Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

aka Islamic Party of Turkestan

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a coalition of fundamentalist Islamic militants from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries that oppose Uzbek President Islom Karimov's secular government and that work to establish an Islamic theocracy.

Founded in 1999, the IMU seeks to destabilize the country and the region; although not the only group to oppose the current government of Uzbekistan, it is the only group that has resorted to terrorism to achieve its goals. The change of name to the Islamic Party of Turkestan in June 2001 may signal an expansion of the original goal of establishing an Islamic state in Uzbekistan to the creation of Islamic states throughout Central Asia.

The IMU has conducted only small-scale armed attacks—car bombings and hostage taking—and initially operated only in the Fergana Valley on the Uzbek/Kyrgyz border; the IMU is now active in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and throughout Uzbekistan. IMU members have been known to carry out their attacks in the open, withdrawing to villages and disguising themselves as locals rather than retreating to the mountains following an attack. The group is considered responsible for at least five car bombings in Uzbekistan in February 1999 and a number of hostage takings in 1999 and 2000. Among those taken hostage were four U.S. mountain climbers, four Japanese geologists, and eight Kyrgyzstani soldiers.

In November 2000, Uzbek courts sentenced IMU leaders Tahir Yuldashev and Juma Namangani to death in absentia for the February 1999 bombings. Both Yuldashev and Namangani had fled the country in 1999 for Afghanistan, where they recruited and trained militants under shelter of the Taliban. Security officials now believe that the IMU controls the drug trade between Afghanistan and Central Asia, using the profits to finance its operations.

The IMU has expanded rapidly; IMU forces may now be significantly concentrated—even have military bases—in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and the group may have been aided by Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden. The group also receives support from other fundamentalist Islamist groups throughout Central and South Asia.

The group's heavy recruitment in Central Asia suggests that it aims to “liberate” the whole of Central Asia, not only Uzbekistan. Although the overthrow of the Uzbek government remains its priority, should the IMU prevail in Uzbekistan and go on to conquer parts of the Fergana Valley, Central Asia could experience an Islamic domino effect.

By designating itself a “party,” the group may hope to gain political recognition and integrate into regional governments. Several countries—Russia, the United States, China—have provided military aid, intelligence, and advice to Uzbekistan in its fight against the spread of the IMU.