Afghnanistan News October 13, 2005

October 13, 2005

Afghan Fighting Erupts Before Rice Visit
By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer Wed Oct 12, 6:51 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Fighting erupted across Afghanistan ahead of a visit Wednesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with 10 suspected rebels, six police and five medical workers killed and rockets slamming into the capital.

President Hamid Karzai warned the militants were receiving support from drug traffickers and that his nation could fall back into the hands of terrorists if its booming heroin trade, which supplies nearly 90 percent of the world's supply, isn't stamped out.

It was the first time Karzai has directly linked the drug trade with the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Washington earlier this year criticized Karzai for not being tough enough on narcotics and U.S. officials have said they suspect the insurgency is being partially funded by drug money.

Karzai's comments Wednesday at a news conference with Rice came as his U.S.-backed government is struggling to strengthen a fragile democracy while dealing with a rebellion that has left about 1,400 dead in the past half-year.

"We will have terrorism attacking (us) ... for quite some time," Karzai warned, before adding that there was "cooperation between the drug trade and terrorism."

"The question of drugs ... is one that will determine Afghanistan's future. ... If we fail (to fight drugs), we will fail as a state eventually and we will fall back in the hands of terrorism."

The U.S. and other countries have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into counter-narcotics programs, but it's had little impact, sparking warnings Afghanistan is becoming a "narco-state" four years after a U.S.-led invasion ended its role as a haven for al-Qaida.

In the latest violence, five medical workers were killed Wednesday as they were returning to Kandahar after treating refugees in a nearby camp, said Dr. Abdul Qadir, director of U.N. and U.S.-sponsored Afghan Help Development Services, which employed the five.

Gunmen opened fire on their vehicle as they drove through the desert. Two of the five dead were doctors. Three other medical workers in the vehicle were wounded, Qadir said.

U.S. warplanes also killed 10 suspected Taliban rebels Monday in an attack on their mountain hideout in Uruzgan province, which has long been a hotbed of militant activity, the local governor, Jan Mohammed Khan, said Wednesday.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans confirmed the attack and said "several of the enemy had been killed."

Six police officers were killed by suspected Taliban who ambushed their convoy in the same area a day later, Khan said. One officer was still missing and feared dead. Reinforcements were rushed to the area "to hunt down the Taliban," he said.

Four rockets exploded in Kabul just hours before Rice arrived Wednesday. One hit a large compound housing the government's intelligence service, but there were no casualties. The other detonated outside the Canadian Ambassador's residence, wounding two guards, one seriously, police said. The other two hit the outskirts of the city.

Fighting also erupted in northern Afghanistan between two rival militia factions, wounding 10 people, officials said.

Rice said the 21,000-strong U.S.-led coalition was doing its best to quash the insurgency.

"We are doing everything we can to defeat the terrorists. We cannot simply defend ourselves, we have to be on the offensive," she said.

There had been hopes the U.S. military would be able to reduce its troops here next year as a separate NATO-led peacekeeping force takes responsibility for security in volatile regions.

But Rice said U.S. forces will remain "for as long as they are needed in whatever numbers they are needed to make certain that they defeat the terrorists and Afghanistan becomes a place of stability and progress."

Fighting kills 21 people in Afghanistan as Karzai warns of further bloodshed
The Canadian Press (CP) / October 12, 2005
KABUL (CP) - Fighting across Afghanistan killed 10 suspected rebels, six police and five medical workers, and President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday he believes the insurgents are receiving support from the country's booming drug trade.

The suspected Taliban guerrillas were killed Monday by U.S. warplanes that bombed their hideout in Uruzgan province, which has long been a hotbed of militant activity, local Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans confirmed the attack and said "several of the enemy had been killed."

On Tuesday, six police officers were killed by suspected Taliban rebels who ambushed their convoy in mountains in Uruzgan province, the second major attack on the fledgling force in two days, local Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said.

One officer was still missing after the attack and feared dead, while four police vehicles were destroyed. Reinforcements have been rushed to the area "to hunt down the Taliban," Khan said.

