set of of Khanabad. A group of US senators visiting two weeks challenges, and a new mass migration, as after the shooting had trouble getting visas and no thousands of Tajiks leave home to work as official agreed to meet them. They held their press labourers in other former Soviet countries, conference in the US embassy basement. A few weeks especially Russia. earlier, they would have been fêted by dignitaries in the UNHCR/ R. COLVILLE/BW/1994 crystal ballroom of one of Tashkent’s smart hotels. ETHNIC KALEIDOSCOPE Uzbekistan looked for support instead to the two The last thing Central regional superpowers – China Asia needs is a further violent and Russia. Karimov flew to collision, especially in its Beijing just ten days after heartland of Uzbekistan. Even Andijan to sign a $600 million more than Tajikistan perhaps, oil deal, and a week later met the country is an ethnic kalei- with President Putin in doscope, with many different Moscow.

sorts of Uzbek, plus big Tajik ©REUTERS/S. ZHUMATOV/UZB•2005 populations around Bukhara, AN INSECURE FUTURE Samarkand and Navoi. There A year on from the are also Kyrgyz, Turkmen and shooting at Andijan, little has Arab communities and a changed inside Uzbekistan. Russian population, mainly in The people remain frustrated Tashkent. Many communities and desperately worried about live entirely cut off from one poverty and unemployment. another, and in such circum- It is probably only a matter stances it is relatively easy for of time before more dem- rumours to spread and fear onstrators dare to take to the to be ignited by ignorance. streets, in full knowledge Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and of what happened in Andijan. Turkmenistan are also highly With so much blood spilt complex, with regional loyal- and so little prospect of Flowers placed next ties and divisions which are peaceful reform, Uzbekistan’s to a blood stain in generally opaque to the outside future looks precarious. The the centre of world. entire region is watching Andijan, four days As Central Asia enters this warily.  after the killings.

REFUGEES 11 TajikReturnees A UNHCR camera crew interviews the Najmuddinov family on the Afghan bank of the Amu river, shortly before the refugee agency took them home in May 1995. Novosibirsk in Siberia, where UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN/CS/TJK•1995 they sell shoes BY V IVIAN T AN and load goods in the market. leven years ago, Sharif Life is a con- Najmuddinov, his wife Sadafmoh and stant struggle for their three young children returned the family: the Efrom Afghanistan with high hopes women pick cotton of resuming their lives in their native which they sell to the Tajikistan. Their house in Leningrad, authorities for a pit- Kolkhozabad district had been completely tance, and wait for remit- looted, but over time they painstakingly tances from their men in the restored their home. Today, the village is Russian Federation. But overall, half empty again. Most of the men have left, things are almost back to normal in but for a different reason – work, not war. the village. “Some people are even better “You’ll only find women, young off than before the war. A few families came children and old men here,” said Fakhriddin, back from Russia and built two-storey Sharif’s brother, and one of the few houses,” said Fakhriddin. remaining men in Leningrad. “All able- Rebuilding homes and trust within bodied men have gone to find work in The divided communities took time – and help. Russia. They go in spring and come back in scene UNHCR provided materials for the recon- autumn.” is a far struction of some 20,000 houses, including cry from those in Socialism, a village in Kabodian the ecstatic district. “We started from zero,” said return of 1995, Socialism returnee, Amriddin Hamidov. when a UNHCR “It took two to three months to rebuild each TV crew filmed house, and two to three years before we felt the Najmuddinovs safe again.” going home across the Pyanj river after three Relations with the neighbours have UNHCR/V. TAN/DP/TJK•2006 difficult years in northern Afghanistan. improved – “We go to each other’s parties” – Sharif’s daughter, then a timid five-year- but the fundamentals have not changed: old, has grown into a confident teenager. His “Tajik people will never marry Uzbek sons, aged 17 and 19, have gone with him to people,” he said, repeating what Zo’eer Uloyev, another villager in Socialism, told (Top left) Eleven years later, in May 2006, Refugees (No. 98) back in 1994. Zo’eer, the Najmuddinovs’ daughter studies too, has since moved on to the Russian pictures of her family’s journey home Federation in search of work. Economics, from exile. not ethnicity, is the biggest problem in Socialism nowadays: “It will take another

UNHCR/V. TAN/DP/TJK•2006 (Left) Sadafmoh Najmuddinov looks at a picture of her husband Sharif greeting 15 years to get back to normal life. There are relatives when they first arrived back in families that don’t have a single animal the village in June 1995. Sharif and her two today,” said Hamidov. sons – now teenagers – have left to find That is something Imkoniyat, a micro- work in the Russian Federation. credit fund supported by UNHCR, is

12 REFUGEES Move On tonnes of corn modest first loan of 100 somanis (US$33), and 4,000 bales he built a shed to grow lemons before ex- of hay. He panding into potatoes, tomatoes and sun- has also flowers, all sold from his shop. rented land “Before, I had nothing. Now I have a to grow cot- house, a car and two cows,” he said, adding ton and pota- that he feels self-sufficient enough to stop toes, which he taking credit for now. “I won’t go to Russia sells in Kurgan like the others. I’ll stay here and concentrate Tyube as well on my farming.” as in Dushanbe. No matter how hard life is in Tajikistan, “With the said Fakhriddin in Leningrad, “We have no money I made, I regrets coming back. This is our mother- trying to change. Some US$90,000 has been was able to pay for land. We didn’t expect anything – not even invested to help hundreds of returnees in my sons’ weddings, to return in the first place. So everything the south become self-reliant. The rate of re- buy land and build from there on is a pleasant surprise.”  imbursement is an impressive 98 percent. houses for them,” said Seventy-year-old Faiziddin’s row of Faiziddin, who has 11 chil- gold teeth is a testament to the project’s dren and 34 grandchildren. “I also bought (Background) The Najmuddinovs and success. When he first returned to Fidokor three cows and a minibus that I drive to make their five-year-old daughter look at village in Vaksh district in 1997, he found his more money.” familiar landmarks as they approach house reduced to “just four walls.” The loans Others have done even better. Rahmat- their home village, where they have helped him to start afresh. This year, ullah returned to Rohi Nav village from received an ecstatic welcome from he produced seven tonnes of wheat, eight northern Afghanistan in 1994. With a family and friends.

