US embassy cable - 04TASHKENT3519

C O N F I D E N T I A L  TASHKENT 003519 
 
C O R R E C T E D C O P Y - ADDED ADDRESSEES 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/14 
TAGS: PREL, PINR, PBIO, PGOV, UZ 
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT KARIMOV NOT AN ORPHAN, AND OTHER FAMILY 
SECRETS 
 
CLASSIFIED BY AMB. JON R. PURNELL FOR REASONS 1.4 (B, D). 
 
1.  (C) Summary: Although his face was covered in bruises, 
the physical resemblance to the President is striking.  In 
a wide-ranging conversation with poloff, Islom Karimov's 
estranged nephew, Jamshid Karimov, and Jamshid's mother, 
Muslima Karimova -- the President's sister-in-law -- 
revealed details about their famous relative.  They said 
that President Karimov was never an orphan, as his official 
biography asserts, but grew up in a "normal family." 
Threatened politically by a minor corruption scandal 
involving his older brother, Hurshid, Karimov began to 
distance himself from his family in the mid-eighties; he 
broke off contact entirely when he became First Secretary 
of the Uzbek SSR in 1989.  The Jizzak Hokimiyat maintains 
Jamshid and his mother in modest comfort -- perks given in 
exchange for keeping a low profile.  Jamshid, a small-time 
journalist with casual connections to the local human 
rights community, claimed that his recent decision to sign 
on as a stringer with IWPR prompted local authorities to 
have him beaten.  Jamshid's IWPR colleague, however, said 
that the beating was more likely a random act of violence. 
End summary. 
 
NEVER AN ORPHAN 
--------------- 
 
2.  (C) On December 26, poloff spoke with Jamshid Karimov 
(strictly protect), a Jizzak-area journalist hired in 
October as a stringer by the USG-funded media NGO, 
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).  As reported 
in a short Reuters news bulletin, Karimov had been beaten 
by two unidentified assailants on December 20.  The article 
mentioned that Karimov is the nephew of President Islom 
Karimov.  Poloff was greeted at the family's small 
apartment by Jamshid who, even with a bruised face, closely 
resembles his uncle, and by Jamshid's mother, Muslima 
Karimova (strictly protect), the widow of President 
Karimov's elder brother Arslan.  Over the next hour and a 
half, Jamshid and Muslima discussed their family's break 
with Uzbekistan's First Family, providing tantalizing 
glimpses into the President's early career and family life. 
 
3.  (C) Muslima laughed at the official story of the 
President's upbringing.  (Note: According to his official 
biography, President Karimov is an orphan.  The President 
is known to be close to his wife's family; his biological 
family is never mentioned, nor is Pyotr, Karimov's son by 
his first wife.  End note.)  He was no orphan, Muslima 
stated, he had six brothers and one sister, and grew up in 
a "normal family" in Samarkand.  Of Karimov's seven 
siblings, two brothers -- Hurshid and Ibodulla -- remain; 
one lives in Tashkent, the other in Samarkand.  She said 
that Karimov first started circulating the orphanage story 
in the mid- to late 1980s as a way of distancing himself 
from his family. 
 
4.  (C) Both Jamshid and Muslima stated that the early 
family relationship had, in fact, been fairly close. 
Muslima's earliest recollections of Islom Karimov were from 
their student days when the future president would 
constantly pester her for small loans.  "He never paid me 
back," she commented ruefully.  Muslima implied that 
Karimov's marriage to Natalia, the daughter of the Chairman 
of the Tashkent Agricultural Machinery Plant, Pyotr Kuchmi, 
had been a union of ambition.  Karimov had a son, whom he 
named Rustam.  But after he divorced Natalia in the late 
1960s, she had their son's name changed to Pyotr. 
 
THE BREAK 
--------- 
 
5.  (C) Karimov began to distance himself from his family 
in late 1985 and early 1986, when his brother, Hurshid, a 
distributor of retail food products (mostly tea), became 
embroiled in a minor corruption scandal.  At the time, 
according to Muslima, Karimov was Deputy Chairman of 
Gosplan, and was expecting a promotion.  Karimov called his 
brother Arslan (Muslima's husband) and demanded that they 
disown Hurshid, arguing that their careers were in danger. 
Arslan, the Chair of the Jizzak City Court, refused.  (Now 
Hurshid is a rich man, Muslima said with some resentment; 
he lives in a fancy house in Tashkent and is protected by 
Ismoil Jurabekov.)  From that point on, there was almost no 
contact, Muslima stated.  Karimov was soon named First 
Secretary of Kashkadarya and spent almost all of his time 
shuttling between Tashkent and Karshi.  It was then, 
Muslima and Jamshid said, that Karimov began to claim that 
he had been orphaned. 
 