The attack on the medical workers occurred Wednesday near Kandahar city, a former Taliban stronghold, said doctor Abdul Qadir, director of UN-sponsored Afghan Help Development Services, a local aid group that employed the five.

Gunmen opened fire on their vehicle as they drove through the desert. Two of the five dead were doctors. Three other medical workers in the vehicle were wounded, Qadir said. The eight were returning to Kandahar after treating refugees in a nearby camp.

A pre-dawn blast near the Canadian ambassador's residence on Wednesday injured two local men believed to be guards employed at the residence.

Defence Minister Bill Graham is currently in Afghanistan but "was not involved," Defence Department spokeswoman Kiersten Leus said from Ottawa. She would not say where Graham was when the rocket exploded.

The new Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, David Sproule, has been in the country for about a week, a Canadian embassy official in Kabul told The Canadian Press. It was not known where Sproule was when the rocket exploded.

Some Canadians were in the building when the rocket, one of two to hit the city on Wednesday, exploded, said Dan McTeague, the parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad.

"We had guards from a local company and two of them were injured," said the Canadian embassy official. "The rocket in fact struck very close to our embassy residence."

The area of the city is heavily protected because it is home to buildings housing offices and residences of foreign diplomats. It was not clear whether the Canadian building was damaged.

It also wasn't clear whether the Canadian building was the intended target of the rocket or whether it was fired in the general area because of the number of foreign offices and residences located there.

The rocket hit just seconds after another rocket exploded inside a large compound housing the Afghan government's intelligence service, said an official.

Graham was scheduled to speak to reporters later Wednesday as he visits Canadian troops serving with the NATO force in the country.

About Canadian 250 troops are working in Kandahar, about four hours from Kabul, with about 1,000 more set to deploy early next year.

A small special forces unit from Canada is also operating in the area, hunting and killing Taliban and al-Qaida rebels. Canada will also take command of the international operation in the region next year.

Karzai made his comments about the violence in a press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

When asked about an attack on police in southern Helmand province Tuesday that left at least 19 officers dead, he said there was "co-operation between the drug trade and terrorism." He said the region was well known as a centre for trafficking opium and heroin.

Afghanistan produces an estimated 87 per cent of the world's supply of both the drugs, sparking warnings the country is becoming a "narco-state" four years after a U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power.

"We will have terrorism attacking (us) ... for quite some time," he warned.

Karzai's U.S.-backed government is struggling to strengthen Afghanistan's fragile democracy while dealing with a stubborn rebellion that has left about 1,400 dead in the past half-year.

Rice said the 21,000-strong U.S.-led coalition was doing its best to quash the insurgency.

"We are doing everything we can to defeat the terrorists. We cannot simply defend ourselves, we have to be on the offensive," she said.

There had been hopes that the U.S. military may have been able to reduce its number of troops here next year as a separate NATO-led peacekeeping force takes responsibility for security in volatile regions.

But Rice said U.S. forces will remain "for as long as they are needed in whatever numbers they are needed to make certain that they defeat the terrorists and Afghanistan becomes a place of stability and progress."

Afghan Transit Trade At Karachi Port Slumps 40 PCT
Thursday October 13, 11:23 AM
ISLAMABAD, Oct 13 Asia Pulse - Commodities arriving at the Karachi port under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) have slumped by 40 per cent owing to non-availability of goods trains in the southern Pakistani city, an official said on Wednesday.

Syed Fazl, a senior official of the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Clearing Agents' Group, attributed the steep fall to the lethargic attitude of the Pakistan Railways and belated delivery of the goods to recipients in Afghanistan.

"The goods reaching the Karachi port under the ATTA are to be transported to Peshawar by trains alone but, unfortunately, the railway authorities are least bothered about the losses suffered by Afghan entrepreneurs owing to delayed shipments," he regretted.

He added Afghan traders, resentful of the Pakistan Railways' unconcern, had started transporting their goods to the strife-torn country via Iran. On average, more than 2,500 trucks cross into Pakistan every month to carry the trade items to Afghanistan but the number the containers came down to 1,600 in September as compared to 2,800 in August.