Sadafmoh Najmuddinov (centre) and her three small children enjoy their first meal on Tajik soil after their return in 1995. UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN/CS/TJK•1995

REFUGEES 13 How the World Rallied Round

on foot in the rain; wet, cold and hun- gry; and stunned by the violence they had witnessed in Andijan. Even if they did not know it

©REUTERS /V. PIROGOV/DP/KGZ•2005 straightaway, from the moment some sympathetic Kyrgyz border guards let them enter the country, they were walking right into the middle of an international political tug-of-war over their eventual fate, involving states, presidents, prime ministers, prose- cutors, intelligence agencies, entities such as the EU and OSCE and refugee and human rights organizations. For the next 76 days, until they were dramatically airlifted from Kyrgyzstan to Romania at dawn on 29 July, the tensions surrounding the group were intense and sustained. When they had got up the previ- ous morning in a sunny Andijan, it did not cross anyone’s mind that a year later, 80 of them would be spending their tenth month in a refugee centre in Romania – a country some of them had never even heard of – and a further 360 would have moved on again to start new lives in strange surroundings in countries as far apart as Australia, Finland and the United States. The story ofhow they ended up in those far-flung lands is a long roller- coaster ofemotions ranging from grief over dead or missing relatives, to re- peated panics about apparently im- minent expulsion back to Uzbekistan, to the constant ache of separation. There are many women – men too – among the refugees who are separated from their children, in- cluding babies and toddlers, as well as from their spouses. That, they all say, is the hardest thing to bear. There were only 12 couples and 23 children among the 439 people Uzbek refugees evacuated to Romania in July 2005. washing BY R UPERT C OLVILLE “Throughout this journey, we have learned how strong themselves in a he refugees from Andijan stumbled ditch at the Barash the feeling ofmissing can be, and how much you can take site, about 100 over a bridge across the river that marks the bor- of it,” said Timur (name changed), a builder with three metres inside der with Kyrgyzstan in the early hours of 14 May, young children still in Andijan. He was speaking just Kyrgyzstan. T2005. They were exhausted by the long journey after the first anniversary ofthe massacre. “And the longer

14 REFUGEES the Refugees from Andijan

you go, the deeper and stronger this feeling becomes. tion issues and the politics. Missing home, family, relatives, friends, children.” “We said to the authorities ‘They can’t stay at the border,’ and then began an uphill struggle that went on STUCK ON THE BORDER for three weeks,” said Zaccagnini. Aided by a number UNHCR’s Chief of Mission in Kyrgyzstan, of foreign ambassadors based in Bishkek, he began a Carlos Zaccagnini, was called in by the National lengthy process of negotiations to move the group Security Office in the capital Bishkek on Saturday 14 further inside Kyrgyzstan. On 19 May, Zaccagnini and May and informed about the arrival of the bedraggled the UN Resident Coordinator had a positive meeting and traumatized group a few hours after they were with acting President Kurmanbek Bakiev. allowed into the country. Sasyk camp, the The following morning, he led a UNHCR team to the EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL refugees’ second border encampment at Barash, where the Kyrgyz Several sites were examined and had home in Kyrgyzstan, where they spent military had set up ten large tents to house the refugees. to be abandoned because of opposition by local inhabi- eight very tense That evening, UNHCR brought in supplies of cooked tants. Finally, a site was found at Sasyk, around 20 kilo- weeks before their food and bread for the refugees, and the following day metres east of the border, and the refugees were moved dramatic evacuation the international NGO ACTED took over management there on 4 June. For a brief moment, it seemed the worst to Romania on of the site, while UNHCR concentrated on the protec- was over. However, the camp’s idyllic setting – in a small 29 July 2005. ©REUTERS/S. ZHUMATOV/DP/KGZ•2005

REFUGEES 15 Their story is a long roller-coasterof emotions ranging from grief, to repeated panicsabout expulsion, to the constant acheof separation.

The group of 439 came and requested another group. We were fright- refugees disembark ened they were splitting the group up and picking in Timisoara, them off that way – so we tried to stay together. We Romania, after arriving on a could see people on the hills with guns, and we were very specially chartered worried – it brought back terrible memories.” Boeing 747 from Kyrgyzstan itself was going through a period of Kyrgyzstan. ©IOM/M. CLONDIR/ROU/DP/2005 political turmoil after the popular overthrow of President Akayev three months earlier, and the Uzbek asylum seekers were starting to get sucked into the various complex local and national political struggles taking place. Several senior government figures reacted angrily to the illegal forced return (or refoulement) of the four asylum seekers, blasting the nation’s security services and saying they would launch an invest- igation. But the central government had other worries valley surrounded by lush green hills typical of this besides the international furore that broke out over the part of Kyrgyzstan – proved deceptive. refoulement, including political assassinations and The Kyrgyz-Uzbek border can be strangely porous, serious unrest in the southern city of Osh. even at times of crisis, and the uninvited visits of Meanwhile, the country’s Prosecutor-General the refugees’ families, shepherded by Uzbek officials – made a series of statements making it clear he agreed which had started when they were still at the border – with his Uzbek counterpart and intended to send the multiplied dramatically. refugees back under a bilateral extradition treaty (even “They tried to convince me to go back,” one woman though bilateral treaties are subordinate to international told an interviewer. “They were even dragging me out, laws such as the 1951 Convention). and I realized something serious had happened to Hardly a day was passing without a threatening them, as they were not acting as they usually do. My incident of some sort: on 14 June a group of local Kyrgyz mother was holding my baby and she would not give him villagers tried to break into the camp, screaming at the to me. She told me to come out from the camp, and only Uzbek asylum seekers to go home. When the police then would she let me keep my baby.” prevented them from entering, they threatened to re- Almost all the refugees cite these painful scenes – turn with 200 horsemen to drive the asylum seekers out which were repeated virtually on a daily basis for several of Kyrgyzstan. Two days after that, 16 buses packed weeks – as one ofthe most traumatic experiences during with Uzbeks crossed the border and headed for the camp, their time in Kyrgyzstan. apparently intent on forcing the asylum seekers home. The Kyrgyz Department of Migration Services The Kyrgyz authorities managed to intercept them. began formally registering asylum claims in the camp, Then, on the orders of the Prosecutor-General, in accordance with Kyrgyzstan’s national refugee law. another 17 asylum seekers were removed from the camp But in other respects the protection situation was on 18 June and detained. deteriorating fast, both at the local level and in the wider political sphere. THE EXCLUSION ISSUE Throughout this period, UNHCR was FORCED RETURNS proceeding cautiously on the legal front. The charges During the first few days after the massacre, against some of the asylum seekers were extremely seri- Kyrgyz border guards further south allegedly handed ous and could not be dismissed out of hand. People guilty over 86 Uzbeks against their will. If these were indeed of very serious crimes can be excluded from refugee sta- refugees, then this was a violation ofthe 1951 UN Refugee tus under the terms of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Convention, of which Kyrgyzstan is a signatory. Three of the detainees had been photographed ush- Uzbekistan had been loudly demanding the return ering the local Andijan prosecutor through the crowd of its citizens, accusing many of them of being terror- in the square a few hours before the massacre. The ists and criminals. On 9 June, 16 asylum seekers were prosecutor was killed later in the day. But the photographs removed from the camp. Later the same day, as UNHCR do not provide any clear link to other actions that may staff tried frantically to intervene, four of them were have led to his death. According to the Uzbek authori- handed over to the Uzbek authorities. ties he was murdered by militants occupying a govern- “Four people disappeared – this was the worst ex- ment building. According to most non-government perience,” said a 45-year-old grandmother. “Then they witnesses, he was killed in the hail of gunfire fired by

