President Askar Akayev said at a meeting with the heads of ethnic and cultural centres and societies held in the Oval Hall of the Government House on Friday 20 April that religious organizations threatened the maintenance of peace and calm in Kyrgyzstan.
The head of state believes that this danger seems to be much greater than the possibility of a new incursion by Muslims.
After all our troops have already gained experience of repulsing acts of aggression, and God grant, they will successfully conduct defensive operations today as well if need be. Islamic activists were first spotted in the country last year, the president said. Their number is increasing by a geometric progression now. As is known, the Hezb-e Tahrir religious radical party, which is banned in the region, recently went over from spreading leaflets to carrying out open actions in Kyrgyzstan.
"This spells trouble for all of us," the president said. "It is like corrosive rust. It is the public rather than the law-enforcement agencies that should play the main role in combating extremists. And here the potential of the Assembly of Kyrgyzstan's People is great."
The head of the Uzbek ethnic cultural centre in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, the rector of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek University and academician of the National Academy of Sciences, Mukhammadzhan Mamasaidov, pledged support for Akayev on behalf of the centre with regard to this issue.
"It is clear that attempts are being made to recruit mostly ethnic Uzbeks as extremists in Kyrgyzstan," he said.
In turn, the head of state instructed his administration to resolve the issue of ensuring ethnic Uzbeks' fuller representation at all levels of state administration