With so much talk of the return of the Great Game in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s maneuvers between the powers and its neighbors makes for one of the best case studies. The refugees who took flight from Andijon across the border to Kyrgyzstan following Karimov’s May massacre has been one of those issues that the new government has had to deal with carefully. At once, the new government must raise standards of respect for human rights both for itself and to please the United States, and on the other hand it must not earn the scorn its neighbors and isolation from Russia. Since Russia has exclusively backed the Uzbek government’s action in a bid of strategic solidarity, and Karimov is demanding the return of the refugees, this makes the Kyrgyz government’s decision that much harder.

Having to balance between two sides means doing two things; not necessarily putting on two faces, but being careful about the actions taken. Even though Karimov demanded the return of the refugees, the Kyrgyz government decided to allow them to leave the country to Romania, where they will then be taken to various countriesfor resettlement.

Bucharest, 29 July 2005 (RFE/RL) — A planeload of Uzbek refugees who fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan following a government crackdown in May has arrived in Romania.

The 440 refugees were expected to be temporarily housed in Romania before being relocated to other countries. The departure of the Uzbek refugees from Kyrgyzstan was organized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

A spokesperson for the UNHCR said 15 refugees — detained at Uzbekistan’s request — remain in a detention center in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. Kyrgyz authorities have said the 15 will not be freed until officials are sure they did not commit serious crimes in Uzbekistan.

The temporary detainment of 15 of the refugees would be one of the concessions made to the Uzbek government. Chances are, they will be released soon enough. One important action that was not taken that many observers worried about was the unwillingness of the Kyrgyz government to criticize the Uzbek government over its handling of the situation. But seriously, why start a relations war when they can simply keep their mouth shut while working toward a solution? The important thing is that the new Kyrgyz government is willing to take a stand for the human rights now that it is in power. As I’m writing this, actually, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty just posted a story on how Kyrgyzstan’s handling of the refugee situation has been deemed an overwhelming success.

Roza Otunbayeva, Kyrgyzstan????????s acting foreign minister, told journalists late today that Bishkek is unlikely to extradite the remaining 15 to Uzbekistan.

The departure of the 440 Uzbek refugees from Kyrgyzstan puts an end to 10 weeks of pressure, negotiations, and diplomatic notes between Bishkek, Tashkent, and international organizations.

Muratbek Imanaliyev, the former Kyrgyz foreign minister, tells RFE/RL that Kyrgyz authorities have dealt well with opposing pressure from Uzbekistan and the United Nations.

???????I believe the decision to take the refugees to a third country was the most optimal option, because, as we know, the Kyrgyz leadership has been caught between two fires on this issue. On the one hand, the international community demanded that Kyrgyzstan should follow the international convention it signed Äon the protection of refugeesÅ. On the other hand, there was Uzbekistan????????s leadership, which also had support from some other states, Äasking for them to be returnedÅ,??????? Imanaliyev said.

Uzbekistan had put strong pressure on Bishkek, saying some of the refugees were guilty of serious crimes, including terrorism and extremism during the violent clashes in Andijon in May. Human rights groups say the clashes between government troops and demonstrators may have left as many as 750 people dead, including many women and children.

Uzbek officials put the death toll from the violence at 187, saying most of those killed were government troops and extremists.

Alex Vatanka, the Eurasia editor at the London-based ???????Jane????????s Country Risk??????? security publication, says Bishkek has turned the Uzbek refugee crisis into a public relations opportunity.

He says the fact that Kyrgyz authorities decided to demonstrate their cooperation with international bodies like the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, sends a positive signal to the world community.

???????What the Kyrgyz decided to do — which was only to return a simple handful of the refugees immediately after they arrived and then allow the remaining to stay in Kyrgyzstan and allow, in the time that passed since, for things to cool down slightly — it????????s made it a much better thought-through process than simply a kind of panic response to the immediate Uzbek demand when Andijon happened in May,” Vatanka says.

Vatanka goes on to note how this is good for the Uzbek government as well, and why they really shouldn’t want these refugees back:

Vatanka says Uzbek authorities are also winners in the situation, as it is ultimately not in their interest to have the 15 men back in Uzbekistan.

???????Why go there and create more damage to your own reputation than it has already sustained in recent weeks and months? ÄUzbek authoritiesÅ can almost be sure that if they go and make a claim, saying ???????We want these refugees back,???????? the world media would love to have another go at Uzbekistan, saying: ???????Here it is, ÄUzbek President IslamÅ Karimov is trying to get these innocent people back into Uzbekistan so he can torture them.’ That????????s the way he will be portrayed. Hopefully, Karimov has some advisors telling him to let this one go,” Vatanka says.

Vatanka predicts the remaining 15 refugees will eventually follow the rest of the group and leave Kyrgyzstan for a third country.

It almost seems to bad, because I was really looking forward to ripping Karimov a proverbial new one. But really, it looks as if the situation has been worked out for the best that such a situation can be made out to be. Check out Registan, who has an exclusive picture of the busses leaving from the refugee camp.