16 REFUGEES ©ROMANIAN NATIONAL REFUGEE OFFICE/V. LUCA/2005

Uzbek soldiers as the crowd tried to use local officials as the refugees from Andijan for the first time in a long A display of Uzbek a human shield while they left the square. time. dancing at the The use of a human shield is also an act that may be Behind the scenes, a tremendous scramble had taken refugee centre in Timisoara. Earlier, classified as a serious crime, and so could lead to exclu- place, at both political and practical levels, to prepare Romanian folk sion from refugee status. However, many have argued for their arrival. Once the idea of a humanitarian evac- dancers had showed that in this case there were strong extenuating circum- uation had crystallized after a visit to Kyrgyzstan by their skills – one of stances in that the leaders trying to protect the big crowd Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Mor- many efforts by the ofcivilians believed – with good reason – that it was their jane at the end of June, two parallel searches had begun. Romanian only hope of getting out of the square alive. After a Even though the group was a small one, the planned authorities and painstaking examination of all the available evidence, operation was more or less unprecedented in its com- local NGO Young and a series ofinterviews with the accused, UNHCR rec- plexity. First, a country had to be found to take all the Generation to entertain the ognized them as refugees (along with one other diffi- refugees. Given the circumstances in Kyrgyzstan, the refugees. cult case). Earlier, the rest ofthe group had also been given evacuation had to be a one-off operation and would prima facie refugee status under UNHCR’s mandate. need to take place in great secrecy. And, to make the search These decisions unlocked the door to a highly for such a country easier, UNHCR also began sounding unusual humanitarian evacuation on 29 July, when a out resettlement countries, so that it could make a com- Boeing 747 chartered by the International Organization mitment to the transit country that the refugees would for Migration (IOM) finally took off from Bishkek, only be there temporarily. heading for Romania. It was carrying all 425 refugees A number of options were examined – at one point remaining in the camp as well as 14 of the detainees, consideration was even given to temporarily lodging the who had been released hours earlier and rushed on a refugees on a large boat in the Caspian Sea, and simulta- specially chartered plane from Osh to Bishkek. neous negotiations were taking place with a number of countries in eastern and central Europe, including Romania. TENSIONS SUBSIDE “When we started drafting the official agreement In Timisoara, the town in western Romania with the government and IOM, we left the number where the plane landed, smiles appeared on the faces of blank!” said UNHCR’s Representative in Romania,

Hardly a daypassed without a threateningincident of some sort.

REFUGEES 17 DEPARTURES OF RESETTLED UZBEK REFUGEES FROM ROMANIA, UP TO 13 JUNE 2006

Germany 14Sweden 28 Finland 2 Netherlands 6

Czech Rep. 15 SATELLITE IMAGEMAP © 1996-2004 PLANETARY VISIONS

Canada 20

Switzerland 10 ROMANIA

United States 250 Timisoara

from

Australia 51 Kyrgyzstan

The remaining 44 refugees in Romania were due to be resettled by the end of June – mostly to the US and Canada. A further 11 refugees were flown directly from Kyrgyzstan to their resettlement countries.

Veerapong Vongvarotai. “We had started talking of were that we were capable to do that. All the assessments bringing around 25 people – and Romania had agreed in suggested they were qualified as refugees, and we acted principle; then we went back and said ‘What about 50?’ on those assessments – acted as a responsible member of Romania agreed to that too. We ended up with all 439. the international community.” The Romanians were tremendously flexible.” By making it clear they strongly supported Romania’s When 11 more of the detainees were released by the decision, other countries and the EU also played their Kyrgyz authorities a month and a half later, they were part, Gaginsky said. This was a continuation ofwhat they flown direct to three different resettlement countries. had done all along – from the ambassadors in Bishkek, Four other detainees – including the three men pho- right up to ministers and prime ministers, several of tographed with the Andijan prosecutor – were, however, whom had made personal interventions at key moments. still in custody at the beginning of June 2006, despite being recognized as refugees by UNHCR and receiving INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY offers of a place by various resettlement countries. “Rarely has such a small group of refugees Cristina Gaginsky, the Head of the OSCE, Council received such wide-ranging support from so many in- of Europe and Human Rights Department at the fluential officials and politicians,” said UN High Com- Romanian Foreign Ministry, explains why her country missioner for Refugees António Guterres, who also had acted so positively: “The beliefthat human rights should a strong personal involvement, especially during the be respected – this was the core belief that motivated tense period leading up to and during the evacuation. the political rationale. The decision to have them in “But without it, the story might have been very differ- Romania was carefully analyzed, and the decisions ent. We are very grateful to all the countries and “Rarely has such a small groupof refugees received such wide-ranging supportfrom so many influentialofficials and politicians.” –ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