But railway officials claimed they had arranged additional trains for transferring the consignments from Karachi to northwestern border city of Peshawar. Nasir Zaidi, spokesman for the Pakistan Railways, rejected the impression transportation delays were caused by a shortage of carriages.

Zaidi Pajhwok Afghan News: "We have always tried our best to meet Afghan traders' demand for timely availability of trains."

He argued the Afghans were in the habit of seeking more and more bogies, some of which ran unfilled, inflicting unnecessary losses on the corporation.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Taliban play hide-and-seek with US troops
The 82nd Airborne drops in on an Afghan village, and goes door to door looking for fighters and offering aid.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KUNLALAN, AFGHANISTAN – It has not been an auspicious start to the morning. The heavy weapons squad has just been dropped into the wrong field of mung beans.
"Man, one of these days we'll be dropped in the right place," Pvt. Mike Patraw says, voicing everyone's thoughts. Being out of position means not only a longer walk, but possibly not being able to provide covering fire for units in the valley below as they search a village.

By the time they reach the village of Kunlalan, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and other members of the US 82nd Airborne are already going house to house looking for signs of Taliban weapons or support. Any Taliban who might have been in the village would have hid their Kalashnikovs at the first sound of the Chinook helicopters.

The 40-odd men of the 82nd Airborne - on a five-day mission with ANA troops in the mountains of northern Zabul province - know that their chances of facing an armed encounter with the Taliban are not great. But from a military standpoint, it has been foot patrols and air assaults like this that have produced a year of the most serious fighting with insurgents since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. The key, US commanders say, is sending a message to the Taliban that their havens are no longer safe, and to Afghan villagers that they can begin to trust that the Afghan Army will be there to protect them.

"Most of the people say they haven't seen anything, never saw any Taliban," says Sgt. Joseph Parker of Cleveland, Ohio, as men of 2nd Battalion, Charlie Company search the mud-walled room of an Afghan home.

Sergeant Parker nods his head toward the residents of this home, some women and children, huddling in the shady corner of the yard. "As far as going and getting to the Taliban through local intelligence, it's not going to happen. The only way to do it is to sneak up on them."

Pvt. Jacob Rutledge, a quiet, lanky kid from Washington, D.C., searches through some baskets near one of the women, who is holding an infant in her arms. A chicken darts out of the basket, as if clucking its final prayer. The infant starts to cry. "I'm sorry," Private Rutledge says gently.

Outside the compound, which sits above a very healthy field of opium poppies, a crowd of old men and children are gathering around the US soldiers. One shepherd pleads with the soldiers to arrest another shepherd who has just passed through town with his flock. "He's a thug," the shepherd says in Pashto. Another villager, an elderly man, approaches an Army medic to ask for medicine for a child. The local people may not be ready to tattle on the local Taliban, but they grasp that the US Army is a possible source of help.

"This is what I love," says Spc. "Doc" Kris Tyte, a medic from Charlotte, N.C. "You get to sit down with kids and an interpreter and just talk. And you know, kids are pretty much kids everywhere. They don't say, I want to be a Taliban. They say, I want to be a policeman, or even president. Even after all these years of war, they want to be productive members of society."

So far, this day has brought what Lt. Ben Wisnioski, of Rocky Hill, Conn., calls "the usual lies" from the villagers: No, we haven't seen the Taliban. If we have seen the Taliban, they pass the village at night. If they came during the day, we haven't seen them before, and we didn't see their faces very clearly. No, we didn't see what direction they came from or what direction they left in.

But these men know that they have to stay alert, nonetheless. Hiking between villages, they keep their heads "on a swivel," scanning for signs of movement. They also make sure they are always within 10 paces of a boulder to provide cover, in case of an ambush, which has long been the Afghan's preferred method of warfare.

Just a month ago, a few days before the national election, some Taliban fighters opened fire on a patrol near the town of Shahjoy. "We air assaulted into a village, and one guy with an AK-47 opened fire on an Apache helicopter," says Pvt. Jeremy Wier, of Douglasville, Ga. "The Apache pretty much handled him." In the next village, recalls Private Wier, two other men carrying weapons ran out of the village as soon as Wier and his team arrived. Helicopters handled those fighters too.

