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Uzbekistan
Background of Military Development
One week after independence was declared in August 1991, Uzbekistan
established a Ministry for Defense Affairs. The first minister
of defense was charged with negotiating with the Soviet Union
the future disposition of Soviet military units in Uzbekistan.
In enforcing its independent status in military matters, a primary
consideration was abolishing the Soviet Union's recruitment of
Uzbekistani citizens for service in other parts of the union and
abroad. For this purpose, a Department of Military Mobilization
was established. In early 1992, when international interest in
a joint CIS force waned, the Ministry for Defense Affairs of Uzbekistan
took over the Tashkent headquarters of the former Soviet Turkestan
Military District. The ministry also assumed jurisdiction over
the approximately 60,000 Soviet military troops in Uzbekistan,
with the exception of those remaining under the designation "strategic
forces of the Joint CIS Command." In the same period, the Supreme
Soviet approved laws establishing national defense procedures,
conditions for military service, social and legal welfare of service
personnel, and the legal status of CIS strategic forces.
A presidential decree in March 1992 declared the number of former
Soviet troops in Uzbekistan to exceed strategic requirements and
the financial resources of Uzbekistan. With the subsequent abolition
of the Turkestan Military District, Uzbekistan established a Ministry
of Defense, replacing the Ministry for Defense Affairs. The CIS
Tashkent Agreement of May 15, 1992, distributed former Soviet
troops and equipment among the former republics in which they
were stationed. Among the units that Uzbekistan inherited by that
agreement were a fighter-bomber regiment at Chirchiq, an engineer
brigade, and an airborne brigade at Farghona.
For the first two years, the command structure of the new force
was dominated by the Russians and other Slav officers who had
been in command in 1992. In 1992 some 85 percent of officers and
ten of fifteen generals were Slavs. In the first year, Karimov
appointed Uzbeks to the positions of assistant minister of defense
and chief of staff, and a Russian veteran of the Afghan War to
the position of commander of the Rapid Reaction Forces. Lieutenant
General Rustam Akhmedov, an Uzbek, has been minister of defense
since the establishment of the ministry. In 1993 Uzbekistan nationalized
the three former Soviet military schools in Tashkent.
Data as of March 1996
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