18 REFUGEES individuals who rallied round. It shows that, in some circumstances, the will to protect refugees is still very much alive. This was a true example of burden-sharing by states.” Between August 2005 and June 2006, a lot happened – but in a much calmer environ- UNHCR/ A. JUNCU/DP/ROU•2005 ment. For one thing, a baby boy – Ismael – was born in October. He immediately acquired an extended family of 439 relatives and quasi- godparents, and helped them to start looking ahead instead of always dwelling on the past. Meanwhile, as a prelude to resettlement, two UNHCR teams were conducting a further round ofin-depth interviews with all the refugees, followed by teams from the re- settlement countries themselves. By 13 June this year, 396 of the refugees had begun new lives in nine different resettlement countries, and the remaining 44 were due to leave be- fore the end of the month. The feedback from those who had already gone was positive. They missed their friends among the rest of the group, but generally things were going well: the children, who all went to Australia, seemed to have settled in happily and something. We didn’t even know what human rights Uzbek refugees were “boasting of their accomplishments;” most of those meant. But now, after spending this time with you – practising for a who had gone to the US had got jobs already; the ones in talking with you – we understand that we are human competition against European countries were studying the languages of their beings, and that we were born with certain rights. I local Romanian chess players in the new countries and being well looked after. understand that I can say what I think, without being refugee centre in The first group that went to Canada, just before the arrested; that I can have certain convictions – philo- Timisoara. anniversary of the massacre, were overwhelmed by the sophical, political, religious ones – so long as they don’t generosity of their hosts: “They were crying when they hurt anyone. We thank you for teaching us all these things.” told us these stories,” said one of the refugee women still The small group that went to Romania represents a in Romania. “They said no one showed them this respect relatively rare example of what can be achieved when in our own country.” many different individuals, organizations and states Timur telephoned one of the refugees who was re- pull together in the effort to protect refugees. As settled in the Czech Republic last October – the first time Romanian Foreign Ministry official Cristina Gaginsky the country has taken resettlement cases. “The Czech said: in that respect, “It’s a good story.”  authorities welcomed us and the people are very kind,” he said, adding that the living conditions are good and Ismael, born in most of them have found jobs. “Learning the language Timisoara in has been the most difficult thing,” he said. And what had October 2005, been their funniest experience so far? Pause. “When became the 440th Uzbek refugee in two Czechs meet in the street, they first of all greet each Romania. other’s dogs, then greet each other. We find this strange!”

MUCH APPRECIATED UNHCR/ N. DOSMETOVA/DP/ROU•2005 As their numbers in Romania dwindle, this very closely-knit group of refugees tell visitors of their gratitude to all those who helped them in Kyrgyzstan and Romania, particularly the local NGO, Young Gen- eration, and the government administrator ofthe refugee centre in Timisoara, Livius Bîscã, who managed to get the centre ready for them with only one day’s notice. But perhaps the most poignant comment ofall, by one of the group’s elders who is now living in the US, was filmed by Romanian television during a UNHCR sem- inar on International Human Rights Day: “Until now we were afraid to open our mouths to say

REFUGEES 19 Two Steps Forward, BUILDING

The collapse of the Soviet Union triggered complex movements involving millions of people – including the return of hundreds of thousands of Kazakhs from abroad, such as this woman of Kazakh origin who had spent decades in Mongolia.

BY V IVIAN T AN lacked the laws and structures to deal with laws while Kazakhstan’s is pending approval these mass, multidirectional population by Parliament. hen the Soviet Union movements, and struggled to cope. Since UNHCR entered the region in 1993, disintegrated in 1991, millions of By 2005, the region had in many ways one of its main tasks has been to help build people in Central Asia started made considerable progress in the area of asylum systems from scratch, and moving across new borders to- refugee legislation. All the Central Asian strengthen the authorities’ capacity to Wwards ancestral homelands or to countries – bar Uzbekistan – have signed the handle related issues. The agency works seek refuge from the war in Tajikistan and 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 with legal partners to sensitize and train gov- simmering tensions elsewhere. The Protocol. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turk- ernment officials on refugee definitions, newly independent countries ofCentral Asia menistan have also passed national refugee rights and obligations. The target audience

20 REFUGEES One Step Back ASYLUM IN CENTRAL ASIA

includes border guards, mi- Uzbek human rights activists was reset- Tajik authorities in the past couple of years. gration officials, judges, pros- tled abroad after the Kazakh authorities “It’s not enough to just work with ecutors and officials from released him from detention. Meanwhile migration officials,” said Djakupova. “We other government depart- the shockwaves emanating from Andijan started working with judges and the ments involved in asylum reverberated beyond the immediate region, general prosecutor a few years ago. There cases. In most of the coun- when the Russian Federation detained a was no success in court in the first two years.

UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN/CS/KAZ•1995 tries, the legal structures are number of Uzbeks, and Ukraine returned Results started showing only recently. The now in place. However, 11 asylum seekers to Uzbekistan in contra- work has to be systematic – one or two train- mindsets take time to change. vention of international law. ings a year is not enough. And you have to “It’s hard for lawyers Some of these illegal deportations – or accept that it’s a very slow process.” working in the CIS countries refoulements – may have been the result of At a time when geopolitics in the region because there is no tradition ignorant or over-zealous security officials, are torn between the old “West,” a resurgent of respect for human rights or confusion between different branches of Russian Federation and a booming China, and refugee law,” said government, but they nevertheless mark there are fears that Andijan and its after- Choplon Djakupova, who an apparent step backwards by states that math may continue to affect the asylum heads the legal clinic Adilet have signed the 1951 Convention. regime. “Refugee protection is getting less in Kyrgyzstan. “There’s not “At the start of the crisis, the Kyrgyz legal, more political – not just in Kyrgyzs- a single course on refugee law authorities stopped registering the Uzbek tan, but in the whole world,” said Djakupova. in local universities. With no asylum seekers,” said Adilet’s Djakupova Recent events have to some extent shaken knowledge, how can tomor- in Bishkek. “They reversed the decision only confidence in Central Asia’s developing row’s judges make the right after much lobbying. But ifthey could refuse asylum systems. Many Uzbeks in Osh are decisions?” to accept an asylum seeker once, they may afraid to approach the Kyrgyz authorities for Denis Jivaga, a refugee co- just do it again. It’s become more dangerous help because they fear deportation. The same ordinator at the Kazakhstan for Uzbeks and the asylum regime as a whole goes for Chinese Uighurs in Kazakhstan. International Bureau for Hu- has become less safe.” It will take time and coordinated efforts man Rights and Rule ofLaw, Kyrgyzstan has been considered some- to fully restore that trust. This summer, the concurred, adding, “Most thing of a trailblazer in the area of refugee European Commission will start a project to public servants are not aware law – one of the first countries in the region strengthen asylum capacity in Central Asia. ofwho refugees are and what to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention, and In addition to monitoring the abuse ofrefugee rights they have.” then back it up with a national refugee law. rights, the project involves training For a few years, progress However, in May this year, Kyrgyzstan government officials, and setting up re- was steady, ifsometimes a bit passed an amended refugee law with a def- ception centres and legal clinics in slow. But in the wake of the inition ofan asylum seeker that excludes for- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and violent events in Andijan in eigners who stay illegally in the country. Turkmenistan. Planned activities range from May 2005 – the first major If this provision leads to bona fide refugees seminars on protection issues and stateless- test since the end ofthe Tajik being denied access to the refugee status ness, to summer school for university stu- civil war – there are signs of determination process, it will violate the dents and training for refugee law teachers. that progress faltering. 1951 Convention. Fifteen years after independence, the In Kyrgyzstan, in partic- On the other hand, when it comes to ap- building of asylum institutions in Central ular, some aspects of the peal cases, Kyrgyzstan’s Adilet has an envi- Asia has reached a crossroads. Lying at the asylum system worked well able record – about 30 percent of its appeals heart ofthe legendary , the region under intense political are successful. It is a very different story in has hosted endless flows of people over the pressure – but others did not. On the plus Tajikistan, where the Tajik Information centuries. But with its ethnic mosaic, wealth side, most ofthe high-profile group ofsome Centre for Refugees, Asylum Seekers and of natural resources and history of author- 450 Uzbeks who sought refuge near Jalal- Internally Displaced People runs a legal clinic itarianism, this increasingly important abad, close to the Uzbek the border, were not that tries to help rejected asylum seekers region is also potentially explosive. One deported and are now starting new lives who want to appeal. “We submitted 80 local conflict could easily trigger a bigger abroad. However, four members of this appeal cases and have not won a single one,” crisis, unleashing waves of people within group were delivered back to the Uzbek said Khurshed Kodiekulov, a lawyer with the region. Whether the asylum laws and authorities, and have not been heard ofsince. the centre. institutions are sufficiently mature and In Kazakhstan, the response was also There have also been at least two cases resilient to bear such a development remains mixed. However, one ofthe most prominent of refoulement involving Afghans by the to be seen. 

REFUGEES 21 Back to “the motherland”

BY V IVIAN T AN Faizula Yakuhov, who heads Taze for the local Kyrgyz and the Tajik Kyrgyz to Durmush, explains the settlement’s success: get used to each other. “When we first came, he way to Taze Durmush “Where there’s water, there’s life. The soil the local community was not comfortable. is rough – blazing sun, sprawling is free. The water, electricity, and gas are But as time passed, we proved that refugees sands and a bumpy road to free. We grow enough for our own needs, can work and earn money like normal nowhere. Located on the eastern and sell the surplus.” people,” said Vahobjon Rasulov, who fled Tedge of the Karakum desert that Sairon in Tajikistan in 1994. sweeps through most ofTurkmenistan, the KYRGYZ SETTLE DOWN In 1999, Rasulov started an NGO that has town is cut off from the rest of the country But life wasn’t always so easy helped hundreds ofTajik refugees integrate by the river Amu. for Tajik refugees in Central Asia. During in Kyrgyzstan via a range of projects. One But pull closer to Taze Durmush, and a the civil war, the minorities fled – includ- of his main tasks is to facilitate his compa- mirage appears. Trees sway in the distance ing the Turkmen to Turkmenistan, the triots’ citizenship claims. The Kyrgyz and shrubs sprout from the sand. Republic started naturalizing “The refugees have done ethnic Kyrgyz refugees from wonders for this land,” said Tajikistan in 2002. Since then, UNHCR field clerk Dovran more than 8,000 have become Taganov. “They brought their Kyrgyz citizens. knowledge of farming and im- When Ismat Fayozov arrived proved the land. They turned it in 1995, he bought a house with from desert to a tropical forest.” UNHCR support. He then went

A thousand refugees who UNHCR/C. SATTLBERGER/CS/KGZ•1996 to Russia to work in construc- fled Tajikistan’s civil war in the tion, acquired a car and is now 1990s have planted roots in the a taxi driver in Ivanovka, Taze Durmush settlement. In outside Bishkek, where about August 2005, President 700 refugees, mostly from Niazov decreed that all of the Tajikistan’s mountainous 9,500 ethnic Turkmen refugees Jirgital region, live. from Tajikistan could become “I’m sure 99 percent of the citizens of Turkmenistan. By Tajiks will stay here. Only one June 2006, around 80 percent percent – mostly old people – will had already done so. repatriate,” he said. “In my “The war drove us out, but dreams, I’m back in Tajikistan. helped us find our motherland,” But my children grew up here, said Gumaniyaz Aga of so returning is not an option.” Babadurmaz, another settle- Naturalization brings im- ment outside Ashgabat. “My portant practical benefits: “With whole village settled here, close citizenship, we now have a to the mountains. It’s very sim- chance to vote,” said Mahmud ilar to our Tajik villages and Halnazarov, a religious leader reminds us of our old home.” in Et Bash settlement, eastern When Aga arrived in 1992, Turkmenistan. Other freshly he was given land, materials acquired rights include access to build a house, seeds and farm- to higher education, and the ing tools. “Our melons are the right to travel freely. sweetest around,” he boasts. In general, the new Turk- Tajik refugees of Kyrgyz origin near His efforts have paid off – in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. 8,000 Tajk refugees men citizens – like the Kyrgyz 1996, his cotton harvest won have now received Kyrgyz citizenship. – are blending in well: “There’s him the President’s “For the Love no distinction between locals of the Motherland” award. and refugees. We visit each other. “We brought four cows from Tajikistan Uzbeks to Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Sometimes there are marriages between – now we have 20,” added the 74-year-old through the Pamyr mountains to Kyrgyzs- settlements,” said Faizula Yakuhov, at the farmer. His family has grown too: the orig- tan. In Uzbekistan, some 40,000 Tajik oasis created by refugees in Taze Durmush. inal group of 15 has multiplied to include 36 refugees of Uzbek origin have never been The brutal civil war that caused them to grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. naturalized. And in Kyrgyzstan, it took time leave Tajikistan seems light years away. 