"We heard them talking on their radio," says Wier. "Our interpreter told us they were doing a roll call. There were three confirmed dead and one missing. There were 20 of them down in that village originally, but most fled to the mountains."

When the Taliban do fight, they are usually lousy shots, Wier adds. A few weeks ago, the Taliban fired two rocket-propelled grenades at members of this squad from just 50 yards away - and missed.

Wier pauses. "Basically, it's either zero or 100 [Taliban] here. So far today, it looks like nothing." Pvt. Shane Hahn of Rush City, Minn., smiles: "That's not necessarily a bad thing."

Still, the past two days have brought some results. In one village, men tell Charlie Company's translator, Ahmed, that they have recently slaughtered two goats for Taliban to eat. In another village, ANA soldiers discover about 100 rounds of ammo, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades. Clearly, the Taliban come to this area often.

Yet it's a game of cat and mouse. Every time the Americans enter a new valley, the Taliban radio the fighters to clear out: the Americans are coming.

At dusk, the men pause on a road and sip from the Camelback water pouches, while a few hundred sheep and donkeys belonging to the "thug" shepherd walk past.

"Baaa-aaa," say some of the sheep. "Baaa-aaa," responds a chorus of exhausted soldiers.

Afghanistan’s flag at half mast
via Dawn (Pakistan) / October 11, 2005 issue
KABUL, Oct 10: Afghanistan lowered its flags to half mast on Monday in sympathy with Pakistan as it rushed helicopters, doctors and tons of medicines and food to the country.

The flag would be flown at half mast for three days in mourning for the thousands of people killed in Saturday’s earthquake, presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi told reporters.

Four helicopters from Afghanistan’s air force and a plane headed across the border with four tons of medicines and teams of doctors and nurses, Mr Rahimi said.

The country had also pledged $500,000 to the relief effort, he said.

The helicopters were scheduled to stay in Pakistan for 10 days although their deployment could be extended, defence ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

The Afghan medical teams were likely to go to Bagh area in Azad Kashmir, which was hit particularly hard by the tremor, which also shook parts of Afghanistan, he said.

The earthquake killed three people in eastern Afghanistan and toppled a handful of mud-brick homes.

Afghanistan’s Red Crescent Society will also despatch rescue teams and about 20 tons of dried fruit, the presidential spokesman said.

“Pakistan helped us when we were in need,” Mr Rahimi said. “Today unfortunately the people of Pakistan are in need, we will do whatever we can do to help them.”—AFP

Two dead in Badakhshan clash
via Afghan Press Monitor (No 173, 12 Oct 05) - published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(Islah) Two people were killed and two others wounded during a clash between armed men in the Argo district of the northern Badakhshan province on October 11. Badakhshan police chief Abdul Wasey Kafil said the incident involved a local commander called Mukhtar, who opened fire on a motorcyclist on October 10, killing him and wounding another person. Argo district police arrested the alleged killer and put him in jail. But Kafil said a group of local people were so angry with Mukhtar that they stormed the jail, killing him and wounding another prisoner.

(Islah is a state-run daily mostly in Dari.)

Two foreign insurgents captured
via Afghan Press Monitor (No 173, 12 Oct 05) - published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(Hewad) The Afghan National Army and US-led Coalition forces arrested two non-Afghan militants during an operation in the Shinkay district of Zabul province on October 10, officials said the following day. Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that three phones, five motorcycles (favoured in insurgent attacks) and one Kalashnikov assault rifle were seized in the operations. Local officials report that two Chechens and a Pakistani were killed in the same operation.

(Hewad is a state-run daily mostly in Pashto.)

