黑料社

VIENNA, Austria鈥擴S Secretary of State John Kerry jets into Central Asia on Saturday for a five-day, five-nation tour of the 鈥淪tans鈥濃�攖o reassure them they will not be forgotten.

READ: Top US envoy Kerry to tour Central Asia

Concern is mounting in the region that, as the US operation in Afghanistan finally draws towards a close, Washington will lose interest in its landlocked northern neighbors.

The Central Asian economy has already taken a hit from falling oil prices and the knock-on effect of international sanctions against their former Soviet master Russia.

READ:

And now the Islamic State jihadist group is recruiting fighters from the region鈥攊ncluding a US-trained special police chief鈥攔aising the spectre of extremist violence.

Senior US officials see Kerry鈥檚 visit to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as 鈥渧ery timely鈥� as the region seeks outside reassurance.

But Washington also has concerns that the young republics, never paragons of freedom, may overreact to the crisis and crack down further on their own populations.

This in turn could provoke religious violence in the mainly Muslim region of the kind that has dragged nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan into violent conflict.

In Tajikistan, for example, President Emomali Rahmon鈥檚 regime banned the main opposition party and jailed many of its leaders, accusing them of fomenting Islamist extremism.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how much that was because of fear and a threat and how much it was a consolidation of power,鈥� a senior US official told reporters just ahead of the visit.

鈥淐ertainly I think there鈥檚 probably some playing up of those anxieties by some quarters.鈥�

Central Asia researcher Edward Lemon, of Exeter University, who has studied Islamic radicalisation in Tajikistan and the broader region, goes further.

鈥淚 think the danger posed by the Islamic State is in fact less than the danger posed by the regime,鈥� he told AFP, warning that persecution provokes radicalism.

鈥淭here鈥檚 this kind of Soviet system of close regulation of religious practices and that鈥檚 more likely to cause people to turn to resort to violence and rebel against the state.鈥�

Certainly, the Islamic State group recruits Central Asians鈥擴S officials estimate 500 to 600 Tajiks have joined and Kazakh officials say 200 of their citizens are in Syria.

But both the US official and the British expert said that most of these were radicalised and recruited while working in Russia and that there is little danger so far at home.

鈥淲e鈥檝e not seen any real indication of ISIL (another name for ISIS) activity in Central Asia but the recruitment is worrisome and that is what we watch,鈥� the US diplomat said.

Beard-wearers persecuted

But the Islamic State group鈥檚 most high-profile defection showed the weakness of these monitoring and anti-radicalisation efforts鈥攈e was one of their own.

Gulmurod Khalimov was not only the commander of an elite Tajik police unit, he had received US-funded counter-terrorism training in the United States.

Earlier this year he disappeared then resurfaced apparently in Syria starring in聽an IS recruitment video, issuing dark threats and urging more Central Asians to follow him.

鈥淭hat has really shaken not just the Tajiks but all the region,鈥� the US official admitted.

鈥淗e had undergone some of our training. I think it was a shock to everyone that he had been radicalised and recruited by ISIL.鈥�

Several governments in Central Asia have responded to the threat, real or imagined, of radicalism with even tougher measures to control Muslim religious expression.

In Tajikistan, children and youths under 18 are banned from mosques and Islamic seminaries and men with beards鈥攕een as a symbol of their faith鈥攁re persecuted.

Amnesty International says torture and disappearances are endemic in the region, and the State Department鈥檚 own annual human rights report is scathing.

US officials said Kerry intends to take up the issue of human rights at each of his stops in the region, but also to reassure his hosts of ongoing US security cooperation.

On the eve of his voyage, Human Rights Watch demanded that he speak up in his meetings with Central Asian leaders.

鈥淭he status quo on human rights abuses just won鈥檛 do,鈥� Hugh Williamson, the watchdog鈥檚 Europe and Central Asia director, said.

Kerry鈥檚 visit will also serve to remind Washington鈥檚 friends in Central Asia that the United States supports their sovereignty at a time when Vladimir Putin鈥檚 Russia is asserting itself in another neighbor, Ukraine.

The trip begins in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and will take him to all four other republics, notably to the historic city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

There, he will hold the first meeting of a new diplomatic grouping bringing the US secretary of state together with all five Central Asian foreign ministers.