22 REFUGEES ©REUTERS/G. GARANICH/DP/UKR•1998 A disenfranchised Crimean Tatar, who had not yet received Ukrainian citizenship, showing his old Soviet passport outside an election polling station on the Crimean Peninsula in 1998. The lack of valid residency and citizenship documents presented a huge problem for many groups in the newly independent CIS states. Grappling with Stalin’sLegacy

BY B OHDAN N AHAJLO Crimean Tatars, and the USSR’s sizable ation between the Ingush and the neigh- ethnic German minority were “deported” bouring North Ossetians, resulting in a new hat links Idaho, Texas en masse in meticulously planned military displacement of Ingush from the contested and Wisconsin with the moun- operations, employing hundreds of train Prigorodny district. Then, at the end of1994, tainous area of Samtskhe- convoys and thousands of troops, to remote the Chechens became involved in the first Javakheti on the border between regions in Central Asia. of their two wars against Moscow’s control. WGeorgia and Turkey, the Tens of thousands died in the process. Since then, this former “deported people” Krasnodar region of southern Russia, and Considered ideologically suspect, the sur- has produced the largest group of refugees the even more distant Ferghana Valley in vivors were dispersed and forced to live flowing out of post-Soviet Russia – and the Central Asia? under a punitive regime – often confined Russian Federation itself has also paid a The answer is a pattern ofintolerance to- to specific limited zones (which nearly heavy price in terms of lost lives. wards the Meskhetian Turks that led to their always fell a few kilometers short of the For obscure reasons, despite the shift in forced displacement six decades ago under nearest town). The penalty for straying was policy under Khrushchev, the Crimean Stalin – a pattern repeated in different forms 15-20 years hard labour in the Gulag Tatars, Meskhetians and ethnic Germans by others on several occasions since – and camps. were initially not allowed to return home. the latest ofvarious attempts to find durable Eventually, many ofthe Germans were able solutions for them. SCARRED BY HISTORY to migrate to Germany, and decades of Until recently, only specialists on the I n 1956, after Khrushchev campaigning by the Crimean Tatars for former Soviet Union had heard of the succeededStalin, five of the eight deported the restoration oftheir rights also gradually Meskhetians. Yet the arrival in the US of peoples were rehabilitated. Not surprisingly, brought success. more than 9,000 of them from Russia’s after such a bizarre and bitter experiment The Crimean peninsula had been Krasnodar region in the 12 months up to June in social and ethnic engineering, the issues resettled with a largely Russian population 2006 – with another 3,000 expected shortly surrounding the deported peoples did not who – like most settler populations – were – reflects a belated broader international in- fade quietly into history. Those who returned hostile to the idea of a return by the origi- terest in the fate of one of the Soviet to their ancestral homes frequently nal inhabitants. When, during the twilight Union’s former so-called “deported peoples.” encountered hostility from the authorities years of the USSR, a spontaneous Crimean Long before the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ as well as from the new settlers who had been Tatar repatriation movement got under way, was coined, Stalin’s Soviet regime system- given their houses and lands, and tensions political, social and economic confrontation atically displaced millions ofpeople for a mix mounted. between the two communities was of political and supposedly strategic After the dissolution ofthe Soviet Union, inevitable. purposes. Eight entire ethnic groups, in- an armed conflict broke out in October Nevertheless, since the beginning ofthe cluding the Meskhetians, Chechens, Ingush, 1992 on the territory of the Russian Feder- 1990s, over 250,000 Crimean Tatars have

REFUGEES 23 returned from exile to the peninsula, which Samtskhe-Javakheti is today part of independent Ukraine, and area and opposed peace and relative stability have been pre- Meskhetian repatria- served. tion. The conditions of SCATTERED AND ABUSED the twice-dispersed © E. LAUWERS/BW/UKR•1999 The Meskhetians were less Meskhetians have dif- fortunate. Of the eight “peoples” deported fered from one coun- in their entirety, they are the only ones try to another. In Azer- who have never managed to go home. And baijan, an estimated sadly, 62 years after an estimated 100,000 48,000 Meskhetians of them were forcibly removed from their who fled from the Fer- historical homeland in Georgia, some ofthe ghana Valley had, by scattered survivors and descendants are still 1998, been allowed to in need of protection. acquire citizenship In 1999, the biggest community of and integrate. Like- exiled Meskhetians – some 74,000 living in wise, in Ukraine an es- the Uzbek portion of the Ferghana Valley – timated 9,000 ofthem became involved in a vicious outbreak of have been naturalized. inter-ethnic violence. Around 100 are Relatively little is believed to have been killed during two known about the weeks of fighting, and the rest were then Meskhetians who evacuated en masseby the Soviet army. With remain in Central Asia their return to Soviet Georgia still blocked, or about those who most of them settled in Azerbaijan, while migrated to Turkey. others tried to start new lives in different In some parts ofthe parts ofSoviet Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan Russian Federation, and Kazakhstan. Meskhetians have ac- Post-Soviet Georgia, which has had to quired citizenship and deal with substantial internal displacement enjoy the same rights A Crimean Tatar boy has his photograph taken since the late 1980s, was reluctant to as others. However, in for an application for Ukrainian citizenship. welcome back the Meskhetians. The the Krasnodar region, entire issue of their return and “rehabilita- they have never been tion” has remained politicized, not only accepted by the local authorities and have rights, and subject to constant xenophobic because the Georgians are Christians suffered from blatant ethnic discrimination. pressure from local Cossack organizations. while the Meskhetians are Muslims and As a result, many of the 17,000 who ended “They break into our houses,” said Sar- “Turkicized,” but also because another mi- up there in effect became stateless: no offi- var Tedorov, a local Meskhetian leader. They nority – Armenians – have since settled inthe cial status, deprived of even the most basic humiliate us and call us names. The beat- ings are regular.” Interventions on behalf ofhis community by Russian human rights NGOs and the central Russian authorities have failed to persuade the local authori- ties to alter their attitudes and policies.