6.  (C) The final break came in 1989, the year Karimov was 
named First Secretary of the Uzbek SSR.  Arslan died that 
year in what Muslima described as a "suspicious" collision 
with a bus.  A street in Jizzak was named after him, but 
Karimov ordered it changed back to the original name. 
Karimov's eldest brother died that year, as well. 
According to Muslima, Karimov made a brief appearance at 
the funeral, where he offered 350 Rubles to the family (not 
a small sum in those days).  Since then, there has been no 
direct contact.  Muslima occasionally calls the 
Presidential Apparat if she needs something specific, such 
as medical treatment.  The one time she tried to get 
through to the President's residence, she said, his 
daughter Gulnora picked up the phone and hung up 
immediately. 
 
7.  (C) The Presidential Apparat offers some material 
support, provided through the Jizzak Hokimiyat, but it is 
far from lavish.  "All he has to do is sign a paper, and 
we'd be set up," Jamshid's wife complained.  Instead, the 
family was compelled to sell their large house in Tashkent 
and move to an apartment in Jizzak, where they live in 
modest comfort.  The family's gas, electricity, and phone 
bills are paid for, and the Hokimiyat provides occasional 
gifts during holidays.  In exchange, Jamshid implied, the 
family is expected to keep a low profile.  The only thing 
that Karimov has done for his family, Jamshid's wife 
interjected, is to maintain a mausoleum in the Shakhri 
Zinda complex in Samarkand. 
 
AN UNINSPIRING CAREER, MILD INTEREST IN HUMAN RIGHTS WORK 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
8.  (C) Soon after the break, Jamshid began working as a 
journalist for "Jizzak Pravda," a Communist Party newspaper 
that later became the official paper of the regional 
Hokimiyat.  Bored with what he described as an 
unchallenging sinecure, Jamshid was introduced to IWPR 
Director Galima Burkharbaeva by the Chairman of the Human 
Rights Society of Uzbekistan, Jizzak native Tolib Yakubov. 
(Jamshid said that he had struck up a friendship with 
Yakubov in 1998 and over the next few years had come to 
know several members of Jizzak's local human rights 
community.)  Jamshid said that he was attracted by the 
prestige of working for an international media NGO and, in 
any case, the money was good (100 dollars per article). 
So, in October of this year, he signed a contract and began 
working as a stringer. 
 
9.  (C) This, however, was just the kind of attention that 
the Jizzak Hokimiyat did not want.  Almost immediately 
after filing his first articles, Jamshid was called in by 
the Regional Chief of the National Security Service, a man 
named Morozov, who promised to arrange a better government 
job if Jamshid would only promise to stop working for IWPR. 
According to Jamshid, Morozov was particularly worried that 
Jamshid would be seen covering Jizzak's frequent small 
human rights demonstrations.  Jamshid's older sister, 
Gulbahor Karimova, a local political operative running for 
parliament on the National Democratic Party ticket, also 
asked Jamshid not to work for IWPR.  Later, Jamshid was 
offered the newly created job of "personal publicist" for 
Regional Hokim Ubaidulla Yamankulov.  Jamshid said that he 
was inclined to take the position, but the offer was 
withdrawn at the last minute, at the insistence of the 
Presidential Apparat. 
 
10.  (C) Jamshid said that he had not, in fact, done much 
work for IWPR, and that he had not covered demonstrations. 
Nevertheless, on December 20, the evening before a 
demonstration was scheduled to take place in front of the 
Jizzak Hokimiyat, Jamshid was accosted by two persons on 
the street, dragged to the pavement, and kicked repeatedly 
in the head.  "These are methods used by the security 
service," Jamshid stated.  Speaking with poloff later that 
day, Jamshid's IWPR colleague Ulugbek Haidarov (protect), 
stated that Jamshid's attackers had been drunk and that the 
incident was almost certainly a random act of violence.  No 
one would dare do this to the President's nephew without 
approval from the very top, Haidarov reasoned.  Haidarov 
stated, the Chief of Staff of the Jizzak Regional Ministry 
of Health treated Jamshid personally. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
11.  (C) Kept from public view for the better part of two 
decades, Jamshid Karimov is not an influential man.  His 
and his mother's ruminations offer insights into a 
personality that remains to this day largely a cipher. 
Karimov and those around him have gone to great lengths to 
promote, and jealously safeguard, what now appears to be an 
apocryphal myth of orphaned childhood.  Jamshid and 
Muslima's accounts were detailed and hung together 
coherently; it seems extremely unlikely that they would 
concoct such an elaborate tale, much less stage a beating, 
just to plant a story. 
 
 
PURNELL