Tight Borders Difficult for Minorities: OSCE Worried By Central Asia Visa Restriction Plan

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Subject: Tight Borders Difficult for Minorities: OSCE Worried By Central Asia Visa Restriction Plan

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Tight Borders Difficult for Minorities: OSCE Worried By
Central Asia Visa Restriction Plan


OSCE Worried By Central Asia Visa Restriction Plan
 
ALMATY, Mar 11, 2000 - (Reuters) The Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe is concerned about recent moves by Central Asian
states to demand visas for travel between them, its ambassador to
Kazakhstan said on Friday.

Ambassador Ulrich Schoening said visa barriers would disrupt trade and
movement across the five ex-Soviet states, where millions are trapped
by borders drawn by dictator Josef Stalin in the 1930s with little
regard to the ethnic map.
 
"The OSCE is watching with concern the process where countries are
closing down their frontiers instead of opening them," Schoening told
reporters on the fringes of a conference on security in the vast,
oil-rich Central Asian region.
 
"We are concerned that there will be more and more control over
people," he said. "This business of having visas for everyone will
only worsen the situation."
 
The OSCE, which promotes civil and minority rights, arms control and
conflict resolution, has offices in the five Central Asian capitals.
 
Insecurity is the driving force for tighter visa requirements in the
region, where almost 10 years after independence from Moscow, border
tensions have become a constant irritant.
 
The ethnic mix makes for a potentially explosive situation and
outgoing OSCE head Knut Vollebaek warned last December that the region
could spawn worse conflicts than the Balkans.
 
TIGHT BORDERS DIFFICULT FOR MINORITIES
 
But tightening borders could make life difficult for ethnic
minorities, who regularly cross into other countries to go about their
daily business.
 
Millions of Uzbeks live in neighboring states, while Tajiks populate
parts of Uzbekistan and ethnic Russians make up almost half the
population of Kazakhstan.
 
Uzbekistan, the region's most populous state, initiated talks with
other regional members to introduce visa requirements in a bid to
fight terrorism and drug trafficking.
 
Uzbekistan is jittery about growing Islamic fundamentalism, especially
after a bomb attack last year narrowly missed President Islam Karimov,
who blamed the blasts on a group aiming to create an Islamic state.
 
Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev also said recently that drugs and
terrorism were threats to Central Asian stability.
 
"Terrorism is a problem but it should not serve as an excuse for
tightening control ... this is the danger," Schoening said. "Security
shouldn't mean civilians have problems travelling."
 
Uzbekistan's initiative follows a decision by Turkmenistan last year
to become the first member to pull out of a no-visa deal between
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose grouping of 12
former Soviet republics.
 
(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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