Neo-Taliban Appoint New Spokesman
Daily Afghan Report - October 11, 2005 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Salimullah Mojahed has been appointed as the new spokesman for the neo-Taliban, AIP reported on 8 October. "On the order of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, I have been appointed as the main Taliban spokesman," Mojahed told AIP in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location. Prior to Mojahed's call, a man identifying himself as Dadullah telephoned AIP to report that Mojahed has been "appointed as the new spokesman of the Taliban and [that] he will keep in touch with the press." Former neo-Taliban spokesman Mufti Latifullah Hakimi was arrested in early October in Pakistan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5, 6, and 7 October 2005). AT

Head Of Regional Election Office In Southeastern Province Dismissed
Daily Afghan Report - October 11, 2005 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
The local head of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) in Paktika Province was dismissed along with three of his staffers on suspicion of having committed fraud during vote counting, Pajhwak News Agency reported on 9 October. The four allegedly tried to inflate the figures for a particular candidate, an unidentified JEMB official told Pajhwak. AT

Attack On Parliamentary Candidate Injures More Than A Dozen In Western Afghanistan
Daily Afghan Report - October 11, 2005 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
An explosive device injured 13 people in a private clinic of Saleh Mohammad Saljuqi in Herat city on 10 October, AFP reported. Saljuqi, who is a candidate for the lower house of the Afghan parliament, the People's Council, escaped unhurt. No one has claimed responsibility for the blast. AT

Afghan president: Afghans taking pride in Iran's progress
Kabul, Oct 11, IRNA
Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a meeting with the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia, Pacific and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Mehdi Safari on Tuesday said that the Afghan people and government take pride in the progress made in Iran.

Turning to historical bonds between the two states and Iran's crucial role in promotion of stability and security in Afghanistan as well as its reconstruction, the president stressed that having close relations with the friendly and brotherly neighboring Iran has been a basic policy and honor of his country over the past three and a half years.

Praising Iran's progress in various domains, he reiterated the need for Afghanistan's use of Iran's potentials and capacities towards advancement and development of his country.

For his part, Safari conveyed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's warm greetings to Karzai and assured him of Iran's continuous policy on establishment of security and stability in Afghanistan and participation in its reconstruction.

In response to Ahmadinejad's official invitation for a visit to Tehran, extended by Safari, President Karzai agreed to pay a visit to Iran at the first convenience.

Safari is scheduled to meet Afghan Finance Minister Anwar al-Haq Ahadi this afternoon. During the meeting, economic cooperation, formation of a joint economic commission and Iran's continued participation in the country's reconstruction process will be high on the agenda.

Besides, expansion of regional cooperation, in particular the tripartite Iran-Afghanistan-Tajikistan collaboration as well as that of Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan are expected to be discussed in the meeting.

Briefing Karzai on Iran's potentials, Safari also referred to the capabilities of the Iranian engineering companies and declared the country's readiness to participate in technical and engineering projects, particularly in the field of road construction.

Safari arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul on an official two-day visit on Tuesday.

Upon arrival at Kabul airport, Safari was welcomed by his Afghan counterpart and Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan.

He is also expected to meet Afghanistan's ministers of foreign affairs and defense to hold talks on matters of bilateral concern.

The Iranian deputy minister is being accompanied by the Foreign Ministry director general for West Asia Bahman Aqarazi.

A “public” church in Afghanistan?
AsiaNews.it, Italy - October 12, 2005
Compared to the past, European diplomats seem less interested in spiritual assistance.
The chapel inside the Italian Embassy in Kabul is the only Catholic Church in Afghanistan. It exists thanks too a long-lasting diplomatic effort that goes back to the 1920s when Italy became the only country with this privilege after it was the first country to recognise Afghanistan’s independence in 1919. As a way to show its gratitude, the Afghan government asked how it could thank Italy. Rome responded asking for the right to build a place of spiritual assistance—in doing so it was making its own the demands of international technicians then living in the Afghan capital.

The Afghan government was much taken with the choice because Italy, instead of asking for valuable monopolies in the economic field—such as mineral exploration rights—had opted for a monopoly in matter of the spirit. Thus, a clause giving Italy the right to build a chapel within its embassy was included to Italian-Afghan treaty of 1921.

In the end, the actual pastoral work began in 1933 when the chapel international technicians had asked for was built.

Later, the first request to build a public church reached the person in charge of the missio sui iuris in Afghanistan in 1992. An official from the last pro-Communist government of Mohammad Najibullah went to see Fr Giuseppe Moretti with a sketch for a small compound that would be guaranteed immunity.