©AP/J. LARMA/DP/USA•2004 THE SEARCH FOR SOLUTIONS In the mid 1990s, international interest began to focus on those deported peoples who were having trouble returning home. UNDP and UNHCR became involved in assisting the Ukrainian au- thorities cope with the legal, political and socio-economic challenges stemming from the return of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars. And in 1996, the Geneva Conference

A group of Meskhetian girls in Pennsylvania, shortly after being resettled to the United States from the Russian Federation.

24 REFUGEES far. But with a new Georgian government in place since the 2004 Rose Revolution, the prospects may have improved. Legislation and a state programme for the resettlement of Meskhetians are apparently close to completion. The situation of the Meskhetians in Krasnodar has remained problematic. The initiative to resettle them in the US is a bold and generous response aimed at breaking the impasse and producing a last- ing solution to their predicament. But it has also drawn criticism from unexpected quarters: representatives ofthe respected Russian human rights organization, Memorial, for example, have described it as a form of soft ethnic cleansing which rewards the local authorities’ wish to rid the area of “undesirable” ethnic groups. On the other hand, the increasingly desperate Meskhetians who have decided to take up the offer of resettlement in the US appear relieved and grateful. “It’s impossible to live here,” said 35-year-old Rustam Zautadze before leaving for Baltimore. Sarvar Tedorov agrees fully: “We simply have no other way out. We must save our children and future.” According to Aaron Tate of the Inter- faith Ministries in Houston, the resettle- ment is proceeding successfully and local Turkish communities have been very on forced displacement and migration in the The Crimean Tatars have been able to helpful. The refugee families themselves, CIS region, organized by UNHCR, IOM make headway in getting re-established on he said, are “warm, appreciative, and and the OSCE/ODIHR, recognized the the Crimean peninsula and gained parlia- incredibly hospitable – which makes it formerly deported peoples as a category of mentary representation in the Ukrainian easier for them to form relationships with concern and provided a multilateral frame- and Crimean parliaments. But issues con- members of the local community.” work in which to address their problems. nected with land, property and access to the It is a sentiment shared by other NGOs Subsequently, the OSCE High benefits ofprivatization, without which full charged with helping them to settle in: “The Commissioner on National Minorities, the reintegration will be impeded, have not been resettlement of the Meskhetian Turks has Council of Europe, UNHCR, and NGOs fully resolved. And the negative stereotypes been a positive experience for the affiliate such as the Open Society Institute’s Forced ofthe Crimean Tatars, which were officially communities that have been involved,” said Migration Projects began to work together promoted for decades, are still all too Joseph Roberson, of the Church World to better understand and solve the problems. prevalent. Service Immigration and Refugee In Crimea, UNHCR and the High Programme for New York City. Commissioner on National Minorities HELP AT LAST Nowadays, when forcible transfers ofpop- helped the Ukrainian authorities and the In 1999, the Council of Europe ulation involving mass violation of human Crimean Tatar leadership run a major made the eventual orderly return and rights are regarded as clear-cut crimes campaign to ensure that Crimean Tatar reintegration of those Meskhetians who against humanity, it is sobering to discover returnees were not left stateless. By the end wished to go home one of the conditions that these early and largely obscure twen- of 2001, 95 per cent of them had acquired for Georgia’s accession to the organization. tieth century examples still require atten- Ukrainian citizenship. In practice, there has been little progress so tion and, in some cases, solutions.  Despite Khrushchev’s shiftin policy, the Crimean Tatars, Meskhetiansand ethnic Germanswere still not allowedhome.

REFUGEES 25 ACROSSThe Mauritanian T

All around, the sparse savannah reaches out to an endless horizon under a burning sun. The Antenne-Dabaye refugee settlement seems lost in a landscape where time and space have little meaning. Yet, it was here in northern Senegal that thousands of Mauritanians settled in 1989, after a border conflict between Mauritania and Senegal led to confrontations between the various communities and dozens of deaths on both sides. Seventeen years on, some 20,000 Mauritanians are still living in dozens of sites scattered along the south side of the Senegal River which marks the border between the two countries. They arrived with hardly any possessions, but soon became involved in a range of activities, including animal breeding, agriculture and small businesses. Even though they have strong fraternal bonds with the local population – strengthened by a common way of life and family links forged over the centuries along the banks of the river – tensions still exist. After a number of years, some of the refugees decided to leave – either returning spont- MAURITANIA aneously to Mauritania, or Sénégal moving abroad. In 1996, in order to assist the 35,000 SENEGAL MALI people who went back to Mauritania, UNHCR set up a SATELLITE IMAGEMAP © 1996-2004 PLANETARY VISIONS Special Programme of Rapid Reintegration, for the construction of essential infrastruct- ure such as schools, clinics and irrigation systems, as well as the rehabilitation of reception centres and running of micro- projects. For the remaining refugees, the precise conditions of return remain a burning issue. For them, the Senegal River has acquired extra symbolism: representing something that is so close, yet since 1989 has remained unattainable; as a border which was for so long an abstract concept – given the free-flowing traffic between the two banks – but which suddenly became all too well defined; and as a physical entity they still have to cross in order to close this chapter of their history. On 3 August 2005, the Military Council for Justice and Democracy came to power in Mauritania, a shift in the political environment that may present an opport- unity to find a fair and lasting solution. Once again all eyes

are fixed on the river – and what lies on the other side. UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005

BY C ÉCILE P OUILLY • PHOTOGRAPHS BY L AURENT G ESLIN

26 REFUGEES HErefugees RIVER in Senegal

A Mauritanian refugee re-enacts the painful episode in 1989, when thousands of Mauritanian refugees swam or paddled across the Senegal River in dug-out canoes.

REFUGEES 27 As the group has now spent 17 years in exile, the children know no other home but Senegal.

The refugees built shelter in accordance with their various traditions, using either adobe or a mix of straw and clay on a frame of branches. Here, refugees from the nomadic Peule people have created huts surrounded by an enclosure to keep out

the animals. UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005

28 REFUGEES ACROSS THE RIVER UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 Many younger refugees have made the difficult decision to return to Mauritania. Here a former refugee – who now works in an internet café in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott – returns to visit the refugee settlement where he lived for 14 years. UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 Over the years, many refugees have managed to establish small businesses. This man has become a UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 successful tailor, employs an apprentice, and has Some settlements have Quranic schools, where the children not only learn expanded his market to include Senegalese living about religion but also have a chance to socialize with each other. outside the settlement.

REFUGEES 29 ACROSS THE RIVER UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005

Many of the Peule nomads were unable to take their cattle with them when they crossed the river and now mostly look after cattle owned by local Senegalese. Some luckier ones managed to keep their own herds, and live almost entirely off the meat and milk that they produce. UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 The entire existence of the peoples in this region – whether refugee or not – is centred on the river. Here, a refugee looks across from the Senegalese bank at his original home village. Some refugees go back and forth across the river to carry out commercial activities or to visit relatives, but continue to live in Senegal because they believe the conditions for their return are not yet satisfactory. UNHCR/L. GESL I N/DP/SEN•2005 Parents have tried to balance constructing a traditional home life for their children in the refugee settlements, while preserving the sentiment that they belong elsewhere.

30 REFUGEES OBITUARY NABIL BAHJAT ABDULLA 16 July 1957– 28 March 2006 UNHCR staff member killed in action in south Sudan. Nabil Bahjat Abdulla died in a “I first met Nabil in April 2003 in that has already Nairobi hospital on 28 March, two Baghdad,” said Gigi Principe, a UN- seen far too much UNHCR weeks after he was shot during an at- HCR colleague who was also working sadness and vio- tack in Yei, south Sudan. in south Sudan at the time Nabil was lence. All of us at Nabil, a 48-year old Iraqi national, shot. “After the 19 August bombing that UNHCR mourn was shot three times in the stomach on killed Sergio Vieira de Mello and many Nabil’s death and 15 March, after two armed intruders other UN colleagues, Nabil had the we extend our deep- entered the UNHCR compound. A courage to come to work the next day, est condolences to local guard and one of the attackers even though all national staff were told his family. We pay were also killed and a second guard was to stay at home. Nabil went to the office tribute to his life, wounded. Six other UNHCR interna- to find out how we were and to offer his and his sacrifice will tional staff, who were in the compound assistance. This attitude was typical never be forgotten.” at the time, escaped injury. of his caring and thoughtful nature.” Nabil’s death brings the total num- Despite a degree in civil engineer- The day after he died, UNHCR staff ber of UNHCR staff members killed ing, Nabil began his UNHCR career around the world held ceremonies and in the line of duty since 1990 to at in Baghdad in 1991 as a driver. He was observed a minute’s silence. Address- least 22. subsequently promoted to senior ing staff at the organization’s head- “As I watched Nabil fight for his logistics clerk in the agency’s Baghdad quarters in Geneva, UN High life in a Nairobi hospital, I could not but office. In October 2005, he went on mis- Commissioner for Refugees António think of the ironies life shows us,” said sion to south Sudan, where the agency Guterres said “We have lost an excel- Principe. “He had left the dangers of is preparing for the possible return of lent and brave colleague… Once again, Baghdad only to be shot in south up to 350,000 Sudanese refugees from the humanitarian community is Sudan. But until the end, Nabil acted neighbouring countries. His wife and mourning a friend and colleague who to ensure the well-being of colleagues, four children remained behind in Iraq. died trying to help others in a place by trying to shield them from attack.”

UNHCR’s Refworld 2006 (issue 15)  Option of hard drive installation or – the comprehensive collection direct play (DVD version) of asylum- and refugee-related  Hard drive installation only (CD-Rom data – is now available on DVD or version) CD-Rom. It contains reliable and up-to-date documents and biblio- Prices for both DVD and CD-Rom graphic references related to versions: refugees and human rights from a  US$ 150 for governments, interna- wide range of sources, including tional organizations, academic institu- background country reports, legal tions, permanent missions, libraries, bar position papers, guidelines and associations, and the judiciary. statistics, and is designed to facili-  US$ 75 for NGOs, legal clinics, stu- tate the work of decision-makers, analysts, Features include: dents, and individuals or lawyers in- human rights activists and academics.  Over 90,000 documents/references volved in work with refugees and asylum Refworld 2006 is a mobile, browser-based related to refugee and asylum issues seekers. solution with a simple intuitive navigation  Unique data not available elsewhere  A 30% discount for orders of five or structure and powerful search engine. (jurisprudence and UNHCR guidelines) more copies.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS TO ORDER OR REQUEST MORE INFORMATION:  32 Mb of RAM minimum  Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.x or (Please specify DVD or CD-Rom) Tel: +41-22 739-8555  Microsoft Windows 98, NT, ME, greater UNHCR Fax: +41-22 739-7344 2000 or XP  DVD or CD-Rom drive Status Determination and Protection  Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or  Hard drive installation requires at Information Section Email: [email protected] greater, or Netscape Navigator 4.x least 9GB of free space during Case Postale 2500, CH-1211 Genève 2 Website: or greater installation and 4.5GB thereafter Switzerland http://www.unhcr.org/refworld

REFUGEES 31