However, nothing came of it as the political situation in Afghanistan unravelled—the civil war escalated, the Talebans came to power and then lost it after the Us invasion.

Today the embassy’s chapel is too small for the many faithful who attend—on Sunday’s more than a hundred people can be seen crowding the Church.

Moreover, the current situation has raised hopes that a “public” church might be built yet. Kabul’s small international Catholic community can only hope in a greater involvement by European diplomats on the issue.

Kyrgyzstan will allow U.S. to keep using air base
By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY / October 12, 2005
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the government of Kyrgyzstan put on paper Tuesday a deal that would allow U.S. forces to keep using an air base here to supply troops in nearby Afghanistan.

It's a bright spot in a region in which the United States, China and Russia are fighting for influence. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently lobbied Tajikistan not to allow a U.S. base there, and the government of Uzbekistan told the United States its troops must leave after this year.

Rice's agreement with Kyrgyzstan will let U.S. and allied forces use Bishkek airport as a base for resupplying coalition troops in Afghanistan as long as military operations continue. The Kyrgyz base is now the only one in the region from which the Americans can send troops and materiel into Afghanistan and relief supplies to survivors of the earthquake that devastated parts of India and Pakistan on Saturday.

This week, Rice is visiting Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, plus Afghanistan, to emphasize the area's importance to U.S. efforts to fight terrorism, stop drug trafficking and promote democracy.

"The United States doesn't want to control this region, but it doesn't want anyone else to, either," said Frederick Starr, head of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies. The countries here also want a balance, he said, with the United States playing an enduring role.

Uzbekistan, angry at U.S. criticism of its killing of hundreds of protesters in the eastern city of Andijan last May, has told the United States to leave a base in that country by the end of the year.

Three months ago, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan joined with Russia, China and three other former Soviet Central Asian republics in calling for a date when U.S. troops will leave the region.

For 10 years after the republics became independent after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, U.S. interests here focused on oil and natural gas. Central Asia holds 4% of the world's oil and an equal or greater share of natural gas. But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led the U.S. government to seek bases from which to attack the Taliban regime that had given refuge to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The United States doesn't want to hurt Kyrgyzstan's relations with Russia or China by stationing about 1,000 troops at Bishkek's airport, Rice said Tuesday. "We do not believe there is any reason Kyrgyzstan has to choose between good relations" with the United States and Russia and China, she said.

But there are many signs of increased competition in the region among the three nations:

•Security. Russia, China and the United States want secular governments to help keep these countries from becoming havens for Islamic extremists. They also want to stem the flow of opium and heroin from Afghanistan.

Russia and China backed U.S. military efforts after Sept. 11, but the two countries appear increasingly uneasy about the open-ended U.S. presence in their backyard, said Toby Gati, a former State Department official and expert in the region.

Russia has forces stationed in Kyrgyzstan only 20 miles away from the Americans. It also has troops in Tajikistan and launches space missions from Kazakhstan.

•Economics. Kazakhstan has an estimated 3% of the world's oil and gas and last year exported more than $11 billion worth of both. According to the State Department, since 1993, U.S. companies have invested more than $6 billion in Kazakhstan, primarily in the energy sector. Russia's biggest oil company, Lukoil, also has stakes in three major oil fields in the country and in an export pipeline. China is also building an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to China.

•Politics. Since 1991, the United States has promoted democracy and free-market economics in Central Asia, a policy opposed by local governments that are often dominated by former Soviet autocrats. It led to a crisis with Uzbekistan, which Rice is pointedly excluding from her trip.

If Rice visited Uzbekistan she'd be criticized as a "rank hypocrite," said Daniel Fried, an assistant secretary of State who recently visited Uzbekistan. Uzbek leader Islam Karimov has created a "climate of fear" in the country, he said.

China and Russia have backed Karimov. China has signed 15 new economic agreements with Uzbekistan, and Russia conducted joint military exercises with Uzbek troops last month.

Russia is causing much of the trouble, said Stephen Sestanovich, a Central Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "They want to pull our chain a little bit," Sestanovich said. "The fear is they are encouraging a repression strategy in Central Asia that will make things a whole lot worse."